Xu Zifan returned to the void space, carefully put away the Qingfeng Temple's inheritance ring, and quickly composed himself before heading to the next world.
Now he is becoming more and more relaxed about changing his mindset. Changing worlds time and time again has made him realize that each world is a new beginning. He should greet each new life with the best attitude so that each life will be more interesting, more fulfilling and more meaningful.
He opened his eyes expectantly, and what he saw was a low ceiling and dark mud walls. The windows had wooden frames, which were dilapidated and looked drafty. There were also yellowed old newspapers pasted on the sides, with yellow water stains on them, which was unpleasant to look at.
Under the window was a small wooden table with a bowl of porridge on it. It wasn't too watery, and it was still steaming.
A man pushed open the wooden door and walked in. He was taken aback when he met Xu Zifan's gaze, then lowered his head somewhat awkwardly. "Dad, Shengnan didn't mean to talk back to you. She... she was just worried about her mother and wanted to help her get some nourishment, so she took the eggs."
The man seemed tongue-tied and unsure what to say, so he quickly placed a boiled egg on the table and said, "Dad, I borrowed an egg. You can eat it first. I'll teach Shengnan a lesson. Dad, don't get angry with her, don't hurt yourself..."
Xu Zifan didn't know what was going on, and could only deduce from his words that he was angry because someone had stolen his eggs, and might have fainted from anger, which was why he was lying in the house. He didn't know what the original owner's personality was like, so he simply said nothing and looked at the man calmly.
The man became even more nervous, wiped his dark face, and said dejectedly, "Dad, you should eat. If you eat it cold, your stomach will hurt. I... I'm going out."
After the man left, Xu Zifan heard people arguing outside, but the sound was too far away to hear clearly. He quickly said to Shaohua, "Quickly scan outside and see what's going on."
Shaohua projected the scene in the courtyard directly onto the virtual screen.
The man who had just gone outside scolded a little girl. The girl looked defiant and said coldly, "My mom is sick. What's wrong with me cooking an egg for her? Dad, are you forbidding me from being filial to my mom?"
The man scolded, "That doesn't mean you can steal your grandfather's eggs, you..."
"How is that stealing? Aren't those eggs from our chickens? We haven't separated the family property, so why can't we eat them? Dad, don't try to pin this on me. If someone hears this, they'll arrest me!"
A woman rushed forward and grabbed her, saying anxiously, "Shengnan, what's wrong with you today? How could you talk to your father like that? Quickly apologize! When your grandfather comes out later, apologize to him too. You were really outrageous today. You must never do such a thing again."
Xu Shengnan incredulously shook her off, "Wasn't I doing this for you? And you're cursing me? It's your business if you want to be exploited for the rest of your lives, but I don't want to, is that a problem? I don't want to talk about it anymore, I'm going back to my room!"
Xu Shengnan ran back to her room. Her parents looked embarrassed and bewildered. Several men and women in the yard shook their heads and said that Xu Shengnan was being unreasonable. After talking for a while, they dispersed.
Xu Zifan raised his hands and looked at them. His hands were dark, his skin was rough, and there were wrinkles on them, so he was the "Dad" and "Grandpa" they were talking about.
This was the first time he had ever dressed in such a high-ranking position, and yet he had come to a family so poor they were practically fighting over eggs.
Having experienced three worlds, Xu Zifan silently closed his eyes and calmly absorbed the memories. Anyway, he had his own space, so he had no shortage of food or clothing, and there was no need to rush to any particular place.
This time, he traveled back to a village in the 1970s and became a 58-year-old man.
The original owner's wife fell ill and passed away ten years ago. Since then, the original owner's personality has changed drastically. He felt that people might die at any time, and became extremely afraid of death. He was unwilling to do any work and only wanted to enjoy the blessings of his children and grandchildren.
He insists on eating the best portion at home, and if his son or daughter-in-law offers any criticism, he scolds them for being unfilial.
The original owner had three sons and one daughter.
The eldest son is the man who delivered the eggs earlier. His name is Xu Dajun, and he is 40 years old this year. He married his eldest daughter-in-law, Liu Xia, who comes from a poor family. Because they don't have a son, they lack confidence and have worked hard like oxen for many years. They are the most obedient to the original owner.
They have an 18-year-old daughter, Xu Shengnan. She is not good at studying and dropped out of school before graduating from junior high school to help with chores at home. However, she doesn't like to work but loves to cause trouble. She always feels that the original owner favors boys over girls and has the most complaints about the original owner.
The second son, Xu Dawei, is 38 years old. He's somewhat educated and married Zhang Wen, the village chief's niece. Thanks to the village chief's connections, the couple both work as teachers at the village primary school. They have a 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son, both good students, fair-skinned, and good-looking. However, none of them do any work. The original owner used this as an excuse to force the second son and his wife to hand over 70% of their wages, so they also have grievances against the original owner, but they keep them to themselves.
The third son is 30 years old this year. His name is Xu Aiguo. He is handsome and glib. He married Dong Fan, a beautiful educated youth from the city, without paying a dowry. The two of them avoid doing any work. They have an eight-year-old son and a five-year-old son. The third son is very protective of his wife and children. He often tries to find ways to give them something good to eat. If the original owner sees this, he will have to share half of it with them. Otherwise, he will grab a feather duster and chase after him to beat him.
The original owner also had a 22-year-old daughter named Xu Lili. A high school graduate, she had high standards and hadn't been accepted on two blind dates, remaining unmarried. However, she was the original owner and her husband's late-life daughter, not much older than the eldest son's daughter. She had been pampered since childhood, unable to lift a finger, unwilling to do anything, and extremely spoiled. Recently, she had her eye on a job at a grain depot in the city and was...
The family is making a fuss and they need to spend money to buy grain from the granary.
This large family lived together, seeing each other all the time, so conflicts were bound to arise. Moreover, each person's abilities and contributions were different, yet they had to hand over all the profits to their elderly father, keeping only a tiny amount for themselves; naturally, everyone felt resentful.
Everyone had their own ulterior motives and felt they had been taken advantage of. Especially after the original owner started enjoying the blessings of his children and grandchildren, their opinions of him grew stronger and stronger. They all felt that the original owner was unfair and only cared about himself. If it weren't for the original owner's poor health, which they were afraid would cause him to have some health problems, they would have urged him to split up the family long ago.
Today, during dinner, the original owner didn't see the boiled egg. When he asked, he discovered that his eldest granddaughter had taken it to her mother. He was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table. It wasn't that he cared much about the egg itself; he cared about his authority. If his eldest granddaughter dared to take his egg today, would they dare to leave him alone in the house and ignore him if he fell ill in the future?
When he questioned Xu Shengnan, she argued back, saying that she had seen the two children from the second wife each eat an egg the day before yesterday, and that it was wrong for her to give her mother some nourishment today. She accused Xu Zifan of being biased and said that eggs in the house should be given to those who need them, which made the original owner of the body faint from anger!
Xu Zifan opened his eyes and sat up, feeling a little out of sorts. In his previous life, although he lived to be over 120 years old, he possessed cultivation and was in excellent health. Now, however, he felt chest tightness, shortness of breath, and weakness all over his body. His vision even blurred slightly as he sat up, a lingering effect of his recent fainting spell.
He sat down on the stool and drank a mouthful of hot porridge, but unexpectedly it stung his throat! He covered his mouth and coughed a few times, then put down the bowl, took out a carton of milk from his spatial storage, ate a few pastries with the milk, and felt much better.
He took his pulse, swallowed a Qi-nourishing pill, and immediately felt much better.
The original owner had done too much work in his life. He almost starved to death when he was a child, which damaged his health. He also suffered a lot when he grew up. During the Great Famine, he gave most of his food to his children, which ruined his health. That's why he was physically weak.
It was because he had suffered hardships and made sacrifices for his children that he became afraid of death after his wife passed away, and took it for granted that he should enjoy the blessings of his children and grandchildren.
But because he reduced his work, he lacked exercise and nutritious food to nourish his body in recent years, and his health deteriorated. He was even more afraid of falling ill and dying, so he held onto the income handed over by his sons more tightly, fearing that if he had nothing, they would be unfilial.
These days, there are some common sayings, like how fathers abandon their children if they can't afford to raise them, or how children drive their elderly parents to dilapidated old houses if they don't want to support them. I don't know where these sayings came from, but older people have all heard them, and the original owner of this body especially took them seriously, fearing that she would be abandoned.
But no one understood his thoughts. In the eyes of his children and grandchildren, he was unreasonable, hoarding money and eating good food without taking care of his grandchildren, showing no love whatsoever.
None of the families wanted to tarnish their father's reputation by causing his illness, so they kept an eye on each other and none of them mentioned dividing the family property, fearing that they would lose out on even a penny if they did. The family continued to live together in this bumpy way until today when the incident of fighting over eggs occurred.
Now that Xu Zifan felt better, he was in the mood to think about the affairs of this world. It was quite interesting; the reason the original owner's eldest granddaughter suddenly launched her attack was because she had been reborn!
Xu Shengnan was not only reborn from forty to eighteen years old, but she also gained a spatial cheat ability. The space was small, only ten cubic meters, but it contained a well that gushed forth spiritual spring water. In the 1970s, this was definitely a valuable item, as it could nourish the body, store things, and the spiritual spring water could be used to set traps to catch prey and fish.
Xu Shengnan was unwilling to stay in the Xu family because of her amazing ability to take advantage of her. She felt that the whole family was taking advantage of her, and her pushover parents were hopelessly filial.
She had to be tough and force the Xu family to split up, so she could take her parents to the city to develop their lives and live a better life. In her eyes, the worst person in the family was the original owner of this body, so she chose him to be the first to cause trouble.
In fact, in the life before Xu Shengnan's rebirth, the original owner did not live long. He was in poor health and used the wrong methods to force his children and grandchildren to be filial. Later, his children and grandchildren had too much resentment towards him. Just then, the economy opened up and there were many opportunities. Apart from the eldest son and his wife farming at home, the second and third wives went to the city and only saw the original owner once a year. Naturally, they could not be considered filial.
The eldest couple only knew how to farm and had no other skills. The original owner of this body followed them but never got to eat or wear anything good. They continued to live in the village without any improvement in their living conditions and died of illness at the age of sixty-five.
But Xu Shengnan still saw him as a thorn in her side, because she felt that the original owner was the source of all the problems. The man was supposed to be arranged for her, but the original owner had instead betrothed him to the daughter of the second wife.
Xu Shengnan, feeling resentful, confronted the original owner of the body, who then accused her of having a bad personality and that no one wanted her. How could that be? She was so much prettier than her cousin; wasn't it just because the second wife paid so much salary, and the original owner was biased and wanted to give the benefits to the second wife?
She was ambitious and married a young intellectual from Yanjing who had been sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Unexpectedly, when the college entrance examination was reinstated, he passed and returned to Beijing. She hesitated to go with him, but the original owner of this body made the decision for her. Wasn't it just because the young intellectual's family had improved their fortunes and she wanted to use her to climb the social ladder?
But when she went to Yanjing, she was looked down upon by her husband's family and even by her husband's classmates. She suffered so much and resented the original owner of the body even more. She never returned home before the original owner died.
Xu Zifan stroked his chin and repeatedly checked the original owner's memories. The person he was supposed to meet really hadn't taken a liking to Xu Shengnan. The original owner hadn't lied; it was the eldest couple who had asked him to approve Xu Shengnan's trip to Yanjing. He genuinely hadn't intended to climb the social ladder to such a distant place as Yanjing. It seemed the original owner, this truly exceptional person, was quite wronged, simply because he used the wrong method.
He's hardly enjoyed the blessings of his children and grandchildren, and now he's being retaliated against by his reborn eldest granddaughter. No wonder they sent the interdimensional messenger!