The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era

After Shen Baolan was taken away by the police, Ma Sufen immediately phoned her son. Zhou Shuhuan replied with, "She brought this on herself," and then hung up. Clearly, he had no intention of dealing with Shen Baolan.

Ma Sufen was also angry that Shen Baolan had caused trouble for no reason, making their family the laughingstock of the entire residential compound. She didn’t want to deal with it either, but ignoring the situation wasn’t an option either. If Shen Baolan were detained, it would still be their Zhou family losing face.

But she had had quite an unpleasant run-in with Shen Mingzhu before, and couldn’t bring herself to swallow her pride and apologize to a junior like Shen Mingzhu, so she encouraged her husband to go instead.

So, early in the morning, Zhou Quanxiong came to the door to apologize and plead, "...This was Baolan’s fault, I apologize on her behalf. The Pei family, I have been good friends with Pei Yang’s father for many years, and Pei Yang and Shuhuan have been brothers since they were little. Please, for the sake of our two families’ friendship, could you do this old man a favor and let Baolan off just this once, alright?"

Zhou Quanxiong was already sixty this year, with white hair at his temples. He was humbly apologizing to a junior like her, which made Shen Mingzhu feel quite uncomfortable.

If it had been anyone else, she might have relented.

But not with Shen Baolan, there was no way she could back down on this.

"Uncle Zhou, I’m sorry, but it’s not about refusing to give you face. It’s just that Shen Baolan has gone too far. It’s not the first or second time she’s framed me. I can overlook other things, but she insulted my character, spread rumors that I was unfaithful, and besmirched my marriage. If it were your daughter being slandered like this, could you endure it?"

Zhou Quanxiong hastily said, "Pei Yang’s mother, how about this, I’ll have her come to your door to apologize and clear your reputation, how does that sound?"

Shen Mingzhu shook her head, "It’s no use. She’s been problematic for a long time. If we don’t teach her a lesson this time, she’ll be even more brazen in the future. Besides, I’ve given her chances."