CH 1

Chapter 1

Dong Jiahui was lying on the bed, with a towel wrapped around her head.

Her face looked dry and thin, her cheeks were deeply sunken, her lips were pale, and her eyes looked straight at the beam under the yellowish roof. It was bright and scary.

Chen Guixiang lifted the curtain and walked in with a bowl of egg soup. When she saw her daughter's eyes looking straight at the roof, her eyes, which had turned red from crying before, shed tears again.

"You really know how to make people be upset! What's wrong with you? Do you really have to fret over trifles to the point that you want to court death? If it wasn't for your Uncle Niu Wang passing by with Qiangzi, how could you even be alive and lie down here? If not, you would have died a long time ago!

Chen Guixiang's heart was in pain and at the same time, she was angry. She was used to being bold and vigorous, so she wasn't able to soften her words. There was a hint of grief in her tone.

How could she not feel aggrieved? Her daughter was good. She had painstakingly taken care of her for 18 years, and after marrying her off, she thought she would have a smooth life, a peaceful and prosperous life. Who knows, maybe after three years of marriage, she was driven back by her mother-in-law's family without warning. On the grounds that she was unable to give birth after these 3 years, they didn't want this daughter-in-law.

This sudden news made the whole Dong family feel like being struck by lightning. These days, the villagers have their eyes set on their families. You must live with your marriage for the rest of your life, no matter how good or bad it was.

Her good daughter has only been married for three years and has turned into a rag. The reason for the divorce was the inability to give birth to a child. In rural areas that pay attention to "more children and more blessings" and "more people and more power", it's like you are being sentenced to death. How can she find someone else in the future?

But again, even if there was no hope (for remarriage) left, she shouldn't have gone and jumped into the river, right? They say it's better to live than to die. As long as you live, there will still be hope, right?

Chen Guixiang put the steaming egg soup on the bedside cabinet, sat down and held her daughter's hands.

These hands used to be soft and tender, and when she was just her daughter at home, she pampered her. She had 3 sons, so the manpower was enough.  She only lets her daughter stay at home and lets her daughter help with cooking, feeding the chicken, watering the flowers and vegetables, and other simple chores.

It's only been 3 years since she was married off to the Lu family, and the daughter's hands have already become thick like this. For these past three years, she could imagine what kind of life she was leading in the Lu Family.

Chen Guixiang regretted that she didn't find out that there was something wrong with the Lu family. She regretted that she was not able to support her daughter, which caused her daughter to suffer these three years in vain. 

That day, when her daughter came back with a bag in her back, her daughter's eyes were red and swollen, her hair was dishevelled. She was only in her early twenties; she should have been as bright as a flower, not withered and lifeless.

She said that the Lu family did not want her anymore, and her dowry was given back by the Lu family the next day.

Dong Jiahui's three brothers went to Xiaoling Village with their weapons to settle accounts with the Lu family. But Lu’s family was also horrible, and directly claimed that Dong Jiahui had not been pregnant for three years after his marriage. There are three ways to be unfilial: having no sons is the worst. Dong Jiahui was married for three years, but she didn't give birth. In ancient times, it was also the life of repudiation.

"Stop causing trouble in our Xiaoling village just because there are so many people in your Dong family. If you keep doing this, who would dare to marry your daughter in the future? Given that you are incapable of giving birth, do you really want to see us suffer before you are reconciled?!:

These words not only made the village cadres of the two villages too embarrassed to take charge but also made the Dong family lay down their arms.

Strictly speaking, what the Lu family said was not unreasonable. After all, Lu Chengyuan is the only male member of the Lu family. Although the wife, who had been married for three years, was driven back in the wrong direction, from an ethical point of view, the heirs of the rural people are the most important thing. If she can not give birth, the Lu family will be extinct. Indeed, hundreds of years from now, who will throw the pots? Who will burn incense papers for them?

(TN: Throwing a pot means that the deceased will be completely cut off from the surviving people in the world. How many people are still alive? Then how many holes will be drilled in the basin? These holes not only express the sadness of the descendants for the death of the old man, but also show that the old man is full of children and grandchildren throughout his life, and he can walk with peace of mind.)

"Who said that it must be Jiahui's problem that she was not able to conceive a child? Maybe it will be born in two years, Lu Chengyuan, you are still not a man, and you can't even protect your wife! "

Lu Chengyuan was flushed, hiding in a corner and didn't say anything. His mother, Dong Jiahui's former mother-in-law, spat with her hands on her hips.

"Bah! Our Lu family is already considered benevolent. If it were not for your Dong family's daughter, my family Chengyuan would not have wasted three years. If I had found another girl, maybe the grandson of the Lu family could carry a pot out and buy soy sauce!:

The Dong brothers couldn't face it and pulled Dong Jiahui's dowry home with a black face, so the two families broke up completely.

The two were married without a marriage certificate, and this time, there was no need to get a divorce certificate.

This incident spread around several villages, those with good hearts were sighing for Dong Jiahui for a while, lamenting that her future is not easy. Those who are not good, begin to sneer behind their backs.

You should know that when Dong Jiahui married into the Lu family, everyone envied her good life. Her Father-in-law was the secretary of the brigade, there were no sisters-in-law to have a conflict with. When the two Lu family members died in a hundred years, wouldn't the Lu estate be given to the young couple?

The Lu family only had one son. As long as you can add a grandson to the Lu family, the Lu family can be like a mother. But the life of a person is such that everyone envied Dong Jiahui, who, in the blink of an eye, became unable to give birth to a child abandoned woman.

Even if they were angry to the point of suffocation, Dong Jiahu being incapable of giving birth was the fact after all. After the fiasco, the Dong family went back home. The family was very careful with Dong Jiahui because of this matter.

Not to mention her brothers, who adored her since childhood, regardless of what their sisters-in-law thought. They would not say anything unpleasant to her face.

Her family will not say anything. but they can't control others' mouths. No, the daughter-in-law of her third aunt's neighbor said something unpleasant when she ran through the door with her child. Dong Jiahui was stimulated. Without saying a word, he ran out to jump into the river, the Tongzhou River, which was connected to the river. If she hadn't been caught and rescued, she would have been washed into the river.

In March, the river was still very cold. Although she was rescued, she still had a high fever. She was feverish all day and night. Finally, the barefoot doctor in the village took half of the wild mountain ginseng dug from the mountain, boiled the ginseng soup and fed it to her. Then the fever subsided.

"Jiahui, listen to your mother's advice. Don't penetrate a bull's horn again. You are still young. You're only twenty-one years old. You're still at a flower-like age. It was not necessarily your fault that you were unable to give birth. You also saw that the wife of the Zhang family was only able to give birth after 6 years of marriage. She held her first baby, and after that, she had one after another, until she reached 5 children."

(TN: to penetrate into a bull's horn (idiom) -to waste time on an insoluble or insignificant problem)

This time the level of medical care was limited, unlike any B-ultrasound and color ultrasound that can do various examinations in the future. The old thinking of rural people was that as long as the child is not born, it was the woman's fault.

But giving birth to a child really depends on luck. Some people get pregnant as soon as they get married, others can't get pregnant, and there are strange things that the wife couldn't give birth because of the man, and when she was married to another man, she could get pregnant. Anyway, Chen Guixiang doesn't believe that her daughter can't give birth to a baby.

"The Lu family was wrong at first. I thought Lu Chengyuan was a good one. Who knows he's a soft rake? He listens to his mother. It's all his mother's fault. Take care of yourself first. I'll find your sixth aunt in a while. She's a famous matchmaker. Your sixth aunt loves you. She has made a lot of good marriages in her life. She knows all the boys from ten miles and eight villages, your sixth aunt loves you. She will definitely find a good one for you."

Dong Jiahui has a headache. She can't lift her body. The original owner jumped into the river and hung up. Then she came. After waking up, she has been sorting out the memory left by the original owner. She knows that the original owner was abandoned by her man's family because she was unable to get pregnant after these past 3 years.

Hey, how can you stand such an identity? It's better to transmigrate as a big girl of the yellow flower.

(TN: The term "big girl of the yellow flower" refers to unmarried women over the age of 25 above.)

It's no wonder the original owner had thought of jumping into the river. In the 1970s, having a divorce was a big scandal.

The original owner was a kind-hearted girl, with a soft personality and a little bit submissive. She was always getting called around by her mother-in-law and other people in the Lu family. In addition, she didn't get pregnant after marriage. The Lu family didn't like her at all.

The original owner was too soft, and she couldn't have a good life in her mother-in-law's house. Every time her mother asks her if she's doing well, she says the Lu family are very good to her.

Sometimes the saying, "The poor must have something to hate, and the hateful must have miserable suffering," is very reasonable. People like to bully the weak and are afraid of the strong. But if the original owner behaves better with her mother-in-law, she may not dare treat her like this.

After the divorce, the original owner was hurt. Her kind of personality was not good and not straightforward, so all she could do was stuff her feelings into her heart.

Originally, she was walking around thinking about her situation, but she was then stimulated by the outside world. She decided to end her life and felt that there was nothing left to live for.

She could say that such a little thing was really not worth jumping the river for, that a divorce was nothing, since, in the twenty-first century, divorce was not a huge problem, but she was not the original owner, she did not know how painful it was, so she could certainly not feel what the original owner felt.

"Come on, drink this egg soup. I deliberately added two drops of sesame oil to it to add some fragrance."

She was in 1975 now. Although it is over, life in the countryside is not easy. Every household has to earn work points. Apart from eating and drinking, this little sesame oil is still squeezed during the Chinese New Year. The three daughters-in-law of the Dong family take turns giving birth to babies. Chen Guixiang is only willing to use sesame oil, brown sugar, and eggs when a few of her daughters-in-law are in confinement.

Dong Jiahui has no strength in her body, and her stomach has been groaning with a hunger for a long time. She had been smelling this bowl of egg soup since she entered the house, and she had long been greedy.

Alas, in the 1970s, when there was a shortage of food and clothing, who else in the 21st world could eat egg soup? Dong Jiahui missed those modern delicacies very much.

But a thoughtful person should not be reborn because of a bowl of egg soup. She is still very uncomfortable.

Chen Guixiang watched her daughter drink up the bowl of egg soup. Her heart was finally relieved. As long as you ate, then it meant that she was calm.

Seeing her daughter thin like this, she has no meat on her face and her hands are skin and bones. She felt distressed. She looked at her lovingly and said, "You look so thin. There are still some white noodles at home. I remember you loved to eat scallion cakes when you were a child. I'll make them for you in the evening."

The scallion cake was easy to make. It is just making a paste with the flour and water, brushing a layer of oil on the hot pot, heating it, pouring the flour into the pot along the edge of the pot, wiping the batter evenly with a spatula, and sprinkled with scallions when the batter is semi-dry. When the scallions are heated, they emit a pungent smell of scallions, which is a rare and easy food in rural villages.

This scallion pancake is best made with white flour. The cornmeal is also delicious but not as soft as white flour. It is said to be delicious, but it is actually a bitter rural life. There is nothing else delicious.

Dong Jiahui received the memory of the original owner and knew that every family was frugal these days. White flour was only eaten during the Spring Festival. The original owner's mother's family has three daughters-in-law, five nephews and a niece. How can she eat alone?

"Mom, don't get it for me alone. I'll just eat with everyone."

When Chen Guixiang heard this, her tears fell again.

"It's all my fault that I taught you so sincerely since childhood. I always told you that a family should value peace and be filial to their parents in law after marriage. You just listened to your mother's words so much that you suffered so many grievances. In a word, it's still my mother's fault."

When Chen Guixiang said this, Dong Jiahui's tears flowed unconsciously. It should be the residual feelings of the original owner.

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notlucia: Hello~ This is notlucia! Let me remind you, I do edited mtl, so the translation will not be 100% accurate, and I am not that fluent in English. If you found mistakes, feel free to correct me. No need to be rude about it. Anyways, enjoy reading!