When Wen Qiao was first born, her family’s situation actually wasn’t too bad.
Because Wen’s mother had always worked as a maid in the Shen household, she didn’t leave after giving birth to her.
At the time, Old Master Shen was a senior commander in the capital military district. Shen’s father also held a post within the military district. Shen’s mother worked as an officer in the General Political Department Art Troupe.
The Shen family was a genuine high-ranking military household.
Naturally, their living conditions were excellent.
Although Wen Qiao was barely two years old when the Three Years of Natural Disasters struck, the military supply system remained relatively stable and was barely affected.
Relying on packing up leftovers and secretly taking ingredients from the Shen household, Wen’s mother managed to feed the entire Wen family.
Later, shamelessly swallowing her pride, she even begged the Shen family to help her husband find a job.
Shen’s mother was kind-hearted and introduced Wen’s father to a temporary position at a slaughterhouse.
The original host had three older brothers.
The meat Wen’s father brought home naturally wasn’t for her.
At most, she could sip a few mouthfuls of broth.
The turning point came when Wen Qiao was ten.
That summer, Wen’s father suddenly quit his job at the slaughterhouse, and Wen’s mother left the Shen household as well.
The couple hurriedly took their four children back to the countryside.
Without jobs, they could only work the fields to earn work points.
Scraping a living from the soil depended entirely on the weather.
But after getting used to city life, the couple couldn’t endure the hardship of farm labor. Not only did they slack off constantly, they even took turns pretending to be sick every few days to avoid work.
After a year, their income was pitiful.
Even so, the Wen family’s living standard didn’t drop much.
Only Wen Qiao suffered.
Before dawn, she had to get up to cook breakfast for the entire family. After serving everyone, she would head out to work.
Wen’s mother had secured a job feeding pigs in the production team—and pushed it onto her.
During the day, she climbed the mountain to cut pig grass, chop it, boil swill. At night, she washed clothes, cooked, cleaned, and took care of her two younger brothers.
After finishing all that, late at night, she still had to follow Grandpa Wen up the mountain to secretly gather medicinal herbs.
Grandpa Wen was a barefoot doctor who could make plasters for treating sprains and injuries.
There was a mountain near the village called Daqing Mountain, rich with wild medicinal herbs.
Very few villagers could identify herbs.
Everything on the mountain belonged to the collective and wasn’t allowed to be taken privately.
Picking during the day risked being seen, and over time, others might figure out the value of the herbs.
If reported, not only would they be punished—their source of income would be cut off.
So Grandpa Wen kept a low profile, secretly getting rich in silence, always taking the original host up the mountain under the cover of darkness.
Later, once she became familiar with the herbs and the routes, and as Grandpa grew older and frailer, he made her go alone.
He even set a task: she had to fill one whole basket every day, or she wasn’t allowed to return.
She often came back past midnight.
And at the first light of dawn, she had to get up again.
Wen Qiao couldn’t help sighing—the original host had lived worse than a donkey.
At least the production team’s donkey got to rest at night.
She practically worked twenty-four hours nonstop.
The Wen family was truly bizarre—sending a young girl into the mountains in the middle of the night and leaving her there for hours without worrying about her safety.
The key point?
They didn’t even feed her properly.
The Wen family’s living standard wasn’t bad. Though not as lavish as in the capital, with frequent fish and meat, their table still had white flour buns almost every meal, and meat dishes every few days.
Of course, none of that was for her.
She got only a bowl of watery wild vegetable soup thin enough to see her reflection, and a coarse wild vegetable bun.
With so many children at home, she didn’t even have a proper bed and could only curl up in the woodshed.
She was underfed, underclothed, burdened with heavy labor daily. If she didn’t do well, she not only went hungry—she got beaten.
Living in constant fear, never daring to resist, she gradually developed a submissive, timid personality.
At this moment, Wen Qiao felt weak all over, her heart racing and her hands trembling. She didn’t even need a checkup to know this body was severely depleted.
That cursed roommate had deliberately thrown the original host into a life of misery.
Even if the Wen family favored sons over daughters, she was still their only daughter—they couldn’t have been this harsh.
Even pigs are fattened before slaughter.
Raising a daughter like this—wouldn’t her bride price be discounted if they sold her off later?
It made no sense.
Shen Yueru was clearly retaliating against her.
Wen Qiao sighed and lowered her head to eat, choosing only the light dishes.
Her stomach hadn’t seen oil for years—she didn’t dare touch anything greasy.
If she ate that braised pork, her intestines would surely protest.
She had to take it slowly.
After finishing one bowl of rice, she already felt full.
Years of hunger had shrunk her stomach.
Shen’s mother quickly tried to smooth things over and personally picked up a piece of braised pork for Wen Qiao.
“Qiaoqiao, have some meat. Yueru means well. You’re too thin—you need to nourish yourself.”
Wen Qiao glanced at her. The middle-aged beauty looked at her with concern, though her smile was slightly stiff.
Wen Qiao smiled faintly.
“Thank you, Mom. It’s not necessary. At the Wen household, I’ve eaten wild vegetable buns every day. I haven’t had meat for years. My stomach can’t handle greasy food.”
Hearing her call her “Mom,” Shen’s mother froze for a second—then her eyes instantly reddened.
Her daughter looked so much like her.
Back in the day, she had been the leading beauty of the General Political Department Art Troupe.
Her daughter had inherited her beauty entirely. Though her skin was now rough and dull, the foundation was there.
With proper care, her radiant looks would surely shine through.
Perhaps she would even surpass her.
Only her personality was hard to describe.
To put it nicely, she was quiet and gentle. To put it bluntly, she was dull and wooden.
Since acknowledging their kinship, she had barely spoken a handful of sentences.
She knew rural life was harsh—but she hadn’t imagined it was this hard, to the point of eating wild vegetables every day.
In the military compound, supplies were abundant. Chicken, duck, fish, meat—none of it was ever lacking.
Thinking of this, Shen’s mother felt a lump in her throat and lost her appetite entirely.
After eating her fill, Wen Qiao wiped her mouth.
It was time to stir things up.
“Yueru, aren’t you going back to the Wen household?”
Shen Yueru froze, not expecting that question.
Shen Guiyuan immediately bristled.
“Wen Qiao, what do you mean by that? Are you trying to drive Yueru away? You were eating chaff and swallowing vegetables at the Wen house—Yueru’s body is delicate; she can’t endure that kind of suffering. Mom and Dad haven’t even said anything—what right do you have to speak!”
Shen Guiyao frowned slightly and shot his younger brother a disapproving glare.
Shen Guiyuan wanted to say more but was silenced by his elder brother’s look.
Wen Qiao shrank her shoulders, eyes reddening.
And began to pour out her grievances.
“That’s not what I mean. If Yueru doesn’t go back to the Wen family, then no one will feed the pigs and chickens. No one will wash clothes or cook. There are still three younger brothers who need someone to take care of them.”
“Oh, right. They’ve already arranged a marriage for me—to the village secretary’s mentally disabled son. The bride price has been accepted. They said it would be used for my brothers’ weddings.”
Shen’s father slammed his chopsticks down, anger flashing across his face.
“Why didn’t Wen Degui mention this before? This is outrageous! How could a daughter of the Shen family marry a fool!”
Shen’s mother was furious as well.
“Isn’t this selling their daughter? It’s a new society—arranged sales marriages are illegal! How could Wang Guihua and her husband be so muddle-headed!”
Wen Qiao then recounted, in meticulous detail, everything the original host had endured in the Wen family.