I Was Reborn After Marrying Up [The 1980s]

[Feel free to save my next period novel, The Everyday Life of a Sixties Courtyard's Gossip Lovers]

Lin Minjun was reborn.

In her previous life, she was diagnosed with infertility, yet her husband's family remained kind to her. They encouraged her to get injections, take medicine, try IVF, and seek folk remedies for having a child. Everyone praised her mother-in-law and husband for their kindness, saying she was lucky, that a sparrow like her had climbed to a high branch and landed in a nest of comfort.

Only Lin Minjun knew that her life had been ruined long ago. Decades of seeking medical treatment had left her barely human. She was in a car accident while trying to have a child. As she lay dying, she thought, If I could live again, I wouldn't get married or have children.

When she woke again, she was on a train returning to the city. Her husband from her previous life had also been reborn.

Her husband said, "Minjun, let's not have children this time. Let's just live a good life together."

Lin Minjun gently brushed his hand away. "Forget it. I'm tired."

She decided to make something of herself!

A country girl might not know much, but she had one thing going for her: excellent cooking skills.

She set up a food stall in the capital and began selling delicacies from her hometown in Yunnan and Guizhou.

Rice noodle rolls, glutinous rice cakes, steamed rice with pagoda tree blossoms, sour soup with yellow catfish, fish with fermented chili, and potato cakes.

From running a stall to opening a shop and taking over a restaurant, her life after being reborn was simply wonderful.

When her former mother-in-law's family heard she'd made money in business, they hurried over to propose again.

But what they saw was a handsome man with sharp brows and bright eyes standing beside Lin Minjun, holding a baby who had just turned one month old.

Lin Minjun smiled. "I've just finished my postpartum confinement. Come celebrate with us when the baby turns one."

Her ex-husband's whole family turned deathly pale. So which one of them was actually infertile?

The Everyday Life of a Sixties Courtyard

Xiao Baozhen was reborn. As soon as she opened her eyes, she heard her mother crying. "What are we going to do? We finally found you a good man from the city, and he's about to come propose. Your shameless cousin actually stole your match! My poor daughter, you've had such a hard life!"

A twice-married man with three kids counts as a good match?

In her previous life, she married him. She had to deal with a troublemaking mother-in-law, stand up to a sweet-talking but vicious sister-in-law, and wear herself out raising three little terrors. Her parents had spoiled her all her life, but she still wore herself down into a haggard housewife, and her husband wouldn't stop complaining.

If she married into that family, then she really would have a hard life! Whoever wants to be a stepmother can do it!

Xiao Baozhen didn't mind, but the matchmaker felt bad and introduced her to another man from the city.

"He's a key employee at a factory, with an urban household registration. He's got a great temperament, just a little shy. He's an orphan, and he has a younger brother who's a bit of a burden."

No parents, quiet, and well-off. Those are supposed to be flaws?

Xiao Baozhen looked at the handsome man across from her and his flushed ears, then nodded.

And so the two cousins married into the same courtyard, where they saw each other every day, and their lives began...

Xiao Baozhu had a dream. In it, her younger cousin Baozhen was the heroine of a period novel. She married into the city and became a stepmother. The three children she raised all became powerful figures, and her husband became the richest man in the province.

When she woke up, she thought it over and grew unhappy. Why should her cousin have such good luck? Why couldn't she?

Then she had a sudden thought. Why couldn't she? Being a stepmother was just being a stepmother. Anyone could do it!

She heard her cousin had also married into a courtyard, and that her husband was the notorious loser there. Xiao Baozhu could barely contain her laughter.

But could someone explain why her cousin's family was living in perfect harmony, as sweet as honey, with her husband still doting on her and keeping her as lovely and lively as ever?

And why hadn't her own man become the richest man? Why were her stepchildren still such little terrors?

Why?!

Premise: Keep striving to bloom, even in adversity.