The wooden hairpin gradually absorbed the blood, changing from its original wood color to a dark crimson. Then, with a whoosh, it vanished without a trace.
Lu Minggui felt a blinding white light flash before her eyes. Slowly, she opened them and found herself in a white room.
The room was completely empty—there was nothing inside.
Calling it a room didn’t quite fit; it was more like an enormous corridor. It was about five zhang wide, but its length was impossible to tell.
The strangest part was that the two sides weren’t walls at all, but vast stretches of misty whiteness, like fog.
They felt soft to the touch, yet she couldn’t walk into them.
Dazed, Lu Minggui could only move forward. She had no idea how many steps she took before a door appeared in front of her.
“Am I dead? Then where is this place? Could this be the underworld?”
“I wonder what’s behind that door. If I open it… will I see the King of Hell?”
Her hands trembling, she reached out to push the door—only to find that it didn’t budge at all.
Completely baffled, Lu Minggui turned and walked in the opposite direction, only to discover another door at the other end of the corridor.
“Could this be the real gate to the underworld?”
“No matter what kind of door it is, as long as I can leave this place!”
With that thought, she reached out and pushed hard—
And suddenly sat bolt upright in bed.
“Mother! You’re finally awake!”
A young woman was rummaging through a chest by the bedside. When she saw Lu Minggui awaken, she cried out in relief.
This woman was none other than her eldest daughter-in-law, Hu Cuihua.
When Lu Minggui saw her face clearly, hatred flashed through her eyes—then confusion followed.
She remembered being shoved by her eldest son, tumbling into a dry ditch, and smashing her head.
Then she had lingered for a long time in a white room…
So how had she ended up lying on her bed at home?
This was the room she had lived in for decades. The gray-blue quilt patched in many places, the wooden plank bed beneath her, the wooden chest beside it—all so familiar they couldn’t be more so.
Light streamed in through the small lattice window, leaving the room as dim as ever.
Suddenly, Lu Minggui shuddered violently.
Could this be a dream?
Her hand, hidden beneath the quilt, pinched her thigh hard. Pain shot through her at once.
This wasn’t a dream!
Could it be… she had come back to life?
Cold sweat instantly trickled down from her temples.
Had the King of Hell decided her allotted lifespan wasn’t over yet and sent her back?
That must be it!
She had never done evil in her life, yet had met such a tragic end.
Even the King of Hell couldn’t bear it anymore—that was why she had been allowed to live again.
With that thought, Lu Minggui gradually calmed down. Her trembling hands finally stopped shaking.
The room was dim, and Hu Cuihua hadn’t noticed Lu Minggui’s movements, nor did she pay attention to her fear.
She walked over and looked at Lu Minggui. There was little emotion in her sharp, arched eyes.
“Mother, don’t be too heartbroken. Second Brother died in battle, but isn’t there still Dazhi and me?”
“Don’t worry. Dazhi and I are filial—we’ll definitely support you in your old age!”
“Oh dear, you fainted like that, and the whole household was thrown into chaos.”
Lu Minggui didn’t hear the rest.
She already knew exactly what time this was.
This was the day the news of her second son, Song Dahe’s death, was brought back.
The moment she heard the news, her vision went black and she fainted on the spot.
When she woke up, she learned that her second daughter-in-law—seven months pregnant—had failed to keep the child.
She delivered a fully formed stillborn baby, a boy.
Her second daughter-in-law’s health was ruined because of it. She fell seriously ill from time to time and eventually couldn’t survive the famine years, dying young.
From that point on, Hu Cuihua often whispered in Lu Minggui’s ear, over and over again, just one sentence:
The second branch was completely extinct.
From then on, Lu Minggui could only rely on the eldest branch for her old age—she could only depend on them.
Gradually, Lu Minggui came to believe it.
Later, under the eldest branch’s coaxing and deception, she handed over all the private savings she had accumulated over many years.
And later still, she ended up being pushed over by her own son and dying from the fall.
Thinking of all this, Lu Minggui instead became calmer and calmer.
Having been reborn this time, no matter what, she had to protect the second branch—and the child in her daughter-in-law’s womb!
Hu Cuihua was still chattering on. “If you ask me, Dazhi is the most filial to Mother.”
“When he saw you faint, he rushed to the town to buy some meat.”
“He said he’d make dumplings for you later…”
“Shut up!” Lu Minggui snorted coldly and cut her off. “I fainted, and instead of fetching a doctor, he went to buy meat?”
“Who are you trying to fool—ghosts? If you were craving meat, just say so. Don’t use my fainting as an excuse!”
“If I’d really died, would the meat you bought be just in time for the funeral feast?”
“A whole family of greedy mouths!”
Hu Cuihua had always enjoyed favor in front of her mother-in-law. When had she ever been scolded like this?
Her expression changed slightly. Feeling uncomfortable, she forced a smile. “Mother, we weren’t—”
“And where did you get the money to buy meat?” Lu Minggui interrupted. “Did you steal my money?”
In truth, Lu Minggui no longer remembered this incident clearly. In her previous life, she had always forgiven the eldest branch too easily.
But thinking about it now, she realized how foolish she had been.
She glared at Hu Cuihua. Suddenly, Hu Cuihua felt that this mother-in-law looked like an evil ghost—terrifying just to behold.
She lowered her head. “We didn’t steal it…”
“Dazhi and I just don’t have any money.”
“Besides, we bought the meat to nourish Mother’s body!”
Hearing this, Lu Minggui felt nothing but nausea.
The same old routine again—stealing money and crying poverty!
Right now, she had more important matters to attend to. She would settle accounts with Hu Cuihua later!
She sneered. “Who needs your fake concern? How long was I unconscious?”
In her previous life, after hearing of her second son’s death, she had been unconscious for two full days and nights.
Now she only hoped she was still in time to protect the child in the second household.
Hu Cuihua froze for a moment, then secretly curled her lips before answering, “You were out for more than half a day.”
In her heart, she was already guessing—was the old woman really unconscious, or just pretending?
Fainted for such a short time—wasn’t she just acting for others to see?
But then again, with her son dead, she had to put on a show. Otherwise, wouldn’t the villagers gossip?
In any case, Hu Cuihua was convinced the old woman was faking it.
As she was making these wild guesses, she heard Lu Minggui ask, “Where’s the second daughter-in-law?”
At the mention of the second household, Hu Cuihua immediately had something to say. “Oh, that lazy thing is still lying in her room!”
“It’s already been half a day, and she still doesn’t know to get up and cook!”
Lu Minggui was furious. “Is that something a sister-in-law should say?”
“She’s pregnant to begin with, and something like this just happened—can’t she lie down?”
“If you dare say something like that again, I’ll slap you!”
“Such a jealous, black-hearted thing!”
Hu Cuihua only felt that her mother-in-law’s temper was especially bad today. She’d never treated her like this before.
Could it be that Song Dahe’s death had truly left her heartbroken?
What a pity—dead meant dead. Could he possibly come back to life?
Seeing her expression, and recalling how this couple had abandoned her and pushed her to her death in her past life, a surge of vile anger rose in Lu Minggui’s chest.
She could no longer restrain herself. Raising her hand, she slapped Hu Cuihua hard across the face.
“What kind of look is that? Are you gloating?”
This was the first time Lu Minggui had ever laid a hand on a daughter-in-law.
She had always been gentle with her daughters-in-law and juniors.
After all, she herself had never had a mother-in-law and had never suffered that kind of torment.
Back then, her father had chosen the Song family precisely because Song Chengye’s parents had died early and there was no one to control the household—that was why he let her marry into the Song family.
And so, when Lu Minggui later became a mother-in-law herself, although she couldn’t be called especially good, she had never tormented her daughters-in-law.
Especially Hu Cuihua, the eldest daughter-in-law—she had treated her almost like her own daughter.
By contrast, the second daughter-in-law was quiet and taciturn, always working silently. She wasn’t likable on the surface, and the two were never close.
But now, thinking back, the eldest daughter-in-law only ever spoke sweet words, while the second daughter-in-law was the truly good one—steady and hardworking.
She had truly been blind in the past!
Thinking of this, Lu Minggui almost wanted to slap Hu Cuihua a few more times.