As mentioned earlier, the novel One Pregnancy, Twin Treasures: The Island Beauty’s Rise and Sudden Wealth contains many cannon fodder characters. After all, this book is essentially a satisfying progression fantasy, and a satisfying story can’t do without its cannon fodder characters.
Yun Su herself was the minor cannon fodder who appeared at the beginning. After her, countless other cannon fodder characters appeared one after another, serving as foils to the female lead Yun Feng’s success.
Among these cannon fodder characters, some were there to deliver resources and achievements to Yun Feng.
Ji Xiangtian was one such character. His fate was to become a stepping stone for the female lead’s fame.
Thinking this, Yun Su felt very unhappy. Why should perfectly good people become stepping stones for others? Couldn’t everyone just mind their own business, work hard, and find their own path to success?
Yun Su tried hard to recall the original plot, but the problem was she had skipped around while reading. Although she had read the beginning and the end, she had skipped too many chapters in the middle. At this moment, she couldn’t remember the specific details.
“Ah…” Yun Su sighed. She regretted not reading the whole story through. But now that she was here, she naturally wouldn’t let fate play out as it had in the book.
——
“Big brother, little sister…”
Just as the two siblings were lost in their own thoughts, the wooden gate of a courtyard not far away creaked open. A tall, thin half-grown child waved at them.
Yun Su immediately recognized him as the original owner’s younger brother, Yun Huaifu.
The Yun family had three children. The eldest son, Yun Huaimin, was 20 years old and didn’t have a sweetheart yet. The second child was the original owner, Yun Su, 18 years old and a recent high school graduate. The third child was Yun Huaifu, 14 years old.
Their parents were named Yun Chengjiang and Ma Ailan.
The family of five lived in a small courtyard made of mud bricks and black tiles.
The courtyard had one main house and two side houses. The main house was divided into a central living room and two bedrooms on either side. The left bedroom belonged to Yun Su’s parents, and the right bedroom was Yun Su’s.
Of the two side houses, one was shared by the brothers Yun Huaimin and Yun Huaifu. The other side house served as the kitchen, bathroom, and storage room.
The outhouse was built off to the side using thatch and wood. Next to it were the pig and chicken pens.
The entire courtyard was enclosed by a wooden fence. In front of the main gate was a large yard. Beside the yard, aside from a well pump, there was a vegetable garden.
All in all, it was a very ordinary farmhouse courtyard.
Yun Huaifu, seeing them, rushed out of the house.
Yun Huaimin said, “Hey, hey, watch out, don’t bump into your sister. Did you bring in all the salted fish and dried vegetables?”
Yun Huaifu nodded vigorously, a hint of urgency still on his face.
Yun Su was observing the courtyard, mentally matching it to her memories. After all, memories were like a slideshow, flashing by quickly. It was only upon seeing the real thing that she began to feel grounded.
Seeing her little brother’s expression, she laughed, jumped down from her older brother’s back, and reached out to ruffle her little brother’s hair.
This was a common playful gesture between the two siblings.
Having his hair ruffled by his sister, Yun Huaifu finally broke into a giggle.
——
Seeing this, Yun Huaimin told them to hurry inside. The wind outside was picking up.
As soon as he entered the main house, he lit the kerosene lamp in the living room and told Yun Su to go take a bath and change her clothes quickly. He went to the kitchen to brew some ginger tea.
Yun Huaifu immediately leaned in and asked, “Big brother, big brother. Was it Hu Chunhua who pushed little sister into the sea?”
Earlier, Xiao Ya had run to their house shouting that their sister had fallen into the sea. It had scared them terribly. Their sister had never been a good swimmer, and now, after being sick and not fully recovered, how could she possibly survive falling into the sea?
He had wanted to go help rescue his sister, but his big brother hadn’t let him, only telling him to stay home and boil water.
Yun Huaimin nodded. “It was the Hu family. I can tell they’re up to no good.”
Yun Huaifu, upon hearing this, immediately jumped up, fists raised, looking like he was about to run off to the Hu family’s house to demand justice.
“Hey, hey, don’t go running out there. The storm’s about to hit. What are you going out for? Your sister is already home. Making a fuss right now won’t accomplish anything.”
“So we’re just going to let it slide?”
Yun Huaimin let out a couple of dry chuckles. “Just wait until the rain stops. You’ll see.”
——
The brothers’ conversation was clearly heard by Yun Su on the other side of the wall.
Just as her memories showed, the siblings had a good relationship. Their parents hadn’t come home yet, but her memories also showed that they doted on their daughter. However, in the original book, her fate had been quite tragic. Although she hadn’t read most of the middle chapters, Yun Su felt that if she encountered trouble, her family wouldn’t stand by and do nothing.
So why, in the end, did the original owner still end up on that path of being cannon fodder?
Although she still had many questions about the plot, Yun Su decided not to dwell on them for now and just enjoy a nice, hot bath.
From start to finish, bathing and changing clothes took less than ten minutes.
After getting dressed, Yun Su opened the bathroom window to let out the moisture. But as soon as she opened the wooden window, she saw someone walking into the courtyard across the way.
She hadn’t expected Gu Zhengrong to escort Yun Feng home.
This development was happening a bit too fast.
Yun Feng was Yun Su’s cousin. Their fathers were brothers. The brothers’ houses were built directly across from each other. The older generation of the Yun family had four children in total. The eldest, Uncle Yun, worked and lived in the commune and rarely came to the brigade.
The second Yun brother was Yun Feng’s father and lived across from Yun Su’s family. His household had nine people in total. Yun Su’s grandparents lived with them.
The third Yun brother was Yun Su’s father.
The youngest, Yun Su’s aunt, had married and moved to Yangcheng. Yun Su’s parents had been away for a few days because they had taken Yun Su’s grandparents to Yangcheng to visit Yun Su’s aunt, who had just given birth.
In short, all these families were quite prosperous and numerous.
Of course, more than half of the people in the entire Yun Family Cove shared the surname Yun. They were all related in some way, tracing back to the same ancestor five hundred years ago. Because the clan was so large and flourishing, aside from the Party Secretary, most of the village cadres in the entire production brigade were surnamed Yun.
So, after Yun Su’s accident, the brigade cadres had arrived so quickly for this very reason.
After all, the brigade captain was an uncle from the same branch of the family as Yun Su.
After sorting out these relationships, Yun Su became even more puzzled as to why the original version of herself in the book had ended up so tragically. That loafer, Hu Daqiang, was an outsider to the village, someone with a different surname.
Even if she had married him, if she were mistreated, for whatever reason, surely the other Yun-surnamed people in the village wouldn’t have just stood by and done nothing.
As Yun Su was pondering this, she saw Yun Feng, across the way, say goodbye to Gu Zhengrong and enter her house.
Judging by her eager, skipping steps, it seemed good news was on the horizon.
Hah!
——
“Little sister, come drink some ginger tea.”
Yun Huaimin called out loudly from the kitchen, then brought the teapot filled with ginger tea into the main house.
Yun Su shook her head and walked toward the main house.
Just then, it started to rain outside. The entire sky seemed shrouded by a curtain of rain.
Yun Huaimin sat down, took a few sips of ginger tea, and remarked, “Good thing we came back quickly! Otherwise, the roads would be terrible right now. Yun Feng made it home, didn’t she?”
The second and third branches of the Yun family had been separated for a long time, so their relationship over the years was decent.
In particular, Yun Huaimin admired Yun Feng quite a bit for being such a capable girl.
Yun Su could see her brother’s concern and nodded. “She’s home. I saw a PLA comrade escort her back.”
Hearing this, Yun Huaimin paused for a moment, didn’t think much of it, and simply felt relieved that Yun Feng had returned safely. His main focus was still on his own sister.
“Do you know why Hu Chunhua pushed you into the sea?”
He had already learned the details of her fall from Xiao Ya, the girl who had come to warn them. Now, with time on their hands, he could confirm the situation with his sister.
Yun Su had received all of the original owner’s memories. She knew perfectly well that Hu Chunhua had pushed her on purpose. Why else would someone suddenly shove another person with great force by the seaside?
Although settling the score would have to wait due to the storm, Yun Su wasn’t about to let her off the hook.
So, Yun Su first explained clearly what had happened while clamming, which made the brothers Yun Huaimin and Yun Huaifu very angry.
——
Then, Yun Su voiced her suspicions.
“Before, when I fell in the sea and was busy rescuing someone, I didn’t have a chance to tell you, big brother. But thinking about it now, Hu Daqiang’s behavior after I came ashore was very strange. You were securing the boat, so you might not have seen it. At that moment, Hu Daqiang was charging directly at me.”
Yun Huaimin truly hadn’t seen Hu Daqiang’s lunge. He had only noticed the man’s pathetic state later, after that PLA comrade subdued him.
Now, with his sister’s words, and thinking about how Hu Chunhua had deliberately pushed her into the sea, and then Hu Daqiang had appeared, trying to take advantage of her—if that had succeeded, wouldn’t the Hu family have come to propose marriage next?
This wasn’t just him overthinking. Something similar had recently happened in the neighboring production brigade.
A few days ago, in that neighboring brigade, a young woman had come out of the sea. Now, it wasn’t unusual for women in their fishing villages to go into the water. Typically, women who went into the sea would wear dark-colored clothes to avoid unnecessary trouble.
But that day, for some reason, when this young woman came ashore, her clothes loosened, and her shoulders were exposed.
Fishing villages weren’t usually that particular. In such a situation, you just pull your clothes back up and move on. But that day, as luck would have it, a loafer from their village went up and grabbed her. He claimed he had twisted his ankle and couldn’t stand steady, that it wasn’t intentional. But since he had already embraced her and touched her shoulders, he might as well just marry her and bring her home.
At that point, if the woman’s family had been firm, there wouldn’t have been a problem.
But that young woman had a harsh stepmother at home, plus the loafer agreed to pay a bride price of one hundred yuan. And with this incident having occurred, in the end, she was forced to marry that loafer.
When news of this spread to their brigade, many people thought it was outrageous. Of course, there were also bachelors and loafers who couldn’t find wives who started scheming in their hearts.
Yun Huaimin had mentioned this to his little sister at the time, telling her to be wary of such people. But since more than half of their Yun Family Cove Brigade were Yuns, he hadn’t really thought that any of the few loafers in the brigade would actually dare to try something like that.
He hadn’t expected that there would be people with such poor judgment, people who would set their crooked sights on his own sister.
That was not something he could just let slide.
Now that he was certain the Hu siblings had done it on purpose, Yun Huaimin decided to get revenge.
Yun Su could see her brother’s intention and didn’t sanctimoniously say anything about forgiveness. Instead, she asked her brother how he planned to get back at them.
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