I Booked My Daughter-in-Law a Pricey Postpartum Suite, She Got 32 Pumpkins

I gave every cent of my savings to my daughter-in-law, but once I was paralyzed, all she fed me was pumpkin. "The grudge from my postpartum month is one I'll never forgive. Back then, so you wouldn't have to care for me during my recovery, you deliberately went off on a trip and even sent over thirty-two pumpkins to humiliate me, calling them good stuff to help me recover." "Well, now you get to find out what it's like to eat pumpkin for a whole month!" I froze. I had clearly booked her a postpartum care center for two hundred thousand—how had that turned into thirty-two pumpkins? And I never went on any trip. My son said his wife wanted her own mother to look after her and didn't want me getting in the way. Because of that, I even transferred an extra eighty thousand as a gift. But the pumpkin was choking my throat, and I couldn't get out a single word. Everyone cursed me as a wicked mother-in-law who deserved to be mistreated by her daughter-in-law. Even my grandson said I was a bad grandma. But after I died, my daughter-in-law stood before my headstone, murmuring to herself. "Old lady, you were so tightfisted while you were alive, and less than a month after you died, your father-in-law married his old flame and paid a three-hundred-thousand bride price. So what was it all for?" "If there's a next life, let's not fight anymore. Let's get along, okay?" Only then, my soul drifting in midair, did I finally learn the truth. It turned out my son had been deliberately sowing discord between me and my daughter-in-law all along, just to pocket the difference and build up a secret stash. The bride price and the dowry—he'd used my name to take them all back from his wife. Even the two hundred thousand for the postpartum care center went straight into his pocket. Yet right up until my consciousness faded, I never understood why he did it. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I booked the postpartum care center for my daughter-in-law. ... "Mom, hurry up—has the money gone through yet?" My son, Giles James, sat across from me, tapping his fingers on the coffee table, looking a little impatient. "That postpartum care center Marcia's got her eye on costs two hundred thousand a month. She's due in three days. If we don't book now, the spot's gone." My husband, Sidney James, sat beside him, smoking, drawling out his reply. "Marcia came a long way to marry into this family. It wasn't easy for her. Whatever other people have, we should have too—we can't shortchange her." Watching the two of them play off each other, my stomach turned. If I hadn't been reborn, I never would have guessed how much scheming hid behind those two honest, kindly faces I saw every single day. In my last life, it was exactly this act of theirs, father and son, that fooled me. When Giles got married, I gave my daughter-in-law, Marcia Fox, a hundred and eighty thousand as a bride price. Not long after the wedding, Giles took it all back, claiming I was sick, and I had no idea. Then, on the pretext of paying overdue premiums on my pension, he took away Marcia's dowry, and again I had no idea. Once Marcia got pregnant and lost her income, I gave her three thousand a month. Giles kept it for himself, but told Marcia she'd only get a gift if she had a son. Later, when my grandson was born, I gritted my teeth and transferred two hundred thousand for Giles to book the postpartum care center. He carried thirty-two pumpkins home instead and told Marcia, "Mom says pumpkins are good for your health—eating these beats anything else." Then he turned around, and the two hundred thousand went into his secret stash. No matter how reasonable Marcia was, she couldn't put up with being mistreated over and over. She cut me off completely and never called me "Mom" again for the rest of her life. "Mom? What are you spacing out for?" Giles waved a hand in front of my eyes. I came back to myself, pushed down the anger inside me, and nodded. "Fine. The two-hundred-thousand postpartum care center—I'll pay for it." Giles instantly broke into a grin and slapped his thigh. "I knew you were the most sensible one! Then hurry up and send the money—and another eighty thousand on top, two hundred and eighty thousand total." I raised an eyebrow. "Why is it another eighty thousand now?" "Marcia wants her mom to come help take care of things. We can't make my mother-in-law wear herself out for nothing, can we?" Sidney backed him up at once. "It's only right. Those with money give money, those with strength give strength. It's only natural for us to cover this." I looked at him and suddenly smiled. "I've got nothing to do at home anyway, so why can't I go take care of her? Anything a postpartum nurse can do, I can do too." Giles's face changed. "Mom, your back just healed. Just rest at home—no need to jump into all that." I picked up my water glass and took a sip. "I just checked the going rate. A postpartum nurse only costs twenty thousand a month. Why pay eighty?" Sidney's face darkened in an instant. "Look at you, nickel-and-diming again. Spending money now is for the future. If you're going to quibble over a few tens of thousands, then don't count on your daughter-in-law to take care of you when you're the one stuck in bed!" Watching him lecture me so self-righteously, I felt like my heart had been torn open. In my last life, after I was paralyzed, he never cared for me for even a single day. By then, I suppose, he'd already been carrying on with his old flame. But why was he in such a hurry to make me spend all my money? I had a little over three hundred thousand in savings. In my last life it was precisely because I gave it all away that I couldn't even afford a caregiver. At that thought, I set down my water glass and clenched my fist. "Fine. I'll give it." Giles let out a breath of relief. "Mom, you really are the best mother-in-law in the world! Send the money over quick." I switched course and pulled out my phone. "No need for all that trouble. I've got Marcia on WhatsApp—I'll just transfer it to her directly."

Giles blew up instantly and clamped a hand over mine. "Just transfer it to me! I was going to round it up to a lucky number, two hundred eighty-eight thousand, to surprise Marcia. Don't ruin my plan." I laughed. "You add a little extra and figure you can hog all the credit for the two hundred eighty thousand? Giles, you sure know how to work the angles." "Mom! Why are you talking so ugly? We're all family. Who's hogging what?" Sidney got worked up too. "You're being way too petty, like you're terrified your daughter-in-law won't know the money came from you." I smiled and nodded. "That's right, I'm afraid she won't know, so I want to transfer it myself. What, is that not allowed?" Sidney's face flushed red. "Half of the family savings are mine! Why should the credit all go to you?" I got up, took the bankbook from the bedroom, and slapped it down on the coffee table. "Take a good look. This money is my dowry from back then, rolled over every time it matured. It has nothing to do with you." As I spoke, I pulled out my phone to transfer the money to Marcia. Giles lunged to grab the phone, but he was a step too late. I opened my chat with Marcia, sent a smiling sticker, and was about to send the transfer. A red exclamation mark popped up. She'd turned on friend verification. I'd been deleted. Giles froze for a second, then sighed. "Mom, I didn't want to tell you, because I was afraid you'd be hurt. Marcia... doesn't think very highly of you. She said she didn't want much contact with you, worried it would upset you, so she deleted you." Sidney sneered. "You're just making trouble out of nothing! Your son works his heart out for this family, inside and out, and all you do is stir things up and suspect everyone. Egg on your face now, isn't it?" I stared at that red exclamation mark, my fingers going cold. I knew this was Giles stirring things up. Marcia was kind at heart. She must have been kept in the dark, and that was why she'd gotten the wrong idea about me. I hit the call button. Giles snatched the phone away, his face iron-gray. "Mom! What are you doing? Marcia's already at the hospital waiting to deliver. You call her now, and what if you upset her so badly she has a hard labor?" In my past life, I definitely would have been cowed by that. But now, all I felt was that he had a guilty conscience. "I'm transferring money to her. How could that give her a hard labor?" I grabbed the phone back and dialed straight through. The phone rang for a long time before an unfamiliar young woman answered. "Are you Marcia's family? Why is no one here at the hospital with the mother-to-be? She just fell going to the bathroom and she's already been wheeled into the operating room! Get over here, fast!" My mind went blank with a roar and everything exploded. Giles heard it too and scrambled to pull out his own phone. Eighteen missed calls. He'd had it on silent and hadn't gotten a single one. "If you hadn't stood here casting suspicion left and right, I'd already be at the hospital! Marcia fell with no one around, and it's all your fault!" "If anything happens to that child, I'm not done with you!" His shouting stunned me for a moment, then I grabbed my bag. "Stop wasting breath, get to the hospital now!" But Sidney grabbed hold of me. "You've already caused her to fall once, don't go making things worse!" "That's twisting the facts! When did I ever make her fall?" The neighbors' door opened, and a few heads poked out. "Oh, is the James family's wicked mother-in-law acting up again?" "I hear she even took her daughter-in-law's bride price and dowry. A mother-in-law like that, whoever gets stuck with her is out of luck." I grabbed Giles by the collar. "When did I ever take your wife's bride price or dowry?" He stammered, his eyes darting away. Sidney suddenly raised his hand and slapped me across the face. "After all this, you're still here causing trouble!" "If you make us late getting to the hospital, I'll divorce you!"

He flung those words at me, grabbed Giles, and rushed downstairs. I covered my face and stood there, my ears ringing. The neighbors were still pointing and gossiping. I rushed over and grabbed one of them. "How do you all know about this?" Her eyes darted away. "Your husband and son told us... they said you were faking illness just to get the bride price and dowry back." In my past life, I already knew the truth. But hearing those words come out of someone else's mouth in this life still felt like a chunk had been gouged straight out of my heart. I didn't understand why Giles would do this. The family wasn't rich, but we were comfortable enough, and from the time he was little he had never gone without anything. As for when Sidney's heart had turned elsewhere, I knew even less about that. But no matter what, I would never let myself repeat the fate of my past life! I took my savings, turned, went downstairs, and headed straight for the bank. I withdrew two hundred and eighty thousand in cash and packed it into a woven sack. Then I found my niece, who worked as an account manager at that bank. "Wendy, do your aunt a favor." I lowered my voice. "Pull Giles's bank records for the last two years." Wendy was startled. "This... that's against the rules, isn't it?" I took her hand. "I think someone's scammed him. Your aunt has never asked you for anything in her whole life. Just this once." Wendy bit her lip and nodded. "All right. I'll check through the internal system after I get off work and email it to you." I nodded and said goodbye to her. Then, carrying the sack, I went by my memory from the past life and found the hospital room where Marcia had stayed after giving birth. But I never expected to be stopped at the door by a middle-aged woman. It was Marcia's mother, Vanessa Lambert. She looked at the woven sack in my hand and scoffed. "What are you here for? Bringing pumpkins?" "What a joke. Her daughter-in-law is giving birth, and the mother-in-law won't put in a single cent, just lugs over a sack of pumpkins. Has she no shame!" I gripped the woven sack tight and was about to explain when Sidney and Giles came out of the room. The moment the two of them saw me, their faces changed at the same time. Giles rushed over and yanked me aside. "What are you doing here, stirring up trouble?" Sidney's face darkened too. "Go home right now. Don't make a spectacle of yourself here!" I knew that if they found out there was money in the sack, that two hundred and eighty thousand would never reach Marcia. Just as I was trying to find some excuse to smooth it over, Vanessa started cursing at the door of the room. "Everyone, come look! This is my daughter's mother-in-law! Her daughter-in-law gives birth and is in her postpartum month, and instead of taking care of her, she wants to go off traveling! Now she's even hauled a whole sack of pumpkins to the hospital. Who's she trying to humiliate!" My head exploded, and I hurried to explain. "I didn't go traveling! And there aren't pumpkins in this sack! I came to book a postpartum care center for Marcia!" Vanessa sneered. "You swindled away her bride price and dowry, and now you're still spinning big promises here, booking some postpartum care center. You really think our Marcia is that easy to fool? Bah!" The room was crowded with family members and patients, all of them pointing and whispering about me. "This mother-in-law even schemes over her daughter-in-law's bride price and dowry. She's really not human!" "Exactly. This daughter-in-law has the worst luck for eight lifetimes, marrying into a family like this." Giles sighed. "My mother's health is poor, and we really did spend a lot on her medical care. She didn't want it to be like this either." Sidney looked grief-stricken. "As long as everyone's healthy, that matters more than anything. Back when she did her own postpartum month, she got through it on pumpkins, so she thought she'd prepare some pumpkins for her daughter-in-law too. Please, everyone, go easy on her." The instant he said that, the way everyone looked at me changed. "So the sack really was full of pumpkins?" "Fobbing off a new mother with pumpkins, like she's feeding a pig? How rotten! And she still has the nerve to show up at the hospital!" I was trembling all over. "I did not pocket my daughter-in-law's bride price and dowry. If you don't believe me, you can go to the bank and check the records!" "Spouting lies to slander people. Believe it or not, I'll sue you for defamation!" The crowd around me fell silent at once. Just then, Vanessa suddenly pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and slapped it across my face. "I was going to leave you a little dignity, but it seems you won't shed a tear until you see the coffin!"

"Open your eyes and look at this! It's a paternity test! This is the child you had with some other man!" "You took my daughter's bride price and dowry and spent it all currying favor with your illegitimate daughter. How selfish can you be!" I stood there, stunned. I only ever had one child, Giles, so where had this daughter come from? But the paternity test clearly stated that this child and I had a biological mother-daughter relationship. The crowd erupted at once. "Oh my god, an illegitimate daughter!" "Taking her daughter-in-law's money to raise a bastard child—this mother-in-law is nothing but a bloodsucker!" "Somebody call the police, get them to haul this old witch away!" I went cold all over. This had to be fake! But the report had it all—the red seal, the testing agency, the case number, everything. Just then, the door to the ward opened. Marcia came out leaning against the wall, her face ghastly pale, so weak she could barely stand. "Mom, is this true?" "I've always treated you like my own mother. Why would you do this to me?" Giles's eyes went wide, as if he'd been dealt a terrible blow, and he lurched back a step. "Mom! You had an illegitimate daughter behind all our backs?" "How can you face Dad? How can you face Marcia?" My husband, Sidney, was trembling from head to toe, pointing at me with a look of bitter heartbreak. "I, Sidney James, have lived an honest, decent life. I never imagined you'd do something like this behind my back! How am I supposed to show my face now?" Everyone was cursing me. "Shameless! No wonder nobody wants her around!" "A woman like this should be locked up and drowned in a pig cage, so she can't do any more harm to society!" A chamber pot slammed hard into my head, and I nearly threw up. I wanted to explain, but when I opened my mouth, I realized I had no idea where to even begin. I closed my eyes, and the things that had happened in my past life overlapped with this moment in my mind. Living all over again—was I still not going to escape the fate of my past life? Just then, my phone buzzed. It was the bank records my niece had sent. I stared at the screen, opened them and swiped, and suddenly it hit me like a bolt from the blue. I finally understood why my son had been so obsessed with building up his little secret stash. And I finally understood why I'd suddenly ended up with an illegitimate daughter out of nowhere. It turned out they had been in on it together all along—drain me dry, then kick me to the curb. I jerked my head up, the grievance and fury in my chest hitting their peak, and I ripped open the mouth of the woven sack. Two hundred and eighty thousand in cash spilled out with a great clatter, all over the hospital corridor floor. The crowd fell silent in an instant, every eye drawn to that spread of red on the ground. "I came to bring the money to book a postpartum care center for my daughter-in-law." My voice was cold. "Who said I was carrying pumpkins?" "And I don't have any illegitimate daughter either. As for proof..." I held up my phone. "It's right here..." But before I could finish, Sidney caught sight of what was on the screen and went deathly pale in an instant. He strode over and planted himself squarely in front of me. "Enough! Stop making a spectacle of yourself here!" And he moved to drag me away. But his hands were shaking.