“Hot…”
“I feel so awful!”
Her eyelids felt heavy, as if glued shut. She tried to open them several times, but to no avail. A scorching heat completely enveloped her, as if trying to melt her away, making her instinctively want to escape.
Her delicate brows furrowed deeply, and soft groans slipped from her throat. An itchy sensation swirled in her heart.
Wait!
What is going on here?
Didn’t she die in a car crash?!
And nobody ever mentioned that dying lets you order male models…
Those eight-pack abs…
The feel of them was spot on.
Oh well.
Screw it.
If she was going to die, she’d be a well-fed ghost.
That damn scumbag of a husband, driving her to her death in a car crash! She cursed him to have sons and daughters, but never a peaceful end.
How dare he lie to her!
Back then, they had agreed to be DINKs (Double Income, No Kids)—to work hard, earn a hefty retirement nest egg, and take care of each other in their old age. Neither of them wanted kids or wanted to sacrifice their careers, so they made that pact to remain childless by choice.
Who would have thought that after eight years of marriage, the bastard ended up with both sons and daughters—a total of three kids.
Truly, all her sincere devotion had gone to feed a dog.
By the way… when was this guy going to finish?
She lapsed back into unconsciousness.
“Come quick!”
“Everyone, come take a look! This is what the city girl is up to—she’s actually taking a lover!”
“Bah!”
“And she even finished high school! After taking all those betrothal gifts from our Chen family, an unchaste wretch like her has some nerve!”
“My poor son… to think he was driven to an early grave by her…”
The sharp, ear-piercing shrieks and cries made her ears ring.
Thud, thud…
Followed immediately by a rapid sequence of pounding on the door.
“Zhou Xiulan, get your adulterer and get out here right now!”
The surrounding neighbors, stirred up by the old woman’s commotion, gathered round layer upon layer.
“Mother Weiguo, did you make a mistake? Xiulan isn’t that kind of person. These past three years, she’s worked hard taking care of the kids in your Chen family house. Being a young widow with two little ones—how hard must that have been?”
“That’s right. Look how frail the child has gotten. She was so full of life when she first arrived. As her mother-in-law, instead of helping look after her, you shouldn’t be splashing dirty water like this.”
“Seriously, that’s going too far.”
Most neighbors still trusted Zhou Xiulan’s character. Having married into the Chen family three years ago, everyone knew what kind of person she was.
A fair, tender young miss from the city who couldn’t lift a finger or shoulder a burden, and had never suffered a day in her life. Not only had she been sent down to the countryside, but she had also ended up marrying Chen Weiguo by a twist of fate.
She hadn’t lived a good day before becoming a young widow. Even when she was carrying a posthumous child, the in-laws disliked her and chased her out to the dilapidated thatched cottage at the back.
Such a delicate person, left alone to raise two nursing toddlers—look at how thin the three of them had become.
Such a bitter fate for the poor child.
“Bah!”
“You’ve all been fooled by her looks.”
“You little wretch, get out here right now and let everyone see which heartless, smoke-stacking scoundrel has sneaked all the way into our Chen house! Do they think there are no men left in the Chen family?!”
The old woman was hopping mad.
How dare someone take a lover right under her nose! Let’s see how she deals with this pair of adulterers.
Early this morning to use the outhouse, the old woman had heard a commotion at the back. At first, she thought it was just her imagination, but the more she thought about it on her way back, the wronger it felt. Without even making breakfast, she had angrily marched over to catch them in the act.
“Wuwu…”
“Sob, sob…”
“Granny… you’re lying!”
“Mom… Mom is just sick! It’s not what you’re saying!”
Two children poked their heads out timidly from the kitchen, their hands and faces covered in soot. Their tiny bodies rattled inside oversized, ill-fitting clothes, their big, round eyes resembling a pair of pitiful little stray kittens.
Though young, the children knew the old woman’s words weren’t kind, and they cried as they tried to defend their mother.
Judging by their appearance, they had just been fussing with the stove pit to make a fire.
And how old were they? Barely three.
When the neighbors saw the pitiful state of the two little ones, their hearts ached terribly. Still, since they weren’t their own kids, the sympathy was fleeting.
“An’an, Ningning, why are you two cooking? Where’s your mom?”
“Mom… Mom is sick.”
“Sob… Brother, I’m hungry.”
Seeing so many people surrounding their courtyard and realizing how fierce Grandma was, the little girl hid behind her brother, refusing to come out and crying pitifully.
“Be a good girl, stay strong a little longer. That food is for Mom; in a while, Brother will take you up the mountain to pick mushrooms.”
The only thing left boiling in the pot was a single remaining potato, which had to be saved for Mom. Even though the little boy’s stomach was rumbling with hunger, he patiently tried to comfort his sister.
“Such a sin!”
“Come on, follow Grandma home to eat. Look how starved these two kids are.”
An elderly neighbor, unable to bear it any longer, stepped forward to take the children by the hand.
Creak!
The wooden door, pieced together from a few planks, finally swung open.
“Mom!”
“Sob… you’re finally awake.”
“We were so scared…”
Hearing the sound, the children threw themselves into Zhou Shengnan’s arms, weeping bitterly.
Well, no—to be precise, into the arms of Zhou Xiulan.
At that moment, she finally realized she had transmigrated.
She had crossed into the 1970s, becoming a young widow with two kids named Zhou Xiulan.
Zhou Shengnan, the modern DINK woman, was already dead.
Waking up dazed in the room just now, hearing the conversation outside, and piecing together fragments of the original owner’s memories, she had finally sorted out the truth of the situation.
Though… who on earth was the man in that hazy blur?
One thing was for sure: he definitely wasn’t a model sent by the King of Hell.