Chapter 20: Speaking Up for the Original Owner

Li Xinyue was a resilient woman. She could usually achieve whatever she set her mind to.

For example, on her first day of elementary school, the headmistress told her, “Little Yueyue, study hard, only studying can change your destiny.”

She asked, “Headmistress, what is destiny?”

The headmistress said, “Destiny is, well, it’s what you want to eat in the future, you’ll have it!”

Li Xinyue understood.

She wanted to eat a lot of delicious food because the orphanage often didn’t have enough to eat!

If she wanted to eat well, she had to study!

So she devoted herself wholeheartedly to studying.

She had a natural talent for memorization and comprehension, and for the first few years, she did nothing but eat, sleep, and study.

Therefore, Li Xinyue took the college entrance exam at fourteen and finished her studies at twenty, then stayed at the school as a teaching assistant.

Sure enough, she could later afford to buy whatever she wanted to eat, and she felt that the headmistress’s explanation back then was very accurate!

Therefore, she firmly believed: as long as she wanted to divorce, she would definitely be able to do it in the future!

While the Chen family was eating, Li Xinyue fetched water to bathe her son.

Then she took a bath herself and went to sleep.

She was exhausted from the day, and her body and soul had only been together for one day.

When Chen Mingchuan came out of the main house, there was no light in Li Xinyue’s shed.

He knew she was probably asleep.

Nowadays, every household has electricity, except for that shed.

Over the years… he wondered what kind of life they, mother and son, had been living…

Suddenly, Li Xinyue’s words echoed in Chen Mingchuan’s mind:

“Chen Mingchuan, for the past five years, I’ve been sleeping later than a dog and waking up earlier than a rooster.”

“I’ve worked harder than an ox, eaten worse than a pig, and dressed like a beggar. That’s atonement!”

She said she was atoning, so she was living so miserably?

If she wasn’t atoning, she would have been able to live a completely different life, wouldn’t she?

Then what was the real her like?

He had truly never understood her…

While Chen Mingchuan was in a complex mood, his second brother came out.

“Third brother, sleep with me tonight. Your second sister-in-law and the child are sleeping together.”

The shed was too small for both the mother and son to sleep in, and his third brother was tall. How could he fit?

Chen Mingzhong felt heartbroken. He didn’t understand why his parents were so partial.

He himself was not capable, couldn’t make money, and wasn’t sweet-talking. It was reasonable for his parents to dislike him.

But why did his parents still treat his third brother so poorly even though he sent so much money back every month?

Chen Mingzhong remembered that ever since he was old enough to understand, he knew that whenever there wasn’t enough food, his third brother was always the first one to go hungry!

If it weren’t for his skills, his ability to hunt in the mountains and catch fish and shrimp in the river, he would have starved to death long ago!

Enlisting in the army was an honor, and many people were willing to do it because they knew it was extremely tough.

A few people from the village who had served three years in the army came back practically skin and bones.

Because they had no education, the jobs they were assigned were in paper mills or brick factories.

These jobs were extremely hard, except for the fact that they didn’t have to work in the sun.

Being a worker was something to be envied, but the prerequisite was to endure those three years of hardship.

There was another secret that the villagers didn’t know, but Chen Mingzhong did.

That is, it was originally supposed to be his eldest brother who went to serve in the army.

But he heard that being a soldier was very hard, and he refused to go, even threatening his parents that if they made him go, he would die!

And since he was a valuable worker at the time, his parents naturally refused to let him go to the army.

So, his parents forced his fifteen-year-old third brother to go in his eldest brother’s place.

They even said that if he didn’t ask the secretary for help to get selected, they would kick him out of the house and never let him come back.

Everyone thought that the third son wanted to be a soldier.

But who knew that it was his parents who forced him to join the army?

He came back today, and his parents didn’t even arrange a place for him to stay. They must want him to live in the shed!

Thinking about this, Chen Mingzhong felt a mix of complexity and sadness.

He didn’t understand why his parents treated his third brother this way. Weren’t they all their sons? Why were they treated differently?

It’s just that he was too limited in his abilities and couldn’t help his third brother.

The only thing he could do was this.

“No!”

While Chen Mingzhong was feeling miserable, Chen Li Fang’s roar came from inside the house.

“Mom, Dad’s snoring is deafening, I don’t want to sleep in your front room!”

“I don’t want to, I just don’t want to!”

The Chen family’s new house was a large five-room house.

A large living room, four front and back suites.

Old Man Chenand his wife occupied one room, the three siblings each occupied one room, and Chen Lifang occupied one room by herself.

“Shut up! If you don’t sleep, go build a bed in the pigsty!”

Old Man Chen’s voice was full of anger. None of them were listening, he was about to burst!

He had absolutely no authority in this house!

Chen Lifang was a very clever girl.

She knew that in this family, although her mother nagged all day, her father was the one who really held the power.

Seeing her mother say nothing, Chen Lifang burst into tears and ran away!

Mrs. Chen felt very suffocated. Ever since her third son came back, she had been suppressed everywhere.

Her daughter ran away, and she became anxious: “Fang’er, where are you going?”

“Mingguo, quickly chase after your sister, it’s not safe outside in the dark!”

Chen Mingguo immediately chased after her, and Mrs. Chen asked Old Man Chento bring her water and went into the house.

“Old man, what’s wrong with you today?”

“You keep helping that guy, have you gone crazy?”

Old Man Chen’s face darkened: “What else could I do but help him? He just asked about his long-life lock…”

“Ah??…!”

As soon as these words fell, Mrs. Chen was stunned, her mouth wide open, unable to close.

“He… how did he know about that thing?”

Old Man Chen sighed deeply: “He didn’t say, he just asked me to give it to him.”

“He also said that if I don’t give it to him, he won’t bring back a penny in the future!”

“He’s not afraid of us making a fuss, he said if we dare to make a fuss, he’ll tell everyone about how we made the eldest son pretend to be sick and forced him to join the army.”

Ah?

How could he say that?

If that gets out, the eldest son will have to go to a labor camp!

This is something that absolutely cannot be said!

Mrs. Chen’s weakness was immediately exposed, and her mind went blank: “…”

Without the money her son brought back, how would the family eat and drink?

Over the years, if it wasn’t for the money he sent back, would the Chen family have been able to build this five-room new house?

“Old man, did he remember something?”

“He hasn’t asked about that thing for so many years.”

Old Man Chen looked annoyed: “How would I know, I wouldn’t dare to ask him!”

This son had become even more sullen since he joined the army, and nine out of ten questions asked to him went unanswered.

He would just lift his eyes, and his cold look would scare people to death.

Mrs. Chen was so nervous: “You didn’t agree, did you?”

Old Man Chen looked helpless: “How could I agree? I can’t even find the thing, even if I agreed, I couldn’t give it to him!”

Mrs. Chen heard this and started to scold: “The little bastard, he’s still thinking about that little thing after all these years, he really is…”

“Alright, shut up!”