Chapter 408: The 90s Contrast System (11)

Zhu Meijiao threw a large bag of dirty clothes to Zhou Ru, then looked up toward the attic while rubbing her aching arm.

She didn't know what was going on this week, but the energy progress bar of the Female Supporting Character Contrast System had actually stalled.

She had asked the system, and it said that the female supporting character hadn't provided her with any Contrast Value energy during this period.

If the energy progress bar made no progress for over ten days, she would be penalized with a deduction of energy points and lose the Props she possessed.

How could this be!

It was one thing not to have obtained them, but to have them and then lose them—how could she bear that!

Although there was one chance to change the target of the Task after it had been selected, there was only one, so she didn't want to change it easily unless it was an absolute last resort.

Zhu Meijiao pursed her lips, turned her head, and asked Zhou Ru, "Auntie Ru, is Sister... feeling any better?"

"Who knows!"

Mentioning her daughter, Zhou Ru couldn't help but think of the money for the five little hens that had just been wasted, and she looked annoyed.

"That dead girl is now using her poor health as an excuse to refuse to do any work; she's either hiding in the attic sleeping in or she's nowhere to be found—who knows where she's run off to!"

Hearing this, Zhu Meijiao frowned.

Xie Yang was sleeping in the attic every day? Not doing any work for the family? No wonder the energy progress bar wasn't rising at all.

Just then, Zhou Ru came to the edge of the well with a basin of dirty clothes and pumped a bucket of water up; seeing those thick black corduroy trousers, she couldn't help but ask:

"Meijiao, how come I remember you only wearing these trousers for a few days? Are you washing them already?"

Zhu Meijiao came back to her senses, her face looking embarrassed: "Yes, I started my period yesterday, and the trousers got dirty. Luckily, they're black, so you can't really tell."

Zhou Ru's hand, which had reached out to pick up the trousers, paused; she had intended to just give them a quick rinse and hang them up, but she hadn't expected them to be stained with menstrual blood.

"Meijiao, you're right not to touch cold water when you're on your period. I'll go boil a pot of hot water right now; you can wash them with hot water later, and it'll be fine."

"..."

When Xie Yang had eaten her fill and returned against the sunset glow, she discovered that this pair of stepmother and stepdaughter seemed to be at odds, neither of them paying any attention to the other at the dinner table.

What was this about? Had a crisis emerged in the plastic relationship between the stepmother and stepdaughter?

【Host, Host, I know!】

The Main System had earned quite a bit of "handling fees" from the Host for the goods transferred from the Agricultural Reclamation Star these past few days, so it didn't mind giving the Host a piece of gossip to eat to make her happy.

After hearing the ins and outs, Xie Yang was amused.

Hahahaha! So Zhou Ru had a day like this too!

Without the original body acting as a total pushover, the persona of the "conscientious stepmother" couldn't be maintained anymore, right?

"Sister, you're back?"

Seeing Xie Yang enter the door, Zhu Meijiao immediately put on a smile that looked super sweet.

"I heard Auntie Ru say you've been going out every day recently. Did you go to the hospital for an IV drip? I don't go back to school until tomorrow afternoon; I'll go with you to the hospital tomorrow!"

Xie Yang smiled back: "Sure! And bring some money; I'm almost out of money for my medical treatment."

"What!!!"

As soon as Zhou Ru heard that she had squandered her salary and year-end bonus, she stood up abruptly, making a move to hit her:

"Don't think I don't know; I heard it all from Taohua. You got the highest year-end bonus in your sewing workshop, a full eight hundred and something. With your salary, that must be eighteen hundred, right? And you spent it all in just these few days? You dead girl..."

She had been planning to use the remaining money to pay the final installment for the bathroom renovation, but she hadn't expected this dead girl to have squandered it all?

"Your sister's tuition for next semester isn't even settled yet, and you! You go out for a few afternoons and squander all the money! Have you considered the family's situation at all?"

Xie Yang didn't hurry to block the slap coming her way, and she sneered:

"It's my own money I earned; I'll spend it however I want. Before, when I didn't need it urgently, you said you'd save it for me, so I listened to you and sent money back every month. But now that I need money for my medical treatment, please return all the money I sent back from working."

"!!!"

What kind of nonsense was this dead girl spouting?

Return the money she sent back from working?

It was already spent, so how could she return it?

Why didn't this dead girl just go rob someone!

Zhou Ru glared at her fiercely: "If you dare say one more word of this nonsense, see if I don't beat you to death! You're sick, so you're sick—you have to make a fuss about living in the attic and fight with your sister over the new cotton quilt... I don't think you're sick; I think you're trying to turn the world upside down!"

Xie Yang stared at her with clear, cold eyes for a few moments, then let out a scoffing laugh:

"I really can't understand it. I am clearly your biological daughter, yet you act as if you can't see my existence, with your heart and eyes full of this good stepdaughter of yours. A child with a mother like me ends up living worse than an orphan in an orphanage. At least an orphan's money wouldn't be taken away to be spent on others, only to find themselves with no money when they want to treat their own illness..."

At this moment, Zhu Weiguo, who had been helping out at a relative's house where they were building a home, returned. Hearing these words from Xie Yang, his expression changed instantly.

"Dead girl!" Zhou Ru, seeing the man's expression, interrupted in a flustered rage, "What kind of nonsense are you babbling!"

"Whether it's nonsense or not, you know in your heart."

Xie Yang swept a look at this family of three with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

If she didn't make it clear, this family of three would probably pretend to be ignorant and play dumb.

"I came to the Zhu Family at five years old and didn't go a single day without working. Before I was ten, I served your good stepdaughter like a servant girl from the old society. After ten, I not only took on all the housework but also had to go to the fields for farm work, and by sixteen, you kicked me out to work... Now that I think about it, I'm really capable! I started supporting myself at five. I dare to pat my chest and say: I don't owe you! And I don't owe the Zhu Family!"

"Xie! Yang!" Zhou Ru shouted in a fit of shame and anger, "You..."

"Don't be in such a hurry, listen to me calculate it slowly with you!"

Xie Yang pulled over a chair and sat down, not minding wasting some time to have a good argument with them:

"I have kept all the remittance receipts for the money I earned working this year! Let me calculate: the first three months were the probation period, the salary was low, and I remitted a total of 1350 to you."

"Later, the salary increased, and there was a lot of overtime and bonuses. Starting in June, I remitted at least 800 to you every month; after September, there was more overtime, and I remitted 850 each time."

"Adding it all up, I remitted a total of 7150 to you. Let's say 150 was my filial piety for the holidays, but you must return the 7000 to me; I need it for my medical treatment!"

"If you insist on saying you have no money, I can't do anything to you, so we'll treat it as a debt for now! But it's better to live a miserable life than to die, and I will definitely find a way to treat my illness. Whether it's borrowing from loan sharks or begging under a bridge, my body and my life are my own to cherish."

"If you think seven thousand yuan can buy off the mother-daughter relationship between us, that's fine too. You can continue being your 'conscientious stepmother,' and don't you ever interfere in my affairs again!"

Zhou Ru: "..."

She was so angry she was practically about to explode!

"You brat, your wings have hardened! How dare you say such things!"

Villagers passing outside the courtyard wall heard what sounded like an argument in Zhu Weiguo's home; they pressed against the base of the wall to catch a snippet and couldn't help but click their tongues:

Goodness! So Weiguo treats the daughter his second wife brought over so harshly! Making her do housework at five years old? She isn't even as tall as the stove, is she?

Tsk tsk! Weiguo even puts on a front of being fair and impartial.

But the people in the village aren't blind; if he were truly fair and impartial, one wouldn't still be in high school while the other dropped out early to work. Biological children really are different!