A commotion woke the person lying in bed. Dizzy and lightheaded, she lifted her eyelids, feeling as if her body had been drained of all its energy, leaving only an empty shell.
Only the head remained, supporting the structure.
He peeked through one eye and saw a wedding photo of the two of them hanging above the bed. He looked up sharply, remembering that he had burned the photo. How did it end up here?
With a splitting headache, I slowly sat up and looked around. In the small room, there was a large wooden wardrobe against the left wall and a slightly larger white aluminum alloy window on the right, with dark purple curtains hanging on both sides.
Outside the window, a jujube tree with lush branches and leaves rustled in the wind. In front of it, a rectangular TV cabinet sat on the ground, with a color TV of about 25 inches hanging on top.
Several vintage graduation group photos are pasted on the walls on both sides, which are painted exceptionally white.
Jiang Shuya snapped out of her daze and looked again at the wedding photo above the wall.
That was her own smiling face, a fair oval face with a pair of peach blossom eyes, her pink and tender eyes radiating happiness, and the man beside her... She looked at the man beside her.
Jiang Shuya's eyes seemed to be stung. This was her husband, Huang Minghao, tall and imposing, with a sharply defined face, ink-black eyebrows, and bright eyes. He wore a gentle smile, but there was a hint of melancholy in his eyes.
On the wall in front of her was a large group photo, her husband's graduation photo. Among the people in the photo, Jiang Shuya could spot Huang Minghao's prominent face at a glance.
He stood out from the crowd; he had been handsome since childhood, which is probably why Jiang Shuya fell in love at first sight!
Suddenly, she woke up with a start. Where was she? It seemed to be her home from 13 years ago... Before she could recover, she realized that her chest was wet, with breast milk and swelling soaking through her outer clothing.
Then came the sound of a baby crying...thump thump thump...and the heavy, panting footsteps coming upstairs.
"Ugh!...I have to say, you're a really heavy sleeper. The baby came to nurse this morning and you were still asleep. The baby's eyes are all swollen from crying, and she won't respond when I call her. I just made her some formula, but she won't drink it."
A woman in her fifties walked over indignantly and placed the child in Jiang Shuya's arms.
Looking at her, isn't this my mother-in-law from 14 years ago?
He was short and stout, wearing a floral cotton top that concealed his waist, black cropped trousers, and ill-fitting sandals. He had a dark complexion, a round face, and slightly curly hair tied back. He looked into the eyes of the large, round bells in his arms.
Jiang Shuya woke up with a start, "I've been reborn!!!"
The baby stopped crying and nestled in Shuya's arms, pulling open her swollen underwear to reach for the milk in the cloth. She suckled and whimpered, her rosy cheeks and tearful eyes proclaiming the grievances she had suffered.
Her little hands gripped Shuya's collar tightly, as if she had returned to a long-lost safe zone.
The doubts in Jiang Shuya's mind did not dissipate.
At this moment, the mother-in-law got up, walked out the door, stopped, and turned back.
"There's still a lot of work to do in the field. The grapes need to be sprayed with pesticide again, and the grapevines haven't been pruned for a few days. When your dad gets home from get off work, have him water the vineyard with manure again. I'll come back tonight to cook!"
Before they knew it, they had reached the bottom of the stairs.
Immediately following was the sound of the door slamming shut.
Jiang Shuya was still pondering when she discovered that she was from 2024.
If you calculate the time, she and Huang Minghao had already divorced in 2020.
During this period, she had a very bad time. She was unemployed, suffered from insomnia and anxiety. She had medical records for certain tests at a famous top-tier hospital in Nanjing. After ten years of marriage, she had gained nothing. Looking back, she realized that what was terrible about marriage was not poverty, but the inability to live a happy and fulfilling life with her life partner.
This is far more terrible, more tragic, more miserable, and more mentally exhausting than poverty.
Although I initiated the divorce, a marriage without love is destined to be unhappy.
Thinking back on the nearly ten years of emotional abuse I endured, the people who never discussed things with me, the lack of any tenderness I felt, and the only thing I ever saw was that indifferent face.
I always end up being met with indifference, and sometimes doubts linger in my mind: what did I do wrong? Why am I suddenly so indifferent?
Why does everyone envy her for having a handsome husband?
But wasn't she herself a beauty who had been praised since childhood?
I remember when we went to take wedding photos outdoors, everyone we met looked at us with envy.
"Truly a perfect match of talent and beauty."
Thinking about being forced to leave with nothing by Huang Minghao, with no emotional ties involved and no affection to speak of, where is the saying "a day as husband and wife is worth a hundred days of kindness"? That's just comforting people who haven't experienced the realities of life!
Later, I used all my meager savings to pay for medical treatment. I didn't even know what illness I had. I remember the last time I went to the neurology hospital, the doctor diagnosed me with "severe depression" and said I needed to cooperate with treatment.
After returning, she took a lot of medicine, but still couldn't sleep at night. Her hair was falling out in clumps, and she was in a daze all day. In the end, she couldn't bear the pressure and burned all her memories with Huang Minghao, including their wedding photo.
Suicidal thoughts crossed my mind. Life had lost its meaning. I was utterly despondent and my heart was ashen. I no longer cared about the past. I came to the banks of the Yangtze River and slowly drifted into the eddies of the surging water.
When I woke up again, I found myself here. My "home" from thirteen years ago.
In that instant, the baby in her arms was fast asleep, milk still clinging to the corner of her mouth, which was still making sucking motions. Shuya gently laid the baby down beside her, covered her with a thin blanket, and patted the baby's back to avoid making any noise that might wake her.
She lightly dragged her swaying body out of bed.
I strolled downstairs, and it was still the same familiar place. The calendar on the wall was set for June 18, 2010.
That's right. Thirteen years ago today, when Bao'er was a little over six months old, Shuya stared intently at the wooden table that was only three steps away from her, and suddenly woke up.
Since I've been given a second chance, I shouldn't let this life go to waste; a thought flashed through my mind.
This place will be demolished in October 2011, which is more than a year away. Memories of my past life are still vivid in my mind.
The demolition policy thirteen years ago caused me to miss a great opportunity, and I still feel extremely regretful about those missed benefits.
Even though there are rumors circulating throughout the island that this place will be demolished in the future, rumors are just rumors. No one knows when the demolition will actually take place, and ordinary people have no way of knowing.
The primary task now is to separate households. In August 2010, the government explicitly stipulated that farmers would no longer need to apply for homestead certificates or separate household registration procedures, and all households would be subject to natural separation.
Shuya knows this too well; naturally, the compensation for separate households is different from that for those holding individual household registration certificates and property ownership certificates.
My mother-in-law's family currently owns a plot of land, located between my uncle's and grandfather's houses, above a large ridge. My mother-in-law told me that it was an old house left to her by my grandfather before the family divided their property.
It's less than two kilometers from where I live now. As for why I moved down here, I don't know. I can only ask the old man when he comes back tonight.
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