“I’m pregnant, and the child is Lu Shaoting’s.”
Gu Xia had been reborn three months ago.
In her previous life, her entire family had been reported by the eldest branch of the Lu family, forced to move to the countryside, live in cowsheds, endure endless labor, and face relentless criticism.
Her father was an elegant university professor, and her mother was a dancer.
Her maternal grandfather’s family had modest assets in Shanghai.
When her mother married her father, she brought a generous dowry.
The Gu family was considered well-off, living a comfortable life.
Her parents had two daughters.
Gu Xia’s older sister was six years her senior and had cherished her well-behaved younger sister since childhood.
Everything changed a year ago when someone anonymously reported their family for hiding small gold bars and possessing a large number of old-fashioned items.
The Revolutionary Committee paid no heed to explanations and directly raided the Gu family.
Sure enough, five small gold bars were found during the raid.
But those were part of the dowry her maternal grandfather had prepared for her mother out of concern for her marrying far away.
The antique paintings and calligraphy in the Gu family were also treasured cultural relics.
The Revolutionary Committee ignored the desperate explanations of Gu Xia’s parents and arrested everyone.
With her sister’s help, Gu Xia secretly escaped and went to Uncle Lu’s family for help.
The Lu and Gu families were old friends, with ties dating back to Gu Xia’s grandfather and the Lu family’s patriarch.
Later, in their professional lives, Gu Xia’s father and Lu Shaoting’s uncle became close colleagues.
The two families visited each other frequently during holidays.
The Lu family had even considered matchmaking Lu Ye, the son of Uncle Lu, with Gu Xia’s older sister, Gu Mingyuan.
But later, when Gu Mingyuan learned that her younger sister Gu Xia liked Lu Ye, she deliberately went to study in another city.
For Gu Mingyuan, her sister was more important than any man.
But Gu Xia truly liked Lu Ye.
As a lovestruck sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl, she had given him gifts and written love letters.
She received no kindness from Lu Ye in return; instead, he grew to despise the sight of her.
When she went to the Lu family to seek help from Uncle Lu,
she happened to overhear Lu Ye speaking with his father, Lu Jianming.
“That nuisance is finally going to the countryside. She’ll bother me less from now on.”
Hearing Lu Ye’s words, Lu Jianming felt relieved.
As long as his son didn’t like Gu Xia, the Gu family would be stuck in the countryside for the rest of their lives.
They would never return to the city again.
And indeed, just as Lu Jianming had schemed,
the entire Gu family was sent to a rural village in the northwest.
As city dwellers, even with their best efforts to survive in the countryside, life remained incredibly difficult.
Her sister, a top student from a foreign language school with a bright future ahead,
should have been dressed elegantly, working as an international diplomat, not humiliated and killed in the countryside.
Her parents, a university professor and a radiant dancer, couldn’t bear the torment of having feces thrown at them daily.
Forced to transition from refined city life to rural hardship,
they struggled to adapt, having lived a life of dignity and propriety.
Simply because they insisted on using proper bowls and plates for meals, they were mocked and cursed by the villagers, accused of behaving like capitalists.
Yet, her father had spent years funding many rural students who came to the city to study.
Sometimes, he even let them stay at their home temporarily, worried that these newly arrived students had nowhere to live.
Despite his kindness, this university professor suffered inhuman treatment after being sent to the northwest countryside.
Gu Xia believed that human nature was inherently evil.
Their family was merely a bit better off in the city—how could they be labeled as capitalists?
In Beicheng, those living well were everywhere—why was it the Gu family that was sent down?
If the Gu family were considered capitalists, what about the Lu family?
The Lu family lived in a standalone Western-style house, had a maid at home, and traveled by car.
Was it simply because the Lu family had an uncle who was a military officer that no one dared to offend them?
Picking the soft persimmon to squeeze—did they want to crush the Gu family?
In her previous life, she had died just over twenty years old, facing the Lu family she neither understood nor knew well.
Gu Xia had no other recourse; she could only use her own body to seize an opportunity.
She succeeded.
The Lu Family Matriarch sat in her chair, watching the young girl stubbornly lift her head, her gaze firm as she spoke.
The Matriarch did not particularly favor her youngest son.
Because she had given birth at an advanced age, delivering her youngest son had nearly cost her life.
Later, a fortune-teller also said that the youngest son, Lu Shaoting, had a harsh destiny—in his youth, he would bring misfortune to his parents, and as an adult, he would bring misfortune to his wife.
Before the age of eight, Lu Shaoting had grown up in the countryside. Only after his grandparents passed away one after another was he reluctantly brought to the city.
A child not raised by one’s own hands would never feel truly close.
The Matriarch immediately had someone make a phone call. When Lu Shaoting heard over the phone that Gu Xia had come knocking at their door, his usually composed face cracked slightly with anger.
After hanging up, a loud thud of a fist hitting the desk echoed from Deputy Division Commander Lu’s office.
Xiao Sun, waiting outside the door, shuddered in fear, wondering who had provoked Deputy Division Commander Lu’s anger.
“Give me the car keys. I’m going home for a while.”
Xiao Sun was Lu Shaoting’s personal driver; usually, no matter where he went, Xiao Sun would drive.
But today, Deputy Division Commander Lu wanted to drive home himself—it must be a matter concerning the Lu family.
Gu Xia knew that when Lu Shaoting saw her, there would surely be a storm of fury.
She had mentally prepared herself.
Yet when she saw his stern, rigid, and icy face barely containing his rage, Gu Xia’s small frame involunt trembled slightly.
In truth, Lu Shaoting was quite handsome—with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, a tall and straight nose, striking and well-defined features, and a tall, upright stature.
But he was too aloof, rigid, and severe toward people and matters.
Gu Xia had been afraid of Lu Shaoting since childhood.
Upon seeing him, she instinctively wanted to shrink back, but she couldn’t—she absolutely must not retreat.
If the eldest branch of the Lu family could rely on Lu Shaoting’s status to bully the Gu family, why couldn’t Gu Xia use Lu Shaoting’s status to help the Gu family?
Moreover, things had already come to this point—she had already slept with him and was carrying his child in her belly. If she retreated now, her losses would be devastating.
What made Gu Xia even more unwilling to retreat was her desire to save her parents and sister.
She didn’t want her sister to die in humiliation.
Thinking of all that had happened to her family in her previous life, Gu Xia’s eyes turned bloodshot, tears streaming down her face as she pointed an accusing finger at Lu Shaoting.
“Uncle Lu, you have to take responsibility for me. I’m pregnant now, and the child in my belly is yours.”
“Gu Xia…” Lu Shaoting uttered her name through gritted teeth.
But he knew—he had indeed taken Gu Xia.
Yet all of this was Gu Xia’s scheme.
He truly hadn’t expected that a girl of eighteen or nineteen could harbor such deep cunning.
Playing innocent and pitiful in front of him.
He had thought that this young girl, having grown up under his watch, looked pitiful in the rural northwest, and he intended to help her out.
Little did he expect to fall into her trap. In that dilapidated village temple, she actually dared…
Recalling the way Gu Xia had stripped off her clothes and straddled him, Lu Shaoting felt the urge to kill her.