“Mom… Mom, wake up… Mom, wake up…”

Lin Qingqing was woken up by someone calling her.

The voice was soft and sweet, sounding extremely cute.

But as soon as she opened her eyes and saw a little boy, she was completely stunned, staring blankly at him.

Who is he?

Wait, where am I?

This white-washed room was worse than the homes of the poorest families in her village.

“It hurts so much…” Immediately, Lin Qingqing instinctively covered her head; it hurt like something was stabbing her inside.

“Mom, what’s wrong with you?” The little boy looked at her, worried and terrified.

“I have a bit of a headache,” Lin Qingqing replied unconsciously.

Since her mind wasn’t completely clear yet, she overlooked the boy’s address.

“Then… what should we do?” The little boy was extremely scared. “I… I’ll go call Auntie… You… you must not die… Wuwuwu…” As he spoke, he cried and darted out like a little cannonball.

“No need, you…” Before she could finish her sentence, Lin Qingqing was dumbfounded.

A memory flooded into her mind, making her deeply realize that she had transmigrated into a novel.

Lin Qingqing was a small internet celebrity from the 21st century, a left-behind child.

When she was young, her parents worked in another place, leaving her with her grandmother.

As she grew up, her parents bought a house and a car in the big city, but they also had a second daughter.

Although they mentioned bringing her over, Lin Qingqing couldn’t bear to leave her grandmother alone in the countryside.

Plus, the closeness between her sister and her parents was something she couldn’t replicate, so she didn’t go to the big city with them.

Growing up in the countryside had given her a wild and bold personality.

Lin Qingqing had average grades; she didn’t get into high school and went to a vocational school instead.

After that, she took the exam for a junior college, majoring in elementary education.

At that time, she dreamed of graduating and becoming a kindergarten teacher in the county town, which was only about a twenty-minute drive from her hometown.

However, her college life was vibrant and varied, and coupled with her good looks, she developed other plans for her life.

In junior college, she became an internet celebrity, posting fashion notes and daily life on Weibo and social apps, and surprisingly gained over 200,000 followers.

Through this, she also found joy.

After graduating from junior college, she returned to the countryside to live with her grandmother and became a food blogger.

She worked the fields with her grandmother, cooking together, and thanks to her grandmother’s excellent cooking skills, their business flourished.

She even registered on a group buying app to live-stream selling fruits and crops grown by the villagers, including oranges, peaches, and bayberries.

As a result, she had a great reputation in the influencer community.

Then, a year ago, her grandmother passed away.

She buried her sadness deep inside, still managing to appear cheerful every day.

However, her attentive fans noticed that she was online for longer periods.

Until yesterday, when she saw a fan jokingly comment that there was a novel called “The Villainous Stepmother of the Era” in which the male supporting character’s evil stepmother had the same name as hers, urging her to memorize the entire novel to avoid transmigrating.

She humorously replied at the time, “Looking forward to transmigrating.”

But then, after only reading the synopsis of the novel, she really did transmigrate the next day.

This body had memories, and the headache earlier was due to her brain trying to process so much information all at once.

Now that she had received the memories, things felt different.

However, the original owner’s circumstances left her speechless.

The original Lin Qingqing was born in the Gaoshan’ao Production Brigade, and being the only girl in three generations, she was adored by everyone in the Lin family.

This resulted in her developing a very spoiled personality, being a bit willful and self-centered.

Old Lin was the only doctor in the Gaoshan’ao Production Brigade, a barefoot doctor, so the Lin family had relatively good living conditions.

A little over a month ago, the original owner attended a classmate’s wedding in the county town.

At the wedding, she fell in love at first sight with her classmate’s husband’s cousin, Lu Cheng.

Later, she learned from her classmate that Lu Cheng was a military officer, already married with a five-year-old son, but his wife had passed away four years ago.

Thus, she began a frenzied pursuit of him.

Having been spoiled at home, she simply couldn’t understand Lu Cheng’s rejections.

However, an opportunity did arise.

When she went to find Lu Cheng again, she heard that Lu Cheng’s aunt, who was also her classmate’s mother-in-law, was sick and hospitalized, urgently needing a wild ginseng that was over a hundred years old.

So, the original owner secretly approached Lu Cheng, telling him that her family had a wild ginseng over a hundred years old that she could give him, but he would have to marry her.

Since Lu Cheng had been raised by his aunt and the ginseng was crucial for her health, when he offered to buy it at a high price but was firmly rejected by the original owner, he had no choice but to agree to her conditions.

The Lin family indeed had a hundred-year-old wild ginseng; the Lin family had a history of producing imperial physicians, and this ginseng had been passed down through generations.

When Lin’s grandmother learned about the original owner’s situation, without hesitation, she had Old Lin take out the ginseng.

In Grandma Lin’s view, the ginseng was dead; how could it be more important than her granddaughter’s happiness?

Moreover, so what if he was a widower with a five-year-old son?

He was a regiment leader, a big shot; this marriage would mean having a relative with influence for life.

Grandpa Lin had always listened to Grandma Lin when it came to family matters.

Besides, he was a doctor, and with a doctor’s kind heart, he would have agreed even without Grandma Lin’s conditions if someone came to buy the old mountain ginseng to save a life.

Moreover, it would also solve his granddaughter’s marriage issues, so he certainly had no objections.

Thus, the marriage between Lu Cheng and Lin Qingqing was settled.

Originally, Lu Cheng thought that even though the marriage was arranged, he shouldn’t take the old mountain ginseng for free, so he intended to pay for it.

However, clever Grandma Lin refused the money.

She said the old mountain ginseng was a part of her granddaughter’s dowry—given as a marriage gift and not for sale.

In Grandma Lin’s view, if Lu Cheng paid money, the personal relationship associated with the ginseng would become distant.

But if it was given as a dowry, then Lu Cheng’s aunt would be using her nephew’s wife’s dowry, making it a debt of gratitude that couldn’t be repaid.

Besides, with her granddaughter marrying a regiment commander, who would worry about not getting the money for the old mountain ginseng?

Grandma Lin was quite astute.

However, even though the Lin family did not accept money for the old mountain ginseng, Lu Cheng still gave a bride price of 800 yuan.

In the early 1960s, when the bride price was typically less than 80 yuan, the significance of this 800 yuan was quite clear to everyone.

After Lu Cheng’s aunt used the old mountain ginseng, her health improved significantly.

Following this, Lu Cheng submitted a marriage report to the army, but by the time the marriage report was approved, his leave was up, and he had to return to the army immediately.

He had come on leave to attend his cousin’s wedding and to visit his aunt, and his time off was limited.

Therefore, Lu Cheng discussed with the Lin family about setting another date for the wedding.

However, the original owner was afraid that Lu Cheng would run away, insisting on getting married before he returned to the army, even if it meant just registering their marriage without holding a ceremony.

Thus, they registered their marriage, and both families had a meal together to celebrate.

Three days after their marriage, the original owner went to the army with him.

Three days later, upon arrival at the army base, Lu Cheng was assigned a task and had to leave urgently.

Before departing, he entrusted the care of his five-year-old son, Lu Haici, to the original owner.

The original owner agreed verbally, but once Lu Cheng left, everything changed completely.

During the half month that Lu Cheng was away, five-year-old Lu Haici had to do half a month’s worth of housework.

For those two weeks, he went to the army canteen daily to fetch meals, washed dishes afterward, and cleaned the house.

The amount of work he did in that month exceeded everything he had done in his five years of life.

If he hadn’t struggled to carry water, the original owner might have even asked him to do that too.

Having her worldview shattered by these memories, Lin Qingqing was momentarily at a loss.

It wasn’t until Lu Haici’s voice echoed from the doorway again: “Auntie, hurry… my mom is dying, woo woo woo…” that she snapped back.

His small voice was choked with sobs, and he was crying in distress.

Upon hearing this, Lin Qingqing rolled her eyes and lost consciousness.

When she regained her senses, she didn’t know how long it had been.

She felt a hand pressing down on her and opened her eyes to see Lu Haici, who had fallen asleep beside her, with his head resting on the bedside.

The little guy’s hair was a messy tangle, with some strands sticking up, and his clothes were dirty and disheveled.

He was wearing the outfit that the original owner had on during her wedding to Lu Cheng, and he hadn’t changed for half a month.

Being a child, he lacked the awareness to change clothes unless reminded by an adult.

Lin Qingqing worried about waking him up, so she carefully retracted her hand and got out of bed.

However, as she moved, something slipped off her forehead.

Looking down, she saw a half-wet towel.

She set the towel aside and curiously looked around, realizing she was in a hospital.

There was the distinct smell of alcohol, and there were two beds: one empty and the other occupied.

The occupied bed held a woman who smiled when she saw Lin Qingqing looking at her.

“You’ve finally woken up! You don’t know—when you were unconscious, your son kept putting a towel on your forehead. I’ve never seen such a good child.”

Hearing this, Lin Qingqing glanced again at the towel she had put aside.

The woman continued, “You wouldn’t believe it, but when you were brought to the hospital yesterday, you had a fever of 41 degrees! It’s truly a miracle that you’re still alive.”

She had been admitted earlier than Lin Qingqing and, upon hearing the circumstances, asked out of concern, only to learn that Lin Qingqing had fainted from a high fever.

A fever of 41 degrees?

Lin Qingqing thought for a moment.

A fever that high could be fatal. Could it be that the original owner died from a fever of 41 degrees, which is why she was transported into the story?

For a moment, Lin Qingqing didn’t know what to do.

The idea of being transported into a story had never crossed her mind.

Moreover, it was a book she had only skimmed the summary of.

The most pressing question now was, what path should she take moving forward?

Just as Lin Qingqing was contemplating her next steps, her stomach growled loudly, interrupting her thoughts.

She rubbed her belly, feeling hungry.

The child was sleeping on the right bed, so she decided to get down from the left.

However, as soon as her feet touched the ground, dizziness struck, and she collapsed back onto the bed.

She felt utterly weak and powerless.

Earlier, she had only managed to sit up, and she hadn’t noticed her weakness then.

Her movement startled the sleeping Lu Haici awake.

“Mom…” His voice was filled with excitement. “Mom, you’re awake? That’s great! I thought you were going to die.”

He was terrified that his mother might die, not wanting to lose the new mother he had just gained.