"Second one, why aren’t you getting up to work? If you don’t work, don’t expect to eat lunch," Granny Cui glared fiercely at Second Cui.

Everyone seemed to turn a blind eye to Second Cui’s constant twitching body, and they all criticized him for being lazy.

Second Cui was furious, but his body was numb from electric shocks, extremely painful, he simply couldn’t get up.

After quite a while, he struggled to stand up.

He wanted to lose his temper and not work, but when he thought of the scene where over ten of his sister-in-law and younger siblings’ brothers beat him up alone, he was too scared to refuse work.

Deep down, he was just a useless coward. Even after the system had inflated his bravado for a few days, once that fierce spirit was extinguished, he remained a useless coward.

Even with the memories of his past life, even knowing that if he continued like this, he would end up plagued by illness, the weakness and incompetence ingrained in him prevented him from being strong.

After being electrocuted by the inferior system once more, Second Cui cowered again, not daring to curse the inferior system, forced to work like an ox or a horse.

He couldn’t even protect his three children.

At night, lying in bed, Second Cui thought of how this life might repeat the same as the last, that his family would end up miserably. Tears streamed down his face.

When the autumn harvest was over, the brigade gave a three-day holiday.

The Cui family could all rest at home, except for Second Cui and his three sons, who were scolded by Granny Cui to chop firewood in the mountains.

Second Cui was unwilling to live worse than in his last life. He suddenly thought of Yuan Chun; after marrying Mei Yuan Chun in his last life, life in the Cui family improved a lot.

Someone washed clothes, someone chopped firewood, someone hauled water, someone watered the vegetable garden... When he came home from work, he could prop up his legs like his brothers and wait for meals.

Those days... were so much better than now.

Even his three children had a better life because of Mei Yuan Chun’s two burdens working.

But why was it different in this life?

Why didn’t Mei Yuan Chun want to marry him?

No, Mei Yuan Chun must marry him, without Mei Yuan Chun and her two children shielding at the front, their family of four would end up even worse than in the previous life.

He was tricked by a cursed system, gallantly wanting to torment his parents and siblings, only to have the tables turned on him.

Now, facing his family, he dared not think or do anything; he only hoped that the difficult days might get a bit better.

Thinking of waking up hungry in the middle of the night and the discomfort in his stomach, Second Cui felt more and more that he should bring Mei Yuan Chun home like in the past life, to serve as a shield for his family of four.

...

On this day, after the autumn harvest in Red Star Village, there was a three-day holiday, and after breakfast, Yuan Chun hurried to the mountains to collect firewood.

It was very cold here in winter, typically by late October, it was cold enough to wear cotton-padded jackets, and by November, it would snow. By then, people couldn’t do any work, just hunker down at home for the winter.

The winters were also long here, stretching from October to the following March, nearly half a year’s winter requiring a lot of firewood to burn, so Yuan Chun had to prepare sufficient firewood.

Moreover, the month after the autumn harvest was the peak period for villagers collecting firewood, everyone enthusiastically going to the mountains to gather wood, even young children knew to help.

However, Yuan Chun didn’t take Ya Ya or Sanqiang today, knowing the two children were too young, taking them would be restrictive, requiring looking after them, rather than letting her work freely.