“You little bitch, still lying here playing dead?”
A woman who looked to be in her fifties and another in her early thirties, each holding a stick, were viciously beating the motionless woman on the ground. “I’ll teach you to play dead! I’ll teach you to play dead!”
With that, they struck the woman’s body, one blow after another.
Gu Wenshu, awakened by the pain, hadn’t yet figured out what was happening when a flood of memories that didn’t belong to her rushed in like a tidal wave. By the time she understood the situation, she was momentarily stunned.
She had transmigrated into the resource-scarce 1970s due to a plane crash.
And become a vicious woman who, right from the start, had a dead husband, had sold her children, was gluttonous and lazy, and had a promiscuous nature?
She cursed inwardly. She had finally fought her way past a horde of siblings to become the general manager of her family’s supermarket chain, only to encounter a plane crash on her way back from inspecting the main warehouse. Heaven had taken pity and given her another chance, yet her situation was so dire.
At the thought of the children who had been sold, an uncontrollable pain gripped her heart. She abruptly stood up, forcefully pushed away the stick swinging toward her, and was about to run for the door. A voice inside her kept telling her, I must find the children, I must find them.
“Stop that little bitch!”
Granny Li shouted furiously, raising her stick to strike again, while her eldest daughter-in-law clutched Gu Wenshu’s arm, preventing her from leaving.
The thought that the children might be taken out of the county filled her with such worry and anxiety that she couldn’t care about anything else. She kicked Granny Li’s eldest daughter-in-law, Chen Hongzhen, away with all her might. Just as she was about to rush out, someone grabbed her leg tightly. She saw it was the eldest daughter of the main branch, who was staring at her with resentful eyes. “Third Aunt, you sold Sanbao and Xiaoni. I won’t let you leave.”
Just then, Granny Li’s stick was about to come down from behind her.
For crying out loud…
The whole family was ganging up on her. It seemed she wouldn’t be able to go find her children until she dealt with these stumbling blocks. She gritted her teeth and forcefully yanked Chen Hongzhen in front of her.
Thump!
The stick landed on Chen Hongzhen’s head. She clutched her head in pain, squatting on the ground and wailing. The piercing cries traveled over the courtyard walls and into the ears of many people returning from work. One by one, they shouldered their farm tools and ran to the Li house to see the commotion.
Seeing Chen Hongzhen in this state, Gu Wenshu felt a sense of satisfaction. She picked up Li Cuizhu with one hand, tossed her aside, then grabbed a carrying pole from beside the wall and viciously knocked the stick from Granny Li’s hand. Then, she gave her stout buttocks several whacks. She was very strong, and she hit Granny Li so hard that the old woman cried and screamed for her parents.
Hearing footsteps from outside, she instantly changed her target. The carrying pole landed on Chen Hongzhen, who was trying to get up and fight back. Gu Wenshu cried as she hit her.
“You heartless mother-in-law and daughter-in-law! You actually sold my Sanbao and Xiaoni, and now you’re stopping me from finding them! Your hearts are too vicious!”
“Chen Hongzhen, if anything happens to my children, I’ll fight you to the death!”
“Give me back my children!”
No matter how much Chen Hongzhen begged for mercy in agony, the carrying pole in her hand continued to swing with vigor, each blow landing squarely on flesh.
From the original owner’s memories, she discovered that she was gluttonous and lazy and was often beaten by her mother-in-law and scolded by her sister-in-law in this family.
After being brutally beaten, she would in turn lock the door and beat her two children. That was why the villagers all secretly called the original owner a gluttonous, lazy, and vicious mother.
After her husband’s sacrifice, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law duo had planned to sell her and her two children. But to the original owner’s face, they said they were just giving the children away to be raised by others, and that the Li family wouldn’t stop her from taking the money and remarrying.
In reality, after selling the children, the Li women planned to sell the original owner to a remote mountain village. The day before the children were to be sold, the original owner found out about their plan. So, she secretly sold the children herself before the appointed time. When she returned to pack her things and escape this den of wolves, her actions were discovered. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law demanded the money from her. The original owner refused and was beaten to death.
Perhaps because the original owner was already dead, these were the only memories she could access. Based on what she knew, even if the original owner was cursed, she wasn’t worthy of pity. The only pitiful ones were the two children who had lost their father and been sold by their mother.
Today, she would first vent some of this pent-up anger.
Hearing this, Granny Li was so furious she could have spat blood. “Gu Wenshu, you rotten-hearted vixen! You were clearly the one who sold your own children, and now you’re blaming us! You damn wretch, how dare you hit your own mother-in-law and sister-in-law! Aren’t you afraid of being struck by lightning?”
“If black-hearted, rotten people like you aren’t afraid of being struck by lightning, what do I have to be afraid of?”
Gu Wenshu pointed the carrying pole at Granny Li with both hands, her eyes a frightening shade of red. She was at the peak of her fury, ready to snap at any moment. “If anything happens to Sanbao and Xiaoni, I’ll burn down your entire Li family home and make sure none of you ever know peace again!”
Although she knew it was the original owner’s fault, she didn’t want to take the blame.
Selling one’s own children—that was too heavy a burden for her to bear.
There were ready-made scapegoats right here; it would be a waste not to use them.
Seeing her like this, the onlookers’ hearts instantly swayed to her side. No one would believe that a mother this frantic would sell her own children.
“Granny Li, hurry up and tell us who you sold the children to! We’ll help chase after them now.”
“That’s right, hurry up and say it, or it’ll be too late.”
Being questioned like this by everyone, Granny Li and Chen Hongzhen only felt the pain in their bodies intensify. It was clearly Gu Wenshu who sold the children, so why didn’t they believe them?
Granny Li sat on the ground and began to wail in anger. “I really didn’t sell the children! It was that wicked woman Gu Wenshu who sold her own son and daughter! We only started hitting her after we found out. Why won’t you believe us?”
It hurt so much, and it was so unfair.
Why did all these people believe that black-hearted woman, Gu Wenshu?
Chen Hongzhen also started crying pitifully. Thinking of the vicious blows Gu Wenshu had dealt, she felt her whole body ache, and her sobs grew louder.
Seeing this, Li Cuizhu, who was not far away, scurried over to hug her mother. Crying, she glanced cautiously at Gu Wenshu. “Third Aunt, please don’t hit my mom and grandma anymore. I… I won’t tell anyone that you were the one who sold Sanbao and Xiaoni.”
When the onlookers saw the three generations of grandmother, mother, and daughter crying so miserably and heard Li Cuizhu’s words, they recalled how diligent and polite Li Cuizhu usually was. They felt that a child like her wouldn’t lie.
So, was it really Gu Wenshu who sold her own son and daughter?
Gu Wenshu felt the gazes of the crowd on her change. She slammed the carrying pole on the ground and wiped away a bitter tear. Damn it, even a little girl a few years old is such a good actress. In the 21st century, she’d be a bonafide award-winning actress.
“Mother, Sister-in-law, I don’t want to argue with you. I can’t win against you.”
“If you won’t tell me where the children are, my only choice is to go ask the public security comrades for help.”
After speaking, she gave Chen Hongzhen a deep look. The two buyers had been found by this woman; she refused to believe Chen Hongzhen wasn’t scared.
Sure enough, seeing her turn to leave, Chen Hongzhen panicked instantly. She and Granny Li exchanged a glance, and both saw the terror in each other’s eyes. This exchange did not escape the notice of some sharp-eyed onlookers.
Everyone instantly understood that Sanbao and Xiaoni might have really been sold by Granny Li and her eldest daughter-in-law.
Someone couldn’t bear it and said loudly, “Sanbao’s mother, we’ll go with you to find the children.”
“That’s right, we’re all fellow villagers. We’ll go with you.”
Hearing this, Gu Wenshu’s tears fell like rain. She looked at the villagers in the crowd. “Thank you, everyone. Thank you. If you really help me find Sanbao and Xiaoni, I’ll go to town and buy meat to treat you all to a meal.”
She didn’t know why, but whenever she thought of the children leaving her, her heart ached terribly.
Could this be the original owner’s emotions influencing her?
No, the children were sold by the original owner, so this emotion wasn’t left behind by her.
It felt more like her own emotion.
This thought shocked her, but there was no time to dwell on it. Finding the children was more important than anything.
In this era of scarcity, having meat to eat was a wonderful thing. Hearing her promise, everyone became even more motivated, eager to help find the children quickly.
“No need for thanks! We’re not like those black-hearted people who sell their own grandchildren.”
Granny Li: “…”
Why don’t any of you believe me?
Just then, a shriek came from outside the gate.