The Era of Twin Treasures (Part One)

猗兰霓裳May 2022

3.4

Word count: 183K words
Chapters: 55

Summary

Against the backdrop of the nationwide second-child era, three families each welcome a new baby while facing a series of overwhelming, chaotic real-life crises during the process of preparing for and giving birth.

Shen Manqing is successful and exceptionally capable at work. She is willing to give up a promotion in order to have a second child, yet what greets her is not only the hope placed in the second baby but, more often than not, conflict with her mother-in-law and the rebellion of her older daughter. Amid a welter of domestic messes, she cuts a path through difficulties, striving to balance family and career and to reconcile her older and younger children.

Su Xiaoyue is a wealthy lady who married into a rich family. She can enjoy a life of fine food and luxurious clothing without working, but she must pay the corresponding price—being ignored by her husband, suppressed by her mother-in-law, and, at her mother-in-law's demand, becoming pregnant with a second child. Yet the second pregnancy does not improve her situation. Instead, it brings her older son's hostility toward the second child, an even more difficult mother-in-law than before... Family conflicts keep escalating, and she and her husband drift further and further apart.

Li Shimei remarried after divorce to a husband younger than herself, and the older-wife-younger-husband pattern was very sweet at first. But as she gives birth to a second child for her husband and leaves the workplace, neglecting her appearance, she feels enormous pressure in front of a crowd of young women and even sinks into depression. Yet her husband never abandons her, and her older son tries hard to console her, helping her finally emerge from the gloom.

All three women reach a turning point in life after giving birth to a second child and head toward different fates. If having one child lets you see what kind of person your husband is, then having a second child lets you see the whole of life.

Editor's review

Double Treasure Era (Part One) uses the nationwide second-child trend as its entry point and, through a narrative structure that runs three families in parallel, presents the complex folds of life behind reproductive choices. The three threads of Shen Manqing, Su Xiaoyue, and Li Shimei correspond respectively to three situations—a career woman, a full-time wealthy wife, and an older wife with a younger husband in a remarriage—covering relatively typical survival samples of urban women today. The author Yi Lan Nichang does not simply turn the second child into a warm story; instead, she throws real-world issues such as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law friction, the older child's hostility, marital estrangement, and postpartum depression into the same pan and stir-fries them, making the phrase "overwhelming chaos" truly land. The narrative rhythm leans toward slice-of-life, with dense details, and the conflicts come from everyday dialogue and family power relations, making it immersive to read. As the first volume, this book mainly lays out the fissures in the three families from preparing for pregnancy to giving birth and the early postpartum period, paving the way for the diverging fates in the second volume. It is suitable for segmented reading during commutes or before bed, and also suitable as a discussion text on family issues, but readers need a certain acceptance of realistic subject matter and should not expect a light, sweet, or doting reading experience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Urban women readers concerned with issues of childbirth, child-rearing, and family relationships
Readers who enjoy multi-threaded, slice-of-life realistic fiction
Family members currently experiencing or about to face the decision of having a second child
Readers interested in observing mother-in-law/daughter-in-law, marital, and parent-child conflicts

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for light, sweet, or idealized family stories
People who feel anxious about topics such as childbirth and mother-in-law conflicts and wish to avoid them
Readers who prefer strong plots, fast pacing, or suspense fiction

Reading tips

You can follow the three family lines separately and note how the same event prompts different reactions in different situations.
When reading family conflict passages, you might pause for a moment and compare the characters' choices with your own experience to judge their reasonableness.
It is recommended to read Parts One and Two consecutively; the fate-related suspense left in Part One is only answered in Part Two.
You can discuss issues such as "who decides on a second child" with family or a reading group to expand the reading experience.

版权信息
楔子
第1节孩子丢啦
第2节技术男的目标
第3节突如其来的对手
第4节这就是缘分
第5节小鲜肉不是儿子
第6节敲不开的门
第7节婆媳冲突
第8节闺蜜的秘密
第9节婆婆的态度
第10节熊孩子的交锋
第11节原来是发小啊
第12节婆婆的心愿
第13节倒霉的轮值
第14节 “孪生”幼儿园
第15节复杂的路线
第16节甜甜不喜欢幼儿园
第17节迟到的二人时光
第18节母女矛盾
第19节每个人都有秘密
第20节服装的烦恼
第21节可疑的电影票
第22节家人团圆
第23节孕妇的对比
第24节前途和二胎
第25节幼儿园的作业
第26节前程莫测
第27节新官上任
第28节夸张的小学报名
第29节抽签入学失败
第30节小升初与打游戏
第31节幼升小的最后一搏
第32节关于二胎的摊牌
第33节那女孩是谁
第34节接二连三的“实锤”
第35节喜得二胎
第36节刻意刁难
第37节如临大敌的早恋
第38节晕倒在考场外
第39节姓氏之争
第40节可恨之人的可怜之处
第41节不想要弟弟
第42节升学宴的尴尬
第43节开学第一天
第44节捉襟见肘的存款
第45节苏晓月的委屈
第46节孤独的早产
第47节唐筛高风险
第48节
第49节艰难的除夕
第50节谢叔的家
第51节被算计了
第52节一文钱难倒英雄汉
第53节二胎驾到

FAQ

Is this book about the second-child policy itself?

No. The policy is only the era background of the story. The novel's focus is on the problems exposed in the process of having a second child in three families—mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships, marital communication, the older child's psychology, and women's sense of self-worth. It is realistic family fiction, not a work of policy interpretation.

What is the relationship between Part One and Part Two?

Part One mainly lays out the accumulation of conflicts in the three families from preparing for pregnancy to the early postpartum period, and the characters' situations are not yet settled; only in Part Two are the three women's respective life turning points and different paths presented in a concentrated way. It is recommended to read Parts One and Two consecutively; otherwise, the complete thread of diverging fates will be missing.

Are the three families' stories separate or intertwined?

The three lines advance in parallel, each standing independently, with the characters' situations serving as contrasts for one another rather than being strongly intertwined. When reading, you can follow them separately or compare horizontally how similar problems are solved differently under three modes of marriage and family.

Related on WeRead

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

猗兰霓裳 Author

Yi Lan Nichang is a web-novel author about whom little public information is available; the records show only that she has seven works, while her real name, nationality, dates of birth and death, and English name remain unknown. Judging from the works in the collection, she mainly writes in the areas of time-travel alternate history and ancient romance. Her representative work, Lihuang (Li Phoenix), is divided into three volumes and revolves around palace intrigue and emotional entanglements; the prequel Feng Qiu Huang: This Love Can Only Be Recalled as Memory continues the same thematic thread, reflecting her preference for classical imagery and lingering romance. Yi Ai: A Dream of Prosperity and the two-volume Shuangbao Jiyuan are classified as modern romance and social fiction, showing that her writing is not confined to ancient settings but also touches on modern urban life and human relationships. Overall, her works center on women's emotions, with detailed plotting that combines alternate-world imagination with realistic observation, making them suitable for readers who enjoy romantic narratives.