Bai Lu was also stubborn and had insisted on not coming back. Even when she gave birth for the first time, she had two sons but didn’t get her mother-in-law to go over to help take care of the children.

  The people of Great Eastern Village only knew that Shao Qihai had gotten a wife, but they had never seen Bai Lu.

  Later on, Bai Lu had gotten pregnant again and suffered great discomfort during her pregnancy. Shao Dong and Shao Xi were only a year old, and Bai Lu really was in no condition to take care of them, so Shao Qihai had no choice but to look for Zhao Lan.

  Zhao Lan only went over because he begged her, and also because she was afraid that Shao Qihai would continue to do this in the future.

  However, Zhao Lan didn’t fit in when she went to live with them. Bai Lu loved cleanliness. On the contrary, Zhao Lan had many bad habits and didn’t like cleanliness, which resulted in a lot of contradictions when it came to taking care of the children.

  Through her meticulous upbringing, Bai Lu had taught Shao Dong and Shao Xibai to be clean. They changed their clothes every day and ate very well.

  She asked Zhao Lan not to feed the children the food she chewed, saying that it was unhygienic.

  There was nothing wrong with what Bai Lu said, but Zhao Lan felt that she despised and looked down on her, a mother-in-law from a rural village. She felt so wronged that she kept crying and complaining.

  Later on, the conflict snowballed. Zhao Lan disliked this daughter-in-law and by association, also found her two grandsons an eyesore. She felt that Bai Lu had raised them all wrong.

  Later on, Zhao Lan deliberately refused to listen to Bai Lu. The more Bai Lu said that she shouldn’t do something, the more pleasure she took in doing it. She deliberately fed the children food that she had chewed and said that this was how children were raised in rural villages. It was also how Shao Qihai had grown up.

  Bai Lu was so angry that she vomited and couldn’t eat anything.

  Though Zhao Lan had supposedly gone there to take care of the pregnant woman and the children, in fact, with her around, Bai Lu’s condition got increasingly worse. Bai Lu couldn’t take it anymore and asked her to go back, but Zhao Lan purposely refused.

  Later on, when Bai Lu was about to give birth and said that she wanted to go to the hospital, Zhao Lan stopped her from doing so. She claimed that there was no need to waste money and that she could just deliver the child, as this was common practice.

  Just like that, Bai Lu was forced to stay at home to give birth. She was in a terrible state and kept insisting on going to the hospital, but Zhao Lan didn’t care and even dismissed her request as unreasonable.

  It was only when she saw Bai Lu go through a difficult labor that Zhao Lan realized that something was wrong. By the time she was taken to the hospital, it was already too late. Bai Lu had suffered a massive hemorrhage and died after giving birth to Shao Nan and Little Bei.

  She didn’t even get to glance at her newborn babies or say anything before she passed away.

  At the time, Shao Qihai happened to be away on a mission. When he returned, he was confronted by Bai Lu’s corpse.

  Weepy Zhao Lan said that she felt sorry for her daughter-in-law and the children.

  However, Shao Dong and Shao Xi remembered Bai Lu’s cries and pleas that night.

  In their dreams at midnight, they would always remember Bai Lu’s cries.

  \r \r \r

  They were too young at the time and didn’t remember much, nor were they very sensible back then. However, they vaguely felt that Zhao Lan had caused their mother’s death.

  Meanwhile, everyone said that she had passed away because she had gone through a difficult labor while giving birth to the twins.

  Later on, they never liked Zhao Lan, and Zhao Lan wasn’t fond of them either.

  This was what Shao Dong secretly told Mu Jingzhe later.

  However, no one said anything in public about this. At the time, no one had suspected anything. Even if they had, it wasn’t their place to voice those suspicions.

  However, with Bai Lu gone, Shao Qihai couldn’t cope with four babies all by himself. Zhao Lan had offered to bring them back to their hometown to raise them, saying that Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao could help take care of them. Despite his worry, Shao Qihai had no choice but to agree.

  Just like that, Shao Dong and the others had been taken back to Great Eastern Village by Zhao Lan. Shao Qihai had then started sending back his allowance in its entirety again.

  Alas, Zhao Lan had never treated them well. All she did was prevent them from starving to death. They had suffered a lot since they were young, and Zhao Lan had kept brainwashing them by telling them that all stepmothers were evil.

  Zhao Lan felt that there was no point in Shao Qihai remarrying, as he already had four children. Instead, if she helped raise those children, she could get her hands on his entire allowance.

  Unexpectedly, after sending back his allowance for a few years, Shao Qihai had retired from the army after suffering an injury.

  Mu Jingzhe knew what had happened then.

  The original book didn’t mention Bai Lu much, so she hadn’t expected such a dramatic backstory.

  The reason Shao Dong had told her that he was suspicious was because he was just a child. He had been suppressing this in his heart for so many years, as he’d had no one to say it to. That was why he couldn’t help but tell her.

  After saying that, he probably regretted saying too much. He only said that he might be remembering it wrong.

  “If Grandma really caused Mommy’s death, she should be feeling guilty and remorseful. But she’s not guilty, and she doesn’t treat us well either.”

  Mu Jingzhe wasn’t sure about this either. Although Zhao Lan was wicked, she couldn’t directly accuse her of killing Bai Lu. She could only pat Shao Dong’s shoulder.

  “Don’t keep thinking about things that have no answer. Just pay your respects to your mother on her death anniversary.”

  “Okay.” Shao Dong nodded. “I’ll treat my younger siblings well in the future and won’t let her down.”

  “You’ve done enough.” Mu Jingzhe’s heart ached for Shao Dong.

  He was still young, but he was already shouldering so much responsibility.

  His narrow shoulders had yet to develop, but he was already shouldering the responsibility of a parent.

  “Shao Dong, don’t keep thinking that you’re the older brother and have to take care of your younger siblings. You can think about yourself more. With me looking after Little Bei and the rest, you can relax a little.”

  When Shao Dong heard this, a rare hint of confusion appeared in the depths of his eyes.

  Think about himself?

  He rarely thought about himself. He only remembered that he had to take care of his younger siblings and only took note of what they liked.

  Seeing his confused expression, Mu Jingzhe thought for a moment and assigned him a mission.

  “For the next two days, think about a hundred things you want to do. You can also write down what you like. We’ll check off the items on the list slowly after you write them down. Tell your mother about it when you pay your respects to her on her death anniversary. Strive to complete as many tasks as possible before her next death anniversary.”

  Shao Dong thought about it seriously. “A hundred items? They can be anything?”

  “That’s right. You can write down whatever you like, whatever you want to do, or wherever you want to go, etc. You can accomplish those tasks one by one in the future. When you’re done, you can put a tick next to each task. Won’t you feel especially accomplished by the time you finish going through the entire list?”

  Shao Dong nodded. “Okay.”

  “Remember not to write about your younger siblings. Just write about yourself.” Mu Jingzhe emphasized this, afraid that he would write down things related to his younger siblings.

  “Okay.”

  For the next two days, Shao Dong thought hard about what he wanted to do. When he was free, he wrote and drew.

  Mu Jingzhe went to town and bought the items for the ancestral worship. She also bought walnut cookies for Bai Lu.

  She had never met Bai Lu before, but due to the relationship she had built with the kids, she had complicated feelings for her.

  This was the person who had given birth to Little Bei, Shao Dong, Shao Xi, and Shao Nan, the woman who had passed away because of a difficult labor.

  Though the kids were pitiful, she was even more pitiful. After all, she had died at a really young age. As a woman, Mu Jingzhe could empathize with her.

  In the past, everyone used to call her weird for not getting married. However, married women walked through the gates of hell to give birth to children. If a woman was unlucky, she would pass away just like that.

  According to the storyline in the book, Bai Lu had lost her life and the children she had given up her life to give birth to didn’t end up living well either. Each of those children suffered a lot of hardships and didn’t meet a good end.

  “No, I can’t think about it anymore. I’m going to cry if I think about it some more.”

  On the day of Bai Lu’s death anniversary, Mu Jingzhe wore dark clothes and dressed the children in dark clothes too.

  It happened to be a Saturday, so Mu Jingzhe followed Li Zhaodi’s instructions. Li Zhaodi called her foolish for taking the initiative to pay her respects to the first wife when no one was that particular.

  Regardless, Li Zhaodi still came to help. She only went back after the preparations were done.

  There was only half a day of lessons on Saturday. When Shao Dong and the others returned from class, Mu Jingzhe had finished preparing and went to pay her respects with the children.

  Because Bai Lu wasn’t buried in Great Eastern Village, the children couldn’t even go to her grave to kowtow and offer incense.

  Fortunately, Shao Qihai had returned with the memorial tablet. However, he had also become a memorial tablet now.

  The couple’s memorial tablets had been placed next to each other.