“It’s been three days, and Mother still hasn’t said a word. It’s all Old Seventh’s fault.”
“Exactly. He finally comes back after being discharged from the army, and the first thing he does is get into a fight with Mother over a widow. Mother must be so heartbroken!”
“Juying’s mother, I’m heading out to work. You stay home and take good care of Mother. If anything happens, send someone to the fields to get us.”
“Got it.”
Wang Baojia glanced toward the thatched hut. There was no movement at all. He sighed and had no choice but to go to the kitchen first.
As the sky brightened, people who needed to go to work emerged from their rooms one after another. After washing up, they grabbed a quick bite to eat.
The laborers put down their bowls, shouldered their hoes, put on their straw hats, and left for work.
The courtyard fell silent; no one dared to make a loud noise.
This silence had already lasted for three days.
Three days ago, the Wang family’s most promising son, Wang Haiyang, had returned from the army. Trailing behind him was a widow with a child in tow.
This had directly caused the Wang Old Lady to faint from anger. Wang Haiyang was filial, hardworking, and had sent all his army allowance home. He was the apple of the old lady’s eye, but she never expected the apple of her eye to turn into a piece of dung.
After fainting and waking up, she hadn’t spoken a single word.
Wang Haiyang had mustered up half a month’s worth of courage for this, but he never expected his formidable mother to be so fragile.
Panic, nervousness, and guilt had now turned into him not daring to speak a word under the hostile gazes of the entire family.
The great filial son, Wang Baoguo, looked at Wang Haiyang and the widow Zhou Chunxia, who were cowering like quails, and his anger flared.
“Hmph!”
“Pah!”
“Bang!”
Sarcastic remarks, scornful laughter, and the slamming of bowls—not a single person gave them a pleasant look.
The adults were like this, and the children below were even worse, secretly rolling their eyes at Tiezhu, the boy Zhou Chunxia had brought with her. The child clung timidly to his mother’s leg, not daring to say a word.
Wang Baoguo’s wife, Qian Maizi, carried a bowl of untouched Sweet Potato Soup with a poached egg back to the kitchen and put all the bowls and chopsticks into a large earthenware basin.
The thought of Wang Haiyang marrying a widow with a child in tow made her want to laugh.
When Wang Haiyang was in the army, he mailed his entire allowance home, so of course his mother was willing to coddle him. He must have money from his discharge as well. Before the old lady could even ask for it, another woman had appeared to compete with her for it—and a woman with another man’s child, no less.
When a precious darling could no longer produce money, he was nothing but a piece of dog shit. But no matter how stinky that dog shit was, he was still her own son. How could he become a stepfather to someone else’s child?!
Qian Maizi turned to glance at the thatched hut where her mother-in-law lived. Just you wait. Once the old lady recovered her strength, if she didn’t tear that widow Zhou’s face to shreds, she wouldn’t be living up to her reputation as the number one tough woman in Red Star Village.
Her father-in-law had died early, so everything in the Wang family was in her mother-in-law’s hands. Her word was law. For Wang Haiyang to secretly marry a widow this time was a direct challenge to her authority.
Inside the thatched hut.
Su Qing’s eyes were blurry with tears. She felt top-heavy and light-headed, and her whole body was uncomfortable.
She never could have imagined that she would play a game to death!
She was finally on vacation and had casually opened a period-themed mobile game that was pushed to her phone. She had breezed through the levels, crushing all the scumbags.
At the final level, with one foot on a scummy side character, she found the gameplay experience utterly lacking in difficulty. Feeling that the plot for the side character’s family was completely unreasonable, she passionately went on a tirade against the game, furiously typing out a five-thousand-word negative review. Then, her vision went black. When she opened her eyes again, she was in a parallel version of the 1970s.
And she had transmigrated into the vile old lady from the game!
Thinking of her own beautiful face, slender figure, and promising future, with countless handsome men and beautiful women waiting for her favor, she felt a pang in her heart for the loss!
But since she was already here, she couldn’t just die. There was no guarantee that dying would let her go back.
After three days of contemplation, she finally resigned herself to her fate.
Having not eaten properly for days, Su Qing was so hungry her eyes were glowing green. She rubbed her drooping eyelids and finally got out of bed.
When her thin, dry feet touched the black cloth shoes covered in dirt particles, her mood soured completely.
The Wang Old Lady’s original name was Su Qing. She had come to Red Star Village as a refugee. She was beautiful and a skilled cook, and she had managed to attract the village secretary’s youngest son. The two had a foundation of love, so after they married, they had children one after another.
The Wang Old Lady had been pregnant a total of thirteen times. In the early years when times were tough, two died in infancy, one was miscarried, and one was lost during a difficult birth. Nine survived.
Having been pregnant so many times, the old lady’s body had many problems. Coupled with fainting from the anger her sixth son had caused her, the body she inherited was in even worse shape.
Tears streamed down Su Qing’s face as she took a couple of steps off the bed. Looking at the bed, which reeked of an unidentifiable odor, her only consolation was that the old man had died early. Otherwise, she would have had to share a bed with him.
She would have gone mad!
The Wang family had many children, and when those children married and had their own kids, it put an even greater strain on the already impoverished family.
All the family’s food supplies were locked in the Wang Old Lady’s room. Not even a needle or a thread was allowed to be touched by others. This resulted in a room crammed with things, leaving only a small wooden bed for her to sleep on.
Resources were scarce in this era, and with the family’s current situation, Su Qing was so worried she scratched her head. Just as she was wondering what to do, a blue panel suddenly appeared before her eyes.
Looking at the information on it, Su Qing’s eyes widened in an instant.
This was Dream Town, the level-clearing game she was playing when she died. She had already saved up a lot of gold coins.
Now, by a strange twist of fate, she had become a player within the game, and the game itself had become her spatial Golden Finger.
The gold coins and the villa she had saved up were all still there.
She recalled what she had written in her review. As long as she led the Wang family to prosperity and lived to a ripe old age, she could return to her original world and receive a reward of five hundred million.
The only drawback was that the game had to be started from scratch.
The fields, shops, streets, transportation, and so on were all locked.
The game required completing tasks to unlock them.
But that didn’t matter!
Su Qing was on the verge of tears of joy, filled with a new sense of purpose.
The age of sixty was the perfect time to strive. The money wasn’t important. She would definitely work hard. The bright future of the Wang family was in her hands!
At this thought, Su Qing eagerly tapped the blue panel and entered the undeveloped small world.
Inside was just an empty villa.
If she remembered correctly, the refrigerator and snack cabinets in this villa were supposed to be fully stocked!
Ignoring her old, arthritic legs, Su Qing scurried to the refrigerator with tiny steps. She opened it, only to find it empty except for half an apple and a bowl of fried rice left over by an NPC from last time.
Furious, Su Qing put her hands on her hips and started cursing. This damn game was inhuman!
Around noon, the Wang family members who had gone to work returned one by one. Qian Maizi had already prepared lunch.
She had skimmed off the Sweet Potato Soup that the Wang Old Lady hadn’t eaten in the morning and given it to her own little grandson. She took out the two poached eggs, cooked a new bowl of Two-Flour Noodles, and added two drops of sesame oil on top. The aroma was so enticing that everyone in the courtyard stared at that bowl of noodles.
The eldest son, Wang Baoguo, looked at the somewhat rotten wooden door with a worried expression and called out gently, “Mother, it’s time to eat. Juying’s mother is bringing you your food.”
“Mother, please don’t be angry anymore. You must take care of your health!”
“Mother, it’s been three days. Please come out and have a bite. If you don’t come out, I’m coming in!”
…
A crowd of people shouted toward the room. Su Qing felt her head buzzing, as if a hundred ducks were quacking at her