QTIMP -Chapter 273 Character Persona – Violent (Part 1)

In 1950, at the Chen Family Production Brigade, spring had just begun. The grass was only beginning to show its first hints of green—visible from afar, yet barely noticeable up close. At this time, mournful funeral music echoed through the village, and the path leading up the mountain was covered with white funeral paper offerings.

Si Qiu sat before two freshly raised graves. Two village women supported her on either side.

“Qiuqiu, come on, get up now. You’ve only just recovered yourself. If anything happens to you again, how heartbroken Sixth Uncle Chen and Sixth Aunt Chen would be.”

Si Qiu tossed the last handful of paper money into the brazier and, with everyone’s help, slowly stood up.

She was thin and only about 1.6 meters tall. Her face was pale, her hair slightly disheveled, making her look especially pitiful.

“Ah, Sixth Uncle and Sixth Aunt really had a hard life. They had seven children, but only one survived.”

“And now both of them have been buried, yet there’s still no news of that surviving son.”

“Exactly. If Qiuqiu hadn’t been taking care of the old couple all these years, they probably wouldn’t have made it this far.”

“That’s right. This girl is capable. Sixth Uncle and Sixth Aunt certainly didn’t waste their love on her.”

A group of villagers escorted Si Qiu back to the old Chen family house in Chenjia Village.

The village chief’s wife, who was also the wife of Elder Chen’s eldest son, came in carrying a bowl of coarse rice porridge.

“Qiuqiu, listen to your sister-in-law and eat something. Only if you’re well can Sixth Uncle and Sixth Aunt rest in peace.”

Tears dripped down Si Qiu’s cheeks. Her delicate features and reddened eyes made her look heartbreakingly fragile.

“Big Sister-in-law, I’m fine. I just miss Father and Mother a little. If it weren’t for me, maybe they wouldn’t have…”

Before she could finish, Sister-in-law Chen interrupted her.

“You silly child, what nonsense are you talking about? Sixth Uncle’s death was an accident. Sixth Aunt loved him so much she couldn’t bear living without him and followed him. What does that have to do with you?”

When Sister-in-law Chen came back out carrying the mostly untouched bowl of porridge, she saw her husband squatting by the doorway smoking his pipe.

“How is it? Did Qiaofang eat anything?”

Sister-in-law Chen sighed.

“Just two mouthfuls, enough to wet her throat. The child keeps blaming herself and can’t get past it.”

The brigade leader sighed as well.

“For the next couple of days, you and our eldest daughter-in-law keep an eye on her. Try to talk some sense into her. Life is finally about to get better these days. We can’t let her walk herself into a dead end.”

“Alright, I know. Yesterday our youngest grandson found four bird eggs. I’ll boil them for Qiuqiu tomorrow.”

The voices outside gradually faded away.

Si Qiu blinked her dry eyes.

She looked around the room.

It was so dark she could barely see anything, which only made her mood feel heavier.

The body Si Qiu had transmigrated into this time belonged to the child bride of Chen Shuanzhu, the sixth branch of the Chen family in Chenjia Village.

The original owner was twenty-seven years old this year. When she was seven, she had been found and adopted by Sixth Uncle and Sixth Aunt Chen. At the time, she was suffering from a severe fever. The kind-hearted couple not only paid for her treatment but also waited nearby for two days hoping someone would come looking for her.

No one ever did.

With no other choice, they brought her back to Chenjia Village.

Although she was nominally a child bride, they treated her no worse than their own daughter.

Because of the fever, the original owner had lost most of her memories and only remembered that her name was Si Qiu.

Not only did the Chen couple never mistreat her, they even allowed her to attend school alongside Chen Shuanzhu.

When Chen Shuanzhu was sixteen and the original owner was twenty-one, the two were supposed to be married.

Who would have thought that the young man would climb out the window and run away the night before the wedding? He left behind a letter saying he was joining the army to fight in the war.

From that day onward, there was no news of him.

For six years, Si Qiu had been the one caring for the two elderly people. They had always felt they had wronged her.

The original owner possessed tremendous strength and had also learned martial arts, so she had always protected the elderly couple well.

Some time ago, she went up the mountain to gather firewood.

There, she encountered four wild boars and was seriously injured.

That was when Si Qiu arrived.

The original owner’s injuries had been severe. Fortunately, Si Qiu had medicine stored in her spatial storage, and after more than a month of recuperating at home, she had finally recovered enough to get out of bed.

The old couple had cared for her day and night without even taking off their clothes to rest. Seven days ago, Old Man Chen had gone to the county town to get medicine for the original owner. On the way back, he accidentally slipped into a ditch and died.

When Old Madam Chen heard the devastating news, she fainted on the spot.

After seven days of mourning, he was finally laid to rest today.

Si Qiu’s body had not fully recovered. After being exhausted by the past seven days, every part of her body now ached.

She was genuinely saddened by the deaths of the old couple. After all, when she had first arrived, it was thanks to their careful care and attention that she had managed to settle in.

But now, part of her grief came from the original owner’s lingering emotions, while another part was simply an act. She respected the old couple deeply, but she could not truly share their family’s pain as if it were her own.

In Chenjia Village, eighty percent of the villagers bore the surname Chen. The rest were either women who had married into the village or refugees who had settled there during times of famine.

The old couple’s deaths were, to some extent, related to her. If she didn’t appear sufficiently heartbroken, she would have no way of establishing herself in the village.

Lying quietly on the kang, she flipped her hand over, and a card appeared in her palm. With a thought, a carton of milk and two eggs materialized beside her. The card then disappeared.

Nowadays, all of the survival supplies rewarded by her space were distributed in the form of cards each day.

This made storage much more convenient.

After eating the milk and eggs, she took out a nourishing medicine and swallowed a pill.

The Chen clan in Chenjia Village had grown from three brothers of the older generation: Chen De, Chen Yi, and Chen Cai.

However, all the elders of those three branches had already passed away. The next generation was the one her adoptive father belonged to. Counting all the cousins together, there had originally been seven brothers.

The youngest, Seventh Uncle, had died shortly after reaching adulthood and left no descendants. Now that Sixth Uncle and his wife were also gone, only Third Uncle and Fifth Uncle remained alive.

The eldest branch originally had three sons and two daughters. Now only two sons and one daughter were still living. The village chief was the eldest son, fifty-three years old. He had a younger brother aged forty-nine and a younger sister aged forty-seven.

They were known as the First Branch’s Eldest, Second, and so on.

The second branch had three daughters and three sons. Of those children, only one son survived, now fifty-one years old. Their family was referred to as the Second Branch.

The third branch only had a pair of twin sons still living, both forty-eight years old. They were known as the Third Branch’s eldest and second sons.

The fourth branch had managed to raise four sons, but only the youngest fourth son was still alive, now forty-one years old. Fortunately, the three older sons had all left descendants behind.

Thus, their descendants were referred to as the First, Second, Third, and Fourth families of the Fourth Branch.

Fifth Uncle was still alive and highly respected within the village. He had two sons, one forty-two and the other thirty-seven years old, known as the First and Second sons of the Fifth Branch.

As for Si Qiu’s family, they were simply referred to as Sixth Uncle’s family.

The reason each family seemed to have so few children wasn’t because they had only given birth to that many. Most of their children simply hadn’t survived to adulthood.

Children who died before marriage generally weren’t included in the family rankings.

The Chen family was remarkably united. Since the generation of the clan patriarch, they had never been content with a quiet life, so most Chen men knew at least a little martial skill.

Because of this, many of the Chen family’s men had also died on battlefields.

As a result, the Chen family maintained a strict and upright family tradition.

The next morning, she woke up as soon as dawn broke.

Feeling that she had regained some strength, the first thing she did was boil water and wash up.

After washing her hair and taking a bath, she felt noticeably lighter.

She took some porridge and steamed buns from her space and quickly finished breakfast.

Then she began cleaning the house.

The home consisted of three mud-brick rooms. The eastern room had belonged to the two elderly people, while Si Qiu lived in the western room. The middle room served as both the main hall and dining area.

The east side room was used as the kitchen and washroom, while the west side room functioned as a storage room.

The family had just finished holding a funeral, and there was barely any food or firewood left in the house.