Chapter 161: The Evil Mother-in-Law

An Nan walked upstairs, puzzled. What woman from the thirteenth floor?

Wasn’t the thirteenth floor where Sun Peng, Wang Xiaoyu, and Chu Peipei lived?

Sun Peng and Wang Xiaoyu were already dead, and Chu Peipei had moved next door to her. Who could still be living on the thirteenth floor?

As she was thinking this, a shrill voice suddenly echoed from above:

“Neighbors! Come and judge this for me!”

“This little wretch is out to rob and kill, bullying a poor widow like me!”

“Heavens above, open your eyes! How much more must I suffer?!”

An Nan frowned, the screeching voice drilling into her head. She led her dog up to the thirteenth floor, only to see a woman in her fifties sitting on the landing between the thirteenth and fourteenth floors.

The woman was skinny and bony, her face full of deep lines, a pronounced frown etched between her brows, her whole expression mean and harsh.

Where did this crazy old woman come from, making such a racket here?

As soon as the woman saw An Nan with her dog, she abruptly stopped cursing and instead flashed a greedy smile, quickly scrambling to her feet and sidling up to An Nan.

“Little girl, are you planning to make dog meat stew? Could you spare an old woman a bowl? I haven’t eaten in ages!”

Dog meat?

An Nan shot her a glare. “Get lost!”

After spending some time in the mountains and at the base, it had been a long while since anyone had eyed her dog like that. Seeing that covetous look again really pissed her off.

The woman shrank back, intimidated by An Nan’s glare, but then stubbornly started pestering again:

“What are you being so fierce for? City folks have no compassion, always keeping everything to themselves, no respect for their elders! What’s the harm in giving me a bite?”

An Nan was getting a headache from her grating voice.

Who gave her the guts to come shout in her face?

An Nan was just about to kick her when Fugui, the dog, beat her to it—sinking its teeth into the woman’s calf.

The woman immediately howled in pain, screaming like a pig being slaughtered.

“Ahhh! Help! The vicious dog is eating me!!”

At that moment, the door to the fourteenth floor stairwell suddenly opened.

Chu Peipei looked over in surprise and delight. “Nannan! You’re back!”

An Nan smiled, about to say something, when her dog suddenly let go of the woman’s leg and lunged for her throat.

Seeing this, Chu Peipei hurriedly shouted, “Don’t hurt her!”

An Nan quickly pulled Fugui back.

Fugui looked at his owner in confusion, then obediently backed down.

The old woman finally breathed a sigh of relief, collapsing to the floor, clutching her wound and wailing.

“Outrageous! Outrageous! The vicious dog bit me!”

An Nan ignored her and turned to Chu Peipei. “Do you know her?”

Chu Peipei nodded with a complicated expression, then walked over to the woman. “Mom, are you alright?”

Mom?!

An Nan was shocked. “This is your mother?”

Chu Peipei was so gentle and kind, yet her mother was this uncouth, shrieking shrew?

But then An Nan remembered—hadn’t Chu Peipei said her parents passed away long ago?

As Chu Peipei helped the woman up, she explained to An Nan, “This is Jiadong’s mother, my mother-in-law.”

An Nan took a moment to process that.

Oh, it was Crewcut’s mother.

The old woman stood up, still yelling:

“I, Li Guifen, have lived fifty years and never met such a rude girl! Letting a dog bite people! In our village, animals that bite people are beaten to death with a stick!”

Chu Peipei frowned. “Mom! That’s enough!”

“Pah! Who’s your mom, you little wretch? You two know each other, you must have put her up to this…”

Li Guifen kept spewing venom, while Chu Peipei gave An Nan an apologetic look.

“Nannan, you go on ahead. I’ll come find you in a bit.”

An Nan frowned at the old woman, nodded to Chu Peipei, and led Fugui upstairs.

Before leaving, Fugui bared his teeth and growled at the shrieking woman.

Li Guifen shrank back in fear, then glanced at the leash and raised her voice even louder.

“Lowly beast, how dare you bare your teeth at me!”

A cold glint flashed in An Nan’s eyes.

For Chu Peipei’s sake, she held back for now and took her dog inside.

Even inside her apartment, she could still faintly hear the old woman’s cursing outside. An Nan ignored her, poured some food for Fugui, and started cleaning the room.

No one had lived here for a while, and a thin layer of dust had settled.

By the time the dog had finished eating and An Nan had finished cleaning, there was a knock at the door.

Chu Peipei stood there looking exhausted. “Sorry, Nannan. My mother-in-law is just unreasonable.”

An Nan asked, puzzled, “Why did your mother-in-law suddenly show up?”

Chu Peipei sighed. “It’s a long story.”

The two went to 1401. Chu Peipei brought An Nan a bowl of mung bean soup, then started telling her what had happened.

It turned out that the day after An Nan left, Chu Peipei’s evil mother-in-law had shown up.

Peipei’s husband, Crewcut, was actually named Zhang Jiadong. He was the eldest son, with a younger brother, Zhang Xiaobao, seven years his junior. The family lived in a mountain village.

Jiadong had always excelled in school, but the family was poor, and the parents doted on the younger son. They kept pressuring Jiadong to quit school and go work to support his brother’s education.

But he didn’t give in. He secretly packed his things, took his college acceptance letter, and went to Linbei University, working part-time to pay his own way through college.

After graduating, he found a stable job and managed to settle in Linbei City. Later, he and Chu Peipei worked hard together, bought a house and a car, and had a loving, happy life.

The only trouble in their marriage was Jiadong’s parents.

Over the years, Jiadong had sent plenty of money home, but his parents always complained it wasn’t enough.

They spoiled the younger son rotten, letting him squander money and do nothing. No matter how much money was sent, it was like throwing it into a bottomless pit.

Eventually, the parents demanded to move to the city and live with the couple so they could get more money.

Li Guifen was domineering and had little affection for her eldest son, often beating and scolding him. Jiadong, afraid that Peipei would suffer with him, firmly refused, and this went on for years.

Then the disaster struck, and the two families lost contact completely. Jiadong died tragically, but his parents and younger brother survived—their village was high up and escaped the floods.

Back then, they kept saying how lucky they were not to have moved to the city, or else they’d have drowned. But they didn’t expect that after the floods came a deadly heatwave.

In the poor, backward mountain village, there was no air conditioning—they could only tough it out. The crops failed, and all their livestock and poultry died.

The village gradually descended into chaos. Neighbors who used to be close started covering their faces with rags and robbing each other with hoes.

In the 50–60 degree heat, fights broke out constantly. Many people suffered heatstroke, and Jiadong’s father died because of it.

Left with no way to survive, Li Guifen and Zhang Xiaobao had no choice but to come down the mountain to seek out the eldest son."