Chapter 1 Rebirth in 1974

From death to rebirth comes too quickly.

It was so fast that Jiang Haitang felt like it was all a dream.

A second ago, she died under the wheels while saving a child.

The next second, the pain was still there, and the person was reborn in the dilapidated thatched hut of the Li family.

Jiang Haitang felt that it must be her good deeds that moved God and allowed her to be reborn.

Her life was miserable and depressing. She lost her parents at the age of six and was sold to the Li family as a child bride by her uncle.

When she was twelve years old, her eighteen-year-old fiancé Li Ergou joined the army. Li's mother decided to hold a wedding banquet with Li Ergou.

Four years later, news came back that Li Ergou had died, and the sixteen-year-old girl became a widow.

From then on, she became the only support for this precarious family.

For the next thirty years, she took care of her paralyzed mother-in-law, raised her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and did her best to help them marry and prepare dowries and support them.

She is nearly fifty years old, with a head full of silver hair, and looks as old as a person in his seventies.

But she has no regrets.

She thought that in the afterlife, she would be able to give an explanation to Li Ergou, who sacrificed his life for the country.

But the next time I saw that man was not in the underworld, but in front of my mother-in-law's spirit.

At that time, Li Ergou had changed his name to Li Shengli, and already had many children and grandchildren and a successful career.

His newly married wife, Liang Suya, was older than her, but looked twenty years younger. She was delicate and well-groomed, with her chin slightly raised, and looked at her with disdain.

At that moment, she felt that she was worse than a piece of garbage in her eyes.

In front of the whole village, Li Ergou said that she was a servant that the Li family exchanged for beans.

She was unwilling to be reduced from the daughter-in-law of the Li family to a servant, and a dispute arose between the two sides.

During the quarrel, she was pushed onto her mother-in-law's coffin by her brother-in-law, who had raised her, and her head was broken.

Li Ergou said that her life was worthless and it would be better if she died!

She was thrown into the wilderness and was rescued and sent to the hospital by kind-hearted people when she was on the verge of death. She luckily survived.

She lived a stable life for the next ten years, but regretted that her social status was so different that she was unable to seek revenge throughout her life.

"Sister-in-law, why haven't you cooked yet? I'm hungry! And there are dirty clothes that haven't been washed yet. You're getting lazier and lazier!"

A voice interrupted Jiang Haitang's thoughts.

A girl in her teens, wearing a brand new Lenin suit, pushed the door open and walked into the room, yelling at Jiang Haitang in a domineering manner.

This is Li Qiulan, Jiang Haitang's sister-in-law who was raised by her.

Seeing the clothes she was wearing, Jiang Haitang determined that it was the autumn of 1974.

As autumn began this year, Li Qiulan started pestering for new clothes.

At that time, she didn't know that Li Qiulan wanted new clothes to attend Li Ergou's wedding, she just thought that the girl loved beauty.

She begged many people and worked late into the night to help others before she could gather enough fabric for a set of clothes.

Li Ergou faked his death and was afraid of being discovered, so he didn't let his family attend the wedding.

Li Qiulan, who failed to go to the city as she wished, got angry with her at home, and she had to smile a lot to cheer her up.

Seeing Jiang Haitang staring at her without saying a word, Li Qiulan became even more dissatisfied.

"Sister-in-law, it's already late, and you're still sleeping. I'm hungry, go and cook."

Jiang Haitang pulled up a bitter smile.

It turned out that at this time, the Li family had already treated her as a servant.

Taking a deep breath and lowering her eyes, Jiang Haitang used all her strength to suppress the hatred in her heart.

It’s not the time to fall out yet. We have to make things public so that everyone knows the true face of Li Ergou and the Li family, and then we can leave with a fair and just attitude.

"I'm not feeling well, Qiulan, you cook tonight."

With just one sentence, Li Qiulan broke down.

"How can you be so vicious? I'm only eleven, and you're asking me to serve you. Are you worthy of my brother who sacrificed his life?"

Li Qiulan screamed heart-wrenchingly, as if she had suffered great humiliation.

Jiang Haitang looked sarcastic.

Knowing that Li Ergou was alive, how could she have the nerve to say the word "sacrifice"?

She was stupid in her previous life and didn't realize that Li Ergou said it was a sacrifice, but there was no written notice or document, nor was there any subsidy that the martyr's family should have.

She was PUA-ed by the three members of the Li family. She felt that Li Ergou sacrificed his life for the country, and as the wife of a hero, she had to help her man protect and take care of his family.

He devoted his whole life to them and even sold his blood several times when he was the poorest, just to give them a better life.

How did they treat her?

Not only did he feel at ease relying on her for support, but he also gave the money she had saved with great difficulty to Li Ergou, the fake dead man.

Even though Li Ergou was an official in the city, he had no shortage of money.

In their minds, she was a servant bought in exchange for ten pounds of beans, and she should be treated like a slave for the rest of her life.

How could she still be selfless in this life?

"Qiulan, what eleven-year-old girl in the village doesn't work? How can you be considered vicious if I ask you to cook a meal when I'm sick?"

"Can it be the same? My brother..."

Li Qiulan didn't say the rest. She stomped her feet, turned around and walked out.

"I'm going to find my mother and let her take care of you!"

Looking at Li Qiulan's back, hatred flashed across Jiang Haitang's face.

The old lady of the Li family, although paralyzed, is a shrewd and calculating person.

It was all thanks to the old woman that Li Ergou's plan was able to succeed and was not discovered by her for decades.

Waiting for her to cook and serve them is just a waste of time!

Jiang Haitang fell back to sleep.

How could Li Qiulan and Wu Xiuyun, mother and daughter, let her sleep peacefully?

But within three or four minutes, Li Qiulan ran in again and shouted at her arrogantly, "Mom wants you to come over."

Jiang Haitang ignored her and covered her head with the quilt instead.

Who are you trying to scare?

Can a paralyzed person lying on the kang stand up and hit someone?

When I woke up, it was dimly light outside the window.

She quickly packed a set of patched clothes and a two-liang food coupon, and was surprised to find a certificate for going out and twenty yuan in the room.

Jiang Haitang remembered that this was the certificate she asked the team leader to issue when she went to the county to buy medicine for her mother-in-law, and the money was also used to buy medicine.

Mrs. Li was ill all year round and had to go to the county town to get medicine every quarter, which cost her twenty yuan each time, making the already poor family even worse off.

This was the money she earned, so she took it.

After packing up her things, Jiang Haitang went to the kitchen to make herself a bowl of noodles, beat an egg into the noodles, and added a little sesame oil.

The smell is so sweet that it makes you dizzy. After eating a big bowl, your stomach will feel much better.

During the meal break, she cooked all the remaining eggs in the house in one go.

After eating and drinking her fill, she touched her stomach contentedly and sighed, thinking that it was indeed comfortable to be full.

She has been eating less and working more all the time, and her body has been seriously depleted, so she has to slowly make up for it.

After putting the eggs in the pot and without washing it, she picked up the rag bag and strode out.