After going through the familiar process of healing bodily damage, Ding Yun quickly began to integrate with the original body while carefully sorting through its past memories.
The original body was an only child when she was young.
This was the case until she was eighteen or nineteen years old.
For the first decade or so, she was the only child, and even though her grandparents had some complaints, it didn't affect her, and her life went on quite well.
She achieved very satisfactory results in the college entrance examination.
She was successfully admitted to a first-class university in her hometown.
However, during the summer vacation after her first year of university, she was stunned when she returned home because there was an extra person in the house, a younger brother. She then learned that her parents, still energetic in their old age, had started preparing for another child when she was in her third year of high school.
By the time she went to university and started military training.
They had just discovered the pregnancy three weeks earlier.
When she returned for winter break, although her mother was several months pregnant, she was wearing many layers of clothing due to the cold weather. She hadn't thought about pregnancy, and her parents had intentionally kept it a secret, so she managed to get through it. By the time she returned for the summer, the baby her mother was carrying had already been delivered, and there was no longer any way to hide it!
Only then did they have to tell her.
Although the original body was very surprised and even found it difficult to accept, the child had already been born, and it couldn't be put back. So, in the end, she had to accept it.
And she helped her mother take care of the baby during the summer vacation.
There was no other way. Her mother was already forty-seven years old, and her energy was certainly far from what it was when she was younger. Moreover, the baby was quite fussy, and her father didn't help at all. Whenever the baby wet its diaper or cried from hunger, he would just call his wife, without lifting a finger. The original body couldn't bear to see her mother's dark circles getting heavier and her body visibly fading, so she could only help out.
After that, the original body completed university with virtually no interaction with her younger brother. She found a boyfriend in her hometown during her third year and got married immediately after graduation, a shotgun wedding at that.
There were no particularly outrageous events during the wedding process.
The groom gave a betrothal gift of 131,400 yuan, and they also prepared a house and a car. The original body's parents gave her a property as part of her dowry, which was considered pre-marital property.
Less than seven months after getting married, the original body gave birth to a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. Since her mother-in-law was willing to help take care of the children, the original body did not become a stay-at-home mother. She went back to work after her confinement period.
Everything seemed to be going quite well initially.
But three years later, the original body's father died in a car accident on his way to pick up his younger son from school. He was hit and run over by a dump truck. When the original body's mother arrived at the scene, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage from the shock.
Although she was narrowly saved.
She was left paralyzed on one side of her body.
The original body's brother was only seven years old that year, so it was impossible for him to take care of his partially paralyzed mother alone.
Nor could this responsibility be borne by other relatives in the family, so it had to fall on the original body, as the daughter.
At this point, the original body found herself in a dilemma. If she continued to work, she wouldn't be able to take care of her mother. But if she didn't work, who would take care of her mother? The cost of hiring a professional caregiver would likely be higher than her salary.
As for asking her mother-in-law to take care of her.
It was reasonable for her mother-in-law to help take care of her grandchildren. But why should she help take care of her mother-in-law's mother-in-law? What reason did she have?
For a day or two, she could help out, but her mother's condition was clearly not a short-term issue.
Even if her mother-in-law was willing.
She couldn't bring herself to ask.
So, in the end, the original body had no choice but to reluctantly quit her job and become a stay-at-home mother. She moved her mother and brother in. However, this made the house a bit crowded, as their house was not large to begin with, only over 120 square meters. After deducting the common areas, the actual usable area was less than 100 square meters.
Originally, the couple, their parents-in-law, and two children lived there. The couple shared one room, the parents-in-law another, and the two children a third.
All three bedrooms were occupied.
Now, with her mother and brother moving in, the only available space was a storage room. However, the storage room had a small window, was small in area, and its location was not ideal. It was also not suitable for someone recovering from an illness.
The original body found it difficult to ask her parents-in-law to leave. So, she had to find a way to persuade her husband and herself to move into the storage room, and let her mother and brother occupy the master bedroom.
At least it had sunlight.
But the original body's parents-in-law were also unwilling. They didn't want their son to live in the storage room while staying in their house. So, after discussing it, they decided to move out. After all, they had more than one property; they had their own houses. The reason they moved in initially was to help with childcare.
Now that their daughter-in-law was a stay-at-home mother, and due to her mother-in-law's partial paralysis, she had to stay at home to take care of her, which also allowed her to look after the two children.
So, whether they lived there or not was irrelevant.
Moreover, their house was not far away. If they missed their grandchildren, they could visit.
It must be said that the original body's in-laws were truly understanding. The original body was quite grateful to them at the time, and then she began a very busy life as a housewife.
Her son and daughter were in kindergarten, her brother was in elementary school, her mother was bedridden and needed care, and she also had to prepare three meals a day for six people, do housework, and a series of other chores. At that time, the original body truly felt that the sum of these tasks was more tiring than working.
Her husband wanted to help, but his company had overtime as a daily routine. If he could get home by eleven o'clock, it was considered a blessing. Sometimes he would work until one or two in the morning. He wanted to help but was powerless.
At most, he could help by putting clothes in the washing machine or placing dishes in the sink, trying to minimize the amount of garbage created.
People are truly resilient sometimes. As time went by, the tasks that used to exhaust the original body every day, making her want to sleep directly after washing up without even watching TV, became manageable within a few years.
She even learned how to multitask.
While doing chores, she could listen to TV shows.
Her nursing skills also improved considerably.
And after a few years of diligent rehabilitation, her mother's physical condition improved significantly. She could now complete most tasks herself and no longer relied on her daughter.
However, just when the original body thought life would gradually improve, her husband died suddenly in the year her son and daughter turned ten. He died suddenly while working overtime at the company until one in the morning. The cause of death was quite clear and obvious: frequent late-night overtime.
High work intensity and similar factors.
In any case, the company could not evade responsibility.
At that moment, the original body felt as if the sky had fallen.