Chapter 4

Su Qianqian thought to herself that such a small amount of spiritual spring water shouldn’t be wasted.

She tried to focus and think: *spiritual spring, return.*

Instantly, her palm was clean and free of any water traces.

!!! She had lived for over twenty years as a socialist successor, and this was the first time she had witnessed something like this. She was both shocked and delighted, but since there was no one to share the experience with, she silently screamed a few times and repeated the process several times to confirm that as long as she wanted the spiritual spring to appear, it would. It was extremely obedient.

She quickly rushed to the mirror, and when she saw her reflection, Su Qianqian was startled. “Oh my God, is that really me?!”

Her face was dark and dry, with sunspots. At just twenty-three, she already had crow’s feet, smile lines, forehead wrinkles, and neck lines… She felt like she wanted to die.

However, upon closer inspection of her features, she realized they were actually quite similar to her original ones. To be honest, the original host had pretty good features; she just hadn’t taken care of herself, and she looked as though she had been dried out like salted vegetables.

Moreover, she was extremely thin, looking malnourished and unattractive.

Her hands were rough, with cracks on her palms and hangnails on her fingers.

She looked like someone in their late thirties or early forties, though she was only in her twenties.

She carefully removed the bandage on her forehead, dabbed a little spiritual spring water on the wound, and something miraculous happened—the wound visibly began healing at a remarkable speed. It didn’t look as grotesque anymore. This was great! With the spiritual spring, her forehead wouldn’t scar, or else it would leave a huge mark, making her appearance even worse.

But how could there be spiritual spring water?

She thought back carefully and remembered!

On the day her head was injured, she had picked up a jade pendant. She quickly searched for the pendant, and sure enough, it had traces of blood on it. Her blood had fused with the pendant, opening up the spiritual spring space.

The jade pendant felt warm to the touch, smooth and translucent, with intricate carvings of lotus flowers and lotus leaves—it was very beautiful.

She quickly cleaned the blood off the pendant and tied it around her neck with a red string. This was her golden finger, so she needed to protect it.

At that moment, she saw Daya sneaking into the room. Su Qianqian stayed silent, curious about what Daya was up to. Daya walked towards her bed, but when she didn’t see Su Qianqian, she froze. Her face first showed panic, then she sighed with relief and whispered, “Mom didn’t die, thank goodness.”

Su Qianqian’s heart suddenly ached. Daya had been so worried about her and had come to check on her first thing in the morning.

They say that poor children mature early, but Daya was so sensible it made Su Qianqian’s heart ache.

“Daya,” she gently called to prevent the child from being scared.

But Daya was still startled. “Mom, I… I just came to see if there were any clothes to wash!”

She stepped back, wide-eyed, stammering as she spoke.

Though her voice was still childish, her words were mature beyond her years.

The original host really wasn’t a good person. A child this small already had to wash clothes? Su Qianqian remembered how, at the age of four, she had been praised just for memorizing a few poems.

She picked Daya up. “Has Erbao and Sanya gotten up too?”

“Mm.” Daya nodded, feeling a little stiff in her arms. In Daya’s memory, she had never been carried before. She didn’t remember when she was little, but from the time she could recall things, she had never been carried.

Zhu Tianfang had already made breakfast: sorghum steamed buns, cornbread, sweet potato porridge, and two eggs.

Su Qianqian then took the three kids to wash up.

“Come here, Mommy will wash your faces,” she waved them over.

The children hesitated for a moment before walking towards her.

She washed their faces with warm water, her movements gentle, making their previously dirty little faces clean again. She also carefully washed their hands and noticed their nails were quite long and dirty, so she fetched a pair of scissors.

The three children immediately showed fearful expressions. Erbao stood in front of his sister and younger sister, trembling as he spoke, “Mom, if you’re angry, punish me, don’t punish my sister and younger sister.”

Huh?

Su Qianqian froze, then quickly recalled from the original host’s memories that she had once angrily used scissors to poke the children. Oh my goodness! How could she possibly clear her name?

“Using scissors again! Su Qianqian, is this how you’re supposed to be a mother?” Cheng Youmin shouted angrily upon seeing this. “Put the scissors down! If you hurt the kids again, get out of our Cheng family!”

Zhu Tianfang quickly shielded the three children, feeling sorry for them. A person who didn’t know how to be a mother had actually given birth to triplets!

“No, I just wanted to trim the kids’ nails. I didn’t mean to hurt them,” Su Qianqian said, feeling like crying. It was so hard to redeem herself, the original host had left her with such a huge mess, like a crater!

Everyone froze, clearly not expecting this.

“If you’re worried, you can watch me trim. The kids’ nails are dirty and long, and they could swallow something bad and get a stomach ache,” Su Qianqian explained, trying to reassure them.

“Who wants to go first?” She smiled softly.

The children hesitated for a moment, and then Erbao stepped forward. “I’ll go first,” he said. He was a boy and felt responsible for protecting his sister and younger sister.

Su Qianqian had him sit on a small stool and then trimmed his nails, not cutting them too short, afraid it would hurt him. Throughout the process, Erbao was very stiff, staring at his hands, as if afraid his fingers would be cut off at any moment.

“All done.”

She cleaned his nails, and they looked much cleaner now.

Then, Daya and Sanya also got their nails trimmed. They were both surprised. Today, not only did their mom wash their faces, but she also trimmed their nails. If mom could always be so kind, it would be perfect.

Su Qianqian noticed that all the children had small wounds on their hands, likely from doing hard work. Their hands were rough, nothing like the hands of a typical child.

She sighed. There was still a long way to go.

“Erbao’s mom, these two eggs are for you to nourish your body,” Zhu Tianfang’s attitude had softened a little. She thought that if Su Qianqian could truly change for the better, it would be a miracle, but she wasn’t ready to make a final judgment. After all, there was too much history to overlook.

Su Qianqian cracked the two eggs, slicing them into thin pieces, ten pieces in total.

“We’ll share. Each of us will have two pieces,” she said. She took two pieces without egg yolks for herself, the rest were given to the three children, and the last two pieces went to Cheng family ‘s eldest grandson, Chuan Chuan.

This completely scared Chuan Chuan. “Aunt, no, no need to give me any,” he stammered, clearly not wanting to be poked with scissors. He didn’t want the eggs, no way.

He couldn’t even hold the chopsticks steadily, trying several times but failing to pick up the eggs.

“Mom, Dad, Big Brother, Big Sister, I know I’ve been a mess before, but after my head got hurt and I wandered around in front of King of Hell, I deeply reflected on myself. I know I was wrong, and I will gradually change from now on. Please supervise me.”

She stood up and bowed sincerely to everyone, but the Cheng family members were all frozen, as if it were them who had wandered in front of King of Hell.

Su Qianqian changing for the better? Was the sun rising from the west?

“I know you don’t believe me, but watch my actions,” she said, sitting down to eat.

After breakfast, Big Sister Wu Yuexiang took Chuan Chuan to first grade, while Grandpa Cheng Youmin and eldest son Cheng Song went to work.

Su Qianqian thought for a moment and then quietly asked Zhu Tianfang, “Mom, has Cheng Yue really not been heard from, or is he just unwilling to come back and see me?”