Bai Sanni held a fire poker, poking at the icicles under the eaves while she sighed. She could not go back, she truly could not go back.
Three days ago, she had sneaked out to play in the snow and caught a chill. That night she developed a fever. If her father and mother had not noticed, it would have been fine, but in her head there was an extra lifetime’s worth of memories. Only then did she know that she had transmigrated, and that she had already transmigrated for seven years, from the year 2035 of her previous life to the year 8500, a full fifty-three years, absurd!
Her house, her car, the fresh young guy she had just been flirting with, all gone!
That was not even the worst of it. The pork belly, big ribs, braised beef, lamb leg, and chicken breast packed full in her refrigerator, she missed them! She missed them!
She admitted that before, it had been her who did not know what was good for her.
Now she lived in Heilongjiang Province, Harbin City, Wushou County, Xinyang Commune, Qianhu Production Brigade, a real rural girl through and through.
Of course, she had only learned that after recovering her memories and fishing around with the elders for information. The old Bai Sanni’s mind had mostly been on finding food, such as which wild greens tasted good, which mushrooms were not poisonous, how to catch frogs, how to pick wild fruit, and how to climb trees to steal bird eggs…
Do not let her age of seven fool you, she was also quite “multitalented.”
“Eldest daughter, what are you doing?”
Bai Sanni did not even turn her head. “Poking icicles.”
Another voice came from inside the room, “Give Father one.”
Bai Sanni rolled her eyes. She knew it would be like this.
Her father, Bai Sanzhu, was third in the family, and was the full package of cunning, laziness, greed, and slyness.
Her mother, Tian Fen, was also third in her natal family, and she did not miss a single one of cunning, laziness, greed, and slyness either.
She was the eldest daughter of the third branch, and had a younger brother who was four years old.
In Grandparents Bai’s words, they were still young, so cunning and slyness could not yet be seen, but greed and laziness were already showing through.
Sure enough, as the saying went, if a family was not one family, they would not enter the same door!
Their family of four was always the same, the big lazy person ordering the little lazy person around.
Just like a moment ago, her father was lying inside on the warm brick bed, so bored he was almost farting from idleness, and wanted to chew on an icicle. He did not come out to break one himself, he just casually ordered her to do it.
Usually, handing him water was one thing, but from time to time she even had to give him a back rub, pinch his legs, and so on.
Please allow her to argue a little here. Actually, she was not that lazy. Had she not always run to the foot of the mountain, the fields, and the ditch edges to look for food when the weather was good? So “lazy” definitely had to come after “greedy.”
And she had ambition too, with a heart that hoped her father and mother would become dragons and phoenixes.
Starting from nothing was too exhausting. She was determined to be a rich second generation.
It was just that her current parents probably wanted even more to be the parents of a rich first generation. Their goals collided, which was very awkward.
But living life was either the east wind overpowering the west wind, or the west wind overpowering the east wind. She had to win this battle!
First, send her lazy father an icicle. This was called showing friendliness to the enemy.
Bai Sanni grabbed an icicle and hurried into the room. Ice would melt if held for too long, and it was cold on the hands.
“Father, here!”
Bai father lazily reached out, took the icicle, and stuffed it into his mouth. He bit down with a crisp crack, and anyone who did not know better would have thought he was eating some kind of delicacy.
“Father, I want one too!”
The snotty, messy little kid who got greedy just from seeing other people eat icicles was her own younger brother, Bai Xiaojun.
“What do you want one for, Bai Sanzhu? You’re just teasing the child! If he eats it and gets a stomachache, see whether Mother will skin you.” Bai mother was also lying on the warm brick bed, warming her lower back. Seeing this, she could not help kicking her man with her foot.
Bai father stuffed the remaining icicle into his mouth in two bites, spread his hands, and signaled that there was none left.
Bai Xiaojun pouted and was about to go out to break one for himself when Bai Sanni pulled him back. “It’s very cold outside, your butt will freeze.”
Although Bai Xiaojun was only four, he was afraid of wetting his pants, so he still wore split-crotch pants, the kind that exposed his little butt and little JJ.
Fortunately, winter meant staying in and hunkering down, so they hardly went out. Otherwise, he would really have frozen badly.
“Not allowed to go out!” Bai mother glared, and Bai Xiaojun stopped struggling too, very sensible.
He took the fire poker and rode it like a big horse, running around in circles on the floor while shouting “giddyup, giddyup, giddyup.”
Naturally, Bai Sanni had no interest in that. She took off her straw sandals and climbed onto the heated brick bed.
She stuffed her little feet, still in patched socks, into Bai father’s lower back, and did not cover them with the foot quilt, just for fun!
Bai father did not mind the roughness at all, not moving an inch.
Bai Sanni took the initiative to change the subject. “Father, how many days has Grandparents Bai not assigned any work?”
The northern winter was cold, and outside was a world of white snow. The ground was frozen hard as iron, so farm work could not be done.
But common folk were used to working hard. Even when they stayed indoors for winter, they did not lie around all day, there was still work to do.
For example, twisting straw rope, most of it was a production team task, assigned to each household and counted as work points, with a small portion for the family’s private plot.
And also mending, washing, sewing, making shoe soles, and so on.
Bai father said lazily, “Before the New Year, most of it was already done. There probably isn’t much work left.”
Bai mother also said with some expectation, “If there’s no work until spring, that would be great.”
Bai father also got excited. “That would be ideal!”
Bai Sanni rolled her eyes and thought to herself, Dream on!
With her grandparents’ temperament, they would wish all three sons were donkeys for the production team, working nonstop every day to earn work points.
Luckily, both her father and mother had some brains. Otherwise, if they foolishly worked themselves to death, they would end up sick from overwork. It might not show when they were young, but when they got old, they would still have a body full of illness.
“Father, Mother, I want to go to school.”
Although Bai Sanni was lazy, she also knew the importance of school. If she suffered through studying, she could suffer less through life. She understood which was lighter and which was heavier.
If she did not go to school, then when she got a few years older, she would have to go into the fields to earn work points. How exhausting would that be.
“I want to go to junior high like Aunt.”
The “Aunt” Bai Sanni referred to was Bai Grandpa and Bai Grandma’s youngest daughter. She was seventeen this year, in ninth grade, and had failed the high school entrance exam two years in a row, clearly a bad student, but Bai Grandpa and Bai Grandma’s filter was too thick, so they had never been willing to admit it.
As the old saying went, even five fingers were not all the same length. People were naturally partial, and in Bai Grandpa and Bai Grandma’s eyes, their own eldest grandson and youngest daughter were both wonderful. No one could compare.
Bai father could not help complaining, “Don’t learn from your aunt. She’s studied for so many years and still can’t get into high school, she’s become a grade-staying expert.”
Bai mother kicked Bai father again. “Don’t say everything. What if Mom hears it again.”
Bai Sanni translated her mother’s words in her heart: Don’t speak such plain truth. If the children let it slip, they’ll be the ones catching the fallout.
Bai father turned over and stuffed Bai Sanni’s little feet into the quilt, and he still supported his own daughter wanting to go to school. “Go ahead. I’ll tell your grandparents later.”
Bai mother was not so optimistic. “Don’t forget that Second Uncle’s two girls both didn’t go.”
Bai father sighed. “I really do not understand what Second Uncle and Second Aunt are thinking.”
Bai Sanni nodded in deep agreement. She also did not understand Second Uncle and Second Aunt’s way of thinking.
Other people had not really done anything to them, yet they had become insecure themselves. It was one thing to be insecure, but they had also pushed their two daughters into becoming insecure and timid too. It was just fucking absurd.
Bai Sanni was very glad that she had been born into the third branch. If she had become a daughter of the second branch, she might not have been able to resist slamming her head against a wall directly, to see whether she could die and go back.