Becoming the Villain's Discarded Wife

"Mom, Mom." The little toddler over three years old was calling out to the woman lying on the bed with her eyes tightly closed.

When Nanzhi woke up, she was met face-to-face with that dirty little face.

Seeing the glistening snot hanging in front of her, Nanzhi shuddered and quickly dodged; fortunately, the snot did not drop as she had anticipated, she just saw the toddler sniff, and the snot immediately retracted.

...

Seeing that Nanzhi was awake, the toddler's eyes lit up with excitement, "Mom, Mom, you're awake!"

Hearing the toddler's words, Nanzhi's face was filled with terror. Whose child was this?

Why was he calling her mom? She was clearly still a virgin who had been single for eighteen years.

Before she could voice the confusion in her mind, everything went dark for her, and she fainted again.

Leaving the toddler looking helpless.

Remembering that his mom hadn't eaten much for three days, the toddler turned and ran.

He was heading to the mountain; Brother Shi Tou had picked up some bird eggs there yesterday, and he wanted to find some too, to bring back for his mother to eat.

When Nanzhi woke up again, she was bewildered. Had she traveled through time?

Was that scruffy toddler her stepson?

Thinking about the dozen or so farming novels on her mobile reading app, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Although she was an avid reader of farming novels, the heavens didn't really have to send her to this territory.

She had just pulled an all-nighter; surely, she wasn't supposed to drop dead from that?

Nanzhi curled up and sorted through the memories in her mind. She initially wanted to knock on her head subconsciously, but seeing her hands dirty and the black mud under her fingernails, she promptly stopped.

After she had fainted, the original host's memories slowly began to emerge in her mind.

She had transmigrated into a historical era that did not exist in history.

The original host was a village girl, born and bred in the neighboring village, with parents and two brothers. She had married into Lihua Village, had the toddler, and became a mother. Her husband, skilled in hunting and the only child in his home, along with his kind and gentle parents, made for a contented family life of five.

But fate was cruel; three years ago, her husband went hunting in the mountains to gather nourishments for her, but he never returned. The men from the village searched the mountains for three days, only to bring back a tattered piece of clothing.

The cloth was torn and bloodstained; even without finding a body, everyone knew that the young man from the Shen Family was most likely gone.

Afterwards, their lives became difficult. The mother-in-law fell ill from the loss of her only son and never recovered; the father-in-law also injured himself while working in the fields.

The original host took care of the two elderly people and the few months old child alone. With no one to help with labor and medical expenses for her in-laws, she was forced to sell the family's few acres of land.

She managed to survive for just over a year, until there was no more silver to buy medicine for the elderly, and both of her in-laws passed away. In the end, the original host could only return to her parents' home and borrow a tael of silver for their burial.

She lived with her son, relying solely on wild fruits and vegetables from the mountains. Some villagers, pitying their orphaned and widowed state, used to bring them some food, but it had not rained for half a year, and the crops were drying up, making life difficult for everyone.

By the time Nanzhi had transmigrated, her household had already been without food for three days.

Rubbing her empty stomach, Nanzhi felt as though the heavens were mocking her.

Other transmigrators had either space or systems, and the lesser ones still had a golden finger, or at the very least, parents to consult.

But her situation was different. She arrived to face three days without nine meals, gifted a scruffy child, and went straight from being a bachelorette to a widow saddled with a "little oil bottle."

Having sorted through the original host's memories, Nanzhi slowly got out of bed.

She needed to find Gougou.

Gougou was the childhood nickname of the original son, and the village here had a saying that meaner names were easier to raise. Plus, the original husband had died early, and she was too busy taking care of the elderly at home to think about giving the child a proper name.

So, they just always called him Gougou.

Even now, if you stood at the entrance of the village and called "Gougou," you could hear five or six children responding.

Upon stepping out of her gate, Nanzhi looked over her new base of operation: a perfectly square courtyard with walls built of stone bricks. To the left of the entrance were two rooms used as storage rooms, next to which was a dry toilet; directly opposite the main gate was the main hall; to the left—the parents-in-law's room, now empty; to the right was her room; in the backyard were the kitchen and a well, as well as a small vegetable garden, though it had now fallen into disuse.

It seemed that the original owner's family had once been doing well, unfortunately.

Nanzhi shook her head and scooped a ladle of water from the kitchen cistern. Without waiting to boil it, she just gulped it down.

Even having some water in her stomach was better than feeling completely empty.

Just as she stepped out, intending to look for Gougou, she saw a middle-aged woman rushing towards her.

Thinking for a moment, Nanzhi was just about to greet her when the woman grabbed her and ran towards the back mountain.

"Ouch, Lin girl, hurry and check on your Gougou. He's up on the mountain, quarreling with Shen Family's Shi Tou."

Upon hearing this, Nanzhi swallowed the words she meant to say and simply followed Mrs. Liu up the mountain.

Running with a bellyful of cold water, Nanzhi felt a cramp in her stomach. When she finally reached the back mountain, the scene nearly made her faint.

Gougou, already dirty, was now covered in mud, his little face tight and bleeding from the nose, which made Nanzhi's eyes redden.

"Gougou!" Nanzhi called out and hurried forward to check if there was anything wrong with him.

"Mama." Seeing his mother had come, Gougou's stern expression instantly collapsed, and being over three years old didn't help him hold back his tears, which burst forth, making anyone's heart twinge.

While comforting Gougou, Nanzhi gave Shi Tou a cold look.

Shi Tou, this year seven, was a child from Old Li's family next door. Being four years older than Gougou, he looked tall and strong, and was still hiding something behind him.

"Gougou, don't cry. Tell mom, what happened? Who hit you?" Nanzhi wiped her son's face.

"It was him! Gougou was trying to steal my stuff!" Shi Tou shouted loudly, seeing the adults staring, he further hid his hand behind him.

Nanzhi, facing a pretended calm Shi Tou, asked, "Then let's hear it, what did my Gougou try to steal from you? You're four years older than him. What could he steal from you?"

Shi Tou instinctively shrank his neck, his face becoming flushed, unable to utter a single word.

Despite being a bully among the children, he was still afraid of adults.

Seeing him like this, Nanzhi no longer questioned Shi Tou and simply turned her head to her own son.

"Gougou, tell mom, what happened?"

"Mama, Mama collapsed, Gougou, Gougou went up the mountain, looking, looking for food, for Mama." Gougou's eyes were brimming with tears, and his dirty face was streaked with lines of tears.

"I found wild chicken eggs. Shi Tou, Brother Shi Tou wanted to take them, and I didn't give them to him, so he hit me."

Upon hearing this, Shi Tou's face reddened deeply, and the faces of Mrs. Liu and several other women also changed.

They had originally formed a group to forage for wild vegetables on the mountain, thinking the quarrel between the two children was just a playful fight. When the fight seemed fierce, Mrs. Liu hurriedly went to find Nanzhi.

Little did they know it would be Shi Tou fighting with Gougou over something.