Chapter 1: Reborn

"Niannian, my poor child..."

The woman's wailing and sobbing, so intense that they made Xu Niannian's scalp ache, she wrapped her head with a thick white cloth, so heavy that Xu Niannian almost couldn't lift her head.

Seeing Xu Niannian with a stupefied expression, Yang Cuihua cried even more sorrowfully, hugging her with snot and tears, her corpulent body shaking nonstop.

"My child's father, if our Niannian doesn't make it, I don't want to live either... my poor child..."

It was this last, sharp cry that jolted Xu Niannian back to her senses.

Looking at the plump woman before her, crying as if life wasn't worth living, Xu Niannian felt fate was playing a cruel joke on her.

An hour ago, she was on an airplane, having just taken a nap, and she couldn't understand why everything changed when she woke up.

In just an hour, she had absorbed all the information in her mind.

Simply put, she had traveled through time, to a girl with the same name as hers, but whose identity couldn't be more different.

A girl living in the 1970s and '80s.

It was the year 1980, just two years after the start of the reform and opening up, and this body was precisely 16 years old.

Looking up at the woman who was still sobbing in front of her, Xu Niannian opened her mouth dryly, wanting to cry, and so she really broke down, tears falling heavily.

This must be a dream, it has to be, otherwise how could she have been reborn in this godforsaken era.

After struggling to become a multimillionaire on her own, she hadn't even started to enjoy her money, and then she was suddenly thrust through time.

Fine, time travel on its own was one thing, but to end up in such a poor era, and to be in such a destitute family at that.

Could there be anything more tragic than this?

No, there couldn't be!

Xu Niannian cried so hard that it caught Yang Cuihua's attention.

"Niannian... my Niannian, let mom see, where does it hurt?"

Seeing Xu Niannian finally reacting instead of sporting a vacant expression, Yang Cuihua was both delighted and distressed, terrified that her daughter was in any trouble.

Xu Niannian cried so despairingly that her voice became hoarse, and the woman's strength was so great that she almost choked on her sobs.

"Mom, I'm fine..." she quickly said.

Hearing Xu Niannian speak, Yang Cuihua got even more excited and called out toward the outer room, "My child's father, our Niannian is talking... "

In the main room outside, Dawei sat at the doorway smoking a dry pipe, the smoke curling up in rings, a fretful sigh on his face, accompanied by three boys, two older, one younger.

The eldest was about fifteen years old, the middle one around eight or nine, and the youngest looked about three or four but was actually six, a little turnip head who resembled someone not well-fed.

Hearing the noise from inside, Dawei jerked, his body trembling, and his pipe clattered to the ground as he stood up excitedly, his lips quivering.

"Zhiqiang, did you hear what your mother said?"

Standing in front of him, the oldest boy, with a somewhat irritable expression, begrudgingly answered, "Mom said sister is awake."

At this, Dawei pushed Xu Zhiqiang aside and hurried into the room stumbling, "Father's precious child..."

"Brother, the annoying brat is awake, what do we do now? We won't have any more good days ahead," said Xu Zhicheng, the nine-year-old.

"What can we do? Keep serving her, she's our parents' precious darling," replied Xu Zhiqiang, pursing his lips with discontent, kicking over a stool in front of him.

The youngest, Duoyu, clutched Xu Zhiqiang's leg in fear, muttering pitifully, "Big brother, is sister going to eat Duoyu's meat again?"

"She wouldn't dare!" Xu Zhiqiang said through clenched teeth, his adolescent face taut with tension.

Xu Niannian's original self was haughty and domineering, taking advantage of her parents' favoritism to always bully her three younger brothers.

It was the youngest, Duoyu, who suffered the most, as Xu Niannian would take her frustrations out on him by biting him.

It was because of this that Duoyu was so fearful of his sister.

In the room, after Dawei burst in, he clung to Xu Niannian, calling her "my child, my dog."

Villagers tend to use "dog" as an endearment for a beloved child.

Xu Niannian twitched at the corner of her mouth upon hearing this.

Right after her mother finished crying, her father began.

Xu Niannian couldn't handle it anymore and said hastily, "Dad, mom, I'm really okay now, I just want to rest a bit."

Hearing this, Dawei quickly let go of Xu Niannian, and Cuihua said with concern, "Niannian, you rest well then, mom will go make you something to eat."