"Sis, what if I die?"

"If he's dead, he's dead. Then our family will just have one less burden. That's a good thing!"

But we were...

If you don't say, who knows?

……

Li Jin opened his eyes in a daze, everything before him was strange.

A dilapidated hut, with earthen walls crumbling and plastered over in mud, windows missing glass panes, and blackened cotton bedding.

A splitting headache racked Li Jin's skull, a dull throbbing that resonated through his brain. Fragments of memory, not his own, began to surface in his mind.

In my memory, the little girl and her namesake, Li Jin, were only sixteen years old. However, she lived in the early 1960s, a time of widespread scarcity when most people struggled to put food on the table.

Li Jin's mother, Zhang Xiu Lan, is a remarried woman who came into the old Li family. When she arrived, she brought Li Jin and Li Qiushou, who already had seven children, to live together. It has been seven years now.

Over the past seven years, Li's family has had seven children. Besides the two daughters-in-law, Li Zhu (the third son) and Li Mei (the fourth son) who are married, there are five children still living at home.

The eldest, Li Dahu, and the second son, Li Daheng, married in the previous year and the year before last respectively. They brought their wives to live with their father, Old Li. The youngest son, Li Dail, is unmarried. The sixth and seventh sons, Li and Li Lan, are brothers.

Just like most families of this era, Lao Li's household was large.

In this era, a large population means a greater need for food. Moreover, as Li Jin is not the biological child of the Li family, he has not had an easy life over the years within their household.

Not a relative, the father is not a biological father, although there was an upright grandfather named Li Fuman, but he didn't manage to keep his life either.

Li Jin was beaten to death by his two stepsisters, Li He and Li Lan, while fighting over a piece of candy.

The back of the earthenware bowl was smashed down by Li JiaLan from the top, smashing the bowl and cracking Li Jin's head, blood flowing profusely.

When the two sisters saw something was wrong, they took some toffee and hid in the haystack in the village. By the time Li Jin was found by someone, he had already passed away.

Perhaps it was at that time that Li Jin replaced the original owner and came to this era.

Before I could lament the unfortunate life of the young girl, at that moment, a door creaked open. A man in tattered homespun clothes and with a weary face stepped forward.

Seeing Li Jin was already awake, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Is your head still hurting? Your grandfather applied some herbs to it, and you'll be fine soon."

A person with a concerned expression was speaking, and through the memories that surfaced, Li Jin recognized this person as the original owner's mother, Zhang Xiulan.

Chang Xiulan is about one meter and fifty-eight tall, very thin. You couldn't even get two ounces of meat from her if you used a knife. But the clothes she wore on top were too big, like a big burlap sack put on her.

Her face was yellow, even slightly swollen. Her walk was unsteady and frail. It was clear that she hadn't been eating well – lacking in oil, salt, and proper nutrition, and she frequently complained of stomach problems.

However, most people in this era are like this, even the original owner isn't much better.

Li Jin tried to touch the scar on his forehead, but before he could, it started hurting so much that he winced.

"Mom…" Li Jin called out, but there weren't too many tears that flowed.

"Your grandfather has taken three days off for you, so you don't have to go to the production team and earn work points these three days. If you feel really uncomfortable, just lie on the kang."

(Editor in charge：romance novel)