Chapter 1: My Sister-in-law Urges Me to Sell a Kidney

Alternate history—this is not Earth, but a parallel world of my own creation, full of fabrications that can’t withstand scrutiny. Please check your brain at the door before reading.

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Li Qi, forty-eight, lay on the hospital bed, diagnostic report in hand, his face etched with bitterness.

Kidney failure.

Unless he received a transplant or could afford the exorbitant costs of dialysis, there was nothing left for him but to wait for death.

And it would be a painful death.

Li Qi wanted to live.

But seeing the attitude of the relatives outside, he knew his chances were slim.

If, all those years ago, he hadn’t donated his kidney to his cousin Li Tianyi, perhaps life wouldn’t have turned out so wretched—perhaps he wouldn’t have gone through life missing a kidney, too frail to find a wife, his health always failing.

Outside the door, Li Tianyi’s wife, Liu Qian, was shouting,

“Thirty years—he’s already been repaid with a life! Haven’t we done enough for him? Now he wants us to pay for his dialysis? Dream on!”

Li Tianyi, indignant, chimed in,

“All I took was one kidney from him—what more does he expect? We’ve been more than fair. Buying one doesn’t even cost that much! Besides, we gave their family twenty thousand back then—if he couldn’t keep it and let his elder brother and sister-in-law take it, that’s on him. They promised to look after him, but have they? Whenever there’s trouble, they come running to us. It’s just shameless. And we even got him a job at the mine, but he insisted on passing it to his younger brother. If he had any kind of health insurance, maybe we’d toss him a little more. By the way, his two brothers, his sister, and the brother who took his job—none of them help him at all, do they? I heard their old house got demolished for over a million in compensation.”

Their uncle, Li Manjiang, was silent for a long time before sighing,

“Ever since his father died, he’s been like a lost soul—no one to care for him. His eldest sister’s always struggled; yesterday she sent me two hundred, told me to buy her little brother some fruit. His eldest brother and wife are overseas, never come back. His second brother says he got none of the twenty thousand and doesn’t care if he lives or dies. As for the youngest, he says he nursed their father to the end and owes him nothing—wishes he’d just die far away.”

At this, Li Manjiang managed a wry smile.

“Who’d have thought the family that took all the benefits would leave him with nothing in the end? That’s that—I’ll ask the doctor to give him some painkillers. Whether he makes it through is up to fate now. It’s all destiny.”

With that, the relatives left without another word for Li Qi.

He didn’t blame them for being merciless—his own blood kin had already discarded him like an old shoe.

He only thought, if he could go back to that day, he would never give up his kidney.

In the middle of the night, pain struck his abdomen—a sharp, blinding agony, then nothing.

When he opened his eyes again, Li Qi was stunned.

He saw a mud wall papered with newspapers, a woven basket hanging from a roof beam, an old clock draped with a dirty, colorless piece of burlap, its spring ticking steadily.

His father, Li Mantang, sat on the edge of the kang, gazing at him.

“Dad, you really need to make a decision about this soon,” pressed his eldest sister-in-law, Du Li, urgency in her voice. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Uncle Manjiang’s family are big leaders—since they’ve offered twenty thousand and a job at the mine for the third boy, they won’t go back on their word. It’s just a kidney, right? I’ve checked with Su Yu from second aunt’s family—people have two kidneys, giving one isn’t a big deal, just means he can’t do heavy labor in the future.”

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“But Uncle Manjiang said the mine job doesn’t involve the pit—just handling labor supplies. They’re being incredibly generous. If we refuse, it’ll be an insult, and we’ll lose favor. If his son’s blood didn’t match Li Qi’s so well, would this opportunity even come to us?” Du Li was nearly frantic.

Twenty thousand! If not for the money, she wouldn’t be sitting in this wretched rural shack all day. She and her husband, Li Peng, lived in the school’s staff apartments—crude, but at least clean and bright. Since her mother-in-law’s death, her father-in-law had struggled to raise two half-grown boys, and the place was a mess, with a stench she couldn’t even describe.

Last night she and Li Peng had spent hours planning how to use the money. There was a slot for a southern exchange program at Li Peng’s school, costing five thousand out of pocket—if he went, he could get a correspondence degree and maybe reach for a vice-principal post. As for her—she deserved a mink coat. In the Northeast, minks were the status symbol for well-to-do women. All the other workers’ wives had them; only she still wore cotton. She wanted the best white mink for ten thousand, because she’d heard others spent only a few thousand at most. The workshop supervisor’s wife had a ten-thousand-yuan black mink, but she was big and burly, looking like a grizzly in it. Du Li, young and attractive, with a trim waist and full figure, would be the belle of the factory in white mink.

Then, when she and the supervisor’s wife stood side by side in their top-tier coats, she’d look better—and who would dare look down on her for being a mere lab assistant? At least a lab assistant was better than those women packing boxes in the warehouse!

The remaining five thousand could help her brother, Du Ming, get married—house, bride price, the three essentials, gold jewelry, banquet. Everything covered.

Her family’s wedding had to be the best—nothing short of impressive.

As for Li Qi—just a kid, really—a fifty for him to go have fun a few days, and she’d have fulfilled her duties as a sister-in-law.

The more Du Li thought, the more excited she became, barely able to contain her joy. Even this wretched, backward family had finally done something for her happiness.

Li Mantang, listening to Du Li’s urging, glanced at Li Qi, but hesitated.

Li Qi pinched the web between his thumb and forefinger.

It hurt.

He had been reborn—thirty years back.

His hands ran down his sides—sure enough, no scar. His kidney was still there!

Heaven had mercy.

Du Li, seeing Li Qi touch his waist in silence, grew impatient. The boy had always been listless, head down, as if half asleep. Why no reaction now? She couldn’t let this golden opportunity slip.

So, in a rare calm voice, she said,

“Third, as they say, eldest brother is like a father, eldest sister-in-law like a mother. Dad has no objections, no one does—you shouldn’t drag your feet. Tomorrow I’ll take you to Uncle Manjiang to settle it. As for the twenty thousand, we’ll hold onto it for you until you get married.”

She felt proud of her flowery speech, but Li Qi’s lips curled into a cold smile.

Last time, he’d believed this damned woman, let her hold the money, and she spent it all. When he tried to claim it, she dodged and delayed with every excuse. Foolish, he’d never even suspected her, not even when she wore that expensive white mink.

How did she dare?

It was like a factory girl with a salary of eighteen hundred a month buying a hundred-thousand-yuan Hermès purse.

Whenever he asked for the money, she’d say, wait till you’re married. But with one kidney, he never found a wife.

In the end, his brother Li Peng took her abroad, and the money was gone for good.

Before he could speak, his second sister-in-law, Tang Chunyan, jumped in.

“What do you mean, you’ll keep the money for him? That’s Li Qi’s kidney money—why should you have it? At the very least, half should come to me! I know you—always funneling money and goods to your own family. I heard your brother’s getting married—you’re planning to use Li Qi’s money, aren’t you?”

Tang Chunyan and her husband, Li Hai, had spent the night plotting. Li Hai, never good at school, had started working young; the two of them ran a pickle stall at the town market. They’d heard a new city market was being built—booths going for five thousand each. They agreed: they’d get half the kidney money, buy two stalls, rent one out, and life would be set.

So when Du Li tried to claim it all, Tang Chunyan exploded.

“Don’t talk nonsense, Tang Chunyan! What proof do you have I send money home? You’re just a stinking pickle-seller—who are you to criticize me?”

“What’s wrong with selling pickles? I make way more than you! You’re just a lowly lab assistant making forty-six a month—stop pretending to be upper class!”

From the jolt of rebirth, Li Qi finally came to himself. As two lifetimes’ memories merged, he suddenly recalled something amusing and interrupted with a sly grin.

“Second sister-in-law, don’t listen to that nonsense. She’s no lab technician—she’s just a helper, washing glassware and pipes. Real technicians at the chemical plant are all college grads, making ninety-eight a month. She’s just a gofer, always bragging she’s a technician.”

Du Li’s face turned beet red, her whole body trembling with rage. She stared at her husband Li Peng in disbelief—it had to be him who betrayed her.

She was livid—her voice cracked.

“You little brat, what are you saying? I work in the lab, so I’m a technician! I’m not in the workshop, I’m not like those dirty workers!”

Her biggest secret exposed, she lost all self-control.

Her husband was deputy head of the county middle school, while she was just a lab assistant—she’d always felt inferior in the Li family, so she’d lied from the start, claiming to be a technician. She was “office staff,” not some laborer in work clothes! Li Peng had always gone along with her story. Now, years of careful pretense had been destroyed by Li Qi’s single sentence, and Du Li was like a frantic bird with singed wings.

The room descended into chaos, and Li Peng had to stand up, pulling his wife aside. He shot Li Qi a fierce glare—how dare you humiliate my wife? I’ll settle this with you later.

But he said nothing, knowing that, for all his flaws, the third brother always obeyed their father.

He turned to Li Mantang.

“Dad, this is your decision. If the third gives up his kidney, I really have urgent need of that money. Mom always said everything in the family should follow me. Please, tell him to come with me to Uncle Manjiang, settle things, and bring the money home.”