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 home for the evening. Chen Meilan was carrying a half-basket of millet with her daughter Zhaodi, planning to make millet cakes for her when they got home.
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 home, the mother and daughter encountered several men on bicycles and motorcycles. Some were middle-aged, others young men. They all found excuses to greet Chen Meilan as they passed.
Chen Meilan 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 Meilan'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 men were courteous when greeting Chen Meilan, 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 came to blows.
Some of the village women watched this scene unfold, realizing the men were jealous over Chen Meilan. They exchanged glances and shook their heads.
"Meilan just got divorced and came 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 Meilan 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 Meilan has her own child too."
"Such a pity..."
Back home, her brother's family hadn't returned yet. Chen Meilan 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 steamed 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 sesame 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 some 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 Meilan had just put the millet cakes in the steamer 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: "Meilan, 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 me, he wouldn't marry you. What are you so worked up about?" Chen Meilan retorted, slamming the courtyard gate shut.
Locked outside, Chen's Second Sister-in-law sneered, "Meilan's got quite the temper now. Is that any way to talk?"
Some onlookers couldn't bear it anymore. One said, "Meilan just got divorced and has only been back home 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 Meilan's side, Chen's Second Sister-in-law shut her mouth, gave Yinbao a couple of swats, and went home.
Chen Meilan 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 Meilan pinched her little cheek. "Of course not. We just grew apart and decided to separate amicably."
"Are you really going to marry someone 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 Meilan gently pinched her daughter's upturned nose, still smiling warmly: "Nothing's decided yet. Besides, wherever I go, I'll take you with me, okay?"
Zhaodi held her bowl and let out a long sigh of relief: "Okay."
Chen Meilan's ex-husband came 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 transformed himself into one of the top coal barons in Xiping City - a true nouveau riche.
The saying that men change when they get rich couldn't be more true.
After the nouveau riche got money, he visited dance halls a few times, drank some alcohol, danced with women 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 Meilan'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 Meilan had always understood one principle: domestic violence happens either never or countless times.
She had always been a quiet, gentle woman, but when her daughter was beaten, she surprisingly fought fiercely with the nouveau riche. She went home to seek help from her brother and sister-in-law, swiftly divorced the nouveau riche, and moved back to her maiden home.
...
The clay stove burned with wheat straw, the flames 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 former soldier with two sons who were very fierce and liked to hit people.
Chen Meilan lifted the steamer lid. The golden millet cakes were done, round and plump, nestled on the white cloth lining the steamer. 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 Meilan 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 Meilan never imagined she would be reborn.
A moment 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' home. 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 meet, Zhaodi, was still a soft, cute, and obedient little girl, curled up in her arms, sitting quietly.
In her previous life, Chen Meilan didn't have very clear memories of this period.
After all, her belief at the time 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 seemed to have gone through a very difficult time during this period, and Zhaodi had an even harder time.
There's always gossip at a widow's door, and even more so at the door of a newly divorced woman.
Someone had spread rumors, saying she was sent back to her parents' home 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 immediately after getting rich from coal trading was overshadowed. No one even cursed the nouveau riche for being heartless.
Of course, Chen Meilan 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.
