Chapter 1 Rebirth
"Why didn't you want to take Dad's job? Do you know? Being a mail carrier is more than just a job; it carries a moral responsibility, and the expectations and trust of potential partners... How much Dad wanted you to take over my job and become a mail carrier..."
At the end of his life, Cheng Jiantong, his temples graying, lay on his hospital bed, his eyes fixed on his eldest daughter. "Xiaoying, Dad regrets it. I regret giving the postman job to Chunfu. Dad has never told you that when I fell down the mountain, it was Chunfu who pushed me..."
Cheng Ying has regular features and naturally heroic eyes. She is wearing a smart military green officer's uniform and a military green peaked cap. She sits upright on a chair by the bed.
"Dad, why didn't you tell me sooner?" Cheng Ying held Cheng Jiantong's thin hand, her eyes slightly red, her heart filled with unbearable sorrow. "If I had known back then that it was that bastard Cheng Chunfu who pushed you off the cliff, causing you to become paralyzed on one side, I would have beaten that beast to death!"
Cheng Jiantong's eyes were unfocused; he was on the verge of death, but his mind was clear. "I knew you had a bad temper, that's why I didn't tell you. Back then, Chunfu suddenly said he wanted to run the mail with me, saying he saw I had difficulty walking and wanted to help me carry my packages as a favor. I was pleased, thinking he had become sensible. But when we passed Ayi Mountain and rested at the summit, he suddenly pushed me off the mountain. He probably thought that if I died, he could take over my job. I was incredibly lucky; I survived such a high fall and was even rescued by the Miao people of Pucang Village. After I woke up, I always thought it was unintentional, until he took over my postman job and did those heinous things, and I found out. That's when I realized it was all a conspiracy..."
As Cheng Jiantong finished speaking, his palm suddenly slid down, his eyes lost their luster, and he stopped breathing.
"Dad! Dad!" Cheng Ying and Cheng Xue called out together, standing up and reaching out to check his breathing.
When they realized he was really dead, the two sisters knelt down beside him and wept bitterly.
"Cheng Ying, stop crying. What happened to your father that made you cry like this?"
Cheng Ying suddenly opened her eyes and saw a handsome, familiar-looking young man in a crisp military uniform looking at her with concern.
Upon seeing this man, Cheng Ying's face immediately darkened, and she gritted her teeth, saying, "Wei Muchen, you scum, how come you suddenly look so young? And you dare to appear in front of me? Do you want to die?"
Wei Muchen frowned. "Cheng Ying, what's wrong with you? Even if we had a fight before and have been giving each other the cold shoulder for more than a week, I'm here today to apologize to you and make up with you. You don't need to say such harsh things to me, do you? What did I do to wrong you? How did I become a scumbag?"
Cheng Ying was stunned for a moment, and suddenly felt that something was wrong. Wei Muchen in front of her was too young, as if he was only twenty-five years old. He was not the middle-aged man who was overweight, had a beer belly, and had been keeping a mistress and having a child with her, but kept saying that he only loved her. He had just made the mistake that all men make.
She looked at the window behind Wei Muchen. Through the transparent window, she saw a familiar yet unfamiliar face, a face full of youthful energy and bright sunshine, with delicate features. It was her own face, a face that looked more than thirty years younger.
Outside the window was the familiar and spacious military training ground she remembered. In the center of the ground, on a cement platform, stood a wooden flagpole, with a five-star red flag fluttering in the wind.
On the training field, a group of female soldiers dressed in military green uniforms and wearing military caps were running along the field, shouting loud slogans, looking full of energy.
All of this felt so familiar, so familiar, as if she were dreaming.
She was at home taking care of her father's funeral, and hadn't slept for days and nights. But when she was kneeling to greet the guests, she suddenly felt dizzy and then everything went black. She lost consciousness.
Now that she's awake, it feels like she's back to when she was twenty. She can't quite describe the feeling in her heart.
As a female officer, she rose from an ordinary female soldier to the rank of senior colonel. The hardships and sacrifices she made were unimaginable to ordinary people, and she paid a heavy price for it.
The culture and beliefs she received in the military made her an atheist, but she was not old-fashioned. She also kept up with the rapid development of online information in the face of changing times. Under the influence of her younger sister Cheng Xue, she had watched and read a lot of novels and movies about rebirth and time travel.
At that time, she only treated it as a form of entertainment and didn't take it to heart. But when she saw her father's painful and regretful expression before he died, and his lingering resentment about handing over the postman job to Cheng Chunfu, she felt for the first time that she wished she could live her life again.
In that case, she would never let her father's job fall into Cheng Chunfu's hands, she would never be a female military officer again, and she would never be entangled with Wei Muchen and suffer for the rest of her life. She would live a different life.
Unexpectedly, this idea has now come true.
She couldn't help but reach out and pinch her thigh hard. It hurt, it hurt so much that she couldn't help but grit her teeth. This wasn't a dream, this was the real world. She had been reborn, reborn back to when she was twenty years old!
Cheng Ying looked down, picked up the telegram in her hand, and read that it contained only one short sentence: "Father fell down the mountain, is seriously ill, and is in critical condition. Return immediately!"
This was clearly an urgent telegram sent to her by her sister Cheng Xue more than 30 years ago, when her father, a postman, fell down a mountain on his way to deliver mail and fell into a coma.
Cheng Ying laughed, but the smile was extremely pale and colorless. She looked at Wei Muchen in front of her and said coldly, "Wei Muchen, let's break up. I don't love you anymore."
In her previous life, during the Cultural Revolution, when she was sixteen and in high school, her school was suddenly closed. The teachers were all labeled as bad elements and suffered all kinds of torture. She had no school to attend and did not want to work as a mail carrier with her father. After staying at home for half a year, she begged her father to write a letter of recommendation to his former leader and enlisted in the army.
Her father, Cheng Jiantong, was originally an honest, simple farmer from Qingshui Village. Because his ancestors helped the organization during the War of Resistance Against Japan, he, as a descendant, was given the opportunity to enlist in the army.
He became a communications soldier in the army, participated in countless battles, large and small, and made many meritorious contributions. However, in one battle, he was seriously wounded and lost an eye while saving a commander.
After he recovered from his injury, the commander originally intended to arrange easy jobs for him and his family in the city. However, after listening to his mother's tearful pleas, he became obsessed and turned down the city job, opting instead for a postman job back in his hometown.
He delivered all kinds of letters and parcels in the village rain or shine, working diligently as a postman for more than 20 years, and he was about to retire in a few years.
Unexpectedly, while delivering mail in a remote mountainous area, Cheng Jiantong fell down a steep mountain path and lay in the mountains for a day and a night before being rescued. He became paralyzed on one side and was unable to work.
At this time, Cheng Ying had been in the army for four years. She had worked her way up from the most ordinary female soldier to the current platoon leader level. Although her current officer position was not high, for a female soldier to reach such a level, in addition to her excellence in all aspects of the army, she also had a father with a good family background and the advantage of her family, as well as the leader that her father had saved as a backer.
The commander her father saved was Wei Muchen's father, the division commander of a division in the Western Military Region. He was a serious yet easy-going man who visited the female soldiers' camp many times to show his concern and protect her future.
Chief Wei was from the capital. Wei Muchen was his youngest son. He was a notorious playboy in the capital. Chief Wei was afraid that he would cause trouble during a special period and affect the future of the entire Wei family, so he kicked him to the military region of the Western Theater Command to serve in the army, where the officers would severely temper his character.
Wei Muchen was tempered in the army for several years. He went from being unruly and rebellious at the beginning to gradually tempering his personality and becoming a very cheerful, easy-going and talkative person. The process in between was extremely difficult.
Only Cheng Ying knew what kind of sinister and insane personality was hidden beneath Wei Muchen's seemingly cheerful nature.
Every time Chief Wei came to see Cheng Ying, Wei Mucheng would come with his father. Over time, they gradually became familiar with each other. Perhaps because they were both very competitive and similar in some way, both of them were ruthless. Whether in military training or on missions, they both wanted to be the best. Over time, they developed a sense of camaraderie and regret for not meeting sooner. They gradually developed feelings for each other, eventually became a couple, and got married.
Cheng Ying thought she had found true love and would love Wei Muchen for a lifetime. Wei Muchen did love her at first. Despite the opposition from his parents and family, he married Cheng Ying and brought her into the Wei family. He protected her in every way despite the many difficulties caused by Wei's mother and other members of the Wei family. They lived happily together for several years.
However, in the fifth year of their marriage, she went to the military region to participate in a series of high-intensity training exercises for female and male soldiers. Unbeknownst to her, she miscarried. Wei Mucheng had a big fight with her about this, but she refused to back down, and their relationship gradually deteriorated.
They went from being a loving couple who shared everything, to neither wanting to talk to the other, neither willing to back down, having nothing to say to each other, and being unable to stay together. Then, when Cheng Ying couldn't stand this cold violence anymore and wanted to humble herself and coax Wei Muchen to reconcile with him, Wei Muchen's mother brought back a crying baby boy in swaddling clothes and told her that this was Wei Muchen's child with another woman, and that the baby was already a month old.
At that moment, she felt utterly hopeless.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
