Her eldest brother, Jiang Rui, spent most of the year at the military base. So before Jiang Wanxi returned home, he had asked Aunt Zhang to redecorate his room for her. He would move in with Jiang Jin instead.
Jiang Rui took Jiang Wanxi and Shen Menglan to see her new room.
The moment the door opened, Jiang Wanxi saw that all the furniture had been newly purchased. A wardrobe stood to the right of the entrance, directly across from a one-and-a-half-meter-wide bed. The blanket and quilt cover were both pink, and even the curtains were pink. In front of the window stood a brand-new desk, with a new bookshelf beside it.
“I don’t know if you’ll like the room, Wanwan. Your second brother and I don’t know much about decorating, so we asked Aunt Zhang to help arrange everything. Take a look and see if there’s anything else you need. Your second brother and I will be home for the next couple of days, so we can go out and buy whatever’s missing.”
Jiang Wanxi was quite satisfied.
Perhaps because the conditions at the orphanage in her previous life had never allowed her to be particular, she had never cared much about where she lived.
Back then, she had been constantly busy—working, studying, communicating with patients, and even squeezing out time to learn self-defense. To her, a house had simply been a place to rest and sleep.
After transmigrating into this world, however, she had finally experienced the warmth of having a family. Even so, she still wasn’t demanding when it came to her living conditions.
In an era when an ordinary worker earned only twenty or thirty yuan a month, being able to buy all this new furniture was already quite remarkable.
She could tell that they genuinely welcomed her home.
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t moved.
Jiang Wanxi was beginning to realize that many things were different from how they had been described in the novel.
Her family had truly been looking forward to her arrival.
They were living, breathing people with flesh, blood, and emotions—not flat characters on a page who existed solely to follow a predetermined plot.
Through their actions, they were trying to make up for the sixteen years of her life they had missed.
Just like her family back in Ji Province, they were warming her heart with their love.
“Thank you, Big Brother, Second Brother, and Aunt Zhang. I really like it.”
Jiang Wanxi smiled as she gently ran her hand over the new desk. Her voice carried a noticeable nasal tone as she struggled to contain her emotions.
She had never considered herself a sentimental person.
But after experiencing ten years of being loved in her previous life, she had learned to be grateful.
And she had learned how to love others in return.
Jiang Rui naturally reached out and placed his hand on top of her head, gently ruffling her hair a few times.
“Why are you thanking your own brothers?”
After lowering his hand, even Jiang Rui himself couldn’t understand why he had done that.
He had never treated Jiang Yu this way before.
Could this be the natural closeness of blood ties?
Jiang Wanxi, however, was already completely immune to having her hair ruffled. Her family back in Ji Province had all loved patting and ruffling the top of her head.
Out of habit, she scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out at Jiang Rui.
Her playful expression made Jiang Rui burst into hearty laughter.
Shen Menglan watched her children joke around with a gratified smile.
Wanwan really was beginning to accept them.
Seeing that it was getting late, Shen Menglan remembered that Jiang Wanxi hadn’t rested well on the train. After arriving home, she had gone through the emotional reunion with the family and then spent so much time talking with everyone. Shen Menglan was worried that she might become exhausted.
So she shooed her son out of the room, saying that she wanted to help her daughter unpack so Jiang Wanxi could wash up and go to bed early.
Jiang Wanxi hadn’t brought many clothes with her, and what she did have were all summer clothes.
Everything fit inside a single cloth bundle, making her belongings look rather meager.
Thinking about the disdainful look Jiang Yu had given the bundle earlier, Shen Menglan felt a pang in her heart.
Jiang Wanxi herself didn’t think much of it.
She took out her clothes while Shen Menglan helped her fold them one by one before placing them neatly inside the wardrobe. They also put away the newly made shoes she had brought with her.
The wardrobe was made entirely of solid wood, as was common in this era, but it wasn’t very convenient for hanging clothes.
*Looks like I’ll have to modify it a little,* Jiang Wanxi thought.
As they were folding the last dress, a bulging envelope suddenly fell out.
Shen Menglan thought it looked familiar.
She picked it up and opened it, only to discover dozens of ten-yuan notes inside.
The night before they had left Ji Province, they had given the Jiang family there two thousand yuan, and the money had been placed in this exact envelope.
Yet now the envelope had somehow ended up among her daughter’s belongings.
And judging by its thickness, there seemed to be even more money inside than before.
Shen Menglan counted the money in front of Jiang Wanxi.
There was a total of two thousand five hundred yuan.
No matter how well the Jiang family lived compared to other rural households, they were still farmers living under the collective economy. Coming up with an additional five hundred yuan was by no means easy.
They must have been afraid that Wanwan would suffer after returning to her biological family.
Most likely, several households had pooled together everything they could spare just to gather that extra five hundred yuan for her.
Shen Menglan was a teacher.
But more importantly, she was also a mother.
The Jiang family’s love for Wanwan was simple and unpretentious, yet it carried an incredible weight.
She had no right to force her daughter to sever ties with people who loved her so deeply.
If she did something like that, how could she stand in front of her students and teach them how to become good people?
How could her conscience ever be at peace?
Shen Menglan handed the envelope to Jiang Wanxi.
“Wanwan, they will always be your family. Don’t ever cut ties with them. From now on, our two families are one family.”
By then, tears were already streaming down Jiang Wanxi’s face.
She knew exactly what her family’s financial situation was like.
That extra five hundred yuan had probably emptied the savings of several households.
Their love was simple, but unbearably profound.
How could she ever bring herself to let go of people who loved her so much?
Shen Menglan pulled her daughter into her arms.
She could see that this child knew how to cherish the kindness she received.
“Thank you, Mom!” Jiang Wanxi said through her tears. “With so many people loving me, I feel like I’m the happiest person in the world.”