“Mom, can we really eat these?”  

Jiang Qiuyue had just popped a fried egg into her mouth when she saw the two children staring at her with longing eyes, drooling.  

“Eat! Of course, you can eat!” She had fried ten eggs, fairly serving herself four while giving each child three.  

“Really?” Lin Beibei, the older brother, had never tasted a fried egg before. Grandma always said eggs were reserved for their younger cousin because he was frail and needed the extra nourishment.  

Mom often reminded them that, as the older siblings, they had to give way to their cousin.  

Before eating his own share, Beibei picked up one of his eggs and placed it in his sister’s bowl. “Nan Nan, have more. I don’t need this much.”  

The siblings were twins. Though technically five years old, chronic malnutrition left them looking no bigger than three-year-olds, their faces sallow and their bodies painfully thin.  

Lin Nan Nan pushed the egg back to her brother and shook her head gently. She had been traumatized at three and had since refused to speak.  

Watching the two children defer to each other, Jiang Qiuyue could only think one thing: *What a tragedy.*  

In her past life, she had been a corporate drone at a major company, working overtime until dawn, grinding away even while hooked to an IV drip, all for promotions and pay raises.  

The reward for sacrificing her health? Dying at her desk and transmigrating into a novel.  

According to the book’s setting, the original host was a meek and exploited woman. Her husband, an adopted son of the family, had joined the military shortly after their marriage and hadn’t returned in nearly six years.  

Her in-laws favored their biological children, forcing the original host to hand over living expenses every month while making her do all the housework—laundry, cooking, feeding the chickens—everything.  

And the original host had endured it all, even convincing herself it was her duty to her absent husband—that suffering now would lead to better days later. She always let others eat first, leaving herself and her two children perpetually hungry.  

That morning, she had fainted from hunger in the fields, hit her head on a rock, and bid farewell to this world.  

When Jiang Qiuyue woke up and took in the bare, impoverished room, she wanted to cry.  

*If I’d known being an overachiever would land me in this kind of hardship, I would’ve slacked off—clocked out on time, gossiped, and enjoyed life instead!*  

After the kids finished their eggs, they dutifully helped Jiang Qiuyue wash the dishes. Watching their obedient little figures, she sighed again.  

*What was the original host thinking? Neglecting her own children to please that awful Lin family—utterly senseless.*  

She couldn’t care less whether her mother-in-law allowed them to eat eggs. When she woke up, her stomach had been cramping from hunger, so she climbed through the window into her mother-in-law’s room and fried all ten eggs the old woman had been hoarding.  

Her husband sent her twenty yuan every month, but her mother-in-law took it all under the pretext of “living expenses” and “filial piety.” So Jiang Qiuyue ate those eggs without a shred of guilt.  

It wasn’t even noon yet. The rest of the family was out in the fields earning work points. Full and satisfied, Jiang Qiuyue was about to go lie down when she felt a small tug on her pants.  

Lin Beibei reminded her, “Mom, it’s time to make lunch.” Grandma would be back soon.  

Jiang Qiuyue glanced at the sweet potatoes and wild greens on the stove. She *could* cook, but she wasn’t the original host.  

Given a second chance at life, she refused to die young again. This time, she would take care of herself—no one was going to make her work.  

“Beibei, sweetheart, Mom’s not cooking today.” She led the children out of the kitchen. “I hit my head and need to rest. When Grandma and Auntie come back, they can cook for themselves.”  

Beibei’s eyes widened in shock. “Mom, aren’t you afraid Grandma will scold you?”  

Though young, he understood that his mother always did the most work, and it wasn’t fair. But she used to say, *”The capable should do more. If I take on extra, Grandma and the others can do less.”*  

Beibei had never understood why his mother insisted on working so hard. This was the first time she had ever refused to cook.  

Afraid?  

Jiang Qiuyue wasn’t scared of that old hag. In her corporate life, she had dealt with all kinds of ruthless bosses—this selfish old woman was nothing. When the family returned, she had her own ways to handle them.  

Since she couldn’t go back, she might as well make herself comfortable.  

Having a busy husband suited her just fine—it saved her the trouble of dealing with him. As long as he supported their two children, she might as well consider it him paying her a monthly wage.