Summer, 1956
Inside the house came the miserable screams of a woman in labor. Outside, a man paced anxiously back and forth, occasionally prying open the crack of the window to peek inside.
The overwhelming smell of blood made the tears the man had been suppressing burst from his eyes.
It had already been half a day, and the child still hadn’t been born.
“Dad, Mom will be fine.” Meng Qing hugged Meng Qiushi, who was crouched on the ground with his face covered in despair. Her face was tense as she looked nervously toward the room.
Meng Wei kept a solemn little face as he squatted beside his father, comforting himself, “Mom will definitely be okay.”
“Qiushi, this is bad.” The midwife hurried out from the room in a panic. “Your wife is probably going to have a difficult labor!”
Meng Qiushi had just stood up, but after hearing the terrible news, he staggered two steps and collapsed back onto the ground.
His voice trembled as he struggled to speak. “Take… take her to the hospital…”
Originally, they had planned to send his wife to the hospital in a few days, but the baby had decided to come half a month early. The county town was far away, so they had no choice but to hire the village midwife.
Suddenly, the faint cry of a newborn baby came from inside the room.
Meng Qiushi’s dim expression instantly lit up. His voice shook as he asked uncertainly, “The baby’s born?”
The midwife rushed back inside. Soon, her delighted voice rang out from the room.
“Thank heavens, the baby’s born! It’s a girl!”
Immediately after came another baby’s cry.
The midwife shouted excitedly, “It’s a boy too—a pair of twins, a dragon and phoenix!”
The midwife was so happy she couldn’t stop smiling. This was the highlight of her life—she had delivered a pair of boy-girl twins, and both mother and babies were safe.
The midwife carried the babies to Xu Chunhua’s side.
“Chunhua, you’re truly blessed.”
Xu Chunhua’s pale little face showed a weak smile. Looking at the tiny baby beside her, as small as a kitten, she frowned with heartache.
Meng Yu slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry, but she could vaguely make out a young and beautiful woman.
Xu Chunhua lowered her head and kissed her daughter’s forehead. Although newborn babies looked a little ugly, in her eyes, this child staring at her with watery eyes was the most beautiful baby in the world.
Meng Yu understood now.
She had been reincarnated.
Meng Qiushi hurried into the room. After carefully looking Xu Chunhua over from head to toe, he knelt beside the bed, holding her hand as he quietly sobbed.
“We’re not having any more children.”
Xu Chunhua burst into laughter. She reached out and rubbed the top of his head.
“Alright, no more.”
With both sons and daughters, and even a pair of dragon-phoenix twins, anyone would say they were truly fortunate.
Meng Qiushi looked up at his newborn children, and immediately couldn’t look away.
“Which one’s the boy and which one’s the girl? Look at those big round black eyes—so beautiful.”
“This one’s the daughter. The sleeping one is the son.”
Xu Chunhua tucked the blanket more securely around her daughter, happiness curling at the corners of her lips.
“Our daughter will be called Meng Yu, and the son…” Meng Qiushi glanced at his eldest son and second daughter standing nearby, suddenly inspired. “He’ll be called Meng Che.”
The eldest son was Meng Wei, the second daughter Meng Qing, the third daughter Meng Yu, and the youngest son Meng Che.
Xu Chunhua smiled in agreement. “Those are lovely names.”
Although Xu Chunhua was a country woman, she was truly beautiful. She had long black hair, fair skin, and a pair of peach blossom eyes shimmering with moisture. Her delicate appearance made people’s hearts soften when they looked at her.
She had been the beauty of the neighboring village. Before marriage, with three older brothers at home, she had been doted on like a treasure in their palms.
Meng Qiushi wasn’t bad-looking either. Handsome and refined, tall and slender like green bamboo, he didn’t look like someone who worked the fields for a living. Yet despite laboring in the fields every day, his skin was still fair enough to glow.
Back then, Xu Chunhua had fallen for Meng Qiushi’s face and married him despite all the troubles within the Meng family. Fortunately, after marriage the couple had been deeply affectionate. With Meng Qiushi protecting her, she had never suffered much.
Meng Qiushi wiped away his tears and snot with his sleeve, then stood up and took out a hidden bag of red dates from behind the cabinet. He poured some into his palm and fed one to Xu Chunhua.
“Eat some dates to replenish your blood.”
Xu Chunhua chewed the date, its sweetness filling her mouth.
Seeing their son and daughter staring eagerly, Xu Chunhua grabbed a small handful and set them aside.
“You two eat here. Don’t let that old demoness outside see you.”
The “old demoness” Xu Chunhua referred to was her mother-in-law, Meng Qiushi’s biological mother, and the head of the Meng family—Wang Cuilian.
Wang Cuilian was extremely biased. She didn’t favor her biological sons or daughters. The only person she favored was her adopted daughter, Chen Rou, who wasn’t related to her by blood at all.
Above Meng Qiushi were two older brothers, Meng Qiufeng and Meng Qiushou. Below him was a pair of twin siblings, Meng Qiucan and his sister.
The youngest, Chen Rou, was the daughter of Wang Cuilian’s old sweetheart.
Chen Rou’s father, Chen Jun, had been Wang Cuilian’s childhood sweetheart, but for certain reasons they had missed their chance together. When Chen Rou was seven, her parents died unexpectedly, leaving her an orphan with nowhere to go.
Wang Cuilian had generously taken Chen Rou in and loved her as if she were her own daughter.
Whenever there was food or clothing at home, Chen Rou always got the best first. The family had been poor, only able to afford to send one child to high school. The other children stopped studying after elementary school, but Chen Rou studied all the way through high school.
No one stopped such blatant favoritism because Meng Dazhuang feared his wife. Weak and cowardly, he never involved himself in matters concerning the children.
Thanks to her high school education and outstanding beauty, Chen Rou married a worker in the city. However, after many years of marriage, she still had no children. Just when she finally became pregnant, her husband died unexpectedly.
Her in-laws despised her as a bringer of misfortune and drove the pregnant Chen Rou out of the house.
After living glamorously in the city for so many years, Chen Rou lost her husband’s support and could only return to her adoptive parents’ home.
Ever since Chen Rou came back, Wang Cuilian pitied her suffering while pregnant and wished she could give Chen Rou every good thing in the family.
Xu Chunhua and Chen Rou were both pregnant women, yet the treatment they received was worlds apart.
Thinking of this made Xu Chunhua grind her teeth in anger. Thankfully, Meng Qiushi was clear-headed and never blindly obedient to his parents. His heart was devoted only to their small family, and whenever he found something good, he secretly brought it back for them.
Smelling the sweet aroma of the red dates, Meng Yu smacked her lips greedily.
Xu Chunhua immediately stuffed the remaining dates into her mouth, picked up Meng Yu, lifted her shirt, and completed the movement in one smooth motion.
Meng Yu couldn’t care less about embarrassment anymore. Holding onto her “bowl,” she eagerly suckled the sweet milk.
Meng Wei was already seven years old and should avoid seeing such things. Meng Qiushi turned his son around and lightly smacked his butt.
“Go on, go outside and play.”
Meng Qing curiously leaned closer and swallowed hard.
“Little sister is eating so happily.”
Meng Qiushi flicked his eldest daughter’s braid and chuckled.
“You little glutton. Tonight Dad will make you some malted milk.”
Meng Qing’s eyes widened with joy as she nodded eagerly.
“Dad, you’re the best!”
Meanwhile, Wang Cuilian looked around furtively and quietly crept toward the third branch’s window, wanting to see whether the couple was secretly eating something good.
“Grandma, what are you looking at?”
Meng Wei suddenly stood beside Wang Cuilian, tilting his head up innocently as he asked.
Already feeling guilty like a thief, Wang Cuilian jumped in fright.
“You child, why don’t you make any sound when you walk? Trying to scare me to death?!”
Just like his parents from the third branch—black-hearted and sly.
Grinding her back teeth, Wang Cuilian glared and cursed at Meng Wei.
Meng Wei wasn’t afraid at all. He still wore a smiling expression, staring at her until even Wang Cuilian felt uneasy.
Just as she was about to leave, Meng Qiushi called out to her.
“Mom, my wife gave birth to dragon-phoenix twins. Did you come to give the children a gift for their first meeting?”
“Bah! It’s good enough that I’m not demanding filial offerings from you, and you still expect this old bag of bones to give you things?”
Wang Cuilian rolled her eyes and walked away cursing.
As long as the parents were alive, the family could not split apart. Being unfilial would get a person drowned in other people’s spit. That was why, no matter how rebellious her third son acted normally, he still had to obediently live under her watch and hand over all his earnings.
Wang Cuilian smugly hummed a tune as she opened the door and entered Chen Rou’s room.
The moment she saw Chen Rou doing needlework, her expression changed drastically.
She rushed forward, snatched the sewing from Chen Rou’s hands, and scolded her with heartache:
“You’re pregnant! Why are you doing needlework?”