Chapter 1: Rebirth

“Xiaoshu, go quickly to the brick factory and find your brother. Your mother fell from the mountain and was just sent to the clinic…”

“What?”

“Uncle Liu, what happened to my mother?”

“Waaaa, Grandma.”

The sound of ping pong, shouting, and crying mixed together.

Making this quiet, dilapidated courtyard unusually noisy.

Xu Sangluo woke up at this moment.

Then she discovered that she had been reborn.

Reborn at the point in time she had once considered the darkest in her life, and later felt full of regret.

This year, Xu Sangluo was admitted to Peking University with high scores, but her stepsister stole her admission notice.

Her stepmother was afraid that she would cause trouble, so she bribed human traffickers to abduct her to the countryside.

Fortunately, Qin Zhiyi, who had returned home after being discharged from the army, rescued her and sent her back.

However, her stepmother, claiming that she had been sold and her reputation ruined,

threw a tantrum and threatened to commit suicide, forcing her to marry Qin Zhiyi.

Xu Sangluo, heartbroken, followed Qin Zhiyi like a walking corpse.

But she vented her resentment on this innocent man, treating the Qin family with indifference and ingratitude.

It should be a month after she came to the Qin family.

During this time, she paid no attention to anything, and even her meals were delivered to her room by the Qin family.

She also remembered the commotion just now, which was also the thing she regretted most in her later life.

The Qin family was very poor, it was no exaggeration to say they were destitute.

In the past, they could barely make ends meet with Qin Zhiyi’s allowance from the army.

But after he was discharged, they had no stable income.

Qin’s father died ten years ago, and besides Qin’s mother, there were four children, and now there was Xu Sangluo’s mouth to feed.

The entire family’s livelihood rested on the shoulders of the only strong laborer, Qin Zhiyi.

To ease his burden, Qin’s mother often went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables.

Then this time, she tripped and broke her leg.

Medical conditions were poor at the time, and the Qin family had no money, so they could only bandage her leg hastily.

Qin’s mother was too busy taking care of the children to properly recover, and eventually her leg became infected, and she had to go to the hospital for amputation.

Xu Sangluo, who was still Zhao Xiaoman at the time, watched coldly from the sidelines.

Later, whenever she thought about it, she couldn’t understand why her heart could be so hard at that time.

It caused her to be unable to face the Qin family for the rest of her life.

“Waaaa, Grandma, Waaaa, Dad…”

At the gate of the courtyard, a thin four-year-old child was crying and trying to pry open the locked gate.

Seeing this child, Xu Sangluo’s whole body stiffened again.

Qin Yan, Qin Zhiyi’s son, was actually the orphaned child of a comrade-in-arms.

In her previous life, the Qin family was in a mess, and Qin Zhiyi didn’t want to keep her, so he entrusted her to a friend and helped her find a job.

However, after she saved enough money for a train ticket, she ran to another city and completely cut off contact.

Yes.

Until she achieved some success and realized her mistakes, she wanted to return to the Qin family to express her gratitude, but she learned that the whole family had moved away.

It was the second year after she left.

Qin’s mother lost a leg, and Qin Zhiyi had to work to support the family.

There was no one to take care of the children at home, so the villagers introduced a partner to Qin Zhiyi.

She was also a single mother with two children.

Everyone had children, and they didn’t mind each other, so the matter was quickly settled.

However, the villagers were gossipy and spread rumors, which were heard by little Qin Yan.

The family was in chaos during that time, and the child already lacked a sense of security.

He also heard a lot of talk like “If you have a new mother, your father won’t want you,” and he took it to heart.

Then, two days before Qin Zhiyi’s wedding, Qin Yan’s body was found in the river.

Some children said that he was afraid that his father would not want him if he had a new mother, so he ran away and jumped into the river.

No one knew if it was true or not.

But the wedding definitely couldn’t go on, and they moved the following year, and no one knew where they went.

Xu Sangluo knew that this child had always been a knot in Qin Zhiyi’s heart, causing him to remain single for half his life.

At this moment, Xu Sangluo was truly grateful to heaven.

She took a deep breath and walked over slowly.

After some mental preparation, she bent down and gently patted the little guy’s shoulder.

“Xiao Yan.”

The child was sobbing, looking at her with tear-filled eyes.

When he saw the person in front of him, he was so surprised that he forgot to cry and just hiccuped.

Actually, when Xu Sangluo was first brought back, little Qin Yan was very happy.

Such a beautiful mother, he could show off to other children.

Unfortunately, Xu Sangluo’s indifference poured a bucket of cold water on the enthusiastic Qin family.

Qin Yan also began to fear her.

The child’s reaction made Xu Sangluo’s expression stiffen, and then she smiled wryly.

It was all her fault.

She took a breath and tried to soften her voice, “Xiao Yan, don’t cry, your father and the others will be back soon.”

Hearing the word “father,” Qin Yan’s tears, which had been held back, couldn’t help but fall again, and he pouted and sniffled.

“Yan Yan, hiccup, want, Grandma, Waaaa.”

Although the little guy was young, he could understand, and he knew that Grandma had an accident.

Xu Sangluo looked at the timid child and couldn’t help but laugh.

She simply squatted down, pulled up her sleeve to wipe his tears, and gently comforted him.

“Grandma and Dad will be back soon. Grandma got hurt, and she will have to rest in bed when she comes back. Yan Yan and Auntie will prepare lunch for Grandma first, okay? Otherwise, Grandma and Dad will be hungry when they come back.”

The little guy blinked his eyes, hiccuping from time to time.

But he obviously understood, and hesitated slightly.

“Yan”

“Yan, cook, hiccup, for Grandma.”

“Hmm hmm, Yan Yan will help Auntie, Auntie will cook.”

“Hiccup, also, also Second Uncle, hiccup, Third Uncle and little hiccup, cousin.”

Xu Sangluo was almost amused by his trembling baby voice, and couldn’t help but reach out and gently pinch his little face that had no meat.

“Okay.”

Xu Sangluo wiped his little face clean and took him to the kitchen.

The kitchen was very small, and it was filled with firewood, dry grass, shelves, bamboo baskets, large bars, pots and pans, and other things.

However, everything was neatly arranged, showing that Qin’s mother was a diligent person.

But there was no food in sight.

She walked in and lifted the lid of the rice jar next to it.

The rice inside was almost gone.

There were also small bags of wheat flour and corn flour on the shelf.

Xu Sangluo suddenly felt worried, even a clever woman can’t cook without rice.

The Qin family was so poor, how could she have been so comfortable eating for free in her previous life.

If only she had her space.

This thought suddenly flashed through her mind, making her spirits suddenly lift.

That’s right, space!

She quickly closed her eyes and sensed it.

The next moment, a smile of surprise appeared on her face.

Space, the space actually came with her.

But it seemed to have changed a little.

Before she could check, her clothes were tugged.

“Auntie Zhao, hiccup, Auntie.”

Xu Sangluo came back to her senses, and for a moment she didn’t realize who the address was for.

Then she remembered that her current name was still Zhao Xiaoman.

Zhao was the surname of her stepmother’s ex-husband.

In fact, her stepmother didn’t even know who the child’s father was, she just pretended that her husband had passed away to avoid gossip.

At that time, Xu Xiangyu was also pregnant, and she felt pity for Liu Xiuhui, so she hired her as a nanny, giving her a place to stay.

Who knew that Liu Xiuhui was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, jealous and envious of Xu Xiangyu’s background.

At that time, Xu’s father was the president of the Guangcheng Chamber of Commerce, with a lot of wealth, and Xu Xiangyu was his only daughter, and all his property would be inherited by her.

Liu Xiuhui had an idea.

Although she was younger than Xu Xiangyu, she deliberately tripped and fell at the same time as Xu Xiangyu gave birth.

Then she bribed the nurse to switch the babies.

The name Zhao Xiaoman had been with her for twenty-eight years.

Until her uncle found her with her grandfather’s will and told her the truth.

She realized that she had been fooled all along.

The name Xu Sangluo was chosen by herself.

Sangluo, representing the beginning, from then on she would say goodbye to the past.

Putting aside the heavy memories, Xu Sangluo took a breath and smiled at the little guy, “Yan Yan, go to the vegetable garden and help Auntie pull out some scallions, okay?”

The little guy immediately obeyed,

Yan nodded cleverly and said in a soft voice, “Okay.”

Then he ran out of the kitchen with his short legs.

Xu Sangluo took advantage of the opportunity to take some shepherd’s purse and shiitake mushrooms from her space and added some flour to the bag.

Fortunately, she ran a farmhouse, and her space was always stocked with various ingredients.

When the little guy came in with two red shallots, she was already kneading the dough.

“Auntie Zhao, here, shallots.”

Xu Sangluo smiled and took them, “Thank you, Yan Yan. By the way, Yan Yan, you can call me Auntie Sang or Auntie from now on.”

After being praised, the little guy wasn’t so scared anymore.

“Third Auntie?” Although he didn’t know why Auntie Zhao wanted him to call her that, he still obeyed.

“Good.”

The little guy was short and stout, and his head didn’t even reach the stovetop when he stood up.

After watching for a while, he couldn’t help but ask in a soft voice, “Auntie Zhao, Third Auntie, what are we going to make?”

“We’re making dumplings.”

“Dumplings?” The little guy tilted his head, “What are dumplings?”

Dumplings were not very common in the south, and the little guy had been sent to the Qin family when he was one year old, and he had never eaten them.

Xu Sangluo smiled, “You’ll know when they’re done.”

The little guy blinked, “Oh oh.”

After a while, he asked in a baby voice, “What should Yan Yan do?”

Xu Sangluo pointed to the bamboo basket, “Little Yan, help Auntie put the vegetables in the basin, okay?”

The little guy turned his head and saw the green vegetables in the basket, his eyes lit up immediately.

“Okay!”

The little guy thought these vegetables were wild vegetables picked by Grandma.

After kneading the dough, Xu Sangluo chopped the shepherd’s purse and shiitake mushrooms into pieces, secretly added a few eggs and stirred them.

Then she started rolling out the dumpling wrappers.

She had been making food for over ten years, and her movements were very skilled.

In no time, she rolled out several stacks of dumpling wrappers.

The little guy stood on a low stool, leaning against the stove, watching the little balls turn into little pieces, his round eyes full of amazement.

Xu Sangluo smiled and taught him how to wrap dumplings.

At this time, Qin’s mother, with her right foot wrapped in bandages, was being carried home by the tall and strong Qin Zhiyi.

They were also accompanied by Qin’s three siblings, whose eyes were red and swollen.

Qin Zhishu, the second son, was fifteen years old, only two years younger than Xu Sangluo.

Because he was a good student, he had already skipped a grade to high school, and he would be able to take the college entrance exam next year.

Qin Zhifeng and Qin Zhiyu, the twins, were thirteen years old and were in junior high school.

Qin’s mother was only in her forties, but she looked like a sixty-year-old woman.

At this time, she didn’t care about her injury at all, she was only anxious to urge her son to hurry home.

“Hurry up, Yan Yan must be scared, and you too, how could you lock such a small child in the house, it’s not right!”

The three children hung their heads and dared not say a word.