The Daily Life of a Stepmother in the 1980s
Summer of 1983, on the train.
Clang... clang... clang...
Wooo... wooo...
"The train will soon arrive at the station. Passengers who need to disembark, please..." The sound of an announcement echoed through the loudspeakers, accompanied by the bustling noise of people around.
Xu Tao groggily woke up. In her view were crowded people, all holding large and small bags. In the distance, a loudspeaker was announcing the train's arrival, resembling a scene from a film set in the 1980s.
Xu Tao had ridden high-speed trains before, and while they could get crowded at stations, it was never this packed. What puzzled her most was how simply everyone dressed, carrying sacks and military green bags, and the wooden seats on the train were something she had never seen before.
Military green bags, various sacks, and clothes faded from repeated washing...
This was a scene she had only seen in period dramas. Realizing this, her steps unconsciously halted with the crowd.
"Hey, you in front! Are you getting off or not? If not, don’t block the way!" A loud, impatient voice came from behind as Xu Tao stopped.
Instinctively, Xu Tao stepped aside and was pushed into an empty spot by the crowd. She stared blankly around, and suddenly, unfamiliar memories began flooding into her mind.
"...". After a while, Xu Tao clutched the wooden seat, breathing deeply, feeling a sense of despair after processing those memories.
Yes, despair! Because she had transmigrated into the novel she read last night, becoming the wicked stepmother briefly mentioned in the story, who was later sent to prison by the psychotic male lead Zhao Linan and met a gruesome end.
Xu Tao was from Xu Village, Fenghuang County, Wen City. She was the second child in her family. Her older brother Xu Jiacheng was married with children, and her younger brother Xu Jiadong was still in junior high.
Xu Tao had average grades, barely finishing junior high. After two years at home, she was married off to Zhao Weiguo from Zhao Village.
Zhao Weiguo, father of Zhao Linan, joined the military at 16. His first wife, Liu Qingqing, Zhao Linan’s mother, died from postpartum hemorrhage.
Zhao Weiguo had no plans to remarry, but his mother, Song Xiaoyan, forced him to marry Xu Tao.
After marrying, Zhao Weiguo returned to the army the next day. Xu Tao disliked her stepson Zhao Linan but didn’t dare mistreat him because of her mother-in-law.
Later, when Zhao Weiguo arranged for the family to move to the military base, Xu Tao was sent alone with Zhao Linan to save money.
However, Xu Tao ignored Zhao Linan on the train, causing him to fall ill and get kidnapped. This led to his harsh upbringing and violent personality later on.
Xu Tao's character in the novel was only briefly mentioned to highlight Zhao Linan's dark childhood and how he met the female lead, who became his only light.
At this moment, Xu Tao found herself at the very point when Zhao Linan was abandoned on the train, which was also the beginning of Zhao Linan’s disappearance.
Feeling anxious after absorbing the original owner's memories, Xu Tao felt as if her head was about to explode. She bit her lip for a moment before instinctively turning around and pushing through the crowd in the opposite direction. She remembered that in the novel, the male lead Zhao Linan was suffering from a high fever at this moment, left alone in his seat by the original owner.
Xu Tao hurriedly moved against the flow of people, her eyes scanning for the seat from earlier. Naturally, she saw a few meters ahead, a woman lifting a child from a seat and running in the opposite direction.
"Hey, put the child down!" Xu Tao anxiously stood on tiptoe and shouted in that direction.
Although the train carriage was noisy, Xu Tao's voice was loud enough. Hearing her, the woman became visibly flustered. She hesitated for a brief moment while holding Zhao Linan, but the next second, without any hesitation, she squeezed into the crowd and ran even faster.
She was about to exit through the front carriage door, while Xu Tao was stuck in the crowd, unable to move forward, even being pushed back several steps in embarrassment.
"Hey! What are you doing? Move forward! Why are you turning back? Isn’t it crowded enough already?" A burly man in front of Xu Tao blocked both her view and her path with his height, glaring at her impatiently.
"My child is still back there! I think a stranger just took him away. Could you please let me through?" Xu Tao anxiously explained, but the train was too crowded. Her voice was drowned out by the noise, and no one paid her any attention. Everyone was scrambling with their large bags, afraid of missing their stop.
Xu Tao was shoved around painfully but couldn't care less. She looked around frantically, spotting an open window nearby. She also noticed a woman throwing luggage out of the window. Without hesitation, Xu Tao squeezed over, pulled the woman aside, and began climbing up the window herself.
"Hey! I haven't finished tossing my luggage! What's wrong with you?!" the woman complained angrily after being dragged away.
Ignoring her, Xu Tao stepped on the seat and climbed out the window.
The train windows in the 1980s were large but also quite high. Xu Tao extended one leg out but saw that the ground was still far below. Jumping from this height would definitely cause some impact, possibly leaving her dizzy. Sitting awkwardly on the window ledge, Xu Tao glanced back and saw the woman carrying Zhao Linan getting farther away. She didn't give herself any more time to hesitate.
Closing her eyes—thud—
The sound of Xu Tao jumping down from the window was loud. The height caused a strong impact on her legs, making them feel weak and almost causing her to kneel on the ground.
"...!" Gritting her teeth, Xu Tao leaned on the train for support and quickly stood up. She didn't give herself any time to recover and sprinted in the direction of the woman holding Zhao Linan.
Xu Tao ran as fast as she could, weaving through the crowd. At this moment, she had only one thought, to get Zhao Linan back.
Xu Tao didn't know if the original owner had intentionally abandoned the child on the train, but she was certain that her own confusion after just transmigrating had caused her to forget about the child. If it was her fault that Zhao Linan would suffer abuse at such a young age, Xu Tao would feel deeply guilty.
Moreover, the book mentioned that the male lead's stepmother eventually died a gruesome death, completely dismembered! Xu Tao definitely didn’t want to die in such a horrible way.
Although at this moment Xu Tao didn't know how long she would stay in this novel or whether she would replace the original owner Xu Tao to live on, she knew one thing for sure, she had to prevent Zhao Linan from being kidnapped.
"You dare to take my child!" Perhaps it was because Xu Tao was desperate, but she managed to grab the woman at the exit of the station. She was furious and acted quickly, her first instinct being to grab the woman's hair and start hitting her, not holding back at all.
"Ah!" The woman cried out in pain.
Xu Tao's gaze was fierce as she glared at the woman. "Give me my child!" While speaking, she reached out and snatched Zhao Linan from the woman's arms, whose little face was flushed with fever, still drowsy.
The woman, seeing how determined Xu Tao was, hesitated for a moment. She wasn’t a habitual child trafficker, and seeing how ruthless Xu Tao was, she realized things had gone wrong. After giving Xu Tao a quick glance, she gritted her teeth and immediately dove back into the crowded crowd, running out of the train station without hesitation.
Xu Tao held Zhao Linan in her arms and watched the woman run away. After a moment, she looked down at Zhao Linan, then collapsed to the ground, her legs giving way as she gasped for air in fear.
Zhao Linan had a high fever, his little face flushed, and he was curled up in Xu Tao's arms. His eyelids fluttered open briefly before closing again in a drowsy state.
Xu Tao held the child and, not caring about her image, sat on the ground for a long time, until the sound of the train starting up again echoed in the distance. It was only then that she realized that both her and Zhao Linan’s luggage had been left behind on the train.
She bit her lip, gently adjusted Zhao Linan in her arms, and then, in a flustered manner, began heading toward the exit with him.
Zhao Weiguo had been having some work troubles recently, leaving him in a state of turmoil. He had originally planned to send a telegram to Xu Tao about the situation, but by the time things happened, Xu Tao had already traveled all the way to G Province with her son, who was not even three years old, on the military train.
After giving it much thought, he decided to first meet her at the train station to bring them back before discussing the issues at hand.
Although he and Xu Tao had been married for nearly half a year, they had barely spent any time together, meeting only a few times. To be honest, he had almost forgotten what Xu Tao looked like.
When Xu Tao finally exited the train station holding Zhao Linan, she looked rather comical. With her hair in two messy braids, her appearance was chaotic, and she looked quite disheveled.
Zhao Weiguo was waiting at the exit where people would be coming out. When Xu Tao hesitantly walked toward him with Zhao Linan in her arms, he barely recognized her, his voice deep with a hint of surprise. "Xu Tao?"
o0o
"Support me on Ko-fi, or you can help in another way by clicking on ads. Thanks a lot!"