Chapter 1

“Mom, can we really eat this?”

Just as Jiang Qiuyue stuffed a stuffed egg into her mouth, she saw the two children drooling as they gazed at her hopefully.

“Eat them. Why wouldn’t you be able to?”

She had boiled ten stuffed eggs, taking four for herself in perfect fairness, and giving the two children three each.

“Really?”

Lin Beibei was the older brother, and he had never tasted a stuffed egg before. Granny said the eggs had to be saved for their cousin, because the cousin was frail and needed them to build up his strength.

His mother always said the same thing: they were the older siblings, so they ought to yield to their cousin.

Before eating his own, Lin Beibei placed one egg into his little sister’s bowl. “Nannan should eat more. Big Brother doesn’t need so many.”

The twins were only five, but because of long-term malnutrition, they looked no more than three. Their faces were sallow, their little bodies painfully thin.

Lin Nannan returned the egg to her brother and shook her head lightly. She had been frightened at the age of three and had never spoken again.

Watching the two children push the eggs back and forth, only one thought rose in Jiang Qiuyue’s mind: what a sin.

She had once worked for a major corporation, staying up past midnight every day for promotion and a raise, grinding herself down so hard she was still revising proposals while hooked up to an IV.

The price of that ruinous diligence was dying at her desk and waking inside a novel.

According to the book, the original heroine was a long-suffering doormat. Her husband had been adopted into the family, and after marriage he joined the army, not returning for nearly six years.

Her in-laws favored their biological children and demanded that the original heroine hand over living expenses every month. She alone did the laundry, cooked, and fed the chickens.

And she did it all with heartfelt devotion, even brainwashing herself into believing it was for her husband’s sake and filial duty to his parents; first bitterness, then sweetness, and life would surely improve one day. The family’s food was always reserved for others, while she and her two children never had enough to eat.

That was why, that morning, she had fainted from hunger in the fields, struck her head on a stone, and said farewell to that world for good.

When Jiang Qiuyue awoke and saw the bare, impoverished room, she nearly wept without tears.

Had she known that being a workaholic would land her in such a miserable life, she would have stopped caring, clocked out on time every day, and spent her days loafing around and gossiping instead.

After the little turnips finished their eggs, they took the initiative to help Jiang Qiuyue wash the bowls. Looking at the two well-behaved children, Jiang Qiuyue sighed again.

She had no idea what kind of brain the original owner possessed—she neglected her own children and instead fawned over the Lin family’s wretches. Utterly foolish.

She did not care whether the mother-in-law allowed the eggs to be eaten. When she woke up, her stomach had been cramping from hunger, so she had climbed through the window to the mother-in-law’s room and boiled all ten eggs the old woman had left there.

Her husband sent her twenty yuan every month, but her mother-in-law took every cent on the pretext of paying living expenses and showing filial respect to the elders. Those ten eggs were eaten by Jiang Qiuyue with a perfectly clear conscience.

It was not yet noon, and everyone else in the family had gone to the fields for work points. Jiang Qiuyue had eaten and drunk her fill and was about to go back to lie down when her trouser leg was gently tugged.

Lin Beibei reminded her, “Mom, it’s time to make lunch.”

Granny will be back soon.

Jiang Qiuyue looked at the sweet potatoes and wild greens on the stove. She knew how to cook, but she was not the original owner.

Having been given a second life, she did not want to die young again. She needed to nurse herself back to health properly. No one was going to make her work.

“Beibei, be good. Mom isn’t cooking today.” Jiang Qiuyue led the two children out of the kitchen. “Mom hit her head and needs to rest. When Granny and your second aunt come back, let them cook for themselves.”

Lin Beibei’s eyes flew wide open in shock. “Mom, aren’t you afraid Granny will scold you?”

Though young, he understood that his mother usually did the most work, and that it was unfair. But before, his mother always said that those who could do more should do more, and if she did a little extra, Granny and the others would have a little less to do.

Lin Beibei had never understood why his mother always rushed to do the chores. This was the first time she had ever said she would not cook.

Afraid?

Jiang Qiuyue was not afraid of that old woman from the Lin family. In the big corporation, what kind of leaders had she not dealt with? It was only a selfish old hag. When they returned, she would have her own way of handling them.

Since she could not go back, she might as well live comfortably.

Her husband being busy was fine; it saved her from having to deal with him, and he could help raise the two children. She would simply think of his monthly remittance as a salary.

Only twenty yuan was a bit too little. She had read the original novel, and knew her husband was making sixty a month now.

Thinking of this, Jiang Qiuyue went back to the room, found paper and pen, and immediately wrote her husband a letter. After all, he ate and stayed with the army and had little chance to spend money. If he was not going to let his wife and children use his wages, then what was he saving them for?

She wrote as soon as she thought of it. But when she finished and was about to send it off, she remembered that it was now nineteen sixty-seven, and there was nowhere in the village to mail a letter. She would either have to walk to the town or wait for the postman’s weekly rounds.

In her current state, let alone walking to town—she would not even want to make it to the village entrance.

What a scorching day; she might suffer heatstroke.

Seeing the two children standing by the table, staring at her all the while, Jiang Qiuyue knew she had never raised children before, but she understood that little ones needed plenty of food and sleep if they were to grow tall and strong.

Taking the two children with her, Jiang Qiuyue happily went to bed for an afternoon nap.

In her dream she was feasting on a grand imperial banquet, while eight handsome men served her food and poured her wine—heavenly beyond words.

Only when the handsome men began dancing for her amusement did a scream drag her back to reality.

“Burglars! Old man, we’ve got burglars in the house!”

Hearing that voice, Jiang Qiuyue knew it was her mother-in-law. At last, it was her turn to take the stage.

But the moment she got up, the two children began trembling violently, and the little girl even burst into tears.

Lin Beibei said tearfully, “If... if Granny finds out we ate them, she’ll definitely beat us.”

Jiang Qiuyue wiped his tears away. “Don’t worry. With me here, Granny won’t lay a hand on you or your sister.”

“Really?”

There was nothing but disbelief in Lin Beibei’s large eyes. Before, whenever something happened, even if it was not their fault, their mother would still make them apologize first.

Every single time, Granny would swat them with a broom. It hurt terribly.

Jiang Qiuyue’s heart ached at the sight. The original owner had inflicted far too much psychological damage on these children. From the way they behaved, they had probably been beaten more times than she could count.

“Beibei and your sister stay inside. Mom will talk to Granny.”

After patting both children on the head, Jiang Qiuyue went to open the door.

The instant she appeared, her mother-in-law Wang Chunhua sprayed spit as she shouted, “Jiang Qiuyue, are you dead? There’s a living person in this house and you didn’t even notice we’d been robbed?”

The rest of the Lin family all turned to look at Jiang Qiuyue. Ten eggs was no small matter; that could have been exchanged for a pound of pork.

“There was no burglar. I ate the eggs,” Jiang Qiuyue admitted directly. “I was starving, so I boiled some stuffed eggs.”

“You ate all ten?” Wang Chunhua’s voice shot up uncontrollably.

Jiang Qiuyue nodded. Yes.

“My heavens, how could the Lin family have such a prodigal woman? Those eggs were meant to build up Big Treasure’s health. How dare you steal them?”

Wang Chunhua slapped her thigh in anger. Big Treasure had been born half a month early and was weak, needing nourishment. He was her own precious grandson.

“Mom, that’s not right. We’re all family—how can you call it stealing?” Jiang Qiuyue stood in the doorway. “Every month I hand over living expenses, but Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law don’t give a single cent. Yet Big Treasure gets to eat eggs every day. Isn’t that a little too biased?”

“Big Sister-in-law, what are you talking about?”

Lin Erzhu had not yet realized that Jiang Qiuyue seemed different, and thinking she was the same as before, he said irritably, “Before Big Brother left, didn’t he tell you to take good care of the family? If Father and Mother hadn’t taken him in out of kindness, would Big Brother have what he has today?”

His wife, Qian Li, nodded hard. The eggs Jiang Qiuyue ate belonged to her son; she had to get them back for him.

“Yes, Big Sister-in-law, you mustn’t bite the hand that feeds you. You volunteered to honor Mom and Dad. Now you’re saying we don’t give you money—are you deliberately making things difficult for us?”

“Second Brother has that wrong. Back then, it was because all the children born to Mom and Dad died young that they bought Da Zhu from a trafficker. If they hadn’t bought a child, maybe Da Zhu wouldn’t have been abducted in the first place.”

No buying and selling, no harm.

Jiang Qiuyue had grown up with that slogan. It was perfect for use now.

“Jiang Qiuyue, what nonsense are you spouting? Shut your mouth!” The old master of the house, Lin Fugui, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke. He had bought the eldest son before the founding of the nation. These days one could not just buy and sell children. If someone overheard and made a scene, he might be dragged off to write self-criticisms.

Usually, once Lin Fugui spoke, everyone in the family would fall silent. He was the head of the household, full of authority. He had thought it would be the same this time, but Jiang Qiuyue merely clutched her forehead and said she had a headache.

Slowly, Jiang Qiuyue lowered herself to sit on the threshold.

“It was Dr. Jiang who said I was malnourished, and that’s why I thought of boiling eggs to eat. I work myself to the bone all day long, and now I can’t even eat eggs? Fine, fine. There are more of you than there are of me, so I can’t argue with you. But I’ve already swallowed them. I can’t exactly spit them back out.”

Seeing her like that, Wang Chunhua’s anger flared even higher. Then she heard her second daughter-in-law say Jiang Qiuyue had not cooked lunch, and she grabbed a broom and stormed over.

Jiang Qiuyue had long expected Wang Chunhua to hit someone. She ran to the doorway and shouted at the top of her lungs. Since they refused to act like human beings, she had no intention of giving them any face.

“Mom, I was wrong. I won’t dare do it again. Don’t hit me. It hurts so much—Mom, you’re going to beat me to death!”

In truth, Wang Chunhua’s broom never touched Jiang Qiuyue at all, but Jiang Qiuyue shouted so loudly that she drew not only the neighbors but also the brigade leader, who happened to be passing by.

“Wang Chunhua, what do you think you’re doing?”

The brigade leader was named Hu Haizhi, a bearded man in his thirties. Earlier that day, when Jiang Qiuyue fainted, he had been the one who led people to carry her to the clinic and then brought her back to the Lin household.

Before Wang Chunhua could even speak, Jiang Qiuyue said tearfully, “Don’t scold my mother-in-law, Brigade Leader. It was wrong of me to eat the eggs. Today, after hearing Dr. Jiang say I needed nourishment, I boiled them and ate them. I never imagined Mother-in-law was saving them all for Big Treasure.”

Thanks to the original owner’s usual overwork, with just those words, everyone felt Wang Chunhua had gone too far.

The onlookers all began to criticize her.

“I say, Wang Chunhua, your eldest daughter-in-law works hard enough. Why beat someone just because she ate two eggs?”

“That’s right, Aunt Wang. Qiuyue always listens to you, and all the family chores are done by her. You and Erzhu’s wife don’t have to do any housework at all. With such a good daughter-in-law, how can you not know how to cherish her?”

“I think she’s just biased. Who doesn’t know that Lin Dazhu isn’t her biological son? So she’s using every trick she can to mistreat Dazhu’s wife.”

...

One sentence after another nearly exposed every last thing the Lin family had hidden. Seeing that the situation was turning against them, Lin Erzhu gave his wife a look, signaling her to help Jiang Qiuyue up.

“It’s a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding. Don’t overthink it, everyone. Our family is perfectly fine.”

Wang Chunhua, still unconvinced, tossed the broom aside. “What do you mean two eggs? That wretched woman ate a full ten eggs of mine!”

At that moment, as Qian Li reached out to help her, Jiang Qiuyue immediately cried out in pain. “Second Sister-in-law, why are you pinching me? I did eat the eggs, but I’m a mother too. I couldn’t possibly eat them all myself and let Beibei and Nannan just watch, could I?”

“It’s my fault as a mother. Everyone may not know this, but Beibei and Nannan ate stuffed eggs for the very first time today, sob...”

When people heard she had eaten ten eggs, they looked at Jiang Qiuyue with some hesitation. Eggs were precious things; eating ten was indeed excessive.

But hearing that the two children had eaten as well, and that it was their very first time, made their contempt for Wang Chunhua deepen.

“Big Sister-in-law, I didn’t pinch you. Hurry and get up.”

Qian Li was used to being impatient with Jiang Qiuyue.

Jiang Qiuyue lifted a hand to shield her head in fear. “Second Sister-in-law, don’t hit me. I’ll never eat eggs again!”

“When... when did I say I was going to hit you?” Qian Li was nearly furious to death. She reflexively rolled up her sleeves, only for Hu Haizhi to see it.

“What are you doing, Qian Li?” Hu Haizhi roared, and Qian Li was so frightened that she stumbled backward and hit a stone.

“Brigade Leader, I didn’t...”

“I saw it with my own eyes. What are you still arguing about?” Hu Haizhi had a headache. Jiang Qiuyue was a military wife, and the Lin family were a bunch of muddled fools. Mistreating a military family member would earn them serious criticism. If a higher investigation came down, even he might lose his post as brigade leader. “You and Wang Chunhua stand over there. This is outrageous. This is the new China now—no one is allowed to abuse women or children.”

Wang Chunhua and Qian Li both shouted that they had been wronged, but the brigade leader refused to listen. Instead, he had someone help Jiang Qiuyue to her feet.

“Dazhu’s wife, don’t be afraid. Your body really is weak, so you ought to nourish yourself properly. From now on, if there’s anything edible in the house, eat it boldly. If they still bully you, come find me. I’ll stand up for you!”

Hu Haizhi could not allow the village to acquire a bad reputation. He still had to be considered an exemplary cadre at year’s end.

Jiang Qiuyue said gratefully, “Thank you, Brigade Leader. I’ll take good care of myself and the children. I won’t let you down.”

Just listen to that—what a good woman Jiang Qiuyue was. Even at a time like this, she had not forgotten her children.

Hu Haizhi warned Wang Chunhua once more. “If I hear again that you’re beating your daughter-in-law, I’ll go to town and call the police to take you in for education!”

Wang Chunhua was so frightened her legs nearly went soft, but the brigade leader was the biggest authority in the village, and everyone listened to him.

She felt unbearably wronged. When she had been a daughter-in-law, her own mother-in-law had not spared the beatings or the scoldings. And today she had not even managed to lay a hand on Jiang Qiuyue.

How was she supposed to live from now on?