Sitting on the edge of the bed with an old smoking pipe in hand, Lin Shuisheng raised his eyelids slightly at the noise.  

In a muffled voice, he asked, “The girl’s awake?”  

“She’s awake.”  

Wang Xiu’e plopped down on the bed, her brows furrowed as she remained silent.  

Her usually sharp and mean face now carried a trace of pitifulness.  

Thinking about the gossip spreading through the production team these past few days, she couldn’t help but worry.  

The truth was, her daughter’s recent suicide attempt by jumping into the river had everything to do with that pretty-boy from the educated youth outpost.  

She really wanted to storm over there and tear him apart.  

But she didn’t dare.  

Her daughter was infatuated with that pretty-boy. If she dared lay a finger on him, there was no telling if her daughter would get so angry she’d disown her own mother.  

Just imagining that scene made Wang Xiu’e feel so suffocated she could hardly breathe.  

Was there really no other choice but to force that pretty-boy to marry her daughter?  

But that scrawny kid couldn’t carry a load on his shoulders or lift a thing with his hands—how could he possibly provide for her daughter?  

Would the two of them have to live on nothing but air after marriage?  

That pretty-boy could starve for all she cared, but her precious, delicately raised daughter certainly couldn’t go hungry.  

If only she had hardened her heart earlier and stopped her daughter from getting involved with that educated youth.  

But her daughter was flesh of her flesh.  

She couldn’t bear to be harsh—she had never even raised her voice at her daughter.  

She was terrified of upsetting her, afraid that one day her daughter might turn her back on her own mother.  

That would be like carving the flesh straight from her heart.  

Lin Shuisheng rapped his pipe loudly against the table. Seeing his wife so weighed down with worry, he felt uneasy too.  

“Old woman, what’s with all the sighing? Did those little brats at home upset you again? Tomorrow, I’ll give them a good thrashing for you.”  

“They wouldn’t dare upset me. I’m worried about our daughter.”  

“Our daughter eats well and sleeps well, same as always. What’s there to worry about?”  

Wang Xiu’e shot him a glare.  

“After our daughter jumped into the river, the whole team’s been gossiping, saying she did it because of that pretty-boy from the educated youth outpost. It breaks my heart to hear it.”  

“Let them talk. As long as our daughter’s alright, that’s all that matters. Worst case, we’ll take care of her for the rest of our lives.” Lin Shuisheng grinned warmly.  

They were still young enough to work a few more years, earn more work points, and save up some money for their daughter.  

Not to mention the three large gold ingots still tucked away at home. With all that, even if their daughter never married, she’d never starve.  

And besides, she had her three older brothers to rely on.  

“I’d love nothing more than to keep her with us forever. But you know how she is—she’s so obsessed with that pretty-boy she’d rather die than live without him. I’m just afraid she’ll do something reckless again.”  

Heaven knew her legs had gone weak with fear when she heard her daughter had jumped into the river.  

“Then what do we do? Wǎnwǎn is our only daughter—we can’t let anything happen to her.”  

Lin Shuisheng grew anxious. He stopped smoking and stared at Wang Xiu’e, waiting for her to come up with a solution.  

For years, she had been the one managing everything in the household.  

As the nominal head of the family, Lin Shuisheng had long grown accustomed to following her lead—whatever she said, he did.  

Wang Xiu’e frowned, silent for a long moment before finally speaking.  

“If there’s no other way, we’ll just have to make that pretty-boy marry our daughter.”  

If it made their girl happy, then all their problems would be solved.  

“But… will that work? That Educated Youth Zhou came all the way from Shanghai to support rural construction. What if he refuses?”  

“That scrawny, useless pretty-boy should count himself lucky our daughter even took a liking to him. How dare he refuse?”  

“But—”  

“No buts. If our daughter wants him, I’ll tie him up and drag him home if I have to.”

Talk was cheap, but deep down, Wang Xiu’e still felt uneasy.  

She got up and rummaged through the cabinets, pulling out the dowry she had been saving for her daughter over the years—three hefty gold ingots and a pair of exquisite jade bracelets with a flawless, watery sheen.  

The bracelets had been a gift from her own mother when she married, said to have once belonged to a Qing dynasty imperial consort.  

She had never dared to take them out before, afraid her daughters-in-law might covet them. But now that her daughter was about to marry, she would give them to her as part of her dowry.  

Beneath the bed, hidden in a rat hole, was the money from selling two of the gold ingots years ago. Though some had been spent over the years, a good portion remained.  

Wang Xiu’e pulled out the money and counted it in her palm—510 yuan and 20 cents, a mix of bills and coins.  

Without hesitation, she counted out 400 yuan and stuffed the remaining 110 yuan and 20 cents back into the rat hole.  

The 400 yuan would buy her daughter a bicycle as part of her dowry, and the rest would go straight into her daughter’s hands.  

With her and the old man’s support after the wedding, her daughter’s new life would surely be prosperous.  

The thought eased the weight in Wang Xiu’e’s heart a little.  

Later, lulled by Lin Shuisheng’s snores, she fell into a deep sleep.  

In her dream…

Lin Wanwan, pulled from the water after her suicide attempt, had already stopped breathing.  

Wang Xiu’e cradled her daughter’s cold body, wailing until she collapsed from grief.  

Unable to bear the pain of losing her child, she fell gravely ill.  

By the second year after Lin Wanwan’s death, Wang Xiu’e followed her daughter to the grave.  

The next morning…

Wang Xiu’e jolted awake, drenched in sweat as if she’d just been fished out of water.  

The dream had shaken her to the core.  

For a moment, it had felt terrifyingly real.  

“Mom, you eat the egg custard.”

Lin Wanwan pushed her bowl of steamed egg custard toward Wang Xiu’e, then turned to gnaw on the coarse mixed-grain cornbread stuffed with wild greens.  

The sorghum-and-cornmeal bread was dry and gritty.  

Halfway through, Lin Wanwan nearly choked to death. She hastily gulped down a few mouthfuls of watery corn porridge—so thin she could see her reflection in it—just to survive.  

Back in the modern world, she’d never eaten anything like this. Even when dieting, her meals had been carefully prepared by the family chef, with premium ingredients airlifted from Italy.  

How the mighty have fallen.

Improving the Lin family’s diet was now a top priority.  

Still shaken from last night’s nightmare, Wang Xiu’e stared at the fragrant egg custard in front of her, her eyes inexplicably stinging.  

Then she looked up at her daughter, head bowed over her meal, and her restless heart suddenly calmed.  

I’m just scaring myself.

Dreams were never to be taken seriously.  

Her daughter was safe and sound right beside her—nothing bad would happen.  

Comforted, Wang Xiu’e pushed the bowl back.  

“Sweetheart, this was made for you. Eat it while it’s hot.”

A half-dead old woman like her didn’t need it.  

But her daughter was still young, still growing.  

As for Lin Wanwan’s talk about “needing to lose weight” yesterday? Wang Xiu’e had already dismissed it as nonsense.  

In her eyes, all that talk about “being unhealthy if you’re fat” was just jealousy from those educated youths, feeding her daughter lies.  

“Mom, if you don’t eat it, I’ll ignore you from now on.”

Lin Wanwan mimicked the original host’s tone, half-threatening.  

In the original host’s memories, this tactic always worked.  

Sure enough, seeing her daughter’s displeasure, Wang Xiu’e didn’t dare argue further.  

She divided the egg custard, giving the larger half to Lin Shuisheng and keeping the rest for herself.