Chapter 1 I've Transmigrated into a Book
Winter, 1973.
The weather has been overcast for several days after the snowfall, and the snow on the roof has not melted yet. The ground in the yard is slippery, and water has accumulated in the depressions and frozen into a thin layer of ice.
Before dawn, Lin Qingqing pushed open the door, hesitated slightly before stepping out. Her old cotton shoes weren't slip-resistant, and she might slip and fall if she stepped on icicles. Afraid of getting hurt, Lin Qingqing could only use the faint morning light to carefully walk to the kitchen, her back slightly bent.
The kitchen was dark, so she didn't close the door after entering. She went straight to the stove, took out a tinderbox from the stove burner, lit a handful of straw, and stuffed it in. The straw was easily ignited, and the flames immediately illuminated the stove, reflecting off Lin Qingqing's face.
Feeling the warmth, Lin Qingqing straightened up from her hunched position due to the cold, her eyes narrowed slightly, and a faint smile appeared on her face.
But this happiness didn't last long. Old Mrs. Lin was a meticulous person; she knew exactly how much rice to cook and how much firewood to burn each day—less was more, more was better. If Old Mrs. Lin found out that she was burning straw for nothing, she would definitely cause trouble for her.
Although Old Lady Lin needed her help now, and no matter how angry she was, she could only offer sarcastic remarks, Lin Qingqing still got up to wash the rice and dried sweet potatoes, mixing them together to cook porridge. Then she opened the sauerkraut jar against the wall, took out a handful of pickled cowpeas, chopped them into sections, and stir-fried them in a pan.
A bowl of coarse grain porridge and a plate of pickled cowpeas were the Lin family's breakfast.
...
As Lin Qingqing cooked, the sky gradually brightened from deep blue, and candlelight was lit in each room of the Lin family as people got up one after another.
The most advanced kitchen staff is Old Lady Lin. She is fifty-two years old this year. Unlike other old ladies, she doesn't look thin and frail. She has a slightly round figure and is very healthy.
When Grandma Lin entered the kitchen and saw Lin Qingqing busy at work, her furrowed brows relaxed, but she said, "Didn't I tell you to rest in the house for a few more days? Why are you up so early?"
Lin Qingqing rolled her eyes upon hearing this. Yesterday, Old Lady Lin practically pointed her finger at her nose and accused her of being lazy. The porridge she was given was just clear broth with not a single grain of rice. If she didn't get up early today, she was afraid she would be kicked out.
Kicking her out isn't a bad thing, but given Old Lady Lin's personality, she'll definitely squeeze every last bit of value out of her before that happens.
Lin Qingqing sighed inwardly. She really didn't understand why she, a philanthropist who collected energy at fixed times every day and insisted on planting trees and doing public welfare, didn't transmigrate into a wealthy family heroine with a net worth of hundreds of billions, but instead transmigrated into a tragic heroine in a period novel who dedicated her whole life to supporting characters.
This is outrageous!
Lin Qingqing sighed inwardly, but looked up with a touched expression and said, "My mother cares about me, so of course I want to lighten your burden as well."
Lin Qingqing transmigrated after the original owner of this body fell into the water. When she first learned that she had transmigrated into the heroine of a melodramatic period novel she had read before bed, she was a little mentally broken and lay in bed pretending to be sick for a few days. As a result, the housework that the original owner used to do fell into the hands of Old Mrs. Lin, who usually did nothing but stand there and give orders. Because of this, Old Mrs. Lin's face was dark for several days, and it was only today that her mood brightened.
Last night before going to bed, Old Mrs. Lin was still scolding Lin Qingqing for faking illness when she wasn't sick. She said that if it weren't for her own daughter, she wouldn't tolerate Lin Qingqing's habit. Hearing Lin Qingqing's words now, she felt much better.
She had three sons and two daughters in her life, but in the end, she only managed to raise two sons and one daughter. After her daughter got married, she became part of another family, while her sons got married and their wives had grandchildren, making a total of seven or eight people in the family. But these past few days, she's been busy running around, and not a single one of them has offered a helping hand.
She's not even as filial as Lin Qingqing, the daughter he picked up!
Perhaps it was because she found Lin Qingqing, her adopted daughter, more agreeable, or perhaps it was because she saw that Lin Qingqing had done chores, but when it came time for breakfast, the porridge that Old Mrs. Lin gave Lin Qingqing was thicker than it had been in the past ten years.
Lin Qingqing didn't think much of it. Putting aside the fact that she had done so much work early in the morning, just considering Lin's mother's plans, she felt that this bowl of thick porridge was something she deserved to eat.
The Lin brothers, Weimin and Weiguo, were both grown men and always ate the thickest porridge in the house without much reaction. Weimin's wife, Chen Xiaocao, was an honest woman who always ate whatever her mother-in-law gave her without complaint. Only Weiguo's wife, Li Chunlian, looked at the dried sweet potatoes in her bowl and then at the perfectly cooked rice in Lin Qingqing's bowl, and began to displease herself.
Li Chunlian knew her mother-in-law was not someone to be trifled with, so she didn't dare to confront her directly. Instead, she said to Lin Qingqing, "Did you divide this porridge? That's not very proper. In our family, meals are always divided according to the amount of labor required."
Lin Qingqing looked up at everyone's bowls and asked in confusion, "Isn't it today?"
Li Chunlian thought she was pretending not to understand, so she rolled her eyes and said, "Everything else is fine, but why is there so much rice in your bowl? My bowl is full of dried sweet potatoes."
Lin Qingqing said matter-of-factly, "I did more work! Second sister-in-law, you said it yourself, the one who does more work eats more. Your bowl has more water and more dried sweet potatoes, it must be because you were lazy." Then she looked at Old Lady Lin, "I believe that Mother's way of dividing things is reasonable."
The Lin family was stunned when they heard Lin Qingqing's words.
They were stunned not because Lin Qingqing refuted Li Chunlian's words, but because they were puzzled: Did Lin Qingqing do a lot of work?
Soon, they all remembered that Lin Qingqing not only had to work in the fields to earn work points, but also took on all the housework, doing the work of two people. She did a lot of work.
As for Li Chunlian's words, they weren't entirely false. At least the rest of the Lin family distributed food according to this rule, except for the original owner of this body, who did the most work and ate the least. No one, including the original owner herself, thought this distribution method was wrong. In fact, over time, everyone took the original owner's contributions for granted and even felt she was a burden to the Lin family.
Only now, with Lin Qingqing breaking the ice, have they realized that Lin Qingqing wasn't just a freeloader after all.
For a moment, everyone looked astonished.
Old Mrs. Lin's expression also became somewhat embarrassed. She wanted to ask her adopted daughter if she felt she had mistreated her. But thinking of her own plan, she had no choice but to turn her anger towards her younger daughter-in-law: "Go out and see, which daughter-in-law in the brigade is as unresponsive as you? You're so lazy, yet you have the nerve to blame me for not feeding you well!"
Li Chunlian froze, her face stiff after being scolded by Old Lady Lin. But she didn't dare argue back, so she turned and glared at Lin Qingqing.
Lin Qingqing wasn't afraid of her at all. Calmly, she picked up a piece of pickled cowpeas for Old Madam Lin and said, "Mother, please eat more."
Although it was just a single chopstick of pickled cowpeas, compared to her daughter-in-law's resentful expression, Lin Qingqing's actions comforted Old Mrs. Lin considerably. Thinking that she would need her help in the future, she tapped the rim of her bowl with her chopsticks and said, "From now on, food will be distributed like this at home. If you're ever hungry, don't come looking for me; just get back to work!"
Upon hearing this, Li Chunlian and Chen Xiaocao both felt a bitter taste in their mouths. Lin Qingqing was like an old ox, never knowing fatigue in her work. If they really divided the food according to their mother-in-law's suggestion, they would end up eating worse than Lin Qingqing, their adopted daughter.
Lin Qingqing calmly accepted the deaths of her two sisters-in-law. She didn't plan to stay in the Lin family any longer, and how they distributed food in the future was none of her business.
...
Grandma Lin didn't care how worried her daughter-in-law was. Anyway, she had the power to distribute the food, so no matter what, she and her son wouldn't go hungry.
She just ate her own meal, wiped her mouth, and said to her adopted daughter, who had been eating very politely lately and still had half a bowl of porridge left, "Qingqing, come to my room later."
Lin Qingqing paused upon hearing this, thinking, "Here it comes."
But she didn't show it too obviously. She calmly responded, finished the rest of the porridge, and followed Grandma Lin into the main house.
After what happened at the dinner table, Li Chunlian keenly sensed that her stepsister-in-law was different from before. Of course, the change in her stepsister-in-law wasn't important; the key was her mother-in-law's attitude.
My mother-in-law has always disliked my sister-in-law and would find fault with her every now and then. How come her attitude changed as soon as my sister-in-law fell into the water?
There's definitely something fishy going on!
Chen Chunlian thought for a moment, then nudged her husband Lin Weiguo with her elbow and asked in a low voice, "What does Mother want with Qingqing?"
"How would I know?" Lin Weiguo was the type who didn't care about anything else once he was full and satisfied.
Chen Chunlian was furious upon hearing this, thinking, "Your wife is almost starving, and you're not worried about anything!" But she was really curious, so she suppressed her anger and asked Lin Weimin, "Brother, do you know?"
"Me? I don't know." Lin Weimin shook his head, also a little puzzled. His mother never talked much with Qingqing, so why did she have to call her into the house to talk about something?
Thinking that Qingqing was getting on in years, and that girls her age in the village should all be getting married... Lin Weimin's mind wandered. Could it be that he wanted to talk about Qingqing's marriage?
...
There was a lot of discussion in the main room, everyone was curious about what Old Madam Lin had to say, but Lin Qingqing, who followed into the main room, was very calm, her face showed no unease, and she did not ask Old Madam Lin any questions.
Old Mrs. Lin sat on the bed for a long time, but her adopted daughter didn't say anything. She couldn't help but curse in her heart, "What a blockhead!"
Since Lin Qingqing didn't speak, Old Mrs. Lin had no choice but to ask, "Do you know what I wanted to talk to you about when I called you in?"
"Could it be related to Comrade Xie?" Lin Qingqing asked疑惑地.
Old Mrs. Lin was slightly taken aback. "Which Comrade Xie?"
"It's Comrade Xie Wei who saved me when I fell into the water a few days ago," Lin Qingqing said, pretending not to know what Old Lady Lin was going to say. "If it weren't for Comrade Xie, I'm afraid I would be dead by now. Mother, don't you think I should go and thank Comrade Xie?"
Grandma Lin thought of Xie Wei and nodded, saying, "We should thank him."
Lin Qingqing frowned, looking troubled, and said, "It's been several days since we came over, and we haven't been able to visit yet. We can't delay any longer. Can I go there later?"
Grandma Lin just wanted to get the topic back on track as quickly as possible, so she said indifferently, "Whatever."
"Then I'll go in a bit, but... it wouldn't be right for me to go thank them empty-handed, would it? Shouldn't I bring something with me?" Lin Qingqing asked.
"It is time to mention..." Old Mrs. Lin realized as soon as she spoke that Lin Qingqing's work points, year-end grain and money were all in her hands. If she wanted to take things to the Xie family, where would the things come from? They must be in Lin Qingqing's hands. She immediately became alert and awkwardly changed the subject, "That's not what I wanted to talk to you about."
Lin Qingqing nodded in a good-natured manner, "Okay, what is it?"
Grandma Lin looked up at Lin Qingqing, thinking that her adopted daughter had a rather unfortunate fate, though she was quite pretty. If it weren't for that, she wouldn't have hesitated when her daughter brought up that matter.
However, her daughter is right. Her adopted daughter looks clever, but she is actually quite stupid and easy to control.
Thinking of this, Old Mrs. Lin no longer hesitated and lowered her eyes to say, "Your third sister has been married for two years and still hasn't gotten pregnant. The Zhao family is pressuring her. Last month, the couple went to the hospital for a checkup, and it turned out to be her problem; she can't have children. Our family has raised you for so many years, and now it's time for you to repay our kindness."
Thinking of her daughter's tragic life, Old Mrs. Lin's voice choked slightly. She covered her mouth and nose, calmed herself down, and said softly...
"Have a child for her."
The author has something to say: I really didn't have any inspiration for my original story, "The Movie Queen's Daughter is Three and a Half Years Old," so I changed the plot and started this story. To express my apologies, there will be red envelopes dropping during the first ten days of the story!
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