Dan Jingqiu wanted to take back her previous thoughts. She wanted to get her hands on that no-good-always-playing-dead-System 008, and beat the hell out of it.

Faced with the commotion happening in front of her, she was speechless; the last world was truly a Beginner’s world.

Right, this must be the legendary·Hellish mode.

“Hah! Who would accept that as a reason?! Everyone, come gather round and witness this daughter-in-law bully her mother-in-law!!”

“Dan Jingqiu, my son died because he married an unlucky wrench like you! You cursed him to death! And now you dare usurp my son’s house?!”

…

Dan Jingqiu had a blank look as she watched the drama unfold before her eyes, the corners of her mouth twisted into a sneer.

Upon understanding the plotline of this world, Dan Jingqiu gave another cursory glance at the old woman, who was rolling on the floor from anger. As she did so, Dan Jingqiu felt an overwhelming sense of bitterness.

In her lifetime, quality trash like this could only be found on online tabloids or rant forums. Who would’ve thought she would witness a real-life version of it?

The original host’s past experiences could only be summarized as ‘tragic.’

But was she truly innocent? Some might disagree.

There’s a saying: Always the victim but never the victor; precisely what the original host’s life was based on.

If the world’s main theme was written into a book, Dan Jingqiu could just see it having one of those cliche titles such as >, > or something similar along these lines.

Anyone who saw these titles would immediately understand that this was a typical piece of dated fiction. The story’s protagonist, Lin Qing, had her soul transmigrated to Datong village in the 60s, where it entered the body of an unborn girl with the same name. Using her wits and intelligence, she attained true love with a soldier boy and lived happily ever after.

But what about the original host?

Her family was a part of the background to the main plotline and played a huge role in emphasizing the story’s “quality kinship.”

Datong village was located in the Lizi ravine of the C province in Tongshan county. Most of the villagers were there because their ancestors had migrated and settled there for generations. Like many traditional villages, the three most prominent surnames in Datong village were Ling, Li, and Sun.

The original host was from Daxing village, on the other side of the mountain, and was brought over here through marriage.

As for the role of the original host in this story —— ‘Ridiculous,’ was the most suitable word to describe it.

When the female lead had transmigrated into the little girl, like many dated fiction, she found herself related to a family filled with these ‘amazing’ relatives.

Female lead Lin Qing’s granny was called Sun Jinhua. She controlled Lin Yaoxi’s entire fortune and was the embodiment of a biased mother. Though she raised 3 sons and 2 daughters, she showed extreme favoritism. However, not long after marrying her husband, Lin Yaoxi, Sun Jinhua suffered hard times. It was during these hard times when she birthed the eldest son Lin Jianguo, second son Lin Jianjun, and eldest daughter Lin Taohua. After undergoing poverty and hardships for 5 years, she gave birth to a pair of twins, youngest son Lin Jiandang and youngest daughter Lin Xinghua.

Though she had 3 sons and 2 daughters, Sun Jinhua only had love for the youngest two. And she could not wait to rob all of the other children’s inheritance to supplement herself.

Why’s that, you ask?

Simple, Sun Jinhua was utterly superstitious.

During the years when life was tough, Sun Jinhua would carry red paper strips containing the birth dates of Jianguo, Jianjun, and Taohua. Along with her meager savings, she would visit the famous Blind Wang residing in the city to read their fortunes. After all, life was too hard, and her mental state was hanging by a thread. Without superstition as an outlet, she could barely endure the realities of taking care of a house full of wailing children and the seemingly endless poverty.

Blind Wang had a blunt conclusion for Sun Jinhua. He claimed that the current children she had were not destined to be filial and would amount to nothing. The penniless condition of the household was due to the bad fortunes of these three children, and their luck could only be turned around by the next birth.

Naturally, Sun Jinhua did not take it seriously in the beginning and only kept those negative thoughts to herself. After all, this involved all her children, and she could not just abandon them.

But strangely enough, when Sun Jinhua became expectant once more, the beginnings of the pregnancy showed vast differences. The pregnancy was smooth sailing, and without any signs of morning sickness to be found.

Her pregnancy aside, the financial conditions of the household seemed to change for the better.

And when the twins were born, Lin Yaoxi’s older brother, Yaodong, had successfully retired from the army and returned home with plenty of resources, and left a decent amount of money to his younger brothers who were not doing as well. This helped Lin Yaoxi improve his position in the Lin family, and their lives were different ever since.

And now, Sun Jinhua was thoroughly convinced that her youngest son and daughter were the reason for their prosperity.

She also decided from that point on, the two older sons and eldest daughter had cursed the family!

Since then, she gave everything to her precious twins, while the other 3 children were treated worse than how the village’s stepmothers would treat their children.

It was fine while they were young. Since the worst that could happen was doing more manual labor and eating less. They were still recognized in the village, and the family kept their dirty laundry to themselves.

But when they got older, the challenges have also increased. The hard days had arrived!

The two older brothers began farming with what limited strength they had, while Taohua stayed at home to care for the two youngest children.

But farming was not good enough. Most of the children in the village that were of the age were sent away for an education, but Sun Jinhua refused to let her two oldest sons leave.

Sun Jinhua was famously known for her stingy and cunning nature. If her two children went to school, their ambitions would soar! Not to mention losing those two free laborers would make her life more difficult! Don’t even think about it! She would never make such an unprofitable business decision!

Oh, you want to talk about Taohua? This child was fated to be married off, so why would Sun Jinhua spend the family’s money to send her off for an education? She was better off staying at home and babysitting her younger siblings.

And so the children became adults under these grueling conditions.

When Lin Jianguo was of marriageable age, Sun Jinhua absolutely refused to give him a single cent for a dowry. As someone who only knew how to farm, possessing no other talent, and a large family to feed, who would be willing to marry him?

Coincidentally, the Dan family, who lived in a village away, were also facing hardships. The Dan family had 3 daughters and a son, and the Dan patriarch, who was looking for a daughter-in-law, had set his sights on Lin Taohua. Like many other poor families, Old Man Dan came up with the idea to swap relatives with Sun Jinhua. He would allow his eldest daughter, Dan Jingqiu, to marry Lin Jianguo. And then, Lin Taohua would marry into his household.

After that, only Lin Jianjun remains. While she did not wish to spend the money, Sun Jinhua could not find another solution. You couldn’t expect her to just swap her precious daughter, Xinghua, in the same marriage arrangement?! So, after racking her brains, she finally came up with a solution. Sun Jinhua went to a matchmaker who lived on the mountain top and was known for matching the poorest families within the 5000 m radius. She spent 3 dollars and a bag of rice and bought a second daughter-in-law, Wu Qiuyun.

Now that everything’s planned and settled, Sun Jinhua believed she could unreasonably control and demand anything out of these sons and daughters-in-law.

But this also had something to do with their personalities.

Lin Jianguo, Lin Jianjun, Wu Qiuyun, and the original host have always been cowardly people. And it was due to their cowardice that Sun Jinhua was able to control her sons and daughters-in-law.

All of them naturally fell in line when this shrew of a mother loses her temper.

And so, this tragic life became more difficult by the day. And even Lin Jianguo’s eldest daughter, Lin Yu, was made to till the farms in place of her youngest aunt and uncle!

“Ma, stop crying, Let’s go back in.” Lin Xinghua, who had been pampered for 18 years, felt embarrassed just watching her mother, Sun Jinhua, rolling on the ground. She could not wait to drag her back into the house, lest some outsider saw them.

After all, everyone knew how her eldest brother died. It was eerie watching her mother throw a tantrum when the corpse had not yet cooled.

But Lin Xinghua did not say another word. Why? Because she secretly hoped her mother would succeed.

She also believed that since her eldest brother was no longer alive, his wife should pack up and go back to her maiden home. Though there would be fewer people to till the lands, Lin Xinghua would gain a house. After all, she’s a big girl now, and did not wish to sleep in a makeshift cubicle in her parents’ bedroom.

As for the pair of children left behind by her oldest brother, they can just sleep anywhere. Why would two adolescent children need their own single room?

Li Xinghua had already begun making decoration plans for when she gets her hands on that house.

Dan Jingqiu looked coldly at Lin Xinghua, who was standing straight as a pencil. She looked quite mature and healthy, but based on how upright she stood and how she seemed unwilling to bend over and help Sun Jinhua up, Dan Jingqiu already had a good grasp of her personality and what she was thinking.

And from here on out, this story began its dramatic prologue.

Under his mother’s request, the original host’s husband, Lin Jianguo, accompanied an infamous smuggler from the neighboring village. Together, they secretly brought a bunch of wildlife from the mountains to resell in the city. On their way back, they were discovered by the patrol, and while they were desperately on the run to evade the patrol officers, Lin Jianguo clumsily slipped and fell on the roadside. His forehead was split open by a rock, and just like that, he died from excessive blood loss.

As a result, Dan Jingqiu was suffering from a blow upon just learning about her husband’s death, but before she could come to her senses, Sun Jinhua was already causing a ruckus at her doorstep.

Sun Jinhua kept calling the original host a husband-killing jinx, accusing her of cursing her husband to death and was determined to get rid of the original host. She went as far as shrewdly throwing herself to the ground, screaming and kicking to attract attention.

How does the cowardly original host fight back?

The original host was foolishly chased out of the house without bringing a single item with her. In her despair, she only remembered kneeling and crying outside the door as she begged Sun Jinhua to let her stay while the woman ignored her.

She dared not mention her son and daughter, fearing that Sun Jinhua might kick them out along with her, and was forced to leave in silence under Sun Jinhua’s menacing threats.

But where could she go?

She could not abandon her children behind, so she stayed in the cowshed at the entrance of the village under the kindness of the village elder, barely living with what little work points she could get from the government. (TL: Work Points = Under the Chinese government, agricultural workers are awarded work points based on work input/out, that can be exchanged for food or money.)

The transmigrated female lead took away her parents, so Lin Jianjun and his family left and were able to build a better life.

Now Sun Jinhua absolutely refused to let Dan Jingqiu’s children go. Who else was going to be the free labor?

And so, this pair of siblings followed their father’s footsteps and were forced to live their days doing grueling labor.

Dan Jingqiu would starve herself, offering up rice that she had traded with work points, in hopes that Sun Jinhua would be kinder to her children. But alas, it was of no avail.

What about later?

Dan Jingqiu’s daughter was married off to the village cripple —— all because the cripple’s family had money. Luckily, though the cripple was old, he was a skilled crafter and did not mistreat her daughter. But ultimately, her daughter was married off to an old and crippled man who was decades older than her.

What about her son? After working in the family farm day after day, he became another Lin Jianguo.

Though Dan Jingqiu was chased out of the house, she still took care of Sun Jinhua through old age. Because if she didn’t, her own son would be worked to death.

At her deathbed, she could tell that her son had aged quite considerably compared to his peers. She wondered what she did wrong in her life to cause this.

She was “obedient” all her life, so just how did she end up here after being so obedient? Even her daughter was unwilling to see her one last time.

Life can offer anything, but the useless original host only had a few wishes before she died.

She did not wish for riches, nor did she wish to fight with Sun Jinhua.

She only wished for a peaceful life where she was not so timid. She wanted to be like Sun Jinhua and not be bullied by anyone.

She wished to do right by her children, so they could live without regrets.

Dan Jingqiu watched the tear-stricken old woman mutter her wishes into the void and slowly disappear in a trance-like state.

Even on the verge of death, while making her wish, she was stammering hesitantly: “Could you…Could you help me…help my Ah Yu and Ah Xiong…”

The original host knew that a lot of her sufferings were self-inflicted. But Dan Jingqiu had no words while she watched her and only offered a sigh.

In this story, the original host’s experience was used to remind the readers of the awfulness of Sun Jinhua. The story’s summary was written like this:

“Lin Qing personally watched as her aunt was chased out of the house that day, wearing only a robe, wiping her tears and constantly looking back as she took each step.

Lin Yu and Lin Xiong, who were left behind, watched in shock, but could not find the courage to even step out.

Sun Jinhua then yelled at Lin Yu and Lin Xiong to go back in and wash the dishes. From that day onwards, those two pairs of hands, which looked so thin that they might break, undertook all the housework in the family.

The calculative Lin Qing would not tolerate it any longer. Sun Jinhua’s heartlessness made her bristle in anger.

She must take her parents away from this misery.”

And so the awakened Lin Qing packed up and dragged her foolish parents out of that house.

Of course, before they left, Lin Qing felt immense pity for her cousins and occasionally thought about them, but that was the extent of it.

…

When Sun Jinhua saw that her honest daughter-in-law seemed unresponsive from fear, she secretly smirked, calling her useless inwardly.

She did not feel a shred of guilt. Useless people deserved to be bullied.

Once again, she strained her vocal cords and yelled, not the least bit embarrassed to be seen as a spectacle.

“This jinx dares to continue staying under my roof. She wishes to curse my entire family to death!”

Her heart-wrenching cries echoed in the empty courtyard.

Dan Jingqiu watched the other party shamelessly display their unreasonable attitude and smirked inwardly.

Bad people would get their dues.

Let me punish you on behalf of the original host.