Chapter 1

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Chai Mi

"These eggs are saved for my grandson to eat, not for you to show off. Even a hen knows to lay a decoy egg, but your mother is nothing but a hen that lays rotten eggs her whole life."

Beside the dining table, Chai Mi's delicate face blinked its lashes; her slender, tall figure, combined with that fair skin untouched by worldly dust, paired with her sharp gaze, made her seem somewhat cold. She looked dazedly at the vicious face of the old woman before her, and then understood at once — she had been reborn.

Reborn back to the Dragon Boat Festival of 1990, the day just after her eighteenth birthday.

In her previous life, Chai Mi lived a wretched and lowly existence; she always fantasized that one day she could return to her youth.

Now her wish was finally granted. Among men there are always a breeze or two to fulfill ten thousand eight thousand dreams — rebirth is truly fucking good…

"Chai Mi, you and your little sister, you two money-losing goods, don't come to my room from now on. The sight of you two disgusts me." Just as Chai Mi was spacing out, Wang Huirong spoke with a twisted expression.

Chai Mi snapped back, looking at her grandfather Chai Zhongxiao puffing on dry tobacco at the head of the kang, saying nothing, eyelids drooping, utterly indifferent. Then she looked at Grandmother Wang Huirong's icy eyes and the boiled egg just snatched from her hand; Chai Mi shook her head and said in a harsh tone: "This egg was sent by my aunt two days ago for Mother to eat during her confinement. It's not for you two to eat, and certainly not for your grandson."

She then snatched the egg back and stuffed it into Second Sister Chai Xiu's hand. Chai Xiu was only eight this year, long since frightened into lowering her head and not daring to speak by Wang Huirong's vicious words; one hand rubbed her already washed-white short sleeve, the other hand trembling slightly as she held the egg.

Seeing Chai Mi actually dare to talk back, Wang Huirong flew into a rage and cursed: "How does your mother have the face to sit confinement? A daughter her whole life, a daughter her whole life. She's popped out three girls in a row and still has the face to eat eggs? Giving these eggs to you daughters to eat is worse than feeding them to a dog."

"Right, so Mother had Father take the eggs to feed the dog." Chai Mi answered coldly: "Besides, the brigade bulletin writes every day that boys and girls are the same; you're illiterate, but you're not blind. Moreover…"

"Moreover, given the poverty of our Old Chai Family, Mother's confinement eggs have to come from her natal family. No matter how many sons she bears, you two can't afford to raise them."

Chai Zhongxiao, puffing on dry tobacco nearby, instantly flared up: "At such a young age, how do you speak to elders? This is your grandmother; what's wrong with her scolding you a few sentences?"

Chai Mi didn't speak. In her previous life it was just like this — Chai Zhongxiao and Wang Huirong hung the fact that Mother couldn't bear a son on their lips all day, yet still counted on Mother to help them do farm work. The result was Mother suffered no end of exhaustion, got not a shred of benefit, and still had to endure the family's every kind of disgusting verbal mockery.

Later Mother Su Wan, in her thirty-seventh year, her zodiac year, gave birth to Third Sister Chai Xin. They say the zodiac year brings misfortune in all things; it proved true. Because Su Wan was an older mother, the child's nutrition couldn't keep up, causing premature birth, yet Chai Zhongxiao and his wife begrudged the money to send Mother to the hospital, saying: "Women giving birth, that thing, after two or three it's no different from taking a shit."

And that indecisive, blindly filial father of mine actually thought it was no big deal either — just having a child, hadn't she given birth before, why make a fuss…

The outcome was predictable. Mother Su Wan was already premature from malnutrition; giving birth at home was a difficult labor. By the time the child was born, it nearly cost Su Wan her life. Confinement food was poor, she was bullied and complained against, and even during confinement, in the scorching heat she still had to go help Grandfather and Grandmother do farm work. From then on she fell ill at the root; within two or three years Mother passed away.

Later Chai Mi went out to work elsewhere, toiled hard to earn money to support the family; her sister Chai Xiu, because she was too honest and introverted, was coaxed by the family into marrying a lame old bachelor over fifty — how was that different from selling a daughter? And that old man, once he drank he beat Chai Xiu; Chai Xiu couldn't endure the beating, and before long drank pesticide and died with grievance.

And the root of all this tragedy was precisely this pair before her, who took preference for sons over daughters to the extreme.

Chai Mi hated them to death. Now reborn, Chai Mi would never let the previous life's tragedy repeat. Others still want to bully Mother for her soft nature? Then this eldest daughter will straighten Mother's spine and fight them to the end.

Chai Zhongxiao and Wang Huirong talked all day about "continuing the family line," "raising sons for old age," "a son is a treasure, a daughter is grass" — yet in the end their two uncles, didn't they still drive these two out of the old house and starve them to death?!

Bullshit raising sons for old age!

Most of the time, raising a daughter is far better than a son.

Chai Mi let out a scoff, eyes full of hatred for the two old things. Naturally she had no time to waste words with them; leaving a final line: "Elders don't act like elders, and people aren't allowed to speak? Besides, if the upper beam isn't straight the lower beam will be crooked; Grandfather, if you like hearing your grandson talk, just hang him around your neck and watch. I can't — my upper beam isn't straight… my upper beam lacks a bit of virtue!"

"Bastard…"

"Unfilial to heaven…"

Chai Mi ignored the two old things cursing and wanting to teach her a lesson; grabbing Chai Xiu she bolted back to her own home.

The Chai Family sits in a small village in the Liaoxi mountains, named Sanjiacun. The name's origin: years ago when Crossing the Pass three surnames came — Chai, Liu, and Song. But many years have passed; now the village has many surnames.

Sanjiacun counts as a plain area in these great mountain gullies of Liaoxi; transport is relatively convenient. Below the village runs a highway leading straight to the county town in all directions. The villagers' livelihoods are mostly vegetable gardening and raising laying hens.

But Chai Mi's family survives only by farming those ten-odd mu of land.

The village is large; Chai Mi's home happens to be right behind the Chai Family Laozhai. The Laozhai is where Grandfather Chai Zhongxiao and Third Uncle Chai Youde live together.

Chai Mi's home, compared to the Laozhai, is miserably poor. The courtyard is large, the walls are rammed earth. At the back of the courtyard stand three small rooms of blue brick with arched roofs. On the empty ground to the east a green ox and a black mountain goat are tethered; the goat's belly is huge, about to kid. To the west is a vegetable patch planted with cucumbers, beans, eggplant, potatoes, and quite a lot of corn just calf-high.

Chai Mi entered the courtyard, looked through the green-painted window shutters — empty inside — and couldn't help feeling nervous. She opened the door and went in; familiar furnishings, but no sign of Mother and Little Sister Chai Xin.

"Mother…"

Chai Mi called several times, but got no answer.

Chai Mi's heart sank — Mother wouldn't be, during confinement again, holding the child and going to the fields to help Chai Zhongxiao and Wang Huirong do farm work, would she?!

Chai Mi glanced at Chai Xiu and instructed: "Xiu'er, don't run around. Stay home and behave; I'll go out and look for Mother and Little Sister."

Chai Xiu held the egg, heard Chai Mi's instruction, froze a moment, then nodded: "Eldest Sister, I won't go out. Don't worry."

Seeing Chai Xiu so obedient, Chai Mi sighed, touched Chai Xiu's head with a pang of heartache, then ran out of the courtyard.