Wei Nan leaned against the headboard, her gaze dull and unfocused.
Although more than an hour had already passed, she still couldn’t believe that she had transmigrated just like that.
One moment she had been sitting in her warm bedroom, eating chocolate and scrolling on her phone.
The next moment, she appeared in this cold, damp hospital ward, having become a twenty-year-old girl who had been sent to the hospital after fainting.
Because fragments of images would flash through her mind from time to time, Wei Nan had gained some understanding of the girl’s situation.
She came to know the girl’s short life, yet still could not accept the reality that she had become her.
Through those images, Wei Nan learned that the girl shared the same name as her and was an educated youth who had just returned to the city.
On the day before completing the formalities and preparing to go home, she suddenly received a telegram from the textile factory saying that her father had passed away and asking her to return home for the funeral.
The girl had gone to the countryside at fourteen and returned to the city at twenty. She had been away for six years and had not gone home even once during that time.
Countless times she had written letters home, crying and begging her parents to let her come back for a visit, but the replies she received were always the same few cold words: “No. Don’t waste the money!”
For six years, she had not seen her family a single time. After finally catching the last chance to return to the city with everyone else, she never expected that before she even made it home, she would first receive news of her father’s death.
And this was not what drove the girl to despair and fury at the world.
The real reason was that only after returning did she learn that her mother had already died three years earlier.
For three whole years after that, she wrote so many letters home, yet her own biological father, just to save her the cost of a trip, kept the truth tightly hidden and never once told her about it.
That was her mother!
The only family member in this world who had ever shown her any care or affection!
The moment she learned the truth, the girl’s heart was consumed by boundless anger and grief, driving her to make the decision to give up on this world.
And Wei Nan was precisely brought into this world, utterly inexplicably, because of that decision, replacing her.
Wei Nan felt deeply wronged.
She didn’t know what she had done wrong.
Even if this girl’s life had been pitiful, what did it have to do with her?
Why was she living perfectly well at home, only to be forced to come here and live someone else’s life?
And what about her own life, what was she supposed to do now?
She had parents too. She had her own family!
At the thought of her parents, who loved and spoiled her, and her younger brother, who bickered with her whenever they met but missed her terribly whenever they were apart, and how heartbroken they must be the moment they discovered she had vanished, Wei Nan couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face.
“Hey, stop crying already. You just cried yourself unconscious earlier, now that you’ve finally woken up, you’re crying again?”
Wei Qiuxia, the team leader from the weaving workshop, handed a towel to Wei Nan, her face full of helplessness.
“Xiao Nan, it’s not that I want to lecture you, but instead of crying, you’d be better off thinking about what you’re going to do when your grandma comes later. Anyway, I’ll say it again, no matter what, your dad’s funeral expenses and compensation absolutely cannot be taken away by that old woman. Otherwise, how are you supposed to live in the future?”
Wei Qiuxia had been Wei Nan’s mother’s apprentice and had followed her to work after entering the factory.
Later, because of her outstanding ability, she became a group leader. But even after all these years, she still respected her mentor from the bottom of her heart.
And now, toward the daughter her mentor had left behind, she showed even more care than she would to others.
The more Wei Qiuxia spoke, the angrier she became, and she couldn’t help but stand up for Wei Nan again.
“When your mother passed away, you should’ve been called back to take over her position. But after your grandma made a huge scene with your dad, the person who took over the job somehow turned into your cousin.
Back then, the factory’s personnel department didn’t agree at all. They said, ‘The deceased worker has a biological daughter, why should a niece from the husband’s side take over the position?’ But your grandma ran to the factory office, rolling around on the floor, crying and making such a fuss that even the director and the Party secretary didn’t dare stay in the room.
In the end, your dad personally pressed his fingerprint at the personnel office, agreeing to give the job position to your cousin and guaranteeing that there would be no trouble for the factory because of it. Only then was the matter settled.
Is that something a real father would do?!
And when you were sent down to the countryside back then, you weren’t even old enough. If it hadn’t been for your third uncle getting married, and your grandma forcing your dad to send money home, would your family really have been so greedy for the Liu family’s one hundred yuan and fifty jin of grain coupons that they made you go to the countryside in place of her daughter?”
It’s not that I want to bad-mouth him, but that father of yours doesn’t deserve to be called a father at all, he’s not worth a single tear from you! Instead of crying over him, you’d be better off figuring out how to get that money back into your own hands so you can live properly from now on!”
All these years while Wei Nan was away from home, she knew far less about what had happened in the family than Wei Qiuxia did. So as Wei Qiuxia spoke, Wei Nan remained silent, listening quietly.
She didn’t explain that the person she was crying for wasn’t that so-called “father” at all.
“Xiao Nan is back? Where is she? Where is she right now?”
At that moment, a shrill, aged voice suddenly rang out from the corridor.
Following the sound, an old woman dressed in a black padded jacket and wrapped in a black headscarf shoved open the ward door and rushed inside.
Wei Nan was staying in a large eight-bed ward. When the old woman entered, she clearly hesitated for a moment, obviously, she could no longer recognize the granddaughter she hadn’t seen for six years.
Then she spotted Wei Qiuxia.
The old woman’s eyes darted around a few times before she charged straight toward Wei Nan.
As she walked, she wailed loudly, “I’ll beat you to death, you unfilial child! Why did you only come back now? Your poor father didn’t even get to see you before he died!”
She cried as she struck Wei Nan hard through the thin blanket covering her, spittle flying everywhere, much of it nearly spraying onto Wei Nan’s face.
Wei Nan’s parents were both university professors, and she had grown up among educated, cultured people, when had she ever witnessed a scene like this?
At that moment, her entire body went rigid, stretched to the breaking point, and her mind completely stopped functioning.
“Oh my, Grandma, don’t hit her. Xiao Nan just woke up, don’t knock her unconscious again.”
Seeing the old woman like this, Wei Qiuxia hurried forward to stop her.
She positioned herself between the old woman and Wei Nan’s hospital bed and said irritably,
“Listen to what you’re saying! What did I hit? I hit the blanket! Xiao Nan is my own granddaughter, I dote on her!”
The old woman, Wang Sanhua, brusquely shoved Wei Qiuxia aside and forced a kind, loving expression onto her face.
She said to Wei Nan, “Nan, come on, go home with Grandma. Now that you’re back, how can you not go home and kowtow to your dad? Why are you staying in the hospital? One day here costs several mao, it’s so expensive!”
As she spoke, she reached out to pull off the blanket covering Wei Nan.
Wei Nan quickly shrank back into the corner, pulled the blanket up to her chin, and only then forced a pitiful smile at Wang Sanhua, speaking the very first sentence she had said since transmigrating.
“Grandma, I want to go home too, but the doctor won’t allow it. The doctor said I have severe anemia and absolutely have to stay here for a few days to get nutrition injections. Otherwise, he said I might end up following my dad.”
Hearing Wei Nan say that she would die if she didn’t stay in the hospital, Wang Sanhua froze for a moment.
But she immediately put on an unconcerned expression. “You really believe what those doctors say? They’re all just trying to scam money! A young kid like you, how could you just die like that?”
“Oh my, hurry up and go back with Grandma. Once you’re home, your illness will be cured. There’s really nothing wrong with you, I say it’s just that your dad missed you, blamed you for coming back too late, and that’s why he made you sick for not kowtowing to him!”
Hidden beneath the blanket, Wei Nan’s hands clenched tightly into fists.
Although she had already seen that the Wei Nan of this world was like a little cabbage soaked in bitterness, someone who had grown up suffering with no one she could rely on,
she still didn’t expect her so-called family to be shameless and despicable to such an extent.
Wei Qiuxia had just told her that Wei Damin had died of a sudden heart attack, collapsing by the roadside, without leaving a single last word.
He had been recognized by an acquaintance, who then notified the factory.
After learning of her son’s death, the very first thing Wang Sanhua did was not to think about how to arrange his funeral, but to rush to the factory to demand the funeral expenses and the final compensation payment.
Because they knew her all too well, and were afraid that if the money were given to her, Wei Nan would cause a scene when she returned, the factory leadership immediately had someone send a telegram to Wei Nan and made it clear that the money could not be given to anyone else without Wei Nan’s consent.
After making several attempts and realizing she truly couldn’t get her hands on the money, Wang Sanhua then set her sights on the house Wei Damin had left behind.
The memorial service organized by the factory had barely ended when she didn’t even bother to collect her son’s ashes, instead chasing after the factory leaders, insisting on getting the house key, saying she wanted to move in with her youngest grandson.
Of course, the factory office couldn’t possibly hand over the key to her. In the end, they used the excuse that Wei Nan’s consent was required to send her away.
So at this moment, of everyone in the world put together, there was probably no one who wanted Wei Nan to come back more than Wang Sanhua did.
Seeing that after talking for so long Wei Nan was still lying there without moving, impatience clearly showed on Wang Sanhua’s face.
But after running into obstacles several times at the textile factory, she also knew that for now she had to focus on placating Wei Nan.
Wang Sanhua forced herself to suppress her inner disgust, tugged at the corner of her mouth, and spoke again. “Get up. Come home with Grandma, I’ll make you some flour soup, and I’ll crack an egg into it for you. I’m telling you, that’s the most nutritious thing there is. No injection can nourish you like a bowl of egg noodle soup!”
Wei Nan shook her head. “I don’t want egg noodle soup. I want beef noodles. Grandma, since you care about me so much, go buy me a bowl of beef noodles, will you?”
Hearing this, Wang Sanhua was so furious that the muscles in her face twitched uncontrollably, she nearly jumped on the spot.
Beef noodles, was that something just anyone could eat?
Her precious eldest grandson might not even get a bowl once a month, and this worthless girl thought she deserved it?
Before Wang Sanhua could spit out a retort, Wei Nan continued,
“Grandma, once you step out of the hospital and turn the corner, there’s the Qingxiang Hand-Pulled Noodle Shop. People say their beef noodles are really delicious. I wanted to try them six years ago, but I still haven’t had the chance.
Back then, my dad got your letter saying money needed to be sent home for Third Uncle’s wedding. He had no choice, so he used me to exchange for one hundred and ten yuan and fifty jin of grain coupons.
Before I left, my mom cried and begged him, saying he should at least buy me a bowl of beef noodles so I could have a full meal before going down to the countryside. But even when he got there, he still couldn’t bear to buy it for me.
Grandma, I think you were absolutely right. Me ending up in the hospital as soon as I came back really might be because my dad was thinking of me.
He must’ve gotten down there and remembered that he never once let me eat a proper bowl of noodles my whole life. Feeling too ashamed to face my mom, he sent you to see me so he could have a chance to repay that debt.
Grandma, since you care so much about my dad and about me, go buy me a bowl, okay? Oh, and while you’re at it, bring me back a basket of steamed meat dumplings too.”
At this point, Wei Nan smiled apologetically. “I was rushing to get home, so I haven’t eaten a single grain of rice for two days and one night already.”