Transmigrating into the Genius Cannon Fodder’s Aunt

Chapter 151 Part 1 – Sweet Justice (I)

Before the show even started, Old Lady Mao was already grinning, waiting for Mao Zhishan’s family to come crawling back with the money.

Her two sons had busily mapped out roughly where they’d buy land and build their houses. Furthermore, because they’d heard Mao Zhishan might be on TV, they’d gone into debt buying a set and even splurged on cable, all just to watch his interview.

Mao Dawei had rushed back all the way from Yan City too. The moment he confirmed Mao Zhishan was actually a big star, he lost his mind with excitement and immediately dropped the minor role he’d barely landed to march straight to Xinle Entertainment, trying to get Mao Zhishan’s address so he could show up and claim him as family.

But nobody at Xinle believed him. He swore up and down and rattled off everything he knew about Mao Zhishan, but of course, nothing worked.

He was about to set up camp outside the company’s gates when Old Lady Mao calling, informing him she’d get Mao Zhishan to hand over his acting role for him, and to get ready.

Mao Dawei assumed his grandma had actually gotten through to Mao Zhishan, and he was over the moon. He bought a ticket on the spot and rushed home.

He knew the stuff about handing over the role was garbage, obviously. But if Mao Zhishan had picked up the old lady’s call, he had to be coming home.

And even if Mao Zhishan didn’t head back right away, entertainment reporters would definitely come knocking, and that’d be his chance to get his face out there!

He was going to make sure everyone knew he was Mao Zhishan’s nephew!

Still buzzing from the idea, Mao Dawei—barely back home—couldn’t help reminding his stubborn grandma one more time:

“Grandma, my second uncle is not the same person he used to be. Don’t treat him the way you always have. And in front of other people, say you two are close, that our family loves each other. Got it?”

Old Lady Mao frowned reluctantly. “Why? If I say nice things about him, what if he keeps all his jobs and doesn’t give any to you?”

“This isn’t some factory where there’s only one spot per person,” Mao Dawei said, exasperated. “Just because he’s in it doesn’t mean I can’t be too. He needs to stay an actor and do it well for my sake. Anyway, you wouldn’t get it even if I explained it. Just don’t say anything bad about my second uncle.”

“The whole point is I need him to do well. The bigger his name gets, the better the roles he can give me!”

The old lady seemed to get it. “So if he becomes the factory manager, he can make you the head worker?”

“Yes, exactly!” Mao Dawei said.

He turned to the rest of the family and warned, “Same goes for the rest of you—if you want anything out of this, don’t go talking bad about him.”

“If we stay on his good side, he’ll have to spend money on us and sort out work for us. But if he makes it on his own and ignores the family, people will call him ungrateful.”

His father and uncle nodded, somewhat guiltily.

A bunch of reporters had been coming around lately, and the old lady had been telling them all that Mao Zhishan stole the bride price and left the family in this state. So they’d been playing the victims in front of cameras and talking Mao Zhishan down every chance they got.

But watching Mao Dawei excitedly pick out his outfit for tomorrow’s interview, they kept their mouths shut. When it came to celebrity stuff, no one in the family knew better than Mao Dawei.

…

The TV show “A Date with Shen Shi” came on.

When Mao Zhishan appeared on screen, the family barely recognized him. Mao Dawei said, buzzing with excitement, “Being a star really is something else! Look at what my second uncle used to look like! They’ve done him up so much you can’t even tell it’s him.”

“Clothes really do make the man. Money makes all the difference,” Third Mao said enviously, his eyes already darting around.

Not just him, but the whole Mao family started calculating their demands once Mao Zhishan came back. They’d only heard about it before and it hadn’t felt real, but seeing it with their own eyes, it hit them immediately: one house was nowhere near enough!

Before they could even finish fantasizing, though, they noticed the interview was going in a strange direction.

Whenever Mao Zhishan brought up his past, the family felt a creeping unease. Old Lady Mao broke out into curses. “Is he talking trash about me on TV?!”

“Preferring sons over daughters? That’s how it’s been for generations! Is he the only one who’s got a problem with it? You can’t even say anything about those good-for-nothings anymore?!”

“As if his three girls are going to take care of him when he’s old!”

“Grandma, look!”

The old lady looked at the screen and immediately forgot to keep cursing. Everyone else’s faces lit up.

Mao Daying blurted out, “Oh my God, Mao Huimei opened a factory! She has to be making so much money! Grandma, we’ve got a factory, and we’re making money off foreigners!”

Mao Dawei was buzzing. “One foreign dollar is worth eight yuan! Oh my God, Grandma, we’re super rich!”

Even Old Lady Mao couldn’t stay angry after finding out about the factory. She turned straight to Mao Dawei, the one who knew things. “How big a deal is her factory? How much does she pull in a year?”

Drawing on his experience in Yan City, Mao Dawei calculated, “Factories up there? Has to be at least a few million a year…”

“A few million,” the old lady said, swallowing. “Every year? Does that mean we’ll end up richer than the Haos someday?”

Mao Dawei gave her a dismissive look. “What kind of rich is the Hao? They are just a big fish in a small pond, nobody in Yan City.”

The family erupted as if they’d just won a five-million lottery out of thin air. Mao Dawei and his cousins were already high-fiving each other.

As for Mao Huilan getting into a top university and Mao Huizhu becoming a child actress, Old Lady Mao watched with a smile and had it all figured out:

“The bride price for a college girl has to start at a hundred thousand. Didn’t expect that brat to turn out so capable either. She makes money from acting, right?”

But the happy atmosphere in the Mao family came to a dead stop the moment the old lady’s face appeared on the screen.

“What’s going on?” Eldest Mao said, confused.

Old Lady Mao was equally confused. “That reporter said he was going to find them for me—how am I on TV?”

Even the Mao family weren’t dumb enough not to know this was going to blow up. Mao Dawei, who had never imagined his grandmother had said all that during the interview, exploded at once.

“Grandma, why would you say all that?!”

Old Lady Mao caught on and got angry too. “What happened? He was just chatting with me! No one told me it was going on TV!”

“I’ll go find him tomorrow!”

“Stop it already!” Mao Dawei said, irritated. “Haven’t you made enough of a mess?”

He thought for a moment. “Let me do the talking tomorrow.”

“It’s just old-fashioned thinking from an elderly,” he said, grasping at hope. “I’ll set things straight with the reporters tomorrow. The younger generation of the Mao family isn’t like that.”

“We cousins all get along great!”

But everything Mao Zhishan revealed next blew those hopes to pieces.

Mao Zhishan held nothing back as he laid out exactly how the rest of the Mao family had bullied and humiliated his family. The bride price investigation proved that his own mother had framed them, and the clip of her unsightly curses and threats at the end sealed it.

Even Mao Dawei, her own grandson, found it repulsive, let alone the audience.

Toward the end of the show, Mao Zhishan let out a quiet sigh and said, “My mother was shaped by the older generation too, and that’s why I’ve kept my distance. If she knew my daughters were in school, she’d never allow it.”

“Like now, if I bring her to live with me, I won’t be able to continue sponsoring the children. So, while she is still healthy, I’ll have to trouble my two brothers to continue taking care of her.”

Everyone goes their own way—plain and simple.

After watching Old Lady Mao’s ugly performance on screen, nobody had a single bad word to say about Mao Zhishan. Even if he’d simply cut her off entirely, people probably would’ve cheered him on.

The show ended. The Mao family sat frozen, staring blankly at the credits rolling across the screen.

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