“You little brats! Don’t run!”
A sharp scolding rang out behind them. Jiang Xingheng, carrying a small bundle on his back, whipped around and saw his mother in hot pursuit with a male and a female human trafficker.
The three were closing in. His heart pounded wildly as he clutched his younger brother Jiang Xingci’s hand and dragged him forward as fast as he could.
Jiang Xingci stumbled as he was pulled along, his voice choked with tears. “Brother, I really can’t run anymore… Is Mom really going to sell us?”
Jiang Xingheng was running so hard that cold sweat beaded across his forehead. He had bitten his lips until they turned white. In a hoarse voice, he said, “Didn’t you hear? She just agreed with them to sell us for two hundred yuan each. Then she’s going to the city with that educated youth[1]An “educated youth,” or zhiqing, was typically an urban young person sent to live and work in the countryside under China’s “Down to the Countryside” movement, … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and then she’s going to the city with that educated youth.”
So that was why Mom had suddenly decided to take them into the city to find Dad today. She hadn’t meant well at all—she’d only wanted to sell them!
He tightened his grip on his brother’s hand. His voice trembled almost imperceptibly. “Let’s find Dad. We don’t need her anymore.”
“But where is Dad?” Jiang Xingci’s eyes brimmed with tears, and his steps grew slower and slower.
“With the army.” Jiang Xingheng clutched the bundle with one hand and hauled his brother along with the other. “Run! Don’t let her catch us!”
The moment he finished speaking, a sudden scream came from behind them, followed by the thud of something heavy hitting the ground.
The brothers spun around. Their mother, who had been chasing them relentlessly just moments ago, was lying on the ground, motionless.
“Mom!” They both stopped without thinking.
The man and woman also froze for a moment. Then the man turned to his accomplice. “Forget her. Grab the kids first!”
Before he had even finished speaking, he charged forward and seized the boys as if they were chicks. “Running, huh? Let’s see where you think you can go now!”
The two children struggled desperately in his grasp, shrieking, “Let go of me! You bad man!”
The old woman didn’t even spare the woman on the ground a glance. She hurried over and fixed her eyes on the boys, pretending to soothe them. “Stop struggling. You’ll be sons to a good family from now on. I guarantee you’ll live better than you did with your mom.”
The man had no patience to waste. He barked at the old woman, “Get on with it! Stop talking. Tie them both up—the buyers are waiting!”
His rough shout made the woman’s eyelashes flutter where she lay.
Frowning, she struggled upright—and saw the man pinning the two boys down as he wrapped rope around them. Beside him, the old woman was muttering curses as she pulled a small bottle from a cloth bag, poured something onto a piece of cotton cloth, and headed toward the children too.
At the chaotic scene before her, the woman was utterly bewildered.
Hadn’t she just been hit by a car? Where on earth had the collision sent her? To a kidnapping scene?
A sudden, splitting pain tore through her head. Then unfamiliar memories flooded in like a tide—
She had transmigrated into a book[2]Transmigration is a common Chinese web-novel trope in which a person’s consciousness enters another world or takes over an existing character’s body. When the destination is a fictional … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });!
She had entered the novel An ’80s Stepmom’s Child-Rearing Diary as He Xiaoman, the cannon-fodder ex-wife[3]In Chinese web fiction, a “cannon-fodder” character is a minor or expendable figure whose role in the original plot often involves suffering, failure, or serving another character’s … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); who shared her name and surname and was ultimately doomed by her own actions.
The original He Xiaoman was an abandoned baby taken in from the roadside by the He family. After Madam He had children of her own, He Xiaoman was mistreated at every turn. Desperate to find her biological parents but never succeeding, she eventually decided to marry into a good family and escape her misery.
When a group of educated youths was sent down to their brigade[4]A production brigade was a rural collective organization in Mao-era China, generally operating beneath a people’s commune and overseeing agricultural production and local affairs. The term … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, she set her sights on Gu Shuyan, a young man raised in an officials’ residential compound[5]In twentieth-century China, residential compounds associated with government or military institutions often housed officials and their families. Growing up in such a compound could suggest a … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
But things went awry. She accidentally fell into the water and was rescued by Jiang Yanchuan, a soldier who had returned home to visit his family. Madam He seized on the physical contact during the rescue as leverage, extorted three hundred yuan in betrothal money[6]Betrothal money, often called caili in Chinese, refers to money or valuables traditionally provided by the groom’s family in connection with a marriage. Customs and expectations vary by region … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); from the Jiang family, and forced her into marrying Jiang Yanchuan.
The original He Xiaoman hated Jiang Yanchuan for it, believing he had ruined her chance of being with Gu Shuyan.
The day after their wedding night, Jiang Yanchuan received orders to return to his unit. He asked whether she wanted to go with him to the military post in the Great Northwest[7]The “Great Northwest,” or Da Xibei, is a broad geographical term for northwestern China, commonly associated with regions such as Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. The … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, but she was still thinking about Gu Shuyan and refused outright.
Even after she had twin sons, she still refused to move to his military posting. She even came to hate the children, beating and scolding them at every turn and letting others bully them. She was worse than a stepmother.
Later, when Gu Shuyan wanted to return to the city, he actually talked the original He Xiaoman into taking the children to the city and selling them to raise the money for her to move there with him.
He Xiaoman’s vision went black. The original He Xiaoman didn’t know what happened later, but she did.
Within a couple of days of the boys being sold, Gu Shuyan turned around and sold her too—to an old bachelor to be his wife!
When Jiang Yanchuan heard the news and rushed home, he met the novel’s heroine. Thanks to her protagonist’s halo[8]A Chinese web-novel expression for the special luck, protection, or advantages that a story’s main character appears to enjoy because of their central role in the plot. It is similar to the … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_8').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_8', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, she helped him find the children and even obtained from them the jade pendant with its hidden spatial storage[9]A supernatural storage space is a common fantasy element in Chinese web novels, allowing items to be kept inside a separate, often magical space. The precise nature and limitations of this … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740389_1_9').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740389_1_9', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, which had originally belonged to He Xiaoman. In the end, she and the three Jiang men lived happily ever after.
After the original He Xiaoman was sold to the old bachelor, she was tied up in a cellar every day, abused and violated, and ordered to bear him a son. She managed to escape once, only to be caught and dragged back. In the end, she was beaten to death with clubs…
He Xiaoman went cold all over with rage at the horrific ending when the old woman shouted at her, “Hey, He! What are you standing around for? Get over here and hold your brats down!”
The words detonated in He Xiaoman’s mind like a landmine. Without a second thought, she snatched up a wooden stick from the ground, darted forward, and brought it crashing down on the old woman’s head.
“Ah!”
The old woman screamed. She swayed, then fell straight to the ground and passed out.
“Are you crazy?” The man’s eyes widened in fury. He released the boys and lunged at He Xiaoman.
He Xiaoman was quicker. She lifted her leg and kicked him hard in the crotch. “You want to sell my sons? Go eat shit!”
“Aaagh, my balls—!”
The man clutched his crotch and dropped to his knees, doubled over. He writhed on the ground, howling in pain.
He Xiaoman was still furious. She kicked him hard in the crotch several more times, until he was too weak to struggle.
She had been an abandoned baby in her previous life too, and had grown up in an orphanage. She was a first-rate fighter. But she didn’t want to invite more trouble now, so she quickly picked up the cotton cloth the old woman had been holding and pressed it over each of their mouths and noses.
Before long, neither of them on the ground moved again.
He Xiaoman crouched and searched them, and to her surprise, found six hundred yuan. It looked like this wasn’t the only deal they’d had today!
She gave a cold laugh and stuffed the money into her pocket. She’d consider it compensation for the emotional distress she and the children had suffered.
She stood and dusted off her hands, then looked at the two little boys, still bound.
They were as thin as bean sprouts, their clothes ragged and threadbare, hanging loosely from their bodies. Their identical little faces were black with dirt, but their delicate features were like something out of a painting—so pretty it made your heart ache.
These were the original He Xiaoman’s twin sons, Jiang Xingheng and Jiang Xingci. From now on, they would be her children too.
He Xiaoman had always loved children. Now she’d transmigrated into a book and become a mom without the pain of childbirth?
Well, that worked out. She wouldn’t have to give birth herself, and she’d just gained two sons!
Since she was the one who’d rescued the children, the novel’s heroine shouldn’t have anything to do with them now, right?
But then she remembered that the heroine had obtained the jade pendant from the boys and used it to open the dimensional space. He Xiaoman quickly crouched to check the children, but she couldn’t find the pendant on either of them.
She thought back over the plot, and her heart gave a sudden lurch. The original He Xiaoman seemed to have given the jade pendant to Gu Shuyan as a token of their love. At this point, it should still be in his hands.
Her expression changed. The jade pendant wasn’t just a vessel for a hidden space—it was also the only clue to the original He Xiaoman’s origins. She had to get it back from that scumbag!
That bastard had planned to trade the original He Xiaoman’s sons for travel money—and sell her too?
She was going to settle that score with him right now—with interest!
With that thought, He Xiaoman looked up at the two boys
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