In the clean and tidy living room.
A white lace cloth covered the table. Wang Xiulan poured a cup of boiled water and handed it to Bai Xiaomei, steam curling upward.
Bai Xiaomei accepted the hot water, her rough hands bearing several scars.
“Dad, Mom, Moon Maiden and I would like to move back home. May we?”
Bai Yongjun took a drag of his cigarette and frowned. “Xiao Mei, you’re a married daughter! What married daughter moves back to her parents’ home? Go back, just go back!”
Wang Xiulan wore an uncomfortable expression, her eyes filled with disdain.
“Xiao Mei, where would we have extra room? Your father and I are already imposing by living with your brother. Even your eldest nephew is still squeezed into one room with your brother and his wife!”
Bai Xiaomei knew this was a difficult request. Ever since her husband passed away, her in-laws had despised her for only giving birth to a “worthless girl” and had quickly driven mother and daughter out.
Coinciding with the opportunity for Educated Youth to return to the city, Bai Xiaomei had immediately packed and come back.
She had thought her parents would surely be her safe harbor—after all, she shouldn’t have been the one sent to the countryside in the first place.
“Dad, Mom, you promised back then. You said as long as I went to the countryside in Bai Jiaxing’s place, no matter what happened, there would always be a place for me at home.”
Bai Yongjun slammed the table angrily. “Do I still run this household or not? Back then when we asked you to take Jiaxing’s place in the countryside, you didn’t refuse! You went happily enough!”
“Then not long after you got to the countryside, you took up with some country boy. You didn’t even tell us old folks when you got married. Now that your husband’s dead, you remember to come back to us? Where were you before?”
Bai Xiaomei was shocked. “But—but I wrote letters! About getting married, about having Moon Maiden—I wrote and told you everything! How could you not have known?”
Bai Yongjun wouldn’t listen to her explanations. Waving his hand, he said, “Since you didn’t consider us family then, don’t expect to live here now. Anyway, there’s no room!”
With that, he stood up and walked into the east room without looking back, closing the door behind him.
Bai Xiaomei looked utterly distraught. If even her own parents wouldn’t take her in, where could she and her daughter go?
“Dad, Mom, if we can’t find a place to stay today, we’ll be driven out as vagrants!”
Wang Xiulan looked pained. “Then you’d better hurry back now while there’s still some daylight left!”
Bai Xiaomei’s tears fell onto Lin Xiyue’s hand, where the girl rested in her arms.
Lin Xiyue quickly sorted out the family dynamics.
Having transmigrated over a month ago, experiencing her original body’s father’s death, and witnessing the wretched behavior of her “paternal grandmother’s” family, Lin Xiyue had gained a deep understanding of what kind of era this was.
Wang Xiulan said helplessly, “Xiao Mei, you know your father’s temper. If he says no, it’s no. You should hurry and leave the city while it’s still early. Go back!”
Lin Xiyue stood up. “Grandma, this living room is quite spacious. Mom and I could make do here for a while.”
Wang Xiulan glanced at this granddaughter who had only greeted them upon arrival and hadn’t spoken since. Before she could refuse, her daughter eagerly chimed in.
“That’s right, Mom! We can squeeze in here in the living room! We’ll get up early and go to bed late—we won’t disrupt your lives at all! Tomorrow morning I’ll start looking for a job, and once I find one, we’ll pay you rent!”
Wang Xiulan frowned. “No! You need to leave now!”
Lin Xiyue thought, Well now, they’re not even pretending anymore!
Bai Yongjun’s voice came from inside the room.
“Hurry up and leave! Our Bai family has no room for you and your daughter!”
Lin Xiyue gritted her teeth. Since you’ve all lost all sense of shame, I’ll fight with everything I’ve got!
She stood up and ran into the courtyard. Under the shocked gazes of Wang Xiulan and Bai Xiaomei, she knelt directly facing the living room and began wailing loudly.
“Grandpa! Grandma! Mom and I traveled all the way from the countryside to come back, but Grandma’s family won’t even give us food to eat. Are you going to just watch us starve to death too?”
“Mom always told me that Grandpa and Grandma are educated people who treated her so well! Now that we’re back, we don’t even have a place to stay. Where else can we go? Waaah! Waaah!”
Lin Xiyue’s voice disturbed Bai Yongjun, who had hidden in the bedroom, making him shout.
“Quick, shut her up! Don’t let her call the neighbors over!”
Wang Xiulan pushed Bai Xiaomei and said with disgust, “Hurry up and make your precious daughter shut up! She’s acting just like a country bumpkin troublemaker!”
Bai Xiaomei’s face flushed red then turned pale. Gentle as she was, she knew her parents looked down on her for her over ten years of experience in the countryside.
Pursing her lips, she stepped forward and tugged at Lin Xiyue.
Lin Xiyue was just getting into her performance. The neighbors hadn’t even arrived yet—how could she stop?
“Grandma! Please don’t look down on us! I can do all kinds of work! Please don’t drive us away!”
As she spoke, she glanced sideways toward the gate. Seeing someone approaching, she quickly added some physical acting to her performance, crying while kowtowing. The blue stone pavement was hard, but to secure a place to stay for the night, Lin Xiyue gritted her teeth and went all out!
“Aunt Wang! What’s going on here?”
A man’s voice came from the gate.
The man rushed over in quick strides, stepped forward, and pulled her up from the ground.
“What are you doing? What wrong has this child done? How can you let her kneel in the courtyard like this and bang her head on the ground? If she gets hurt, how heartbreaking would that be?”
Lin Xiyue looked up, her face streaked with tears and mucus. The first thing she saw wasn’t the man before her, but the youth standing beside him.
She felt dazed for a moment. In this 1980s era, how could there be such divine beauty?
His features were exquisite, with sharp, clean lines. Even with a crew cut, his handsome elegance was undeniable. Especially the clarity in his eyes—it was something Lin Xiyue had never seen in her previous life.
“Ma’am, look! Her forehead is already swollen!”
The man helped Lin Xiyue up and frowned at Wang Xiulan.
Wang Xiulan quickly waved her hands, flustered. “No, it wasn’t me who made her kneel! She did it herself…”
Taking advantage of her young age, Lin Xiyue tugged at the man’s sleeve and said pitifully, “Uncle, Grandma didn’t make me kneel. It’s just that Mom and I came to disturb Grandma’s family today. My dad has already passed away, and we were driven out by Grandma. Besides coming to find Grandma, we don’t know where else to go… Waaah…”
Perhaps because there was a handsome guy nearby, Lin Xiyue felt too embarrassed to play the shrew, so she had to resort to the “green tea” act instead.
Wang Xiulan stood on the steps. “Young lady, you and Xiao Mei may have nowhere to go, but you can’t just plant yourselves in our home. I’ve already said—the house is only this big. Our son’s family and us old folks are already cramped living here. Where would we have extra space for you two?”
Wang Xiulan felt utterly frustrated and resentful as she glared at Bai Xiaomei, who stood by doing nothing but wiping her tears.
“That little debt collector, why didn’t she just die in the countryside instead of coming back to torment us old folks?”
Lin Xiyue shook her head: “Grandma, please don’t reject us. Both my mother and I can work hard. We only ask for a place to stay temporarily. Once my mother earns enough money, we’ll move out!”
He Jianguo lived just two houses away from the Bai family. Seeing each other frequently in their daily lives, everyone knew exactly what was going on in each other’s households. It was clear these old folks simply didn’t want their daughter and granddaughter returning to claim the house, hence making up this excuse about insufficient space.
His gaze turned complicated as he looked toward Bai Xiaomei standing nearby.
Meanwhile, He Mingchu swept his seemingly amused eyes over everyone’s faces. When his gaze landed on Lin Xiyue, the interest in his eyes peaked.
Having crossed into such a dull era, he had expected life to be utterly boring. Never did he imagine fate would deliver such an intriguing person to him. Wouldn’t it be ungrateful to not seize this gift from destiny?
Seeing the argument was getting nowhere, He Mingchu finally spoke up.
“Enough arguing. Aunt Xiao Mei, little sister, if you don’t mind, you can stay at our place. My father and I aren’t worried about you taking our house.”