Nanshan Nursing Home

“Bed 72—Old Lady Li’s fees have been overdue for half a month already. Still not paid?”

“Paid my ass. We called her eldest son—he said he paid last month, so it’s the second son’s turn now. Called the second one, and the moment he heard it was the nursing home, he hung up right away.”

“Doesn’t she have a daughter too?”

“She used to answer calls last year, came to visit every couple of months, even helped clean her up. This year, we haven’t been able to reach her at all.”

“What’s that smell? Must be the old hag crapped herself again.” One of the caregivers rolled up her sleeves and walked to Bed 72.

Looking at Old Lady Li’s pale, wrinkled face, she slapped her twice.

“I told you to call someone if you needed to go! Don’t you understand human speech?”

“Hey, be gentle. If her face swells up and the family finds out, we’ll be in trouble,” another caregiver said while cracking sunflower seeds.

“Don’t worry. This old woman’s been here for more than two years. Last year her daughter still came sometimes. This year, it’s been over half a year, and not a single child has visited. Nobody would care even if she died.”

“Her sons are really heartless.”

“She must’ve been a bad mother. If she’d been a good one, would her kids treat her like this? People like her deserve it.”

“Wuuu…” Old Lady Li whimpered, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.

She was never a bad mother.

She gave everything to her children, spent her whole life for them, raised her grandchildren.

She truly didn’t understand how she ended up like this.

After her husband retired, they lived with the eldest son’s family.

Her husband had a pension; she didn’t.

The eldest son and his wife treated the old man well but saw her as a maid and resented her.

Still, life was tolerable.

After her husband passed, the eldest son discussed her care with the second son.

The family home was demolished and compensated, but the youngest, being a daughter, didn’t get any money and claimed she had no obligation to care for their mother.

The second son argued the eldest had lived with their parents all along and had received all of the pension money, so he should take care of her.

The eldest countered, saying she favored the second son—she even gave him a job opportunity. He’d already done enough.

So the two brothers quarreled and finally agreed to take turns every three months.

But “taking care” of her meant she still had to cook, clean, and endure scolding from her daughters-in-law.

She was criticized for salty dishes, unclean floors, poorly washed clothes—nothing was ever good enough. They said she was useless in old age.

The second son’s wife was the worst—she’d curse her directly, calling her a “stubborn old hag.”

At her second son’s home, she barely dared to breathe.

Three years passed like that.

Two years ago, while cleaning, she picked up some clothes from the bed.

Money dropped to the floor.

She bent to pick it up just as her daughter-in-law entered the room.

The woman accused her of stealing.

No matter how she explained, she was labeled a thief, accused of taking money for the eldest son’s household.

In the struggle, she was pushed down hard and broke her leg.

She endured the pain for two days and begged to go to the hospital.

Her daughter-in-law said she was faking, and her son told her to stop complaining.

Eventually, she was paralyzed.

Then the two brothers discussed sending her to a nursing home.

They picked the cheapest option: 1800 yuan per month, shared between them.

The first year, they paid on time.

This year, whenever it was the second son’s turn, payments were delayed.

Now she was one of those elderly residents who often got hit by staff, was denied food, left in soiled clothes, her hips and thighs covered with pressure sores.

She could feel things crawling on her buttocks—burrowing into her flesh.

Maggots.

She was terrified—her greatest fear was bugs.

Now, her body was crawling with them.

Only her daughter had visited a few times in the first year, helping her wash.

But life in the nursing home was so painful that she begged her daughter to take her home.

When her daughter refused, she became angry and lashed out.

Her daughter never came back after that.

“If you’ve got energy to cry, then no food for you today,” said the caregiver.

She left with another caregiver, and Old Lady Li slowly closed her eyes in despair, her body growing cold with hunger and fear.

As her consciousness faded, a question echoed from the depths of her soul:

“Was I really not a good enough mother?”

No, the truth was she had fed two ungrateful wolves with her flesh and blood.

..

….

“Crack! Crack!”

Amid a burst of firecrackers, Old Lady Li opened her eyes.

Her sister-in-law, Lin Qiufang, nudged her.

“Sister-in-law, why are you just standing there? The bride is already at the door!”

Old Lady Li stared blankly at Lin Qiufang, whose face bore only faint wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. She didn’t react at first.

Wasn’t Lin Qiufang in her seventies when she died?

How come she looked just a bit over thirty here?

Qiufang had married an abusive man.

It didn’t show at first, but after he lost his job, the beatings grew frequent and brutal.

She never spoke about it, afraid of losing face, and they only found out after she was beaten to death.

Her children even signed a letter of forgiveness, and the man was barely sentenced before being released.

“Sister-in-law, why are you staring at me?” Lin Qiufang frowned. “Your second daughter-in-law is here. Go greet the bride!”

Greet the bride?

Old Lady Li snapped back to reality.

Looking around, she saw the house decked out in red, the yard full of banquet tables.

Her hands felt warm—not a ghost.

She pinched herself.

It hurt. Not a dream.

She had been reborn!

Reborn on the day her second son got married!

“The wedding matron’s here! Over here!”

Before she could react, a group of young people rushed toward her and grabbed her arms and legs.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Lin Qiufang shouted, trying to push them away.

“It’s wedding tradition! We’re teasing the mother-in-law! Don’t interfere,” said Liu Qin’s brother, his palms covered in soot, malice gleaming in his eyes.

“Let me go! We don’t do this kind of thing around here!” Old Lady Li struggled.

In her past life, this very day—her second son’s wedding day—was the most humiliating day of her life.