Chapter 87

Mother Li returned home listlessly.  

Father Li noticed that something was off with her mood, so he asked: “What’s wrong?”  

At that, Mother Li began pouring out her grievances as if emptying a bucket of bitterness. “…I just said that it would be better if Chen Qiang’s wife had a son, and she actually talked back! She said that Wangcai is already Qiangzi’s son now, but Wangcai was never Chen Qiang’s son to begin with!”  

“He is Chen Qiang’s son now, at least in name. If you directly say he isn’t, then you’re in the wrong.” Father Li said slowly, taking a drag from his cigarette.  

Mother Li choked on her words for a moment, then continued: “And what about having a daughter? The second son didn’t even consider it before saying they wouldn’t have another child. They’re still so young—what’s wrong with having a daughter?”  

“Now you want a granddaughter?” Father Li said, speechless. “They’ve already given you three grandsons—isn’t that enough?”  

“I—” Mother Li wanted to say that one could never have too many descendants, but for some reason, she didn’t say it aloud.  

Father Li, exasperated, exposed her real thoughts. “You’re just upset because your daughter-in-law talked back to you, and your son didn’t take your side!”  

“…” Mother Li was left speechless. He was right. Shen Yiyi had already given her so many grandsons, and she herself had plenty of granddaughters. It wasn’t as if she absolutely needed Shen Yiyi to have another child.  

But Shen Yiyi’s attitude had annoyed her. Muttering, she said: “I am her mother-in-law, after all. Can’t she at least show me some respect?”  

“Then stop meddling in their business.” Father Li said.  

Mother Li let out two disgruntled grunts. Her daughter-in-law had a strong temper, and her son didn’t stand up for her. Even if she wanted to meddle, she had no way to do so!

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On the other side.

Lin Daniu was not sleeping well either. The sharp cries of a baby woke her up. Groggily, she opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Chen Qiang, sleeping soundly on the heated brick bed.  

Beside him, the newborn baby was wailing loudly.  

She wanted to get up and hold the child, but the moment she moved, a wave of excruciating pain surged through her body. She grimaced, clenching her teeth, and had to stop.  

She then felt an uncomfortable dampness beneath her. Looking down, she saw that the quilt underneath her was soaked with blood and other fluids from childbirth.

Shen Yiyi had helped clean her up but hadn’t moved her to a fresh spot. Chen Qiang, on the other hand, had likely never even lifted the blanket covering her, let alone thought to replace the soiled bedding underneath.  

The sticky sensation was unbearable. She wanted to shift her position, but another sharp pain tore through her body.  

The baby, most likely hungry, cried even louder. The piercing sound filled the room, yet Chen Qiang only grunted a few times and remained asleep, completely unbothered, like a dead pig.  

Lin Daniu tried to call him: “Qiangzi? Qiangzi?”  

Her voice was hoarse from the strain of childbirth, so weak that it couldn’t even compete with the baby’s cries—let alone wake Chen Qiang.  

Gritting her teeth, Lin Daniu forced herself to endure the searing pain and moved inch by inch toward him. With every slight movement, her face turned a shade paler.

Cold sweat broke out on her forehead, and the veins on the back of her hands bulged from the effort. Finally, she managed to reach Chen Qiang and pushed him.  

“Hm?” Chen Qiang groggily opened his eyes, only to be startled awake by the sight of Lin Daniu’s deathly pale face. Sleep instantly fled from his mind. “You—you look awful! What’s wrong?”  

Lin Daniu didn’t mention her pain. Instead, she pointed at the crying baby beside him. “She’s probably hungry.”  

Hearing this, Chen Qiang immediately picked up the child and held her in front of Lin Daniu. “Then feed her some milk.”  

He had no idea that a mother didn’t produce milk immediately after giving birth.  

Lin Daniu’s abdomen and wounds burned with pain. Panting, she said: “I don’t have any milk yet. It’ll take until tomorrow or the day after. Go and cook some rice soup—make it thick.”

“Then you go—” Chen Qiang had just started to say when he suddenly remembered that she had just given birth.

Realizing his mistake, he got up and went himself, but before leaving, he placed the crying baby beside her.  

Lin Daniu had no choice but to endure the pain and try to soothe the baby. However, no matter how she coaxed, the baby wouldn’t stop crying. When she reached out to touch her, she realized the baby had wet herself.  

Forcing herself to sit up despite the pain, she struggled to change the baby’s diaper. Her hands trembled uncontrollably from exhaustion. Once she was done, she had no strength left to clean up, so she simply tossed the soiled diaper onto the floor and lay back down on the heated brick bed.  

Chen Qiang eventually returned with the rice soup. Clumsily, he fed the baby, who gradually calmed down and fell asleep. As soon as she did, he flopped down and went back to sleep as well.  

Lin Daniu, however, was too hungry to sleep. Looking around, she noticed a bowl of millet and red date porridge beside her. Enduring the pain, she reached for it, only to find that it had turned ice cold.  

She glanced at Chen Qiang—he was already sound asleep.  

Her hunger was unbearable, so despite the cold, she forced herself to eat the porridge.  

After eating, she felt a little uncomfortable, but once the discomfort passed, she finally managed to drift off into a dazed sleep.  

She hadn’t slept for long before the baby suddenly wailed again. Because of the rice soup she had drunk earlier, she had wet herself once more.  

The night air was cold, nearly reaching freezing temperatures. If the baby wasn’t changed, she might catch a chill.  

Lin Daniu looked at Chen Qiang, who was snoring away, and had no choice but to struggle up once again to change the baby’s diaper.  

The real torment was that newborns were always fussy at night. If they weren’t wetting themselves, they were soiling their diapers, and if not that, they were crying.  

Meanwhile, Lin Daniu herself was struggling. Having just given birth, her blood circulation had changed, making her need to urinate frequently. However, her injuries from labor made going to the toilet a painful ordeal. She couldn’t squat—if she tried, the pain was unbearable. Even though she felt the urge to urinate, nothing would come out, and if she forced it, it tugged at her wounds.  

…She barely slept the entire night.  

By morning, diapers were scattered messily all over the floor.  

When Chen Qiang woke up and saw the scene, he was momentarily stunned. But he didn’t say anything. Instead, realizing that Lin Daniu couldn’t cook, he hurried off to prepare breakfast.

After preparing the meal, Chen Qiang brought the food into the room and then left. He had to take care of his paralyzed mother, Mother Chen.  

Wangcai noticed how pale his mother looked and asked worriedly: “Mother, are you okay?”  

Lin Daniu reassured him that she was fine, then asked him to pick up the soiled diapers on the floor and set them aside.  

Enduring the pain, she fed her daughter. While feeding, she also had to soothe the baby, and by the time she was done, she once again had to eat cold leftovers.  

By noon, the clean diapers had run out, so she asked Chen Qiang to wash them.  

Chen Qiang picked up two or three and went to clean them. However, even after washing and drying them, they still carried the lingering stench of feces and urine.  

Lin Daniu attempted to stimulate milk production, but the pain was excruciating.

Despite her efforts, no milk came.  

In the afternoon, Chen Qiang made a trip to town.  

Meanwhile, over at Mother Chen’s room, she had soiled herself. Since Wangcai slept in the same room as her, he smelled it and ran to tell Lin Daniu.  

Wangcai wanted to help clean up, but Mother Chen stubbornly refused, insisting she could wait for Chen Qiang to return.  

By now, Lin Daniu had grown numb to the pain in her body. But the baby kept crying, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t calm her down. Her heart ached with helplessness. She wanted to cry, but she forced herself to hold back, blinking rapidly to stop the tears from falling.  

That evening, Chen Qiang finally returned. He had bought two cans of malted milk powder, two jin of red dates, two jin of brown sugar, and a good amount of eggs—all meant to nourish Lin Daniu and help her produce milk.  

Lin Daniu, however, was hesitant to eat too much. Eating more meant more trips to the toilet, and going to the toilet was torture for her.  

But for the sake of her child, she ate anyway.  

That night, after yet another round of exhaustion, she finally managed to produce milk, and her daughter was able to breastfeed for the first time.  

Throughout the night, Lin Daniu had to wake up not only to change diapers but also to nurse her baby.

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You can skip the author’s note if you want to, but I just want to include this in this chapter, so I also translated it.

Author’s Note:

(There was a lot of unnecessary rambling in the beginning. If you don’t like it, feel free to skip.)

I hadn’t expected so much criticism in the past two chapters. Feeling a bit down, I thought about it and decided I still wanted to explain. I noticed that readers were fixated on two main points:

First, Shen Yiyi shown a bit of attitude toward Chen Qiang.

To begin with, Chen Qiang was Lin Daniu’s husband. Even if they got together halfway through life, they had gone through life-and-death situations together, and the child was his. After Lin Daniu gave birth, she even fainted from exhaustion, yet Chen Qiang didn’t come to see her right away. Instead, he let his mother see the child first, then sent the midwife away before finally coming over to take a quick look at his wife and child. Didn’t this show that he wasn’t particularly attentive to Lin Daniu?

I had personally witnessed Lin Daniu’s difficult labor. Out of empathy as a fellow woman and considering that I had a good relationship with her, it wasn’t hard to understand why I felt uncomfortable. Moreover, all I did was let out a small hum of dissatisfaction at Chen Qiang. I even taught him how to properly take care of Lin Daniu!

In fact, I had fully acknowledged that Chen Qiang was indeed a good man (which was explicitly mentioned in the story). However, readers had completely ignored this and instead fixated on my tiny emotional reaction. That was something I truly couldn’t comprehend.

Some said that I was meddling in other people’s affairs. But they seemed to forget—Chen Qiang was the one who knocked on my door in the first place! He was the one who asked me to accompany Lin Daniu!

Chen Qiang was Li Chen’s brother, and Lin Daniu had always treated me well. How could I refuse?

Besides, I’m a human being. And as a human, I have to socialize. Lin Daniu had been good to me, so showing concern for her was understandable. Even if some considered it meddling, it was something anyone could sympathize with!

Just because I’m the protagonist doesn’t mean people have to be so harsh on me.

The second point of criticism: Some believed I was morally coercing Chen Qiang into treating Wangcai as his own son.

Everyone has selfish motives, and I’m no exception. That’s evident just from my personality!

Throughout my life, aside from myself, the thing I loved the most was my small family. This was something the story had repeatedly portrayed, both directly and indirectly. I was not someone who possessed boundless love for the world!!!

So I absolutely wouldn’t morally coerce Chen Qiang into treating Wangcai as his biological son just because he married Lin Daniu!

When I said: “Wangcai is Chen Qiang’s son.” did readers not notice who I was speaking to? I was saying this to Mother Li! Regardless of how Chen Qiang treated Wangcai, at least in name, Wangcai was indeed his son, right?

It was similar to how Mother Li and Father Li weren’t my biological parents. But because I had married the male lead, I had to call them “Father” and “Mother.” However, that didn’t mean I could truly treat them as my real parents.

In a certain sense, wasn’t this the same logic?

One more side note—since many readers kept emphasizing that Chen Qiang was a good man, saying that he was already doing well by not favoring sons over daughters and by helping Lin Daniu raise her son—

First, let me clarify: Both I, as the author, and I, as the protagonist, fully acknowledged that Chen Qiang was indeed an exceptional man for that era!

But what I want to ask is—while readers recognized Chen Qiang’s good qualities, did they fail to see Lin Daniu’s sacrifices? .

Don’t forget, their marriage in the first place was a mutually beneficial arrangement!

Lin Daniu’s condition for marrying Chen Qiang was that he had to help raise her son. 

Otherwise, why would she marry him? 

Why would she take care of him? 

Why would she care for his paralyzed mother? Why would she manage all the household affairs for him?

Their relationship was equal! 

Both of them were good people! 

It was only the harsh reality that kept their hearts from truly coming together!!!

Lastly, I just want to say that, at the end of the day, it was my lack of writing skill that failed to fully convey the intended meaning. I sincerely apologize for that.

I rambled a bit too much—sorry again!

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T/N: I really feel bad for Daniu…