This time, she would get that man punished years earlier than he had.
It had been decades since she had been in this time period, but now that she was here again, it all felt very fresh.
This was a time of many regrets and embarrassments. Even far in the future, she would look back and sigh at how deplorably stupid she was.
In retrospect, had she had a bit of spunk and separated from that toxic family early on, she would’ve lived a smooth life from the start.
She was only sixteen years old at this time, but she had already graduated high school a year prior.
She was a brilliant student who excelled in her studies, so all the teachers took a close look at her situation. It was how, despite having such a family, she was able to grow up to this age and even finish her schooling.
Though she was disliked, the family eventually rationalized that the more grades she skipped, the faster she would graduate and would be of use.
She was even granted a job in advance, though it was taken by her own mother, claiming she was too young to hold a job.
She had no doubt that her mother would never return it. It was one of the reasons she was so eager to marry her off.
In this time period, getting a job—they called it an iron bowl—was one of the highest sources of prestige one could have. Ironically, it was also something that could be bought, transferred, and inherited by others.
To be honest, had Qiao Yaqin only been submissive under the stepfather’s rule, she wouldn’t have blamed her.
After all, being of Capitalist blood in this time period was akin to having dirty, disgusting blood. They were pretty much at the bottom of the social hierarchy and they were treated as pariahs.
Being called a ’capitalist,’ at this time, was one of the worst curses one could give to an enemy.
From certain perspectives, Qiao Yaqin was a powerless woman and had to be dependent on this man, so she naturally had to bow her head to survive.
So...if Qiao Yaqin was just a quiet woman who didn’t side with her own daughter, Su Qinghua wouldn’t have blamed her as much.
The problem was that the woman was also one of the people who actively tormented and enslaved her!
As soon as she could do chores, that woman—along with the rest of their blended ’family ’—unanimously decided to turn her into a maid. This conscious molding of her psyche led her to think that her only value in life was to serve others, and if she was not liked, then it was her fault.
Her mother was a bit of a snob, but she could not show it to the man she depended on, so all that bossiness and entitlement was pushed on her daughter’s head.
Falling from grace and luxury to literal mud apparently made her a little crazy.
Qiao Yaqin was the spoiled youngest daughter of what had been one of the richest families in Sea City at the time.
Speaking of families, while her mother was from a family of Capitalists, her father’s lineage was a mix of scholars and doctors. All of them were tagged as ’bad elements’ by the radicals, and families were ripped apart, their wealth confiscated.
Her paternal family was pretty much obliterated, and a lot of her maternal family was killed off as well, and all their wealth confiscated.
There were probably a few distant relatives who managed to go abroad, but they were not many, and even in her past life she had no news of their return.
Her mother decisively published a letter of severance back then, which couldn’t really be blamed on her—she, a pregnant woman, had to survive, after all.
However, she was selfish and stole everything before she ran away. To save her life and to solidify the severance...she even reported various branches and other families.
Ironically, an angry relative attacked her before they got captured by the authorities. She went into premature labor and almost died.
Qiao Yaqin’s body was damaged then and she was no longer able to give birth. It was probably one of the reasons the self-absorbed woman hated her own daughter.
These were all things that Su Qinghua had learned late in her previous life after she awakened her space, which was a power she inherited by blood. She started to consciously investigate what happened to both families back then.
When she found out about these things, she felt ashamed to be that woman’s daughter. Sadly, those people were already dead, so she couldn’t even make up for the wrongs in her stead. However, she did not let it affect her daily life because she knew it was not her fault at all, but that woman’s.
She actually inherited her mother’s strong personality, but fortunately not her twisted values (this was what she told herself). She was just trained well, brainwashed, repressed, and pushed down her whole life, making her become a willing doormat for the first two decades of her past life.
However, when she snapped out of it—when she was finally enlightened after repeatedly being stimulated and abused—that her true personality snapped out with vengeance.
It was also around this time that she reunited with the only ’good’ blood relative she had left, her paternal grandfather, and from him, he learned of her bloodline power, The Space.