At that moment, a little girl of about one year old wobbled in from outside.
Her hair was dry and yellow, her clothes patched in many places. Her thin arms were almost skin and bone, making her small head look unusually large. Anyone could tell she was severely malnourished.
“Xiaocao!”
The woman on the bed, who had looked vacant moments before, suddenly lit up when she saw the little girl.
She struggled to get out of bed, but then looked cautiously at the mother-in-law and the little aunt, clutching the swaddled baby tightly as if afraid they would snatch it away. Finally, she only whispered to the child, “Xiaocao, come to Mom.”
Ye Wen saw how terrified she was and began to understand a bit.
From the conversation she had overheard earlier, it seemed likely this woman had just given birth to a baby girl. The original owner’s mother-in-law, who favored sons over daughters, had probably tried to drown the baby. During the struggle, the original woman accidentally fell and died, which allowed Ye Wen to transmigrate into this body.
Knowing the woman feared her, Ye Wen sensibly propped herself up and staggered toward the door.
But the closer she got to the door, the more the child, Xiaocao, trembled, her eyes full of fear.
Ye Wen was speechless. What sin had the original woman committed to make a child this young so afraid?
While she was thinking, Xiaonan suddenly shouted sharply from behind, “You little brat, why are you trembling? If you bump into your grandmother again, I’ll skin you alive!”
“Waaah—” Xiaocao was so scared she jolted and immediately began wailing loudly.
The new mother on the bed could no longer hold back. She put down the swaddled baby, ran barefoot to protect the child, and shouted, “Xiaonan! She’s only a little one! Why are you picking on her?”
But this only stirred a hornet’s nest. Xiaonan immediately went wild, spitting and shouting:
“Sister-in-law, do you have the heart of a bear or the courage of a leopard to yell at me today? Earlier, you shoved Mom while protecting that worthless little thing, and now you’re lecturing me! I say we follow Mom’s plan—throw the little one in the chamber pot to drown, sell the older one to the peddler, save the food!”
Ye Wen felt her temples throbbing. “Shut up!”
A child of this age was talking about killing and selling people—what kind of nonsense had the original woman taught?
Xiaonan misinterpreted Ye Wen’s words and proudly raised her chin at Sister-in-law: “Hear that? Mom told you to shut up!”
Ye Wen felt her chest tighten, ready to explode, when suddenly a sharp pain shot through her temple. This time it was real, intense, like someone was stirring her brain with an awl.
She instinctively held her forehead. Instantly, countless foreign memories rushed in like a tide, crowding into her consciousness.
Her vision darkened from the pain, yet Xiaonan’s shrill voice and Sister-in-law’s sobbing echoed in her ears.
“Shut up, all of you!”
The shout escaped her mouth before she even realized it. She was too dizzy and pained to mediate the girls’ quarrel. Head pounding, she staggered toward the main room, almost falling through the door, and slammed the latch with a “bang.”
At last, the house fell silent, but the stabbing pain continued.
Ye Wen curled up on the bed, cold sweat soaking her clothes, her nails digging into her palms. She didn’t know how long passed. When the last memory settled, the pain gradually subsided like a receding tide.
Gasping, she opened her eyes. An absurd realization struck her mind:
She had transmigrated!
The original owner of this body was named Ye Wen—pronounced the same as her own—but the life was completely different.
In modern times, 26-year-old Ye Wen was a career professional, already a department supervisor, and too busy to date.
The 36-year-old rural woman Ye Wen had transmigrated into was already a mother of three sons and a daughter. Her eldest and second sons were married with children; she was already a grandmother.
The original Ye Wen was a typical country woman, barely literate, short-tempered, spending her days either yelling at people or scheming over trivial things.
If she saw grain drying in someone’s yard, she’d help herself. At the market, if the vendor wasn’t paying attention, she’d sneak extra scallions or dates. Even a tiny gain made her happy as if she had found gold.
Her greed was one thing, but she also had a sharp tongue. Neighbors often suffered under her biting words.
Her husband, Wen Shougui, had studied a little and traveled with trading caravans to accumulate some property—though in reality, it was just twenty acres of poor farmland and this small courtyard.
Sadly, five years ago, a sudden illness took the head of the household, leaving his widow and children struggling.
After her husband’s death, the original Ye Wen fully unleashed her nature. Illiterate as she was, she thought herself the most noble person in the house, acting like an empress dowager, yelling at anything that displeased her.
The eldest son worked slowly? She scolded him. The eldest daughter-in-law’s food was salty? She scolded. Even a neighbor’s dog wandered in, she could stand at the gate and yell for half an hour.
The eldest son, Wen Xiangdong, 19, was a simple farmer.
But Ye Wen despised this slow, honest son. She often beat and scolded him, leaving him both fearful and respectful.
This made the eldest son obedient to his mother. To avoid her anger, he learned to redirect conflict—when she wanted to scold, he’d shift it to his wife. During mother-in-law/daughter-in-law fights, he even rushed to “help” his mother punish his wife, afraid that if he delayed, her anger would hit him.
The eldest daughter-in-law, Jiang Lian, was the classic victim of feudal norms. Even when scolded and beaten, she endured quietly.
The eldest son had a daughter over a year old, Xiaocao. Because she was a girl, Ye Wen showed her little care, not even allowing her enough food. According to Ye Wen, as long as the girl didn’t starve, it didn’t matter—any more was wasting grain. Jiang Lian could only share her own meager meals with her daughter.
Even then, it was barely enough. Both mother and daughter were pale and thin.
Once, Jiang Lian secretly boiled an egg for her daughter. The original Ye Wen kept meticulous track of eggs, counting them twice daily. If even one went missing, she noticed immediately.
As soon as the egg started cooking, Ye Wen stormed into the kitchen, furious, scolding “wasteful woman” for three days straight, and even forced the eldest son to beat Jiang Lian before she was satisfied.
The second son, Wen Xiangxi, 18, had been married a year. Ye Wen was obviously more lenient toward the second family.
Compared to his honest older brother, Xiangxi was cunning. He knew his mother’s temper and would occasionally bring cheap makeup from town to please her. Ye Wen, charmed, would pretend not to notice his laziness in the fields.
In addition, the second daughter-in-law, Tian Chunhua, gave birth to a son, Yaozu, a year after marriage. She was sweet, and Ye Wen doted on the grandson. So the second family had her favor.
The third son, Wen Xiangbei, 15, studied in the county town and wasn’t at home.
The fourth, Wen Xiannan, 12, was the only daughter.
Ye Wen originally disliked this “worthless” daughter, but as she grew pretty, Ye Wen hoped one day she would marry well and bring her a better life. For this reason, Ye Wen treated her reasonably.
Under her mother and second sister-in-law’s influence, Wen Xiannan gradually became vain, always dressing up and hoping a rich man from town would notice her.
The most favored child, however, was the third son, Xiangbei, studying in the county town.
Whenever Xiangbei came home, Ye Wen boiled all the saved eggs for him to strengthen his body. If she had money, she’d even make Jiang Lian cut some meat for him, making the other children jealous.
Once, when Xiangbei casually said, “We’re out of ink,” Ye Wen raided the eldest son’s room and pawned Jiang Lian’s dowry silver hairpins to buy ink. Jiang Lian, crying in the kitchen, dared not make a sound.