Wang Lingling was annoyed. She’d clearly miscalculated—Old Lady Xu was a stubborn, unreasonable old hag, just like her mother-in-law.
Wang Ying had been watching the whole time. She’d been planning to step in if it looked like Old Lady Xu was losing, but it turned out the old lady handled herself just fine, and Wang Lingling gave up quickly.
Wang Lingling, trying to avoid any more drama, turned directly to Wang Ying and said, “So, those two bad elements that got sent to our brigade—where are they? I just asked the brigade leader, and he said you’re the one in charge of them.”
Wang Lingling continued, “Take me to see them.”
Wang Ying: ???
She was genuinely confused now. So you came all the way back to your childhood home—not to defend your parents, not to argue over the house—but to look for Cheng Shufen?
Old Lady Xu immediately became alert: “What are you trying to do?”
Everyone knew by now that Wang Ying didn’t go to the fields; she relied on managing Cheng Shufen and Cheng Yu, the two re-educated women, to earn some work points.
Of course, some sharp-eyed people had also noticed that those two opera singers who kept to themselves and barely showed their faces were likely being secretly taken care of by Wang Ying.
But so what? Wang Ying was willing, and she was also the brigade’s doctor. No one wanted to cross her unless absolutely necessary.
Old Lady Xu’s heart jumped. She was afraid Wang Lingling wanted to dig up something from Cheng Shufen to use against Wang Ying.
Wang Lingling curled her lips, the spot where she had been slapped still stinging.
Now she realized she had gone about it the wrong way. Her questions did make her sound like a lunatic.
But Wang Lingling was in a panic. She had just learned at her in-laws’ place that her father and younger brother had been taken to a labor camp. That instantly triggered a memory of some key events from her past life.
One of them involved Cheng Shufen and Cheng Yu, the two women sent down to their brigade. In her past life, just for the sake of those few work points, Li Chunjuan had jumped at the chance to take over the job of watching over Cheng Shufen.
Of course, people who were sent down didn’t need much fussing over. Li Chunjuan was just half-hearted about it—barely managing them. But it wasn’t as though she deliberately mistreated them.
Then, not long after spring started, Cheng Shufen died of illness. Before she died, she lacked food. Cheng Yu cried and begged Tian Youfu, and he gave Cheng Shufen two decent meals. Still, she couldn’t be saved.
After Cheng Shufen died, Cheng Yu couldn’t return to the city and had to struggle alone in the countryside.
Cheng Yu became an invisible person in the brigade. The brigade leader, Tian Youfu, took pity on her and quietly gave her some extra grain. Cheng Yu survived on mountain forage and that bit of extra grain.
Then, a few years later, a middle-aged man, well-dressed and obviously wealthy, arrived in a car looking for Cheng Shufen.
But Cheng Shufen was already dead. The man cried bitterly at her grave. Li Chunjuan, hiding inside, was scared out of her mind, afraid he would hold her responsible for Cheng Shufen’s death.
Luckily, the man didn’t say much—he only said he wanted to take Cheng Yu away.
Before Cheng Yu left, the brigade leader Tian Youfu took out a gold ring, intending to return it to the man. That ring had been secretly given to him by Cheng Shufen before her death, asking him to look after Cheng Yu.
The man stared at the ring for a long time in silence but eventually left it with Tian Youfu.
This time, Wang Lingling had come back home specifically because she figured it was about the time when Cheng Shufen would die again.
She wanted to snatch that gold ring and see if Cheng Shufen had any other hidden valuables.
Wang Lingling thought to herself, Tian Youfu didn’t do much for Cheng Shufen either, just gave her two meals before she died—I can do that too.
She planned to put on an act this time and coax Cheng Shufen into handing over the gold ring.
Wang Lingling shifted uncomfortably: “Just tell me where they are. I can go over myself.”
It would be best if Wang Ying didn’t come along. That way, she could try comforting the dying Cheng Shufen alone.
Wang Ying: “…Wang Lingling, if you’re sick, go get treated.”
Truly, this was a rebirth with no added intelligence. What had she even lived through in her last life?
Wang Ying suddenly felt that even looking at Wang Lingling was an insult to her own intelligence.
“I don’t know what you’re up to, but please stay far away from me.”
She helped a dizzy and angry Old Lady Xu sit back down.
Wang Lingling, seeing that Wang Ying had mocked her and then gone silent, knew she wouldn’t get anything out of her.
“Hmph, fine! Don’t tell me—I’ll find someone else to ask!”
With her cheeks still red from being slapped, Wang Lingling picked up Zhao Xi and called Zhao Dong over as she stormed off. “I’ll find someone to ask.”
Earlier, she had already gone to the old broken house where Cheng Shufen lived in the past life, but it was clear that in this life, the two women weren’t staying there.
Wang Lingling wasn’t discouraged. She desperately needed money, so that gold ring from Cheng Shufen was especially important to her.
She planned to take the ring and put her plan into action.
That plan was actually the second major thing she remembered from her past life.
That spring, a hailstorm had caused various disasters in nearby communes. In her past life, the Seventh Brigade had quickly replanted crops, so their food supply was reduced, but they still managed to avoid starvation.
But other communes weren’t so lucky.
Some failed to replant in time and lost their harvests. Others had sown too early, and the hail destroyed everything. With not enough seeds, they could only replant a portion of the fields, reducing production by half. Some places mismanaged everything, and entire fields were ruined.
All of this led to a food shortage in the fall.
The shortage wasn’t limited to rural areas—cities also experienced long lines at the grain stations.
Wang Lingling was fired up. She planned to take advantage of this opportunity and sell a batch of hoarded grain to earn her and Zhao Jun’s first fortune.
She had it all mapped out. The grain shortage lasted for about a month and a half. Things didn’t start to ease up until grain was transferred in from other regions.
She wanted to seize that window and sell the grain she had stockpiled.
She could at least triple her investment!
But to do that, she needed both grain and money.
If she got the gold ring, she could exchange it for cash. She’d seen it in her past life—it had no carvings, just a thick, rough ring that looked like it weighed fifteen to twenty grams.
Even if she just sold it for scrap, she could get around 200 yuan. She planned to use that to stockpile grain.
Wang Lingling left with her two kids. From the looks of it, she was off to find someone who could tell her where Cheng Shufen was staying.
Wang Ying didn’t follow. She had a gut feeling that Wang Lingling was trying to use her past life’s memories to manipulate this life.
But whether Cheng Shufen held any kind of opportunity or fortune for Wang Lingling remained to be seen.
As soon as Wang Lingling left, the old ladies around them started gossiping and guessing at her intentions.
“Why is she looking for those reform-through-labor types?”
“Could she be trying to get those two to frame Ying girl?”
“Doesn’t seem like it… Do you think this Lingling’s possessed or something?”
“Looks like it to me. Those two kids aren’t even that close to her, so why’s she dead set on being their stepmother?”
“And did you see her clothes? Those pants were practically hanging off her – so skinny. What’s she even after?”
“Who knows. The woman suddenly turned weird. Just look at what she’s been doing — nothing a normal person would do.”
…
Wang Ying smiled without saying a word. Even considering the premise of reincarnation, Wang Lingling’s actions were still incredibly absurd.
Any rational person wouldn’t be able to make sense of her behavior.
While they were chatting, Wu Guihua arrived.
Wu Guihua leaned in mysteriously and said to Wang Ying, “Do you know what Wang Lingling came back for?”
Wu Guihua said, “She just went to the brigade office and, without saying a word, asked our brigade leader for food!”
Wang Ying frowned in confusion. “What food?”
Wang Lingling’s household registration for grain had long been moved to her husband’s family, hadn’t it?
Wu Guihua made a face like she’d seen something outrageous. “She said Wang Yongshun and Wang Yaozong both worked this year, so their work points should be settled.”
Wang Ying replied, “But if they were going to be settled, shouldn’t Li Chunjuan be the one asking for them?”
Wu Guihua looked full of gossip: “Heh, Li Chunjuan definitely won’t be coming.”
Wang Ying handed Wu Guihua a handful of sunflower seeds. “Tell me more?”
Wu Guihua perked up immediately: “My maternal family lives next to Li Chunjuan’s. After the Wang family’s incident, the news spread to my mom’s place. Don’t look at me like that — I wasn’t the one who spread it! It’s just that what Wang Yongshun and Wang Yaozong did was so outrageous that several surrounding brigades know about it now, even the commune heard.”
“Then one day when I went to visit my mom, she told me that Li Chunjuan’s parents had already made up their minds. Since Wang Yongshun and Wang Yaozong are both in prison, they want Li Chunjuan to return home so they can remarry her off.”
Though Wu Guihua disliked Li Chunjuan, even she looked a bit emotional telling the story.
“Her mom cried and begged her, saying it was for Chunjuan’s own good — but honestly, she just wanted to marry her off again and get some bride price money out of it.”
Li Chunjuan might be older, but there were plenty of single old bachelors in the countryside, many of them widowers.
If she married a widower with kids, she might not fetch a high bride price, but they’d still get something.
“Don’t know how her mom convinced her, but she did. Not long after going home, Chunjuan started meeting potential suitors. I bet she’ll be remarried soon.”
Wu Guihua scoffed, “So I guess Chunjuan’s not interested in the food anymore — she’s got her hands full.”
Then she circled the topic back to Wang Lingling: “So the brigade leader said, if Li Chunjuan doesn’t come to claim it, then when they distribute the grain in autumn, Wang Lingling can come collect Wang Yongshun’s family’s share.”
There wasn’t anyone else to give it to anyway. That family had completely fallen apart.
Wang Ying muttered, “Why’s Wang Lingling so obsessed with food? She came back this time and barely even looked at her own home, like she didn’t care at all about what happened to Wang Yongshun.”
Wang Ying had been ready for a drawn-out fight with Wang Lingling. Yet after returning, Lingling had only done two things: ask for food and seek out Cheng Shufen.
Wu Guihua shrugged. “Who knows what’s going on in her head. You didn’t see it — back at the brigade office, the boy she brought with her tried to touch some medicine on the windowsill. I told him not to, and the way she looked at me — like she was going to eat me alive. She even said, ‘What’s wrong with a child touching something? You’ve got no compassion’… Compassion, my ass! If I hadn’t stopped him, that kid might’ve swallowed all the pills!”
Wu Guihua continued, “I really don’t get it. She’s such a brainless stepmom. Those two kids boss her around like it’s nothing, and they don’t even call her mom — just ‘stepmom.’ So what’s she doing it all for?”
In the end, all conversations about Wang Lingling led to the same question — what is she after?
Wang Ying had no answer. Who could understand Wang Lingling’s twisted logic?
She probably had a miserable life in her past, and now she was hell-bent on rewriting her fate.
The sad thing was, her whole “rewriting destiny” plan was just about switching men. Ridiculous.
“Maybe she just really likes kids.”
Wu Guihua scoffed, “Then have her own! Why raise someone else’s? And on top of that, she’s even more protective than a real mother. But those kids still call her ‘stepmom.’”
At that moment, Wang Lingling finally found out where Cheng Shufen and Cheng Yu were staying.
She brought the two kids with her, planning to take care of the dying Cheng Shufen.
Before going in, Wang Lingling gathered Zhao Dong and Zhao Xi together and said with a smile, “Mommy has something important to do in a bit, so please don’t interrupt, okay? Once Mommy finishes, I’ll buy you candy and those toy cars that go when you pull them back.”
Zhao Dong looked uncomfortable. He knew Wang Lingling was good to him, but a child’s instinct still made him uneasy around her.
If Zhao Dong were a little older, he’d understand that the way Wang Lingling looked at him was exactly how someone would look at a beautiful banknote.
Anyone would feel uneasy being looked at like that.
He muttered, “Okay, just hurry.”
He hadn’t wanted to come at all, but Wang Lingling had no one to watch the kids after she split from the family, so she had to bring them everywhere.
These days, Wang Lingling looked even skinnier than before, working from morning to night.
She had to labor in the fields for work points during the day, cook and clean for the kids in between, and keep them from running off. At night, she still had to stay alert in case Zhao Xi or Zhao Dong wet the bed — and if they did, she had to dry the blankets the next day.
In just a short time, Wang Lingling had done nearly every household chore she had barely touched in the first half of her life.
This was also why she was now so desperate to make money.
The fifteen yuan Zhao Jun sent each month was barely enough to support the two children—certainly not enough to support her as well.
Wang Lingling gave herself a pep talk: With things already this bad, I’ve got to get that gold ring no matter what!
She deliberately poured a bit of water from her satchel onto her eyelids to mimic tears, then took out a cloth bag filled with five or six white flour pancakes and three or four cornbread buns.
Wang Lingling was confident. In her previous life, Tian Youfu only showed up when things had gotten serious, and even then, all he brought was a few coarse grain buns and two white flour pancakes.
This time, she had brought multiples of that!
She was certain it would move Cheng Shufen enough to hand over the gold ring with both hands!
Wang Lingling squeezed out a few more tears and pushed open the half-closed door to Cheng Shufen’s house, entering with a sobbing tone.
“Oh, my poor sister, you’re about to go, and it breaks my heart. I’m a daughter married out from our brigade, and I just happened to come back home. Since the family’s in trouble and can’t use these grains, I brought them for you. Eat them so you can pass on peacefully. Don’t be an opera singer in your next life. Look, these flour buns…”
Wang Lingling looked up—and the rest of her sentence caught in her throat, unable to come out.
Behind the half-closed door, the room was filled with steam and smoke.
Cheng Shufen sat by the stove, her complexion rosy. Next to her sat three or four young girls, ranging from older to younger, all with plump cheeks.
On the stove, a pot of steaming meat soup was cooking, and one little girl was dipping a bun into the broth.
Wang Lingling: …Wait a second, this isn’t how it was supposed to go!
