Chapter 1: Let’s Get Our Marriage Certificate Tomorrow

“Yan’yan, here’s fifty yuan. Just focus on your studies when you get to school. Your mother and I will take care of the children.”

In the dimly lit room, filled with the pungent smell of kerosene from the lamp, a man in a faded white undershirt spoke.

A pile of colorful bills lay on the pillow.

Separated by a quilt, sat a girl with two braids, her skin fair and delicate – no, perhaps a young woman.

The girl was so out of place in this home.

She seemed like a celestial being who had fallen into the ashes of the mortal world, yet even so, she remained untainted by the grime.

At this moment, the girl sat numbly, hugging her knees, her head buried between them, without uttering a sound.

Seeing this, the pain in the man’s eyes seemed to overflow. He pursed his lips, gazing deeply at the girl, wanting to imprint her image forever in his heart.

His heart was as bitter as gall. He knew that the girl was a precious daughter from the city, and once she left, she might never return.

Ever since the college entrance examination results were announced, she had been studying day and night, all for this day.

She was intelligent, beautiful, and outstanding, having been admitted to a prestigious national university. Unlike him, even with her tutoring, he had only been admitted to a medical college.

There were still two children at home, his father had a broken leg, his mother was blind in one eye, and his elder brother had separated from the family and no longer visited. He was the pillar of the family; how could he leave?

Looking at the girl across from him, whom he never tired of seeing, he swallowed his bitter tears. “Yan’yan, if… if you have time in the future, come back and see the children.”

He knew this sentence was somewhat wishful thinking, somewhat redundant, but he still hoped she would consider the children and have some expectation.

The villagers were gossiping, sneering that the phoenix he had raised for so many years was about to fly away, and once a phoenix flew, there was no returning.

What’s more, she didn’t even like him; perhaps she had long been utterly disgusted with this burdensome family.

But he didn’t want to see her even slightly upset or unhappy, didn’t want her to resent him, to hate him…

If she wanted to fly, he would let go. This was his way of loving her.

He… having two children was enough.

Su Jinyan’s head was still buzzing, the man’s words echoing in her ears, along with the plot of the book in her mind.

After more than an hour, the one thing she was finally certain of was that she had transmigrated into a book.

She had transmigrated into the body of a rather villainous supporting female character in the story.

In the book, the original owner’s ending was terrible. Her father was framed, her mother was imprisoned, and she lay in a hospital bed with a broken leg, wallowing in despair, powerless as her father’s mistress, who had become her stepmother, and her son seized all of the Su family’s assets.

The original owner’s father died of stomach cancer. When the original owner received the critical condition notice, she rushed out in a panic and was hit by a car. Before she even reached the hospital, her father was gone. On the same day, her mother, who had been diligently contributing to the country, was accused of selling technology to a foreign nation. Their family of three was decimated – one dead, one disabled, and one under investigation and control…

“Mama~”

Suddenly, a soft, adorable voice woke her up.

Su Jinyan looked down.

The child’s dark, thin face and large, dark eyes made her stunned for a long while. A recent college graduate, suddenly being called “Mama,” was truly difficult to adapt to.

This was the original owner’s child, but after the original owner returned to the city, she was busy helping her stepmother secure her position, busy fighting the woman who seduced her father, and was also deceived by her hypocritical childhood sweetheart. Until she was bedridden and crippled, she never saw her two children again.

Nor did she ever think of bringing them to her side.

Perhaps she was afraid of being pointed at and secretly ridiculed, or perhaps she feared disappointing her parents.

The book described that the original owner felt guilty every time she thought of them but was busy with the trivial matters of her own family and took no action. Perhaps this was also to find an excuse for her irresponsibility.

And in this era of backward information, the original owner had not obtained a marriage certificate, so her family had always been unaware that she had married and had two children in the countryside.

“Mama, what’s wrong? Why are you crying? Here, Qiqi will blow on it for you.”

Su Jinyan blinked, letting the tears fall. She herself didn’t know if she was crying for the pitiful child or for her own misfortune.

She was still a child herself!

She hadn’t even experienced the taste of a man and was forced to be a mother!!!

Looking at the cautious child, she cried even harder.

Even though she had never been a mother, she didn’t want her child to have a stepmother in the future!

This cry startled the child, who also began to cry. Zhao Yuanyi’s heart sank to the bottom. The words of retention he had almost spoken were swallowed back down. After a long while, Su Jinyan hiccuped from crying, wiped the child’s tears, and forced a stiff smile. “Mama’s okay. Come, let Mama hold you.”

The little one threw herself into her arms and said tearfully, “Mama, are you leaving? When will you come back after you leave?”

“Mama, can you not leave? Qiqi will miss you.”

The soft, adorable voice instantly melted Su Jinyan’s heart.
Su Jinyan smelled the scent of soap on the child and smiled. “Mama is going to school. So, Qiqi, would you like to go with Mama? How about we go to Beijing?”

Zhao Qi was instantly happy. “Mama, you’re taking me with you. Mama won’t leave Qiqi behind?”

The child’s thin body felt bony to the touch. Her dry, yellow hair lay limply on her head, but it was very clean.

This wasn’t because the original owner was a responsible mother, but because the child’s father was responsible.

In her previous life, the original owner’s husband had written her many letters to her school, but she had destroyed them all.

Many educated youths like her who had married in the countryside didn’t bring their wives/husbands and children with them when they returned to the city. Over time, she had even come to think it was natural.

The original owner felt that they were no longer in the same world and forcing them together would only lead to unhappiness. What she wanted was a revolutionary partner with shared ideals!

Su Jinyan wanted to curse a few times, but the words wouldn’t come out. She had to bear the blame for the original owner’s actions, whether she wanted to or not.

No, that wasn’t right. At this point in time, nothing had happened yet.

“Of course, you are Mama’s precious, and Mama can’t bear to part with you.”

It was the first time Zhao Qi had heard Su Jinyan call her that. She happily hugged her tightly, not letting go. But after a moment of joy, she turned her head to look at Zhao Yuanyi on the other side of the kang. “Then Mama, are you taking Papa with us? Are you taking my little sister?”

Only then did Su Jinyan turn her gaze to the man opposite her.

Zhao Yuanyi was lowering his head at this moment, his cold, hard face expressionless. He wanted to speak out and stop her from creating that dream for the child. The child would be happy now, but when she left tomorrow, the child would be even more heartbroken.

But looking at the child’s happy face, he ultimately remained silent.

Five years of being sent to the countryside, four years of marriage, their eldest son Zhao Qi was three years old, and their youngest daughter Zhao Hua was eight months old. In these four years, Zhao Yuanyi had never let the original owner work in the fields for a single day, and his mother had never let her do any housework. They even helped her take care of the children. The whole family practically worshipped her, yet the original owner was about to leave without a shred of conscience!

Although she hadn’t willingly married him in the first place.

However, because the original owner had brought a lot of money and ration coupons with her when she came to the countryside, wore brand-new clothes, ate well every day, and even cooked separately, she didn’t know how to behave and offended many people at the educated youth center. Furthermore, she was sweet and beautiful, soft and charming, with a soft and sweet voice that made both men and women, young and old, want to protect her. Her skin was as white as a New Year’s painting doll, which attracted the attention of many young men in the village. Many young men in the village scrambled to help her with work and even brought her precious eggs, white flour buns, pure cornmeal buns, and so on.

The more popular she was among the village boys, the more she was hated by the girls. In the end, she was ostracized, gossiped about, and slandered by several girls at the educated youth center and some village girls. Ultimately, Zhao Yuanyi married her, whose reputation had been ruined.

At that time, the original owner chose Zhao Yuanyi for two reasons: first, he was the most handsome man in the surrounding villages; second, he was arrogant and unruly, a local bully, and his father was a retired soldier whom everyone in the village, men and women, young and old, gave way to. That’s why the original owner chose Zhao Yuanyi.

This way, the villagers wouldn’t dare to gossip about her anymore.
Sigh, carrying this title, she felt her face burning whenever she went out!

In her previous life, she wasn’t bad looking, had high emotional intelligence, and had always been well-liked. But the original owner could be said to have reached a point where everyone in the village disliked her, except for the boys who liked her looks.

Su Jinyan sighed inwardly. Besides the original owner’s poor social skills, there was another reason: the original owner was simply too beautiful. The unmarried and even married young men in the village were quite smitten, which aroused public anger.

Being beautiful was also a mistake.

Looking at the colorful bills – five-mao, one-yuan, two-yuan, ten-yuan – big and small, on the pillow, her brow furrowed, and her small face habitually puffed up.

This was fifty yuan!

Most of this money was borrowed by Zhao Yuanyi’s family from door to door in the production team, and some was even borrowed by her father-in-law, who had swallowed his pride and written to his old comrades-in-arms!

Saying it was borrowed, when would they ever be able to repay it?

The original owner had shamelessly taken it and left!

In the countryside, working hard for a whole year, calculating work points at the end of the year, and buying some grain, there really wouldn’t be much left!

Especially since Zhao Yuanyi was the only strong laborer in the Zhao family, and there was also someone who needed medicine year-round.

Seeing Su Jinyan like this, Zhao Yuanyi was even more certain that she would not only never return but might also take their son away. His heart sank to the bottom, aching fiercely, but even so, he couldn’t bring himself to say a single word of retention.

She was a phoenix and didn’t belong in this small village.

It was already past ten o’clock at night, and Zhao Qi soon fell asleep again.

Su Jinyan put the child on the kang and covered her up. She shook her numb arm, thought for a long while, organized her words, and then said, “Yuanyi, let’s go get our marriage certificate tomorrow.”