It’s Hard Being an Elder Brother’s Wife

Zhou Xiyi, a Chinese literature graduate who had just passed the civil service exam, died of sheer excitement. When she woke again, she found herself in an unfamiliar place. Memories flooded her mind: she had arrived in an era much like the Ming dynasty.

The young girl was named Lin Jinxuan. She was only fourteen, yet by her mother’s dying wish, she had married while her father was still in deep mourning.

An epidemic had swept through the county late last year, killing four out of every ten people. When her younger brother, Lin Jinyu, fell ill, her father went into town to buy medicine and caught the disease. He died first. Her mother fell ill too. Fearing that after her death, the girl and her brother would be unable to survive, she had the girl marry her betrothed before she died.

A month later, the girl died as well.

Her husband’s family lived next door to hers, and their parents had been close friends. His father had been a hunter, and his mother was a woman he had rescued while out hunting. The couple were deeply devoted to each other and had eight children: seven boys and one girl. The eldest was the girl’s husband, two years older than her and sixteen years old. The second and third were fourteen-year-old twins. The fourth was twelve, the fifth ten, the sixth eight, and the seventh six. The youngest, a girl, was not yet three.

When the plague raged, her father-in-law went into town to sell game and caught it first. Her mother-in-law caught it while caring for him. Before they died, the two families arranged the marriage between their eldest son and the girl.

In less than three months, only the ten children remained between the two families. Fortunately, the village head helped them keep their family property.

And so Lin Jinxuan began her life as an eldest sister-in-law who had to mother them all.