Chapter 36: The Evil Stepmother of the 1970s 3 New Story VIP “Mom I…

Chapter 36: The Evil Stepmother in the 1970s 3 – New Chapter VIP Release "Mommy, I..."

The doctor said the two children weren’t suffering from sunstroke; it was probably just the hot weather. Resting indoors for a while would be enough, and if necessary, they could have some sweets. Though Xu Xiuyun was a bit surprised, she didn’t think it was a big deal and still let the children rest at the health station. The kids, unsure of what to do next, were feeling a little lost when they saw Xu Ziyan rush in. Their faces brightened as they looked at her expectantly.

The people who followed started whispering: wasn’t it said that Xu Ziyan mistreated the kids—forcing them to wash clothes, stand as punishment, and even suffer sunstroke? But now, the children didn’t seem afraid of her at all. In fact, they seemed happy to see her.

Xu Ziyan hurried over to examine the kids. "Are you two okay? I told you to play near the gate. If you left, why didn’t you say anything? I thought you were lost! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Xu Xiuyun’s expression froze. What did this mean? Accusing her of stealing the kids right away? She sighed and stepped forward. "Xiao Yan, don’t blame them. They're just children. They collapsed and said they had sunstroke—it scared me too. Honestly, on such a hot day, you—"

Xu Ziyan snapped. "If you don’t know how to talk, then keep quiet. The kids don’t understand, but you don’t either? You just took my kids away without a word. People who know might think you’re kind, but those who don’t would think you’re deliberately making me look bad. If I’d gone into the mountains looking for them and taken a bad fall, would you take responsibility?"

Her words rang true with everyone, especially since they’d just been searching for the kids. Immediately, they started criticizing Xu Xiuyun.

"We were searching all over in this heat, and it turns out you took them?"

"I even looked in the river, terrified I’d find them drowned. Had me terrified!"

Xu Xiuyun hurried to explain, "The kids had sunstroke, and I was just worried about them. I acted without thinking."

Xu Ziyan turned to the doctor. "Did they have sunstroke? Why is my cousin so certain about it? They seem fine to me."

The doctor repeated his diagnosis. Xu Ziyan took out some sweets from her pocket and handed them to the kids. "I know you shouldn’t stay in the sun too long in summer, so I told them to play in the shade near the gate. I even went inside to get them sweets in case they felt dizzy. I had the sweets ready, and then the kids were gone. What nonsense!"

Xu Xiuyun said, "But they said—"

Fang Nan tugged at Xu Ziyan’s clothes. "Aunt, I felt dizzy and asked Aunt if I had sunstroke."

Fang Bei happily munched on his sweet and nodded. "I felt awful and tired. Uncle said if I felt bad, I should go to the health station, so I asked Aunt if we could go."

Hearing this, everyone was even more surprised. "So the kids didn’t actually collapse? They were just sleepy and a little dizzy. A piece of sweet would’ve helped. What was wrong with Xu Xiuyun?"

Xu Xiuyun quickly explained, "I saw Xiao Yan making them stand so long and thought they really had sunstroke. I didn’t expect—"

Xu Ziyan sneered and snapped again. "Xu Xiuyun, you’re something else. So you heard me talking? That means you knew my parents and I were home, right? If the kids were near the gate and something happened, why didn’t you just call out? We would’ve heard. If they really needed to go to the health station, couldn’t we have taken them? Why did you have to act like some hero?"

Earlier, Sixth Aunt had mentioned on the way that she’d helped with the kids. Now, hearing this, everyone felt even more suspicious. Right—if something happened to the kids, Xu Xiuyun should’ve just called out. Even if the Fang family wasn’t home, the neighbors would’ve come out. And Xu Xiuyun knew three adults were home. Why did she carry one kid and drag the other to the health station herself?

She was moving so slow—if there’d been a real emergency, she’d have made it worse. It would’ve been faster for the parents to carry the kids themselves. And if it was urgent, the Fang family even had a bicycle. What kind of sense did that make? No wonder Xu Ziyan thought the kids were lost.

Xu Ziyan added, "I never realized how manipulative and nasty you are. In such a short time, you’ve been spreading lies that I abuse the kids. What, trying to show off what a perfect mother you are in comparison?"

"I didn’t—"

"Then why did you say all that to Sixth Aunt? My parents are right here. Let them explain why I punished the kids!" Xu Ziyan folded her arms and stepped aside, letting Fang’s parents step forward.

Fang’s parents had initially thought Xu Ziyan was pretending it was about laundry to punish the kids. But then, what had she said?

"Xiao Yan was angry because the kids got their clothes dirty and tried to hide it. She told them that if they did something wrong, they should admit it and not try to cover it up."

Everyone was stunned. Was this really something Xu Ziyan would say? Their impression of her was terrible—she’d stolen, cursed at her parents, stole food right from her cousin’s hands, and even framed her older cousin. She’d even schemed to marry the Battalion Commander and was known to mistreat the kids. Could she really say something so reasonable? If that was the case, then she wasn’t wrong. Isn’t this how every family disciplines their kids?

Fang’s mother looked at Xu Xiuyun, confused. "You heard Xiao Yan say this to us, right? So why did you say she punished them for not washing the clothes properly?"

Xu Xiuyun was speechless. That was nothing but an excuse. Were these old folks really buying it? Were the villagers? Before she could think of a way to backtrack, Xu Ziyan coldly said, "You’ve always loved spreading rumors about me, Xu Xiuyun. Oh, but you don’t say it outright—you pretend to be doing good, like this time, and then ‘accidentally’ let things slip. Then others start badmouthing me, spreading how terrible I am."

Sixth Aunt shrank back at these words, her face red. Xu Ziyan continued, "Xu Xiuyun, don’t bother denying it. The truth will out. Think about it—when you all heard about the things I supposedly did, did anyone actually see it? Who saw it? Wasn’t it all just hearsay? And where did the rumors come from? Wasn’t it always from Xu Xiuyun? From now on, be smarter. Don’t let her use you as a weapon. Otherwise, you might end up like me—trampled underfoot so she can shine."

"That’s not true! I never did that—" Xu Xiuyun’s eyes reddened as she tried to explain.

Xu Ziyan grabbed the children’s hands and walked out. Seeing Xu Xiuyun cry, the children felt a little guilty and turned back. "Aunt, we’re sorry. We shouldn’t have said we needed to go to the health station."

Xu Ziyan tugged them lightly. "Never mind that. You’re just kids—this isn’t your fault. Right or wrong, it’s the adults’ business."

Now, Xu Xiuyun couldn’t even explain. Could she blame the kids for saying they felt unwell and wanted to go to the health station? She’d said children didn’t understand, and now those words stabbed back at her. No matter how she spun it, she’d acted improperly by taking the kids away from the Fang family’s gate without a word.

A "bad person" doing one good deed is easily forgiven, while a "good person" doing one bad deed sees their image crumble. To the villagers, the two cousins now seemed like this exact scenario. Moreover, as they discussed it, they realized no one had actually witnessed Xu Ziyan doing anything bad—after all, it all happened at home. Who could’ve seen inside the Xu family’s house?

So where did the rumors come from? Family scandals shouldn’t be aired in public. The Xu family elders had never said Xu Ziyan stole money, and her parents never said she cursed at them. The only thing was her younger cousin saying she always stole his food—but that wasn’t unusual. Kids in other families fought over food too.

Then there was Xu Xiuyun. Her friends would see her upset and ask if Xu Ziyan had bullied her. She’d tell them not to ask, saying nothing, but they’d assume Xu Ziyan was the vicious one. Under pressure, Xu Xiuyun would vaguely say she’d been framed but would "kindly" take the blame, saying her sister would change.

Over time, it seemed like everyone knew every bad thing Xu Ziyan had ever done at home. Her reputation worsened until no one wanted to marry her—who’d want a troublemaker? Later, when the Battalion Commander was "trapped" into marrying her, it only reinforced her bad image. But today, seeing how well the Fang family’s kids and elders got along with her, even defending her, it didn’t match the rumors of the family hating her and her causing endless drama.

Had everything they’d heard been lies? Was Xu Xiuyun the one smearing Xu Ziyan? That was terrifying!

And so, Xu Xiuyun’s "kind and beautiful" image collapsed completely. No one else would’ve handled things the way she did today—it really seemed like she was deliberately setting Xu Ziyan up. They were cousins, neighbors, and both stepmothers. Hadn’t everyone always said Xu Ziyan was the evil stepmom while Xu Xiuyun was the rare good one?

Maybe it really was as Xu Ziyan said—Xu Xiuyun was stepping on her to lift herself up. Everything looks worse in comparison. The more Xu Ziyan was criticized, the more Xu Xiuyun was praised. Thinking deeper, the Xu family only had these two girls. The worse Xu Ziyan’s reputation, the better Xu Xiuyun’s. Wasn’t that why Xu Xiuyun had been engaged to an officer in the first place?

She’d just been unlucky—her fiancé died. Otherwise, their reputations alone would’ve set them apart after marriage. The villagers weren’t used to such scheming, and the realization made their skin crawl. They looked at Xu Xiuyun with suspicion.

Xu Xiuyun was frantic, but the more she explained, the faker she seemed. Her previous image was of someone who endured suffering silently—why was she so desperate to explain now?

As soon as Xu Ziyan and the Fang family got home, they heard the system announcement: "Congratulations, host, for completing the plot: Berating Xu Xiuyun and making the villagers doubt her character. Reward: 1 skill point."

Xu Ziyan was stunned. "Which plot is this? Let me see… Oh, this is where Fang Lihai returns to the village, gets killed by a wild boar, and I accuse Xu Xiuyun of luring it down. I yell at her and end up locked up. Huh? So even though the villagers locked me up, they still had some doubts about Xu Xiuyun? Makes sense—wild boars don’t just come down for no reason. They should be suspicious."

Fang’s parents turned pale. This was the second time they’d heard their son would die from a wild boar attack. He was their only remaining child—how could they bear losing him too? And according to the immortal’s thoughts, they’d fall ill from grief, their daughter-in-law would steal their money, and they’d die.

They looked at Xu Ziyan. Now that the immortal had possessed her, maybe those things wouldn’t happen?

The kids also stared at Xu Ziyan hopefully. The fairy would save their uncle, right?

Xu Ziyan was thrilled to have completed so much plot at once. Turning around, she saw all four of them staring at her and jumped. Awkwardly, she said, "Uh, I keep my promises. Since you all did as I said today, I won’t hit or scold the kids from now on. Don’t overthink it—I just noticed Xu Xiuyun always watching our family and thought she was up to something. I wanted to expose her. You saw it today—I didn’t wrong her, right?"

The four nodded. Xu Ziyan cheered up again. The start was better than she’d imagined—her family was willing to listen to her, making things easier. If they’d opposed her, she might’ve had to lie down and wait for the world to collapse. Maybe it was also her good luck—everything had gone smoothly today, even Sixth Aunt’s appearance had helped.

With a wave, Xu Ziyan declared, "Kill a chicken, stew it with mushrooms and potatoes, and serve it with white rice. Let’s eat well today. Don’t worry—tomorrow, I’ll figure out how to make money."

Fang’s mother hesitated—she’d raised those chickens herself. But then she remembered the immortal might be a weasel spirit that loved chicken. She hurried to the backyard to catch one. She’d feed the immortal well, and in return, it would save her son!