RGL – Chapter 2

When Sun Qiufang heard what the old lady said, her face turned pale, then flushed with anger. She couldn’t hold it in anymore—her eyes welled up with tears of grievance. Looking at the old woman, she said, “Mom, tell me honestly, wasn’t it you who said that when Changrong was working at the brick kiln, he should give the job to Changfu? You even said Dad’s job would be passed on to Changrong later.”

After speaking, she wiped her tears with the back of her hand and continued, “You and Dad were the ones who brought it up, and we didn’t say a word back then. All these years, Changrong has stayed home and worked diligently, just waiting for Dad to retire so he could take over. Now that it’s finally happening, why is the job going to Changfu instead?”

“I did say that,” Grandma Su’s face hardened, showing no guilt. Instead, she righteously said, “But how was I supposed to know the commune’s brick kiln would shut down so quickly? Isn’t Changfu back home farming now? And besides, your health is poor—you can’t have more kids. All you have is your eldest daughter. If you two get a job, what good is it? But if Changfu takes over, he can eventually pass it down to Cancan. That’s still someone from our old Su family.”

“I’m just saying, sister-in-law,” Su Changfu chimed in, taking a sip of liquor, “If you had a son, I wouldn’t argue about this—I swear. I wouldn’t fight with you guys over this at all. My brother and I are blood, after all. But we have to think about the Su family’s future. If Big Brother takes the job and wants to pass it to Cancan later, that wouldn’t be proper. It’d just be wasting a perfectly good opportunity.”

“Exactly. If Cancan doesn’t get it, are you going to hand it over to a son-in-law?” Li Yulan muttered with a mocking sneer.

Seeing this all-too-familiar scene unfold before her eyes, Su Min remembered how many times this had happened before. Just because she was a girl, her parents had no defense against these arguments. Was she really going to let this second life get ruined by these people again?

No. Absolutely not!

But right now, she couldn’t say anything.

She had to take it step by step and change things slowly. First, she needed to convince her parents to leave this house. Otherwise, they’d be drained dry by these bloodsuckers for the rest of their lives.

That meal? Sun Qiufang barely touched it—just a few bites before she went back into the room.

Su Min hurried in after her to comfort her.

Behind them, Grandma Su and Li Yulan’s sarcastic remarks still echoed through the air.

As soon as mother and daughter entered the room, Su Changrong came in too, his face full of helplessness. Seeing his wife crying on the bed, he grew anxious. “Qiufang, don’t take it to heart. You know how my mom is.”

Su Min handed a handkerchief to her mother, wiping her tears. Hearing her dad still making excuses, she got angry. “Dad, how much more do you want Mom to endure? It’s not the first time. They’ve always been like this. Just because I’m a girl, Mom has to suffer like this?”

She had never understood, from childhood till now, why her mom was always looked down on just because she gave birth to a daughter.

Su Changrong felt guilty too, but mostly he was torn. “Sigh… what else can we do? We’re all family—see each other every day. We can’t just keep fighting, can we?”

Sun Qiufang lifted her head from the blanket and said, “If your parents really despise me that much, then let’s get a divorce. You can find someone else to give you a son. I’ll take Minzi and beg for food if I have to.”

“What kind of nonsense is that?” Su Changrong walked over and plopped down beside the bed. “After all these years, no need to fight over this stuff. Isn’t it better for a family to live in harmony?”

Su Min couldn’t hold in her frustrations anymore either. Clenching her fists, she cried, “Dad, how are we supposed to keep living like this? You and Mom don’t even have any savings. In a few decades, what kind of life will Uncle be living compared to you? Have you even thought about that? Everyone else is saving money to build their homes, and we don’t have a cent. Whether I can keep going to school depends on whether Grandma is willing to pay. If she doesn’t give the money, I can’t even study!”

Su Changrong fell silent.

Tuition wasn’t expensive, but it was still a real issue for him.

Seeing them both quiet, Su Min pressed on, “Look at Third Grandma’s two sons—they’ve all moved out and are living on their own. Each family saves their own money and does what they want. Why do we have to stay crammed together? I’m already this old and still squeezing into the same room with you guys. What about when I grow up?”

“Sigh…” Su Changrong sighed, “It’s my fault. I haven’t managed to build a house. Even if we move out, where would we go? We don’t have a place.”

He had considered moving out before, but as the eldest son, it was hard for him to bring it up without people saying he didn’t want to care for his parents. And with no spare rooms, where would they even move?

“To the city,” Su Min said firmly. Even if they ended up sleeping under a bridge, it would be better than staying in this house. Her parents were hardworking—she wasn’t worried about surviving. No matter how hard life got, if they gritted their teeth, they could get through it. That was better than living here with no hope at all.

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.” Su Changrong gently patted her head. “We can’t even manage in the village, and you want to go to the city? People will laugh at us. You’re still a kid—don’t worry about these things. Go get some water and get to bed.”

Then he turned to Sun Qiufang, “I know you feel wronged, but there’s nothing we can do. That job is dad’s. If he won’t give it to us, even fighting over it won’t help. Don’t make yourself sick over it, okay?”

Sun Qiufang didn’t respond. She just turned to face the wall.

Seeing her like this, Su Changrong sighed again and left the room.

With one parent walking out and the other sulking on the bed, Su Min didn’t know what else to say. She had lived through all this once before—she knew how things would turn out. But her parents didn’t. She was still too young, and they didn’t take her words seriously.

So she simply flopped onto her own small bed and lay down.

Looking at the cracked ceiling, memories of her past life flooded back—those countless nights of loneliness spent in this very room.

No. She couldn’t stay here any longer.

She had to find a way to get her parents to make a bold move and leave with whatever money they had.

Despite the commotion the night before, the next morning, Sun Qiufang and Su Changrong still got up early to work in the fields. With so many people in the household, they had a large share of land. Before leaving, they told Su Min to come home early from school.

Only then did Su Min remember—right, she was still a student, in her first year of middle school.

Su Can, on his way out, deliberately took a bite of a boiled egg right in front of her, grinning smugly. Grandma Su fussed over him, reminding him to be careful on the road.

In her past life, Su Min had envied him. Now? She was over it. People who never loved her never would—no matter what she did.

She packed her bag, drank a bowl of porridge, and headed off to town.

The town wasn’t bustling yet—only a few families had homes along the main road. The supply and marketing cooperative was right on the main street. Her grandfather, Su Gensheng, worked there. Everyone called him “Old Su.”

As she passed by the store, she saw her grandfather sweet-talking the supervisor. She didn’t need to ask—he was clearly trying to get that job for her second uncle, Su Changfu.

She glanced at them and walked straight to school.

Even if the job went to her second uncle, it didn’t matter. The cooperative wouldn’t last much longer anyway. If her second uncle hadn’t used family money to build a house in town later on, he wouldn’t have been able to open a shop and make a living there either.

Truth be told, Su Changfu had terrible luck. He snatched her dad’s job at the brick kiln, and it shut down within two months. Now he was taking the supply store job—and that, too, wouldn’t last a year or two.

But just because he had a son, her grandparents were willing to sacrifice the whole family’s fortune to support him.

When Su Min arrived at school, everything felt unfamiliar. It had been so long. She hadn’t even graduated middle school in her last life—she had to drop out because her dad got sick. It had been nearly 20 years. Now that she was back on campus, she didn’t recognize anyone.

She asked a student where the first-year classroom was and quickly made her way there.

Not recognizing a soul, she wandered in awkwardly and didn’t even know where to sit. She asked a classmate and, under their strange gaze, found her seat.

Back then, seating wasn’t arranged by grades. Even though she had decent grades, she ended up by the window.

As soon as she sat down, Su Min opened her textbooks.

Apart from Chinese, she didn’t understand a thing in math, and she was completely clueless in English. The rest of the subjects weren’t any better.

“Hey, Su Min! I heard you were sick. Feeling better now?” A girl with two braids leaned over, her sallow face smiling brightly.

Su Min looked at her for a moment before finally recognizing her—it was Liao Zhaodi, her best friend from middle school.

She remembered Liao Zhaodi didn’t finish middle school either—not because she dropped out, but because she moved to the city. Her mom was pretty but had three daughters and not a single son. Her dad often hit people at home, and one day her mom had had enough. She filed for divorce and left, taking only Liao Zhaodi, the youngest. Later, people said her mom went to the city to wash dishes, met a city man, and got married again, taking Zhaodi with her.

They never saw each other again after that.

“Su Min, why aren’t you talking?” Liao Zhaodi blinked at her.

Su Min smiled and nodded. “I’m all better now.” She looked at Zhaodi—if she remembered correctly, Zhaodi left during the first year.

Zhaodi sighed as she flipped through her book. “My parents fought again this morning—still about my little brother. Do you think being a girl is really that worthless? Why do they insist on having a boy?”

They both always suffered at home because of gender bias, so talking about it at school had become routine.

“That kind of thinking is deep-rooted. We can’t change it. The only way they’ll respect us is if we succeed in the future.” But by then, Su Min figured she probably wouldn’t care anymore.

She stared out the window. Only people trapped in a small village like this would feel the pain of being disregarded by their grandparents. Once you stepped outside and saw the world, all of this would seem like nothing.

Seeing that Su Min wasn’t in high spirits, Zhaodi didn’t keep venting. She just hoped her dad would calm down when she got home and stop hitting people again.

After morning classes, Su Min felt like she had been listening to a foreign language the whole time.

Catching up on these subjects would take a lot of effort. In her past life, not finishing school had always been a regret. This time, she wanted to study properly—go to college.

But that wasn’t the most urgent thing right now. She had to get her parents out of that wolf’s den first.

Once life was stable, then she could start studying seriously.

Packing up her books, Su Min slung on her school bag and headed home.

Today, she had made a decision— She was going to be a “bad” kid.