Back Before the Real Heiress Reunited with Her Family [Period]

My next novel, Five Blessings Pastry Shop [The 1990s], launches July 1. I hope you'll add it to your favorites! The blurb is below this one!

Blurb:

Meng Wan's father was a university professor with former students throughout the government and business worlds. Her mother was vice president of the largest local hospital and had cured countless patients. Her older brother, Meng Xingyang, had become a section chief at the Surveying and Mapping Bureau at a young age, and her sister-in-law, Sun Jing, was also a teacher.

Everyone thought that a family like theirs could only raise exceptional children, but Meng Wan was the exception.

When she was little, Meng Wan had endured some hardship alongside her parents, who had been sent down to the countryside. After the Meng couple were reinstated, they did everything they could to give her the best, hoping to make up for what she had suffered.

As a result, Meng Wan grew into a spoiled young lady who was idle, had an inflated opinion of herself, and was willful and capricious.

Meng Wan graduated from high school but failed to get into college, so her family had to make plans for her future.

Her father, Meng Qingyan, advised her earnestly, "There's an opening in the logistics department at our university. It would suit you perfectly."

Meng Wan pouted. "What's so great about logistics? It's hard work, and nobody appreciates it. I'm not going."

Her mother, Cheng Xuehua, pleaded with her. "My dear girl, listen to your mother and study medicine. Doctors are so respected."

Meng Wan scoffed. "People may respect you, but you're exhausted all day long."

Her brother, Meng Xingyang, tried every argument he could think of. "Dear little sister, I have a friend in business. If you join him, you can be the general manager."

Meng Wan raised an eyebrow. "It's just selling things. How boring."

In the end, after many compromises, Meng Wan became a librarian at the district cultural center. She was responsible for organizing newspapers and magazines, keeping track of books borrowed by the public, and collecting admission fees when they were short-staffed. Since she had no qualifications and got the job through connections, she didn't even have a permanent position.

In the opportunity-filled 1990s, Meng Wan neither went to college nor entered the civil service. She never even tried her hand at business. She took a great hand and played it into a complete disaster. Even when her food was practically placed in her mouth, she was too lazy to chew.

Meng Wan once thought she would bask in the glow of her parents and older brother for the rest of her life, enjoying the connections and conveniences they provided and living carefree as she pleased.

But when she turned thirty, the biological daughter showed up at the door. After the truth was corrected, everything Meng Wan had possessed through blood ties was taken away. Only then did she belatedly realize that after all these years, she had never held anything in her own hands.

Overnight, she became a fake who had stolen someone else's life.

From then on, she lost all her drive and dragged herself through life until she died, miserable, at forty.

On her deathbed, she regretted it more than anything. If she had the chance to live again, her life would never turn out this way.

Perhaps Heaven pitied her and gave her another chance.

When Meng Wan opened her eyes again, she had returned to the time before the biological daughter came to claim her family...

Five Blessings Pastry Shop [The 1990s] blurb:

Lin Manfu owned a pastry shop on West Street in the old city. That shop had kept his four children fed.

Everyone in the neighborhood knew that of those four children, only his youngest daughter, Lin Hongdou, was his biological child. Manfu had brought the other three home one by one.

The neighbors all laughed at him for being a fool. His lively, rambunctious Hongdou was already more than enough to give anyone a headache. How could a man without a wife raise four children on his own?

But Manfu had a stubborn, foolish streak. With that sheer determination, he raised four children of different ages and temperaments into adulthood. As he put it, "Things are tough, but as long as we're alive, there's always something to look forward to."

The one who found it hardest was unquestionably Lin Hongdou, once an only child. She had lost her mother young and depended on her father alone. Then, all of a sudden, two older brothers and an older sister appeared, taking away the fatherly love that had belonged to her alone.

From then on, Lin Hongdou's standard of living plummeted. An eighteen-street twist had to be split four ways, and her allowance was cut by more than half. She had to share her bed, her home, and her father with other people. For a little girl who hadn't even started first grade, having her territory invaded and her father's love divided up was a huge shock.

Back then, little Hongdou didn't like her new siblings.

Lin Hongdou also looked down on Lin Manfu's pastry shop. She thought all he would ever do was make pastries, and he'd never even made it out of Jin City. She didn't want to spend her whole life tending a pastry stove like her father, so she studied hard, got into a university in the capital, and stayed in the big city to work and live.

But the outside world was nothing like she'd imagined. Without her family's support, making her way alone left Lin Hongdou like a tiny boat adrift in the ocean, with no idea where the waves would take her.

Then one day, Lin Hongdou got a call from her older brother. Their father had died after collapsing from overwork and failing to recover despite resuscitation efforts.

Lin Hongdou hung up and sat on the bare wooden floor of her bleak rented room for a long time, unable to recover. She hadn't even seen her father one last time. Was this what she'd wanted?

Tears slid down her cheeks and onto the floor. Lin Hongdou had stayed up for two whole nights revising a design draft. Suddenly, she collapsed and never got back up.

When she woke again, she had returned to 1993. She was eight years old.

This time, she knew what she wanted: for her family to be healthy and happy. She wanted to treat the people who loved her a little better, and then a little better still.

She wanted to stay with her father, her eldest brother, her second sister, and Nan-ge forever!

Perhaps adding two more people to the family wouldn't be so bad...

[Little skit]

Today was the joyous day Lin Manfu and Ding Chunli registered their marriage.

Among the wedding guests were Manfu's eldest son, Jiang Shuo, his second daughter, Jiang Ting, his nephew Qu Yena, and Ding Chunli's son, Little Douding.

Lin Hongdou appointed herself the wedding officiant.

Eight-year-old Hongdou put on a serious face and said, "We're gathered here today to celebrate Comrade Lin Manfu and Comrade Ding Chunli tying the knot and entering the grand hall of a second marriage. Let's hear some applause!"

The guests played along, clapping noisily. Little Douding's hands turned red.

Hearing his daughter's polished speech, Lin Manfu found it both amusing and touching. The groom gave a speech: "Thank you, dear family, for your blessings. Without you, I wouldn't be where I am today. I'll drink this cup to the bottom!"

As he spoke, Manfu tipped his head back and downed a cup of baijiu in one smooth gulp.

Ding Chunli wasn't about to be outdone. Her cheeks slightly flushed, she raised her glass and said shyly, "Thank you for giving Little Douding and me a new home. Let's all get along from now on. I'll drink to that, too!"

Lin Hongdou was very pleased with the newlyweds, after all, she had brought them together herself.

Looking at the scene before her, with a pastry shop, a kind couple, and five children of different ages, she knew this family of seven would have a brighter and brighter future.

Reader's guide:

1. A touch of ensemble storytelling, with the everyday squabbles and bustle of family life.

2. Every character has flaws. No one is perfect.

3. The male and female leads have a faux-sibling relationship, with no blood ties. Their romance only becomes clear when they are adults.

4. The career plot is woven into the family's daily life, with everyone working together.

5. The story follows them from childhood to adulthood, as each protects the family in their own way.

Above all, I hope you have a pleasant, healing reading experience.

Theme: Be independent and strong.