Chapter 6
Lin Xixi was extremely shocked.
According to the information she knew, Yan Lei’s first wife had died in the provincial capital.
At the time, no one knew that she had actually eloped.
Many years later, Lin Xixi was living a destitute life. One time, when she met her aunt, the aunt sighed and said, “Back then, when we wanted to introduce you to Yan Lei, you stubbornly refused. Do you know what rank he holds now? If I told you, you would regret it to death.”
It was then that she realized the person who had almost been introduced to her back then was now a man whose name was frequently mentioned on television news and in the newspapers.
Then, Lin Xixi’s aunt gossiped a bit more, talking about the death of Yan Lei’s wife back then, and mentioned that later there was news that she had actually eloped.
The aunt slapped her thigh, “I said back then that it was a bit strange. My relationship with her wasn’t even good, yet she suddenly entrusted the child to me, which made me feel something was wrong. So she had actually run off with someone.”
Back then, Yan Lei’s comrade, Regimental Commander Zhao, wanted to introduce his niece from the countryside, Lin Xixi, to Yan Lei, whose wife had passed away. However, as soon as Lin Xixi heard that the other party was already twenty-six or twenty-seven, much older than her, had a child, was a divorcee, and was also from the countryside like them, she was unhappy and didn’t come to meet him at all.
She longed for the city, so she chose a sent-down youth as her husband and was lucky enough to follow him back to the city, enjoying a period of glory at the time.
Who knew that life later wouldn’t be good? Her husband was useless, lived a pathetic life, and later even became unemployed and laid off, leaving their whole family destitute.
That year, when she went to borrow money from her aunt and heard her aunt mention the marriage opportunity she had missed in her youth, she truly regretted it.
The man from back then had become a high-ranking official, while the husband she had personally chosen was so pathetic. Because she was a country woman, both her mother-in-law and husband looked down on her. She worked like a beast of burden her whole life, and in her old age, her family didn’t even have rice to put in the pot.
Holding the money she had borrowed, she returned home in a trance, only to be struck and killed by a car on the way. When she opened her eyes, she had been reborn to the year she was eighteen.
The sent-down youth husband had not yet arrived at their production team, and she was still an innocent maiden, the belle of the village.
After being reborn, she never wanted to live the impoverished life of her past life again. Looking around at the people she knew and heard of, the one who climbed the highest in the end was the divorcee her uncle had wanted to introduce to her back then.
She remembered that eight or nine months later, her uncle had sent a letter back asking her to come to the Military District to find him. But as the village belle with high aspirations, she was unhappy when she saw Yan Lei’s various conditions in the letter, determined to find a true city person. In the end, she didn’t go, and thus missed the opportunity.
This time, she didn’t wait for her uncle to write to her mother again; she came directly on her own.
She convinced her mother to let her come to seek refuge with her uncle. Her mother had been through literacy campaigns and could write a few crooked characters, so she wrote a letter to her brother, “Find her a partner from the city.”
In this era, if one person succeeded, they had to support their whole family or even the whole village. Regimental Commander Zhao took in his niece who had come to seek refuge, and wrote a letter to his sister in the countryside to tell her that her niece was with him, putting his sister at ease.
It just so happened that Regimental Commander Zhao had five children at home, and his wife was struggling on her own. After Lin Xixi arrived, she behaved very diligently, and when her uncle and aunt saw this, they both liked her very much.
However, there were six children in the house at that time, and the extra little boy was surnamed Yan. When Lin Xixi saw this child, she vaguely guessed it. Upon asking, it was indeed true; the child named Yan Xiang was Yan Lei’s son, and Yan Lei’s wife had already run away.
Yan Lei would soon go to the provincial capital to find her, and then discover that she was seriously ill. After being sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, she would not be saved and would die.
Then she could marry Yan Lei, become someone of status in the future, and her future life would be completely different from her past life.
Especially when she saw Yan Lei himself, she was simply stunned.
This divorcee from the countryside, whom she had imagined as a mud-legged peasant, was actually so tall, so handsome, and so stylish.
Thinking back to her past life, she was filled with regret!
Fortunately, she had been reborn and could latch onto him in time.
She was quietly waiting for the news of Yan Lei’s wife’s death so she could take her place, but who would have known that today when Yan Lei came to pick up Yan Xiang, he actually said his wife had returned.
Lin Xixi was a bit bewildered.
Sister Yang asked him what he was doing for dinner. Yan Lei said he would go to the Cafeteria to get some later. Sister Yang, being a warm-hearted person, told him not to go, saying she would just add a bit more to each dish and cook it all together.
Lin Xixi took the opportunity to make an extra bowl of egg drop soup and offered to help carry the soup, insisting on following along to see for herself.
As soon as she entered, she saw a woman with half-damp hair.
Her skin was fair, and she was wearing a man’s white shirt. Perhaps because she had just finished bathing, her skin had a delicate, rosy-white glow.
She was alive, and healthy.
This was Yan Lei’s wife? How was she not dead?
The female lead Lin Xixi’s face was full of shock, which was quite intriguing.
Qiao Wei pulled the towel down from her hair and asked Yan Lei, “Who is this young girl?”
Yan Lei didn’t know why Qiao Wei was wearing his shirt, so he said, “This is Little Lin, Old Zhao’s niece, who just arrived a few days ago. You happened to be away.”
The timing was just a coincidence; Lin Xixi arrived the day after Qiao Wei had entrusted Yan Xiang to Regimental Commander Zhao’s wife.
Although Lin Xixi was shocked and uncertain, she regained her composure. She was also someone who had lived another life, so she immediately called out, “Sister-in-law.”
Unexpectedly, Qiao Wei smiled slightly, “You called me wrong. You should call me Auntie, and call him Uncle.”
She glanced at Yan Lei with a smile.
Yan Lei was placing two lunch boxes on the small table in the courtyard, and upon hearing this, he glanced at her.
It was quite strange. They were clearly an old married couple of several years, so why did his wife look especially beautiful today?
Appearance stems from the heart.
Qiao Wei and Qiao Weiwei shared the same face. When he married the original owner back then, it was half because she was educated and half because she was good-looking. But later, the original owner could not communicate with him mentally, and their marriage was unhappy. A woman’s unhappiness truly shows on her face; lifeless eyes and down-turned corners of the mouth directly lowered her looks.
But Qiao Wei had been reborn, and her whole person was joyful and happy. Having just finished bathing, she was even more radiant from the inside out, so of course, people would find her beautiful.
Lin Xixi’s eyes flickered, “Regimental Commander Yan is still so young, how can I call him Uncle?”
She wanted to be on equal footing with Yan Lei? So the female lead had already made up her mind to latch onto the male lead, right?
Qiao Wei smiled but not quite, and asked her, “How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
Qiao Wei turned her head to look at Yan Lei, “Old Yan, how old are you?”
What kind of strange address was “Old Yan”? Didn’t she usually call him Yan Lei?
Yan Lei complained inwardly, but answered, “I am twenty-seven.”
He was used to stating his nominal age.
“See, he is ten years older than you; he’s practically an old man,” Qiao Wei said kindly. “Besides, you are Old Zhao’s niece, and we are a generation apart. Old Yan, don’t you people in the countryside care the most about generational hierarchy?”
She deliberately emphasized the two words “countryside.”
Yan Lei felt that Qiao Wei was looking down on his rural background again. He coldly retorted to Qiao Wei, “That is called etiquette. If the hierarchy is messed up, that is called not knowing etiquette.”
Lin Xixi was so embarrassed that her face turned red.
Because in the countryside, they really valued generational hierarchy. Even if a grand-uncle was only ten years old and the grand-nephew was already thirty, he still had to call him “Grandpa” and couldn’t just call him anything. Otherwise, it was considered not knowing etiquette.
Lin Xixi had selfish motives and wanted to be on equal footing with Yan Lei. If she had married Yan Lei, it would be fine, but she hadn’t married Yan Lei yet. Counting from Regimental Commander Zhao’s side, she was indeed a generation lower, so calling her “Sister-in-law” indiscriminately was not knowing etiquette.
She didn’t expect to be rebuked by Yan Lei to her face.
Qiao Wei said seriously, “Hurry up and take the things from Little Lin’s hands.”
Yan Lei turned around and saw Lin Xixi still standing there foolishly holding the enamel basin. In fact, she could have just walked two steps to put it on the table; he didn’t know why she didn’t walk those two steps and just stood there blankly waiting for him to take it.
He felt that this niece of Old Zhao’s was a bit… not very smart.
Yan Lei went over and took the enamel basin, “Thanks. Please say thanks to your aunt for me as well.”
Qiao Wei said deliberately, “Why don’t you sit down and eat with us, Little Lin?”
This sentence woke Lin Xixi up, and she said unnaturally, “No, my family is waiting for me to eat.”
Qiao Wei immediately said, “Then walk slowly—”
Now she had to leave whether she wanted to or not.
Lin Xixi glanced at Qiao Wei. This woman, who was supposed to have died, looked back without any guilt, her gaze seemingly seeing through something.
On the contrary, because Lin Xixi had the big secret of being reborn, she felt guilty and looked away first, then turned and left.
All the way back, she was still in shock. How could someone who was supposed to be dead still be alive? Could it be…
A possibility occurred to her: Could Yan Lei’s wife also have been reborn?
Yan Lei didn’t pay any attention to Lin Xixi at all; it was just a young girl related to his comrade helping to carry some soup. How could he know that Qiao Wei and Lin Xixi had already clashed?
Seeing him like this, Qiao Wei felt slightly relieved.
After all, this was a book-transmigration world, and she was afraid that Yan Lei’s life would be controlled by the plot and he would be unable to help himself from being attracted to Lin Xixi. Now it seemed, he wasn’t.
Lin Xixi had been reborn from an unhappy past life and wanted to live a life like a refreshing novel; Qiao Wei understood that.
But Qiao Wei had finally gained family and a home, and she didn’t want to be cannon fodder.
She didn’t want to get involved in female competition either, but they both knew that this era would have a turbulent ten years, and even more so, they knew what kind of future the male lead had.
Even if she didn’t want to engage in female competition, Qiao Wei could not let the benefits already in her hands be snatched away by others.
If the female lead wanted a refreshing life, it couldn’t be at the expense of her, Qiao Wei.
