The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 57 - How to Sleep Is a Problem
Chapter 57: Chapter 57: How to Sleep Is a Problem
Chapter 57 -57: How to Sleep Is a Problem
Pei Ziheng had just finished speaking when he was slapped on the head by Pei Yang, “Stop blurting out the truth.”
Pei Ziheng acted obediently, “Okay, Dad, I’ll stop telling the truth.”
Father and son played off each other, causing Wang Xiuzhu to no longer hold back her tears, as she ran back to her room and slammed the door shut with a loud bang.
Wang Huizhen helplessly made excuses for her niece to Shen Mingzhu, who verbally expressed her indifference, but inwardly wondered if the other party was deliberately trying to weasel out of the debt.
They had agreed that the loser would give her the watch, and that watch was worth quite a bit of money.
After dinner, Pei Yang took Shen Mingzhu and his son to bid farewell and head home.
As soon as they stepped out of the Lin Family’s residential compound, Pei Yang grabbed Shen Mingzhu’s wrist with evident force, clearly agitated.
“So all the explanations I gave you this afternoon went in one ear and out the other, huh?”
Shen Mingzhu always responded better to a gentle approach than a hard one, so when confronted with the man’s anger, her own temper flared up.
“Let go of me!
If you have something to say, then say it—what’s with the manhandling?”
Seeing her frown, Pei Yang’s grip loosened slightly, but he did not let go, “This isn’t what you call manhandling.
If I really were to manhandle you, your delicate body couldn’t handle it.”
“…”
Jerk!
Seeing her puff up with anger, Pei Yang’s own anger dissipated, and a smile appeared in his eyes, “You used me as a bet, and I haven’t even settled the score with you yet, and here you are getting all mad?”
“How is this my fault?
When someone else is reaching into my bowl with their chopsticks, stealing my food, am I not supposed to fight back?
What right do you have to settle scores with me?
All these troubles are caused by your philandering.
If not for you, would I have been repeatedly embarrassed and humiliated by her, Wang Xiuzhu?”
Pei Yang looked at her leisurely, “How did she humiliate you?”
Shen Mingzhu scoffed, “What, you think you can stand up for me?”
“Hmm, if I didn’t know about it, that’s one thing, but now that I do, of course I’ll stand up for you.
If I, a grown man, can’t even protect my own wife, what was the point of my last twenty-six years?
Come on, let’s go back.”
Shen Mingzhu gazed at the man’s tall figure, thinking that this damn man must certainly be posturing.
She wanted to see how long he could keep up the act.
For the moment, she remained silent, letting the man pull her along back to the Lin Family’s place.
Pei Ziheng, left behind by the two: Did you two forget about something?
Having reached the foot of the Lin Family building, Shen Mingzhu finally remembered Pei Ziheng, “Ah, where’s Ziheng?”
“I’m right behind you.”
The melancholic and panting voice of his stepson came from behind.
Making a four-year-old child climb up three flights of stairs with his little legs was really a bit too much.
Pei Yang turned back to see his son’s aggrieved face and felt somewhat embarrassed, which was promptly followed by Shen Mingzhu kicking him in the shin.
“What are you standing there for?
Can’t you see your son is exhausted?
Pick him up!”
Pei Yang glanced at her, then at his son, and finally released her to pick up his son.
Shen Mingzhu took the opportunity, while he was busy with the child, to turn around and head downstairs.
Pei Yang hurried after her, “Why are you going back?
We agreed to stand up for your rights.”
Shen Mingzhu thought to herself that she didn’t care to join him in his madness.
With the new year’s festivities, it wouldn’t do to go and seek discomfort.
Besides, she had already proved her point through action today by showing up Wang Xiuzhu.
It was best to leave some room for future interactions.
“I’m not going.
If you want to go, you can go by yourself.”
Pei Yang, holding the hefty Pei Ziheng, seemed to walk effortlessly and quickly caught up to her.
“Fine, we don’t have to go, but let’s get one thing straight—you can’t keep being mad at me over this.”
Shen Mingzhu gave him a disdainful look, “I’m not that petty.
If I were to take every little thing to heart, I would’ve been worked to death long ago.”
Pei Yang laughed, “If you’re not angry then slow down.
Why are you in such a hurry?”
The night was nice—the moon shone brightly, and the stars were sparse.
He was eager to walk with her for a while and talk.
He couldn’t quite describe the feeling; simply walking together in silence was somehow enjoyable. freewebnøvel.com
Shen Mingzhu glanced sideways at the man holding the child and gradually slowed her pace.
“I didn’t expect you to have such good cooking skills.
I thought you never had to lift a finger back at your parents’ house.”
That must be how she maintained such delicate skin.
Shen Mingzhu glanced at him, “Not doing chores and not knowing how to do chores are two different things.”
Pei Yang smiled, “I’ve had salt-baked shrimp many times before, but yours is the tastiest.
Did you learn it specially?”
“Mhm.”
She had indeed learned, only it had been forty years later.
“You learned it for me?
How did you know I like salt-baked shrimp?
Did my sister tell you?
What else did she tell you?”
Faced with the man’s thick skin, Shen Mingzhu had nothing to say but speechlessness, chattering all the way until they quickly returned to the dormitory.
How to sleep was a problem.
On the 1.4-meter-wide single bed, before Pei Yang returned, Shen Mingzhu and Pei Ziheng, one large and one small, had each occupied one end, which fit just right.
Now that Pei Yang had come back, the bed definitely couldn’t accommodate three people.
Pei Yang went next door to borrow a folding bed.
After bringing the bed back, he proceeded to place it next to the original bed, intending to combine the single bed to make a double bed.
Shen Mingzhu hesitated before speaking up, “You should put the bed on the opposite side.”
Pei Yang stopped what he was doing and straightened up to look at her.
Pei Ziheng, who was playing with a Rubik’s cube on a wooden chair, also looked at Shen Mingzhu, both father and son’s eyes surprisingly filled with the same confusion and incomprehension.
Trying to maintain her composure, Shen Mingzhu explained, “If you sleep next to me, it’ll be inconvenient for me to get up in the middle of the night.”
“How is it inconvenient?”
“I’m afraid of stepping on you.”
“I’m not afraid.
You can step on me all you want; if you break anything, that’s my bad luck.”
“…”
She confirmed it then, the man wasn’t one to be fooled easily.
Pei Yang crossed his arms and casually watched her with an “I’d like to see what other tricks you can come up with” expression.
Shen Mingzhu gave up.
With a child present, he wouldn’t force her into doing something, would he?
It’s not that she disliked Pei Yang; on the contrary, she was quite taken with him, whether it was his looks, his personality, or the way he conducted himself, everything about him poked right at her aesthetic sweet spot.
The reason she was being coy was, firstly, she wasn’t familiar enough with the man to share a bed, and secondly, she had concerns about his ending.
If it went according to the plot of the book, Pei Yang had at most a year left to live.
As open-minded as she was, she couldn’t romance a man who was on the brink of death.
After a round of washing up and tidying, the three of them lay down side by side.
Shen Mingzhu slept on the inside, against the wall, Pei Ziheng in the middle, and Pei Yang on the outermost folding bed.
Both father and son had good sleeping postures, with no teeth grinding or snoring, but Shen Mingzhu couldn’t fall asleep for some unknown reason, feeling irritable and restless.
“Are you frying an egg?”
The man’s teasing voice sounded in the darkness, causing Shen Mingzhu’s body to stiffen.
“Did you finish?”
After waiting a while without hearing her response, Pei Yang asked again.
Feeling speechless but also finding him amusing, Shen Mingzhu played along, “Yeah, I’m just eating it.
It’s fragrant and runny in the middle.”
In the darkness, she heard the sound of the man turning over.
Oddly enough, she felt a gaze land on her, as dangerous as a beast lurking in the forest at night, closely watching its prey.
She turned her head slightly, but couldn’t make out anything.
Pei Yang, however, could see her turning her head and the faint outline of her face, as his long-term night shift work had left him with exceptional vision.
Actually, he couldn’t sleep either.
His son was beside him, and on the other side of his son lay his delicate and soft wife.
Just the thought of it set his heart ablaze.
“Do you want to go to the beach?”
He imagined walking side by side with her on the sandy shore under the moonlight, with the sea breeze lifting her long hair.
The scene would be beautiful.
“What would we do at the beach?” Shen Mingzhu asked casually.
“What do you want to do?”
Shen Mingzhu thought to herself that she didn’t want to do anything but sleep quickly.
Thinking so, she voiced it out.
“I want to sleep.”
“…I didn’t realize your mind was so wild, wanting to sleep with me on the beach while the kid is still here.
Reign in your thoughts a bit.”
“…”
Was that what she meant???
