Li Cuihua felt as though she'd had a long dream.
In the dream, after she died, she became a wandering spirit, drifting through the air.
She "saw" her second son, Wang Lidong, cornered by Ergouzi in the woods again, beaten up, and eventually dying from his injuries.
She "saw" Yuqian Village face a forced conscription. Old Wang was seized as a conscript and died on the road.
She "saw" the entire Southeastern Commandery suffer a famine, and her eldest son's whole family starve to death.
She "saw" her youngest son tricked by a peddler from out of town and sold into servitude.
She "saw"... After her death, the Wang family was destroyed.
Even now, she couldn't tell dream from reality. She didn't know whether she was dead or alive.
But the pain in her body told her she seemed to be alive!
Scene after scene assailed her mind: Old Wang had enslaved and ordered her around year after year, her sons and daughters-in-law had cursed her without restraint, and all her diligent hard work had earned her nothing but cold leftovers and spoiled food.
She'd thought that was simply what life was supposed to be. Every family in Yuqian Village had lived that way for generations.
But what, exactly, had been different?
In the dream, she'd "seen" the bustling world beyond the village.
She'd "seen" proud women with delicately arched brows and light silk skirts.
She'd "seen" the carefree swagger of riding hard and cracking a whip. She'd "seen" the extravagance of rooms filled with gold and jade, and heads adorned with pearls and emeralds.
It was as if that was what life was truly meant to be.
The writing is grounded and the logic is clear and layered. I highly recommend it.