“Mama, don’t leave me and my little sister…”
The child’s voice by her ear was so real it scared Huo Qingqing so much her breathing almost stopped again. Her dazed gaze swept across the familiar yet strange faces, finally landing on Han Jianwu’s. The young man’s features were sharp and well-defined, his eyes deep-set, and his lips a little full. His old, faded clothes did nothing to detract from his clean and sharp aura. His broad shoulders and long legs set him apart from the others present.
The little girl in the man’s arms had tears on her face, staring at Huo Qingqing while chewing on her fingers.
Was this her daughter, Niu Niu?!
The scene was too real; it was definitely not the nightmare that had tormented her until her death.
The little boy tugged at the man’s clothes, crying between hiccups, “Mama, don’t go…”
A bundle was thrown at Huo Qingqing. “You heartless bitch! Has your conscience been eaten by a dog? Scram back to your city.”
Then, a large, muddy foot kicked Huo Qingqing’s bottom. “If we’d known you were so heartless, Old Fourth shouldn’t have bothered with you back then. He should have let those bachelors denounce you until you were on your knees begging for mercy, then let them strip you bare and force you into marriage.”
“Second Sister-in-law,” Han Jianwu said in a cold rebuke, and the woman shut her mouth.
Huo Qingqing’s mind finally started working again.
Had she returned to 1976, to the day she was about to divorce Han Jianwu, abandon her pair of boy-girl twins, and return to the city with another man?
Han Jianwu looked at Huo Qingqing and said in a low voice, “Let’s go. We need to go to the commune to get the paperwork done first. If we’re late, you’ll miss today’s train.”
Huo Qingqing blinked slowly and breathed a sigh of relief. The joy of having something she had lost returned surged through her heart. Her eyes grew hot, and with a trembling voice, she said, “I’m not going.” As the words fell, tears streamed down her cheeks. She snatched the little girl from the man’s arms and kissed her face repeatedly.
Holding the child in her arms, the realness of the touch confirmed to Huo Qingqing once more that she had been reborn.
Han Jianwu was quite puzzled. Hadn’t she been unable to stand it here for even another day? Why was she crying so sorrowfully now? And saying she wasn’t leaving?
Han Jianwu frowned and urged her again, “If you don’t go now, you’ll really miss the train.”
Huo Qingqing shook her head forcefully, crying as she said, “I’m not going back to the city.”
Just then, someone called for Huo Qingqing from outside the earthen walls of the Han family’s courtyard. It was a young woman with braided hair. Wasn’t this Gao Yunxia?
“Qingqing, are you ready? Guohua is all packed and waiting to leave with you,” Gao Yunxia said, her face full of reluctance.
In her previous life, this day was not only the day Huo Qingqing divorced Han Jianwu and abandoned her husband and children, but also the day she and Zhang Guohua returned to the city together.
Huo Qingqing clenched her fists and said coolly, “I’m not going.”
Gao Yunxia was shocked. “What? Is someone threatening you?”
Huo Qingqing said in a cold voice, “No one is threatening me. I just don’t want to go anymore.”
Zhang Guohua, who was hiding behind the courtyard wall, was about to go crazy. If Huo Qingqing wasn’t going back, what would he do? Although his father was a leader at the factory, his father and stepmother had many children and didn’t care about him at all. There wasn’t even a bed for him at home. But Huo Qingqing was different. Her mother had been politically rehabilitated and restored to her original post. It would be easy for her to arrange a spot for him in the army. Plus, he knew how to exploit Huo Qingqing’s weakness. She was both grateful and devoted to him. If he returned to the city with her and became the esteemed son-in-law of the Huo family, his future would be limitless.
Zhang Guohua’s eyes reddened, and he recklessly rushed to the gate of the Han family home. “Huo Qingqing, are you crazy? Have you forgotten how those two bastards came to be? Don’t make the same mistake again. I won’t hold it against you that you had kids with a peasant. I’ll help you erase all the filth from this place.”
Huo Qingqing trembled with rage. In her past life, she had been brainwashed by this very speech. Whenever she felt something was wrong, he would say, “No man besides me wouldn’t mind that you had children with a country bumpkin,” which would instantly make her feel inferior. She had then devoted herself to paving his way, helping him rise through the ranks, and together with him, helping their “widowed and orphaned” friend Gao Yunxia by arranging a job for her and providing a good school for her son. Only later did she find out that the boy was their son.
Huo Qingqing roared, “Bullshit! If you dare spout any more nonsense, I’ll rip your filthy mouth apart! You’re the bastard!”
In her past life, the Huo Qingqing who abandoned her husband and children and left Han Family Village had indeed seized one opportunity after another. Her studies, career, love, and marriage all went as she wished—a true winner in life. However, when she was fifty, an accident revealed that the man for whom she had abandoned her family and dedicated half her life to, and the woman standing before her now, had a son who was already in college.
After the truth was exposed, Gao Yunxia dropped the act. She smiled smugly and told Huo Qingqing the whole truth about what had happened when they were sent down to the countryside in Han Family Village.
Huo Qingqing was so angry she vomited blood and was hospitalized for several months.
After recovering, a lonely Huo Qingqing went to Han Family Village to find her two children and Han Jianwu, only to discover that things had changed. Han Jianwu and her daughter, Han Sinian, were long gone from Han Family Village.
Not long after she and Zhang Guohua had left, her daughter, who couldn’t even speak yet, was abducted by human traffickers. Han Jianwu searched for their daughter while driving a large truck. The truck overturned and fell off a cliff, killing him. The daughter was never found. Only later did she learn that her daughter had been sold to traffickers by Gao Yunxia.
For the next ten-plus years, Huo Qingqing lived in self-blame and regret, bedridden and ill. Her only living child, her son, refused to acknowledge her even on her deathbed. She died filled with remorse and regret.
Perhaps even the heavens couldn’t bear to watch any longer, and that’s why they gave her a chance to start over?
She never expected that after death, she would return to more than forty years ago. This year, she was 21. The time was the spring of 1976.
Although Han Jianwu didn’t know why Huo Qingqing had suddenly decided not to leave, at this moment, he had to stand with her.
Han Jianwu stepped in front of Huo Qingqing, his sharp gaze fixed on Zhang Guohua. He said in a cold, deep voice, “Educated Youth Zhang, didn’t you hear Qingqing say she’s not going back? It’s not your place to meddle in our family’s affairs, you freeloader. Scram.”
Zhang Guohua went berserk, launching into a tirade, accusing Han Jianwu of threatening and illegally detaining Huo Qingqing, and threatening to report him to the commune.
Huo Qingqing grabbed a shovel and was about to swing it at Zhang Guohua, who was so scared he covered his head and ran away.