“Mom, you’ve been pretending to be paralyzed for a whole month. Hasn’t Jiang Lusheng noticed anything at all?”
“Noticed what? With her stupid brain? You could sell her off and she’d still help you count the money!”
Inside the mud-brick house packed with yellow clay, the rough old wooden door did little to block out sound.
Jiang Lusheng stood outside, holding a coarse pottery bowl filled with steamed egg custard. She pressed one eye to the crack in the door and peered inside.
In the dimly lit bedroom, her stepmother—who had supposedly been paralyzed from the waist down for a month—was walking around briskly, helping her stepdaughter try on newly bought clothes.
Her stepsister had changed into a floral dacron blouse and was leaning against the Eight Immortals table, swinging her legs. The brand-new round-toed leather shoes on her feet gleamed brightly. Twirling the braid over her shoulder, she looked dreamy and excited.
“Once I get to the military compound, I’ll be a commander’s wife. Even if Jiang Lusheng realizes she’s been replaced by then, what can she do about it?”
“I never expected that man surnamed Si would become a regiment commander. You’d better be careful when you go—don’t let them see through you.”
“It’s fine. Jiang Lusheng and Regiment Commander Si have never even met. I’m not afraid.”
“When you become an official’s wife, we’ll all benefit. We’ll get your brother a good job in the city. As for Jiang Lusheng, we’ll keep her at home to serve me. Wouldn’t that be perfect?”
“And this month, thanks to that man surnamed Si sending money and ration coupons to Jiang Lusheng, I secretly made two new winter outfits for you and your brother…”
Inside the room, the mother and daughter continued whispering smugly.
Outside, Jiang Lusheng’s hands trembled around the bowl.
The “man surnamed Si” they mentioned was the husband her grandfather had chosen for her—a soldier stationed in the northern military region.
A year ago, they had registered their marriage first. The plan was to apply for permission for her to join the army after one year of marriage, and then hold the wedding banquet once she arrived.
But a month ago, her stepmother had lied to her, saying Si Xingzhou had died in the line of duty. Yesterday, she claimed her stepsister was going to the city to apprentice under a tailor.
In truth, they had bought a train ticket north. Her stepsister was taking Jiang Lusheng’s marriage certificate and keepsakes to the military base—to replace her.
Her stepmother had fallen and injured her leg a month ago. She simply pretended to be crippled, keeping Jiang Lusheng busy caring for her so she would have no time to investigate.
Later, she realized that pretending to be paralyzed meant she could avoid all labor and be waited on hand and foot.
So she kept up the act.
For twenty years.
How did Jiang Lusheng know?
Because she had been reborn.
In her previous life, she had been deceived by her stepmother and stepsister. After being told that her husband in the north had died, they forced her to marry a sent-down educated youth who moved into their home.
She had thought she would spend her life in mutual respect with that gentle, quiet man.
But in the third year of their marriage, her husband—now a schoolteacher—died in an accident.
From then on, she was labeled a husband-killing widow, left to depend solely on her stepmother.
Until twenty years later, on the day her stepmother lay dying, the old woman shoved her straight into hell with a single sentence:
“Even if you’re not very bright… you’ve served me well. But Xue Bin… he’s always liked your sister. Stop dreaming.”
Jiang Lusheng had thought the old woman was delirious. Xue Bin had been dead for years. What sister?
But to her shock, a man appeared in the hospital room.
Though faint lines marked his face and streaks of silver threaded his hair, she recognized him instantly.
Tall and upright, refined and aloof—
It was her husband who had supposedly died twenty years ago—Xue Bin.
Behind him stood her stepsister, Huang Meimei, fair-skinned and elegantly dressed. They held hands. Behind them followed a teenage boy of eighteen or nineteen, looking strikingly like Xue Bin.
“You…” Jiang Lusheng could barely stand.
She had been widowed for years. Her husband had returned—but before the joy could last even a minute, she discovered he had built a family with her stepsister.
“Shengsheng, I wronged you in this life. In the next, I’ll repay you as an ox or horse. Thank you for taking care of Mother for me and Meimei all these years.”
Xue Bin avoided her eyes and gave her a solemn yet distant bow, even pulling his son along.
“Quick, bow to Aunt Jiang. Without her caring for your grandmother, how could your mother and I have worked outside with peace of mind?”
The boy didn’t move. He only looked at her with cold disdain.
Huang Meimei stepped forward, feigning affection as she grasped Jiang Lusheng’s hand.
“Our son has been spoiled by Bin and me. Sister Shengsheng, you’ve never had children. You wouldn’t understand how helpless we parents feel with a child this age.”
“In any case, our whole family is deeply grateful for your great sacrifice and selfless devotion.”
Huang Meimei knew exactly how to twist the knife.
With one casual remark—you’ve never had children—she tore Jiang Lusheng’s heart open, bloody and raw.
A sharp pain gripped her chest. She struggled to breathe and collapsed onto the floor.
Only after death did she learn the full truth.
Si Xingzhou’s “death” had been fabricated. Her stepsister had used the marriage certificate to replace her and become a military wife.
When Si Xingzhou discovered the deception, her stepsister colluded with enemies to stage an “accident” and kill him.
She then returned with a large compensation payout and rekindled her relationship with her longtime lover—Jiang Lusheng’s husband, Xue Bin.
To be together, they staged a fake death and deceived Jiang Lusheng for more than twenty years.
After being enraged to death, she opened her eyes again—
And found herself back in 1975.
She was twenty-two years old.
It was the very day her stepmother and stepsister were plotting to steal her marriage.
In her previous life, she had worked ten years as a veterinarian to support herself and Liu Dahua, later switching to foreign trade, laboring half her life.
This time, she would go to the military district herself.
She would reclaim everything that belonged to her.
She and Si Xingzhou had never met. One in the south, one in the north—their marriage had been arranged because her grandfather and his grandfather were former comrades-in-arms.
On his deathbed, her grandfather had wanted her to escape the poverty of this mountain village, so he arranged the marriage.
And Huang Meimei had taken advantage of it.
After scraping the last of the egg custard clean from the bowl, Jiang Lusheng heard Huang Meimei’s affected voice outside the kitchen:
“Sister, Mom’s awake. Hurry and bring her food!”
Jiang Lusheng lifted the wooden lid of the large iron pot, took out three steamed sweet potatoes, and placed them into a chipped enamel bowl before carrying them in.
Liu Dahua opened her eyes. When she saw three unpeeled sweet potatoes in the bowl, the contented look on her face vanished instantly.
“This is what I’m eating today? Where’s my egg?”
A faint mocking smile curved Jiang Lusheng’s lips.
This venomous old hen had truly been spoiled by her.
In the village, who didn’t save eggs to sell for money?
She had steamed one daily only because she believed Liu Dahua was ill.
Now she knew it was all fake.
Did she still deserve it?
“The doctor said since you’re lying down all day, you should eat sweet potatoes for digestion. As for eggs, I’ll eat them instead.”
Even one more minute of pretending to be filial made her sick.
“Don’t lie to me! The egg is for my nutrition! What does a girl like you need eggs for?”
Jiang Lusheng sneered.
“Oh? Then lay one yourself. You’re already nesting in bed like a broody hen—might as well hatch a whole clutch and eat them yourself. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
She turned to leave.
But a sweet potato struck the back of her head. One fell at her cloth shoes, dented and smeared with dirt.
She turned to see Liu Dahua gripping another sweet potato, glaring viciously.
“Who allowed you to eat my egg? You think you’re reborn or something?”
That spiteful face overlapped with the same smug expression from twenty years later when she had died.
Something inside Jiang Lusheng snapped.
She bent down, picked up the sweet potato, strode over, grabbed Liu Dahua by the hair, and tried to shove it into her mouth. Liu Dahua clamped her teeth shut and flailed.
So Jiang Lusheng pressed the still-burning sweet potato hard against her lips, grinding it in before smearing it across her face.
Liu Dahua shrieked like a ghost, howling from the burn.
“If you won’t eat sweet potatoes, what do you want instead? Bear’s paw?”
Two minutes later, she hadn’t eaten bear’s paw—but she had certainly received a bear’s slap.
Liu Dahua lay on the bed, wheezing.
Huang Meimei rushed to the doorway but didn’t dare step inside.
“Mom… even if you’re hungry, you can’t eat shit…”