"Can you help me get revenge?"
Before Jun Jiuli could open her eyes, she heard a hoarse inquiry. She opened her eyes and looked at the person in front of her.
She was around forty years old, her eyes were dull, her skin was sallow, and her cheeks were sunken. She was very thin, with bruises of various sizes on the exposed parts of her body. The clothes she wore were like a tattered sack.
It made one feel a pang of sympathy. Jun Jiuli replied without hesitation, "Yes."
"I want Tang Weiwei and Zhang Mazi to have a terrible end. I want everyone who has harmed me to be punished. I'll pay any price." She spoke earnestly, her eyes fixed on Jun Jiuli.
"Alright, I promise you."
"And please take good care of my parents," she said, tears silently falling from the corners of her eyes.
...
When Jun Jiuli woke up again, she found herself lying alone on a stiff bed.
The quilt covering her was heavy and stiff, making it difficult for her to breathe. Jiuli reached up and touched her forehead; she had a fever.
Li Huan coughed uncomfortably and slowly propped herself up to sit, observing her surroundings.
The room was very small, with some old farm tools placed in the corner. The earthen walls of the room were mottled and damp, and the ground was filled with mud, which was also uneven.
Before she could receive the original host's memories and ask 007 about the specific plot development, she heard the dry wailing of an old woman outside the door.
"Ah, I can't live anymore. Tang Tang, that useless girl, took our Nannan to play by the river but didn't take good care of her. If something happens to my lucky star Nannan, I'll drown that useless girl."
The speaker was the original host Tang Tang's grandmother. She had two sons. The elder son, Tang Weiguo, had two sons and one daughter. The younger son, Tang Weimin, only had one daughter, Tang Tang.
The night before Tang Daya, Tang Weiguo's daughter, was born, Grandma Tang dreamt of a golden phoenix flying into the Tang family.
The next day, upon learning that her elder daughter-in-law had given birth to a daughter, the always patriarchal Old Mrs. Tang was overjoyed. She praised Tang Daya as a lucky star and doted on her immensely.
"Second son, as the saying goes, an unwise wife brings disaster to three generations. I objected to you marrying a rusticated youth back then, a hen that can't lay eggs. Now, the useless girl she gave birth to is also going to bring bad luck to our Nannan. If anything happens to Nannan, don't blame me, her father, for being heartless."
"Dad, Mom, what are you saying? Daya is your granddaughter. Isn't Tang Tang also your granddaughter? Besides, the truth is still unknown. You're framing Tang Tang like this, how heartbroken must the child be to hear it?"
"Bah, I don't care if she's heartbroken or not. She's just a money-loser. If she dies, it'll save us an extra mouth to feed in the Tang family, just like her mother, a money-loser." Tang Weimin's mother said sharply and sarcastically.
"Mom, I won't allow you to speak about Tang Tang and her mother like that."
"Oh dear, my son has grown up and forgotten his mother after marrying. Come and see, you heartless wretch, I raised you for nothing."
Tang Weimin was also very helpless. This was, after all, his own mother; he couldn't hit or scold her. If he said anything, she would cry, make a scene, or threaten to hang herself, so he could only remain silent.
Old Mrs. Tang continued to curse.
Lying on the bed, Jun Jiuli was forced to listen to a dramatic scene. She had just used some spiritual power to recover her physical condition.
There was too little spiritual energy in this world; she couldn't sense it at all. After her body felt a bit better, she accepted the memories of the original host.
The original host's name was Tang Tang. Her father, Tang Weimin, was the second eldest in the family. The village they lived in was called Xiaotang Village.
According to local customs, the elderly would live with their eldest son in their later years, so Old Man Tang and Old Mrs. Tang were not fond of their second son. They often siphoned his money to subsidize the original host's uncle's family.
After Tang Weimin graduated from junior high school, he found a job at a cannery in the city on his own.
Tang Weiguo, the original host's uncle, was not a studious person, so he stayed home to farm with his parents.
The old couple, under the guise of managing Tang Weimin's salary and living expenses, used Tang Weimin's money to help Tang Weiguo get married. Later, when Tang Weiguo had children, he also expected Tang Weimin to help raise them.
Thus, Tang Weimin's marriage was repeatedly postponed. He was only one year younger than the original host's uncle, but his only daughter, Tang Tang, was only eight years old now, while the uncle's first son was already sixteen.
Grandma Tang had chosen her niece from her maternal family for Tang Weimin, saying she had wide hips and would bear many sons. In reality, it was because her niece was unattractive, couldn't get married, was easy to control, and had a low bride price.
Tang Weimin, having studied biology, knew that close relatives should not marry. He politely declined the marriage proposal and eventually fell in love with the original host's mother, Wu Yanqing, freely.
Because of Wu Yanqing's status as a rusticated youth from Shanghai and the fact that her son had refused his maternal family's niece, Old Mrs. Tang resented Wu Yanqing.
Even though Wu Yanqing didn't ask for any bride price and brought a generous dowry, Old Mrs. Tang was always critical of her and constantly tried to extract things from Wu Yanqing to give to Tang Tang's aunt.
Wu Yanqing was from Shanghai and was accustomed to good things; she didn't care about trivial gains, so she never argued with them.
This made the old woman and Tang Tang's aunt even more jealous of her. They would often mock her verbally. In the year Wu Yanqing was pregnant with Tang Tang, her belly was pointed, and everyone who saw her said it was a boy.
Tang Tang's aunt seemed unable to bear Wu Yanqing's good fortune. Tang Tang was born in winter, and the ice that year was particularly thick.
Wu Yanqing got up in the middle of the night to go to the latrine and saw her elder sister-in-law coming out. She didn't pay much attention, but unexpectedly, Tang Tang's aunt pushed her hard.
As a result, Wu Yanqing had a difficult labor for a day and a night before giving birth to the original host, damaging her body and making her unable to conceive again. Since the original host was also a girl, she was even less favored by the old man and old woman.
Wu Yanqing told them that her sister-in-law had pushed her, but no one believed her except Tang Weimin. Perhaps everyone believed her but was unwilling to cause trouble for Tang Tang's aunt.
Because in that era, it was important to keep family scandals from becoming public, especially a serious incident like pushing one's sister-in-law, leading to a difficult labor, which could result in imprisonment.
So, everyone advised Wu Yanqing to let it go. Tang Weimin, under the pressure of his entire family, could only yield. The family lived their lives in a daze.
Later, a primary school was established in the village, and the original host's mother worked there as a math teacher. With both parents working, raising one child, the family lived relatively well.
But Old Mrs. Tang insisted on causing trouble, jumping up and down, trying to get the couple to divorce. She said that unfilial conduct had three types, with having no heir being the greatest. She said the original host's mother was a hen that couldn't lay eggs, and the original host was a money-loser.
The original host's father steadfastly refused. He said that his elder brother's family already had two sons, so the Tang family was considered to have heirs. He only wanted to live with Tang Tang and her mother for the rest of his life.
Even though the family always bickered like this, Tang Tang lived a happier life than other children in the village. That is, until she was eight years old and fell into the water with her nine-year-old cousin.
After waking up, everything began to change.