"Mommy..."
"Mommy, please don't die..."
Jiang Tang opened her eyes. Above her was a ceiling of yellowish mud. Through the hazy dimness, she caught a sliver of light filtering in from a window, with dust motes dancing in the air.
"Mommy... you’re awake!" Seeing Jiang Tang wake up, Dongdong, who had been sobbing bitterly, hurriedly wiped his tears and sniffled, forcing himself to hold back his sorrow. "I’ll get Mommy some water."
The next second, Jiang Tang’s eyes closed again.
Her head felt as if it were being pricked by needles, with the pain radiating through her temples and eye sockets.
Lying on the wooden bed, she began receiving a flood of information surging through her brain. It took a long while for her to realize that she had transmigrated into a book.
The original owner shared her name, but their fates were worlds apart. Jiang Tang had spent over a decade studying hard to get into a prestigious university, only to arrive in this body before she could even enjoy her college years.
She had become the beautiful but ill-fated wife of the male lead in this novel.
The male lead, Shen Chuan, had saved the original Jiang Tang after she fell into the water. Coerced by the Jiang Family, the two were forced into marriage. They spent only a few short days together before he returned to the military.
Four years later, when Shen Chuan returned, he discovered he had a child over three years old.
The original owner had grown weary of the ostracization and exploitation by the Shen Family, as well as the greed of her own Jiang Family. Knowing she would go mad if she stayed, she proposed moving to the military base with Shen Chuan.
She hadn't expected him to agree, but he did.
She had thought everything would improve once they reached the base, never imagining it would be the start of a nightmare.
At the base, she met the novel’s heroine, Lin Qingrou. Faced with Lin Qingrou—who was perfect in every way, flawless, and treated Shen Chuan so well—the original owner felt an inferiority she couldn't bring herself to voice.
In the military, everyone loved Lin Qingrou. She was like the sun, while the original owner felt as insignificant as dust.
The original owner’s upbringing had made her insecure, sensitive, timid, and inarticulate. She loved Shen Chuan but didn’t know how to express it, so she clung to him possessively and took her internal stress out on her son, Dongdong.
Unable to control her emotions, she would fly into rages over the smallest things and even harm herself. With no outlet for her inner torment, she began to spiral into extremism.
When Shen Chuan noticed her instability, he took her to see a doctor. With his companionship, her health slowly began to improve.
Then, she became pregnant, and the whole family looked forward to the child. When she was seven months pregnant, she saw Lin Qingrou and Shen Chuan in an intimate moment. Lin Qingrou sought her out, declaring her love for Shen Chuan and telling her that he had only married her out of a sense of duty.
On her way back to confront Shen Chuan, the original owner fell down a flight of stairs. The baby was lost, and she herself passed away not long after.
After her death, Shen Chuan’s hair turned white overnight.
When Lin Qingrou insisted on being with him, he refused, leading her to shriek in a frenzy, "You’re mine! You’re supposed to belong to me!"
Jiang Tang had barely finished processing these memories when the dilapidated bedroom door creaked open, letting in a gust of wind. A small, bean-sized child entered, holding a bowl of water in his hands.
Seeing Jiang Tang looking at him, the child's eyes, clear as washed glass, lit up.
He placed the bowl on the table first, closed the door, and then returned to stand on his tiptoes, carefully lifting the water to Jiang Tang.
His wrists were thin, and he tried his best to feed her.
The moment she saw him, a spot in Jiang Tang’s chest tugged with a dull ache. Even though she didn't know this little boy, she felt a strange, inexplicable emotion stirring within her.
Just as she was about to speak, the boy looked at her anxiously. "Mommy, why are you crying?"He reached out his hand, wanting to wipe his mother's tears, but upon noticing how dirty his palm was, he pulled it back, his eyes dimming.
Dongdong could feel that his mother was very sad, but he didn't know how to comfort her.
He knew his mother didn't like him, and she liked him touching her even less.
"Mom, don't cry. Dongdong will be very good. I'll eat less and do more work from now on." The clothes Dongdong wore were a mismatched mess, covered in many patches.
A three-year-old child who looked barely over two, his hair was dry and yellow, his small face sallow; he was clearly suffering from malnutrition.
Jiang Tang felt a wet touch. She was actually crying.
Looking at the so obedient and sensible Dongdong, Jiang Tang's tears flowed out uncontrollably.
The original owner of this body had been neither good nor bad to Dongdong; in a word, she had ignored him. In this household, they could be said to have absolutely no status.
If it weren't for the fact that she was Shen Chuan’s wife in name and could work, there would have been no room for them in this home long ago.
Dongdong was extremely dependent on the original owner. Even though she didn't like him, his heart deeply craved her love.
Whatever the original owner said, Dongdong would obey.
Jiang Tang drank some of the water Dongdong handed her to moisten her throat. When she spoke, her voice was extremely hoarse: "Don't be afraid, Dongdong. Mom is fine."
Hearing his mother say she was fine, Dongdong breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing the injury on his mother's forehead, his eyes turned red: "Mom, does your head still hurt?"
No wonder she had felt sharp pains coming from her head from time to time; it turned out her forehead had been split open.
The original owner had risen earlier than the chickens, worked harder than an ox, and eaten the least of all.
Working like that every day, her body had slowly collapsed. Yesterday, while working in the fields, the sun was too intense, and it had caused her to pass out from heatstroke.
Her head had struck a Shitou, and the surrounding people had been startled, even fearing that the work had cost a life.
In that scene, Jiang Tang had been deathly pale, her breathing faint, with blood from her face dripping onto the ground; it had truly been a frightening sight.
The village team leader had arranged for someone to send Jiang Tang home.
Her wound had only been crudely bandaged, and apart from Dongdong, no one had come to look at her even once. The rest of the Shen Family had gone off to attend a banquet.
Jiang Tang replied, "It hurts a little."
Dongdong looked at her nervously. He was still too small to earn money and couldn't take his mother to the hospital.
He heard his mother say, "If Dongdong could blow on the wound for Mom, it surely wouldn't hurt anymore."
"Is Dongdong willing?"
Dongdong had been feeling self-reproachful, but upon hearing his mother's words, he stared at her without blinking.
"I'm willing! Dongdong is willing."
Let alone just blowing on it, as long as it could make his mother feel better, he would do anything.
"Hoo, hoo, hoo..." Dongdong blew on his mother's wound carefully, over and over, hoping only that she would no longer be in pain.
Afterward, he looked at his mother with expectant eyes.
"Dongdong is so amazing. It doesn't hurt anymore, Mom."
Dongdong smiled.
He believed what his mother said, just as when he was very small and got hurt, his mother would help him blow on his wounds exactly like this.
He immediately felt that it didn't hurt as much anymore.
"Mom, you must be hungry." Dongdong took a dry steamed corn bun from his pocket: "I’ll pour you some hot water."
The corn bun was too dry and very hard. His mother surely wouldn't be able to eat it.
He was truly too sensible and too obedient. Despite being just a small child himself, he was still able to look after an adult in an organized way.
"Mom, eat it quickly," Dongdong urged.
Jiang Tang saw him swallow hard. "Aren't you hungry?"
Dongdong moved his eyes away from the corn bun with great difficulty and gulped: "Dongdong is not hungry."