Raising Kids by Agreement in a Reconstituted Family in the 1960s

Blurb:

In 1967, just after turning nineteen, Jiang Yin was widowed. She passed Zhou Chengfeng by chance, each of them accompanied by two children.

That same day, Zhou Chengfeng had just divorced. Injured in the line of duty, he was left with a limp and no idea how he would manage with two children.

Jiang Yin raised her two children with her medical skills. After someone framed her, she spent several months in prison. By the time she got out, one child had died of illness, and she herself was worn down by sickness.

Later, she returned to the city and became a doctor. Through an introduction, she remarried Zhou Chengfeng, who also had two children.

Both had suffered plenty. They understood each other and joined forces to make a life together.

Zhou Chengfeng devoted all his strength to giving her a few good years.

All three children were outstanding, but fate insisted on putting them through hardship. The eldest was bright and studious, and got into Qing University, only for someone to change his application choices. During the year he spent retaking the entrance exam, someone stabbed him and left him gravely injured.

The third and fourth children were clever and quick-witted. At the very start of the Reform and Opening Up, they made a great deal of money, only to be made an example of and imprisoned for several years.

By the time they got out, the country had opened up and business was free to pursue, but the third and fourth children had lost their drive.

The second child was an even greater source of pain for Jiang Yin. During the months she was imprisoned, the child died from illness and hunger.

A few years later, as Jiang Yin lay dying, she sighed to Zhou Chengfeng, "If I'd known the college entrance exams would resume in 1977 and people would be allowed to go into business in 1979, I should have spent those ten years eating well, drinking well, and raising the children right."

When she opened her eyes, Jiang Yin was back in 1967. She was healthy, and Zhou Chengfeng had just divorced and had yet to become lame.

This time, Jiang Yin wouldn't wait. She wouldn't waste ten years circling around and missing him. She would go find Zhou Chengfeng and remarry him right away, then raise all four children well.

Blurb for Beautiful Wife Gets Rich and Raises the Kids:

Jiang Wenyu was the prettiest wife in the village. She had two sons, yet still looked like a newlywed bride.

She took a liking to the strange man carried back from the mountains. He had lost his memory, but he was handsome. She fed him well and nursed his injuries, and was just about to tell him how she felt and marry him when lightning flashed. She saw the future: she would be killed by a truck; her eldest son would get into a fight while protecting his younger brother, then be arrested and jailed; and her second son would be swindled out of his compensation money and end up running a junkyard in his forties.

The man she had nearly taken in as a live-in son-in-law was a powerful figure who had returned to seek revenge. Someone had knocked him out with a club, temporarily robbing him of his memory.

Terrified by what she had seen, Jiang Wenyu changed her mind. "What live-in son-in-law? That's all rumors. I think of you as my own brother. When you get your memory back, don't forget how my family helped you."

When Jiang Wenyu returned home, her eldest and second sons asked, "Mom, weren't you going to bring home a new dad for us? Where is he?"

Jiang Wenyu said, "Don't be ridiculous. He's no dad. He's a living ancestor, and our family can't afford to keep him. Forget it."

When Shen Mingyuan was eighteen, his enemies ambushed him. A young woman saved him and bore him twin sons. One day, he came home to find his wife had run away and left the children behind.

He worked hard for over a decade, prospered with the times, and amassed a fortune worth tens of millions. Just as he found a lead on his wife, his enemies struck him unconscious with a club.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw the wife who had been gone for over a decade. She stood there with their twin sons, looking at him with shining eyes, and said exactly what she had said all those years ago: "I rescued you, so you have to stay and be my family's live-in son-in-law."

He worked out that the twins beside her were his sons, too. He was about to stay as her live-in son-in-law and find a chance to bring his other two sons over, so the family of six could reunite. But suddenly his wife looked as if she'd seen a ghost and said she'd only been joking about making him a live-in son-in-law, and that she'd always thought of him as an older brother.

His wife was wonderful in every way, except she didn't remember that all four children were his, and introduced him to others as the children's godfather.

Shen Mingyuan laughed in exasperation. "All four of my wife's children are mine. When she gets angry, she likes to joke around. Sorry about that."

After seeing the future, Jiang Wenyu reclaimed her house and patiently waited for the compensation money. Everything was going well, until Shen Mingyuan, the man she had once rescued, coaxed her two sons into calling him Dad.

Furious, Jiang Wenyu had no choice but to explain to everyone, "He's my two boys' godfather. He's connected to the children, not to me."

That night, Shen Mingyuan brought out an agreement and coaxed Jiang Wenyu into signing it. "If you'll be the mother of my two boys, the compensation money will be paid right away."

Jiang Wenyu signed at once and got the money. She was about to leave when four children blocked the door, calling her "Mom" with pitiful faces.

Jiang Wenyu rubbed her forehead. She hadn't even had time to enjoy the compensation money yet. Maybe she should wait a little longer. And so she and Shen Mingyuan settled into a chaotic life of raising children together.

Later, Jiang Wenyu learned that this was a book world whose story could be changed. Shen Mingyuan's enemies had repeatedly fought back, altering the plot, and that was how her family was finally reunited.

Theme: Be self-reliant and independent, respect and cherish one another, and build a future together.