Chapter 1: Returning to 1982

A sharp intake of breath! How bitterly cold it was!

A fierce gust of snow wind swept across him, causing Tang Jiancheng to tremble uncontrollably. He yanked his tattered cotton jacket tight against his body, yet the chill only deepened.

Yet his heart burned with warmth, his emotions surging with rare excitement.

Gazing at the swirling snowflakes and the cluster of old earthen houses half-buried in the drifts nearby, Tang Jiancheng itched to throw his head back and laugh wildly to the heavens: "Hahaha, I have been reborn! I truly returned to 1982! Heaven has been kind to me!"

In truth, he neither laughed nor shouted nor performed any such gesture. He simply stood up silently, brushed the accumulated snow from his shoulders, and then walked quickly toward home with his head lowered.

If his memory served him correctly, today was the tenth day after the birth of his ninth daughter.

According to the customs of Daping Village, this was the occasion for the first fetal bath in the child's life, washing away the impurities of birth.

In Daping Village, every child born received three fetal baths: one on the tenth day after birth, one on the full-moon day, and the final one on the hundredth day.

Each fetal bath was conducted with solemn reverence.

Mugwort was burned to prepare the water, and two eggs were boiled.

The eggs were not for consumption; rather, their shells were peeled and rolled over the baby's body during the mugwort-infused bath.

It was said that this would draw out the 'toxins' from the child's body, strengthening immunity and reducing the risk of illness.

Tang Jiancheng knew nothing of the underlying principle; it was simply the ancestral custom that generations had followed, and it worked well. Children who underwent the three fetal baths possessed far greater resistance to sickness than those who did not.

"Seems like there are no eggs at home. Where should I borrow two from?"

As he walked, Tang Jiancheng pondered this.

He remembered this day clearly from his previous life.

He had just returned from the township after drinking baijiu. The heavy snowfall had made the roads slippery, causing him to fall into a ditch by the roadside. His head had struck something hard, bleeding profusely, and he had lapsed into unconsciousness for some time before the cold revived him.

Upon awakening, he did not return home but went back to the township, claiming that his head injury required a visit to the hospital for medical attention.

The true reason was that he dreaded going home, for his wife had just given birth to another daughter!

In this era, especially in the countryside, the preference for sons over daughters ran extremely deep!

Not only him, but the entire village held this view.

Moreover, over the past decade, his wife had borne one daughter after another, a total of nine daughters!

This had left him unable to hold his head high in the village time and again.

Whenever anyone encountered him, they would mock him, calling him an extinct lineage who could not produce a son, likening him to Yang Bailao, who toiled endlessly only to raise nothing but money-losing burdens!

The Tang Jiancheng of his past life harbored the same thoughts, viewing daughters as worthless. Thus, he never wanted to return home and never wished to see his daughters. With money in his pocket, he preferred to drink baijiu or gamble at the township rather than buy anything for his daughters.

Whenever a daughter displeased him in any way, he would scold her lightly or beat her severely. All his daughters lived in hatred and fear of him.

Today, because he had not gone home, his ninth daughter missed the fetal bath. She caught a high fever that night, was not rushed to the hospital the next day, and died at the age of less than twelve days.

His wife felt profound guilt, and the constant accusations that she had not borne a son and wished to doom the family line, claiming she would have no one to mourn her when old, overwhelmed her. In depression, she took her own life by ingesting pesticide before completing the lying-in period.

In the days that followed, Tang Jiancheng sought to remarry, but all the women, upon learning he still had eight daughters at home, refused. Even women of questionable virtue despised his family.

Tang Jiancheng felt deeply wounded and furious, blaming everything on the eight daughters.

The lives of the eight daughters were, as one can imagine, exceedingly miserable!

Decades later, when Tang Jiancheng reached seventy, he discovered that the guests at his seventieth birthday banquet were pitifully few, accompanied only by his large yellow dog, while none of his daughters returned!

For his daughters had either died, been crippled, or fled home decades ago with no news... Of the nine daughters from back then, only three remained somewhat close to him, yet those three had long since severed all ties with him.

Only at this moment did he awaken to the absurdity of his life's mistakes!

And now, heaven had granted him a second chance at redemption. He swore he would never let his daughters leave again but would guard and protect them!

Thinking this, he could not help but quicken his pace. The blood on his face had already dried and caked there, making him appear somewhat ghastly, yet Tang Jiancheng paid it no heed at all.

Every time he recalled the past, he believed the ninth daughter had died precisely because no fetal bath had been performed... and that his wife's suicide and the daughters' miserable lives all stemmed from that single incident!

So he must hurry home today to give his ninth daughter her first fetal bath!

What if there were no eggs?

Tang Jiancheng still had some money on him, which was enough to buy two eggs from someone in the township or village. Yet he did not want to buy them, for deep in his heart he harbored another thought: if his ninth daughter still ran a high fever after the fetal bath, he could use the remaining funds to take her to the township clinic for treatment, thereby avoiding the tragic fate of his ninth daughter dying at just twelve days old.

"Sister-in-law, do you still have any eggs at home? Could you lend me two?"

As Tang Jiancheng walked, he considered many households that might lend him eggs and finally decided on his eldest brother's house.

He had six brothers in total and ranked as the fourth in line.

Yang Cui glanced at him and asked in surprise, "What are you borrowing eggs for? Didn't you follow your eldest brother to the brick kiln to move bricks not long ago? How would you be short of money to buy eggs?"

Tang Jiancheng rubbed his hands and smiled foolishly, "My money was all spent drinking baijiu. Today is the tenth day after my little ninth's birth, so I want to borrow two eggs to give her a fetal bath."

"Oh? Fourth brother, when did you become so concerned about your daughter?"

Yang Cui was even more astonished by Tang Jiancheng's words.

In Daping Village, everyone knew that Tang Jiancheng had nine daughters and knew he despised them and often beat and scolded them. Yet today he was unexpectedly borrowing eggs to wash his daughter's bath, a sight more shocking than the sun rising in the west.

"Fourth brother, aren't you pretending to borrow eggs in the name of your little ninth to deceive me?" Yang Cui then looked at Tang Jiancheng with doubt.

Tang Jiancheng touched his nose, feeling both embarrassed and amused. "Sister-in-law, it's just two eggs. Do I need to deceive you for that? Even if I wanted to deceive, I wouldn't bother with just two eggs, would I?"

Yang Cui saw the logic in this and went into the house to fetch two eggs for Tang Jiancheng.

It had to be said that Tang Jiancheng was very discerning. Anyone else would never have lent him the eggs so readily.

In this era of extreme material scarcity, although land had been divided to households, eggs were incomparably precious in every family. Forget borrowing; even buying was difficult.