“I really want to crack your skull open and see what’s inside. Why won’t you marry someone as good as Xu Shuang?”
“He’s a proper chef at a state-owned restaurant in town! If it wasn’t for my quick eyes and hands, someone else would’ve snatched this marriage up already!”
“Lingling, don’t be foolish. A woman’s whole life depends on finding someone who can be the backbone of the family. Xu Shuang has a salary, skills, and only an elderly mother and one younger brother. You couldn’t find a better match even with a lantern.”
Hearing yet another round of this kind of nagging from next door, Wang Ying pulled the cloth sheet over her head and went back to sleep.
Gossip is fun the first few times, but after hearing it too often, it just becomes noisy.
Wang Ying, still drowsy, covered her head and slept deeply. But then came a knock on the door. Unlike the earlier earnest tone, the eldest aunt, Li Chunjuan, banged on the door pa pa pa, shouting Wang Ying’s name.
“Sanya! Sanya! Do you know what time it is? Get up now!”
Wang Ying ignored her. It had been two days since she arrived in this world, and she already understood this aunt’s personality well.
See a soft persimmon, and she wants to squeeze it.
When the noise outside finally stopped, Wang Ying had a satisfying sleep. Then she got up, scooped some spiritual spring water from her sea of consciousness to wash up, and pulled out an egg hidden in the kitchen corner. Mixing it with the spring water, she made herself a bowl of egg soup.
She drank it all in one go, still feeling unsatisfied. Patting her belly, she thought she could easily go for two more bowls.
Licking her lips, she sighed in pity—there just weren’t enough eggs.
Eggs were precious in these times. Rural folks had no income aside from farming, and they relied on selling eggs for cash. Eggs were practically a hard currency.
With the cold weather, hens laid fewer eggs. Plus, over the past few days, her eldest aunt had been preoccupied with her own daughter, which was how Wang Ying managed to stash a few eggs for herself.
Wang Ying looked around the rustic farmhouse courtyard. There were four main rooms. Her eldest uncle and aunt shared one, her two female cousins shared another, her male cousin had his own, and the remaining room was hers.
Wang Ying curled her lips. The memories left by the original owner of this body were still intact.
And it was precisely because they were intact that she felt so annoyed.
The two Wang brothers had split the family early on after their parents passed away. Each family got two rooms—her uncle took the two on the east side, while hers got the west.
After splitting the house, they built a courtyard wall in the middle, and each side built their own kitchens and outhouses.
Her eldest uncle, Wang Yongshun, had two daughters and a son. The eldest daughter, Wang Pingping, had married into town last year. The second daughter was Wang Lingling, just one year older than Wang Ying, and was nineteen this year. The youngest son, Wang Yaozong, was in high school in town and came back once every two weeks.
On Wang Ying’s side, it was even simpler—just her. Her biological father, Wang Yongfu, had joined the army back in the day, but no one knew what kind of soldier he had become—he simply vanished without a trace.
Wang Ying’s mother raised her alone. She had some medical skills and became the barefoot doctor for several villages, so raising a daughter wasn’t too difficult.
But a few years ago, due to bad weather, her mother died in a mudslide while delivering grain to the city for the commune.
She had died for the public good and left behind an orphan. The commune recognized her as a martyr and gave Wang Ying a martyr’s child certificate.
With that certificate, Wang Ying received 200 work points and 20 yuan a year—enough to live on.
The village had been told by the commune to look after Wang Ying as a martyr’s daughter.
Seeing that Wang Ying, a teenage girl, could earn food and work points without even going to the fields, the eldest aunt began to scheme. At first, she visited often to chat, then she started saying they didn’t have enough space and asked if the two cousins could share a room with Wang Ying.
Back in the spring of last year, they simply tore down the courtyard wall in the middle, and the two families merged back into one.
Wang Ying let out a cold laugh. That aunt really had a good plan. She was clearly counting on the original host getting married and then taking back the two rooms as her own.
If that were all, it might have been bearable. But over the past two years, Li Chunjuan’s attitude toward the original host had grown worse and worse.
She ordered the original host to do laundry, cook meals, and serve the whole family. Last year, she even took the martyr’s child certificate that was issued to the original host—naturally, the money and food rations that came with it also disappeared. Li Chunjuan told the original host that since she had already graduated from high school, the brigade no longer gave her money and food, and that she was now being supported by her uncle’s family.
Even the two cousin sisters, who had been cautious and polite when they first moved in, had now become bossy and overbearing. The enamel mug and washbasin that the brigade had issued to the original host were taken by the cousins and placed in their own room.
Wang Ying felt a bit helpless. The original host’s temperament was just too soft.
Even if you don’t do anything, what can these people really do to you?
They’re living in your house, spending your money, eating the food you earned through work points, and still expect you to be their servant.
No wonder the original host couldn’t take it anymore and passed away from illness.
With that illness, Wang Ying, the imposter, took her place.
But no matter what, Wang Ying felt it was worth it.
After all, the place she came from was far too harsh.
When human technology reached a certain level, what came first wasn’t utopia—it was doomsday-level natural disasters.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, shortened daylight, extended nights…
A series of natural disasters drove humanity into a world known as the “apocalypse.”
To be fair, humans adapted quickly to the changing environment.
By the third year of the apocalypse, people began to awaken special powers. Some became incredibly strong, some could see things ten miles away, and some could hear sounds from a hundred miles around…
More and more people awakened abilities. One day, Wang Ying woke up and found that she had gained a spiritual spring.
She hid her secret carefully. After a long period of observation, she realized that the spring was pretty mediocre.
It didn’t satisfy hunger, didn’t prolong life, didn’t help awaken powers. Drinking it only made her skin paler and more beautiful, her five senses sharper, her constitution stronger—essentially restoring her body to an above-average level before the apocalypse. But in the apocalypse, body-enhancing abilities were a dime a dozen. Other people’s powers were incredible—seeing a mosquito from a kilometer away, smashing a ten-meter-tall tree with a punch… Compared to that, Wang Ying’s physical enhancements were barely worth mentioning.
With no other choice, Wang Ying hid the spring and accepted her fate as a doctor. Although there were ability-users in the apocalypse, they were still outnumbered by ordinary people. The ordinary folks banded together, built bases, and though life was tough, it was somewhat stable.
Gradually, as ability-users rose in power, zombies appeared during a black rain event, and the survival environment became even more grim.
Food became the most precious resource. Greenery became rare worldwide. Humanity struggled to survive between ability-users and zombies.
After enduring for several years, Wang Ying finally lost her life during a zombie siege.
Oddly, she felt relieved. The years she spent in the apocalypse had been excruciating.
Before the apocalypse, she was a passionate food lover. With no family to worry about, she used to spend half of her monthly salary on eating and drinking. Her Engel coefficient was ridiculously high. Though she was terrible at cooking, she had an excellent palate, and her knowledge of food was so rich she could have worked as a food columnist part-time.
But after the apocalypse? What did she eat? Nutrient supplements, pills, protein squeezed out of bugs…
If it hadn’t been for sheer survival instinct, she would’ve given up long ago.
So, when she opened her eyes and found herself in the parallel world of 1969, basking in bright sunlight, surrounded by green trees and chickens and ducks in the yard—she was nearly brought to tears.
“Mom, I’ve arrived in paradise.”
Even if she had to live with a bunch of annoying people, she still felt this was heaven.
Even the coarse texture of sorghum flatbread fascinated her. She hadn’t eaten anything resembling traditional food in years.
After finishing her late breakfast, Wang Ying pulled up a chair and sat in the courtyard. Such beautiful sunlight—there was none of that in the apocalypse. If she didn’t soak it in, she’d feel uneasy.
The door of the neighboring room creaked open, and the “sick” elder cousin Wang Lingling stepped out.
“Sanya, where did you put the clothes I wore yesterday after you washed them?”
As she spoke, she started looking around. There wasn’t a single piece of clothing on the laundry line in the yard. After searching for a while, she finally found the clothes she’d changed out of yesterday in the basket near the doorway.
Still dirty.
Wang Lingling, already annoyed from lying around, got even angrier.
“Sanya! Are those two holes on your face for decoration? You didn’t see the clothes lying here?”
Wang Ying lazily stretched, “Whoever’s clothes they are, they wash them.”
Wang Lingling stared in disbelief—was this really Sanya?
Wasn’t Sanya the one who always kept her head down, meek and busy inside and out? How did she dare to talk back?
“Sanya!!”
Wang Ying casually scratched her ear, “I heard you. No need to yell.”
Wang Lingling was so furious her chest heaved up and down. Ever since she was reborn a few days ago, nothing had gone her way!
In her last life, she obeyed her parents and married Xu Shuang. The whole brigade said she married well—he had a government job and skills too.
At first, Wang Lingling agreed. But later, not so much.
She asked Xu Shuang to bring home supplies from the kitchen—after all, a pinch more or less of ingredients was nothing to a cook, and taking some home wouldn’t be noticed.
Xu Shuang refused. No matter how much she cried or made a scene, he remained cold and indifferent.
When Xu Shuang wouldn’t help, Wang Lingling did it herself. She would go find Xu Shuang after work, and while he was distracted, she’d sneak some dried goods like vermicelli or wood ear fungus into her pockets. But someone at work caught her and reported her.
Xu Shuang also lost his job and returned to the brigade.
Back in the brigade, Xu Shuang didn’t fall into despair. He often helped cook for various households. Although he wasn’t officially hired as a chef, the countryside always had weddings and funerals.
Every time he cooked a large spread of dishes, the hosts would secretly give him a few yuan or a basket of eggs as thanks.
By all accounts, Wang Lingling’s quality of life hadn’t declined. She helped Xu Shuang with his work and could still enjoy a meal at the banquet.
In an era when oil and water were scarce, Wang Lingling lived like a goddess.
But Wang Lingling was not content. She had married the worker Xu Shuang, not this version of Xu Shuang who just worked rural banquets.
Wang Lingling made a fuss again, wanting Xu Shuang to take the worker exams.
Xu Shuang wanted to, but stealing ingredients from the kitchen was a serious offense for a cook. Even though many did it, getting caught was a different matter.
Xu Shuang spent several years trying to repair his reputation, while Wang Lingling, holding a grudge, coexisted with him like a stranger under the same roof.
When the reform and opening-up policy came, Wang Lingling immediately pushed Xu Shuang to open a restaurant. Even if she thought he was useless, she knew he had solid culinary skills. He was so well-known as a banquet chef that people came from far away to hire him.
After opening the restaurant, the life Wang Lingling had imagined didn’t come true.
The hard years weren’t far behind, and people’s dining tables were still lacking. Xu Shuang’s cooking was good, and he charged fair prices, relying on small profits and quick turnover—a business with long-term prospects.
But Wang Lingling thought this was unacceptable. She set the prices outrageously high. At that time, most people hadn’t yet become wealthy, and only cadre families could afford to eat out. How much revenue could that generate?
Wang Lingling was filled with resentment—resentment that Xu Shuang was nothing more than a useless cook.
They say scholars are good for nothing? That’s nonsense! Those who got into university became cadres. The truly useless one was Xu Shuang.
He wasn’t ambitious, didn’t scheme, didn’t know how to get benefits for himself.
During one of their arguments, Wang Lingling smashed a stool over Xu Shuang and broke one of his hands.
That ended the restaurant. Xu Shuang packed up and went back to the countryside to farm.
Wang Lingling decisively divorced him and went south to seek fortune.
In those early years of the opening-up, heading south wasn’t a wise choice. The household registration system was incomplete, there were many robbers on the roads, and human traffickers and scammers were everywhere.
Wang Lingling got scammed a few times, and her life grew increasingly miserable until she had no choice but to return home.
When she came back, she found that everything had changed.
Her cousin Wang Ying, the “third girl,” had been promised by her parents to a divorced soldier in order to secure the second uncle’s house.
Wang Ying endured years in the countryside, raised her stepchildren with care, and won over her husband’s heart.
When Wang Lingling returned home like a defeated dog, Wang Ying’s retired husband had already become the richest man in the county. He took his wife and children to the provincial capital in pursuit of an even brighter future.
Even Xu Shuang had been recruited by a hotel in the provincial capital to be their “executive chef.”
Wang Lingling didn’t know what an executive chef was, but she assumed it just meant a fancy name for a wage worker.
What really burned inside her was jealousy toward Wang Ying’s husband.
Why? Why did Wang Ying have such good fortune—marrying a man who became a tycoon just like that?
And why did Wang Lingling, after scheming and striving all her life, end up with nothing?
Wang Lingling literally fumed herself to death.
When she opened her eyes again, she realized she was back to being eighteen.
Wang Lingling was ecstatic. In this life, she would snatch the future tycoon first.
Before she even had a chance to declare she wanted to marry the divorced soldier, she faced obstacle after obstacle in trying to divorce Xu Shuang. Her mother absolutely refused to let her do it.
Wang Lingling was beyond frustrated. She couldn’t exactly tell her mother that Xu Shuang was a useless man who would end up as nothing but a wage slave, right?
Adding to that, the usually docile Wang Ying was acting totally out of character today, deliberately provoking her.
Anger filled Wang Lingling’s mind—then, in a flash of inspiration:
In her last life, Wang Ying stole the future tycoon, and she was the one who married Xu Shuang. In this life, if she was to marry the tycoon… then why couldn’t Wang Ying be the one to marry Xu Shuang?
I am just a novice translator and Chinese is not my native language. I try my best to translate the chapters as accurate as possible.
If there are any mistakes then kindly comment and remind me. Your support means a lot.
