Everyone felt that Gu Jiaojiao’s words made sense. The true daughter of the Sheng family looked as delicate as a flower; it was impossible that she had grown up in hardship.

It must be that the Gu family’s conditions weren’t bad, and Sheng Xinglian didn’t want to give up on the Gu family. That’s why Gu Jiaojiao hadn’t returned home.

She simply didn’t know where the Gu family was. What a tragedy.

Gu Jiaojiao had no idea that everyone in the compound pitied her. She pushed Su Shuoci back to their doorstep.

From a distance, she saw Su’s father waiting for them at the door, looking quite worried.

“Dad, are you off work?” Gu Jiaojiao greeted him sweetly.

“Yes, your mom has already prepared dinner. Here, let me take over.” Su’s father said kindly.

For dinner, the Su family had stir-fried greens, along with a large bowl of braised pork trotters and pork belly that Gu Jiaojiao had prepared.

Su Qinchun had only learned at noon that Gu Jiaojiao preferred firmer rice, so the Su family didn’t cook the rice to a mushy consistency for dinner.

“Wow, who cooked the rice? It smells amazing!” Gu Jiaojiao praised cheerfully.

“It was Chunni who cooked it. If Jiaojiao likes it, we’ll cook firmer rice from now on.”

Su’s mother’s kind face relaxed, her wrinkles smoothing out. Her son was willing to go out again.

This meant he had regained his spirit. Whether he could stand or not, she could finally feel at ease.

“By the way, Jiaojiao, when Chunni was washing your clothes, she found money in your pocket. Here it is.”

As Su’s mother spoke, she pulled out a red envelope filled with money, still unopened. Gu Jiaojiao remembered.

It was the gift money from her wedding. The original Gu Jiaojiao had insisted that all the wedding gifts should go to her.

“Mom, you can keep the gift money. I still have some left. Shuoci gave me a lot of money, and after buying rice and meat, there’s still plenty left.”

Gu Jiaojiao had sold 200 pounds of rice in the morning, earning fifty yuan. She had spent over twenty yuan on meat, pork trotters, and other things.

She casually pulled out two ten-yuan bills and a handful of small change, asking excitedly,

“Tomorrow morning, we’re going out to buy more things. Dad, Mom, Qinchun, do you need anything?”

“No.”

The three of them answered in unison.

Su’s father and mother truly didn’t need anything, while Su Qinchun had many things she wanted to buy but didn’t dare to say.

Gu Jiaojiao still had a few days off before returning to school. She wanted to take the opportunity to sell more rice and noodles.

Having more money stashed in her space gave her a sense of security, especially since there were no phones to swipe back then.

She was in her final year of high school and would take the college entrance exam on July 9th. Although she had been a top student in her past life, it had been a long time since she left school.

Twenty-some days of review should be enough. She still wanted to attend the most prestigious university from her past life.

In her past life, she had studied clinical medicine. This time, she wanted to major in traditional Chinese medicine, which had thousands of years of history.

It had already reached its peak during the Han Dynasty, but countless ancient prescriptions had been lost. In her past life, her grandfather had wanted to restore these ancient prescriptions.

But he was too old and lacked the energy. Many ancient prescriptions had been lost without a trace.

Gu Jiaojiao had felt anxious for him.

Now, reborn in the 1980s and ten years younger, she could start studying traditional Chinese medicine from scratch.

She didn’t find traditional Chinese medicine dull or boring at all. Instead, she felt a sense of eager excitement.

Her smile infected the Su family. Su Shuoci’s face also showed a long-lost smile, and the entire Su family was filled with joy.

*

Meanwhile, at the Sheng household, Sheng Xinglian went straight to her room and cried in secret after returning home. Since Sheng Xinglian had returned to the Sheng family,

it was the first time Song Zijin hadn’t chased after her, declaring that they were the ones who were childhood sweethearts.

When Sheng’s father returned home, he repeated Gu Jiaojiao’s words to his wife and shared some of his own thoughts.

Sheng’s mother had also pondered this issue repeatedly, but she had never considered that her daughter’s excellence was due to the Gu family’s upbringing.

She had always thought it was due to her own excellent genes, while the Gu family had ground her daughter down into a petty person.

After hearing her husband’s words, Sheng’s mother felt a little less resentment toward Gu Jiaojiao.

But they had already publicly severed ties, and she didn’t want to compensate Gu Jiaojiao in any way. It was better for each to live their own lives.

Sheng Xinglian, because Song Zijin hadn’t chased after her, returned to her room in a huff and cried for a long time.

It wasn’t until dinner time, after repeated urging from her mother, that she finally came out. Seeing her mother’s unhappy expression, Sheng Xinglian cried and said,

“Mom, I really shouldn’t have come back. Jiaojiao doesn’t even recognize me as her sister anymore.”

“We’ve already cut ties with her. What kind of sister is she to you? Just be yourself.”

Sheng’s second son, with a bad temper, snapped. Sheng Shiwen had also heard Gu Jiaojiao’s words.

At the time, he had just gotten off work and was heading home when he saw a crowd gathered in the middle of the road.

He had intended to take a detour, but hearing Gu Jiaojiao’s voice, he was drawn over.

After hearing Gu Jiaojiao’s words, Sheng Shiwen felt that she wasn’t wrong. If Xingxing had told Gu Jiaojiao where her home was,

Gu Jiaojiao would have left the Sheng family immediately. She might still have been their most beloved Jiaojiao, and they wouldn’t have ended up disliking each other like this.

When he heard Gu Jiaojiao’s words, Sheng Shiwen realized that she also disliked their moral blackmail.

What gratitude? What ungrateful wretch? It wasn’t her fault that she and Xingxing had been switched at birth.

Unfortunately, he realized this too late. The mistake had already been made, so he had less patience with his biological sister.

“Second brother~ Don’t you love me anymore? How could you say that to me?” Sheng Xinglian’s eyes, already red from crying, grew even redder.

Sheng Shiwen felt a wave of irritation, while Sheng’s third son rolled his eyes so hard it looked like he might go blind.

“Second Son, how can you talk to your sister like that? Xingxing is the jewel of our Sheng family. You all need to take good care of her.”

Sheng’s father slapped his second son and shot him a look that said: The mistake has already been made. How can you blame your sister for it? Are you even a man?

Sheng Shiwen understood his father’s look: “Xingxing, of course, I love you. I’m just telling you that Gu Jiaojiao has nothing to do with us anymore.”

Sheng Xinglian had lived to thirty-eight in her past life. She could see the perfunctory look in her second brother’s eyes.

She also wanted to change the atmosphere at home. If blaming her could make her father and brothers feel better,

then she was willing to bear this baseless blame. Let her bear the pain alone!

Sheng Xinglian, full of self-pity, sobbed quietly, making Sheng’s father’s heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys ache.

In the past, when he saw his daughter crying like this, he would blame the Gu family for ruining his daughter, which made him even colder toward Gu Jiaojiao.

Now, he realized that it was the Gu family’s excessive pampering that had made his daughter unable to endure the slightest hardship.

Sheng’s father never dreamed that his daughter’s flaws weren’t due to the Gu family’s indulgence.

In her past life, it was he and his eldest son who had spent over a decade compensating her with boundless affection, spoiling her to the point where she felt like everyone owed her something.

No one except Gu Jiaojiao knew that Sheng Xinglian had been reborn.

The next morning, Gu Jiaojiao woke up early, ready to strive again in the 1980s.

When she woke up, Su Shuoci also woke up. She strongly suspected that the man had been awake for a while, but she had no proof.