Chapter 1: The Year 1972

August 1972.

It was late August. Though the weather was still hot, the peak of summer had passed. With the windows open and a fan running, the room already felt cool and pleasant.

Su Ruo was in her small bedroom, slowly packing her belongings.

In a few days, she would head to Qing University in the provincial capital, and from then on, she’d mostly live on campus.

The thought of this made her feel particularly refreshed and joyful, and packing became a pleasant task.

Her clothes had long been packed. Now, she was carefully tidying her desk.

She opened a drawer and began taking out her diary, photo albums, and other items one by one—deciding which ones to bring, and which ones to store away.

As she sorted through everything, she pulled out a photo frame from the very back of the drawer.

Holding the frame, her gaze froze on the black-and-white photo inside.

It was a picture of a young couple holding a little girl.

The young woman was very beautiful, with two thick black braids, an oval-shaped face, high nose bridge, and large eyes. She was smiling sweetly and happily.

That was her birth mother.

Su Ruo didn’t remember her well, but the face was familiar… because she resembled her mother by at least seventy to eighty percent.

She just looked younger and more delicate in comparison.

“Ruoruo, are you asleep?”

While she was lost in thought looking at the photo, a gentle woman’s voice came from outside the door, followed by a knock.

She quickly slipped the frame back into the drawer and shut it. Then she turned and said, “Not yet, Aunt Lin, come in.”

The door opened, and a graceful, delicate-looking middle-aged woman entered, holding a bowl.

She smiled as she placed it on Su Ruo’s desk. “Ruoruo, your sister made this sweet fermented rice dumpling soup. Try it while it’s hot.”

Su Ruo glanced at it. It was her favorite dessert—tiny glutinous rice balls floating in sweet fermented rice, sprinkled with a few osmanthus blossoms.

Even without tasting it, it looked beautiful and inviting.

The woman continued, “It’s getting late. Eat, then rest. There are still several days left—you don’t need to pack everything at once.”

This woman was Lin Wanhua, Su Ruo’s stepmother.

Su Ruo’s father, Su Jianzhou, was the deputy principal of the Nancheng Technical School.

Her mother passed away when she was three. It was said that her father, being busy with work, remarried a widowed woman through a matchmaking arrangement. Lin Wanhua was known to be gentle and capable, and treated Su Ruo kindly. Also, she had a daughter from her previous marriage who was two years older than Su Ruo and was well-mannered and sensible.

Impressed by the child’s upbringing, Su Jianzhou quickly married Lin Wanhua.

Not long after, they had a son together—Su Zhen, now fourteen.

Since her mother had passed too early, Su Ruo had little memory of her beyond the photo. In contrast, Lin Wanhua had cared for her attentively over the years and treated her well.

The “sister” that Lin Wanhua mentioned was her daughter from her previous marriage—originally named Gu Jia, but renamed Su Jia after marrying into the Su family.

“Thank you, Aunt Lin,” Su Ruo said with a smile.

She noticed Lin Wanhua’s gaze fall upon a boxed inkstone on the desk—an expensive collector’s item that had belonged to her father.

Su Ruo explained with a smile, “Actually, my luggage is almost done. I’m just double-checking the gifts for Grandpa Yuan, Uncle Yuan, and Auntie Yuan, making sure I don’t forget anything. This Duan inkstone is something Dad specifically asked me to bring for Grandpa Yuan.”

“For Yuan Chengyang too, right?” Lin Wanhua teased with a knowing smile.

Su Ruo smiled but said nothing.

The “Grandpa Yuan” she referred to was the former principal of the Nancheng Technical School, her father’s mentor who had helped him greatly.

The Yuan family used to live in the technical school compound too.

Su Ruo and Yuan Chengyang, the son of the Yuan family, had grown up together since they were little. Later, after Grandpa Yuan retired and Uncle Yuan was transferred to the provincial capital due to work, the two families eventually moved apart.

But Yuan Chengyang had liked Su Ruo ever since they were young, and the entire Yuan family liked her too. They treated her exceptionally well—so much so that Su Ruo often felt more at ease in the Yuan household than in her own home. So, when the Yuan family proposed marriage two years ago, Su Jianzhou made the decision to betroth Su Ruo to Yuan Chengyang. Su Ruo didn’t object.

Now that she was heading to Qing University, visiting the Yuan family was a must.

But she didn’t want to mention anything about Yuan Chengyang to Lin Wanhua. She lowered her head, reached out to stir the fermented rice balls with her spoon, and smiled. “Jiajie really has a talent for cooking. Grandma originally taught me how to make this, but for some reason, I can never get it to taste the same. Somehow, both you and Jiajie can make it just right. Dad even says I don’t deserve to be Grandma’s biological granddaughter, not even as good as Jiajie. I’m honestly hopeless.”

Lin Wanhua’s smile froze.

She looked at the girl’s bright smile, her slender neck and delicate profile framed by her long black hair that set off her fair skin beautifully. Her gaze dropped to the girl’s slender fingers holding the spoon, fair and translucent like fine porcelain. A wave of irritation flickered through her heart.

Over the years, she had treated this stepdaughter very well.

In terms of food, clothing, housing, and even emotional care—sometimes even better than she treated her own daughter.

She always asked her daughter to give in to her in everything.

But not being born of her was always a hurdle.

No matter how hard she tried to warm her up, it never worked.

So young yet so scheming. She looked innocent, but in truth, she was sly and venomous.

When she married Su Jianzhou, her daughter Jiajia was still little. Su Jianzhou had treated Jiajia like his own daughter at first. But Su Ruo, even at that young age, already excelled at sowing discord—constantly reminding Su Jianzhou and his parents that Jiajia wasn’t truly part of the Su family.

Eventually, both Su Jianzhou and his parents became cold toward Jiajia.

Su Jianzhou acted cordial on the surface, but when it came to real decisions, all the resources and benefits went to Su Ruo—Jiajia got nothing.

Take university, for example. When it was time for Jiajia to apply, Su Jianzhou didn’t pull any strings to help. He just let her stay at the technical school. But when Su Ruo graduated high school, he pulled all the connections he could to send her to the renowned Qing University in the provincial capital.

Then there was the engagement to the Yuan family.

Yuan Chengyang was five years older than Su Ruo. Age-wise, Jiajia and Yuan Chengyang were a better match. Lin Wanhua had even hinted to Su Jianzhou that Jiajia had always liked Yuan Chengyang. But he still went ahead and promised sixteen-year-old Su Ruo to him. Over that, Jiajia had cried herself to sleep for nearly half a year.

Thinking of all this, Lin Wanhua’s heart was full of anger and grievance.

And toward her daughter Su Jiajia, she felt only pain and guilt.

“Auntie Lin?”

Hearing Su Ruo call her, Lin Wanhua snapped out of her thoughts. She saw the girl looking up at her, a probing expression in her eyes. Her heart clenched. She forced a smile and said gently, “If you like it, then eat up and get to bed early.”

As she spoke, she reached out and patted Su Ruo’s head. “In the blink of an eye, you’ve grown so big. Time flies. Now that you’re going to live in the provincial capital, I’ll really miss you.”

Su Ruo smiled. “Then you, Dad, Jiajie, and A-Zhen should come visit me often! Let me get familiar with the city first—then I can show you around like a local. There’s this really famous cherry blossom avenue near Qing University—I bet Jiajie would love it.”

Lin Wanhua: …

Wasn’t that just straight-up showing off?

She no longer wanted to talk to Su Ruo.

It was always like this—she came in with a motherly heart, but ended up leaving angry and full.

Face stiff, she exchanged a few more polite words with her stepdaughter before leaving. Su Ruo watched her go, waited until the door closed, then pouted slightly—her expression lively and adorable.

But after the interruption from Lin Wanhua, she had no mood to tidy anything up. There were still a few days left anyway. She decided to call it a night, changed clothes, lay on the bed, and began mulling over things. Before long, she drifted off to sleep.

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October 1977, Hanjia Village.

Early morning was the liveliest time by the lakeside forest at the edge of Hanjia Village.

Many village women gathered there to wash their families’ clothes. While pounding garments rhythmically on the stone slabs, they also gossiped about the goings-on in the village.

“Dongzi’s grandma, I heard your second daughter-in-law is sick? Even had someone covering her classes at the school. How is she now?”

A thin old woman scooped up a wet piece of clothing, slapped it onto the stone slab, and turned to ask a round-faced old lady beside her.

The woman called Dongzi’s grandma had just been chatting with someone else, but the moment she heard the question, the smile on her face vanished.

The surrounding conversations died down. Everyone pricked up their ears, eager to hear what she’d say—even their laundry movements slowed, the slap-slap sounds quieting.

This round-faced old woman was Wu Guizhi, wife of old Han He from the east end of the village.

Because her eldest grandson’s nickname was Dongzi, everyone called her Dongzi’s grandma.

The skinny old woman had asked about Wu Guizhi’s second daughter-in-law, Su Ruo—a city girl sent down to the countryside, now working as a teacher at the commune’s primary school.

Wu Guizhi’s smile faded, her gaze turned cold, and her kindly face took on a sharper, more bitter look.

She said, “What illness could it be? Just caught in the rain, got a little fever, nothing serious. She’ll be fine after a couple of days’ rest.”

Her tone was flat—clearly not keen on discussing her second daughter-in-law.

But her aloofness only fueled the villagers’ curiosity.

The more guarded she was, the itchier they felt to know more.

The skinny old lady pretended not to notice and pressed on with a grin. Her droopy eyelids hid eyes sparkling with gossip. “Speaking of your second daughter-in-law, I heard she went to the brigade leader the other day asking to sign up for the college entrance exam. Is that true? Are you really letting her go?”