“Jessica, I’m so sorry, honey. If you’re upset, take it out on me, not your sister.”
“But that job… it’s supposed to be Claire’s. Can’t you just let her have it?”
“You’ve got to have a conscience, kid. We can’t turn our backs on the Robertsons.”
“I’m begging you, don’t make things harder than they already are, alright?”
Maureen Johnson clung to Jessica’s pant leg, her voice trembling with each word. She was kneeling, putting on the most pitiful act you could imagine.
The neighbors were all talking at once.
“This is ridiculous. A mother begging her own daughter?”
“Jessica’s going too far. Trying to snatch Claire’s job?”
“She just doesn't want to be sent to the countryside. Come on, that’s her own mother—what’s so hard to understand?”
“Ungrateful, that’s what she is. The Robertsons have treated her and her mom better than anyone!”
The whole courtyard of the food plant housing compound was packed. Everyone was whispering and throwing side-eyes at Jessica, accusing her of being selfish and unfilial.
Maureen, meanwhile, felt pleased with herself, sure that Jessica was about to give in.
Claire stood off to the side, her face smug as can be, barely keeping down a grin.
Jessica stared at her mother kneeling before her, faking it all, and felt a chill run through her. This woman was supposed to be her mother—the same one who was sacrificing her just to help her stepdaughter?
Jessica wasn’t originally from here.
She used to fight zombies in a post-apocalyptic world. She’d died trying to hunt down a zombie king when a horde came charging.
Next thing she knew, she woke up in some makeshift bed in the 1970s, now living as a girl whose mother had married again.
And of all the things, her own mother didn’t even stand by her. Instead, she bent over backward for the stepdaughter. You don’t run into that often, but the original girl got the worst of it.
Between the favoritism and Claire’s scheming, the girl just couldn’t take it anymore. That sorrow built up and snuffed her out before her time.
That’s when Jessica stepped in.
“Get up first.”
Maureen hadn’t noticed the shift in Jessica. Still putting on her act, she whimpered, “Jessica, be reasonable. Your Uncle Robert has been so kind to you.”
Claire chipped in with a mocking smile, “Jess, Mom’s doing this all for you, don’t be ungrateful. You got no business wanting what’s not yours. Maybe focus on yourself instead of chasing others’ stuff.”
Robert Robertson, Maureen’s new husband, worked as a foreman in the second workshop of the food factory. He wasn’t a nobody.
The Robertsons had five kids. Claire was the third, just turned eighteen—same age as Jessica.
They’d already gone around bragging she’d landed a county hospital nurse job and didn’t need to be sent to the countryside. So now everyone just assumed Jessica was trying to steal that spot to dodge going herself."Maureen Johnson, get off the ground already!"
"What, I’m not even your mom anymore?" Claire Robertson latched onto that like it was her last chance. "Neighbors, come on, what do you call this kind of behavior?"
"Jessica, don't go overboard now, learn to be considerate."
"Your mother's got it rough too, think about her for once."
"Remember how the two of you got into the Robertson family in the first place? Who else would’ve taken you in?"
"Exactly, they weren’t exactly shining examples of decency from the beginning."
Maureen Johnson had this nagging feeling Jessica wasn’t quite the same, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
"Maureen, I can—"
Claire, worried Maureen might spill the truth, quickly cut in. "This job was mine to begin with, okay?"
Jessica let out a cold chuckle. That’s what this was—they thought they could just run over the original girl because she never spoke up.
The original Jessica was quiet, bottled everything up inside. After her mom remarried, she just felt like an outsider, so she talked even less.
And now that she was already crushed to death by all that frustration, they still had the nerve to act like this? Think she’d put up with it too?
"Alright, Maureen, let’s stop playing games in front of everyone—was it me who got this nurse position, or was it Claire?"
Maureen’s eyes darted around, clearly scheming. "Jessica, your sister’s job’s all sorted out, don’t mess things up now."
She’d already signed Jessica up for countryside labor—no way to undo that now. That’s why she didn’t fear Jessica making a fuss.
She figured everyone would naturally take a mother’s word. Who wouldn’t protect their own kid, right? Stealing someone’s job and still playing the victim, what a joke.
"Not a single truth coming out of that mouth."
"Just look at her, nothing but trouble. A real sneaky one."
"Someone this disrespectful should be out in the fields doing hard labor."
The whole courtyard turned into a shouting match, voices of blame flying from every direction.
Jessica took a deep breath, then hollered, "Enough! Everyone shut the hell up!"
That outburst was so loud it nearly scared the crows off the trees. The crowd froze, staring at her like she’d grown another head.
After six months in Haicheng, Jessica had barely spoken a full sentence, always keeping her head down and avoiding people.
And now? It was like she’d turned into a whole different person overnight.
People might’ve thought about saying that kind of stuff, but no one actually dared in times like these.
Most didn’t believe her anyway. Maureen was still her real mom, after all!
Maureen’s eyes flicked again, then she suddenly let go of Jessica’s pant leg and said, "Please, sweetie, don’t make a scene anymore. I’m begging you, sweetheart."
Right after that, she actually knelt down and bowed her head with a loud "thump."
Everyone watching started to feel guilty—her own mother just knelt to her, and Jessica was still being so unreasonable?Things had completely spiraled out of control. Jessica’s fists were clenched in frustration—Maureen sure lived up to her old reputation as the drama queen of the dance troupe. Top-tier acting skills, no kidding.
Acting? Please. Two can play that game.
Jessica’s eyes instantly welled up as she shouted, “What are you trying to do, kill me? I’m your own daughter, and here you are kneeling, banging your head on the ground—trying to take years off my life?”
Everyone paused for a moment, caught off guard, but then some started nodding. Even nowadays, folks might not believe in old superstitions much, but parents kneeling to their own kid? That still rubbed people the wrong way. It just didn’t sit right.
Jessica was her flesh and blood. What kind of mother did something like that?
Even Maureen was stunned, clearly not expecting Jessica to call her bluff like that so directly.
"I'm not slick like Claire, I don’t know how to sweet-talk you or make you happy. You hated my dad, so now you take it out on me..." Jessica's voice trailed off deliberately before she burst into loud sobs. "But my test scores for that nurse job are posted at the county hospital. Anyone can go check the board!"
Her words hit like a bell ringing at dusk—jolting the crowd awake.
Jessica’s father used to be a proper college professor, and before the liberation, their family ran a private clinic. Word had it Jessica had learned medicine from her grandpa since she was little. Getting into a nurse position? That was perfectly believable.
As for Claire, she barely scraped by in school and only got into junior high through connections. Suddenly ace the nurse exam? Sounded fishy.
"You just trying to push me down to the countryside, right? Fine, I’ll go—but I want one thing cleared up: who actually earned this job?"
Claire had never seen Jessica this fierce before; she was caught completely off guard.
Maureen was stuck. Her carefully planned sob story had been ruined, and now, those suspicious stares from around the crowd were burning.
Slowly, Maureen picked herself off the ground and admitted, “Yes... the job really was Jessica’s.”
Claire’s face froze. “Mom…”
The truth landed hard—it was Jessica who passed the exam fair and square.
Everyone knew Maureen treated Claire way better than Jessica. People often joked Claire was her real daughter.
But what exactly was Maureen chasing with this whole performance?
“This family’s something else, huh? Trying to force their own daughter to give up her job?”
"Was she even given a choice?"
Maureen gave a strained laugh. “It’s not like we stole it from her. Our family’s just had a rough time lately.”
She turned to Jessica with a face full of fake concern. “Jessica, what you did wasn’t right. Telling you to go to the countryside, it was really to protect you. Keep you from making bad choices. But now you’ve stirred things up so much… I’ve gotta be blunt. Michael’s never gonna be with you.”
