Li Shuping not only bought that entire outfit but also bought herself two tops and a pair of pants.

For her daughter Lin Xiaoyu, she bought a round-necked pinafore dress, a pink blouse, and a pair of black long pants.

Passing by the shoe counter, she also bought a pair of soft-soled leather shoes.

She wasn’t afraid to admit it—she had never worn leather shoes in her entire previous life.

When she was young, leather shoes were expensive and she couldn’t bring herself to buy them. Even if she could afford them, she was afraid of being scolded by that old miser Lin Yongnian for wasting money.

When she got older, the kids did buy leather shoes for Lin Yongnian, but for her, she could barely remember receiving a single pair of old cloth shoes.

“Comrade, which kind of Snow Cream is suitable for someone my age?” Li Shuping asked, standing at the counter selling snow cream.

The salesperson was a young girl.

After carefully looking at her face, she said, “Your face is a bit dry. You can try this ‘Elegant Cream’—it moisturizes well and makes your skin more beautiful the more you use it.”

The salesperson took a green glass bottle out from under the glass counter and placed it on top.

Li Shuping picked up the small green bottle and looked at it—it was actually quite pretty.

“This one works the best. Many returning customers buy it, but it’s a bit more expensive.”

“How expensive?”

“One yuan fifty.”

Li Shuping nodded; it wasn’t too pricey.

“Do you have one suitable for young girls? I want to buy one for my daughter as well.”

“Yes, this Shanghai brand Peony Snow Cream smells nice and is very popular among young girls.”

Li Shuping picked it up and sniffed it closely—even with the lid on, it smelled very fragrant.

“This one is a little cheaper, only one yuan per bottle.”

“Alright, I’ll take these two bottles.”

Li Shuping had entered the store empty-handed, but when she left, both her hands were full.

The feeling of buying things for herself made her especially happy.

Next to the state-owned store was a state-owned barbershop.

Passing by, Li Shuping saw a photo of her favorite actress Gong Xue from the movie Good Things Take Time pasted on the glass wall and stopped.

Through the glass wall, she saw many women lined up for perms.

She touched her own short hair, then looked at the photo of Gong Xue’s wavy short hair, and decided to go inside.

Three hours later, with an empty stomach, Li Shuping walked out of the barbershop with her new hairstyle.

She had a gentle appearance to begin with, but this perm, with its wavy curls and slightly curled bangs, added a touch of elegance to her gentleness.

She looked noticeably younger and more spirited.

Li Shuping was very pleased with her new hairstyle.

Passing by glass windows, she couldn’t help but peek at her reflection and would occasionally touch her hair.

It was already past one o’clock. She first went to the state-owned restaurant and ate a bowl of fried sauce noodles.

After finishing, Li Shuping waited at the bus stop outside the restaurant.

“Sister-in-law?”

Li Shuping lowered her head, brushing her bangs, and vaguely heard someone call her.

She turned and saw her younger sister-in-law Lin Qiufang standing there with her left hand wrapped in a white bandage, hanging from her neck.

Lin Qiufang’s right eye had a large bruise and was swollen.

Lin Qiufang had thought the woman at the bus stop resembled her sister-in-law from the side and back, but wasn’t quite sure, so she tentatively called out.

When Li Shuping turned around and it really was her, Lin Qiufang quickly covered her face with her left hand, but it was already too late.

“Qiufang! Why do you look like this? What happened to your hand?” Li Shuping pulled down Lin Qiufang’s hand covering her face and looked at her closely.

Lin Qiufang hurriedly shook her head. “It’s nothing. I just accidentally fell and fractured my bone. The bruise on my face is from the fall.”

Li Shuping’s expression darkened. “You fractured your left hand and hurt your right face at the same time? Do you think that makes sense?”

Lin Qiufang: “…”

It didn’t really make sense.

“Did your husband hit you?” Li Shuping asked.

So now Qian Dong was hitting her this badly.

How did sister-in-law know?

Lin Qiufang suddenly raised her head, then quickly lowered it again. “He didn’t mean to. He just had a bad day at work and drank too much.”

Li Shuping threw her head back in anger. “He broke your bone with his hand and you say he didn’t mean to? Do you want to wait until he beats you to death before you say he meant to?”

“That wouldn’t be intentional either. Then it would be involuntary manslaughter.” In her last life, that’s how the court judged it.

Lin Qiufang: “He wouldn’t do that. He knelt and apologized to me yesterday, saying he won’t hit me anymore.”

“Do you believe that?”

Lin Qiufang: “…”

What good would believing do?

“When your brother hit me the first time, he cried and slapped himself, apologizing to me. But the second time he hit me, the slap was even faster than the first. Trusting a domestic abuser’s words is less reliable than believing in ghosts.”

When Lin Yongnian first hit her, he would admit fault and apologize.

But after realizing she wouldn’t fight back or make a fuss, he never apologized again.

“When the kids grow up, he won’t hit anymore, just like my brother.”

Lin Qiufang’s words seemed directed at Li Shuping but sounded more like she was trying to convince herself.

Lin Qiufang had one daughter and two sons.

The eldest daughter was already ten, the second son seven, and the youngest five.

“Do you think a dog can stop eating shit? Besides, your brother wasn’t as brutal as Wang Zhengde.”

She said Lin Yongnian wasn’t as brutal as Wang Zhengde, not to say Lin Yongnian wasn’t despicable. Anyone who abuses women is no good.

Lin Qiufang: “…”

Dogs obviously don’t stop eating shit. But what else can women do besides silently endure?

Her grandmother lived through it, her mother did too, even her sister-in-law was still enduring it.

“But what else can I do? That woman didn’t endure it like this. Sister-in-law, didn’t you endure it too?”

“…” Li Shuping was momentarily speechless.

Having endured it herself, she felt she had no right to tell Lin Qiufang to say no to domestic violence.

“I endured it, so I regret it so much now. I should have left your brother and taken the kids when he first laid a hand on me. But I was beaten for more than ten years, broke my teeth and swallowed the pain, served him, and bore his children.”

What she regretted most was marrying a man like Lin Yongnian.

“But now I’m free. The day after Lin Jianshe’s wedding, I divorced your brother. I have moved out of the house with Xiaoyu and no longer serve him or his family as a maid.”

“What! You divorced my brother?” Lin Qiufang exclaimed sharply.

“Yes, divorced.”

“How could you divorce him just because my brother hit you at Jianshe’s wedding? Just because of such a small matter…”

“Qiufang, this is not a small matter!” Li Shuping interrupted.

“This is very serious. He let me be insulted, thought it was my fault, made me apologize to his daughter-in-law and her younger brother who hadn’t even entered the family yet, and then hit me. That means in his heart, I’m less than a stranger.”

“My brother was also thinking about the big picture, wanting the wedding to go smoothly. You can’t expect Jianshe not to get married, right?” Lin Qiufang frowned and said.

Although her brother shouldn’t have hit her, that day her sister-in-law’s behavior was too abnormal and caused too much trouble.