Chapter 1: Rebirth

“How could I possibly lie? I’ve been a matchmaker for years; I’ve seen all kinds of families. A family like the Wus is a renowned good family in the surrounding ten villages and eight townships. If we weren't such close sisters, I wouldn't be introducing such a fine marriage to my eldest niece.”

“I’m telling you, Old Man Wu is a master butcher at the meat processing plant and is highly valued by the factory. You know how hard it is to get a bite of meat these days. Once she goes to the Wu family, my niece can just sit back and wait to eat meat.”

“I even heard that Old Man Wu intends to keep his youngest son by his side to train him, hoping he’ll take over the business. If this marriage goes through, my niece will be half a city person. Once he gets his permanent urban residency, she’ll be a city person for real. Good sister, don't think I'm not thinking of you—as soon as this news broke, I came straight to find you.”

Her head felt heavy and dizzy, and the incessant chattering in her ears was deafening.

When Bai Jing opened her eyes again, she was momentarily dazed; after all, this scene was far too familiar.

The room was dim, with the walls yellowed and blackened everywhere, clearly stained by tung oil. It was a wooden house—she hadn't lived in one for many years.

Memories surged in her mind, every fragment of the past manifesting before her eyes.

Before she could fully organize her thoughts, the conversation outside struck her like a physical blow.

“Just tell me, do you agree to this marriage or not? If you think it won't work, I'll look for another boy from the Wu family.”

Bai Jing’s mind jolted. The Wu family... could it be the same Wu family she had married into?

No, she couldn't. She could not marry into the Wu family; that was a pit of fire.

Despite the outward appearance of prosperity—having a father who was a master butcher at the meat plant—he had far too many mouths to feed. There was a wife who did nothing but wail and cry all day, an eldest son who was petty and calculating, an eldest daughter consumed by jealousy, a shiftless youngest son, and a youngest daughter with questionable morals.

A family like that was not a marriageable one; she could not marry into it.

That's right, she had been reborn.

Since Heaven had given her another chance to choose, she refused to fall into the Wu family's pit of fire again.

“No!”

A piercing scream erupted from the dim room.

It sent a cold sweat running down the spines of the two women talking under the eaves outside.

“Jing'er! Jing'er, what's wrong?” Hearing her daughter's cry, Bai Jing's mother, Luo Chunhua, jolted awake and rushed into the room.

Her daughter had been caught in the rain yesterday and had run a fever during the night. She had only managed to get the fever down this morning after feeding her An'naijing. She prayed the fever hadn't damaged her daughter's mind.

The family's conditions were already poor; if anything happened to her eldest daughter, she wouldn't want to live.

Rushing into the room, she saw her daughter sitting half-upright on the bed, drenched in a cold sweat, with strands of hair clinging to her damp forehead.

“Jing'er, what happened to Jing'er?” Luo Chunhua kicked off her shoes and rushed to the bedside, reaching out worriedly to feel her daughter's forehead.

Seeing her young mother, Bai Jing could not stop her tears from falling.

Her mother had lived a life of hardship. After marrying into the Bai family, she hadn't enjoyed a single day of good life, and during the years of disaster, she had to support the entire family alone.

She had worn her body down early, and in middle age, she lost a son, leaving behind a grandson with a rare case of anemia. She had sold the house and land to save the grandson, but it had cost her half her life.

Later, she was even resented by her three sons-in-law just for wanting a bit of shelter for her grandson.

“Mother,” Bai Jing could no longer hold back. “Mother, Mother, Mother!”

She cried out, throwing her arms tightly around her long-suffering mother.

Feng Ni, who had followed them in, remarked to the weeping Bai Jing, “Could the child be having a nightmare?” She curled her lip as she looked at the mother and daughter on the bed.

Feng Ni was the matchmaker who had been trying to arrange the marriage for Bai Jing outside. She was a local from Bai Village. She had married into another family with the surname Bai, but they were not of the same clan.

Luo Chunhua glanced back at Feng Ni. Seeing that she had entered without even taking off her shoes, she felt quite displeased. “It’s just a nightmare. Auntie, I can't make the decisions here. How about we wait until Jing'er feels better?” She didn't like people entering her room.

Furthermore, she didn't believe Feng Ni had such kind intentions. She had no affection for anyone in the village; after all, not a single person had helped her during her hardest times.

If she hadn't been afraid she would die, no one would have cared when she had collapsed in the fields from hemorrhaging. Every time she thought of these things, her heart turned cold.

Bai Jing, still lost in the sight of her mother, was pulled back to reality by her mother's voice.

“Aunt Feng.” Bai Jing turned her head, staring at the woman standing not far away with eyes that seemed poisoned. “You dog! You dare come to my house? I'll beat you to death!”

As if remembering something, Bai Jing made a move to get out of bed to attack her.

Luo Chunhua would never allow her daughter to do such a thing; it was utterly improper for a junior to strike an elder.

“Auntie, please go back for now. Jing'er is delirious; I don't want her to scare you.”

Bai Village was very remote. Although they had entered the new century, many old traditions still lingered.

Bai Jing's glare just now had indeed terrified Feng Ni; the little wench's eyes looked as if they wanted to tear her apart. “Fine, then... then I'll go back first,” she said, swallowing hard and speaking with difficulty.

Having said that, she scurried out the door.

Luo Chunhua ignored her and instead gently patted her daughter's back. “It's alright, my darling, don't be afraid. Mother is here, Mother is here.”

After repeating this several times, Bai Jing finally calmed down.

“Mother... *sob*... Mother, I miss you so much.”

Although she had four siblings, it was said that a home only exists when there are both a father and a mother. Since her parents passed away, the three surviving sisters had grown distant for various reasons. She had never blamed anyone; she only lamented that she no longer had a home.

If it hadn't been for her children being filial later in life, she would have succumbed to her grief and gone to find her parents long ago.

“Mother is here. Mother is always here. Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Mother will stay with you.” Although Luo Chunhua didn't know what had happened to her daughter, she assumed she had been frightened in a dream.

After a long while, Bai Jing fell asleep in her mother's embrace.

Luo Chunhua laid her down gently, covered her with a quilt, and then crept out of the room.

Looking at the sun outside, Luo Chunhua felt a deep bitterness in her heart.

Bai Village was a large village, and her family belonged to the Fourth Team, a group reorganized from various different factions.

The team was not prioritized by the village, meaning they had more work but fewer work points. As a newly reclaimed brigade, everything had to start from scratch; if a family didn't have several laborers, they wouldn't even be able to eat a decent meal all year round.

In a family like hers, even when the rice was distributed, there wasn't enough for everyone to get a full mouthful.

On ordinary days, besides sweet potatoes and beans, they ate wild vegetables mixed in; most of the time, they just drank wild vegetable soup to fill their stomachs.

Over the years, not even the adults could endure it, let alone children.

Now, all four of her children were "big-headed babies" (malnourished). Her daughter was sixteen, but not only was she short, she looked like a twelve or thirteen-year-old from a well-off family. If not for her long hair, people might have mistaken her for a young boy.

This was the main reason why she hadn't directly refused the matchmaker just now. Their conditions were too poor, too poor; if her daughter married out, her life would surely be better than it was at home.

Not to mention, the Wu family was such a good family.