Chapter 4: Chapter 4 Decision(2)_1
The family forbade girls from attending school, but Dad, in defiance of Grandpa and Grandma's objections and beatings, his siblings' and sisters' cold mockery and sarcasm, resolutely went out to work and earn money for her education.
Dad had no idea that the money he sent home each month was being divided up by relatives and that woman.
When she was five, Dad fell to his death on a construction site. Relatives and that woman fought viciously over the compensation money he had earned with his life, and no one cared when she fainted from crying several times.
Later, that woman took a sum of money and ran off with another man. The relatives who had taken most of the compensation claimed they were supporting her, but in reality, she was sent to work as a maid in various homes every three months.
No matter the season, she got up before dawn, prepared three meals a day by herself without being allowed to eat, did all the household chores, helped with farm work in the fields, and could only rest around two or three o'clock in the morning. Sometimes, she couldn't rest until she finished her tasks, and beatings were all too common.
Not only did the villagers curse her as a jinx and an unwanted wild seed, but they also spit at her and threw stones.
Several times when she was injured and in pain, she would sneak to Dad's grave to cry her heart out. She was not even six years old.
Grandma Zhang, seeing her pitiable state, wanted to help, but the Yang family was notoriously unreasonable and overbearing in the village. No one dared to provoke the Yang family, so Grandma Zhang could only often leave some food for her in secret to prevent her from starving to death.
At fifteen, after overhearing relatives' plans to marry her off to a widower more than forty years old in exchange for a thousand-yuan bride price, she fled in the night and, aside from relocating the graves of Grandma Zhang and Dad, never returned.
The torture she endured as a child and her negligence as a young adult led to the depletion of her essence, and she burned out before forty. She never expected to end up here.
Shen Qiulan suddenly saw tears in her beloved daughter's eyes and was overwhelmed with heartache: "Jiujiu, why are you crying? Tell Mom, is your head hurting again?"
The others also quickly gathered at the edge of the kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove).
"I'm fine," Yang Mengchen looked up at the crowd: "Jiujiu has been unfilial, causing Grandpa and Grandma, uncles and aunts, Dad and Mom, and my brothers to worry."
Madam Yang Zhou's eyes brimmed with tears: "Silly child, as long as you're alright, nothing else matters."
"Jiu, Jiujiu, you-you-you..." Yang Sanlang, Yang Chengxuan, suddenly stammered and pointed at Yang Mengchen.
Yang Chengbin exclaimed in surprise: "Jiujiu, are you actually not...?"
"Stinky Xiao Ba, how dare you talk about Jiujiu like that, you're asking for a beating!" Yang Chengbin's head was slapped by his elder brother Yang Wulang, Yang Chengyu.
Yang Liulang, Yang Chenghong, while no one was looking, kicked Xiao Ba hard. It was one thing for Jiujiu to be slow-witted, but for Xiao Ba to blurt it out, he deserved to be punished.
Seeing the warning, gloomy glances from the other five brothers, Yang Chengbin shivered: "I didn't say anything wrong, Jiujiu..."
"Shut up!" Yang Erlang, Yang Chengning, shouted sharply.
The elders didn't bother with the youngsters and stared directly at Yang Mengchen. Seeing her clear and bright eyes, free of the usual dullness and lifelessness, and considering she had said a whole lot more clearly than the few words she used to speak, they wondered – could Jiujiu really be well?
"Do you all remember the Taoist priest who passed through our village a few years ago?" Old Master Yang was trembling with excitement.
Yang Chaoyi thought for a moment: "Dad, are you talking about the old Taoist who named Jiujiu 'Mengchen'?"
"That's the one!" Old Master Yang nodded vigorously: "Back then, the Taoist said that Jiujiu was a bit slow due to an incomplete soul, and once the opportunity came, she would naturally become smarter and more clever than anyone, wealthy and blessed with a long life! Now it seems the opportunity spoken of by the Taoist has arrived!"
"That means Jiujiu is truly all better!"
"Heaven bless the Yang family!"
Looking at her family members who were crying tears of joy, Yang Mengchen felt moved and relieved.
This way, she no longer needed to find a way to make her family accept her changes, and the fact that the original soul had the same name as her seemed like destiny.
In her previous life, she was treated harshly by her relatives, and the villagers were indifferent. But in this life, the elders doted on her, her parents loved her, her brothers protected her, and the neighbors were harmonious. In her last life, her body was broken, but now she had the chance to recover. It was a gift from heaven, one she would cherish.