A Nouveau Riche's Everyday Life of Raising Kids and Gossiping [1990s]

Up next: My Best Friend and I Reincarnated as Wicked Mothers-in-Law [The 1980s]

Coming soon: The Daily Life of a Couple Raising a Child Abroad in the 1980s

Everyone says Lin Shinian was born lucky. When her mother was pregnant with her, her cheating scumbag father was caught red-handed, and her mother got 100,000 yuan in the divorce settlement.

100,000!!! That was no small sum in the early 1990s.

On the day she was born, the demolition that had been rumored for five years was finally confirmed. Their whole village became nouveau riche, and her mother ranked among the top three. They say her compensation alone was worth tens of millions.

When the news got out, her scumbag father's family shamelessly begged for forgiveness. Her mother didn't waste a single word, just rolled up her sleeves and slapped every one of them.

Everyone: Why would you provoke her? Lin Zijun had been doted on since childhood, and grew up feisty and sharp-tongued. Before she got married, she was invincible in the whole village, anyway, Policeman Second Uncle Lin always had her back.

*

After getting rich, Lin Zijun took her child shopping every day, bought whatever she wanted, then went for beauty treatments and afternoon tea. She was living the high life. Whenever someone tried to set her up with a man, she turned them down.

She had a daughter and money, so what did she need a man for? Instead of wasting time on that, she could go with her policeman father to hear all the juicy gossip from everyone in the village.

Second Uncle Lin: Girl, let me tell you. You missed it yesterday when you went to collect the rent. Your Second Uncle and Second Aunt got into a fight. That shameless mistress showed up with a huge belly, at least six months along, and made your Second Aunt so mad she fainted three times. They had to pinch her philtrum until it swelled before she came around, then she chased your Second Uncle with a cleaver...

Lin Zijun: ! Wait, didn't Second Uncle celebrate his sixtieth birthday last year? The old man sure knows how to have fun, getting his mistress pregnant.

Second Uncle Lin: You've met that mistress before. She used to date your Second Uncle's eldest son.

Lin Zijun: ? Keeping it in the family, huh.

When he was young, Second Uncle Lin loved a spectacle so much that he would do anything to get into the police station. After getting married and having a child, he rode around on a standard bicycle with his daughter on the back, busier than the director of the women's committee. After the demolition, he switched to a motorcycle. He'd arrive at the scene of some incident, and a moment later his daughter would show up in her little car...

Wherever there was a spectacle, the father and daughter were sure to be there. Three years later, Lin Zijun got out of her car and pulled a children's tricycle from the trunk. Little Shinian climbed on, pedaled hard, and rang her cheerful little bell as she made her way straight to her maternal grandpa.

She stopped, pushed the hair that had fallen across her face back into place, and revealed a little face as pretty as a porcelain doll. Her eyes sparkled as she asked eagerly, "Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpa! If the baby isn't Second Grandpa's, then whose is it?"

[The female lead has no lofty ambitions or career drive. After buying houses all over the country, she lies flat and lives off the rent, with more money than she can spend, more gossip than she can hear, and a child to raise.]

Up next: My Best Friend and I Reincarnated as Wicked Mothers-in-Law [The 1980s]

Before reincarnating: How can some people forget their roots the moment they become mothers-in-law?

After reincarnating: How can some people become mothers-in-law without forgetting their roots!

After Jiang Huan and An Nanning realized they had both reincarnated, they put their heads together and grinned like a pair of smug little villains.

Wicked mothers-in-law should act the part.

Forty-two is the perfect age to cause trouble.

Bestie, she's so mean! Let's take her down together!

*

Their wives can't get along with the neighbors, and the constant racket has the whole place in an uproar. Colonel Zhuang and Political Commissar Lu would rather sit by the roadside staring at each other than go home.

Then one day, Colonel Zhuang's younger son ran over to ask for help. "Dad, Uncle Lu, they're fighting! Hurry back and break it up!"

Colonel Zhuang: "When aren't they fighting?"

Political Commissar Lu: "You're still not used to it?"

"It's not a fight between them. My mom and Aunt An have my wife pinned down and are beating her up. Lu Ziwen's wife happened to walk by, so they beat her up too."

Colonel Zhuang: "???"

Political Commissar Lu: "!!!"

The good news: The two women finally made peace.

The bad news: They became partners in crime.

Day one: They went to the logistics office to pick out handsome young guards.

Day two: They used binoculars to watch the military police train at the base entrance.

Day three: They took both daughters-in-law to a nightclub to drink and flirt with young men.

Colonel Zhuang and Political Commissar Lu braced themselves and rushed over, only to discover that they hadn't braced themselves enough. Not only were their daughters-in-law there, but Old Madam Zhuang and Old Madam Lu were too. The two old ladies got so excited they fainted on the spot, the daughters-in-law and sons were arguing about divorce, and Colonel Zhuang and Political Commissar Lu felt like their heads were about to explode. Then they saw Jiang Huan and An Nanning, the culprits, whispering about someone in a corner.

Colonel Zhuang and Political Commissar Lu went over to demand an explanation, but before they could say a word, Jiang Huan and An Nanning chorused, "Then get divorced!"

*

In middle age, people lose interest in everything, especially their wives. Colonel Zhuang and Political Commissar Lu are the exception. To win back their wives' hearts, the two forty-five-year-olds put everything they had into it.

But their efforts barely made a difference.

In Jiang Huan and An Nanning's eyes, friendship between besties mattered more than romance between men and women. Instead of flirting with old men, they would rather watch a spectacle and give their daughters-in-law a hard time.

The Zhuang family's daughter-in-law: "Other people's mothers-in-law help with the kids. In my family, my younger brother-in-law is three days older than my son, and I have to breastfeed him too."

The Lu family's daughter-in-law: "Oh dear, my little sister-in-law is hungry too."

Reading guide:

1. Two female leads. They're not perfect, and they love themselves and each other most of all.

2. Family life in an army compound in The 1980s, with a large ensemble cast, no career plotline, and a little middle-aged romance. Just a fun read.

Coming soon: The Daily Life of a Couple Raising a Child Abroad in the 1980s

[Life in a foreign country + food and child-rearing + everyday family life]

In her past life, Lin Qingtian couldn't let go of things. She went abroad to study with her husband, accidentally got pregnant, and endured endless humiliation. She swore she would make something of herself.

So she devoted herself completely to a Chinese restaurant, barely seeing her husband. Their relationship grew distant, and she became even less close to their daughter. Seven years later, her husband earned his doctorate and decided to return to China to serve his country. Lin Qingtian was firmly against it, and their conflict ended in divorce. Lin Qingtian won custody, but her daughter refused to live with her, ran away, and had an accident.

Two years later, the Chinese restaurant suffered severe losses. Lin Qingtian declared bankruptcy and ended her life in her cold, empty apartment.

Her husband, meanwhile, spent his whole life constrained by her and died alone in a foreign land. If she could live her life over, she definitely wouldn't...

When she opened her eyes, Lin Qingtian was back at twenty-two, nine months pregnant and fighting with her paternal half-brother...

*

The child-rearing story

An Ziji was capable but cold and stern. At school, the professors liked him, but he never managed to fit in with his classmates. One day, he brought his Chinese daughter to campus. The little girl was two years old, with glossy black hair and jade-green eyes. She looked like a doll, so adorable it made people's hearts melt.

Wasn't An's wife Chinese too? So how was their daughter mixed Chinese and German?

Before anyone could figure it out, the little girl ran out of the lab in a huff. An Ziji, in his white lab coat, chased after her, apologizing in a gentle voice. "Daddy was wrong. Daddy loves you, sweetheart. Daddy won't scold you anymore. Daddy was wrong."

An Ziji picked her up. The little girl wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, tears falling as she sobbed, "Daddy scolded me. I still love Daddy, I love Daddy most..."

As his daughter kept saying "I love you," An Ziji regretted what he'd done and felt so bad that he ended up crying with her in his arms.

Everyone: "...???!!!"

*

The food story

There's a Chinese street-food stall in New York with incredible flavors and superb cooking. Whenever it shows up, a long line forms. It appears and vanishes without warning, keeping its customers eager for more and begging the owner to open a shop.

The owner doesn't want to be forced into a regular job and does whatever she feels like. Today she sells Northeast Chinese twisted fried dough at a marathon, tomorrow she sells candied hawthorns outside an elementary school. She's made students at nearby New York University crave them so badly they cry, and get into fights with elementary school kids over a skewer of candied hawthorns.

New York University's strictest and most famous biology professor: Lin, could you set up your stall at our university tomorrow?

Lin Qingtian politely declines with a smile: Tomorrow I'm planting tomatoes, chives, yardlong beans, cucumbers...

Tomato and egg stir-fry, chive pockets, yardlong beans with minced pork, smashed cucumber salad... The professor's mouth watered. "Lin, to be honest, I'm very good at farm work."

Theme: Love goes both ways.