“Bad guys, let go of my mommy…”
Yang Liu, who had been lying on the handcart, was so startled by the little child’s milky voice that her eyes flew open.
“You little bastard, get lost.”
A little girl dressed in rags was shoved to the ground by a vicious old woman whose clothes were just as tattered. How could Yang Liu simply stand by and do nothing? With a kip-up, she sprang off the handcart and immediately scooped the little girl into her arms.
“How did she wake up?!”
The vicious old woman let go of the cart shaft and rushed over to grab Yang Liu’s arm, only for Yang Liu to kick her to the ground. “Are you asking to die?”
The moment that kick landed, Yang Liu’s world spun, and chaotic memories stampeded through her mind like ten thousand galloping horses.
One unfamiliar face after another, the little girl in her arms, and the surrounding gray, shabby adobe buildings…
She had transmigrated?!
Yang Liu held the little girl in her arms while grappling with the vicious old woman, as images that did not belong to her went “beep, beep, beep” and flew chaotically through her mind.
A few days earlier, Yang Liu had stayed up late reading a melodramatic novel. She had gone into a furious rant at the author because a tragic supporting female character in the period novel had exactly the same first and last name as her…
And then she had transmigrated?!
Wasn’t this retribution a little too brutal?
It was now the beginning of autumn in 1980. Four years earlier, when eighteen-year-old Yang Liu had been forced into a bride exchange for her older brother, the man she was supposed to marry, Zhang Youfu, had been a nearly forty-year-old fool who also suffered from polio. Zhang Youfu’s younger sister, Zhang Guihua, had been exchanged in marriage to Yang Liu’s older brother, Yang Jianguo.
This place was so poor that bachelors were everywhere, and bride exchanges were nothing unusual. If parents told their daughter to marry a dog, she absolutely would not dare marry a chicken instead. But Yang Liu had been an exception.
A few days before the wedding, she had gone to Educated Youth Zhao Beichen for help.
Zhao Beichen had been the most capable person at the Educated Youth Station and had influence with the Village Cadres. Even the Brigade Leader had to curry favor with him. He had helped the village build a brick and tile factory, repair the embankment, and construct roads.
In the end, Yang Liu had repaid his kindness with betrayal by drugging Zhao Beichen with an entire packet of medicine, after which the two of them were caught in bed together.
Yang Liu had nearly been strangled to death by Zhao Beichen before she realized that she had provoked someone she absolutely should not have. But things had already reached that point, so she could only follow that path all the way to the end.
Yang Liu therefore insisted that Zhao Beichen had forced himself on her. The matter was so serious that Zhao Beichen could very well have ended up in prison, and he was about to return to the capital to join the army.
To settle the matter and avoid further trouble, Zhao Beichen had no choice but to marry Yang Liu. He had also paid Fool Zhang’s family a sum of money before the whole affair was finally settled.
Less than half a month after the wedding, Zhao Beichen returned to the city to join the army.
After Zhao Beichen left, Yang Liu discovered that she was pregnant. Nine months later, Yang Liu gave birth to a daughter and named her Zhao Yinian.
The reason Yang Liu and her daughter, Niannian, had been able to live safely all these years was because the three words “Zhao Beichen” had protected them.
But four whole years had passed, and Zhao Beichen had vanished without a trace as though he were dead. The Zhang family began stirring up trouble again, coming to the Yang family every few days to make a scene. Fool Zhang’s mother, Wang Jiumei, issued a ruthless ultimatum: if the Yang family did not send Yang Liu to the Zhang family to become their daughter-in-law, they would take their daughter Zhang Guihua back home.
Zhang Guihua’s first child had been a daughter, and now she was pregnant again. This time, the Yang family had found someone to examine her, and they had been told that the baby was a boy. Today, Wang Jiumei had once again come to the Yang family to demand Yang Liu.
This time, she had brought a handcart with her. She threw a tantrum, rolling around and making a scene, declaring that if she could not take Yang Liu home to continue the Zhang family line, she would drag her daughter Zhang Guihua and the child in her belly along with her and slit their throats right there at the Yang family home.
Old Man Yang hardened his heart and forced Yang Liu to drink a sedative, knocking her unconscious. He then loaded her onto Wang Jiumei’s handcart and told her to take Yang Liu away.
The drug had been completely swallowed! How had she woken up?
Wang Jiumei pointed at the Yang family father and son. “You actually dared to fool me? Guihua, come home with your mother.”
Old Man Yang flew into a rage, cursing Yang Liu and declaring that if she refused to go to the Zhang family, he would give away the bastard child she had given birth to.
Holding Niannian in her arms, Yang Liu said: “I’m a military wife. Are you sure you want to sell a serviceman’s wife and child?”
“Ptooey!” Wang Jiumei spat directly into Yang Liu’s face. “You still have the nerve to call yourself a military wife? How many years has that dead man of yours been gone? You still expect him to be your protective talisman? If I don’t drag you home and make you consummate the marriage today, then my surname isn’t Wang.”
Zhang Guihua was already five months pregnant, and her belly was visibly showing. The Yang family absolutely would not allow anything to happen to the “Crown Prince” in her belly.
Yang Jianguo stared at Yang Liu with bloodshot eyes. “Liu’er, your brother is begging you. That Zhao Beichen doesn’t want you two anymore! Don’t worry, just go to the Zhang family and live your life with Zhang Youfu. We’ll raise Niannian for you.”
Old Man Yang cursed even more viciously than Wang Jiumei. Holding a sickle, he threatened Yang Liu, saying that if she did not leave with Wang Jiumei today, he would die right in front of her.
Only the Original Owner’s mother, Liu Maisui, cried and pleaded for mercy on behalf of her daughter, but unfortunately, no one listened to her.
A large crowd had gathered in the Yang family courtyard to watch the commotion, and everyone was condemning Yang Liu for being unfilial, shameless…
Damn it, why didn’t she have some kind of magical space or cheat ability?!
According to the novel’s plot, the Original Owner had been tied up and taken to the Zhang family by these people.
Her daughter Niannian was later taken away by Zhao Beichen’s Wife, Song Zhenzhen, who was also the female lead of the novel.
Meanwhile, she and that useless “Husband.” Zhang Youfu, had been completely unable to have children, so the Zhang family subjected her to all kinds of abuse. She tried to escape several times, but every time she was caught and brought back, then chained up with iron chains.
They eventually found a bachelor from an even more remote village to father a child with her, and in the end, she died from complications during childbirth. After her daughter Niannian was taken to the capital by Song Zhenzhen, she could not adjust to the Zhao family or Song Zhenzhen’s discipline.
She spent every day hanging around with delinquent youths, eventually went down the wrong path, was imprisoned, and received the death penalty.
What an utterly miserable fate. She had only cursed the author a few times, so how had she ended up transmigrating?!
Yang Liu pressed a hand to her forehead. There was no point trying to reason with this unruly mob.
Yang Liu looked at Yang Jianguo. “Brother, I agree to go to the Zhang family, but I have conditions.”
Everyone stopped their furious, useless ranting because of Yang Liu’s words.
Yang Jianguo looked at Yang Liu. “What conditions? Tell me.”
Yang Liu said: “This is a family matter. Let’s close the door and talk about it.”
The villagers were driven away. Wang Jiumei glared at Yang Liu. “What tricks are you shameless little bitch trying to pull now?”
There was fire in Yang Liu’s eyes as she looked at Wang Jiumei and said coldly: “I haven’t even entered your Zhang family yet, and you’re already treating me like this. It doesn’t look to me like your family has much sincerity.”
Wang Jiumei snorted coldly and shut her mouth.
Yang Liu said: “First, I’m taking Niannian with me when I marry into your family.”
“No.” Wang Jiumei said.
Yang Liu raised an eyebrow. “If not, then forget it.”
Zhang Guihua shot her mother a meaningful look. Didn’t she know perfectly well what kind of person her own son was?
Granny Wang snorted coldly and said: “Fine. I agree to let you bring that little bastard.”
Yang Liu said: “Second, I want five hundred yuan as bride price to prepare my dowry. Four years ago, the Zhang family extorted so much money from Zhao Beichen and even hauled away one of our family’s donkeys and three sacks of corn. Asking for five hundred isn’t excessive, is it?”
Wang Jiumei exploded again and began cursing Yang Liu as a rotten whore.
Yang Liu sneered. “You can also refuse to pay. At worst, I simply won’t marry him.”
With no other choice, Wang Jiumei eventually agreed to give only three hundred yuan.
Yang Liu said: “Fine! Go home and get the money. Tomorrow, I’m going to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to buy a decent set of clothes. Come pick me up for the wedding first thing the morning after tomorrow.”
Wang Jiumei’s triangular eyes swept suspiciously up and down Yang Liu’s body. “You’d better not try any tricks.”
Yang Liu said: “Don’t worry. My sister-in-law is carrying a precious golden treasure in her belly.”
Wang Jiumei said smugly: “I knew you wouldn’t dare.”
That evening, Wang Jiumei delivered the three hundred yuan and intended to hand it to Old Man Yang, but Yang Liu snatched it away.
Still uneasy, Wang Jiumei said: “Tomorrow, I’ll go with your brother and Guihua to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative with you to buy clothes.”
Yang Liu said: “All right.”