July 1988, Jinyang County, Chen Family Village.
As the sun set, cattle and sheep returned to their pens, and those who had been working in the fields were heading ho for the evening. Chen ilan was carrying a half-basket of millet with her daughter Zhaodi, planning to make millet cakes for her when they got ho.
Zhaodi had spent half the day chasing butterflies in the millet field. Though she hadn't caught any, she was covered in millet fluff, and her cheeks glowed as red as little apples in the sunset.
On their way ho, the mother and daughter encountered several n on bicycles and motorcycles. So were middle-aged, others young n. They all found excuses to greet Chen ilan as they passed.
Chen ilan didn't shy away. She stopped and chatted pleasantly with everyone, introducing Zhaodi and teaching her to address them as uncles or older brothers. The pair were unfailingly polite.
Chen ilan's faded dacron shirt accentuated her figure. Though she had a five-year-old daughter, her slender and shapely form was even more alluring than that of unmarried girls in their late teens.
The n were courteous when greeting Chen ilan, but once she passed, they glared at each other, their expressions turning sour. One deliberately revved his motorcycle, blowing exhaust in another's face. The other spat on the ground near the first man's feet. They nearly ca to blows.
So of the village won watched this scene unfold, realizing the n were jealous over Chen ilan. They exchanged glances and shook their heads.
"ilan just got divorced and ca back from the city a few months ago. I hear she's getting married again?"
"Her sister-in-law arranged it, right? I've heard the man already has two children. I wonder what ilan is thinking."
"Her ex-husband divorced her because she couldn't have a son. Her brother and sister-in-law are just trying to help her, aren't they?"
"Poor woman. Being a stepmother is hard, especially when ilan has her own child too."
"Such a pity..."
Back ho, her brother's family hadn't returned yet. Chen ilan first prepared a winnowing basket to clean the millet, intending to make dinner for the whole family.
The golden millet, still in its husks, filled the basket. After winnowing away the chaff, she put it on the millstone to grind. Once coarse, twice fine, after three rounds, the millet was ground into a soft, fine flour.
She sifted out the remaining husks with a fine sieve. The setting sun shone into the kitchen as the millet flour fell like gold dust onto the kneading board. As she mixed it with hot water, a fresh fragrance filled the air.
Zhaodi, sweaty from play, sat on the doorstep sipping a large bowl of water and cooling herself. She spotted her second cousin Yinbao from her maternal uncle's family, wolfing down a large white stead bun.
White flour buns weren't rare these days; every family could afford them. What was special was the spicy strip inside, soaked in chili oil and sprinkled with five-spice powder, cumin, and sesa seeds. Spicy, numbing, with a hint of sweetness - these flavor-packed strips were truly a heavenly delicacy.
Zhaodi couldn't help but swallow.
Yinbao deliberately walked past her, sneering, "Little Zhaodi, your mom can only have girls, that's why your dad doesn't want you anymore, hehe."
"You're talking nonsense! My parents had an amicable divorce," Zhaodi stood up, hands on her hips, speaking fiercely.
Yinbao continued laughing: "Amicable my foot! Your dad is now a famous coal boss in Xiping City. He wants a son, but your mom can only have girls. That's why they divorced. Now your uncle wants to marry your mom off to so soldier who already has two sons. They'll beat you to death."
Zhaodi sprang up angrily and splashed her bowl of water at him. "You're lying! My mom isn't just good for having girls, and she's not marrying anyone else!"
Drenched like a drowned rat, Yinbao burst into tears.
Chen's Second Sister-in-law lived next door. Hearing the cry, she rushed out, grabbed Yinbao, and started pushing Zhaodi: "What's wrong with this girl? Causing trouble at her uncle's house, hitting people?"
Chen ilan had just put the millet cakes in the stear when she ran out. Seeing her sister-in-law pushing Zhaodi, she shoved her back: "Sister, why are you getting involved in children's fights?"
Yinbao was his mother's only precious child, the apple of her eye. She blew on her son's face and shrieked louder than a crow: "ilan, look what your Zhaodi did to Yinbao! You married out of the family, but now you're back with such an attitude. No wonder the nouveau riche divorced you!"
"Even if the nouveau riche divorced , he wouldn't marry you. What are you so worked up about?" Chen ilan retorted, slamming the courtyard gate shut.
Locked outside, Chen's Second Sister-in-law sneered, "ilan's got quite the temper now. Is that any way to talk?"
So onlookers couldn't bear it anymore. One said, "ilan just got divorced and has only been back ho for a few months. As her sister-in-law, you shouldn't be rubbing salt in her wounds. Couldn't you say a bit less?"
Seeing everyone taking ilan's side, Chen's Second Sister-in-law shut her mouth, gave Yinbao a couple of swats, and went ho.
Chen ilan poured another bowl of water, quickly cooling it by pouring it between two bowls, and handed it to Zhaodi.
Under her mother's gaze, the little girl drained the bowl in one go.
"Mom, did Dad really leave us because you can only have girls?" Zhaodi looked up, blinking her big eyes.
Chen ilan pinched her little cheek. "Of course not. We just grew apart and decided to separate amicably."
"Are you really going to marry soone else?" Zhaodi hesitated before asking again.
This was the child's biggest concern. The sunset glow on her flushed little face showed she was on the verge of tears.
Chen ilan gently pinched her daughter's upturned nose, still smiling warmly: "Nothing's decided yet. Besides, wherever I go, I'll take you with , okay?"
Zhaodi held her bowl and let out a long sigh of relief: "Okay."
Chen ilan's ex-husband ca from a wealthy landowning family before the revolution - the kind that nearly got executed during land reform. But with the philosophy that trees die if transplanted while humans thrive by adapting, he was among the first to start a private business when economic reforms began. He leased several coal mines and transford himself into one of the top coal barons in Xiping City - a true nouveau riche.
The saying that n change when they get rich couldn't be more true.
After the nouveau riche got money, he visited dance halls a few tis, drank so alcohol, danced with won in his arms, and his whole personality changed. When he drank, he would complain that Zhaodi was a girl and embarrassed him.
He also griped that Chen ilan's clothes and manners were too rustic and didn't match his wealth.
Shockingly, he even kicked Zhaodi twice when drunk recently.
Though she was a rural woman, Chen ilan had always understood one principle: dostic violence happens either never or countless tis.
She had always been a quiet, gentle woman, but when her daughter was beaten, she surprisingly fought fiercely with the nouveau riche. She went ho to seek help from her brother and sister-in-law, swiftly divorced the nouveau riche, and moved back to her maiden ho.
...
The clay stove burned with wheat straw, the flas leaping high. After adding just a few handfuls of fuel, steam rose from the pot as the millet cakes cooked.
Zhaodi followed her busy mother like a little tail, pleading, "Mom, please don't marry again. Can we move out of uncle's house and live by ourselves?"
Although Zhaodi couldn't prevent her parents' divorce, she didn't want her mother to remarry.
She had heard from Yinbao that the man was a forr soldier with two sons who were very fierce and liked to hit people.
Chen ilan lifted the stear lid. The golden millet cakes were done, round and plump, nestled on the white cloth lining the stear. When picked up, they left golden threads trailing behind.
She gently blew on a cake to cool it and handed it to Zhaodi, finding her a small stool to sit on while eating. Chen ilan was so hungry her stomach ached, but she took a big bite despite the heat: "Children shouldn't worry about adult matters. If I were Zhaodi, I'd just focus on eating until my belly was nice and round, so I could beat all the boys in the future. How's that sound?"
Zhaodi tilted her head, considering seriously, then took a big bite of her millet cake: "Okay!"
She wanted to defeat Yinbao, defeat the man who wanted to marry her mother and his two boys.
She also wanted to show her father who had abandoned her that even though she was a girl, she was no worse than a boy.
Eat - Zhaodi was determined to stuff herself until her belly was nice and round.
...
Chen ilan never imagined she would be reborn.
A mont ago, she was still living in a large, empty villa with only herself, doing housework when she accidentally bumped her head. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself reborn 30 years in the past.
It was after her divorce from the nouveau riche, on the way back to her parents' ho. Two buses had a minor collision, and her head hit the window. She was reborn.
The future career woman who would always be busy outside, rarely seen throughout the year, and speechless when they did et, Zhaodi, was still a soft, cute, and obedient little girl, curled up in her arms, sitting quietly.
In her previous life, Chen ilan didn't have very clear mories of this period.
After all, her belief at the ti was to get back up where she fell, remarry quickly, strive hard in life, and then put this unpleasant experience behind her.
But after being reborn, she realized that she seed to have gone through a very difficult ti during this period, and Zhaodi had an even harder ti.
There's always gossip at a widow's door, and even more so at the door of a newly divorced woman.
Soone had spread rumors, saying she was sent back to her parents' ho by the nouveau riche because she could only give birth to girls and not boys.
In the entire history of the Hua country, no era valued a woman's social worth solely on her ability to bear sons like the 80s and 90s did.
Because of the one-child policy, and because if you had more children than allowed, you had to pay a fine to register them, a woman who couldn't bear sons had almost no value in marriage.
With this curse hanging over her, even the fact that her ex-husband abandoned her imdiately after getting rich from coal trading was overshadowed. No one even cursed the nouveau riche for being heartless.
Of course, Chen ilan knew exactly who had spread these rumors.
Her neighbor and distant relative, Chen Dejun, who had gone to help negotiate her divorce, was punched twice by thugs hired by the nouveau riche, injuring his kidney. He had been bedridden recently.
While her own elder brother and sister-in-law cherished her like the apple of their eye and were planning her future path, Chen's Second Sister-in-law next door was cursing and swearing all day, wishing that she and her daughter would quickly leave Chen Family Village and be out of her sight for good.
Naturally, the rumor that she could only give birth to girls and not boys was also spread by Chen's Second Sister-in-law.
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