Time-Travel: The Tragic Cannon Fodder Female Supporting Character Makes a Comeback

CHAPTER 48: The 1960s Marriage Swap: Marrying a Cook (2)

　　Ye Susu was genuinely quite happy with her current appearance. Maybe it was because people in this era didn’t eat very well, but her frame was slender and petite. She looked around 1.58 meters tall, with slightly yellowish hair that had a natural curl to it.

　　Her light-colored hair curled at the ends, and her soft, wispy bangs at the temples framed her delicate doll-like face, making her look like some kind of collectible figurine.

　　Ye Susu couldn’t help but adore her own looks, to the point where she almost wanted to give herself a kiss.

　　Thinking about how the original owner had been forced into suicide in the end, she couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of sympathy. Those two so-called parents absolutely deserved to end up behind bars.

　　In the original story, Ye Su had an older brother and a younger brother. As the middle child and the only daughter, she had been sent to live with her grandmother in the countryside when she was young, only moving to the county town later as she grew older.

　　As she got older, her looks became more and more outstanding. She was also clever, sensible, and had good grades. Because of that, the Ye couple started to think she might be able to marry into a wealthy family someday, and only then did they begin to pay her a little more attention.

　　But the moment their biological daughter returned, they immediately showed their true colors. They no longer wanted to keep Ye Su around and even resorted to harsh words just to drive her away.

　　In a normal family, raising a child for so many years would at least build some emotional attachment. But precisely because they had never truly invested any feelings in her, they could so easily kick her aside without hesitation.

　　As for Ye Liu, she had been reborn. After all, she now had the mind of someone in their forties.

　　She used her own private savings to buy clothes for the whole family, treated her brothers well, treated her parents even better, and even personally prepared foot-washing water for them.

　　She was their biological daughter to begin with. Add that level of filial devotion on top of it, and compared to that, Ye Su only became more and more disliked.

　　Ye Su figured it was probably time to leave anyway. She wasn’t their real daughter to begin with, and since they already hated her, there was no point dragging things out.

　　So she gathered Ye Su’s documents along with the twenty yuan pressed under the bed board.

　　That money wasn’t given by the Ye family couple. It was earned by Ye Su herself after pasting matchboxes for half a year. She had originally been saving it to buy a dress.

　　Good thing she never bought it, or she would’ve been completely broke with nothing left for travel fare.

　　But twenty yuan wasn’t much anyway. Ye Su walked out and said directly to the Ye family couple, “Give me money for travel.”

　　“Shameless! Liu’er is the same age as you, and she already knows how to be filial to us. How do you even have the nerve to ask for money!” Father Ye’s face turned red with anger.

　　Ye Su let out a soft sneer. “So you don’t actually plan on letting me leave? Fine, then I won’t go.”

　　“You! You absolute good-for-nothing!”

　　Father Ye choked in anger and coughed a few times. Ye Liu quickly stepped forward to support him, gently patting his back as she soothed him in a soft voice.

　　“Dad, don’t bother arguing with her. I’ll give her the travel money. Don’t upset yourself and hurt your health.”

　　After saying that, Ye Liu lifted her head and glanced at Ye Su with a proud, condescending look.

　　So what if she was pretty? Once she went back to the countryside, she’d just be a country bumpkin anyway. Marry some rural man and spend her whole life as nothing more than a village girl.

　　“Ye Su, no matter what, our parents did raise you for a while—”

　　Ye Su didn’t feel like listening to any lectures and cut her off directly. “I don’t want to hear it. Give me the money and I’ll leave right now.”

　　Ye Liu gritted her teeth, pulled out the remaining ten yuan from her pocket, and slapped it into her hand with obvious disdain.

　　“This is more than enough for a train ride back to your hometown. Take it like I’m sending you off. Poor thing.”

　　In her mind, once she married that military officer, she’d be living in a villa, driving a car, and never worrying about money again. Ten yuan was nothing more than spare change tossed to a beggar.

　　Ye Su didn’t mind at all. She took the money and slipped it into her pocket with a light smile.

　　“Wow, that’s generous of you,” she said cheerfully. “Hope you manage to get enough to eat in this household.”

　　The whole family kept complaining about Ye Su, but the truth was, she had been swapped at birth. That wasn’t her fault at all.

　　Ye Su hadn’t exactly had it easy either.

　　On the surface, the Ye couple seemed like respectable dual-income workers, but they were deeply biased toward sons. Compared to her brothers, Ye Su’s treatment was like night and day.

　　When she was living in the countryside, she was basically staying under someone else’s roof, constantly enduring her uncle and aunt’s cold looks and disdain.

　　After coming to the county town for school, she wore nothing but her cousin’s old hand-me-downs. At home, she was largely ignored. As long as she didn’t starve to death, that was considered enough.

　　Ye Liu, on the other hand, cried about how much she had suffered in the countryside after returning, but she was clearly taller than most girls her age. Her clothes had no patches, and there wasn’t a single rough callus on her hands.

　　Her skin was smooth and full of collagen, looking healthy and well cared for. On top of that, she had nearly a hundred yuan in private savings. All of this pointed to one thing: she hadn’t really suffered at all in her original family.

　　Coincidentally, both families had the surname Ye. Because of that, the mix-up at birth had happened by mistake.

　　In the end, the Ye family in the countryside never gave up on seeking justice for the daughter they had never even met. No matter how hard things got, they pushed forward stubbornly, constantly filing complaints and appealing without fear.

　　In a rural place where sons were valued over daughters, the fact that the Ye family had still raised a girl like Ye Liu reasonably well meant their character probably wasn’t bad either.

　　Ye Su walked to the doorway, paused for a moment, and asked casually.

　　“Ye Liu, were your adoptive parents really that bad to you?”

　　“Ye Su! How can you even talk to Liu’er like that? Get out! And don’t ever step foot in our house again.”

　　Mother Ye rushed over to shield her biological daughter, glaring at Ye Su with pure disgust. As expected, she wasn’t their real child, always stirring trouble and trying to sow discord.

　　Ye Liu’s expression stiffened for a second. Then she clenched her fists and raised her voice in protest.

　　“What’s so good about the countryside? You work from sunrise to sunset and the farm work never ends. How could that possibly be good? You’ve been living comfortably in the city, of course you wouldn’t understand!”

　　Her adoptive parents had treated her decently, but in her mind, she could have lived an even better life in the city. It was all Ye Su’s fault for “stealing” that life from her.

　　Ye Su stretched lazily at the doorway.

　　“Alright then. Let’s just set these swapped lives back to where they belong. Hopefully everyone’s making the right choice.”

　　The tube-shaped apartment building was full of people watching the drama unfold.

　　Ye Su left openly and without hesitation.

　　When some neighbors asked what was going on, she answered honestly that she was going back to the countryside to find her biological parents.

　　The neighbors reacted with mixed emotions. One aunt even followed her all the way to the stairwell, clearly reluctant to see her go.

　　“You poor girl, you really don’t have much luck,” the aunt said with a sigh. “I was actually going to introduce you to a really promising military officer. He already saw your photo and was quite satisfied with you. But now that you’re going back to the countryside and registered as a rural resident, his parents definitely won’t agree anymore.”

　　Ye Su stopped in her tracks and asked, “What’s that officer’s name?”

　　“Tan Jun,” the aunt replied. “But knowing his name won’t help now. He’s only twenty-seven, already a military officer, and has a very bright future ahead of him. Your mother even gave me money yesterday to arrange the match for Ye Liu instead. That family is coming tomorrow to meet her. If it works out, they’ll settle it.”

　　After she finished speaking, the aunt let out another regretful sigh.

　　After all, Ye Liu wasn’t as pretty as Ye Su. And since she had known Ye Su longer, it was only natural she felt a bit more biased toward her.    

 

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