Wu Guihua gripped the warm jade pendant once more, and in the next instant, she appeared in a world filled with birdsong and the fragrance of flowers.
Beneath her feet was an empty little courtyard, with three thatched cottages that were neat and clean, and a well in the corner of the yard.
Outside the courtyard, many fruit trees and vegetables were planted. In the distance, lush green grass stretched to a small hill. To the left of the hill's base, large plots of medicinal herbs were planted, the middle was farmland, and to the right was a pond of three or four mu…
Wu Guihua mustered her courage and took a look around, then picked a big apple from a fruit tree and bit into it with a satisfying crunch. Finally, she felt a sense of security!
This jade pendant was something her father, Wu Hongshan, had traded from a buyer when he secretly went to the city to sell wild boar, along with a gold bracelet.
Li Hongyuan's family had moved to Nandawu from elsewhere, poor as church mice—not a single room to their name, not a single furrow of land.
When she was eighteen, Li Hongyuan had so thoroughly muddled her mind that she insisted on marrying into the Li family.
Her father had no choice but to secretly sell the gold bracelet to build her a new courtyard as a dowry, and this unremarkable jade pendant was hung around her neck.
She never expected that while the courtyard gave her a place to live, the jade pendant would turn out to be a Grotto-heaven.
Though it seemed the Grotto-heaven had been abandoned by immortals and left untended.
But to her, it was a guarantee of a lifetime of food and clothing, and the confidence to shake off the Li family leeches and take revenge on the scumbag and his mistress!
Thinking of her father, who had long since turned to bones, Wu Guihua's tears streamed down her face.
In her past life, she had toiled for decades, and when she was in the late stages of cancer, cursed by her mother-in-law and having her leg broken by her gambler son, she regretted it so deeply her intestines turned green.
Why hadn't she listened to her father? She'd been devoured by the Li family, who bled dry every bit of wealth her father had left, and taken her whole life with it!
She shouldn't have believed Li Hongyuan's sweet talk, shouldn't have been brainwashed by her mother-in-law, shouldn't have harmed her filial and clever daughter, and shouldn't have spoiled her selfish, ungrateful son!
Fortunately, she still had a chance to start over!
This time, absolutely not!
Those who owed her would pay back with interest!
Those who harmed her would pay with blood!
"Mother, time to eat!" Li Lan pounded on the door.
Wu Guihua wiped her tears and went out to eat with her daughter.
Fragrant salted pork stewed with cabbage and golden millet porridge—it was the best meal the mother and daughter had eaten in over a decade.
Li Xiaojun pounded on the door in the west room, cursing, "Let me out, I'm hungry, I want meat! You bitch, you worthless good-for-nothing, I'll have my grandma beat you to death!"
"You ungrateful little bastard, go eat shit!"
Wu Guihua didn't feel the slightest bit sorry for him. It was just one missed meal—compared to her past life when she was still rummaging through trash bins for food before she died, what was this!
A good night's sleep!
When Wu Guihua opened her eyes, she heard the cursing from the west room. She went straight over, stuffed a rag into the old witch's mouth, tied her hands and feet, and threw her onto the kang.
As expected, Li Xiaojun, that "medicine jar," had come down with a low fever again—perfect for serving as a useful tool.
Locking the courtyard, Wu Guihua carried a tattered bundle, Li Lan carried the dazed Li Xiaojun on her back, and the three of them set off.
The military district where Li Hongyuan was stationed was only a hundred li from Anbang County. The mother and three children took a bus from the county seat and, after a grueling journey, arrived at the town near the military district by three in the afternoon.
Wu Guihua couldn't help but sneer coldly.
This was the "so far away" that Li Hongyuan had talked about in his past life, and the excuse he used for not coming home in over a decade!
A half-old Jiefang truck was parked at the edge of town, with two young soldiers in green uniforms and pants guarding the back, helping women and children climb into the truck bed.
Wu Guihua grabbed her daughter and son and rushed over, asking directly.
"Comrades, is this the truck from the military district? I'm bringing my kids to see their father—can you give us a ride?"
The two soldiers looked at them with unfamiliar faces and were very wary.
Wu Guihua immediately blurted out Li Hongyuan's name.
"I'm Li Hongyuan's wife, and these are Li Hongyuan's daughter and son. He wrote home saying he's in the Third Battalion—do you know him?"
Battalion Commander Li Hongyuan of the Third Battalion?!
The two soldiers, and all the women and children in the truck, turned their heads in unison.
Wu Guihua wore a blue cotton jacket patched over and over, her hair dry and yellow, and wrinkles on her face deep enough to crush mosquitoes.
Li Lan was eighteen or nineteen, but so thin she looked no better than a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old.
Li Xiaojun's face was flushed red with fever, mumbling about being hungry…
"Where did this fraud come from? Battalion Commander Li's wife is Wang Yun, and she's beautiful—she's my son's elementary school teacher. Just yesterday, Battalion Commander Li and Teacher Wang were walking hand in hand, passing right by my door!"
A young woman glared and cursed.
Wu Guihua pulled a letter of introduction from her bosom and shoved it directly into the two soldiers' hands.
"This is the letter of introduction from our village, and it says clearly that I am Li Hongyuan's wife, Wu Guihua!
"Wang Yun is the wife of my eldest brother-in-law. After he died, Li Hongyuan said the widow sister-in-law had it hard, so he brought her and her kids to the military district to take care of them! Since when did a widow sister-in-law and her brother-in-law become a couple?"
Wu Guihua plopped down on the ground and started wailing and cursing at the top of her lungs!
"Li Hongyuan, you heartless bastard! I married you bringing a house and a dowry, took care of your old mother for over ten years, raised two children, and when things got so bad I couldn't go on, I was forced to sell blood just to keep the family alive—and you never sent a single cent home!
"I thought you were too busy defending our country to come home. If it weren't for the fact that both my mother-in-law and the children are sick, and there's genuinely no food to eat at home, I wouldn't have come here at all.
"Little did I know, you were busy in bed with your widowed sister-in-law!"
At this moment, it was the busiest time of day in the town. The commotion around the Jiefang truck drew everyone over to gawk.
The women and children on the truck crowded to the back, nearly tipping the front end up off the ground.
The two young soldiers were frantic, trying to reason with her, when Li Xiaojun rolled his eyes and passed out cold.
Li Lan wasn't stupid either—she went down with a thud right alongside him!
"People are starving to death! The hero who defends our country is fooling around with his sister-in-law while his own children starve!" Wu Guihua clutched her daughter and son, screaming with heart-wrenching desperation. The whole town was in an uproar.
"What happened? How did someone starve to death?"
"No idea. Sounds like a soldier at the camp got involved with his sister-in-law, abandoned his wife and kids back home, and the children starved!"
"What! That's absolutely despicable. A pest has wormed its way into the ranks of our nation's defenders! Utterly heartless!"
The two young soldiers ran around in circles, panicking, until finally they put their heads together, loaded Wu Guihua and her three children onto the truck, and sped back to camp.
Wu Guihua sat on the truck clutching her daughter and son, never once closing her mouth—crying and talking the whole way.
By the time the Jiefang truck came to a halt, the Li family's disgraceful deeds had already filled everyone's ears!
And the cornbread buns that the military wives and children on the truck had brought were all pressed into the hands of Wu Guihua and her three children!
Pitiful—absolutely pitiful!
Since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety have been hard to balance. It's normal for a soldier to be unable to look after his family.
But to have a home just a hundred li away, yet not return for over ten years, not send a single cent back, and force his wife to sell blood to support his mother and children—that was truly unheard of!
And on top of that, to have his widowed sister-in-law and her children right by his side, brazenly passing them off as his own wife and kids—that was simply too outrageous!
As it happened, Li Hongyuan was just then reporting to the political commissar. Their regiment had a deputy commander who was about to be transferred to civilian work.
Li Hongyuan had been in the army for nearly twenty years, with ample seniority. He had a loving marriage, a son who had just enlisted, and a daughter about to enter university—a model family by any measure.
Li Hongyuan was the perfect candidate to take over as deputy commander!
Standing ramrod straight, his face calm but his heart bursting with joy, Li Hongyuan was just about to pledge his commitment when the office door was shoved open by a young soldier.
"Battalion Commander Li! Commissar… you need to come quick! Battalion Commander Li's wife from back home has come with the children! His son and daughter starved to death over by the town—we brought them back!"
Whose wife and children?!
Who starved to death?!
The commissar was utterly baffled, but Li Hongyuan's face went white in an instant!