Cheng Hui was woken by pain.
Her stomach was numb and hard, taut and aching.
In the darkness, she reached out a hand and touched a high, swollen belly. She froze completely.
She was pregnant?
Her only daughter had been born a long time ago, hadn’t she?
And because she was born prematurely, her daughter had been frail and sickly since childhood. When she was four, her aunt—Cheng Hui’s younger sister—had taken her out shopping and lost her…
Her husband went mad! He used all his resources to find their daughter, but as a result, he was disciplined by his superiors, suspended from his post, and his bright future was ruined.
The memory of these events stabbed Cheng Hui’s heart with sharp pain, but what was going on with this belly?
Suddenly, a flash of white light streaked past her eyes, and she understood what had happened to her.
She had been reborn in the year 1973 and was now seven months pregnant.
Three days ago, her sister-in-law had bumped into her, causing her to fall and nearly miscarry.
Fortunately, after three days of rest, she had recovered.
But her wicked, black-hearted step-mother-in-law still wouldn’t let her off, using the excuse that she could go into labor at any moment to make her move into the Storage Room.
As a result, that very night, a scoundrel from the neighboring village had climbed into her room. She had struggled and ended up going into premature labor.
Her step-mother-in-law, still not giving up, had even tried to throw her baby away! She had fought with all her might to get her back.
Cheng Hui caressed her belly, tears welling in her eyes. She thanked the heavens for giving her a second chance.
In this life, she would definitely protect herself and her daughter!
She would definitely cherish the man she had misunderstood and missed out on…
As for her grudges, this time, she would be the one to settle them!
She got dressed and slipped out of the house quietly, heading for the home of the Small Team Leader of the Gao Family Village Production Team.
Gao Qishan’s family was twisting hemp ropes by lamplight. This year, every household had a quota of ten large bundles of hemp rope to turn in.
Seeing Cheng Hui, Gao Qishan’s family was very surprised.
They all knew Cheng Hui, the young Educated Youth.
She was young, beautiful, and aloof, and didn’t like to talk to the villagers.
Not long after she had first been sent down to the countryside, she had nearly drowned and was rescued by Gao Yuan, who had touched her and kissed her…
Then she married Gao Yuan. He stayed home for three days before his leave ended and he returned to his army unit, and as it turned out, she was pregnant…
In any case, Gao Yuan was his clan nephew, which made her his niece-in-law.
“It’s late. Is something the matter?” Gao Qishan asked.
Cheng Hui sat down without a word.
As Gao Qishan’s family members stopped their work and looked at her with curiosity, Cheng Hui’s tears suddenly began to fall, pattering down.
She didn’t cry out loud, just shed tears, her face, which was trying to hold it all in, full of grievance.
The Gao family didn’t understand what “as beautiful as a pear blossom in the rain” meant; they only felt that her crying wasn’t annoying, but rather made one’s heart ache for her.
Gao Qishan frowned and said, “Stop crying. Who bullied you? Just say it!”
Cheng Hui took a deep breath, wiped her tears, and said with a choke in her voice, “I’ve been in bed for three days and I’m feeling better. In the evening, I wanted to get some fresh air, so I wandered over to the woodpile behind my house. Then I heard my mother-in-law talking to a man…”
This one sentence made Gao Qishan’s family’s eyes widen as they focused their attention… Could it be that Cheng Hui’s step-mother-in-law was seeing another man?
“My mother-in-law said she would kick me out to the Storage Room today and told him to come over in the middle of the night. If he succeeds, he succeeds… if he can’t, he should get rid of the baby in my belly!”
The Gao family was shocked. So it wasn’t the mother-in-law seeing another man, but the mother-in-law setting her daughter-in-law up with another man!
After his initial surprise, Gao Qishan looked at Cheng Hui and asked, “What do you want to do about this?”
Cheng Hui had known all along. Instead of causing a scene on the spot, she had come to find him in the middle of the night. She must have a plan.
Cheng Hui said, “I have no proof, just my word. I need evidence. I’d like to ask the Team Leader to bring the Militia Team to wait in my room to see if we can catch this man. Then we can confront my mother-in-law. That way, people won’t think I’m making things up to frame her.”
For the first time, Gao Qishan looked at her in a new light. The young lady from the big city was different indeed. The plan she came up with was the most advantageous for her!
It was just… not good for the Gao family’s reputation.
But forget it. Gao Lao San’s wife was truly too much! She was ruining the Gao family’s good name! It was time she was taught a proper lesson!
“You wait here. As long as this man shows up, I guarantee I’ll catch him for you!”
Gao Qishan went out.
A few hours later, a man’s miserable scream suddenly shattered the silence of the village.
…
The courtyard of Gao Lao San’s house was already bustling with activity.
Zhang Laizi was tied up and kneeling on the ground, while a yard full of onlookers stood around.
“What’s going on? A thief?”
“Which blind fool would steal from Gao Lao San’s family? What do they have besides a bunch of stepchildren?”
“Hahahaha!”
Gao Lao San was the village eccentric. He had married four widows, and eight of his twelve children were not his.
He was standing in the crowd, cackling with glee as if this were someone else’s drama.
His current wife, Zhu Qiufang, stood behind him, her face ashen and trembling slightly.
That idiot! How did he get caught? Did he get the job done?
She glanced at the silent Storage Room and stepped forward, gritting her teeth.
“Team Leader, we haven’t lost anything. Let’s just drop it. It’s cold, everyone should go home. We all have to work tomorrow.”
The crowd was indeed preparing to disperse.
Petty theft wasn’t a big deal back then, especially when nothing was actually stolen. Getting caught, beaten up, and then let go was the normal procedure.
Suddenly, Zhu Qiufang’s eyes widened as if she had seen a ghost.
Cheng Hui walked in from outside the courtyard.
“Everyone, please wait a moment. That’s not what happened. This evening, by the woodpile, I heard…
“Then I troubled Uncle Team Leader to help me catch the person, and now he’s really been caught.”
She looked coldly at Zhu Qiufang. “What do you have to say for yourself now?”
The crowd instantly erupted.
Adultery, and orchestrated by a mother-in-law setting up her daughter-in-law with another man at that! The news was so explosive it blew their minds!
“I didn’t! You’re slandering me!” Zhu Qiufang accused her, “It was clearly you who was having an affair, and now you’re trying to pin the blame on me!
“I—I’ve seen you and Zhang Laizi rolling in the haystacks several times! The baby in your belly is his!”
“Whoa~” That was also some juicy news.
There had always been a lot of speculation about who the father of the child in Cheng Hui’s belly was.
It was said that she originally had a fiancé back in Beijing!
Then, right after she was sent down to their village, a male Educated Youth had pursued her intensely. Someone supposedly saw them coming out of the woods together.
Later, she got pregnant just three days after marrying Gao Yuan. Was Gao Yuan really that potent?
Now, Gao Yuan’s young stepmother was claiming to have personally seen her rolling in the haystacks with Zhang Laizi…
The way several men in the crowd looked at Cheng Hui had already changed.
Cheng Hui just said calmly, “You’ve seen it several times? Then why didn’t you say anything before?”
“I—I was doing it for the Gao family’s reputation, for Gao Yuan’s reputation! I didn’t want to stoop to your level! I never thought you’d turn around and bite me, you black-hearted wretch!” The more Zhu Qiufang spoke, the smoother her words became, as if she were telling the truth.