A lonely, unlucky military officer with a stubborn fate insisted on marrying me.

"It's you! It must be you!" Old Mrs. Li suddenly stopped crying and turned around abruptly.

You two sisters are both jinxes! My husband died as soon as you arrived!

Ever since I married your sister, my family has never had a good time!

"I haven't been promoted in eight years since the founding of the army, and my wife has been sick for eight whole years without even being able to hold her grandson! Now you've come to cause trouble again, killing my wife the moment you walked in the door. What else could you be but a jinx!"

Lin Huizhi's face turned deathly pale instantly, and she choked out, "Mom, Dad had an acute myocardial infarction, it has nothing to do with Yinyin..."

"Shut up!"

Do you even have the right to speak here? If you weren't so useless, would my wife be worrying and getting stressed out about you every day, worsening her condition?

"You old hag, have some sense!" Lin Yinyin finally snapped.

"If we were jinxes, we should be the ones bringing misfortune upon you, you sweet-talking old hag with a heart as bitter as a bitter oak. Why haven't you gotten into any trouble?"

"You, you, you!"

"What do you mean, 'you'? I'd call you superstitious!"

How many years has the new China been established? And you're still here talking about the Khmer people!

Don't forget this is a hospital. Your uncle has a hospital diagnosis record, right? Should I ask the attending physician to find out if your uncle was killed by us or died of a heart attack?

"If you don't have our proof, I can go to the streets and the army to report you for spreading rumors and promoting superstitious remnants. You should be dragged out and paraded through the streets for ideological education!"

"You...you...you bitch! How dare you!"

"You're not my mother-in-law, do you think I'd dare to do that?"

"mom!"

Li Jian's head was throbbing from the noise. He squatted down and grabbed his mother's arm: "Mom! Stop it!"

"Dad just passed away, stop making a fuss! The doctor said Dad's condition was too serious, it had nothing to do with Huizhi and the others!"

"How can it be nothing? Do you remember everything that happened after you married her? My chickens died the day after I married her, and my old man broke his leg a month later. You guys only got better after you went to the military region. Me!......."

"Damn it, you old hag, you can't blame your sister for your chickens dying?"

"Did your cows, sheep, and pigs having babies bring good fortune because of my sister? Is the white rice you eat every day actually my sister's poop?!"

Lin Huizhi: "..."

I forgot all about the tears. "Xiang"... does that mean poop?

"You, you little bitch, I'll tear your mouth apart today!"

"Mom!" Li Jianjun shouted anxiously.

"Can you please stop talking! Dad just passed away. How can his spirit find peace in heaven if you keep making such a scene!"

The surrounding patients and their families had already gathered around when they heard the commotion. "This old man just died, and the funeral arrangements haven't even been sorted out yet, and they're already making such a scene. It's so disrespectful to the deceased."

"you do not say!

This old woman is so unreasonable! She can't even blame her daughter-in-law for a dead chicken. What era are we living in? Why is she still practicing feudal superstition?

"There are even more outrageous things!" The family member in the next bed whispered over.

"These past two days, the old man has been seriously ill, and his daughter-in-law has been taking care of him the whole time, feeding him, wiping his body, and cleaning up his excrement. She hasn't even dared to take a proper nap. The old lady, on the other hand, has been sitting by the bed cursing her daughter-in-law for bringing bad luck to her husband, or just lying down and resting."

"Huh? That's going too far?" someone exclaimed, their gaze falling on Lin Huizhi.

She was wearing a faded blue shirt, her eyes were red and swollen, and she had dark circles under her eyes, clearly indicating that she had been staying up for several nights in a row.

"Yes, yes, I also witnessed the old man receiving emergency treatment two hours ago. The old lady complained that her daughter-in-law was too slow in handing her water, so she pinched the daughter-in-law's arm twice. The daughter-in-law was in so much pain that her face turned white, but she didn't dare to fight back."

Lin Yinyin, who was listening nearby, was shocked.

What did she just hear?

He was taken to the hospital two days ago, received two hours of emergency treatment, and just passed away.

No way?

She arrived in Hebei Province two days ago and went to the military region two hours ago. She had just arrived at the hospital when the old man started emergency treatment and then he kicked the bucket.

Did she bring her supposedly unlucky fate here?

Her stepmother once said that her birth brought misfortune to her grandfather, and that she was given to her grandmother at the age of three, after which her grandmother passed away.

At six years old, he caused his uncle's death; at nine, he caused his own father's death as well!

Her mother passed away when she was fourteen, and now, just as she arrived at the military region to look for her sister, her father-in-law has also passed away.

Funny, right?

These must all be coincidences!

At this moment, Lin Yinyin didn't want her sister to feel "guilty" like her, so she pulled Lin Huizhi away.

"Where did Yinyin go?"

"go home!

We're not staying in this awful place anymore. People are dying, so they don't need your care. They don't even treat you like a human being, so what are you doing here?

"But, Yinyin, I..."

"It's nothing! I still have so much to say to you."

"Huizhi, you go home first. I'll take care of things here." Li Jianjun felt that his mother would be more at ease if these two weren't around.

Lin Huiyin pulled her sister away.

"Sis, where is the state-run restaurant? I'm hungry. I've been on the train for two days and haven't eaten much."

Lin Huizhi looked at her thin younger sister and felt heartbroken. "Okay, I'll take you! It's not far, just two streets away."

The state-run restaurant was already full of people. Lin Yinyin, quick-witted and agile, spotted a table that had just become available and quickly pulled her sister to grab a seat.

Lin Huizhi was about to get up to buy a ticket, but Lin Yinyin pressed her back into her seat.

"Sis, I'll go buy it. I have money!"

He walked to the counter and loudly ordered the waiter, "Comrade, one order of braised pork, one order of braised eggplant, one bowl of egg drop soup, and three bowls of rice!"

The waiter deftly tore off a receipt and handed it out: "Braised pork 55 cents, three ounces of meat coupons required; eggplant 13 cents, egg drop soup 8 cents, rice 5 cents a bowl, total 91 cents."

When Lin Yinyin returned with the receipt, Lin Huizhi was staring blankly at the braised pork on the next table.

"Sis, I've ordered braised pork too!"

"Yes, actually I'm quite good at making braised pork; my father-in-law taught me!"

"Yes, sister, she's gone, but the living must go on. We must look forward."

Soon the dishes were served, and Lin Yinyin pushed the plate of braised pork toward Lin Huizhi.

"Sis, look at this braised pork glistening with oil on this enamel plate, the braised eggplant soaked up all the sauce, and the egg drop soup topped with bright green scallions—it smells so good and looks so nice! Let's eat quickly, it won't taste as good if it gets cold."

As she spoke, she picked up a large piece of braised pork with her chopsticks and put it into her bowl. "You definitely haven't been eating or sleeping well these past two days. You've been running around taking care of your father-in-law at the hospital, and you've even been bullied by Mom like that. How can you hold on if you don't eat something? Eat up!"

Lin Huizhi knew that Lin Yinyin was worried about her, so she picked up her chopsticks, put a piece of lean meat into Lin Yinyin's bowl, and said, "You've always liked to eat lean food since you were little. You should eat some too. You must be exhausted these past few days."

Okay. Let's eat well and live well.

"Mmm." A tear fell, and Lin Huizhi thought the meat tasted especially delicious today.

The two quickly finished all the food.

"Sis, what do you like about my brother-in-law?" Lin Yinyin asked a crucial question as soon as she finished eating.

"Huh?" Lin Huizhi looked down at the empty soup bowl. "Actually... your brother-in-law is quite nice."

"good?"

Lin Yinyin quickly grabbed her sister's sleeve and pulled it up, revealing several bruises of varying depths.

There are fresh purplish-reds and dull greenish-yellows.

"His mother bullied you and cursed at you like that, and you call him good?"

Look at these injuries! So many on just one wrist, do you think I'm blind?

Lin Huizhi immediately pulled her arm back as if she had been burned, and hurriedly rolled down her sleeve to cover herself.

"This was made by her mother, it has nothing to do with Jianjun, he has never laid a finger on me."

"He deserves praise just because he didn't lift a finger?"

Your brother-in-law lets his wife be abused by her own mother, doesn't dare to say a word of justice, and even pretends not to see it. Is this how you define a "good man"?

If he truly cared about you, would he let you be bullied like this?

"That's his mother, his biological mother who gave birth to him and raised him. He can't argue with that." Lin Huizhi's voice grew softer and softer.

"Bullshit!"

The Qing Dynasty is long gone! And his mother isn't the Empress Dowager! Why can't I refute that?