Chapter 20 : Jade Bracelet

When Jiang Li returned home, she heard Old Mrs. Zhou angrily cursing from the main room, “That damn girl did such a shameless thing. I should have drowned her in a urine bucket when she was born.”

After scolding Jiang Hongmei, she turned to scold Wang Juhua, “There’s no such shameless person in my family. It must be that your Wang family has rotten roots. Back then, you entered our Jiang family with a bulging belly. Your daughter is just like you, a shameless slut!”

Jiang Li, while finishing the remaining plums, listened to the gossip. She didn’t expect Wang Juhua to be so aggressive. No wonder Jiang Hongmei had become so bold.

Wang Juhua, already angry and sad, snapped back at Old Mrs. Zhou’s insults. “I’m a piece of shit, and your son is nothing but a piece of shit. Can I raise a child by myself? There’s no good person in your Jiang family.”

Old Mrs. Zhou was so furious her hands shook. Although Wang Juhua had made small rebellions before, she had never dared to talk back like that.

“You, you, you shameless woman! You dare to scold your mother-in-law? I want my Changyi to divorce you. Go back to your Wang family and take that bitch Jiang Hongmei with you!”

She hit Wang Juhua with a cane. Wang Juhua couldn’t dodge and took several blows. She decided then and there that she would no longer tolerate this old woman.

She grabbed the cane and threw it out of the window. “I’m telling you, I, Wang Juhua, gave birth to the only son in the Jiang family. You want to drive me away? Not happening! Do you think my brothers on my mother’s side are vegetarians?”

“Oh my, oh my, this is outrageous! The daughter-in-law is beating the mother-in-law…” Old Mrs. Zhou rolled on the ground, wailing loudly. “Someone come here, look at this shameless bitch beating up her mother-in-law. My son, whom I gave birth to, got married, and now bullying me…”

Wang Juhua was fed up, walked out of the main house with a sullen face, and went into the woodshed where Jiang Hongmei was.

Jiang Hongmei was lying on the broken bed, smiling with her eyes full of hopes for a better future. Although it was a big loss of face in front of the whole village, at least Zhuang Guoliang had agreed to marry her.

Once married, she would treat the two children well, and even if he had a hard heart, he would be kind to her for their sake. Luxury cars, villas, jewelry, all of it would be hers!

“You still have the nerve to smile!” Wang Juhua pinched Jiang Hongmei harshly several times. “You heartless girl, are you going to force your parents to death?”

“After all this, how can we live in the village anymore? Your father will beat you to death when he comes back!”

Jiang Hongmei pushed her mother’s hand away impatiently, “Mom, what do you know? Zhuang Guoliang will have a great future!”

“What a waste of his talent, a little rascal who does nothing serious and brings two burdens with him! You’re courting death! You’re rushing into a hard life.”

Wang Juhua’s mind skipped a beat. “You’ve already planned this? You deliberately exposed this scandal because you want to marry that little bastard, right?”

Jiang Hongmei pursed her lips and said nothing, clearly agreeing.

Wang Juhua became even angrier. She grabbed a broom and hit Jiang Hongmei with it. Jiang Hongmei screamed in pain and jumped up. “Mom, are you crazy?”

“You shameless little girl, I’ve always cared about you. It’s fine if you don’t care about your own face, but you’ve also brought shame to the Jiang family. I’ve raised you for so many years in vain!”

“What do you mean by planning for me? You’re planning for Jiang Tianci! You want me to marry Qi Shaoqiang in exchange for a high dowry, and then find a wife for Jiang Tianci!”

Wang Juhua stopped hitting. She looked at Jiang Hongmei in disbelief, who stared back at her as though she were an enemy. Her heart grew cold.

She had never been happy since giving birth to Tianci. There were only two children in the family. Hongmei was her only daughter, and she believed she had been very devoted to her. Though she didn’t pay as much attention to Tianci, she had always thought about her daughter’s future.

The Qi family was well-off, so Hongmei wouldn’t suffer if she married into that family. Wang Juhua had worked hard for this marriage using her connections. But now her daughter resented her.

Wang Juhua didn’t speak. Jiang Hongmei, feeling anxious and conflicted, said, “Mom, I was just angry and said some nonsense. Don’t take it seriously.” She held Wang Juhua’s arm and spoke coquettishly. “If you hadn’t always doted on Jiang Tianci and made me give in to him, I wouldn’t have said such things.”

Jiang Hongmei glanced at Wang Juhua’s face. She couldn’t afford to break away from her family now, what if her mother didn’t give her a dowry? How would she have the confidence to marry into the Zhuang family?

Usually, Jiang Hongmei would act coquettishly and get her way, but today, after Wang Juhua had fought with her mother-in-law over her daughter, Jiang Hongmei’s heart wavered with regret.

“Mom, don’t be angry. Someone from the Zhuang family will come to propose soon.”

“Didn’t you say before that when I married into the Qi family, you would give me two new cotton quilts and a large wardrobe? Now that I’m marrying into the Zhuang family, they’re poor, so if I bring more dowry, it’ll help save face for their family.”

“Oh, and the jade bracelet that Jiang Li’s dead mother left for her. You can bring that with you.”

Jiang Hongmei was reborn and knew that the bracelet, which was now worthless, could be sold at a high price in the future.

The bracelet left by Xu Shuzhen was made of top-quality icy jadeite. She had seen a similar one on TV, auctioned for eight figures. In her past life, her mother had given her the bracelet as a dowry, but she had thought it unlucky because Xu Shuzhen had died young and never wore it. Later, it broke, and she regretted it immensely.

Wang Juhua felt a chill in her heart as Jiang Hongmei calculated the dowry. But after all, this was her daughter, the child she had carried for ten months. She couldn’t bear to give her up.

“The dowry I promised remains the same. You’ve always disliked the bracelet, haven’t you? Don’t take it. I’ll give you another ten dollars to keep in your box.”

Jiang Hongmei was dissatisfied. She twisted her body and pestered Wang Juhua, “Mom, didn’t you say you’d give me the bracelet? Do you want to leave it to Jiang Tianci? I don’t agree!”

“Tianci is the only male in this family, so this thing should belong to him. You’re a married woman, stop thinking about your parents’ things!”

The sun was high in the sky, and the Jiang family was a mess. Old Mrs. Zhou was throwing a tantrum in the main room, Wang Juhua was sighing in the west room, and Jiang Hongmei was crying and fussing in the woodshed.

Jiang Li was very satisfied after watching this show unfold. Not having a watch, she estimated it was about eight o’clock and decided to walk to the village entrance to wait for Qi Shaoqiang.