The Tough Life of a Stepmother [The Sixties]

Zheng Aiguo was a man of upright character, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. He could enlist and earn military honors, or chop wood and farm the land like an old peasant.

He'd finally managed to get leave this time, all to sort out his family problems.

So how did they end up introducing him to a dark-skinned country girl like this?

The matchmaker acted as if he'd struck the jackpot, and even his mother was delighted.

Was he out of touch, or had the women been put under a spell?

Before they could even start talking, the girl opened her mouth. Looking at his son, she said, "Keep staring and I'll pluck your eyeballs out!"

Good grief! She already acted like a wicked stepmother, and they weren't even married yet. What would she be like after the wedding?

Zheng Senlin knew his father had found him on the mountain and that he wasn't his real son, so he had to be obedient and show filial respect.

But no matter who tried to persuade him, he didn't want a stepmother!

And this stepmother was exactly like that.

Zhang Cuihua had been both father and mother to her child, raising him with endless hardship.

But in the blink of an eye, her son had turned back into a little bean.

He was sitting across from her with a strange man, glaring fiercely at her.

Hey, you little brat, are you trying to rebel?

In the small courtyard, a skinny little boy leaped about, hollering.

But a woman soon caught him, hooked an arm around his waist, turned him upside down, and started whacking him with a shoe.

"Stop hitting me! I can swim, I won't drown! Waaah, I'll stop playing by the river, okay?"

Three days later.

"Don't hit me! I won't get a zero on my test again! Ow! That hurts!"

Three more days later.

"Ow! I'll stop sneaking snacks, okay?"

This stepmother didn't just beat her stepson. She didn't spare her younger sister-in-law or younger brother-in-law either. Anyone who made a mistake got a beating.

Yet her parents-in-law were happy to see it, and the village gossips didn't dare complain.

They let her do whatever she wanted.

Zheng Aiguo made a special trip home to teach his wife "what it means to respect your parents-in-law and care for your younger siblings." Instead, he got beaten over and over.

First his wife beat him, then his parents, and even his second younger sister, third younger brother, and little brat dared to take cheap shots at him.

Zheng Aiguo: I can't stay in this house anymore.

Zhang Daniuniu, reborn, found that the Zheng family next door was livelier than in her previous life.

In her previous life, the eldest Zheng son had remained a bachelor all his life. Even when he died in battle, the only child he had raised was the one he'd found, and he never had a child of his own.

After his father died, the adopted boy became a notorious hoodlum along with his younger uncle.

The second daughter was a hopeless romantic and eloped with someone. Zhang Daniuniu hadn't heard a word about her by the time she died.

But this time, it looked like no one was missing, and there was even a daughter-in-law?

This sudden new wife seemed to be made of gunpowder, going off at the slightest touch.

She even made Zhang Daniuniu afraid to spy on the neighbors, in case she got caught and beaten too.

But if the neighbors had such smooth sailing, would her husband still be assigned to her family's village after going to the countryside?

Fierce heroine Zhang Cuihua vs. hopeless romantic hero Zheng Aiguo

Theme: You make your own life