Wang Xiue had never realized her daughter could be so strong. Her heart skipped a beat after another, as if she were riding a roller coaster.  

Fortunately, having lived for so many years and weathered countless storms, she quickly steadied herself.  

She swept a stern glance over the crowd and warned, “Keep today’s matter locked tight in your bellies. If anyone dares to spread a word of it, I’ll skin them alive.”  

The others shrank back in fear, nodding hastily in response.  

Li Zhaodi curled her lips, about to say something, but the memory of what had just happened made her instinctively touch her neck. She swallowed her words.  

Her mother-in-law was not to be trifled with.  

And now, her sister-in-law was even more untouchable.  

As for that useless lump of a man, Lin Youzhu—he was completely on his mother’s side. She couldn’t count on him for anything.  

Damn it all! She must’ve been cursed in eight lifetimes to marry into the Lin family.  

Seeing everyone cowed like quails, Wang Xiue finally felt satisfied.  

After all, her daughter was still a woman. If word got out that she was stronger than a man, how could she ever marry?  

No family in this world would want a daughter-in-law like that.  

Even if someone did, they’d only want her to slave away and support the household.  

Her precious, delicately raised daughter was not going to marry into some family just to be worked to the bone.  

If that were the case, she’d rather keep her daughter at home as an old maid, unmarried for life.  

Once she and the old man passed away, there were still her three older brothers.  

Failing that, there were the nieces and nephews below.  

With such a big family, they could surely support one unmarried aunt.  

Hearing Wang Xiue’s words, Lin Wanwan immediately understood her mother’s intentions and silently marveled at her thoughtfulness.  

In this era where sons were favored over daughters, finding a mother as doting as Wang Xiue within a ten-mile radius would be impossible.  

To outsiders, Wang Xiue might seem unreasonable, quarrelsome, and a downright shrew. But to the original owner of this body, she was the best mother in the world.  

Now that she had taken over this body, Wang Xiue was her mother.  

For the sake of this love, she would care for Wang Xiue until her old age and send her off with proper rites.  

In the end, Lin Wanwan couldn’t resist Wang Xiue’s insistence and went back to her room to rest.  

The others bustled about the courtyard, working up a sweat.  

The Lin family lived at the end of the village, with only a few households nearby. Their sole neighbor was Old Man Wang, who had lost his wife and son years ago. Now, he lived alone, his hearing failing with age—you had to shout right into his ear for him to catch anything.  

So, the commotion at the Lin household went unnoticed by the rest of the production team.  

By the time they finished, it was already dark.  

The Lin family neatly stacked the chopped firewood under the thatched shed.  

Wang Xiue, who controlled the household’s food supply, fished out a key from her pocket, unlocked the kitchen cabinet, and handed some cornmeal and a few sweet potatoes to her eldest daughter-in-law to cook.  

For dinner, everyone ate a bowl of corn-and-sweet-potato porridge with a side of darkened pickles.  

Lin Wanwan was still asleep. Wang Xiue, unable to bear waking her, left a portion in the pot for her to eat later.  

Growing boys eat their fathers poor. Lin Changfu wolfed down his bowl of porridge, but his stomach was still far from full. His eyes then landed on his younger sister Lin Hongni’s bowl.  

Without a word, he snatched it from her hands and, ignoring the heat, gulped down the porridge in two or three mouthfuls.  

Lin Hongni’s eyes reddened with anger, and she turned to her mother to complain.  

“Ma, my brother stole my food again!”  

“So what if he did? You’re just a girl. Missing one meal won’t kill you,” Li Zhaodi snapped impatiently.

But her chopsticks never stopped moving as she frantically shoveled the overly salty pickles into her mouth, afraid of missing even a single bite.  

Wang Xiue frowned and smacked Li Zhaodi’s chopsticks away, scolding, “Li Zhaodi, are you some starving ghost reincarnated? Pickled vegetables don’t grow on trees! Eat less!”  

“Ma, if I don’t eat my fill, how am I supposed to give birth to a golden grandson for your precious Lin family?” Li Zhaodi wasn’t the least bit fazed by the scolding and kept grinning.  

“Birth, birth, birth—birth your ass! You two better keep it down at night. Don’t go making another mouth to feed. This family doesn’t have extra rations for another child!”  

As soon as Wang Xiue said this, Lin Yougen and his wife flushed red with embarrassment.  

They buried their faces in their bowls and stayed silent.  

The couple had no sons, and despite years of trying, Liu Yulan’s “soil” just wouldn’t sprout anything.  

They were desperate.  

Especially Liu Yulan. As a daughter-in-law of the Lin family, her inability to bear a son was a deep pain in her heart.  

In the end, it was all her fault—she was the one dragging Lin Yougen down.  

“Ma, how can we control whether we have a child or not? For all you know, I might already be carrying your precious Lin family’s heir right now!” Li Zhaodi said proudly, shooting a smug look at her sister-in-law.  

Her monthly cycle had always been regular, but now it had been two months without a visit. She was definitely pregnant.  

Unlike her sister-in-law’s barren land—no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t produce a son.  

If you asked her, she was the Lin family’s great hero.  

The responsibility of continuing the family line rested entirely on her shoulders.  

The more sons she had, the brighter the future would be. Lin Youzhu gazed at his wife with burning eyes. “Wife, are you really pregnant?”  

“Why would I lie? I’m guessing it was that time we did it in the firewood stack—”  

Before Li Zhaodi could finish, Wang Xiue cut her off.  

“This is the dinner table, and there are children around! Spouting such shameless nonsense—aren’t you afraid of being laughed at?”  

“It’s the women who can’t bear sons who get laughed at. I’m not afraid!”  

Li Zhaodi’s words might as well have been a direct jab.  

Liu Yulan stiffened, shrinking into herself, too afraid to speak. Tears welled up in her eyes.  

Lin Yougen’s heart ached too.  

Though he pitied his wife, he couldn’t say anything in front of his mother.  

He was afraid that one wrong word would upset her, and then his wife would suffer even more scolding alongside him.  

Seeing the expressions on her eldest son and daughter-in-law’s faces, Wang Xiue glared at Li Zhaodi.  

“Shut your mouth. No one thinks you’re mute.”  

“Fine, I won’t say anything. But Ma, you should boil me an egg tomorrow. Now that I’m pregnant, I need to eat better.”  

“No.”  

“Ma, I’m not blind. That old hen of ours lays an egg every other day. Don’t lie to my face!”  

“Li Zhaodi, you greedy, lazy wretch! How dare you covet your sister-in-law’s share? Have you grown some gall? What’s next—kicking me and your father out of the house, you ungrateful—”  

Spittle flew straight into Li Zhaodi’s face.  

“Ma, I never said that! Don’t pin that on me!”  

Li Zhaodi wasn’t about to take the blame for that.  

Sure, she’d love to kick her mother-in-law out, but she was afraid of being gossiped about by the whole village.  

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re scheming. I’m warning you—if you dare steal even a bite from Wanwan’s share, I’ll make your husband divorce you!”  

“Ma, Zhaodi’s carrying my child! You can’t make us divorce!” Lin Youzhu panicked.  

“Look at you, spineless! If you divorce her, I’ll find you a fresh young maiden to marry!”  

Li Zhaodi was terrified when she heard this and immediately shut her mouth.  

She didn’t dare provoke her mother-in-law anymore, afraid she’d actually convince her husband to leave her.  

A divorced woman was unwanted everywhere, not to mention her own family’s dire situation—never knowing where their next meal would come from.  

At least in the Lin household, she wouldn’t starve to death.