My Mother-in-Law Stepped on a Land Mine, but I Let Her Die

My mother-in-law was picking mushrooms on the hill behind the village when she stepped on a land mine. Terrified, she cried out for help. I pretended not to see and dashed back to the production brigade to work. I did that because in my previous life, I was the first to rush over and ask what had happened. I soothed my mother-in-law, then ran to town and dragged my husband away from shopping for clothes with his beloved first love so he could come defuse the bomb. My mother-in-law was rescued, but my husband’s beloved first love was humiliated when she couldn’t pay the bill, and she jumped into the river and died. My husband blamed me for failing to think on my feet and failing to get my mother-in-law off the mine in her place. Instead, he accused me of deliberately interrupting him. My own brother called me sinister and vicious, saying I’d taken the opportunity to make things difficult for my husband’s beloved first love and caused her death. My mother-in-law said I was pathologically jealous, making a fuss over nothing and putting on a show of filial devotion. The three people closest to me hated me to the core because of a sent-down youth who had jumped the queue. They got me drunk, threw me into the river, and watched me drown. When I opened my eyes again, my mother-in-law was nearby, crying for help. I turned and walked away.