“Three hundred yuan! Not a cent less — she must be delivered tonight!”
“That idiot may drool, but his family background is good. This dead girl will live in comfort after marrying in!”
“Tie the rope tighter! Don’t let her run away halfway — otherwise how will we use the bride price to marry a wife for Gangzi?”
In the winter night, rain poured down like a curtain. Harsh curses pierced through the storm, mixed with the grating sound of pounding on doors.
Su Man suddenly opened her eyes.
Before her was a pitch‑black wilderness. The icy rain lashed her face like a whip.
Her mouth tasted of iron‑like blood.
The sharp porcelain shard under her tongue was still there, cutting the inside of her mouth — the pain drilled into her bones.
This was not a dream.
She had really come back.
Back to 1976, the nightmare winter night that changed her entire life.
In her previous life, her stepmother Zhao Guihua drugged her and sold her to the village idiot Wang Shazi in the neighboring village to obtain a bride price for her biological son.
She resisted desperately, had her leg broken, and was locked in the woodshed starving for three days and nights.
In the end she was forced into the bridal sedan chair, tortured endlessly, and died miserably at a young age.
Su Man bit down hard on her tongue, using the pain to fully wake herself from the daze of rebirth.
She lowered her head.
The hemp rope around her wrist had already been sawed apart by the porcelain shard — her flesh torn and bloody.
She wore the patched gray cotton coat, soaked heavy by rain.
In the distance, flashlight beams swung wildly in the night along with the furious barking of village dogs.
“The girl can’t run far! Search!”
Zhao Guihua’s broken‑gong voice grew closer.
Su Man’s heart pounded violently.
Run.
She had to run.
Going back home was walking into a trap — her weak‑willed father could never protect her.
Police station?
In this era, officials rarely interfered in family matters. She might even be labeled a “bad example escaping marriage” and sent back.
Her only way out lay two kilometers away.
The military district compound.
There were armed sentries, high walls and electric wire — and that man she had only heard rumors about in her previous life…
The “Living King of Hell,” Lu Zhan.
Su Man stared into the rain at the faint light in the distance.
Her only hope.
Ignoring the piercing pain in her ankle, she sprinted along the muddy ridge.
In this life, she would never again be a lamb waiting for slaughter.
Whoever blocked her path — she would bite flesh off them.
The rain grew heavier. Mud covered her eyes.
The dogs behind her were getting closer.
She didn’t dare look back.
Her legs moved mechanically, lungs burning.
Finally —
The two‑meter‑high blue‑brick wall appeared before her.
Broken glass was embedded along the top, gleaming coldly.
She did not hesitate.
With a running start she leapt, gripping the wall edge with both hands.
Glass cut into her palms; blood streamed down with the rain.
She felt nothing.
Over the wall meant life. Falling meant death.
“There! Someone’s under the wall!”
Flashlights swept over.
Su Man gritted her teeth, forced her core, and flipped over like a dying fish.
Thud.
She landed hard on soaked grass.
Her right ankle cracked — agony nearly made her faint.
But she didn’t stop.
The patrol could arrive at any moment.
She had to find the one man who could save her.
Dragging her injured leg, she staggered toward the innermost red‑brick building in the family housing area.
The only single officers’ dormitory in the compound.
Lu Zhan’s residence.
Third floor.
Only that room had light on.
Holding the railing, she climbed step by step, leaving bloody muddy footprints.
Finally —
She stood before the dark‑green wooden door.
It wasn’t locked — just slightly ajar.
Inside came the sound of running water.
She took a breath and pushed the door open.
Bang!She stumbled in, slammed the door shut, and locked it in one motion.
The air froze.
This wasn’t just a room.
It felt like a beast’s den filled with male hormones.
The air smelled of strong tobacco and fresh bath steam mixed with sulfur soap.
Su Man looked up — and froze.
A man stood in the center.
He had just returned from night training, bare‑chested.
Broad shoulders, powerful back, sharply defined muscles full of explosive strength.
Water slid down bronze skin across a vicious old scar like a centipede into his military trousers.
Hearing movement, the man slowly turned.
An aggressively handsome face.
Sharp brows, high nose bridge, jaw hard as iron.
Most terrifying were his eyes.
Dark. Cold. Predatory.
Like a lone wolf guarding territory.
Lu Zhan still held a wet towel, about to dry his hair.
His movements stopped.
He frowned deeply.
The woman before him was miserable beyond measure.
Soaked, pale, clothes torn, bruises everywhere, mud dripping from her pants — shattering the cleanliness habits the army had ingrained into him.
“Get out.”
His deep hoarse voice carried absolute authority.
He hated women.
Especially dirty, reckless ones.
Su Man trembled under his killing aura.
But she had no retreat.
From outside came Zhao Guihua’s curses — already at the compound gate.
“Commander…”
Her voice was hoarse and broken.
She didn’t cry.
She lifted her small face and stared straight into his eyes.
Rain dripped from her chin, but her eyes burned with desperate life.
“Save me.”
Her back pressed against the door, shivering from hypothermia.
“You can have anything you want.”
Lu Zhan sneered.
He’d seen countless tricks — female performers trying to climb into his bed, officers’ wives introducing partners.
But someone crashing in looking like this was a first.
“I’ll say it again.”
He tossed the towel aside and approached, shadow swallowing her.
“Get. Out.”
He reached to grab her shoulder.
Suddenly her body swayed.
Exhaustion, blood loss, fever — she collapsed.
Instinctively she clutched his thigh tightly.
Like a dying vine clinging to a tree.
“Don’t… don’t drive me away…”
Her tears burned hot through his uniform.
Lu Zhan stiffened.
Soft. Burning. Fragile.
He hesitated.
Then —
BANG BANG BANG!
Violent pounding shook the door.
Zhao Guihua’s shrill voice pierced inside:
“Open up! Did a shameless woman run in here?!”
“I’m her mother‑in‑law! We paid for that wife!”
“If you hide her I’ll report you to the political commissar!”
Su Man’s pupils widened in terror.
If he handed her over — she would die.
Lu Zhan looked down at her, face dark.
He hated threats.
But hated being used more.
“Let go,” he ordered coldly.
She shook her head desperately.
He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up.
Their faces inches apart.
“Using me as a weapon?”“You’ve got guts.”
Outside shouting gathered neighbors.
He held the doorknob.
Click.
Her heart stopped.
But the door didn’t open.
He looked down at her, calculation flashing in his cold eyes.
“Want to stay?”
She nodded frantically.
“Good.”
A cruel smile curved his lips.
“Then let’s see if you can afford the price.”