“Just as she was about to drown, Lin Shu suddenly sat bolt upright in the bathtub, greedily gulping in air.
Yet in her mind, the heart-rending scenes replayed again and again.
Her father had his hair shaved into a humiliating half-yin, half-yang style, a wooden placard of disgrace hung around his neck. During a public struggle session, he fell ill on the spot, vomited blood, and died.
Her eldest brother toiled day and night at the hardest jobs in the entire mining area. Though the leaders knew the danger, they still forced him into the mine. In the end, the tunnel collapsed, burying him alive his body never recovered.
Her sister-in-law went mad after hearing the news and eventually froze to death by the roadside. When she died, she was still clutching half a piece of leftover black flour dough in her hand, saving it for her son.
A few days later, the unattended nephew was abducted. His fate life or death unknown…
And she, Lin Shu, because she was Shen Huai’s ex-wife, committed suicide not long after the divorce, unable to endure the endless denunciations.
Though she died, her existence threaded through other people’s lives from beginning to end.
All because Shen Huai’s second wife the powerful man’s later spouse was always bothered that Shen Huai’s first woman hadn’t been herself. Every so often, she would get jealous and bring up Lin Shu.
Thinking of this, Lin Shu laughed bitterly in anger. So she had merely been a tool to push along the feelings between Shen Huai and his second wife!
After steadying herself, Lin Shu walked out of the bathroom.
Shen Huai was the “live-in son-in-law” her family had chosen for her.
She had been doted on since childhood. On the night she came of age, her body was seized by a wandering ghost, and she was trapped in a tiny space, forced to watch helplessly as “she herself” endlessly hurt her family and friends.
Within that space, she learned many things. Not long ago, through a mirror she had discovered, she saw the Lin family’s tragic future.
Perhaps it was by turning grief into strength that she reclaimed her body—the ghost’s soul scattered and vanished.
During the gradual fusion back into her body, that night became their belated wedding night. Powerless to resist, Lin Shu and Shen Huai consummated their marriage.
Seeing the hatred in her eyes, Shen Huai rose on his own initiative.
“I’ll sleep downstairs.”
They had registered their marriage early and had already lived together for nearly half a year; only the wedding night had been delayed until tonight.
Watching the man prepare to sleep on the floor, Lin Shu’s mind raced. If she remembered correctly, when they had first married, Shen Huai did have some feelings for her.
So perhaps the second card Heaven dealt her was Shen Huai himself a man with a bright future ahead. At the very least, if he was willing, she and her family would suffer much less.
If you used my name as seasoning for your second marriage…
Lin Shu stared at the man, revenge flickering through her thoughts.
The next second, she changed her expression. Her face softened, but her tone brooked no argument.
“Sleep on the bed.”
The flicker of joy in Shen Huai’s heart was quickly crushed by cold memories.
He recalled the night they had registered their marriage, when the woman had kicked him off the bed.
Her eyes full of disgust: “You’re filthy. Don’t touch my bed, you mud-leg. If you dare climb up, I’ll split this bed into firewood!”
Facing reality, he said in a low voice, “What do you want this time? Just say it I’ll buy it for you.”
Thinking of how the ghost had treated him, Lin Shu felt Shen Huai was rather pitiful.
“Nothing. I just don’t want my family nagging me every day.”
“Lin Shu, if you have something to say, just say it.” Clearly, he didn’t believe her.
When she looked up again, her eyes were full of unease, her voice trembling.
“I… I dreamed that my whole family died… and that you didn’t want me anymore…”
Seeing the cold distrust in his eyes, Lin Shu knew she couldn’t rush things. She turned away with a look of grievance, lay down, and switched off the bedside lamp.
She hadn’t seen Shen Huai often in the mirror. All she knew was that he would later achieve great military merit, become a winner in life at a young age, with a delicate wife by his side.
Thinking of the coming confiscation, she had to burn everything that shouldn’t exist in the house before the storm arrived.
Being sent down to the Great Northwest didn’t matter. As long as her family survived and endured that special period, dawn would come for the Lin family.
At that moment, Lin Shu completely set aside her spoiled young-lady temper. Using Shen Huai in a harmless way after all, even after her death, she had still been trampled on by him and his wife. Shen Huai owed her.
In the dim yellow light, Shen Huai stared at her profile, lost in thought. Tonight’s Lin Shu seemed like a different person.
After a while, he lay down on the other side. The two slept back to back clearly not how newlyweds should be.
Lin Shu sighed inwardly. She had been too hasty; it was only natural that Shen Huai didn’t believe her.
Before long, Shen Huai his emotions in turmoil heard sobbing from beneath the covers.
Her body trembled with quiet cries.
He turned over and sat up, panic creeping into his voice.
“Don’t cry…”
Lin Shu buried her face, not letting him see.
“Why do you even care? You don’t believe me anyway. You don’t like me!”
The louder she cried, the more chaotic Shen Huai’s heart became.
“I do! As long as you don’t cry whatever you say goes!”
Making sure her eyes were rubbed red, Lin Shu lifted a corner of the blanket and looked at him pitifully.
“What you said just now about living well together was that true?”
“Then forget I said anything! Let’s go back to how it was before!”
She turned away with a huff, only to be turned back the next second by the man.
“Ah Shu, you said it first… If you regret it later, don’t expect a place to cry.”
Soft lips covered hers. Darkness closed in around Lin Shu, and soon the room was filled with lingering passion.
By dawn, the man now thoroughly indulgent finally let her rest.
Noon, twelve o’clock.
“Little sister, get up! Can you hear your sister-in-law?”
Half asleep, Lin Shu answered, “Sister-in-law, I’ll sleep a bit more!”
Hearing her normal response, Jiang Jie let out a sigh of relief.
“Good… at least your sister-in-law is still alive. Let’s go downstairs and not disturb her.”
Better not provoke the young lady’s temper and bring trouble on the whole family.
Jiang Jie couldn’t understand how someone could change so drastically. When she had first married into the family seven years ago, her sister-in-law had been innocent, sweet, and sensible. Who would’ve thought that after one birthday, she’d become a completely different person?
In the bedroom, Lin Shu gradually woke up.
The soreness in her legs left her struggling for a long time before she could finally sit up against the headboard.
If she were the eighteen-year-old Lin Shu, she would have found herself shameless and disgusting.
Before Shen Huai completely cut ties with her and the Lin family, as long as she delayed the divorce, Shen Huai concerned about his career would agree to help the Lin family.
If she didn’t let go, the Lin family would hang behind Shen Huai for life, and political issues would keep him from advancing.
Lin Shu wasn’t greedy. She only wanted her family to survive the exile to the Northwest. Once everything was settled, she would naturally write a letter severing ties, publish it in the papers, and sign the divorce agreement never hindering his bright future.
Her marriage to Lin Shu was Shen Huai’s political black mark, repeatedly blocking his promotion.
Years later, he remarried a poor peasant woman with a clean background, finally covering up that blemish and eventually reaching the highest position.
But for now, Shen Huai was only a deputy battalion commander.
There were less than six months until the confiscation.
Starting now, there was plenty of time to prepare supplies and destroy everything in the house that could be used to label and convict the Lin family.
After washing up and going downstairs, she winced with every step.
As someone who had been through it, Jiang Jie naturally understood it had been their wedding night.
“Did Shen Huai go too far last night?”
Realizing what she’d said, Jiang Jie hurriedly apologized. “Sorry I spoke out of turn.”
“It’s fine, Sister-in-law.”
Her gentle attitude stunned Jiang Jie for a moment.
“I saved you some food.”
“Thank you, Sister-in-law.”
With no appetite in the morning, Lin Shu only drank a few sips of soup.
The tonic effect was too strong after just a few sips, her nose began to bleed.
“Auntie, your bracelet is bleeding,” her nephew said.
The next instant, her vision blurred, and before her eyes appeared a confiscation list. Her father, Lin Tianlun, was listed first complete with an exact date!
Just yesterday she had been full of confidence. But now she saw that the date had been moved up by three whole months!”