The rolling waves rocked the ship, stirring Lin Xizhi from unconsciousness.
She lay on the narrow bed in a small cabin aboard the passenger ship, listening to the muffled voices drifting through the wall from the next room.
“Yuncheng, you can’t hesitate any longer!”
“The pirates have insiders working with them. They’ve forced our ship to stop. If we don’t show some sincerity, they won’t let us go!”
“We know you’ve always treated Xizhi as the child bride our family raised…”
“But the pirates have taken a liking to her.”
“Son, if you keep hesitating, they’ll start searching the ship!”
“When that happens, everything we’ve brought with us will be stolen!”
The more Lin Xizhi listened, the more awake and alarmed she became.
She clearly remembered being imprisoned in the damp basement of the Pei family’s old house. Pei Yuncheng’s mistress had doused her with gasoline and set her ablaze.
The agony of flesh burning and the despair that pierced her heart were still vivid in her mind.
Yet now…
She was lying completely unharmed in a cabin aboard a passenger ship.
Struggling upright, Lin Xizhi looked around.
The six-square-meter cabin held two iron bunk beds painted beige. The chipped paint exposed patches of dark red rust.
A stiff, repeatedly washed blue-striped blanket covered her body.
At the foot of the bed lay a pillowcase embroidered in dusty-red thread with the words:
“Maritime Transport Bureau.”
Under an enamel mug on the bedside table rested a freshly printed newspaper that still smelled strongly of ink.
October 4, 1968.
She had……been reborn.
Reborn to the very day the Pei family secretly packed up all their belongings overnight and fled Pearl City for Hong Kong.
In her previous life, her late father’s sworn brother, Uncle Pei Zhikuan, and his wife Zhang Lirou had suddenly announced that their family was moving to Hong Kong.
Before her father died, he had entrusted both his entire estate and his only daughter to Pei Zhikuan.
Lin Xizhi had long regarded the Pei family of four as her own family.
They had told her,
“The Mid-Autumn Festival is in two days.”
“We’ll celebrate it together in Hong Kong as one family.”
Uncle Pei had even promised,
“Although your mother divorced your father and moved to Hong Kong alone, she’s still your mother.”
“Once we’re there, I’ll help you find her.”
“We’ll put notices in the newspapers, ask around everywhere no matter how much money it costs, we’ll find your mother.”
The words “our family” had always warmed Lin Xizhi’s heart.
And their promise to help her find her mother had been like a carrot dangling before a weary ox a beautiful dream forever just out of reach.
Without the slightest suspicion, she boarded the southbound ship with them.
While passing through a narrow strait on the way to Hong Kong, the ship was attacked by pirates.
Lin Xizhi had been sickly and barely aware of what was happening.
She only knew she had been kidnapped.
Fortunately, she survived.
Not long afterward, a marine security commando rescued her.
Years later, in the 1990s, she finally traveled to Hong Kong again to search for both her birth mother and the Pei family who had abandoned her.
By then, the Pei’s had become unimaginably wealthy.
When they saw her, they magnanimously claimed to “forget the past” and arranged for the widowed Pei Yuncheng to marry her.
Only after the wedding did Pei Yuncheng confess:
“I’ve only ever thought of you as a younger sister.”
During five years of marriage…
He never touched her even once.
Outside, he surrounded himself with countless lovers.
At home, he maintained the appearance of a respectable husband.
Lin Xizhi became little more than a living widow, left alone to guard the family’s oldest dilapidated two-story house.
Eventually, someone from the Pei family finally came looking for her.
Not out of concern.
Pei Yuncheng had developed a terminal illness and needed the inheritance her mother had left her.
Though her heart had already turned cold, she still clung to a tiny shred of hope.
Confused and trusting, she signed the documents they handed her.
Only afterward did she discover she had been deceived.
Everything she had devoted with unwavering sincerity earned her only endless imprisonment.
Pei Yuncheng locked her inside the basement of the old house.
He shackled her with iron chains.
He poisoned her until she lost her voice.
He didn’t kill her.
He simply enjoyed torturing her.
Meanwhile, he squandered her mother’s inheritance lavishly, using her money to surround himself with countless women who resembled her.
Every day they laughed, flirted, and reveled through the old house.
Whenever Pei Yuncheng got drunk and lost his senses, he would sometimes take out the most special item among her mother’s belongings.
A black-and-gold ring.
He had personally slipped it onto Lin Xizhi’s finger.
In the end…That very ring became the omen of her death.
The jealous mistresses stole the jewelry hidden in the basement…
Then decided to burn her alive.
“Die, you worthless burden!”
As flames twisted wildly around her, she couldn’t even scream.
The last thing she saw before death was the black-and-gold ring on her left hand suddenly erupting with pure white light.
Then…Everything fell silent.
And when she opened her eyes again.
She had returned to this moment.
Instinctively, Lin Xizhi looked at her left hand.
The ancestral black-and-gold ring that had once cut into her skin was gone.
Only a faint black ring-shaped mark remained at the base of her index finger.
Like a birthmark.
“I can’t do it!”
Next door, Pei Yuncheng growled in a suppressed voice.
“Dad, Mom, you’re asking me to hand my own fiancée over to pirates! If I do this, it’ll be the greatest humiliation of my life!”
“Brother!”
His sister, Pei Yunnuo, spoke up tearfully.
“I’ll tell you the truth.”
“Even if we don’t hand her over, she’s not worthy of becoming your wife.”
“Because…”
“Lin Xizhi’s body is defective.”
“I went to the hospital with her.”
“Her menstrual cycle is extremely irregular.”
“The doctor said that with her condition…”
“…she’ll never be able to have children.”
Pei Yuncheng’s voice turned cold.
“Yunnuo, don’t talk nonsense.”
“When would I ever lie to you? If you don’t believe me, ask her yourself.”
“She knows she isn’t worthy of you.”
“That’s why she’s always been so obedient and accommodating.”
Pei Yuncheng fell silent.
Bang! Bang!
Impatient shouting came from the pirates outside on the deck.
“Are you done yet?”
“We only asked for some money and one person!”
“Hurry up!”
“Otherwise we’ll burn your ship down right now!”
Pei Zhikuan panicked.
“Yuncheng! Are you really going to let our whole family die at sea because of her?”
Zhang Lirou sobbed as she pleaded,
“That’s right, Yuncheng.”
“As long as we’re alive, there’s still hope.”
“Let’s settle down in Hong Kong first.”
“We can find a way to rescue her later.”
“The pirates only want her body they don’t want her life.”
After several seconds of silence…
Lin Xizhi clearly heard him answer.
“…Okay.”
She smiled coldly.
In her previous life…
She hadn’t heard that single word.
She had convinced herself that Pei Yuncheng had abandoned her only because he had no other choice.
Because of that belief, when she later found the Pei family in Hong Kong, she still thought they could rekindle their relationship.
But this time…
She had heard it clearly.
Pei Zhikuan had offered her to the pirates so his own family could escape disaster.
And Pei Yuncheng had personally agreed.
Treating her as nothing more than a gift.
How ridiculous.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on him.
Because when her fingers accidentally brushed the black ring-shaped mark on her left hand…
A mysterious space suddenly appeared before her eyes.
Inside was a peaceful countryside with flowing streams and little bridges.
At the entrance stood a wooden plaque that read:
“Zhizhi’s Paradise, for My Beloved Daughter.”
It was her mother’s handwriting.
Perhaps…
This was the true inheritance her mother had meant to leave behind.
Lin Xizhi felt an invisible force guiding her.
Almost instinctively, she tried using her thoughts to pull objects into the space.
The freshly printed newspaper on the bedside table…
The yellow shoulder bag stamped with the slogan “Serve the People”…With only a single glance.
Both silently disappeared into the space.
If that was possible…
Then she would reclaim every single piece of property that had always belonged to her.
Throwing off the blanket, Lin Xizhi rushed out of the cabin…And sprinted straight toward the cargo hold at the bottom of the ship.