The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 443 - 442: Cute Little Guoguo

"No!"

Guoguo twisted her chubby waist, turned her face to one side, displaying a small haughty look.

"Why not?"

"Don’t know, won’t let hug."

Yan Yi was patient and spoke gently, "Who says you can’t hug just because you don’t recognize them?"

"Mommy!"

After a pause, she fiddled with her tender little fingers, saying with her cute and sweet baby voice, "Brother said it, Daddy said it."

Yan Yi smiled, automatically ignoring the two men.

"Your mommy is right, you can’t hug strangers. But I’m not a stranger, I’m a good friend of your mommy, so I can hug you."

Guoguo tilted her head to understand for a moment, then shook her head again.

"No."

"You won’t even hug someone you know?"

Guoguo didn’t respond and instead was attracted by the fruit basket on the coffee table.

In the flower petal-shaped bamboo basket, there were colorful kinds of fresh fruits.

"This is a banana, not that one!"

Guoguo pointed at the golden banana, her voice milky and proud as if to say, ’Look how impressive I am.’

Yan Yi smiled, "What else can you do?"

Encouraged, Guoguo paused for a moment with her finger before pointing to the golden yellow navel orange, her voice still milky, "This is an orange, my orange!"

"And what’s this?"

Yan Yi pointed at the imported red grapes in the basket.

Guoguo looked at the red grapes, then at him, and after a few seconds of not recognizing them, she turned and ran away.

Yan Yi chuckled softly.

He thought the child had run away in a huff and was considering how to coax her later, but then he saw her tugging at Shen Mingzhu’s skirt as she came out of the kitchen. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

"Mommy, what’s this?"

"This is, well, red grapes, grapes. How did brother teach you to say it?"

Guoguo tilted her little head to think for a while, then cheerfully replied in her baby voice, "Grapes, grapes, grape!"

"That’s right, grapes are called grape, and these are red grapes, so they’re called red grapes."

Yan Yi watched the woman teaching her child with serious tenderness, and for a rare moment, he was lost in thought.

...

After Shen Mingzhu finished brewing tea and sat down in front of the sofa with her daughter, Yan Yi placed a tube of scar cream on the coffee table in front of her.

"I saw you had an injury on your face yesterday. I took the opportunity to go to the surgery department and got a tube of scar cream. Apply it once in the morning and once at night. It can help your skin recover as quickly as possible."

"That’s not necessary; I didn’t have a superficial injury, so it shouldn’t scar."

"Then keep it, just in case you need it in the future."

Having said that, Shen Mingzhu had to accept the cream, "Thank you, and for yesterday too. You left so quickly I didn’t get the chance to thank you for the trouble I caused you and Qingqing."

Yan Yi laughed, "I was thinking last night that if I hadn’t asked you to stay in the study group, you wouldn’t have fallen out with Sun Feifei, and you wouldn’t have suffered such an unwarranted disaster. To some extent, your ordeal is my fault too. I came here today to apologize to you."

"Don’t say that. It was my choice to join the study group. If anyone is to blame, it’s that I wasn’t diplomatic enough, which made others hate me."

"You’re fine as you are, at least, I think so."

Shen Mingzhu smiled, lowered her head, and used a handkerchief to wipe off the chocolate mud sticking to her daughter’s face.

Yan Yi looked at the mother and daughter, the corners of his mouth lifting unconsciously.

"I saw some books in your yard earlier. Are you preparing for an examination?"

Shen Mingzhu: "Yes, I’ve been too busy these past two years to find the time and energy to study. I plan to continue taking exams in January next year and aim to get my diploma in one go."

Yan Yi nodded, "Then I wish you the best of luck with your exams."

"Thank you."

Knowing she was alone with her daughter at home, Yan Yi didn’t stay long. Before leaving, he updated her about the progress of the case.

The evidence was conclusive, and Sun Feifei’s guilt was undeniable.

The two brothers who had fled were also apprehended by the police.

The two were habitual offenders who had committed crimes in many places. They had previously stolen and injured people leading to death. Adding this attempted abduction, the minimum sentence would be around twenty years.

After learning about the two brothers’ criminal history, Shen Mingzhu couldn’t help but feel alarmed.

If she hadn’t been carrying a stun baton on her, she might not have been able to escape successfully.

The stun baton was something she had prepared for her trip to Hong City before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The gangs in Hong City were active, and gangsters roamed freely, so she had bought the stun baton to keep in her bag for self-defense.

...

"No way, Yingying, are you really going to bow down and apologize to that brownnoser?"

Ouyang Xiaoyan and the others couldn’t believe that Zhong Ying was going to apologize to Shen Mingzhu, each of them was incredulous.

Stirring her coffee, Zhong Ying rested her cheek on one hand, saying gleefully, "Apologize then, apologize. It’s not like I’ll lose a piece of flesh. Anyway, my cousin said she’ll give me a new car when I graduate next year. You guys better help me think, what car should I choose?"

"Wow, your cousin is way too generous!"

"I’m so jealous. I wish I had a cousin like that too."

While everyone else was green with envy, only Ouyang Xiaoyan made sour remarks, "Yingying, aren’t you just a little bit shallow? I think your cousin just wants to get rid of you so you won’t go looking for trouble with Shen Mingzhu again."

This comment was a real buzzkill, and Zhong Ying became somewhat unhappy.

"Even if she’s getting rid of me, I’m happy. At least my cousin is spending real money. That’s better than you always picking up your sister’s hand-me-downs."

Ouyang Xiaoyan’s face also soured, "You’re proud now because your cousin will buy you a new car, but don’t forget who’s been helping you behind the scenes."

"You have the nerve to say that? You’ve been nothing but a hindrance. You said you’d teach Shen Mingzhu a lesson, and instead, you offended Mrs. Ning and lost so much face. And Sun Feifei, if you hadn’t badgered me again and again, I wouldn’t have bothered with her, let alone gotten dragged down by her."

"Ha! You’re blaming me now? Who was it that wanted to make Shen Mingzhu pay in the first place?"

"I did say that, but did you succeed in doing anything? It’s still up to me to clean up your mess!"

Both were wealthy heiresses, and neither was willing to give in. They parted on bad terms in the end.

The sisterhood they had formed in the past also split because of their quarrel.

...

Pei Yang came home from work to find Shen Mingzhu and the two children sitting at the coffee table, wrapping dumplings.

The evening sun filtered through the window into the living room, bathing mother and children in a soft golden glow, as picturesque as a painting.

He washed his hands and approached the coffee table, rolling up his sleeves to join the dumpling wrapping brigade. Noticing the fruit basket on the side, he plucked a crystal-clear red grape.

"Did we have visitors today?"

"Yan Yi came by this afternoon."

The grape nearing his mouth stopped, "The fruit basket is from him?"

"Mhm."

Pei Yang bent down to stuff the grape into his daughter’s mouth, but Shen Mingzhu glared at him, "Stuffing such a big grape into her mouth, aren’t you afraid it might choke her?"

Upon hearing this, Pei Yang quickly pinched his daughter’s chin, pried out the grape, and tossed it in the trash.

"Mom’s right. This isn’t good stuff. Don’t eat it."

Was that what she meant?

Shen Mingzhu looked at him, "Are you sick?"

Pei Yang wiped his hand on the handkerchief over Guoguo’s shoulder, responding, "A little, get me some medicine to take."

Preferably something for heartburn.

Shen Mingzhu turned and called out to Pei Ziheng, "Go fetch some of that rat poison buried in the yard for your dad to take."

Pei Ziheng: "Mom, how much should I bring?"

"Use his dinner bowl. Fill it up!"

"Okay."

Pei Yang: "..."

Not in love anymore, huh?

...

Having not been at work for a few days, the pile of documents on the desk was like a mountain.

Shen Mingzhu flipped through the restaurant’s daily revenue reports, her face lighting up with joy.

Julie, equally excited, said, "Business has been booming since the Mid-Autumn Festival. With twelve private dining rooms almost always full, I think we can take advantage of the momentum to open a branch."