Mr. and Mrs. Zhao didn’t understand Jiang Lin’s demand for ten thousand yuan at all.

Their daily transactions were mostly bartering, and even a few yuan or mao were considered significant amounts.

Twenty yuan was a lot, and a hundred yuan was almost unimaginable, let alone ten thousand.

Seeing their confused expressions, Jiang Lin realized they didn’t grasp the value.

She then added, “Well, it’s simple. One kid for a thousand, or ten for both.”

She figured that if she said she wasn’t selling after coming voluntarily, they would persist.

It was better to set an outrageous price they couldn’t afford, making them give up.

“Are you robbing us?” Mrs. Zhao and her husband were shocked, looking at Jiang Lin as if she were a bandit.

They couldn’t understand why she was suddenly demanding such an exorbitant amount.

Noticing their aggressive stance, Jiang Lin grabbed the rattan thermos from the table.

“Put it down!” Mrs. Zhao’s face turned pale.

That thermos cost over five yuan, and they couldn’t afford to replace it.

Jiang Lin said, “Don’t worry, I’m holding it tightly. It won’t break.”

“Forget it, forget it!” Mr. Zhao stamped his foot in frustration. “We’ll go to the south village. They had a flood, and there are plenty of kids. We can buy a smaller one and raise him better.”

Mr. and Mrs. Zhao were just ordinary members of the commune.

They wanted to buy a child but wouldn’t resort to deceit or force.

Even though they felt sorry about not getting the twins, they couldn’t afford to pay more and were very frustrated.

“Even if you gave them to me for free later, I wouldn’t want them!” Mrs. Zhao spat angrily. “No one else will pay two hundred.”

Jiang Lin: … Dream on.

Holding the thermos, she looked at the tense couple. “It’s fine if you don’t want to buy the children, but hitting my head can’t go unpunished.”

She hated pain and had just arrived with her head feeling like it would explode, not to mention the bump on her left temple.

She couldn’t just let it go.

Mrs. Zhao quickly defended herself, “You hit your head yourself. We didn’t touch you!”

Jiang Lin glared at them, “You better compensate me. If it wasn’t for you two, I wouldn’t have this bump on my head.”

Mr. Zhao hesitated but finally spoke up, “We don’t have much, but how about giving you an extra ten yuan for your trouble?”

Mrs. Zhao was taken aback but agreed reluctantly, “Fine, take the ten yuan. Just leave us in peace.”

Jiang Lin nodded, satisfied for the moment.

She handed back the thermos, took the ten yuan, and watched as the couple hurriedly left, still muttering about the absurdity of the situation.

Jiang Lin finally had a moment to process her situation.

Time travel, selling children, and this bizarre turn of events…

Her mind raced with what her next steps should be in this unfamiliar world.

Jiang Lin said, “If you hadn’t pushed me, would I have hit my head? You should at least cover the medical expenses.”

Mrs. Zhao, feeling the pinch, nearly jumped. “Your head isn’t even bleeding, why do you need medical expenses? Do you want me to call the village barefoot doctor to take a look? At most, you’ll need some ointment.”

Jiang Lin responded, “It might look fine on the outside, but it could be an internal injury. Do you know that some people fall and seem fine, but then they get worse when they go home? Ever heard of brain hemorrhage? Fine, call your barefoot doctor, and let’s go to the county hospital.”

Saying this, she pretended to sway dizzily, scaring Mrs. Zhao into holding her up, afraid she might break the thermos.

Mr. Zhao angrily said, “What do you want from us? Extort money?”

Jiang Lin replied, “No, I’m reasonable. I won’t extort money.” She glanced at the money Mrs. Zhao had placed on the kang and thought that in the modern world, a visit to the hospital and a CT scan would cost at least a few hundred yuan.

She didn’t actually need to go to the hospital, but she deserved some compensation for the shock and pain.

“You should at least give me twenty yuan.”

She asked for twenty, aiming to get ten, leaving room for negotiation.

While selling her children was wrong, the Zhao couple wasn’t innocent either.

Both parties were at fault, and Jiang Lin felt justified in asking for compensation for her pain.

After another round of haggling, the Zhao couple reluctantly handed over eight yuan.

In those days, earning money was hard.

Many laborers in the commune earned just a few mao per day, so eight yuan was a significant amount.

Jiang Lin decided to let it go.

She wasn’t really trying to extort money; she just needed to vent her frustration.

Taking the money, she handed back the thermos and, instead of rushing away, she smiled and said, “Look, buying and selling children is illegal. If you really want a child, find a family who can’t afford to raise theirs and adopt one. Buying isn’t the way.”

Mrs. Zhao, still smarting from the loss of the eight yuan, muttered, “Well, it’s not like we forced you.”

Jiang Lin nodded, “True, but remember, the law doesn’t look kindly on this kind of transaction. Take care.”

With that, Jiang Lin stepped outside, breathing deeply to steady herself and trying to process her unexpected new reality.

She had to find a way to navigate this strange, unfamiliar world, starting with her twins, Cheng Dabao and Cheng Xiaobao.

Mrs. Zhao stumbled and grabbed the edge of the kang for support. “You really know how to talk. So you didn’t actually want to sell your children, just played us for fools?”

Jiang Lin didn’t want them spreading rumors in the village that she had failed to sell her children over a disagreement about the price.

She aimed to minimize the negative impact.

Mrs. Zhao noticed that Jiang Lin seemed to have undergone a change.

Although she still demanded money, her demeanor had shifted.

Before, she was aggressive, beautiful but with a fierce look, always rolling her eyes and looking down on others.

Now, despite being stern, her gaze was direct and cold, exuding a sense of authority.

Had she changed her mind about selling her sons after hitting her head?

Jiang Lin didn’t bother to explain further to the couple.

She picked up the cloth bag the original owner had left on the table and walked out.

After leaving the Zhao household, she looked around the alley, hearing the sounds of children playing nearby.

Following the noise, she walked slowly, pondering her bizarre situation.

Suddenly finding herself in a new reality with two sons and facing the prospect of selling them—what kind of terrible environment was this? Why even return?

Maybe it was better to hide somewhere and figure things out.

The answer popped into her mind: Don’t even think about it.

In the countryside, you earn work points for labor. Leaving home requires a referral letter and grain tickets.

Without these, you won’t survive, and you’ll be caught as a vagrant.

Damn, this was like being in a prison.

Jiang Lin walked slowly, organizing her thoughts and processing the new information.

Once she understood the original owner’s situation, she felt an urge to hit herself with a brick and return to her own time.

It was 1976, but this wasn’t the same world she knew; it was a parallel universe with slight differences.

Her name was still Jiang Lin, born on February 16, 1954, and she was an educated youth from the provincial capital sent to the countryside.

Coincidentally, she also had a first love named Bian Haitao!!!

Before going to the countryside, he wanted them to use connections to get jobs at a textile factory.

The son of the factory’s revolutionary committee chairman, a local thug, had taken a liking to her and insisted on dating her.

Without his consent, they couldn’t secure the jobs.

Of course, she refused.

But various hints suggested that the countryside wasn’t suitable for a delicate girl like her.

Bian Haitao, unable to provide a better future for her, lamented constantly.

Moved by his worry, she impulsively agreed to humor the thug to secure their jobs first.

Her parents found out and were firmly opposed to her dating a thug.

They went directly to the educated youth office and arranged for her to be sent to the countryside.

Reflecting on this, Jiang Lin felt the irony of her situation.

Now, in this new reality, she had to navigate the complexities of 1976, figuring out how to protect her sons and herself while adapting to a world that wasn’t quite the one she remembered.

She got so angry with her parents that she cut ties with them and went to the countryside with Bian Haitao and her best friend.

Little did she know, Bian Haitao painfully told her that he was going to marry the daughter of a certain county’s revolutionary committee leader and join the army.

He asked her to wait for him until he settled in and gained power, so he could take her away from her parents’ control.

After he left, she couldn’t handle the shock.

She acted crazy at home for a few days, then her personality changed drastically.

Once lively and somewhat spoiled, she became increasingly isolated and cynical, finding fault with everyone except her lifelong best friend.

It was the busy farming season in the countryside, and she couldn’t bear the tough environment and physical labor, falling ill within a few days.

Her friend suggested she marry a local man to solve her problems and get back at Bian Haitao.

She thought it was a good idea.

It would secure her livelihood and serve as revenge.

Her friend chose Cheng Rushan from the village.

Although his family background wasn’t great, he made good money transporting goods and the brigade leader supported his family, ensuring an easy life for her.

He seemed like the most suitable candidate.

She only cared that he wasn’t home often, avoiding close contact with him.

She didn’t consider much else.

At first, Cheng Rushan was reluctant, but his mother feared he might stay single forever due to his less desirable background.

Many men like him couldn’t find wives, so having someone willing to marry him was a great opportunity.

So, they got married with official approval from the village and started living together as a family.

But she missed the gentle and affectionate Bian Haitao, and despised Cheng Rushan for his imposing stature and manner.

She felt fortunate that just two days after getting married, Cheng Rushan was suddenly arrested by the police.

She didn’t know the details, but he hadn’t returned since.

Fortunately, Cheng Rushan’s family life wasn’t affected by his absence; the old brigade leader still looked after them.

She managed to get through the next five or six years relatively comfortably.

However, inwardly, she grew increasingly miserable.

Firstly, she hadn’t expected to get pregnant so soon after marriage and gave birth to twin sons.

She despised the boys intensely because they constantly reminded her that she had gotten pregnant by another man—betraying her first love and herself.

It became a stain on her love life.

Secondly, she still couldn’t adapt to the dirty, impoverished countryside.

There seemed to be no end in sight for returning to the city, and her longing for Bian Haitao grew deeper.

It became an obsession, blending her first love, love life, and desire to return to the city into one.

Her life and love had suffered a tremendous blow, and year after year passed with no resolution in sight.

She felt like she was going crazy.

In the spring of this year, the old brigade leader who had always protected Cheng Rushan’s family passed away.

Then, at the beginning of this month, news came that Cheng Rushan had an accident in prison and might never return.

His half-brother immediately turned hostile and heartless, forcibly evicting her, her mother-in-law, and the twin children from their home to live in a shabby hut under the brigade wall.

With no one to support her after the old brigade leader’s passing, and with unsavory characters starting to take advantage of her vulnerability, her life deteriorated rapidly.

How could she endure such hardships?

It was then that her friend, who was visiting the city, brought her news: Bian Haitao and his wife were not happy together.

He had quietly missed her all this time and promised to take her away in two years.

She couldn’t bear to wait two more years.

She immediately wanted to return to the city and find him, consumed by this thought like a madness.

But she couldn’t arrange her return to the city by herself.

A young man from the village who had always liked her said he could use connections to help her return to the city and take his father’s job.

He even proposed marriage to her, saying it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t have a job.

She didn’t care for his offer to support her, but she desperately wanted to go find Bian Haitao.

Therefore, she urgently needed to return to the city and asked him to help her with the necessary arrangements first.

He said it would take at least five hundred yuan to arrange everything.

He had three hundred yuan and asked her to come up with the remaining two hundred.

She racked her brains and managed to gather twenty yuan.

Then, her friend mentioned that someone at the big market was looking to buy children, and she suddenly had an idea.

A few days ago, she had a brief encounter and found it feasible.

She went back and lied to her mother-in-law, saying her parents were sick and she needed to return to the city to visit them.

She even exchanged the family’s food ration for grain coupons and got the longest possible visiting letter from the brigade.

Good grief.

Jiang Lin stumbled and almost fell flat on the ground.

Why was there also a Bian Haitao here?!! Why was this parallel universe’s Jiang Lin in such a difficult situation?

She remembered her two children again, suddenly feeling a strange sympathy.

When she was 8 years old, her father had an affair and divorced her mother.

At 11, her mother remarried and started a new family.

Since then, she had no home.