In the late stages of lung cancer, Xiao Mandong coughed until her lungs ached, unable to sleep all night. From the living room came the sound of her son Lu Ming talking.
"Dad, Mom coughs all day long, and the soundproofing in this house is terrible. It really disrupts my rest. Besides, she’s not my real mother, and I’m still supposed to support her in her old age. Just thinking about it annoys me."
Xiao Mandong’s pupils suddenly contracted. What did he mean by that?
That was the child she had carried for ten months, cut open seven layers of her abdomen to bring into the world at the cost of her own life. How could he not be her biological son? Impossible!
Xiao Mandong pushed the door open, stared at Lu Ming, and demanded sharply, "Lu Ming, what did you mean by that just now?"
A flicker of panic crossed Lu Ming’s face, but then turned into cold indifference. He no longer bothered to hide the truth and said bluntly:
"It means you’re not my real mother. My real mother is Big Aunt. Do you understand now?"
Lu Jianguo tried to stop him, but Lu Ming had already confessed everything.
Lu Jianguo’s eyes darted away evasively, and he turned to go back to the bedroom, but Xiao Mandong grabbed him. "Lu Jianguo, explain this to me clearly. What’s going on?"
The moment her hand touched his sleeve, Lu Jianguo flinched as if he had come into contact with something filthy, yanking himself away. "Since you’ve heard it, I’ll be straightforward. Back then, when you gave birth via C-section, you only had a daughter. Sister-in-law had just given birth to twins. She was a widow—how could she raise two kids on her own? Besides, you couldn’t produce a son, and your family’s background was good. Lu Ming would get a proper education with you, which is why he achieved what he has today. I thought it would be best to bring the child here to raise, but I was afraid you’d hold a grudge against the boy, so I never dared to tell you."
Xiao Mandong suddenly remembered that Lu Ming and Lu Na had looked identical since childhood. If the son was born to Sister-in-law, then the daughter surely wasn’t hers either.
Xiao Mandong felt like she couldn’t breathe. She clutched her chest and forced out the question, "Is Lu Na also Sister-in-law’s child? Was the four-year-old Lu Min, who drowned in the river, my child?"
A murky darkness hid in Lu Jianguo’s eyes.
"Yes. But it was an accident. No one’s fault."
Xiao Mandong gripped the hem of her clothes, her lips pale. She choked out a low, trembling roar:
"If Sister-in-law could raise one child, why did she have to take my daughter? Even if one had to be moved, why couldn’t you leave mine? What right did you have to give my child to Sister-in-law? What right? Who gave you the authority?"
Lu Jianguo frowned and spoke with brazen self-righteousness. "Twins can’t be separated. It’s bad for the kids. If the villagers saw two children looking exactly the same, wouldn’t they gossip?"
Xiao Mandong raised her hand and slapped Lu Jianguo hard across the face. "You beast! You’re nothing but a beast!"
Before Lu Jianguo could react, Xiao Mandong’s vision went black, and she collapsed limply to the floor.
When she regained consciousness, she was lying on a hospital bed, her eyes tightly shut but her mind painfully clear.
Beside the bed came the sharp voice of the widowed Sister-in-law: "Mandong, since I’ve raised my son and daughter well thanks to you, I’ll let you die knowing the truth. Your daughter was pushed into the river by Gousheng when she was four. His grandmother gave me thirty yuan, so I didn’t pursue it. That letter your brother once wrote you asking for help? I intercepted it. Who told you to refuse to give up your job back then? And honestly, you didn’t hold out long. In the end, you still gave up the job, and it cost your brother his life."
She paused, a smirk curling at the corner of her mouth. "Oh, and one more secret: your sister came looking for you back then, her lower body covered in blood. I didn’t let her see you. That saved you a lot of trouble, didn’t it? After all, a woman who had been raped would have brought you no end of grief. I did it for your own good. I heard later that Cripple Liu from the next village dragged her away. Where she ended up, I don’t know. You know, I used to be jealous of you. You had a job, money, and every time I saw you, I felt inferior. But looking back now, you’re actually pretty pitiful…"
Hearing these venomous words, Xiao Mandong’s heart ached to its core. She clenched her teeth so hard that hatred seemed to burst from her chest. With the last of her strength, she forced her eyes open and stared fiercely at Wang Xiumei.
For over thirty years, the widowed Sister-in-law she had supported was actually the one who had destroyed her entire family. She had raised her husband’s illegitimate son by that very woman, while her own daughter had drowned in the icy river…
God knows how much Xiao Mandong hated her. She reached out with both hands, wanting to strangle Wang Xiumei.
"Pfft!" A mouthful of blood sprayed out. Her eyes, wide and unblinking, locked onto Wang Xiumei.
Xiao Mandong died with her eyes open, her last moments filled with images of her sister covered in blood coming to her, her brother’s desperate letter, and her child submerged in the freezing river.
Wang Xiumei, Lu Jianguo—even if she turned into a vengeful ghost, she would never let them have peace.
"No… Jianguo, that won’t work… wait… Mandong is still lying in the inner room. If Mandong finds out, I won’t be able to live." Wang Xiumei’s provocative, honeyed voice, sticky with lust, pierced Xiao Mandong’s ears. Her whole body stiffened. Beneath her was the rough texture of a kang mat.
She opened her eyes and saw walls plastered with old newspapers, a portrait of a great leader, and a calendar clearly showing July 16, 1975—the sixteenth day of her marriage to Lu Jianguo.
On the day of their wedding, just after the banquet, a messenger from the commune arrived with a telegram.
The telegram said that Lu Jianjun, Lu Jianguo’s elder brother, had been seriously wounded in the army and was on the verge of death. His family was to come immediately for a final farewell.
So she and Lu Jianguo hadn’t even consummated their marriage before he and his parents rushed off to the military unit.
Xiao Mandong pinched her arm hard. "Hiss" — the pain told her she had been reborn.
In her previous life, on this same day, she had fainted from heatstroke while working in the fields and was brought home by villagers.
Today was also the first day back from the funeral. Her in-laws had gone to the commune to cancel Lu Jianjun’s household registration. And these two couldn’t wait to roll into bed together. How utterly disgusting.
Lu Jianguo lowered his voice, dripping with contempt. "What’s there to fear? She fainted from heatstroke—she won’t wake up for a while. Besides, she’s just a capitalist’s daughter. If it weren’t for her job and the dowry she brought, I wouldn’t have married someone with such bad class background. Her whole family was sent down to the countryside, and she has no one to rely on. Even if she finds out, she won’t dare say anything. Let’s hurry."
"Then… then you have to promise me you won’t send me back to my family’s home. You know my situation—my stepmother runs the house. If I go back, my life will be miserable." Wang Xiumei’s voice carried a sob. She didn’t want to return!
Lu Jianguo quickly pulled Wang Xiumei into his arms, soothing her in a low voice. "Just stay in the Lu family. No one will say anything. As long as you’re with me, I’ll protect you for life."
"Jianguo, then give me Xiao Mandong’s job. If I have a job, I can follow you without a name or status and feel secure." Wang Xiumei wanted more. She knew that with a job, her later years would be stable.
Lu Jianguo was already impatient. "Fine, fine, whatever you say. Give it to me. Hurry up. And don’t forget to burn her brother’s letter. Writing every time asking for money—such a nuisance."
Hearing these venomous words, Xiao Mandong's nails dug deep into her palms. Recalling that in her previous life she had slept until evening, naturally unaware of the sleazy affair between these two, she had been schemed against step by step, ending in such a miserable fate.
She trembled with rage, her head spinning from heatstroke. Xiao Mandong struggled to prop up her limp body, her gaze sweeping over the thermos she had filled with water that morning.
She hated Wang Xiumei and Lu Jianguo to the core. Since heaven had given her a chance to be reborn, she didn't want to wait even a single second.
From the adjoining room, Wang Xiumei's voice had already fallen into a steady rhythm.
Xiao Mandong staggered to her feet, grabbed the thermos by the edge of the kang, flung open the door curtain, and hurled it viciously at the adulterous pair.
With a crash, the thermos struck Lu Jianguo's back before hitting the ground, shattering into pieces. Boiling water mixed with glass shards splattered all over him.
"Ow!" Lu Jianguo jumped up in pain, letting out a blood-curdling scream like a pig being slaughtered. "Xiao Mandong, are you fucking crazy?"
Wang Xiumei was mostly shielded by Lu Jianguo but still got burned. Terrified out of her wits, she forgot everything else, grabbing clothes from the edge of the kang and pulling them on in a flurry, missing two buttons in her haste.
It was over. She was finished.
