Re-embroidering life

Shui Qinghua stared at the embroidered screen with a picture of galloping horses on the headboard of the bed. She was shocked, terrified, and incredulous. All kinds of emotions mixed with the memories of her previous life surged towards her like a tide, drowning and overwhelming her.

"Running Horses" is Ji Zimo's masterpiece, and he treasures it like a treasure. In order to give Ji Zimo a surprise on his birthday, Shui Qinghua secretly spent nearly a year embroidering a table screen based on the painting under the pretext of appreciating it.

How many strokes are needed for a painting, and how many stitches are needed for each stroke. At night, she coaxed her child to sleep, set up the embroidery frame, washed her hands and burned incense, and a sense of joy filled her heart, as if the empty years had become tangible, and the love in her heart had a place to rest. In front of the lamp, under the shadow, she continued stitch by stitch, line by line, and finally completed this work with her heart's blood and sweat.

She clearly remembered that on Ji Zimo's birthday, when she handed the embroidered screen to him, his eyes were filled with surprise and admiration. He was surprised that she understood him so well and admired that she had such talent.

That look was the most beautiful moment in her memory.

Her memory stopped at the time before her death, when her three daughters were crying beside her bed. She was fuzzy-conscious and at the end of her strength, but she was still hanging on to her last breath. How could she leave before Ji Zimo came?

Until the servant came with difficulty to tell him that it was the old lady's birthday that day. The third master hurried to the Tang family early in the morning and sent someone to invite her, but it would take another hour and a half for the carriage to go home from Echeng County.

She had been struggling for a whole day and an hour and a half, and she couldn't wait any longer.

What's more, the word "Tang family" once again hurt her heart.

With disappointment, frustration and unwillingness, she finally gave up and sank into darkness amidst deafening cries.

After an unknown amount of time, she struggled to open her eyes in a daze, but what she saw was the embroidered screen with a picture of galloping horses on the bedside! She had never seen this embroidered screen since it was given to Ji Zimo eight years ago and kept in his study, but now it was clearly there.

The room she slept in had some peeling mud on the outermost layer of the wall, and the furniture in the room was all old, with the paint worn out, revealing the traces of time. The curtain hanging in front of her was made of linen, and it was a little prickly when it was blown by the wind and hit her face.

This is not the Furong Garden where she lived before her death, but the old house in Yuquan Town where the Ji family lived when they fell into decline many years ago!

Shocked, she tried to sit up and felt a sharp pain in her lower body.

She smiled bitterly and collapsed back onto the bed. She was very familiar with this feeling, having experienced it three times.

Everything in front of her reminded her that she was reborn on the birth bed of her third daughter, Ji Wei. At this moment, she was only twenty-four years old and had been married to the Ji family for seven years.

Death and rebirth, these two scenes in heaven and on earth, are separated by a whole lifetime, but for her it only takes a moment.

Her heart was pounding and she was terrified.

Pain, pain all over the body, every bone aches. The unexpected premature birth has already overwhelmed her body, and the shock of rebirth is another burden. She is exhausted. Only the churning emotions tear her apart, making her unable to rest.

"Mother! Mother!"

Who is crying? She turned her head with difficulty and saw her eldest daughter Ji Fei and the second daughter Ji Rui rushing to the bed. Ji Fei in front of her was only six years old, small in stature, sweaty, with strands of hair sticking to her forehead, and tears and snot all over her face. Seeing her, Ji Fei burst into tears, hugged her tightly and shouted, "Mom! Mom!"

When Ji Rui saw her sister crying, she also started crying.

The curtain was lifted, and Shui Qinghua's biological mother, Aunt Li, walked in, holding the newborn Ji Wei in her arms. Aunt Li sighed, "Another daughter, how are you going to explain to your husband's family!"

Shui Qinghua looked at her much younger mother with mixed feelings. Her mother had never been very fond of her, but today, thanks to her mother, she did not report to the gates of hell early and waste a chance to be reborn.

It was the day when my sister-in-law Ji Ziyun was getting married far away. The family went out of town to see her off, but Shui Qinghua stayed at home because she was pregnant. I don't know if it was because of overwork that she suddenly had a miscarriage. There were only six-year-old Ji Fei and three-year-old Ji Rui at home. The two children were scared to tears when they saw their mother had constant abdominal pain. Fei'er was smart. She asked a maid to take the little child back to her grandparents' house and called her grandmother. Fortunately, Shui Qinghua had given birth to two children. Although the process was dangerous, she finally gave birth to Ji Wei safely. After giving birth, she fainted, which scared Fei'er and made her cry again. When Shui Qinghua woke up, it was the time of rebirth.

Shui Qinghua ignored Aunt Li's sighs. She was finally back and could personally take care of her three daughters as they grew up. What could be happier and more perfect than this?

As for him, Ji, Zi, Mo.

She repeated the name slowly in her mind. She couldn't explain her feelings, a mixture of love and hate, sweetness mixed with bitterness.

In their previous life, they had been married for fifteen years, and they were a harmonious couple, respecting each other like guests. He was a modest gentleman, and although his feelings for her were not passionate, he tried his best to treat her gently. Even when she gave birth to three daughters in a row, he never blamed her, and always defended her when her mother-in-law gave her a hard time.

He was not a heartless man, so why was he always absent in her most frightened and helpless moments, whether death, rebirth or premature birth?

Maybe he didn't care that much about her as his wife, maybe it really had something to do with Tang Fu?

Thinking of Tang Fu, her heart couldn't help but ache.

Tang Fu was Ji Zimo's childhood playmate and his fiancée since childhood, but she later married someone else. Shortly before Shui Qinghua died, her husband also died and she returned to her parents' home. She was the daughter-in-law that her mother-in-law once liked. After many twists and turns, they were both widowed, so could they continue their relationship?

For a time, rumors were rife in the mansion, saying that Miss Tang was born into a noble family, well-read, and that she and the Third Master were destined to be together, a story that was a good match. Others said that the Ji family was already secretly preparing to marry a new bride, and were just waiting to take down the white and put up the red.

They are a good story, but what about me? Am I just a footnote and cannon fodder of the story?

After fifteen years of hardship, she was unwilling to be a figurehead for others, and she was even more afraid that her three daughters would fall into the hands of a stepmother and would not be able to grow up safely.

She was already seriously ill at the time, and the blow caused her to spit out a mouthful of blood, and she has been unable to get up since then.

For many years after marriage, Ji Zimo never showed any nostalgia or concern for Tang Fu. In her heart, she did not believe that he would be involved with other women when his wife was dying, but she also felt that there must be a reason for every rumor. So she was always looking forward to his return and giving her an answer in person, and at the same time solemnly entrusted her three daughters to him.

He didn't come, but went to Tang's house.

She was upset and didn't know what mood she should be in when she saw him again in this world. But it didn't matter, she still had a lot of time and could always figure everything out.

Shui Qinghua looked at the newly born Wei'er and Fei'er Rui'er who was sobbing beside the bed, and smiled, with infinite tenderness in her heart: "Don't be afraid, mother promises that mother will always be with you."