A Stepmother's Guide to Raising Kids (Reborn)

He Yueniang was reborn at seventeen, but her life was even worse than in her previous life: she had become a beggar.

She looked up at the sky and demanded, "Heavens, could you put any less effort into giving people a second life?"

With a crack of thunder, a man appeared in the ruined temple, offering her all his worldly possessions. He had just one condition: "After I die, be a stepmother to my children."

Snow sealed the doors, and after going hungry for days, He Yueniang was at her limit. Grinding her teeth, she said, "If you dare not to die, I'll kill you myself!"

Before Chen Danian's bones had even gone cold, his five stepsons started demanding to split up the family.

Split the family? Absolutely. But you leave with nothing. The married ones take their wives and children and go, and the unmarried ones get out with their tails between their legs. This house, and everything in it, was left to me by your dead father!

Standing in the middle of the courtyard with her hands on her hips, He Yueniang furiously showed her brood of stepsons Chen Danian's will.

The family was not split up after all.

He Yueniang made a life with her five stepsons and one little stepdaughter.

When there was good food and drink, she ate and drank first. Her reason: "A stepmother is a mother, too. You should be filial."

You do the work, and hand your wages over to me. Why?

You don't have a father anymore, so your stepmother makes the rules!

For a while, everyone said He Yueniang was too cruel, and that Chen Danian had doomed his whole brood by marrying her.

Later, He Yueniang found a wife for her simple-minded son, Chen Sanwa, and even cured him herself.

After that, she sent the cleverest of the Chen boys, Xiao Wu, to a private school. At just thirteen, Chen Wuwa passed the county-level scholar examination in one try and became famous throughout the county.

Later still, as life got better and better, He Yueniang rolled up her sleeves and, with her five older stepsons, replaced their thatched cottage with a large tiled house.

And here's the best part: one day, as He Yueniang reclined on the kang eating pastries her eldest daughter-in-law had thoughtfully brought her, a young gentleman walked in and said, "He Yueniang, I'm your husband."

-------- The Hero's Version --------

As Chen Danian lay dying, he saw his great-grandfather, who had been dead for a long time. His great-grandfather forced him to find a beggar to be stepmother to his brood of children.

After Chen Danian died, his great-grandfather pulled some strings in the underworld and left one of his souls and two of his spirits in the world of the living.

He drifted home to find Madam He viciously scolding Madam Liu, who had urged the second son to split up the family. Madam He punished Madam Liu, and Chen Danian beat his two sons in a dream. "You brats want to split up the family? I'll beat the living daylights out of you even as a ghost!"

The next day, the two bruised and battered sons apologized to Madam He.

Chen Danian didn't like Madam He.

She spent money like water, blowing through the silver he'd saved for half his life with a mere wave of her hand.

Just as he was asking her soul-searching questions about how she planned to raise the children in the future, Madam He returned with a wild rabbit in one hand and a basket of herbs in the other. The rabbit stew left the whole brood licking their chops, and the herbs sold for one and a half taels of silver. It looked like the family would have enough to get by for the next two months.

Floating in the air, Chen Danian thought it over and decided Madam He was pretty good. She was a little thin, but she had curves where it counted.

He wanted to get a little closer and have a heart-to-heart with the young lady. Madam He kicked him away. "Get lost! I'm not interested in some unfinished business between the living and the dead!"

Chen Danian grew more and more indignant. "I'm a ghost, but ghosts have dignity, too. Couldn't you be a little nicer to your husband?"

Madam He rolled her eyes. "I'd rather be nice to my kids than to you. Now get lost!"

Chen Danian never expected that, though he should have been reincarnated, an accident would lead him to be reborn instead.

He was reborn as the second young master of General Pei's household.

The Pei family arranged a marriage for him, but he ran away from home.

Returning to the Chen family, he sat down on the kang and said self-righteously, "Madam He, bring me some tea. Your man is back!"

Madam He swung a rolling pin at him. "No man in this world is born who can take liberties with me!"

Chen Danian ran off, shielding his head. "I really am your husband!"

Madam He: "I'm your granny!"

Chen Danian asked the heavens in despair: "How come I went down a generation when I was reborn?!"

Deer's next novel, "The Brocade Guard's Little Kitchen," please add it to your collection

After transmigrating into a book, Su Jinshu learns the tragic fate awaiting the heroine, who will stop at nothing to marry into a wealthy family.

After much thought, Su Jinshu changes the heroine's path in the story. Keep the fire and thieves away, and beware of rich playboys. Even if she gets married, she'll marry into a modest household, live freely as a wife, care for her husband and children, and cook delicious food. What could be better?

The Brocade Guard's public kitchen has been trying to hire a cook for six months, but not a single applicant has made the cut.

Commander Qin Yizhi is too picky. Anyone who doesn't meet his personal hygiene standards is rejected; anyone who can't keep the kitchen clean is rejected; anyone who makes bland food is rejected. Cooks with decent skills can manage the first two if they work at it, but as for the third, they say that even the Imperial Kitchen's cooks couldn't make food that tastes like anything to Lord Qin.

Lord Qin was poisoned years ago. Though he recovered, the poison damaged his sense of taste, and nothing tastes like anything to him.

One day, word gets out that the Brocade Guard's public kitchen has finally hired a cook.

Less than three months later, someone sees their aloof, untouchable Lord Qin following the little cook around, pestering her endlessly. "Jinshu, little Jinshu, the squirrel-shaped mandarin fish you made yesterday was so delicious. I want more. Make it for me, please?"

"No."

The little cook refuses.

"Then I'll eat you instead. You're even tastier than the squirrel-shaped mandarin fish!"

Lord Qin's peach-blossom eyes sparkle.

Everyone's jaws drop. So the little cook brought Lord Qin's sense of taste back, and also raised his appetite to a level beyond words?!

Coming soon: "Record of a Powerful Minister's Devoted Love," please add it to your collection~~

Theme: Face true feelings honestly, and a brighter future is within reach.