My Two Daughters Are No Good for Nothing: They Stun the World, Mother-in-Law

After five years of marriage, Chen Yichen lived worse than a housekeeper in this family. Her mother-in-law, Guan Peiyin, had favoritism toward boys ingrained in her bones. The eldest son’s wife had a boy, so he was the apple of her eye. The second son’s wife had twin boys, so they were the darlings of her heart. But Chen had twin girls, and was scolded for giving birth to “money-losing burdens.”

Her mother-in-law not only looked down on Chen and her daughters, but also let several of their male cousins bully the girls as they pleased. On their fifth birthday, the little sisters were pinned down in a mud pit while a stick lifted their skirts. “Money-losing burdens don’t deserve new clothes,” the boys shouted. Their grandmother sat on the doorstep, cracking sunflower seeds. “Country girls are tough. What’s the harm in giving them a couple of whacks?”

Her husband, Bu Heng, was spineless. All he ever said was, “That’s just how Mom is. You should let her have her way.”

Chen Yichen’s heart turned to stone. She left with her daughters and nothing else. Behind them, her mother-in-law sneered, “Once you’re out that door, those two burdens can go beg for scraps!”

Ten years. She slept under bridges and worked three jobs a day, her hands turning white from soaking in dishwater. She taught herself and got into a prestigious university, rising from cleaner to an internationally renowned architect with twenty-seven patents. One daughter became an international chess prodigy, the other an AI tech blogger. The girls once dismissed as “money-losing burdens” stunned the world.

The day she returned, she took charge of the redevelopment and demolition project back in her hometown. …

[Author’s Statement] This is a work of fiction. All plotlines and characters are either original creations by the author or based on adaptations of publicly available material. Please do not associate them with any real person, group, or event. Any images included in the text, if applicable, are not real and are used solely for storytelling purposes. Thank you for understanding.