The Comeback of the Cannon-Fodder Supporting Actress

Chapter 551: Chapter 542: The Stepmother Who Refused to Be a Stepping Stone 30 (Bonus Chapter for 200 Monthly Tickets)

Anning just cried, refusing to speak no matter what others asked her.

Zhang Fengfeng grabbed Li Jingyu anxiously and asked, ”Jingyu, tell me what happened? Did your dad and mom have a fight?”

Li Jingyu was crying so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath.

She clung to Anning and wouldn’t let go.

She was particularly afraid, scared that if she let go, Anning would leave with Liu Ming and Liu Yuzhen, and once they were gone, she might never see them again.

It was Li Jingyan who, wiping away tears with anger, said: ”What else could it be? Wang Baozhu is back, and my dad wants to divorce my mom.”

”What?”

Zhang Fengfeng thought she must be hallucinating.

”Who did you say? Wang Baozhu? Your biological mother?”

She asked repeatedly, and Li Jingyu nodded: ”Yes, she’s the one who came back.”

Li Jingyu clung to Anning, pleading: ”Mom, please don’t go, okay? Let’s beg dad not to see Wang Baozhu anymore, we won’t see her either, we can still be together as a family, is that alright?”

The onlookers also tried to persuade Anning: ”So what if Wang Baozhu came back? What are you afraid of? You’ve been working yourself to death for the past few years, earning money, and it’s been hard but now life is finally better, the children have grown up, you’d be foolish to leave. If you leave, you’d just be leaving the home for Wang Baozhu.”

”Yes, you mustn’t be foolish, if nothing else, for the sake of the children you have to hold on. Look how pitifully they’re crying.”

”Don’t worry, we all support you. All the things Wang Baozhu did back then were shameful; she has the nerve to come back? If she shows up, watch me curse her out.”

At this point, Zhang Fengfeng was sure about the return of Wang Baozhu.

She grabbed Anning: ”Ningning, your father-in-law and I only acknowledge you as our daughter-in-law, we don’t recognize Wang Baozhu. We will make this decision for you, you mustn’t be foolish.”

Even Li Baolai, who rarely spoke, nodded and said: ”As for the Fourth Family, with your mother and I here, we won’t let Lao Si meet Wang Baozhu again, rest assured.”

Anning was still crying; while crying she said: ”Dad, Mom, I will never be able to repay your kindness in my life, and I know what you’re saying, I can’t bear to leave you or the kids, but forced love isn’t sweet. Wang Baozhu barely came back and Li Zhifang already wants a divorce. I know he hasn’t forgotten about Wang Baozhu over the years. If I insist on not leaving, he will hate me, I, I don’t want him to hate me.”

Anning burst into tears again as she said this.

She hugged Zhang Fengfeng: ”Mom, a couple can’t get along if they’re not on the same page; rather than living in constant resentment every day, I might as well leave quickly and get some peace.”

After crying, Anning let go, she pried away the hand Li Jinghan was using to tug at her clothes and pushed away Li Jingyu and Li Jingyan, then nearly ran for her life with Liu Ming and Liu Yuzhen.

”Mom, Mom.”

Li Jinghan was young and didn’t quite understand what was happening yet, but he knew his loving mother was leaving. He cried and ran after her, stumbled and fell when going out the door. Ignoring the pain, he got up and continued chasing: ”Mom, where are you going? Wait for me, please wait for me...”

Li Jingyu also chased after them. She caught up with Li Jinghan and embraced him, crying bitterly: ”Jinghan, don’t chase after her, Mom doesn’t want us anymore.”

Li Jinghan cried until he was gasping for breath, and it took him a while to calm down. ”Sister, why doesn’t Mom want us anymore? Did I do something wrong? Mom can spank or scold me if I did. Why does she not want us? Can’t I change? I won’t be naughty anymore; I won’t secretly eat sweets; I’ll obey everything. Can’t you bring Mom back?”

Zhang Fengfeng looked at the two children, her heart aching and fuming. She wiped her tears and stamped her foot, ”It’s a sin, such a sin. Wang Baozhu, why didn’t you die out there? Why did you come back and tear apart a perfectly good home?”

Some tender-hearted aunties watching the children crying like this felt their hearts soften and started to tear up.

What is all this? Life at Li Zhifang’s was prospering so well. He raised six children with such care, bought a house, and got some land. Liu Qi is already fourteen or fifteen, a big fellow now, and yet he’s gotten himself into this mess. Has he got water on the brain or was he kicked by a donkey?

Many people watching Li Jinghan crying and calling for his mother also commended Anning’s character.

As a stepmother, how much love and care must she have given to three children who were not her own, to the point where the children would choose her over their own biological mother?

Zhang Fengfeng picked up Li Jinghan: ”Alright, no more crying, let’s go home with Grandma.”

Li Baolai, out of nowhere, picked up a stick to hit Li Zhifang, who was crouched in the main room too scared to go out.

”Lao Si, you’ve lost your senses, how can you be so muddled? What kind of good is Wang Baozhu? She once abandoned you and your son to run off with someone else. Who knows what she could do in the future? Her character is no good. How could you... Don’t say she’s the children’s biological mother and that she’d treat them well. If she really cared about the kids, why would she have left in the first place...”

Zhang Fengfeng held Li Jinghan and shouted, ”Old man, stop hitting him. He’s bewitched by Wang Baozhu, doesn’t care about anything—neither parents nor children, only her. Go call Eldest and the rest, tell them all to come back.”

As Zhang Fengfeng walked the three children back, she was softly weeping along the way.

”I’ve never done anything wrong in my life, never wronged anyone. Why has such a thing happened in my old age? We, the Li family, truly wronged Anning.”

Li Jingyu and Li Jingyan arrived at Li Baolai’s house, and the two girls went into the room to discuss.

Actually, Li Jingyu was quite scared, filled with unease, ”Jingyan, what do we do now? Now that Mom’s gone, I have no idea what to do. Normally, Mom took care of everything and had everything planned for us, but now...”

Li Jingyan, though younger, had more initiative and more thoughts than Li Jingyu, but she was quite scared now too.

She hugged Li Jingyu tightly, ”Sister, I... I don’t know what to do either. Mom told me before, no matter what happens, we must continue to study. Education broadens our minds, expands our perspectives, and enables us to go out and see the world. I’m thinking, no matter what, I must study hard. When I’ve made something of myself someday, I... I will go find Mom.”

Li Jingyu bit her lip, ”I will also study hard, but without Mom to tutor me, I’m afraid I won’t be able to manage.”

Thinking about how Anning, an illiterate peasant woman, had learned all the courses from primary to high school to help her study, Li Jingyu became heartbroken all over again.

Could Wang Baozhu, her biological mother, do what Anning, her stepmother, had done for her?

Li Jingyan thought more than Li Jingyu.

She whispered, ”Sister, regardless of what Wang Baozhu does, we can’t trust her, you know? When we were little, she ran off with someone else. Her heart isn’t right; she doesn’t truly care for us. After so many years, she hasn’t been around much, so she surely cares even less about us. I’m guessing she came back because she can’t get by out there. Dad is a fool, believing whatever she says. We can’t be fools.”

She gripped Li Jingyu tightly, ”Sister, with Mom gone, it’s just us now. We must stick together; you’ve got to stick with me.”

In Li Jingyu’s eyes, of course, Li Jingyan was far more important than Wang Baozhu.

She nodded firmly, ”Don’t worry, I might be a bit naive, but I’m not stupid. I know who’s close and who’s distant.”