A Spunky Step-Mom in the 1960s Wants to Eat Her Fill

An illiterate, fiery eighteen-year-old girl x a gentle, refined elementary school principal with a mature and resilient heart

When Zhao Guiying was eighteen, her cruel parents sold her off for a bride price.

Her husband-to-be was the elementary school principal in Chengjia Village, in the neighboring brigade. He was handsome and educated. The only drawback was that his wife had just died in childbirth, leaving behind two boys: the elder was two years old, and the younger was only a month old.

Zhao Guiying had always been strong-willed. Her family forced her to marry him so they could build a house for her sixteen-year-old younger brother. What did people in the village know of love? In those days, being able to eat one's fill was already a blessing. She had asked around and learned that the school principal didn't hit his wife and had a salary. That was good enough. What was so hard about being a stepmother? She might not know many characters, but she was good at working both in the fields and around the house.

Now, fifty years later, she lay in a hospital bed, looking at her accomplished children gathered around her, then at the old man with white hair before her.

"Don't cry. We spent fifty years together, and I never once felt that life was hard."

Ten years apart in life and death, nothing brings you to mind, yet I cannot forget you. - Su Shi

Content warnings:

1. This is a true story based on real people.

2. As locals, the protagonists don't have an all-knowing perspective, so they will suffer. Please be kind in the comments.

3. Neither protagonist is perfect.

4. The whole family works hard to get enough to eat.

5. Please don't give writing advice. You don't need to tell me if you drop the novel. There are countless good books on Jinjiang, and I hope you find one that makes you happy.

Theme: Growing together