In a daze, Lin Xia felt as if she could smell the familiar scent of home.
With a headache that felt as if it was about to explode, Lin Xia frowned, the voices around her sounded familiar, yet she couldn't recall who would come to visit her.
Completely lacking any strength, her chest and throat painfully dry, she felt as if she was being suffocated and tried opening her eyes, but couldn't manage to do so.
Gradually, she helplessly slipped into unconsciousness...
"Second Sister! Why hasn't Big Sister woken up yet?" The distinctive voice of a boy going through puberty suddenly rang out above Lin Xia's head. Startled, Lin Xia just wanted to jump up from her dream, that voice!
My goodness! It was her little brother! Hadn't they received a letter and come to see her?
Lin Xia struggled with herself, desperately trying to get up, when another clear voice sounded, "Little Brother, you hurry off to school. I'll look after Big Sister here. Otherwise, if Big Sister wakes up and knows you skipped school, she'd be sad again."
Go to school? Wasn't her little brother working? Why was he still in school?
What was happening?
Lin Xia was suddenly bewildered!
"Then I'm off! Second Sister! I will come back at noon to help you with chores, so that old lady doesn't come back and scold us!" The reluctant footsteps faded, and the room quieted down again.
Lin Xia was still groggy, wondering what was going on, when a cold hand suddenly touched her forehead. She knew it was her sister's hand, and she was excited to ask what was happening?
Regrettably, she still couldn't speak or move.
She was so anxious that she cried silently, unable to make a sound.
"Sister! Sister! Why are you crying? Sister! Please wake up! Sister!" Lin Qiu was terrified, pushing hard on her sister who was lying on the bed, tears streaming down her face.
With the shove from her sister, Lin Xia's body slowly began to regain sensation.
Finally, Lin Xia gathered all her strength and slowly opened her eyes; in front of her was the worried face of her sister, Lin Qiu. Seeing her wake up, Lin Qiu cried and laughed in shock, "Sister! You're awake! You nearly scared me to death! Are you hungry? Thirsty? Are you still feeling terrible?"
In response to Lin Qiu's barrage of questions, Lin Xia wasn't really listening; she just stared blankly at the delicate features of her refreshingly beautiful sister!
My goodness! How could her sister look so young? Was she dreaming?
It must be a dream!
Ever since her sister married that drunkard and dealt with a terrible mother-in-law, it was all beatings and scoldings, and she deteriorated horribly within just a few years.
Where was the radiance she had when she was still a maiden at home?
Seeing her sister staring with wide eyes, not uttering a word, just dead fixed on her, Lin Qiu felt terribly frightened and anxious. She grasped Lin Xia's hand tightly, "Sister! Sister! What's wrong? Don't scare me! Please talk, Sister!"
Lin Xia's hand was painfully squeezed by Lin Qiu; only then she suddenly realized, this definitely wasn't a dream!
How could she feel pain in a dream?
Lin Xia tentatively called out, "Xiao, Xiaoqiu!" But the voice that emerged was hoarse, and her throat was painfully burning.
"Uh-huh!" Lin Qiu nodded vigorously, excited, "Sister! You're all better! Last night you were delirious and talking nonsense; you scared me and Dongzi half to death! If something really happened to you, what would we do?"
As she spoke, tears streamed down her cheeks.
Lin Xia tried her best to keep calm, listening to her sister talk nonstop, an idea sprang to her mind.
Since it wasn't a dream, could she be like those characters in those strange and peculiar stories, who had returned to the past?
But now wasn't the time to think about these things. Her throat was so dry it was smoking, and she felt swallowing saliva was a struggle.
"Is there water?"
"Yes! Yes! Sister, wait a moment, I'll get it for you! Oh, my fault! I was so busy talking, you must be very thirsty!" Lin Qiu responded while wiping her tears with her sleeve and quickly got off the bed to fetch Lin Xia some water.
Lin Xia lay there, every joint in her body aching. She moved her head slightly and saw Lin Qiu taking a white iron teapot from the red box.
"Sister! Let me help you sit up to drink, it's hard to drink lying down! " Lin Qiu put the iron teapot on the edge of the kang bed and swiftly helped Lin Xia sit up.
With the support of her sister, Lin Xia barely got up and weakly held the teapot, finally drinking water. She gulped it down heartily, finally feeling relief in her throat.
"Sister! Drink slowly! If it's not enough, I'll pour you more!" Lin Qiu said softly, sniffing her reddened nose, her eyes and eyebrows filled with joy.
After finishing the water, Lin Xia wiped her mouth with her hand. Lin Qiu immediately took it from her, asking anxiously, "Sister, you must be hungry too! Lie down, I'll go get you some food! It's all simmering in the big pot!"
"Xiaoqiu, what year and month is it now?" Lin Xia held her breath, waiting for her sister's answer, her heart incredibly tense.
Lin Qiu was stunned by her sister's question. She blinked, "Sister! You really are muddled by the sickness! It's 1981! How could you not know!"
Lin Xia suppressed the excitement and the sudden settled feeling in her heart, and she exhaled in relief, "Is that so? I really was confused!"
Lin Qiu laughed softly, "Don't worry, sister! I'll go get you some food!"
"Hey!" Lin Xia watched as Lin Qiu walked a few steps to the green door, opened it, and went out, which gave her the chance to take another look around the familiar Western House.
The room had no other furnishings, just two north-south kang beds, a red box for clothes, a wooden table with wobbly legs on the cement floor, and two long wooden benches.
She looked up at the ceiling and the walls plastered with newspapers, all blackened from the constant smoke of burning. Outside the green window frames of the kang was the backyard; it was still daylight, though she didn't know exactly when, she guessed it might be morning.
The old house of her family, she vividly remembered replacing it with her dad's work unit public housing in autumn of 1984, an end unit of a row of large brick houses.
Lin Xia trembled her fingers, fiercely clutching the bedding beneath her. Had she truly returned to the past?
Had Providence finally opened its eyes, seen her miserable life, and given her another chance?
Thinking this, even the patches on the green checkered mattress and the peony flower quilt cover looked endearing. Past events, like a movie projection, flashed before her eyes.
Not a month had passed since their chronically ill mother, Yu Wanhua, died when her father, Lin Aiguo, brought home a widow, Qian Chunli, who became their stepmother.
She also brought her son and daughter, Wang Xiaomin and Wang Xiaofeng, who were about her age, and thus began their days of suffering.
At first, Qian Chunli pretended to be a good stepmother, but later she dropped the act, explicitly depriving them of food and cursing them openly.
If Lin Aiguo was home, she somewhat restrained herself, but as soon as he left for work in the mountains, she reverted back to her true self. It was only when they grew a bit older that she began to restrain herself slightly.
Now, having been reborn, she absolutely would not let herself be trampled on like mud again.
In the future, she determined to become both fierce and formidable, ensuring that no one would dare to bully her and her siblings again.