"Dashan, Mother... Mother seems to have stopped breathing..."
"Mother, your son is unfilial!"
I heard someone wailing loudly.
Cheng Wanwan suddenly opened her eyes.
She saw a young man and a young woman kneeling in front of the bed. The two looked to be around twenty years old. Twenty-year-olds were calling her "mother"?
She's single and unmarried, how could she have given birth to such a big son and daughter!
In that instant, memories that did not belong to her suddenly flooded into her mind.
Cheng Wanwan was so surprised she almost jumped out of bed.
Damn it, on the very first day her company went public, she found herself transported to the body of a widow in ancient times!
She is 33 years old, unmarried and childless, successful in her career, and living a leisurely life.
The original owner was also thirty-three years old, married at fourteen, and had four sons. The person in front of her was the original owner's eldest son and eldest daughter-in-law.
In other words, she skipped marriage and childbirth and became a mother-in-law overnight... Her eldest daughter-in-law seems to be pregnant, so she will become a grandmother in a few months!
Cheng Wanwan's head ached terribly, and she could only close her eyes weakly.
"Mother! Wake up!"
Zhao Dashan shook her body desperately, making her even more dizzy.
There were still quite a few people watching the commotion in the courtyard in front of the house.
"Sister-in-law Zhao went back to her parents' home to borrow grain, but she came back with a broken head and so much blood, she's probably going to die!"
"Sister-in-law Zhao takes everything back to her parents' home. The Cheng family is so heartless."
"Sister-in-law Zhao is no good either. She's already struggling to make ends meet, yet she keeps giving money to her family."
The onlookers kept calling her "Sister-in-law Zhao," which almost made Cheng Wanwan vomit blood.
She would be considered a beautiful urban woman in modern times, with at least eighty or a hundred suitors, but she ended up dressing up as an old woman!
That would have been bad enough, but the original owner of this body was also someone that everyone hated – mean-spirited, lazy, and competitive!
She was unfilial to her parents-in-law and mistreated her son and daughter-in-law. After her husband died in battle, she caused a scene at the Zhao family and separated herself from them in order to keep all the pension money for herself. At that time, she caused quite a commotion.
After the family split up, the original owner gave all the compensation money for her husband's death in battle to her maternal family.
Now, the original owner of this body has returned from her parents' home with a bloody head, becoming the biggest joke in the whole village.
Cheng Wanwan slowly opened her eyes.
"Mother! You're finally awake!"
Zhao Dashan cried even harder.
Cheng Wanwan sighed. No matter how badly the original owner treated the children, she was still their biological mother, and her sons could not possibly want her to die.
She spoke in a hoarse voice: "Close the door."
The people watching the commotion outside were too noisy, and it hurt her ears.
The eldest daughter-in-law, Wu Huiniang, turned around and went to close the courtyard gate, and the crowd of onlookers slowly dispersed.
Only then did Cheng Wanwan have the energy to look around the house: mud walls, mud floor, thatched roof, and drafty from all sides.
The eldest son and his wife were very thin, wearing patched and tattered clothes and straw sandals, looking like refugees.
"Gurgle!"
Cheng Wanwan heard her stomach growl.
She had lived for thirty-three years and had never gone hungry before. This was the first time she had ever known what it felt like to be hungry, and it was truly unbearable.
She swallowed hard; her throat hurt, and she didn't know how long it had been since she'd had any water.
Wu Huiniang said cautiously, "Mother, I dug up some wild vegetables this morning, and I'll cook them now."
My mother-in-law scolds me whenever she's unhappy, and I always get a thorough dressing-down. Rather than just sitting here waiting to be scolded, I might as well do something.
The courtyard has only three rooms. One room is where the eldest son and daughter-in-law live, another room is where Cheng Wanwan and her three younger sons live, a main room that also serves as a dining area, and a dilapidated thatched shed next to it that can barely be used as a kitchen.
Wu Huiniang bent down and picked up a handful of wild vegetables from the ground. The year was bad and there was no harvest in the fields, so the family ate wild vegetables every day. They chopped up the wild vegetables, added a little buckwheat flour, and cooked them into a wild vegetable porridge, which served as the family's daily food.
There was a broken pot on the stove, with a big hole in it, so you had to cook the food at an angle to prevent it from leaking out.
Before long, a large bowl of wild vegetable porridge was placed on the wooden table.
The black paste and dark green wild vegetable leaves mixed together in a bowl looked unappetizing.
Cheng Wanwan was truly starving; otherwise, she wouldn't have even glanced at this thing.
She took a bite.
It tasted very bitter, there was no salt added, and the paste was made of some kind of powder that scratched my throat and was impossible to swallow.
But when she looked up, she saw her eldest son and daughter-in-law staring at the food in her hand, drooling.
What she found hard to swallow was the staple food that sustained the lives of the poorest people in this era…
She put the bowl back on the table.
This action made Wu Huiniang shudder. Her mother-in-law's silent demeanor was truly terrifying... Her knees buckled and she almost knelt on the ground.
Cheng Wanwan tugged at the corner of her lips.
She did nothing, yet her daughter-in-law was so frightened. Just how many evil deeds did the original owner commit at home?
She got out of bed and said in a faint voice, "I have no appetite, you guys eat."
She got up and walked out of the house.
Wu Huiniang cried out in alarm, "Dashan, Mother, Mother, what's wrong...?"
"If Mother tells us to eat, then let's eat."
Zhao Dashan took the porridge out and divided it into five small bowls. He and his wife each had one bowl, and the rest were left for his three younger brothers.
Cheng Wanwan walked outside the courtyard and stood at the door of her house, where she could take in the entire scenery of Dahe Village. To the east were rolling mountains, and to the west were valleys stretching for dozens of miles. A river meandered through the foot of the mountains, but due to the severe drought, the river had long since dried up, revealing a cracked riverbed that looked shocking.
Last year, Dahe Village suffered from a locust plague, and this year it has been hit by a drought. Many households in the village are running out of food, and everyone is in a state of great distress.
If it doesn't rain within this month, this year will be another year of no harvest, and the villagers here may truly become homeless refugees...
Cheng Wanwan sighed.
What sins did she commit in her past life to be suddenly a grandmother, only to be transported to a year of famine and natural disasters...?
However, since she was able to rise from an orphan to become a female entrepreneur, she should be able to make a living in this famine-stricken year as well.
She took a deep breath and slowly accepted this tragic reality.
Cheng Wanwan didn't think too much about it. She composed herself and prepared to familiarize herself with the environment first.
She stepped into the rice paddy.
The rice was greenish-yellow, with its slender leaves withered and curled up. The ears that had emerged had a few grains, but they were mostly empty husks.
If there is not enough moisture, the panicles will not emerge, and the rice will not be plump.
Cheng Wanwan didn't quite understand these things, and was about to turn around and leave when...
A mechanical voice suddenly rang in my mind.
[Ding! Natural, pollution-free chicory has been detected!]
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