“Father, I’m not leaving with Mother. She doesn’t want us, and she won’t stay home to take care of us—so why should I go with her? I’m not going anywhere except to stay by your side!”
The evening glow of the autumn sun fell upon the Zhao family’s shabby earthen house, gilding it with a golden trim, bright and radiant.
Zhao Wansheng’s eyes were dazzled.
When she opened them, her elder sister Zhao Tingting was affectionately clinging to their father Zhao Zhiwen’s arm, presenting a warm scene of father-daughter devotion.
Zhao Wansheng looked at the scene before her, a flicker of surprise passing through her eyes. After the initial shock, she quickly understood.
Zhao Tingting had been reborn just like her.
In her previous life, on the eve of the founding of the nation, Zhao Zhiwen had abandoned his wife and children, following the main army to fight in the war. He was gone for six years without a word.
He didn’t return until 1955, and the moment he came back, he looked down on her mother Chen Xiang for being a rural woman, raising the banner of opposing arranged marriages to firmly divorce her.
In truth, Zhao Zhiwen had become an official and no longer valued the wife who had stayed in their hometown to care for his parents and raise their children—he had found a new lover in the city.
What was even more disgusting was that Zhao Zhiwen not only had no intention of bringing his children from the hometown to live with him at the military base, but he also shamelessly demanded that his ex-wife Chen Xiang divorce without leaving the household, staying in the hometown to care for his elderly parents and the two sons and two daughters she had borne him.
His schemes were so blatant they might as well have been slapped across everyone’s faces—he was simply taking advantage of the fact that women in this era had nowhere to go after a divorce.
Fortunately, Chen Xiang’s maternal uncles treated her well. The moment they heard that Zhao Zhiwen was heartlessly divorcing their sister, they immediately came to take Chen Xiang home.
Zhao Zhiwen naturally wasn’t willing to accept this, but the schemes in his heart were too shameful to speak of openly.
Although Chen Xiang had given birth to four children, she was only twenty-five now. He knew that once she left, she would definitely remarry.
So, to put obstacles in the way of his ex-wife’s remarriage, he proposed that Chen Xiang take one of the girls with her.
In these times, many people could barely feed their own children, let alone raise someone else’s.
If Chen Xiang brought along a burden, she would never marry again, and sooner or later she’d have to slink back to the Zhao family.
As for the two uncles on the Chen side, they had traveled far and wide in their youth and had accumulated considerable wealth. Their house was made of blue brick and tile, far better off than the Zhao family.
Not to mention, the Chen family had many boys—eight male cousins in total—but only one girl, their cousin Chen Fang.
The Chen family treasured girls. Every time the two sisters visited their grandmother’s house, they got first pick of all the food and toys.
In her previous life, Zhao Zhiwen first asked Zhao Tingting if she wanted to go with Chen Xiang. The moment Zhao Tingting heard she could live in the blue-brick house at their grandmother’s, she chose to go with their mother without hesitation.
Zhao Wansheng, who also wanted to follow their mother, was left behind in the Zhao family, working like a beast of burden for the entire household.
But no one could have predicted that a year later, Zhao Zhiwen would suddenly return home and take Zhao Wansheng to the military compound where he was stationed.
With that single move, Zhao Wansheng became a city girl overnight, making all the village girls green with envy.
Later, when she came of age, she even married a military officer. Not only did she remain a respectable city woman her whole life, but after the Reform and Opening Up, Zhao Wansheng became the owner of a large restaurant chain, and by the year 2000, she already had over a hundred branches across the country.
Zhao Wansheng’s stepmother Liu Zilan’s two sons—one went into politics, the other followed Zhao Zhiwen into the military—both had bright futures. Even her two full-blooded brothers became renowned successful entrepreneurs far and wide. The Zhao family’s fortunes were rising steadily.
In contrast, her sister Zhao Tingting’s fate was completely different.
She followed Chen Xiang back to their grandmother’s house, but after only a little over a month, she went with their mother to remarry into the Shen family next door.
The Shen family was fairly well-off, and Zhao Tingting had her biological mother to look after her. Though she was in the countryside, life was decent enough. So in the beginning, Zhao Tingting often mocked her younger sister, laughing at her for being born unlucky and deserving to stay in the Zhao family as a servant girl.
But her smugness lasted only a year.
A year later, Zhao Wansheng was taken to the city by their father Zhao Zhiwen, becoming a city girl—no longer a village bumpkin!
How could Zhao Tingting accept that?
She felt their mother shouldn’t have brought her back to the maternal family, and certainly shouldn’t have remarried into a family like the Shens. In short, she found fault with everything about the Shen family and constantly stirred up trouble, making their household chaotic.
Even so, the Shen family was willing to send her to school, but she insisted on being contrary and refused to go, spending every day running around the village with her girlfriends.
Zhao Tingting did want to return to the Zhao family, but Zhao Zhiwen wouldn’t bring her to the city. Even if she went back, she’d just be a servant girl in the Zhao household.
Later, when Zhao Tingting reached marriageable age, she married into the Zhang family in town, who had good relations with the Shens.
She thought her misfortune was being stuck in a small town for life, but little did she know, a catastrophe was coming.
The Shen and Zhang families were reported for being capitalists before the founding of the nation, and both families were sent to the cattle sheds for reformation.
To distance herself from her husband’s family, Zhao Tingting divorced and remarried—and stepped straight into hell.
The man she remarried was a violent drunkard who beat and cursed his wife. Whenever life didn’t go his way, he would beat her at the slightest provocation.
When she next saw Zhao Wansheng, her younger sister had already become a tycoon in the catering industry—a renowned and accomplished businesswoman who had married an official.
Two similar faces: one well-maintained, radiant and striking, with a complexion as fair and rosy as an eighteen-year-old girl’s; the other weathered by hardship, looking like an old woman.
“How dare you! We’re both daughters of the Zhao family—why do you get to be so blessed, living in the city, being a boss, while I suffered endless torment in the Shen household and ended up married to nothing but a good-for-nothing who beats women?”
Zhao Tingting, driven to madness, grabbed Zhao Wansheng and dragged her into the water, desperately pressing her younger sister’s head beneath the surface.
“Sister, we came into this world together, so we should leave together! My life has already rotted into the mud—this worthless life of mine isn’t worth keeping. Let’s walk the road to the underworld together!”
Before Zhao Wansheng closed her eyes, all she saw was a hysterical, venomous face.
When she opened her eyes again, she had been reborn—back to the very day her uncle came to pick her up.
This time, Zhao Tingting chose first again.
She tugged at Zhao Zhiwen’s arm. “Father, Mother may not want you, but your daughter does. I’m not going anywhere—I’ll stay by your side and take care of you.”
At this time, in the countryside, people didn’t yet say “Mom” and “Dad”—they said “Mother” and “Father.” After her rebirth, Zhao Tingting had also grown accustomed to the old terms.
“What a good daughter!” Zhao Zhiwen said, both gratified and moved.
In her previous life, Zhao Tingting had also insisted she couldn’t bear to let her mother leave alone, saying she would stay by Chen Xiang’s side to care for her, and her father had praised her as a good child too.
Zhao Wansheng let out a mocking smile.
Zhao Tingting was probably already dreaming of going to the city right about now!
But what Zhao Tingting had forgotten was that Zhao Zhiwen had only asked their mother to stay and care for the children because he hadn’t planned to bring them along with his military post. Even though Chen Xiang was now leaving, he hadn’t changed his mind.
As for why he later left the two older brothers in the countryside but took her into the city instead…
A cold smile curled at the corner of Zhao Wansheng’s lips.
Go ahead, go! This time, all the blessings are yours, and the road to the city is yours too. I just hope you won’t regret it, dear sister!