Chapter 1: Dream Return to 1988
“Thump, thump, thump.”
“Lu Yang, open the door! What are you doing in there?”
A rapid knocking, accompanied by voices from outside the door, woke Lu Yang, who had fallen into a deep sleep in the bridal room after drinking at noon.
Upon waking, he instinctively rolled over and felt a woman beside him.
Wait a minute.
Wasn't I at my master's grave last night, and I drank too much? Where did this woman come from?
A chill ran through Lu Yang, sobering him up. He tried to open his eyes and look at the woman beside him, but the sight was like looking through a lifetime, and tears unknowingly streamed down Lu Yang’s face.
The girl in front of him, dressed in an old-fashioned way, stared with wide eyes, gazing blankly at him as he woke from his sleep. Her smile was captivating, filled with an innocence that, even after decades, remained unforgettable.
“Is that you, Mingyue Meimei?”
Lu Yang whispered.
It was hard enough to dream of returning to that year; he couldn't bear to break the illusion before his eyes.
But the frantic knocking outside, and the woman's voice, equally unforgettable, kept reminding him that if he didn't open the door soon, the door would collapse.
No, how would I know that the door inside this room was about to collapse?
Lu Yang tried to steady himself.
He couldn't resist reaching out to pinch the woman's face. It was soft, smooth, and slightly warm. She was a living person, and she even knew how to be shy.
Oh my God!
It's not a dream. Did my repentance at Master's grave work, sending me back to the past?
Lu Yang tried to open his eyes wider and look around, discovering that indeed, all the furnishings in the room were just like those in a rural home decades ago: simple and clean. The wooden cabinet, wooden dressing table, and wooden windows—everything was adorned with red '囍' characters. The bedding was also bright red, as was the wide-eyed girl on the bed.
Just like that year.
This was something that happened on July 28, 1988, a matter that had caused him lifelong regret.
That afternoon, because he was happy—he was getting married tomorrow—he had a few too many drinks with his Master's wife. As a result, when he woke up from his nap, he found that the person lying next to him was not his childhood sweetheart and fiancée, Yin Mingzhu, but Yin Mingzhu's sister, his future sister-in-law, Yin Mingyue.
It was at this very moment that the door outside was being pounded on.
His fiancée, Yin Mingzhu, and his Master's wife, his future Mother-in-law Ma Xiulan, burst in, their usual kind expressions gone. They accused him of defiling Mingyue Meimei, and no matter how he explained, they insisted that either the bride be switched tomorrow, or they would report him to the police and have him taken away for execution.
Although it was mostly a scare tactic.
He was completely bewildered at the time.
It was only later that he realized this was likely a scheme of substitution.
His fiancée, Yin Mingzhu, was an excellent student, both in character and academics. From a young age, she was determined to change her fate through knowledge, and now she had successfully been admitted to Capital University, fulfilling her wish.
He, on the other hand, was merely a carpenter's apprentice who had dropped out of junior high. At 13, his gambler father drank himself to death by drowning in a pond late at night. His mother, unable to bear the hardship, took his one-year-old sister and moved far away, leaving him a completely orphaned teenager with no father to discipline him and no mother to teach him. If it weren't for the kind old carpenter, Yin Laohan, from the same village who took pity on him and reluctantly accepted him as his apprentice, and also supported him through the remaining two years of junior high, teaching him the family's traditional carpentry skills, he truly didn't know how he would have survived at that time.
However, Master Yin Laohan was also very traditional. He had no sons, only two daughters, and his purpose in taking him as an apprentice was simple and straightforward: he wanted him to carry on his family line.
Therefore, from the day he became a carpenter's apprentice, he was implicitly recognized as Yin's live-in son-in-law, who would marry Yin's daughter upon reaching adulthood, and even the villagers thought so.
Mingyue Meimei, Yin Mingyue, was another pitiable girl. From the womb, due to malnutrition, her vocal cords developed incompletely. Aside from being as beautiful as her older sister, Yin Mingzhu, she spoke indistinctly. One word was fine, but if it was more than two, she would get so anxious she would
“ah-yah ah-yah” for a long time. Ever since he became Yin’s apprentice and carpenter’s apprentice, he had often stood up for Mingyue Meimei, beating up the mischievous children of his generation in the village who dared to mock her, making them wail.
The one he had a childhood engagement with was Yin Mingzhu.
From the first day he ate Yin’s food, Master Yin Laohan often admonished him that the person he would marry in the future was Yin Mingzhu, that he should treat her wholeheartedly, and even more so, he should not mess around outside. If he dared to mess around, he would break his legs.
However, the reality was that Yin Mingzhu had been admitted to Capital University, and he was no longer worthy of her. She also no longer wanted to marry this country bumpkin, so she wanted to take back the water that had been spilled.
It was difficult.
Because they were already engaged.
In such places in the rural South, if you were engaged and wanted to break it off, you would certainly be gossiped about and criticized behind your back.
But it wasn't impossible.
His Master's wife, Ma Xiulan, came up with what she thought was a brilliant plan: let Mingyue Meimei, Yin Mingyue, take her sister Yin Mingzhu's place in the marriage.
Anyway, it was Yin marrying off a daughter and taking in a son-in-law. As long as tomorrow's wedding could be carried out, no one in the neighborhood would be able to say “no.”
The only one who might need to be appeased beforehand was Lu Yang.
Unable to marry the scholarly sister, and having to settle for a stuttering sister, no matter how much Yin, the old couple, felt they had been kind to Lu Yang, they were still somewhat unsure.
And it was Master's wife, Ma Xiulan, who, with a blink of an eye, came up with another brilliant plan: “We can force the ox to drink water!”
And so, this scene of catching them in the act unfolded.
Yin was the first 'ten-thousand-yuan household' in the village after the reform and opening-up, simply because Master Yin Laohan possessed a family heirloom carpentry skill. After the reform and opening-up, the village established its first collective timber factory, ambitiously preparing to supply timber to the County furniture factory. However, due to poor management and blocked channels, the timber simply couldn't be sold.
After its collapse.
It was taken over by Yin Laohan, along with several of his apprentices, and transformed into a small furniture workshop. Relying on their exquisite craftsmanship, they specialized in making tables, chairs, benches, doors, and windows, supplying them to the surrounding villages and occasionally delivering goods to the Town and County. It became increasingly prosperous, and Yin became a well-known 'ten-thousand-yuan household' far and wide.
Being able to marry Yin’s daughter should have been a very enviable thing.
But the problem was that this was a 'live-in son-in-law' situation.
In Lu Yang’s hometown, there was an old saying: “Better to marry a beggar girl than to be a live-in son-in-law.”
This also created a custom: anyone who willingly became a live-in son-in-law was easily gossiped about and pointed at behind their back, their character being considered utterly despicable.
Lu Yang was no exception.
Even the ancients knew that if you were a live-in son-in-law, you had to run far away, so as not to lose face in your hometown.
But Lu Yang had no choice.
He had been alone since he was 13, with no elders to honor. Originally, there wasn't much gossip about him, and even if there occasionally was, it wasn't in front of Lu Yang himself. It wasn't until these years after the reform and opening-up, when the old carpenter's family became wealthy and the first 'ten-thousand-yuan household' in the village, that envious people gradually increased, and his reputation as a 'live-in son-in-law' gradually spread throughout the surrounding villages.