Reborn in the 1980s: The Wicked Mother-in-Law Drops the Act and Goes on a Rampage

In her previous life, Shen Guixiang was famous throughout the surrounding villages as a “good mother-in-law.”

When her eldest son needed to work, she sold her blood to raise money for him. When her second son owed gambling debts, she knelt and begged people for help. When her third son got married, she moved into a storeroom. When her daughter was beaten by her in-laws, she told her to put up with it and wait for things to get better.

In the end, her sons split all the compensation paid after her husband died in a mining accident. Her eldest daughter-in-law forced her out of the two street-front rooms, and after she became partially paralyzed, she was dumped in an abandoned mill at the entrance to the village.

It was the little New Year’s Eve on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month. Snow fell outside, and ice formed indoors.

Before she closed her eyes, she heard her eldest daughter-in-law say outside the door, “Good riddance. Now we won’t have to keep sweet-talking her into transferring the house to us.”

When she opened her eyes again, Shen Guixiang was back in 1983, on the day her family split up, the little New Year’s Eve.

Her eldest daughter-in-law was smiling as she told Shen Guixiang to give up the street-front house. Her second daughter-in-law was sneaking a hand into the cupboard to feel for her passbook. Her third son kept his head down and pretended to be mute. Her daughter had been beaten by her in-laws and was kneeling on the floor in tears.

Shen Guixiang slowly stood up and flipped the dining table over.

“Splitting up the family? Fine. First, let’s settle what you’ve all been sucking out of me.”

She pulled a yellowed ledger from between the bed boards and listed every last thing they owed her, with interest.

She cut ties, threw them out, and took over the shop. Shen Guixiang was an even nastier mother-in-law than the ones people complained about.

Everyone in the village said she’d gone crazy.

But she set up a stall at the street corner with nothing but a pot of braised meat. Two months later, she opened Shen’s Braised Delicacies. Three years later, she started a food factory. Five years later, she expanded into wholesale goods and home appliances. Ten years later, she bought an entire street in the old town and built Guixiang Tower.

The sons and daughters-in-law she’d driven out later knelt beneath Guixiang Tower and called her Mom.

Shen Guixiang wiped down her ledger without even looking up.

“Who are you calling Mom? I’m Boss Shen, way out of your league.”