Reborn in the 1980S: I Won’t Be a Doormat

Adapted from the hit short drama Reborn in the 1980s: I Won't Be a Sucker Anymore. On our golden wedding anniversary, I took my marriage certificate, worn and damaged with age, to get a replacement. But the clerk at the civil affairs office looked at me in shock and said: “This marriage certificate is fake. The records show that you're unmarried and never registered your marriage.” I froze. “That's impossible. My husband, Cheng Yunxiao, and I have been married for fifty years.” He pulled up another file. “Cheng Yunxiao is married, but his wife's name is Su Qiao.” Su Qiao was Cheng Yunxiao's widowed sister-in-law, who had spent years accompanying the troops as a military doctor. Trembling, I went home and confronted him. Cheng Yunxiao admitted it without a hint of remorse: “Isn't it enough that I've never mistreated you? Su Qiao is the one I truly love. I only ever wanted to marry her and have children with her.” Even my son tried to persuade me. “Dad and Mom kept it secret all their lives out of consideration for you. You're old now. What more could you want?” Only then did I learn that the child I'd raised with my own hands wasn't even mine. Su Qiao and I had given birth at the same time. So that Su Qiao's child could be raised by me, a better-educated woman, he switched our babies. And my own child had been drowned in a pond by Cheng Yunxiao the very moment he was born. The cruelest part was that I'd treated Su Qiao's child as my own and helped him all the way to Qing University. Overcome with rage, I fainted. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I gave birth after carrying my baby for ten months.