Chapter 15
Sister Yang turned around and saw Lin Xixi staring straight ahead. She turned her head to look and found that Lin Xixi was staring at Yan Lei and Qiao Wei.
Sister Yang slowed her pace, waited for Lin Xixi to catch up, and nudged her with her elbow. “What are you looking at?”
Lin Xixi snapped out of it and tried to cover it up. “Nothing.”
Sister Yang became increasingly suspicious that her niece had taken a liking to a married man.
Regimental Commander Yan was indeed a handsome young man. With a face like that, anyone who saw him couldn’t help but take a second look.
But a Military Unit couldn’t tolerate such moral issues. It would ruin a young girl’s reputation, and worse, Sister Yang feared it might drag down her niece’s uncle—Sister Yang’s own husband. So, Sister Yang said on purpose, “Look at young Yan and his wife, they have such a good relationship. It’s just that they have too few children, only one. They really need to have three or four to be enough.”
As she spoke, she glanced sideways at Lin Xixi. But Lin Xixi’s expression was very strange, hard to read.
In truth, the reason Lin Xixi had her eyes on Yan Lei wasn’t because he was handsome. When Lin Xixi died in her previous life, she was already a weathered middle-aged woman who had suffered for half her life. To her, a man’s looks were like passing clouds.
Back then, she had fallen for an educated youth’s face and stubbornly forced her way into marrying him by getting pregnant out of wedlock.
She only enjoyed a brief moment of glory when she returned to the city with the educated youth, but after that, it was nothing but endless bitterness.
Her city mother-in-law looked down on her as a daughter-in-law from the countryside and tormented her at every turn. Her husband, having returned to the city, also found her embarrassing. Other educated youths only married after returning to the city, and their wives were all city dwellers. Only he had failed to resist temptation in the countryside, got beaten up by her father and brother, and was forced to marry a country girl like her. Once back in the city, his spine stiffened, and he began to order her around and shout at her.
As a country daughter-in-law, Lin Xixi was completely lost and helpless in the city. She could only bow her head and try to please her father-in-law, mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and the whole extended family.
But the most sickening part was that once they returned to the city, the rose-colored glasses brought by his status as an “educated youth” completely shattered.
It turned out that the educated youths in the city were just ordinary people. The one she had chosen had a decent face, but he was truly a mediocre man. He never let her live a good life for his entire lifetime.
The village beauty was worn down in the city until her hair turned gray and her face looked weary and dusty.
By the time the man reached middle age, he was even laid off. They were so poor that she had to swallow her pride and go to the neighboring city to borrow money from her maternal uncle and aunt.
She died in such a suffocatingly miserable way.
Having returned to her youth, this weary and hardworking middle-aged woman knew that a man’s face wasn’t worth a damn. Yan Lei’s handsome looks were a pleasant surprise, but his great future prospects were what she truly valued.
Lin Xixi wanted to change her destiny against the heavens. This time, she had to choose the right person.
Lin Xixi softly asked Sister Yang, “Auntie, has Regimental Commander Yan and his wife’s relationship always been this good?”
Sister Yang paused.
Actually, Sister Yang also found it a bit strange. Regimental Commander Yan and his wife had always had a bad relationship; all their neighbors knew it. Indeed, looking at them now, why did it suddenly seem quite good?
But that was someone else’s business. It was fine to gossip about it when one had nothing better to do. However, the prerequisite was that her own family must not have any shameful secrets for others to gossip about.
She insisted, “It has always been this good! Just look at them, one is an officer and the other is an educated person. They are such a good match, how could it not be good?”
Lin Xixi pursed her lips, an indescribable emotion flickering in her eyes.
Sister Yang saw this, and her brow furrowed slightly.
When they arrived at the Residential Compound, it was filled with men in tank tops and slippers carrying basins, and women leading children, all heading to take a bath.
Generally speaking, factories would have bathhouses for employees and their families, and they were all free. But the town’s economy was poor and had no factories. The county seat, however, did have two factories.
Therefore, in the small town, if a family looked more spirited and clean, there was a high probability that someone in their family worked as a factory worker in the county. Those without such conditions could only boil water to bathe at home, so they didn’t bathe as frequently.
The other group was the military dependents, who were all high-spirited and clean. Most of their clothes were also very decent.
Yan Lei’s family of three was a very typical military officer’s family.
The man was sharp, the woman was beautiful, they wore dacron clothes, and even the child’s clothes and shoes looked reasonably new.
At the entrance of the bathhouse, Yan Lei was about to give Yan Xiang’s clothes from his basin to Qiao Wei, but Qiao Wei gave Yan Xiang a gentle push from behind. “Go with your dad.”
If Yan Lei refused or questioned her, Qiao Wei had already prepared a speech to tell him that children needed to develop gender awareness from an early age, and boys shouldn’t go into the women’s bathhouse.
To her surprise, Yan Lei said nothing. He simply handed over the bath tickets and led Yan Xiang into the men’s bathhouse.
This left Qiao Wei with a feeling of having prepared a punch only to hit thin air.
She stood where she was, watching the father and son go inside.
In Regimental Commander Zhao’s family, Sister Yang was originally leading Junzi. But when Junzi saw Yan Xiang entering the men’s bathhouse, he broke free from his mother’s hand. “I want to go over there too.”
Sister Yang didn’t stop him; she just handed his clothes to her husband. Regimental Commander Zhao handed Wu Nier, who was riding on his shoulders, to his wife, and went inside with his three sons.
The women went inside together.
In fact, there weren’t many boys in the bathhouse. The few that were there were extremely small, of an acceptable age. There were almost no older boys.
As Qiao Wei undressed, she slowly began to understand. In this era, a family had five or six kids; they weren’t raised with the meticulous care of the only-child generation of later years. Children raised under this laissez-faire style had very strong self-care abilities. Older boys could jump into the river to bathe by themselves and didn’t need to be attached to their mothers’ hips at all times.
When Qiao Wei thought about it this way, she couldn’t help but laugh.
Never mind ten-year-olds; even a seven- or eight-year-old boy in this era was essentially the equivalent of those white-haired old men in Qiao Wei’s era who could do dozens of pull-ups on the park’s high bars without even blinking.
They were on a completely different dimension compared to the spoiled “precious boys” of later generations.
It was Qiao Wei’s preconceived sense of generational superiority. In a setting like a bathhouse, she had self-righteously assumed that the scenario she anticipated would happen. She had even been prepared to use modern concepts to lecture these old-fashioned folks.
As it turned out… the old folks were still the old folks, and the aunties were still the aunties.
When she imagined Yan Lei as a park grandpa in her era, or even older, strapping his feet to the high bar and spinning round and round… Qiao Wei couldn’t help but laugh again.
Of course, given Yan Lei’s future status, he was more likely to be a hale and hearty old man in a high-end sanitarium, gazing at the scenery and contemplating a chessboard.
With a guard and a dedicated nurse standing behind him.
But Qiao Wei just couldn’t help but picture him as a grandpa doing morning exercises in the park, and the image made her giggle uncontrollably.
Sister Yang undressed, turned to look at her, and asked in bewilderment, “What are you laughing at? What’s so funny?”
“Oh, I just thought of a joke,” Qiao Wei said.
Sister Yang insisted on hearing it. Since there were plenty of jokes from the future, Qiao Wei picked a safe, non-historical, and non-political joke to tell, making Sister Yang cackle with laughter.
In a public bathhouse, everyone was naked together; there was nothing to be ashamed of.
When Sister Yang first arrived from the countryside, she had felt a bit shy the first time she entered a public bathhouse. But the public bathhouse was free, whereas bathing at home required burning firewood or coal. That bit of shyness was instantly overcome. Whenever the bathhouse was open, Sister Yang wouldn’t miss a single session, rushing her whole family over to bathe.
To her, not using the free hot water was equivalent to losing out and letting others take all the advantage.
No one was allowed to be lazy and skip a bath.
Everyone was soon stripped stark naked.
Sister Yang bent down to undress Wu Nier, revealing Lin Xixi standing next to them.
Lin Xixi closed her locker door, sized Qiao Wei up and down, and suddenly let out an “oh,” saying with feigned surprise, “Auntie Qiao, what is that on your belly?”
Having been through the hospital wards, Qiao Wei had absolutely no shame about her body. Hearing this, she looked down.
The body she had taken over was much healthier than her original diseased body, though by modern standards, it could only be considered slender and slim, not very toned. Having been tortured into skin and bones during her illness, Qiao Wei longed most for a fit and powerful body.
She touched her lower abdomen, which was flat but not particularly firm. “This?”
She looked closely and said with certainty, “These are… stretch marks.”
Lin Xixi covered her mouth, feigning shock. “How scary! I thought you had some kind of skin disease. Doesn’t your husband mind?”
Of course, Lin Xixi knew what stretch marks were. She had given birth to three children. Stretch marks, mastitis, sagging, urinary incontinence, back pain, heel pain from postpartum recovery… she had experienced every single one of them.
She did it on purpose.
She had reborn with the life mission of “marrying Yan Lei, who would later become a high-ranking official.” Who would have thought that Yan Lei’s ex-wife, who was supposed to have died, was actually still alive?
How was she supposed to achieve her goal of a wealthy and noble life now!
Lin Xixi gritted her teeth in hatred.
She wanted to catch Qiao Wei in the act of “eloping,” but she had no evidence. Just as she was in a terrible mood, she undressed and saw Qiao Wei’s body, then looked at her own, and suddenly gained confidence—
I am young, I am beautiful, and I am a virgin!
I also have the perspective of someone from the eighties and nineties, which people of this era can’t possibly compare to.
Instantly, she puffed out her chest and launched an attack on Qiao Wei—body shaming.
If her target had been the original owner, Qiao Weiwei, it might have actually worked. Qiao Weiwei’s personality was somewhat prone to melancholy and self-pity.
But Qiao Wei didn’t care at all.
Qiao Wei didn’t even feel ashamed of being naked in front of the opposite sex, so why would she care about a few stretch marks?
What was wrong with having a few marks on a body that was healthy and free of disease?
Yet, she very clearly felt the malice coming from Lin Xixi—body shaming from one woman to another, as well as the age shaming implied by the stretch marks.
She smiled slightly. “Don’t worry, you’ll have them too. Hmm… probably a lot of them.”
It was just the plain truth.
In this era, staying unmarried and childless wasn’t a popular lifestyle. Moreover, Lin Xixi harbored the desire to marry Yan Lei and become a stepmother in a second marriage. What better way to…
…firmly bind this man to her than bearing him multiple children?
Besides, these kinds of “stepmother novels” loved to write about the male and female leads having child after child.
In particular, after calculating the ages of Yan Xiang and Yan Lei, she realized that although Lin Xixi had died in middle age, if she hadn’t died and had lived to Qiao Wei’s original era, she would have been an old woman in her seventies.
So, even though the person before her was a young girl with a youthful body and a beautiful face, Qiao Wei looked at her and saw past her skin, seeing the aging and decay of her spirit.
Sister Yang happened to straighten up and thumped her lower back. “What are you two talking about?”
Lin Xixi immediately raised her voice to complain, “Auntie, Auntie Qiao said I would get those marks on my belly. Look how ugly they are, Auntie! I’m not even eighteen yet, how could Auntie Qiao say that to a young girl like me!”
Now she was calling her “Auntie Qiao” over and over, playing the innocent young girl.
She wanted to preemptively ruin Qiao Wei’s reputation in the eyes of others.
In her mind, if everyone around a person spoke ill of her, it would definitely have a negative impact on her and the people around her.
Qiao Wei, however, said indifferently, “Everyone gets them. Look at everyone here, whose belly doesn’t have them?”
Those who came to bathe were all military dependents from the Residential Compound. “Military dependents” referred to the wives of the soldiers.
In this day and age, what married woman didn’t have children? Two or three was normal, and four or five wasn’t considered too many. Whose belly wasn’t saggy and covered in dark, brown stretch marks from torn abdominal muscles?
As well as sagging breasts.
The bathhouse was filled with the rushing white noise of water, so the people around hadn’t noticed what they were saying at first. But as the two of them raised their voices, it drew the attention of those nearby.
Qiao Wei said, “I know you’re a young girl, but you young girls shouldn’t look down on us married women just because you’re young. What’s wrong with stretch marks? Who doesn’t get a belly full of stretch marks after giving birth? Unless you don’t plan on having kids. Little Lin, do you not plan on having children after you get married in the future?”
Qiao Wei stared intently at Lin Xixi, waiting for her answer.
Lin Xixi was choked up.
She couldn’t say “no.” Not only would it go against the mainstream values of this era, but it also contradicted Lin Xixi’s own beliefs.
In the novel, Lin Xixi kept giving birth repeatedly later on, firmly binding Yan Lei to her.
How was she supposed to answer now?
When Lin Xixi had launched her body-shaming attack on Qiao Wei, Qiao Wei hadn’t actually been angry.
This beautiful young girl was an old lady at her core; her entire worldview was generations apart from Qiao Wei’s.
Qiao Wei wasn’t going to argue about values with some gray-haired old lady on the street just to win.
But Qiao Wei suddenly remembered that Lin Xixi had borne many children for Yan Lei, and their home became extremely lively later on.
Amidst that noisy liveliness, the novel would occasionally mention in passing, “Yan Xiang watched quietly from the corner of the room.”
Recalling these details, Qiao Wei suddenly felt a surge of anger—this woman, who had become very easygoing after being worn down by illness and life-and-death struggles, unexpectedly flared up with rage.
That was why she fought back against Lin Xixi.
Regimental Commander Zhao and his wife were still planning to find a match for Lin Xixi in the military camp to marry, so how could she say she “didn’t plan to have children”?
Bathhouses, public restrooms, and Cafeterias were all very important social venues for women. If Lin Xixi said “I won’t give birth” today,
it would spread throughout the entire Residential Compound through these women’s mouths by tomorrow. How would they introduce a match to her then? People would avoid her like the plague.
Sister Yang spoke up for Lin Xixi, “If she’s getting married, of course she has to have children. That goes without saying.”
“Exactly. So, Little Lin, don’t mock us married women who have given birth for having ugly bellies,” she said. “Your time just hasn’t come yet. When it does, you’ll have them too.”
Several women nearby understood what was going on and were already rolling their eyes in Lin Xixi’s direction.
But Lin Xixi had initiated the attack; Qiao Wei was only defending herself so far.
Because she thought of Yan Xiang in the book, Qiao Wei’s emotions fluctuated, influenced by the original owner. Having finished her self-defense, she now began her counterattack.
“You young girls might be young and beautiful, but don’t go around talking about whether a husband minds an ugly belly or not. Do children just fall from the sky when a woman gives birth? They are born together with their husbands. We carry them for ten months, stretching our bellies to the limit, while the men can’t share any of that burden. What right do they have to mind the marks on our bellies? Besides, what does a married man want when he dislikes his own wife? Does he want to get together with a young girl like you?”
Lin Xixi was the beauty of the village, young and beautiful.
Moreover, she was the female lead. Main characters always had their own halos.
As a country girl, Lin Xixi had been blessed by the story’s world-building with a “never-tan” buff. Her entire body was very pale, making Sister Yang look like a piece of charcoal beside her.
Furthermore, Lin Xixi actually did farm work in the countryside, and her physical labor was by no means light. The high-intensity physical labor kept her body well-proportioned, firm, and very fit.
No wonder she felt a sense of superiority when she saw Qiao Wei’s stretch marks.
Many soldiers came from the countryside, so naturally, many of their dependents were also rural women.
Now their men had made something of themselves, and they weren’t old yet, still in their prime and full of vigor—an age prone to restlessness. They had to guard against young girls like this.
As soon as Qiao Wei said this, several sharp glares instantly swept toward Lin Xixi.
Lin Xixi: Attack!
Qiao Wei: Deflect!!
