The memories stopped abruptly there. Xia Baozhu lay stiffly on the bed, covering her face in agony—she didn’t know how to use the chamber pot…
But even after her soul had nearly been jolted out of her body on the oxcart, she still hadn’t returned to her original world. Since she was here, she might as well make the best of it.
Her late grandmother used to say she was like a copper pea—unsteamed, uncooked, and unflattened.
She thought of herself more as a fully inflated rubber ball: the more pressure applied, the higher she bounced; the harder she was slapped down, the faster she rebounded.
She had never accepted fate, nor did she want to. What was wrong with wanting a good life?
The top priority now was to escape the dramatic plot of the Zhongmawen.
The good news was that the plot had already begun to deviate.
In the book, Xia Baozhu ultimately married Teng Fei and even had a son with him. As for exactly which year they had the child or which year they divorced, she had no idea.
Because Meng Shuting hadn’t told her.
She only knew that they married after a big scene at the Xia family home when Teng Fei graduated from university. Later, Teng Fei kicked out his original wife and son to curry favor with a powerful female boss, claiming it was to avoid dragging them down.
After being forced into divorce, Xia Baozhu was despised by her family and driven out of the house, only to be taken in by her sister.
But her sister’s life was difficult, and her brother-in-law was a scoundrel. Xia Baozhu lived a miserable, dependent existence. The next time her storyline appeared, it was when Teng Fei, now a tycoon, snatched their child away.
In the book, Xia Baozhu didn’t faint to death in 1963, nor was she a time traveler.
The memories of the original host in her mind told her that the Xia family wasn’t as despicable as portrayed—they were all hardworking members of the working class.
Change was a good thing. She had no intention of marrying the male lead of a Zhongmawen and being forced to watch Animal World every day. As for this kind of Zhongmawen, with its world-building written by feet and its emotional arcs crafted by appendixes, was there even any point in trying to fix the plot?
With these scattered thoughts swirling in her mind, her eyelids finally drooped shut. She was truly exhausted. Everything could wait until she woke up!
“Wang Zengdi, how dare you make insinuations? Your heart is more full of holes than a honeycomb briquette! I think you only tricked your brother-in-law out of his job to avoid doing household chores!”
“Wah-wah, sister-in-law, I didn’t! You’re wronging me! It’s just that Chang’an was getting headaches from the noise of the cafeteria aunties, and I couldn’t bear to see him suffer, so I took over the job even while pregnant.”
“Cry, cry, cry—all you know is crying! You’ll cry away all your good fortune! What did I even say to make you cry? I usually ignore you, but now that you’re washing vegetables in the cafeteria, you’re putting on airs. Will you starve to death if dinner is half an hour late?”
“Sister-in-law, you’ve misunderstood Zengdi. She was just asking a few questions because she was hungry after getting off work. She didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Xia Chang’an, is your wife that precious, huh? A pheasant trying to pass as a phoenix? If she hadn’t married into the Xia family, would she even have food to eat now?
She’s only eaten a few full meals and already can’t tell east from west. A hen laying an ostrich egg and pretending to have a big rear end—what a fake!”
Xia Baozhu burst out laughing, now fully awake.
She had vaguely heard people arguing in her sleep. Her eyelids had battled for a few minutes before she finally managed to open them.
Rubbing her eyes, she stepped outside and heard her second sister-in-law sobbing, “Sister-in-law, you’re right. If I weren’t fortunate enough to marry Brother Chang’an, I wouldn’t have survived the famine. It’s just that I get hungry easily while pregnant. For the sake of the family, please forgive me.”
Quite the schemer.
The courtyard of their single-story home had walls barely two meters high, allowing neighbors on either side to easily glimpse her sorry state by simply standing on tiptoe and peering over. Hearing that she had only asked when dinner would be ready before being scolded, their disapproving gazes settled on Ye Qin.
The tangled conflicts between her eldest sister-in-law Ye Qin and second sister-in-law Wang Zengdi were indeed numerous.
Since graduating from junior high, Xia Chang'an had cycled through more jobs than one could count on one hand. Whether it was the positions arranged by Xia Yongwu that he deemed beneath him or those he found too exhausting, one phrase summed up his attitude: nothing lasted long!
Back when he first graduated, his education limited his options. Xia Yongwu pulled strings to get him a job as a furnace worker at a factory—a stable "iron rice bowl," though physically demanding. Yet Xia Chang'an complained about the heat and exhaustion, refusing to stick with it.
Xia Yongwu then sold the position, keeping the money for himself and his wife. After that, he only arranged temporary jobs for his son. Last year, Xia Chang'an quit yet again.
Seeing that his son, now a father of two, still expected his parents to support his family, Xia Yongwu gave him a severe beating that left him bedridden for three or four days. After recovering, Xia Chang'an started working in the cafeteria—a temporary position handling miscellaneous chores.
Worried he wouldn’t last long, his parents were unwilling to call in favors for another stable job.
After the beating, Xia Chang'an dutifully worked in the cafeteria for over a year until recently, when he stirred up trouble again. He claimed his wife was willing to take over his job and secretly arranged the transfer without informing the family.
Thus, Xia Chang'an resumed his idle life of lounging around and causing minor mischief.
The problem was that eldest sister-in-law Ye Qin also had no job. Now that Wang Zengdi had secured employment, with her diligence and Xia Yongwu’s connections, she might even become a permanent employee after a few years.
Aside from Xia Chang'an, Ye Qin was the only one in the household without a job!
Previously, as daughters-in-law, both being jobless—staying home to care for children and handle chores—was tolerable. But now, Ye Qin, a junior high graduate, remained unemployed while Wang Zengdi, who only finished primary school, had landed a job. This left Ye Qin feeling deeply humiliated.
Coupled with the discomfort of spending her days at home with her idle brother-in-law, she had recently taken to returning to her parents’ house in the afternoons with her children.
Though she had always looked down on Wang Zengdi, having both of them at home to care for the children and take turns cooking had at least provided some companionship and shared responsibility.
Now that Wang Zengdi had joined the ranks of the employed, cooking duties fell solely on Ye Qin.
After listening to their back-and-forth argument for a while, Xia Baozhu finally understood the cause of the quarrel.
Ye Qin had returned late from her parents’ house and was preparing dinner with Xia Baozhen, who had just gotten off work. When Wang Zengdi came home from her shift, she complained—directly and indirectly—that after a long day at work, she couldn’t even come home to a hot meal, and that the children were hungry.
This infuriated Ye Qin. Who didn’t have children to care for? Did having a job suddenly make someone entitled? And so, the two began to argue.
Xia Yongwu, working at the cafeteria, typically finished late during both lunch and dinner shifts and always ate his meals there.
Although Wang Zengdi’s temporary job was also at the cafeteria, it didn’t include meals. Her tasks involved washing vegetables, cleaning pots, and general tidying—work that could be done regardless of whether she was present during meal times.
Some temporary workers finished their tasks before lunch or dinner and went home to eat, while others ate at home first and then reported for duty. The schedules rotated between the two groups.
In the past, temporary workers in the canteen also received meals, but in the past two or three years of famine, food had become too precious.
Besides Xia Yongwu, Lin Chunlan and Xia Changzheng had not yet finished work. The elementary school student Xia Baojian, however, had already returned from school and was sitting there watching the ongoing battle…
Lin Chunlan and Xia Changzheng were both mother and son, as well as master and apprentice.
In those days, learning a trade from one's parents saved a tremendous amount of money. Otherwise, a master was like half an ancestor—you had to show respect and offer gifts during festivals. If you encountered someone with a scheming heart who held back their skills and didn't teach you properly, there was nothing you could do.
Xia Changzheng was also a high school graduate. In those times, college students were extremely rare, and the Xia family had yet to produce one.
The highest-educated member of the family was the third child, Xia Baozhen, a technical secondary school graduate from the 1950s and a technician at the Forestry Bureau—a solid state cadre.
Next were the eldest brother Xia Changzheng and Xia Baozhu, both high school graduates.
Lastly, there was the second brother Xia Chang'an, a junior high school graduate, and Xia Baojian, who was currently in the fourth grade of elementary school.
As for whether she should take the college entrance exam, she realized it wasn't that simple. It was already 1963, and the issue was specifically August of 1963.
Her learning ability was actually quite good, but she feared that chaos would erupt not long after she got into college.
As a science student, she would definitely choose a science major. In those days, such programs were mostly five-year systems, meaning she would graduate in 1969. The most turbulent years would be spent in college, which was far less safe than a state-owned factory.
Forget it, she would take it one step at a time. Right now, she was still tangled up like a ball of hemp thread, unable to sort things out.