Living Another Life, I Finally Understand the Rain Beneath the Eaves

Wang Xiulian died on the coldest day of the twelfth lunar month. She lay in a drafty side room, listening to the laughter of her mother-in-law, Zhang Guilan, and her daughter-in-law, Li Juan, coming from the main house. They were dividing up the retirement money she had saved all her life, muttering, "At last, that eyesore is gone."

When she was young, she thought being "virtuous and considerate" would earn her sincere affection. She obeyed her domineering mother-in-law in everything, supported her idle husband, and put up with the gossiping neighbors at every turn. In the end, she fell ill with no one to care for her, had her money stolen, and died alone.

When she opened her eyes again, Wang Xiulian was back at thirty, on the very day her mother-in-law was forcing her to give her dowry house to her husband's younger brother, while her husband was out gambling and running up debts.

This time, as she looked at the familiar faces before her, the last bit of warmth in her heart went completely cold.

Didn't understand how to deal with people? Then she would learn.

Her mother-in-law pretended to be sick to win sympathy? Wang Xiulian cheerfully carried over a bowl of medicine and "waited on" her. Her husband wanted to take her money to gamble? She hid her bankbook at the bank first. The neighbors spread rumors about her? She turned around and "accidentally" let their own family's dirty secrets slip.

She would no longer be the "good-natured pushover" who swallowed every insult. She would simply be an ordinary person who knew how to read people's expressions and protect her own boundaries. The rain still fell beneath the eaves, but in this life, Wang Xiulian had learned to hold an umbrella over herself, and to see the schemes and sincerity hidden beneath the smiles of those standing in the rain.