As Xu Jiang drew her last breath, the streetlights outside in Qinghe Town were glowing, their light faintly reflected in the warm yellow windows of nearby homes. But she had spent half her life suffering through a bad marriage to a lazy man. Her parents had fallen ill from worry, and her younger siblings had dropped out of school. As she closed her eyes, regret consumed her: if she could live again, she would never settle!
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying on the old cotton quilt in her family home. The calendar read August 1990. As she tore up the marriage contract and the groom’s family threw a fit, Song Jianghai, a demobilized soldier from a neighboring village, happened to pass by and came to her defense. In his faded military uniform, he became her light.
When Xu Jiang faced trouble setting up her braised-food stall, Song Jianghai quietly stood by her. After they married, they rented a storefront and opened a braised-food shop, and business boomed. Later they opened a noodle shop, selling noodles with chili oil, zhajiangmian, and noodles with gravy. At first, they nearly lost money because they didn’t know how to control costs. The couple stayed up late poring over their accounts and adjusting their noodle recipes until their little shop was packed with diners. Even students saved up to eat there.
Later, Xu Jiang became pregnant. Even with her belly growing, she was still planning to open the town’s first hotpot restaurant. Song Jianghai became even busier: during the day he looked for storefronts and hired craftsmen, and at night he massaged her legs and talked through business plans with her. After their daughter was born, the two often worked in the shop with the baby in their arms. Customers would smile at Song Jianghai cooking noodles while soothing the baby, as Xu Jiang settled the bills and handed over baby food. Their busy, everyday life was full of warmth.
“Xu’s Hotpot” was a hit from the day it opened. At the end-of-year profit-sharing, they gave Song Xiaomei, who had helped them so much, a big red envelope. Xu Jiang’s younger siblings held their university admission letters, while the baby in her arms clutched a red envelope and giggled. Xu Jiang looked around the table as Song Jianghai put a fish ball in her bowl and her parents smiled, their faces creased with laughter.
Amid the firecrackers outside, she understood: being reborn had not only changed her own fate, but also let her raise a child with the one she loved and lead her whole family down a new path, turning their life into the sweetest one
