Chapter 5: The Bitter Fate of the Bitter Cress Flower

When asked about the daughter who was the same age as Ye Bingyu, they simply said she had already married.

“A married daughter is like spilled water,” they said. “She has her husband’s family to take care of, and it’s not our place to interfere.”

The Ye family didn’t give it much thought. They asked once and never brought it up again.

The original Lin Bingwei never knew she wasn’t the biological daughter of the Lin couple. She just assumed they favored boys over girls and treated Ye Bingyu better because they had received money from her birth parents.

The Lin family moved to the city and enjoyed a good life, cutting off contact with her. She didn’t think much of it.

She lost her husband and became a widow. She had to raise her husband’s nephew and care for his ailing parents, becoming a burden no one wanted to be associated with.

Her supposed parents refused to acknowledge her, which, to her, was just the way of the world.

It wasn’t until many years later, when she had suffered through endless hardships—by the time she was forty, her hair was streaked with white—that the Ye family finally found her.

The reason? Lin Yaozu, who was in his late twenties at the time, had achieved nothing in life. The Lin couple wanted him to marry a pretty, well-bred, wealthy woman.

But how could a man nearing thirty, with average looks, no stable job, and the demeanor of a loafer, hope to marry a rich and beautiful woman?

The Lin family didn’t care about that. Over the years, they had grown used to dreaming big. As for making those dreams come true—that was Ye Bingyu’s problem to solve.

Ye Bingyu had been drained by this family for over a decade. Unable to bear it anymore, she finally exploded in a heated argument. It was then that they shouted at her in frustration:

“We raised you and gave you to a rich family so that Yaozu could have a good life!”

They never expected that the Ye family would overhear these words.

By that time, DNA testing was available. The Ye family secretly ran a test and discovered that their biological daughter had been swapped.

But so what if they had found their real daughter?

By then, Lin Bingwei had already been crushed by suffering. She had buried both of her in-laws and was left with a nephew who refused to speak, his psychological issues so severe that he couldn’t function in society.

She herself had grown old, her health deteriorating, looking over ten years older than her actual age. She had little education and no prospects.

And the Ye couple? They were elderly now, too. What could they possibly do to the Lin family?

Ye Bingyu, backed by her powerful in-laws, easily dealt with the two frail old people—she simply sent them to a nursing home, the kind where, without family to take them out, they would never leave.

In the end, both elders died with hatred in their hearts.

The novel was written cleverly. Throughout its entirety, no one saw anything wrong with the female lead, Ye Bingyu.

After all, it was the Lin couple who had swapped the children. Ye Bingyu supposedly knew nothing about it. And because the Lin couple had raised her for ten years and treated her better than their “real” daughter, Lin Bingwei, they used moral coercion to demand her gratitude.

The Lin family drained Ye Bingyu dry under the guise of repaying kindness, making them the biggest villains of the entire story—and one of its main selling points.

As for the Ye parents, they lost their minds from the pain of betrayal and the sight of their real daughter’s suffering. It wasn’t Ye Bingyu’s fault that they went insane.

And yet, the male and female leads still treated them well, sending them to the best nursing home.

Later, Ye Bingyu even helped Lin Bingwei find a job as a janitor, earning her praise for being both beautiful and kind-hearted.

Such a melodramatic plot.

But did Ye Bingyu really never know she was actually the Lin family’s daughter?

That seemed unlikely.

Lin Bingwei said, “When I said Lin Wangsheng and his wife weren’t my parents but my enemies, I wasn’t just speaking out of anger. I have an older sister—Ye Bingyu. You remember her, don’t you?”

The two villagers, whose homes were not far apart, of course knew.

“We heard your sister was the daughter of a wealthy family. Her parents took her abroad.”

“No,” Lin Bingwei said coldly. “She isn’t their daughter. I am.”

“What?” They were in utter disbelief.

Lin Bingwei said, “I only found out the night before my wedding when I overheard them whispering. Thinking about how they’ve treated me all these years, I believe it’s true.”

With that, she also explained why her attitude toward the Lin family had drastically changed after getting married.

In the countryside, even the smallest matters could spread like wildfire.

The Zhang family was no stranger to what had happened in her household.

Lin Bingwei continued, “Back then, both Ye Bingyu and I were sent to school, but I was only allowed to study until third grade. They said I was too slow, that I wasn’t cut out for studying and it would just be a waste of money. But that wasn’t the truth. Outsiders only saw that I never completed my homework, never memorized my lessons, and was punished by the teachers every day.

“In reality, they gave me endless chores. I never had time to do my homework. By the time I finished, it was already dark, and I had to wake up before dawn to cook breakfast. They wouldn’t even let me use a lamp, so of course, I couldn’t finish my assignments.”

“Huh?” Both of them were stunned.

All they had ever heard was that she wasn’t bright and wasn’t suited for school. They had never known the real reason.

Li Yurong was shocked. “Are you serious?”

Lin Bingwei let out a bitter smile. “You know how they treated me compared to Ye Bingyu, right? If I were really their daughter, would they have treated me like that?”

Oh. They had always assumed it was because Ye Bingyu was smarter, so the family favored her.

Later, when Ye Bingyu was taken away, people had even praised Lin Wangsheng and his wife, saying they were kind to their adopted daughter.

And what had they said? That since the couple had taken money from Ye Bingyu’s real parents, it was only natural for them to treat her well.

So this was the truth.

Li Yurong’s heart ached. “Oh, child, you’ve suffered so much. If your real parents knew what you’ve been through, they would be heartbroken.”

Zhang Yuanxiu put down his pipe and sighed. “What a pity. They went abroad, and no one knows where they are. If they were still in the country, I’d tell you to go find them.”

Lin Bingwei smiled faintly. “They’ll come back eventually.”

People always said how wonderful life abroad was, but with the current state of the country, who could say for sure?

Zhang Yuanxiu didn’t voice his thoughts. There was no need to shatter her hope—it was better to let her hold on to it.

“Mom, take this money.” Lin Bingwei handed the red cloth bundle of money to Li Yurong.

Li Yurong refused. “No, this money is the betrothal gift from Tingyuan. Whether you use it to buy the ‘three rounds and a sound’ or save it, that’s up to you. You don’t have to give it to us.”

Hearing this, Lin Bingwei didn’t insist and kept the money.

Since this was money from Zhang Tingyuan, she would wait until he returned before deciding what to do with it.

If he never came back, then when she eventually left, she would return the money to his parents.

…

Once everything was settled, her father-in-law, Zhang Yuanxiu, and mother-in-law, Li Yurong, grabbed their hoes and headed to the fields.

This was the last year of the work points system.

Three years ago, the policy of dividing farmland among households had already been proposed. Some areas had moved quickly and had already harvested two rounds of crops under the new system.

But in a country as vast as China, some places took longer to implement changes—like their village.

After several meetings, the brigade finally decided that after this year’s grain distribution, the land would be divided up. The goal was to have everything settled before the New Year so that next year’s planting wouldn’t be delayed.