Chapter 1: The female lead's mother has transmigrated

"My old Li family must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to marry a jinx like you!"

"It's bad enough you can't give birth to a son, but you still have the audacity to want to eat my old Li family's eggs!"

"Bah! Do you know how precious eggs are? And you want to feed them to that little money-losing brat? Her cheap life isn't worth eating eggs!"

The unbearable cursing drifted from the kitchen into the courtyard, floating into the dilapidated thatched shed not far away.

Jiang Xiaoxiao struggled to open her eyes.

What came into view was a tattered roof covered in spiderwebs and paper windows that would tear at a single poke.

She forced her body to sit up from the cold, hard bed planks, but her head still couldn't stop spinning.

Looking at her own arms, as thin as hemp stalks, Jiang Xiaoxiao closed her eyes powerlessly, then turned to look at the kitchen not far across the way.

The Li Family Old Woman was grabbing a fire poker and beating a thin, frail woman, cursing as she struck:

"I'll beat you to death, you stinking wench! If you had given birth to a son back then, the third branch wouldn't be without an heir, making us a laughingstock to outsiders!"

The thick fire poker seemed about to bend, but the woman didn't seem to feel the pain; she didn't make a sound, didn't run, and didn't dodge, enduring her mother-in-law's beating and cursing.

In the chaos, the woman stumbled back, her head hitting the stove with a "thud," and she suddenly went silent.

Seeing this, the Li Family Old Woman picked up the vegetables and turned to leave, still cursing: "If you want to die, don't die in this house! It wasn't me who hit you!"

The woman's face was deathly pale, her eyes shut tight, blood flowing from her head.

Yet the entire Li family sat around the courtyard eating, not even sparing her a glance.

Just then, the woman lying by the stove suddenly opened her eyes.

It startled everyone in the courtyard.

"Where... where is this..."

The woman clutched her aching head, looked at her hands, which were covered in chilblains and rough, cracked skin, then looked at the crowd outside the courtyard, stunned for a long time before making an incredulous sound.

"You jinx, if you're not dead, get up!"

Seeing the woman was fine, the Li Family Old Woman arrogantly ordered: "Don't just stand there, go up the mountain and cut pig grass! There's so much work waiting at home; if you don't finish it, you don't get to eat today!"

"Cut... pig grass?"

The woman was stunned for a moment. As she slowly raised her head, her gaze had changed from confusion to something cold and sharp.

Seeing this scene, Jiang Xiaoxiao let out a sigh of relief.

According to the plot in the book, this must be when the female lead transmigrated.

In the courtyard.

Seven or eight members of the Li family were sitting around the table, eating nothing but thin grain porridge mixed with overcooked wild vegetables, with a small dish of blackened pickles and a large bowl of dry-fried lentils on the table.

Only the Li Family Old Madam had a bowl of steamed egg custard in front of her, sprinkled with scallions and floating with a few specks of oil.

At this moment, the Second Aunt-in-law was reaching her chopsticks toward the egg custard when the Old Woman wasn't looking, but she was slapped across the face by the Old Woman.

"You gluttonous, lazy wench! Is this egg custard something you can touch?! I haven't even had a bite, and you dare to reach your chopsticks right under my nose!"

Zhu Shi hurriedly covered her face and wailed: "Oh my, Mother, I was wrong! I was just so angry at the Third Sister-in-law for being disrespectful to you that I lost my head. Mother, please don't be angry."

While she apologized, her eyes looked resentfully at her mother-in-law pushing the bowl of egg custard to the Younger Sister-in-law, who was burying her head in her food.

"Come, Xiufang, eat more, don't go hungry."

The Li family had a child late in life, and having finally given birth to this daughter after fifty, they pampered her in the palm of their hands, providing her with the best food and drink.

Zhu Shi bit her lip hatefully, glancing at her two sons slurping porridge beside her, her heart filled with even more resentment.

She had given birth to two grandsons for the Li family; if she had no merit, she at least had hard work. How could her mother-in-law treat her this way?!

Why should the Younger Sister-in-law get to eat egg custard while her sons only deserved chaff and vegetables?

Could it be that her two grandsons weren't even worth as much as a little girl?

Under the table, Zhu Shi pinched her husband's thigh, secretly expressing her dissatisfaction.

Li Shoucai, the pillar of the second branch, didn't even look at her, burying his head in his own bowl of porridge.

Jiang Wei, having entered the courtyard, saw this selfish family and curled her lips coldly.

"You stinking wench, you're not dead and you dare to appear before me! I told you to go cut pig grass, did you treat my words as wind in your ears!"

The Li Family Old Madam turned her head and saw the woman standing in the courtyard. Furious, she grabbed the fire poker from the side and struck at the person in front of her.

However, before the stick could land, it was caught by the woman.

With a slight exertion of force, the thick fire poker was snapped in two.

Her hand strength was terrifying.

"You, you..." Before the Li Family Old Woman could react, she was slapped hard across the face by the person in front of her.

It hurt so much she cried out "Ouch!" and fell to the ground.

Jiang Xiaoxiao, who had dragged her sick body out of the thatched shed, happened to see this scene. She felt incredibly satisfied and only wanted to say: Well hit!

It was as if all the pent-up frustration she had suffered in the half-day since transmigrating had been vented.

Heaven knows what sin she committed; she was just at home eating ice cream, enjoying the air conditioning, and reading a novel, and she transmigrated into the book halfway through.

And to make matters worse, it was a famine farming novel...

In the original book, her mother in this body was the most mild-tempered woman in Yuhe Village.

Her mother-in-law beat her until she couldn't get out of bed for three days, and she wasn't angry.

Her mother-in-law cursed her for not giving birth to a son and didn't give her food, and she wasn't annoyed.

She worked tirelessly for the Li family, serving the whole family every day, rising earlier than the chickens and sleeping later than the dogs, washing clothes, cooking, working the fields, suffering endless abuse... but she never complained.

Until one day, the little punching bag daughter-in-law hit her head on the stove, and after waking up, her personality changed completely, becoming the decisive, space-ability-wielding big boss of the apocalypse!

And she herself was the sickly daughter of the female lead who didn't live past the first five chapters.

"You, you cheap hoof, you dare to hit me! You've turned against the heavens!!"

In the farm courtyard, the Li Family Old Woman seemed stunned by the blow, taking a long time to react.

"So what if I hit you!"

The woman was not afraid at all, grabbing the kitchen knife in her hand and rushing toward the Li Family Old Woman. "Don't you usually love to hit me? Come on! Today, let's both die together!!"

Seeing the little daughter-in-law, who usually never dared to talk back, glaring at her fiercely while holding a gleaming kitchen knife, the Li Family Old Woman felt a strange fear and instinctively turned and ran.

As she ran, she cursed stubbornly: "You cheap woman, you dare to hit me! You'll be struck by lightning for this!!"

"So what if I'm struck by lightning! Even if I die, I'll drag you down with me!!" The woman chased after her, holding the kitchen knife.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 2 =====