“Mommy, please don’t beat me! Waaah… Tiantian will pour water for you!”
The tender voice was filled with terror and panic, choked with heavy sobs.
Lin Shirou opened her eyes and nearly choked to death, feeling as if something was blocking her throat.
She immediately pressed her lower abdomen against the back of a chair, causing a ball of white substance to fly out of her mouth before she could finally take a deep breath.
Looking up, she saw a skinny, scrawny little girl shrinking back in fear. Her filthy, blackened hands reached for a broken bowl on the floor.
Lin Shirou widened her eyes, taking in the run-down wooden hut. Beneath her was a hard wooden plank bed, and in front of her stood a battered wooden table.
This little girl…
Why did she look so much like the girl in her dreams?
Lu Tian turned and bolted out the door, terrified that her mother’s slap would land on her face if she was a second too slow.
Lin Shirou stood up and carefully looked around at her surroundings. So alike! It’s really too similar!
“Mommy, drink water.” The little girl’s voice carried lingering fear. Her large eyes looked even bigger on her thin, scrawny face.
Her tiny, blackened hands held the broken bowl filled with water, trembling so much she could barely hold it steady.
Her eyes were filled with dread and panic, yet she still tried her best to lift the water to Lin Shirou’s lips.
Lin Shirou downed the water in one gulp. Once her parched, burning throat felt slightly relieved, she finally asked, “W-What is your name?”
Lu Tian raised her head and looked at her mother in surprise. Why would Mommy ask that?
“Mommy, I’m Tiantian!”
Lin Shirou’s brain exploded with a loud bang. She pinched her own arm hard.
It hurts!
It was not a dream!
She had transmigrated—transmigrated into a 1970s period novel she had recently been reading.
Tiantian called her Mommy? Didn’t that mean she had transmigrated into the vicious female side-character who shared the exact same name—Lin Shirou?!
Lin Shirou had been an outstanding young woman of the 21st century who ended up paralyzed in both legs after saving someone.
Good deeds went unrewarded; the family she saved refused to acknowledge her help, and while the lawsuit was still ongoing, she was left permanently unable to stand up again.
With nothing else to do after becoming disabled, she read web novels every day, lately becoming obsessed with period novels.
Among them was a novel titled Rebirth in the Seventies: The Chief’s Delicate Country Wife, which had made her grind her teeth in anger and lose sleep at night.
The villainous female supporting character in the book shared her exact name, Lin Shirou, but the things she did were utterly disgusting.
She was an educated youth sent down to the countryside. Unable to bear the hardship of manual labor, she plotted to marry a local rural man.
When the male protagonist, Lu Wen, returned home to visit his family, Lin Shirou found out he was a military officer and immediately set her sights on him.
She set up a trap for Lu Wen, falsely claiming he had seen her bare body, and successfully forced him to marry her.
On their wedding night, she even drugged him to consummate the marriage.
Lu Wen loathed this scheming woman deeply and returned to the military camp the very next day. Who knew that two months later, she would end up pregnant?
And so, her daughter Lu Tian was born. Although Lin Shirou was an educated youth, she was more feudal-minded than the traditional old-timers.
She was deeply displeased that she had given birth to a daughter, and because her husband disliked her, she blamed everything on four-year-old Lu Tian, subjecting her to all kinds of abuse.
Meanwhile, Lu Wen’s childhood sweetheart, Xu Xiaoying, was the story’s virtuous and kind female lead. She had always been in love with Lu Wen, the most successful man in the village.
Heartbroken, she had married another man and given birth to a son. Knowing she was Lu Wen’s childhood friend, Lin Shirou constantly targeted her.
However, all Lin Shirou did were foolish ploys, which not only failed to win her husband back but also turned her into the laughingstock of the whole village.
Xu Xiaoying even managed to capture the male lead’s attention through her genuine care for Lu Tian. In the end, the female lead naturally married Lu Wen, while Lin Shirou, the villainous cannon-fodder, was cast aside as far as possible.
“Tiantian? You’re Tiantian?” Lin Shirou’s voice was raspy as she grabbed Lu Tian’s tiny arm.
Lu Tian shrank back in fear. Mommy is so strange! She’s so scared!
Looking at the terrified little girl in front of her, Lin Shirou’s eyes grew hot.
She pulled the thin, scrawny child into her arms and held her tightly.
Lu Tian had assumed she was about to be beaten and had already closed her eyes, but instead, she felt a soft embrace.
Her small body froze, stiff as a wooden board, not knowing where to put her hands.
In the end, she slowly wrapped her arms around Lin Shirou’s back, barely daring to touch her gently.
Lin Shirou’s voice choked up. “Tiantian, Mommy will never hit you again. Don’t be scared.”
Lu Tian’s eyes widened. Is this real? Every night before going to sleep, she would secretly make a wish for a mother who wouldn’t hit her. Had it finally come true?
Lin Shirou rubbed the little girl’s bony back, her heart aching so much she nearly shed tears.
When reading the book, she had felt immensely sorry for this little girl. Her name was Tiantian—meaning “Sweetie”—yet life had offered her nothing but bitterness.
Perhaps because the author wanted to clear the path for the female lead, the little girl drowned just two years after Lu Wen and Xu Xiaoying got married.
A sharp pain shot through her brain as a huge flood of memories rushed into her mind.
At the same time, a cold, mechanical voice sounded in her head: “Ding! Host login detected. Hello Host, I am the Wish-Fulfillment System 666.”
Wish-Fulfillment System?
As an avid web novel reader, Lin Shirou understood instantly.
After exchanging a few words with the system, she grasped the reason for her transmigration.
It turned out Lu Tian wanted a gentle mother and wished for it every night, while Lin Shirou had been having the exact same dream every single night.
Indeed, ever since reading that novel, she had repeatedly dreamt of becoming Lu Tian’s mother.
Sensing their strong mutual desires, the system bound itself to Lin Shirou and allowed her to transmigrate into this novel’s world.
“Host, issuing task now: Make Lu Tian genuinely trust you, love you, acknowledge you as her mother, and voluntarily say the words ‘I love you’. Time limit: 1 month. If uncompleted, your identity will be revoked, and you will be returned to the real world.”
The system’s voice remained cold and emotionless, sending a shiver down Lin Shirou’s spine.
What? Return to the real world? In the real world, she was paralyzed in both legs. Even with a caretaker, her mobility was severely limited and she couldn’t do anything independently.
Moreover, most importantly, she truly loved this heartbreaking little girl and didn’t want her to drown in a freezing river before even growing up.
She tightened her hold on Lu Tian. It was now early June; calculating the time, Lu Wen would return to the village in early July—he would be coming back to divorce the original owner.
She would protect Lu Tian well and let her grow up healthy and happy, ensuring she wouldn’t suffer a miserable childhood like her own.
Within a month, she would make Lu Tian truly regard her as her mother, love her, trust her, and say those three words.
Even if Lu Wen returned wanting a divorce, she would not give up custody of Lu Tian. He could have the divorce, but the child was coming with her!
“666, if I complete the task, will I truly become Lu Tian’s mother?” Lin Shirou asked.
666 replied: “Host’s question cannot be answered at this moment. Please wait for subsequent notifications.”
Lin Shirou’s gaze darkened. It seemed there would be more tasks in the future. Oh well, no matter what, she was determined to fulfill the mission.
Not just for Lu Tian, but also for herself—she needed this healthy body.
Lin Shirou: “Do you have any other features? Like a system space storage or something?”
666: “Host’s question cannot be answered at this moment. Please wait for subsequent notifications.”
Lin Shirou: …Fine then, this system is useless. Everything has to wait for ‘subsequent notifications’.
“Mommy, is what you said true?” Lu Tian’s voice was filled with anticipation and helplessness, as if she could hardly believe it.
Mommy said she would never hit her again. She barely dared to believe it was real.
Lin Shirou wiped the dirt off her little face. Although thin and frail, it was clear she would be a pretty little girl once cleaned up.
Lin Shirou planted a firm kiss on her small cheek. “Darling, let’s pinky-promise.”
She extended her pinky finger. Lu Tian looked at her timidly, still hesitant to believe it, her eyes filled with fear and coyness.
“Pinky promise, cross my heart, hope to die for a hundred years!”
Lin Shirou directly hooked her small finger to seal the promise.
However, this heartwarming atmosphere was interrupted by a sharp female voice shouting from outside: “Second Daughter-in-law! What are you still dawdling for?! Get out here and go to work in the fields!”
Pounding sounds echoed as her mother-in-law, Zhang Ximei, banged furiously against the door. Bang! Bang! Bang!
Lin Shirou stood up and pulled the door open. Zhang Ximei stood there with her hands on her hips, glaring furiously at her lazy daughter-in-law.
“I say, Second Daughter-in-law, all you do every day is slack off! Are you not going to work this afternoon?!”