Lin Lan was furious. She leapt out of bed, turned left out of her room, and stormed into the kitchen. Grabbing a cleaver, she threw open the bolt, yanked the door open, and charged outside, ready to kill.
The courtyard gate had been kicked open, and three thuggish-looking men were standing in the yard.
The one shouting the loudest was of average height, with a long face, squinty eyes, an underbite, and a thoroughly sleazy look about him.
'Liu Jinbao.' Information about the man surfaced in her predecessor's memories.
Shortly after the 49-day mourning period for her deadbeat husband, Yang Guangming, this man had shown up with an IOU. He claimed her late husband had borrowed over a hundred yuan from him and aggressively pressured the original Lin Lan to repay the debt, even getting handsy with her.
Her predecessor had been terrified and rushed to borrow money from Yang Guangming's three older sisters to pay off the debt.
The three sisters said that burying their brother—buying a coffin and arranging the funeral—had cost them over two hundred yuan. Although they got some of it back from condolence money, they were still out over a hundred yuan after everything was settled.
Split three ways, each of them had spent several dozen yuan. Where would they find the money to lend her?
The original Lin Lan had been resentful, snapping that since her sisters-in-law had lost their brother, they might as well lose their nephew and sister-in-law too. She dared them to never set foot in their parents' home again.
The three sisters-in-law were livid. 'Their own brother had been unreliable, so how could they possibly count on his son?' They were so angry they not only threw her out but also demanded she pay them back.
Lin Lan's mouth twitched as she recalled all this. 'Her predecessor was truly spoiled rotten by her parents,' she thought, 'completely clueless about how the world works.'
"Well, well! My, oh my! Look at our little Miss Lin. Haven't seen you for a few days, and you've turned into a real firecracker."
Liu Jinbao's eyes raked over Lin Lan like hooks. He pointed at the cleaver in her hand and cackled, "Ye San, you two, take a look at this. Little Miss Lin brought out a cleaver to scare her big bro."
Ye San laughed sleazily. "Go on, Brother Liu! Hitting is affection, and scolding is love. Let Little Miss Lin stab you right in the heart to prove her love for you!"
"Alright, let's show Little Miss Lin!" Liu Jinbao rubbed his chest with a lewd grin, swaggering forward to touch Lin Lan's cheek.
"You son of a bitch, I'll chop off your damn hands!"
Lin Lan's eyes flashed as she raised her brow. Face contorted with rage, she brought the cleaver down hard on his "damn hand." Liu Jinbao snatched his hand back in terror, but the blade still sliced off a piece of flesh from his finger.
Bright red blood spurted out instantly. "AH! AHHH!" Liu Jinbao screamed, staring at his bloody finger. "You bitch! I tried to be nice, but you..."
"You bastard! I'll take you down with me today!" Lin Lan charged at Liu Jinbao, raising the cleaver high, her eyes glinting with a cold light.
'She really didn't want to live anymore. She had worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk for decades, acquiring properties and shops, finally living an enviable life of wealth and leisure.'
'She thought she'd been quite successful, but then she discovered her scumbag boyfriend was cheating on her, and right after that, she was diagnosed with a terminal illness.'
'She had just divorced the scumbag, only for him to push her into the path of a car, killing her.'
'And now she'd arrived here, in the body of a lazy, gluttonous woman who was also drowning in debt.'
'Her big house, her company, her shops...'
Seeing the raw ferocity in Lin Lan as she held the cleaver, Liu Jinbao finally realized she wasn't bluffing. She was serious.
"Run! The bitch is crazy!"
The three of them turned and scurried toward the gate like rats, not forgetting to shout threats over their shoulders. "You bitch, you refuse to pay your debts... and now you're trying to murder someone! You slut! I'm going to the police station to report you!"
"You scumbag! Your whole family is trash! You waste of space, letting you live is a waste of air! I'll chop you up first..." Lin Lan raised her cleaver and gave chase.
"Murder! She's trying to kill us..." the three men screamed as they ran.
"You good-for-nothing hoodlums! How dare you kick down a widow's door! This old lady will beat you to death!"
"Bad guys! Beat you to death!" a little boy's high-pitched voice chimed in.
Before the words had even faded, Lin Lan saw several rocks fly toward the fleeing Liu Jinbao.
Then, a small, benevolent-looking old woman with a head of white hair pulled into a round bun, wearing a blue tunic with a slanted placket, hurried to the gate, holding the hand of a thin, delicate-looking little boy.
Lin Lan turned back, set the cleaver down on the stone steps, and walked toward the gate.
The old woman looked at the broken bolt on the ground. "Good heavens! What kind of men bully a widow? Ill-mannered bastards!"
The old woman was the Yang family's Third Grand-Aunt. She lived in the bamboo forest diagonally across from Lin Lan's house. When Lin Lan went to work, she would leave her son with the old woman for safekeeping.
The old woman had only one grandson, who had been discharged from the army and now worked at the Public Security Bureau. It seemed he had a child as well.
"Great-Granny, Mama's back! Mama, Mama!" The little boy shook off the old woman's hand and ran toward Lin Lan.
He ran right up to Lin Lan and hugged her legs, looking up at her. "Mama, is your cold better? Did you take the yucky medicine?"
Lin Lan stared, at a loss, at the worried little boy looking up at her. A dull ache throbbed in her chest. She knew this feeling wasn't her own; it was her predecessor worrying about her child.
Seeing her just staring blankly, Little Douzi grew scared and shook her legs. "Mama, Little Douzi is scared. Does your head still hurt? Did you take the yucky medicine?"
His tearful, childish cry snapped Lin Lan back to her senses. She quickly bent down and picked him up. "Mama took the yucky medicine. I'm all better now."
The old woman entered the courtyard and looked at the vegetable patch along the wall. The few rows of green beans, cowpeas, and squash were still the ones Lin Lan's mother had planted.
"Lin Lan, this old lady is going to say something you might not like to hear. That good-for-nothing, short-lived youngest son of the Yangs is gone. It's time for you to take Little Douzi and start getting your life in order."
"Look at you, working in the fields one day and taking off the next. How many work points do you think you'll earn by the end of the year? And now they don't even let us raise our own chickens or pigs. With all the time you spend sleeping in, you could be tilling that vegetable patch and planting some greens, sweet potatoes, and regular potatoes."
"Clean out the pigsty and buy a couple of piglets to raise. By the end of the year, you'll have saved up some money, you can pay off your debts, and you'll even have extra food on the table!"
"Spending on food and clothes won't make you poor, but a lack of planning will keep you poor for life. If you rely on a mountain, it will crumble; if you rely on people, they will leave. You have to stand on your own two feet. If you keep thinking you can rely on handouts from your parents' family, what will you do with your life?"
"It's fine while your parents are around, but what about when they're gone? Your brother and sister-in-law have their own children to raise. Who's going to have enough extra grain to give you?"
"Look at me, an old woman in her sixties or seventies, still working my fingers to the bone. Why can't you just go to work properly? One day it's a stomachache, the next it's a headache. If you don't work hard, where are your work points and money going to come from?"
Lin Lan's face burned with shame. She nodded quickly. "Auntie, I understand. I'll start digging this afternoon. Tomorrow, I'll go find some sweet potato shoots, seed potatoes, and vegetable seedlings to get the garden planted."
Little Douzi wrapped his arms around her neck and affectionately rubbed his cheek against hers. "Mama, I'll help you. Great-Granny taught me how."
Lin Lan nodded. "Okay! You can help Mama!"
Seeing that Lin Lan was willing to listen, the old woman smiled at the mother and son. "That's more like it. If you don't start working properly, don't even think about bringing Little Douzi to me anymore. I have vegetable seedlings and sweet potato slips. Hurry up and get that patch tilled, then come to my plot and get them yourself."
"I will, thank you, Auntie."
Lin Lan, still holding Little Douzi, walked the old woman to the gate, only to see Liu Jinbao approaching with police officers in tow.
At that time, police officers still wore peaked caps with white shirts and blue trousers.