“She’s born! She’s born!” The Second Aunt’s rasping voice, thick with the scent of sweat, crashed into her ears like sparks flying from a stove, exploding within the sweltering, cramped adobe house.
“Second Aunt, is it a girl or a boy?” the new mother asked. Her voice carried the physical weakness of someone who had just exhausted her strength, yet it was tinged with an irrepressible urgency. Her fingertips still gripped an old cloth stained with bits of straw.
“It’s a girl!” Second Aunt moved the swaddling clothes toward the bedside, her rough palms gently patting the edge of the bundle. “Oh my, look at this girl. Her face is as red as a freshly picked tomato, and her eyes are thin and long. She’s destined to be a beauty in the future!”
Inside the swaddling clothes, Li Xia furrowed her brow. She could hear clearly—the new mother’s voice was full of energy, suggesting her constitution was fairly hardy. However, the current situation was more heart-wrenching than being trapped in a mangled car before her accident. She strained to move her eyes, first catching sight of the pitch-black rafters above. The wood was coated in a thin layer of dust, with a few strands of cobwebs swaying in the slight breeze. Moving her gaze further, she saw walls made of rammed earth. The pitted surfaces were marked with charcoal scribbles from children, and there were even several cracks in the corners where light peeked through.
Was this even a proper room? Beneath the new mother was a layer of straw covered by a piece of coarse cloth. The straw stalks pricked and caused itching, and the air was a stifling mix of sweat, blood, and the earthy scent of mud that made her nose sting.
She wanted to cry, but no tears came. If she had known she would be reincarnated, she would have stayed eight hundred miles away from that truck that ran the red light! Why did she fall into a place like this instead of staying in the year 2030?
As she was brooding, a sudden impact hit her bottom. A “smack” rang out—not heavy, but enough to snap her back to reality.
Fine, no need to suppress her frustration anymore; she might as well just wail!
“Waaa… waaa…” Li Xia’s crying was weak, sounding like a kitten shivering in the wind, losing strength as soon as it started.
Second Aunt, however, was satisfied. She rubbed her hands and laughed. “Look at this girl, her voice is as small as a mosquito’s hum. I bet she’ll be a delicate one, hard to raise!” Her tone suggested she was exceptionally confident in the “effect” of her slap.
Before Li Xia could retort in her mind, a flurry of hurried footsteps came from outside, accompanied by the chattering of children: “Mom! Mom! Have you given birth? Do we have a little brother?”
Second Aunt shuffled in her cloth shoes to open the door. The door pivot creaked, and sunlight flooded in, making the dust on the floor appear to dance. “She’s born, she’s born! Your mother has added another sister to your ranks!”
As soon as she finished speaking, four half-grown children squeezed inside like a brood of newly hatched sparrows. Leading them was a girl with braided hair wearing a washed-out blue cloth jacket; her features carried a sense of steady maturity—this was the eldest sister, Yuan Chunfen. Following her was the tallest boy, his pant legs rolled up to his knees—this was the second brother, Yuan Lidong. Behind them, a girl clutching the corner of her patched clothes was the third sister, Yuan Xiaoman. The smallest boy stood on his tiptoes to peer into the bamboo basket—this was the fourth brother, Yuan Guyu.
The four children’s gazes landed simultaneously on the bamboo basket holding Li Xia. The fourth brother, Yuan Guyu, frowned first. He tugged at Yuan Lidong’s sleeve and said in a voice that was small but clear: “Brother, she’s so dirty. She’s all red, like she was just fished out of white mud. So ugly!”
Li Xia was so angry she wanted to kick her legs—You’re the ugly one! Your whole family is ugly! If she didn’t lack the strength right now, she really wanted to pull out her ID card from her previous life and slap it against his face. In her past life, she was a famous beauty at school, with a line of pursuers stretching from the teaching building to the school gate!
Fortunately, the eldest sister, Yuan Chunfen, was sensible. She reached out and patted the back of Yuan Guyu’s head. “All babies look like this when they’re born. You were even more wrinkled than her when you were born. She’ll look better as she grows!” As she spoke, she cautiously touched Li Xia’s tiny hand; the fingertips were soft and carried a hint of warmth.
A moment later, the sound of a man’s footsteps came from the courtyard, accompanied by a few hearty laughs. While Yuan Chunfen stayed by the bed to help wipe her mother’s sweat and hand her water, the other three children rushed out again, surrounding the man who had just entered and shouting over each other: “Dad! Mom gave birth! It’s a sister!” “Dad, the sister is so small!”
The man was the master of the house, Yuan Dachuan. His skin was tanned dark, and there was still a bit of mud on his brow, showing he had just returned from the fields. He rubbed the dust off his hands and entered the room cheerfully. First, he leaned over the bed and asked, “How are you?” before looking down at his youngest daughter in the bamboo basket.
After looking for barely two seconds, Yuan Dachuan clapped his hands. “This girl shall be called Li Xia; it suits her perfectly!”
Leaning against the straw, the Mother couldn’t help but give him a reproachful look, her tone tinged with mock annoyance. “What’s that? If it were a boy, would you not call him Li Xia? Would a boy named Li Xia not be to your liking?”
The Yuan children were all named according to the seasons of their birth. The names of the four older siblings were Chunfen, Xiaoman, Lidong, and Guyu. Since it was currently the Start of Summer (Li Xia), the name Li Xia was essentially set in stone.
“It’s fine, it’s all fine. Boys or girls are both good!” Yuan Dachuan grinned so widely his teeth showed. He then turned to Yuan Chunfen. “Chunfen, your mother just gave birth. Go boil an egg for her and make a bowl of egg soup.”
The Mother became anxious as soon as she heard this and reached out to stop him. “What eggs? There are only a few eggs left in the house. We need to save them to exchange for salt in town next time!”
“You just gave birth and your body is weak; you need nourishment!” Yuan Dachuan pressed her hand back down, his tone brook no argument. “Chunfen, go quickly. Be a good girl.”
Nine-year-old Yuan Chunfen was already a little laborer for the family. Hearing this, she nodded and replied crisply, “I know, Dad.” She turned and stepped in her cloth shoes toward the kitchen, her jacket hem flickering at the doorway before she vanished.
The Mother was still heart-aching over the egg, muttering in a low voice, “Really, you… it’s not my first time giving birth, why do I need to be so precious? We still have to give two to Second Aunt later!” It was the village custom that after Second Aunt helped deliver a child, she had to be given two eggs in return. This rule could not be broken.
“We aren’t short of these two.” Yuan Dachuan squatted by the bed and reached out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Later, I’ll make a few more small stools. When it’s market day, I’ll carry them to town to sell, and then I can bring back some sugar.”
Hearing him say this, the Mother still muttered about it being a “waste,” but her eyes softened, and she didn’t argue further.
Lying in the bamboo basket, Li Xia listened to the couple’s conversation and felt her vision go dark. It was over. This wasn’t the year 2035; these were the bitter days of decades ago! Even eating a single egg required such calculation, and making a stool meant going to town to scrounge for money. Had she really been reincarnated into the era “before the liberation”?
She couldn’t help but want to cry again, wondering: In this era, is there still a war going on? If there isn’t even a stable life to be had, this reincarnation is a total loss!