Fu Yanyan didn’t know how everything had unfolded. From the moment she jumped off the rooftop of the teaching building, she hadn’t thought about living anymore. She was in too much pain and just wanted to be free.

 

She had thought dying would be clean and neat, but she never imagined that after death, she would involuntarily follow Jin Xiuzhu. That woman truly didn’t love her; she only shed a few tears and was quickly comforted by her lover.

 

However, Fu Yanyan didn’t feel angry either. After all, she had long been utterly disappointed in Jin Xiuzhu. So, she numbly watched as Jin Xiuzhu was betrayed and abandoned step by step by her lover, burdened with enormous debts, and finally walked down a path of no return.

 

As for “Dad” Jiang, he never married the “aunt” Jin Xiuzhu spoke of. After divorcing Jin Xiuzhu, he lived alone with He Yan. Unfortunately, good people don’t live long and he died in an accident.

 

As for He Yan, the nominal older brother, Fu Yanyan actually hated him at first.

 

In the previous life, Jin Xiuzhu had suddenly come from the countryside to the military compound and started living a good life. Feeling inferior and timid, she knew she had resorted to unsavory means to achieve everything she had now.

 

Therefore, she couldn’t lift her head in front of Dad Jiang. She tried to please him, and she was particularly tolerant and biased toward Dad Jiang’s adopted son, He Yan. Regardless of food or drink, as long as He Yan liked it, she would accommodate him. Whenever there was a conflict with He Yan, it was always her fault, as if only by doing so could she appear fair and be seen as a good stepmother.

 

At that time, He Yan would just stand by and laugh, as if mocking her for being less important in Jin Xiuzhu’s heart despite being her biological mother.

 

Even worse, she knew sometimes he intentionally wanted to see her embarrassed.

 

Those humiliations and disappointments were deeply engraved in her mind, so when Jin Xiuzhu and Dad Jiang parted ways later, she even felt relieved.

 

But luck did not favor her. Jin Xiuzhu took her daughter south to start a small business. After a period of peaceful living, when the business began to flourish, Jin Xiuzhu sent her daughter to a boarding school and neglected her.

 

She found herself another man and spent all her money on him. Meanwhile, her daughter had to eat the worst food at school, and because of overdue miscellaneous fees, she was bullied by teachers and classmates, leading to depression.

 

So when He Yan came to the south secretly to see her, and found out she was being bullied and stood up for her by getting into fights, Fu Yanyan at that time didn’t appreciate it. She would rather be bullied than have him help her, and even deliberately said, “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

 

At that moment, He Yan stood opposite her, towering over her by a head, but at that moment, he seemed as low as dust. He looked at her with red eyes, said nothing, and left. But since then, no one dared to openly bully her, at most, they just avoided talking to her.

 

But He Yan didn’t know that some wounds weren’t just physical.

 

She still remembered, on the eve of the college entrance examination, after a day of mental preparation, she cautiously told Jin Xiuzhu about the twenty yuan registration fee and living expenses for school.

 

She had thought of many ways to deal with it, even thought that if Jin Xiuzhu disagreed, she would tell her that she would pay her back in the future. But she never expected to be showered with a stream of insults before she could even finish a sentence, calling her a jinx, blaming her for her biological father’s death, for ruining her marriage, and now, for constantly coming home and affecting her business…

 

At that moment, she suddenly felt that life in this world was meaningless.

 

Later, she saw He Yan limping in and out of the hospital, covered in dust and looking pitiful, his dream of joining the army from childhood unfulfilled.

 

Meanwhile, Jin Xiuzhu lay in the hospital bed, kept alive by intravenous nutrition, supported by He Yan’s hard work.

 

In the end, Fu Yanyan saw an old lady in the same hospital room eyeing the jade pendant on her neck. In the middle of the night, the old lady tried to steal it, causing it to fall and shatter on the ground.

 

At that moment, Fu Yanyan suddenly remembered that she had bought the pendant with all the money she had at the time because Jin Xiuzhu had complained she couldn’t sleep well recently. That money was given to her secretly by her stepfather when Jin Xiuzhu divorced him.

 

At the moment the jade pendant shattered, she seemed to hear Jin Xiuzhu tremblingly call out her name.

 

But all she saw was a blinding white light, and then she lost all consciousness.

 

When she woke up again, it was the morning they left. She saw Jin Xiuzhu again, but the Jin Xiuzhu she saw now seemed a bit different from the one she knew.

 

The Jin Xiuzhu in her memory was paranoid, strong-willed, and vain, hoping to prove herself different in everyone’s eyes. She was like that with Dad Jiang, with the neighbors in the courtyard, and with her later lovers. But the more she crazily tried to grasp onto something, the more she seemed to lose everything.

 

But this Jin Xiuzhu now, she could smile, could gently wipe her mouth, treating herself like the countless times she had longed for her mother to treat her.

 

Even though she had let go of everything, she couldn’t help but harbor a forbidden hope.

 

Fu Yanyan looked at the still-child He Yan, feeling extremely complicated.

 

He must have regretted it later, right? Taking care of the bedridden Jin Xiuzhu, afraid that she would die and leave him alone. What was he thinking at that time? Was he thinking that if he had been kinder to himself and Jin Xiuzhu, their family might have been different?

 

—

 

When it got dark, Jiang Mingchuan brought back two bowls of food. He originally thought that the house hadn’t been cleaned up today, so he would go get He Yan from next door tomorrow. However, when he returned home and saw that He Yan was already back, he was stunned for a moment, realizing that the food might not be enough.

 

He Yan also saw the food in his hands and sensibly spoke up in a low voice, “Dad, I’m not hungry. I ate a lot at Grandma Wu’s house at noon.”

 

Hearing this, Fu Yanyan’s heart tightened. She knew that Jin Xiuzhu would speak up next.

 

Sure enough, she heard Jin Xiuzhu speak confidently, “Go get another portion. I still want to eat that sweet meat from noon.”

 

Fu Yanyan paused for a moment, then turned her head to look at Jin Xiuzhu somewhat incredulously.

 

Jin Xiuzhu didn’t notice anything wrong and earnestly said to Jiang Mingchuan, “Fu Jianguo’s mother didn’t give us enough food. Both me and the child are starving. You can’t treat us like this.”

 

“…”

 

What else could Jiang Mingchuan say? He could only turn around and go out to buy more food.

 

Beside him, He Yan opened his mouth, ready to say something, but ultimately didn’t dare to. After all, this was suggested by his aunt. He was afraid she wouldn’t like it if he said something.

 

With the braised pork gone, Jiang Mingchuan bought braised pork with radish instead. He brought two bowls of dishes to the table. Seeing there were no public chopsticks, Jin Xiuzhu took the initiative to divide the food, giving each person a small bowl filled to the brim.

 

When Jin Xiuzhu was dividing the meat, Jiang Mingchuan kindly spoke up, “Give my portion to the two children. They’re still growing and need to eat more.”

 

Jin Xiuzhu was speechless. He was acting like a good person, but what she said was, “There’s enough for everyone. Why shouldn’t you eat what you bought?”

 

Jiang Mingchuan didn’t say anything, but he felt warm inside.

 

The two children kept their heads down silently. They only picked up their chopsticks after seeing Jiang Mingchuan and Jin Xiuzhu start eating.

 

Throughout the meal, not a word was spoken. Jin Xiuzhu was used to eating quietly and sleeping silently, while Jiang Mingchuan was a man of few words. But inexplicably, He Yan felt a sense of reassurance from this. Compared to the lively meals at the Wu family’s, he preferred this quiet atmosphere.

 

Jin Xiuzhu didn’t like eating the skin,  feeling it was unclean. After finishing her meal, there were a few pieces of skin with fat left in her bowl. Jiang Mingchuan noticed but didn’t say anything. He just picked them up and ate them.

 

Seeing this, Jin Xiuzhu blushed. It was the first time someone had eaten her leftovers.

 

There was a strange feeling in her heart, but she didn’t dislike it.

 

After dinner, Jin Xiuzhu efficiently cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks.

 

Jiang Mingchuan didn’t just sit around either. He sat down by the stove and boiled some hot water, then tidied up the kitchen.

 

—

 

In the evening, the family of four finished their simple hygiene routines and went to bed.

 

There were two rooms in the house, but only one was cleaned up. Previously, when Jiang Mingchuan and He Yan slept at home, they slept together.

 

Luckily, Jiang Mingchuan had widened the bed beforehand, so the four of them lying on it weren’t too crowded.

 

Jiang Mingchuan and Jin Xiuzhu lay on their sides facing each other, separated by two children. They both felt a bit awkward, considering they had only known each other for a few days.

 

However, both children slept soundly, and soon the rhythmic sound of their breathing filled the air.

 

Jiang Mingchuan then closed his eyes as well.

 

Only Jin Xiuzhu found it difficult to fall asleep. Everything in front of her felt like a dream.

 

Just a few days ago, she was a prisoner at the bottom of society, and now she suddenly had a new husband and two children.

 

But soon, she found it impossible to sleep. The man’s deafening snoring came from nearby, disturbing her peace of mind.

 

The noise woke up Fu Yanyan, who shifted her body slightly.

 

Jin Xiuzhu noticed and shot an annoyed glance at the man opposite her, raising her hand to cover the child’s ears. Angrily, she muttered, “Sounds like a cow mooing.”

 

Fu Yanyan suddenly froze. She hadn’t heard clearly what Jin Xiuzhu said, but she felt the warmth emanating from her ears, and it took her a while to realize it was real.

 

There was an inexplicable sourness in her heart.

 

The next morning, Jiang Mingchuan went next door to the Wu family early in the morning to fetch water with a bucket. Their house didn’t have a well, so they had to get water from their neighbors.

 

After making six or seven trips back and forth, filling the water tank, he stood at the doorway for a while and noticed that the mother and daughter inside still hadn’t woken up. However, their son was very sensible, already in the kitchen boiling water and preparing breakfast.

 

Jiang Mingchuan returned to the kitchen and took the spatula from his son’s hand, starting to cook the vegetables.

 

He noticed his son, He Yan, sitting quietly under the stove, watching the fire.

 

Father and son didn’t speak for a while, both feeling that something was off.