Chapter 47: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s 47 (Arc End)

Su Huandan’s current daily life was the envy of many.

Her children were obedient and sensible. Those who should be in school were in school, and for her second son, who was involved in scientific research, there was even less need for Su Huandan to worry as a mother.

Regarding her parents, her parents-in-law were reasonable and her own parents were protective. They were all healthy and held down the fort at home. At the very least, when Su Huandan and her husband were busy, they didn’t need to spend extra energy worrying about the children.

Being able to gather both sets of parents together for their golden years, where they got along like old siblings, was a rare blessing.

As for Su Huandan herself, she held many shares and properties under her name. Some were given by her parents-in-law, some she earned herself, and everything her husband owned was shared with her.

Who wouldn’t envy such a life?

“Our third daughter was born to enjoy life. Back then, resources were much more abundant. When I was pregnant with her, I could eat whatever I craved. It wasn’t like when I had the first two; it wasn’t that the family lacked money, but we just couldn’t buy what we wanted. Since she was little, the two of us protected her like a precious gem. Back then, we thought she would be our last child, so we even turned our regret of not having a son into love and gave it all to her. As the old saying goes, a child loved by her parents will be cherished by her in-laws. When she went to school, dated, got married, and had children, her parents-in-law truly loved her just as much as we did. Looking at her, let alone outsiders being envious, even as a woman, if I compare my own life to hers, I’m envious too.” Jiang Chunhua said this to her husband before going to sleep, and then she had a nightmare.

That nightmare was terrifying and long, spanning from her youth until her death from old age.

In the dream, she also moved to the city, but she didn’t have a youngest son. Her eldest and second daughters both married into families in Yuanyi Village, but what kind of families were they? They were cold and heartless families that forbade the sisters from contacting their parents’ home as soon as the third daughter fell ill.

The eldest and second daughters left their husbands and divorced for the sake of their younger sister. The family sold their house and tried every possible means, but the third daughter still died of illness.

Those rounds of chemotherapy, those surgeries, the transformation from a beautiful girl into a withered, sallow, sickly ghost… until the final surgery, from which she never left the operating table.

Jiang Chunhua never knew that a person could die with such difficulty; it was more than ten years of sheer endurance.

Being tortured by pain day after day, how could that be easy?

It was a way of dying comparable to torture.

“My third girl.” Jiang Chunhua woke up crying, only to face Su Dakui, who had also woken up in tears.

“You had a dream? I heard you calling for her.” Su Dakui wiped the tears from his face, staring at his wife with a strange expression.

“I dreamed of her. She suffered for over ten years. Cancer. She didn’t make it off the operating table. Wuwu…” Jiang Chunhua’s dream was exactly the same as Su Dakui’s.

In the dream, after the third daughter died, they took the eldest and second daughters to work odd jobs to slowly pay off the debts. Eventually, the family bought a house again, and the two elder sisters remarried.

The old couple’s life in their later years wasn’t actually difficult in that dream. If the eldest and second daughters wouldn’t abandon their younger sister, how could they abandon their parents?

So in that dream, the most pitiful one was the third daughter, and the most painful part was her being tortured by illness for over ten years.

That dream… perhaps it wasn’t a dream, but something that had actually happened?

Su Dakui thought this, but he never mentioned it to anyone.

The old couple washed their faces and continued living their lives as they should. But when the third daughter continued to wander over to them whenever she was free, they never again told her to go mind her own business.

The old couple always felt as if she was making up for the regret of not being able to care for her parents in her previous life.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t value her parents even more than her own children.

Therefore, regardless of whether that dream was real or whether she had truly been reborn, as parents, they would take care of themselves.

To give their children less to worry about.

Another ten years passed. Su Dakui’s hearing had faded and Jiang Chunhua’s vision was blurred, yet they could still see their grandson, Yu Wanli, at an awards ceremony on television.

Overtaking on a curve¹, Yu Wanli and his mentors had developed the eighth-generation fighter jet. It was a team award, but the research concept for the engine had been proposed by Yu Wanli.

Su Dakui laughed heartily. Because he was hard of hearing, his voice was even louder when he spoke.

“Old in-law, look, is this grandson good or what? My daughter bore him for your family. A good child, bringing honor to the ancestors.” Su Dakui was happy. A grandson through a daughter was no different from a grandson through a son, and this one was born to his third child.

Whenever he thought of the third daughter in that dream, his heart ached so much he couldn’t sleep.

Now.

She had such a successful son who could bring her a lifetime of glory. Even if he and his wife died right now, they could close their eyes in peace.

Zhou Jing nodded with a smile. “He is a good child. They are all good children. My family married a good daughter-in-law and gained this glory. But old in-law, your family isn’t lacking either. Your son joined the army and is now in the special forces. The grandson born to your second daughter inherited his father’s ambitions and is now a policeman. And what about those two sons of your eldest daughter? Are they not outstanding? They mastered their culinary skills and have gone abroad to open restaurants and promote Chinese cuisine. These children are all good. They have ideas and integrity; not a single one is a failure.”

Su Dakui nodded. That was exactly it.

The children were all good.

They were all on the right path and hadn’t wasted their lives. Their generation no longer had any regrets.

Having lost his regrets, Su Dakui did not wake up from his sleep less than three days later.

Before the funeral was even over, Jiang Chunhua was also fading. She lay in bed without eating or drinking and passed away with a smile, without suffering any pain at all.

The following year, Zhou Jing and Ms. Meng also passed away one after another.

However, the Siheyuan under the names of Su Huandan and Yu Zexiu had been given to the eldest sister. In this courtyard, even though the four elders were gone, the fragrance of wine and meat still wafted out every night. The people living nearby had also changed.

What about before?

They were all old Beijingers. Now, some Siheyuan had been sold. There were celebrities from Hong Kong, wealthy businessmen from abroad, and children who had sent off their parents but continued to live in their old courtyards.

These people began coming to the Su family’s courtyard every night to drink wine and eat meat.

Su Huandan found it quite amusing. “Is this fragrance of wine and meat starting to be passed down through the generations too?”

Yu Zexiu wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Let them spread rumors. It’s not like our eating and drinking is hurting anyone. We’re getting old, and the children are busy and can’t always be around. What’s wrong with finding some fun for ourselves? We’ve worked our whole lives. If we can be like your parents or mine when we’re old, gathering people at home every day to eat, drink, and spend the rest of our lives in good company, wouldn’t that be happiness?”

In this life, it all came down to food and drink. Wasn’t that how everyone lived?

When Su Huandan was ninety-eight years old, she watched on television as the spacecraft built by Yu Wanli launched into the sky. In the field of aerospace, he was number one in the world; her big shot of a son had achieved it.

Unfortunately, mother and son did not have the chance to see each other one last time.

Closing her eyes, she returned to the Reincarnation Department of the Underworld. Su Huandan examined her own soul. It was a dusty, semi-transparent soul body, but while her previous form had looked as she did when she died of illness, this time she appeared as she had during the peak of her beauty in her reincarnated life.

[Welcome back to the Reincarnation Department, Reincarnator Number 399.]

Translator’s Notes