Chapter 1: Dreaming Back to a Past Life

Inside the brightly renovated, spacious apartment, the atmosphere was tense and heavy.

Qiao Jiangxin, looking haggard and red-eyed, was confronting her husband.

“Chen Wende, that’s my mother! The state promotes gender equality I’m her only daughter. If I don’t take care of her, who will?

It’s my duty to provide for my parents in their old age and to see them off at the end!”

Chen Wende looked completely impatient. “Qiao Jiangxin, don’t give me all that moral high ground. You think I don’t know better than you?

Yes, you’re right.

You are your parents’ only child, and an only daughter should be treated the same as an only son. But before your parents ask you to fulfill the obligations of a son, shouldn’t they have given you the same benefits a son would get?”

“Look at this house we live in, the car we drive how much money or effort did your parents contribute?

Even when you married me, your family asked mine for a bride price of 180,000!

Are sons and daughters really the same?

Look at Old Zhang’s family. He had a daughter and his whole family gave up. They go around saying they have no pressure, just living day by day.

When her father was carrying cement on the construction site, Old Zhang was in the mahjong parlor playing cards with the AC on. Her mother worked on handicrafts late into the night, while Zhang’s wife snored in bed.

Families who have sons work themselves to the bone to leave them a house and a car, laying down a solid foundation.

Once their daughter marries, she gets to move into a house, drive a car, and her family still collects bride price.”

“I’m telling you, Qiao Jiangxin your parents only have you, so you and they should’ve been mentally prepared long ago.

Just counting on their son-in-law to bleed dry what am I, a sucker?

If you have the ability, go be filial to your parents yourself. But if you think you can suck my blood to let them live in comfort, I’m telling you: not a chance!”

Qiao Jiangxin’s chest heaved violently with rage. “Chen Wende, have some conscience! When I married you, don’t pretend you didn’t know what state your family was in!

After you were asked to leave university, you stayed home all day writing that pretentious poetry and obscure novels of yours, chasing your literary dream.

It was me who married into your family, cooked for your entire household, washed all your clothes.

My parents raised me. Yes, I should shoulder my family’s responsibility like a man.

But the money I earned selling vegetables, the lunches I sold at the construction sites all of it went to buying medicine for your parents, paying tuition for your younger siblings, feeding your entire ungrateful Chen family!”

“Don’t you forget, you only”

“It’s only in recent years that you started making money. For those first ten-plus years, wasn’t every day spent holed up in that dim little room with the light on all day? Did you ever manage anything in this household?”

“It was me, Qiao Jiangxin, who married into this family and held it up with my own hands. I raised your brother and sister like both a father and a mother.

I lived like a widow keeping this house running and still had to take care of your parents. Can’t you see what I’ve given to this family?

Do you think the money in this household has nothing to do with me? If I hadn’t been behind you, raising the child, serving your parents, washing your clothes and cooking your meals would you have had the peace of mind to write those damn manuscripts of yours?

If it were all up to you, your whole damn family would’ve starved to death, without even crap to eat!!!”

“Shut up! How did I end up marrying a rude and vulgar shrew like you…”

Scene change still the Chen household, and the arguments erupt once again.

Qiao Jiangxin stared hatefully at the woman being shielded by her husband.

“Chi Suzhen is moving into our house? Did I agree to that?
Chen Wende, I’m not dead yet.”

“Back when your parents were sick in bed, I was the one running around taking care of them.
You call me uneducated? Then who was it that went around, face flushed with embarrassment, asking over and over again about those complicated procedures, enduring the annoyed stares of the hospital staff?”

“And now that my mom is sick, you’re going off on a trip with Chi Suzhen?”

“Ugh, enough! Arguing, arguing, always arguing what’s the point?”

“Mom, you’re already so old. Why are you still being bitter and jealous? Besides, you and Dad were in an arranged marriage with no love between you. Why do you care so much? You’re at this age now stop torturing Dad.”

“Let him enjoy a few peaceful years. His only wish in this lifetime is to be with Auntie Chi!”

Qiao Jiangxin, her eyes red with tears, stared in disbelief at the child she had raised for more than a decade.

“Chen Zhi… who is your mother, really?”

Chen Zhi looked annoyed.

“Honestly, I wish Auntie Chi were my mom. You and Dad have been fighting for years why can’t you just give him a break? With your temper, who could stand you? My dad is a cultured man. He’s not like you…”

In a mud-brick house

A teenage girl sleeping on a bamboo mat furrowed her brows. Beads of sweat gathered on her forehead, and a clear tear slid from the corner of her eye.

In her dream, her nose twitched, and her soft pink lips trembled faintly, as if she had suffered a heartbreaking grievance.

“Uuuu~”

“Mom~”

“Mom~”

Her voice was laced with sorrow and despair.

In the nearby kitchen, a thin, frail woman heard her daughter’s cries and hurried toward the room.

“Jiangxin? Jiangxin? What’s wrong? Child, were you having a bad dream?

Qiao Jiangxin woke up to the sound of Liu Afang’s worried voice.

Seeing her mother’s youthful face, she immediately threw herself into her mother’s arms and started crying uncontrollably.

“Mom… Mom… Wuwuwu… I’m sorry… I’m useless… You raised me, and I’m no better than a dog…”

Liu Afang wiped the sweat from Qiao Jiangxin’s forehead. “You silly child, stop talking nonsense.”

Qiao Jiangxin felt the rough, calloused palm of her mother’s hand gently rubbing her forehead, the sensation slowly helping her clear her mind.

Through tear-filled eyes, she cautiously opened them and asked softly, “Mom?”

This wasn’t the mother she remembered, who had been ravaged by illness beyond recognition.

Liu Afang suddenly remembered the fire still burning in the kitchen and hurriedly stood up to leave, not forgetting to shout instructions to her daughter.

“You’re really still half asleep, hurry and wash your face to wake up. Your uncle and grandfather will be home for dinner soon.”

Qiao Jiangxin’s gaze fell on her mother’s protruding belly, her pupils constricting. She quickly became fully awake.

Watching her mother leave, Qiao Jiangxin turned her head and took in the surroundings.

The walls were made of mud bricks, and nails were hammered into them to hang various items ropes, plastic mirrors, straw hats…