Just a moment ago, Luo Yan was celebrating her entry into the ranks of millionaires, singing while counting the eight-pack abs of male models.
"A flock of ducks swam across the bridge in front of the gate, come quickly and count them: two, four, six, seven, eight..."
The next second, there was complete silence, so quiet that my head was buzzing.
Luo Yan opened her eyes to a white ceiling.
Sitting up, you see enamel mugs printed with the words "Labor is the most glorious," bamboo thermos flasks, and embroidered blankets everywhere...
This room is decorated like it's from the 70s or 80s. Is she dreaming?
By the way, she's been reading a period drama novel lately, and coincidentally, the male and female leads' daughter shares the same name as her. Maybe she's been reading too much of the book, because she had a dream about a bygone era.
Yes, that must be it. Luo Yan closed her eyes and continued to sleep.
Just as she lay back down on her pillow, memories that didn't belong to Luo Yan suddenly flooded her mind.
Luo Yan, who had received all the memories, was numb.
Luo Yan was born on March 6, 1976.
The mother, Hua Li, is a widow raising her child alone. She lives in a military compound but has to go out to do odd jobs to earn money to support herself and her child.
Luo Shicheng, the father, lived in the army for most of the year and rarely came home. He gave all his allowance to Liu Jingqiu, the widow of his comrade-in-arms, so that other people's children could be fed and clothed, while his own children suffered from hunger.
Luo Yan wanted to hit someone.
The original owner, a three-and-a-half-year-old toddler, didn't know why her parents were like this, but she did know—it was because she had read this heart-wrenching and physically abusive novel.
Hua Li's grandfather and Luo Shicheng's grandfather had a favor to do for each other, so the two families arranged a marriage between Hua Li and Luo Shicheng when they were children.
Luo Shicheng disagreed but couldn't go against the old man's wishes, so he had no choice but to marry Hua Li, who came from the countryside.
On his wedding night, Luo Shicheng was drugged by his childhood sweetheart, Liu Jingqiu.
Liu Jingqiu wanted to force herself on Luo Shicheng, but Luo Shicheng was determined and managed to escape despite the effects of the drug.
Hua Li, who also received traditional Chinese medicine, was assigned by Liu Jingqiu to a bald, yellow-toothed widower.
Just as the widower was about to succeed, Luo Shicheng, who happened to be passing by and heard Hua Li's cries for help, rushed in and knocked him unconscious. The fight also caused Luo Shicheng to lose control of the drug due to its enhanced effects.
Because both Luo Shicheng and Hua Li were drugged during their first time together, neither remembered the other.
Luo Shicheng, who regained consciousness first, only remembered the girl's awkwardness and a splash of red on the mattress in the dim morning light. After getting dressed and throwing the widower out the door, he ran to find a doctor to save him.
By the time Luo Shicheng brought the doctor, Hua Li had already left.
When Hua Li woke up, she vaguely remembered that the person who bullied her was a tall man, but the room was dark with the curtains drawn, and she couldn't see his face clearly at all.
The couple didn't stay at home on their wedding night. When they saw each other again, one was disheveled and the other had messy hair and red, swollen eyes.
From then on, one felt guilty for ruining someone else's good girl and failing in her marriage, while the other felt guilty for being defiled by a bad person and for letting down her husband, spending her days in tears.
The result was as absurd as it could get: three months later, Hua Li, who had no experience in raising children, finally discovered that she was pregnant.
Hua Li wanted to have an abortion, but the hospital required her husband's signature. Hua Li was still hesitating about whether to ask Luo Shicheng for the signature when Liu Jingqiu, who was visiting the hospital, discovered her.
Liu Jingqiu immediately went to Luo Shicheng and framed Hua Li for having an affair with a stranger and becoming pregnant.
When Luo Shicheng found out, he completely despised his impure wife. Even when Hua Li begged him on her knees, he refused to sign the papers. He even deliberately forbade Hua Li from having an abortion, wanting her to bear this shame for the rest of her life.
Seeing her husband's resolute decision after losing both parents, and considering that she might be lonely for the rest of her life, Hua Li decided against having an abortion and decided to keep the child to depend on each other.
And so, Luo Yan, who was not loved by her parents, was born.
All Luo Yan could say was, "What a tragedy!"
What happened next was even worse.
Liu Jingqiu, who married Luo Shicheng's comrade-in-arms, became a widow. Raising her child alone, she would often ask Luo Shicheng for help.
Luo Shicheng, mindful that Liu Jingqiu's husband An Guo had sacrificed himself to save him, granted her every request and gave her most of his allowance, while his wife Hua Li received nothing.
Hua Li is unemployed and her husband doesn't provide her with living expenses, so she has to do odd jobs outside to support herself and her child.
She raised Luo Yan to the age of three and a half through all the ups and downs, but she herself collapsed from exhaustion.
Luo Yan remembered that the article described this serious illness, which left Hua Li with a chronic condition.
Later, on the day the truth came out, Hua Li fell seriously ill and passed away. Luo Shicheng was filled with remorse and, after struggling to raise his daughter to adulthood, he also passed away.
But Luo Yan couldn't accept the word "misery" no matter where she was. Now that she was here, she was going to drastically change the bad ending and give her a happy ending.
Luo Yan turned her head and saw Hua Li's face, which was flushed red from the fever and had cracked lips.
Despite her sallow complexion, thinness, and sunken cheeks, Hua Li still possesses an undeniable beauty. Lying there with her eyes closed, she exudes a fragile beauty that seems as if she could crumble at the slightest touch.
Luo Yan reached out and touched Hua Li's forehead, almost burning her hand.
No, if this continues, Hua Li will definitely develop a chronic illness.
As the saying goes, a child with a mother is a treasure, while a child without a mother is just a weed. She couldn't let Hua Li die young.
Luo Yan put on her shoes and stepped out of bed, when she inadvertently caught a glimpse of herself in the folding mirror on the table.
One glance was enough to scare Luo Yan.
The little baby should have had chubby cheeks, but he was so thin that his face was just a layer of skin, and his already big eyes looked frighteningly large because he was so thin.
With dry, yellow hair and a vacant stare, this was hardly the appearance of a child. Even a weathered, near-death old man was not as lifeless as this child.
What a terrible thing!
Luo Yan felt dizzy, not from anger, but from hunger.
Normally, the mother and daughter would go hungry one day and eat a full meal the next. After Hua Li fell ill, Luo Yan also went hungry and hadn't eaten anything for a day and a night.
She has to save herself, and she also has to save Hua Li. Why is the life of a three-year-old child so miserable?
Luo Yan shed a tear of bitterness for herself.
Luo Yan first searched the kitchen, and found only a pitifully small amount of rice and two dried-up potatoes in the rice bag, nothing else.
What a hellish start!
Fine, she'll just have to put up with it.
Luo Yan came out of the kitchen, wanting to open the door to ask for help, but found that there were two bolts on the door. One was low, which she could open by standing on tiptoe, and the other was high, which she couldn't reach at all.
Hua Li, a woman raising a child alone, was still afraid even living in a military compound.
As darkness fell, the front door was bolted shut, and the doors were locked from the inside. Even on the hottest days, the windows were locked from the inside. Although it seemed a bit silly, only Hua Li and her daughter knew the true meaning behind it.
No matter how difficult it was to open the door, Luo Yan, who was also a woman, never complained about Hua Li.
Luo Yan used all her strength to drag the chair with the backrest over and step onto it, but she was still a little short.
Tsk, Luo Yan scratched her head, got off the chair, went back to the kitchen, and came out with the stove hook.
Stepping back onto the chair, Luo Yan used the stove hook to retrieve the latch.
Click! The latch was successfully opened, and the door was finally open.
Luo Yan pushed open the door, turned around and closed it. When she walked to the courtyard gate, she was blocked by the tightly closed gate.
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