In the blink of an eye, the second year arrived. The weather this year was relatively good; it seemed as though even the heavens could not bear to see the people suffer, and the crops were growing vigorously.
In the third month, when grass grew and orioles flew, many unknown wildflowers bloomed on the mountain.
Spring had come, and all things were revived. With the supplement provided by mountain vegetation, the villagers’ lives had improved considerably.
For now, her life was temporarily safe.
Since Lin Guihua had given birth to a pair of twin babies, she had become much more confident. In front of Mother Zhou, she no longer acted submissively and instead developed her own intentions and schemes.
She held control over Zhou Guanghai, using gentle but continuous pressure like soft knives, while Mother Zhou responded by using filial piety as a weapon, countering every move.
Zhou Guihua always ended up at a disadvantage.
Since ancient times, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law had been natural enemies, and the two frequently clashed.
In such situations, Zhou Guanghai did not know what to do. He could only sigh repeatedly, though in his heart, his balance still tilted toward Lin Guihua.
At night, the moon hung on the treetops, and the countryside fell quiet again.
During the day, Mother Zhou had another small conflict with Lin Guihua. Although the final outcome was slightly in Mother Zhou’s favor, she still felt uncomfortable inside.
She was increasingly disappointed in the eldest son. She was not foolish; she could clearly see that although he appeared to stand on her side, his heart had long since tilted toward Lin Guihua.
Father Zhou did not even need to look at his wife to know what was bothering her. After living together for half a lifetime, he naturally understood her concerns.
Over a year after the eldest son’s marriage, he had already seen clearly that the eldest son had developed his own thoughts. However, he did not tell his wife. After all, he himself had been young once.
His own parents had given birth to six sons. Once the children married, houses were needed. As time passed, the sons had children of their own. Although it was said that many sons and many grandchildren meant good fortune, expenses also increased and money became insufficient.
His father had decisively divided the family, living with the eldest brother, while the remaining five sons gave annual support.
Should he also split the family early?
After thinking about it, it was not possible. The Fourth Son had not yet married, and his education still required a large amount of money. He also still needed the eldest son to support the household.
He could only sigh helplessly.
Only then did he truly understand the loneliness, pain, and helplessness his own father must have felt when dividing the family.
His wife had not yet realized this and still treated the eldest son as a child, believing that mother and son shared one heart. But children eventually grew up.
“Enough, stop thinking about it.”
Father Zhou patted Mother Zhou’s arm. “Go to sleep early. You’ve been tired all day.”
Zhou Qingling was still more than a year away from turning fifteen, the age of coming-of-age ceremonies for women.
After coming of age, a woman could be married off. To be honest, she truly did not want to marry. Watching her elder sister-in-law and Mother Zhou constantly clashing already exhausted her. If she met a harsh mother-in-law or a husband who treated her poorly, life would become unbearable.
For women, marriage was essentially a second birth. A woman feared marrying the wrong man, just as a man feared choosing the wrong path. At this moment, Zhou Qingling deeply agreed with this saying.
Although she thought this way, she did not have the courage to be different and refuse marriage for her entire life.
Even if she had such courage, Father Zhou and Mother Zhou would not agree.
In this era, children were considered extensions of their parents. Parents had the authority to arrange marriages as they pleased, and children had no right to resist.
Just like before Lin Guihua married into the family, everyone knew Butcher Wu was not a good man. Yet they only muttered a few harmless complaints; nothing changed.
To be honest, she somewhat admired Lin Guihua. Without trying, no one would know what might happen next.
In ancient times, most women were born with the mission of marrying, serving their parents-in-law, and serving their husbands.
Men could defend the nation, achieve merit, study for imperial examinations, or engage in commerce overseas…
Women had only one path: marriage.
Zhou Qingling had been an ordinary person in her previous life. After transmigrating, she had not gained any extraordinary intelligence, but she did possess experience and perspective from two lives.
She understood the importance of planning ahead and taking every step carefully. She did not want to become a bargaining tool for Father Zhou and Mother Zhou to exchange for a bride price.
She lived a routine life within the village, rarely interacting with outsiders. It was already difficult enough just to recognize everyone in the village. If she wanted to find a suitable partner, she could only look within the village.
Yangliu Village was a large village with five to six hundred people. After several months of careful observation, she identified thirty-five men who were either planning to marry or looking for a wife.
Among them, three widowers who had children were removed, as she did not want to become a stepmother.
Five were overly dependent on their mothers, lacking independent judgment—mama’s boys—so they were excluded.
Two were alcoholic, gambling, and involved in petty theft, so they were also removed.
Four came from families where they were overly favored, but not the main decision-makers. She did not want to live a life of being ignored and overworked, doing nothing but serving others for her entire life—no different from her situation in the Zhou family.
When choosing a husband, it was not enough to consider only his character and appearance; his family’s conduct also mattered. Even if the man himself was good, a harsh and difficult family could still make life unbearable.
In this clan-based era, entire extended families often lived together for generations. She did not want to endure such a suffocating life.
From the remaining candidates, she continued filtering.
Families with simple members and mothers-in-law who did not mistreat daughters-in-law were eliminated as well.
This led to an awkward result.
After loosening her standards further, only five remained who did not excessively mistreat daughters-in-law.
Very well—these five became the main targets of her future evaluation.
With a clear goal, she felt much more relaxed. She slipped into the storage space and drank a sip of spring water. Over the past six months, Zhou Qingling had gradually discovered that this was not ordinary spring water.
At first, she drank it every day. Until one day, a woman jokingly said to Mother Zhou: “Your Xiao Ling is becoming more and more delicate and fair, just like your Second Son. Her skin is like a peeled egg. You really know how to raise children—both daughters are beautiful.”
Upon hearing this, Zhou Qingling did not feel happy; instead, cold sweat broke out on her back.
After being told this, Mother Zhou began to notice it as well. Usually, living together made it hard to observe, but upon closer inspection, it was indeed true.
The appearance of the Third Son was not much different from that of the Second Son.
Zhou Qingling still remembered clearly that at that time, Mother Zhou looked at her as though she were inspecting an object, evaluating her value.
There were no mirrors in the house, and bronze mirrors were expensive, so she never bought one.
She hurried to the river to look at her reflection. Although she was not fair-skinned to the extreme extent the woman described, her appearance had indeed changed significantly compared to her previously thin and sallow look. Her skin had improved considerably.
It was her negligence; she blamed herself for such a major oversight.
Aside from changes in appearance, she also considered other bodily changes after drinking the spring water.
Her wounds seemed to heal faster. When gathering firewood or cutting pig grass, she often accidentally cut her hands, sometimes shallow, sometimes deep.
Villagers usually picked a wild herb called “blood-stopping grass” from the roadside and applied it to stop bleeding, so she had assumed it was the herb’s effect.
There were no other noticeable changes; her strength remained the same as before.
After that, she rarely drank it, only occasionally to improve her condition.
It was not that she did not care about beauty, but sometimes beauty was not necessarily a good thing—especially in this feudal era. She considered herself average in intelligence and only wanted to live safely.
Zhou Qingling collected the small daily portion of spiritual spring water and stored it in bottles purchased in town. She still did not know what other effects the spring water might have, so she kept it for future use in case she did not have time to enter the storage space.