After shaking off that despicable pair, Shen Baizhi hurried downstairs, preparing to return to Shenjia Village.
Just as she reached the first floor, she ran into an auntie in the stairwell who was carrying a bamboo basket of groceries. The woman sized her up, grabbed her arm, and spoke warmly,
“Isn’t this the Lin family’s new daughter-in-law who got married yesterday?”
“Up so early on the first day of marriage—oh my, looks like you weren’t worn out last night!”
“But what’s wrong with your eyes? Have you been crying?”
“Don’t tell me it’s because of Lin Cheng…”
The auntie smiled with a knowing, suggestive expression.
Shen Baizhi’s gaze flickered. She knew Aunt Zhao all too well—she was the courtyard’s famous loudspeaker, someone who loved gossip and could even fabricate rumors out of thin air if there was none.
Well then, let the Lin family have a taste of what it was like to be the center of gossip.
She deliberately raised her left hand and wiped at her eyes, saying pitifully,
“Auntie, Ranran doesn’t like me as her sister-in-law. Last night, she dragged her brother off to keep her company the whole night. I think I’d better go back to my parents’ home.”
Sure enough, Aunt Zhao’s eyes instantly lit up with dazzling excitement, and she hurriedly asked,
“What did you say?”
“Lin Cheng left his bride alone on the wedding night and went to stay with his sister all night?”
“Is he stupid, or is he… not capable?”
“Hey, what happened to your hand? They didn’t bully you too, did they?”
Shen Baizhi openly held her hand out in front of Aunt Zhao, deliberately showing the side where the skin was broken and blood had seeped out.
“Ranran took a fancy to this bracelet my grandmother left me. But it’s my grandmother’s keepsake, so I didn’t want to give it to her. They tried to snatch it from me.”
Aunt Zhao slapped her thigh. On the surface, she looked indignant on Shen Baizhi’s behalf, but her voice was filled with the thrill of getting juicy gossip.
“Oh my goodness! Who would’ve thought—Lin Ranran, that girl, already eyeing her sister-in-law’s dowry on the very first day. And Lin Cheng is such a muddlehead too, helping his sister rob his own wife!”
“And look what they did to your hand—this is ruthless! So much blood!”
Shen Baizhi laughed inwardly. In truth, the blood had already dried; there really wasn’t that much.
But she was sure that before the morning was over, the courtyard would be buzzing with rumors that Lin Cheng, in order to help his sister steal his wife’s bracelet, had beaten his bride until blood flowed everywhere.
Mixed in with that would probably be talk about Lin Cheng being “not capable,” and Lin Ranran coveting her sister-in-law’s dowry.
Running into Aunt Zhao before leaving was just the Lin family’s bad luck. She hadn’t planned to settle scores with them so soon—this was merely collecting a bit of interest in advance.
Seeing that she had already wasted quite some time, Shen Baizhi quickly said goodbye to Aunt Zhao and headed toward the bike shed by the courtyard wall.
Lin’s father was a deputy director at the steel factory. All four members of the family worked there, and for their only son Lin Cheng’s wedding, they had bought the “three big items” in full.
Now, the brand-new bicycle, still decorated with a big red flower, was parked neatly in the shed.
Shen Baizhi strode over, ripped off the red flower in one motion, took out the bicycle key she had just “borrowed,” mounted the bike, and rode off toward Shenjia Village.
Shenjia Village was more than twenty kilometers from the county town. It would take over an hour by bicycle.
As she rode, Shen Baizhi planned out what she needed to do today.
First, of course, she had to retrieve the vessel of her golden finger—the black stone she had picked up in the river.
Besides that, there was another equally important matter. If she could pull it off, it would make her even happier than dealing with the Lin family.
That was to intercept things ahead of Shen Baiwei and save the benefactor she was supposed to meet. Without the protection of that family who stood at the pinnacle of power, Shen Baizhi wanted to see whether Shen Baiwei could still live as smoothly as she had in her previous life.
If Shen Baiwei hadn’t believed, after imprisoning her in her previous life, that she could never escape, and hadn’t brazenly shown off her glamorous, enviable life in front of her…
Shen Baizhi would never have known so many of her secrets.
According to Shen Baiwei, today was a special day for both of them.
For Shen Baizhi, it was the day she married Lin Cheng and began a tragic life.
For Shen Baiwei, it was the day she rose to prominence.
It was this very afternoon that she would save the man who changed her fate—the man born into an elite family, who would eventually stand at the very top of Huaguo’s power.
It was also during that rescue that she accidentally cut her hand, her blood seeping into the black stone and activating a miraculous space.
Thinking of how today was her chance to change her destiny, Shen Baizhi pedaled faster and faster.
Driven by sheer determination, she rode hard for a full hour and didn’t even feel tired.
When Shenjia Village finally came into view, Shen Baizhi pushed the bicycle into the grass by the roadside and hid it. She then took small, less-traveled paths and made her way around to the elementary school at the eastern end of the village.
This school was shared by several nearby villages and had only a few dozen students. Her eleven-year-old younger sister, Shen Baisu, was studying here this year.
She quietly found a student and asked them to call her sister out. Watching her sister run toward her happily, Shen Baizhi nearly burst into tears.
Such a good sister—yet in her previous life, she had died trying to save her. This time, she was determined to let her sister live a happy life.
Suppressing the turmoil in her heart, she pulled her sister to the wall behind the school and spoke in a low voice.
“Sis, why are you back? Didn’t Grandma say you wouldn’t return to the family home until tomorrow?”
“She even said tomorrow Fourth Uncle is getting married, and having a new son-in-law around would make things livelier.”
Shen Baizhi didn’t have time to explain any of that. She went straight to the point.
“Do you remember the black stone I picked up in the river?”
“I remember. Didn’t Big Cousin borrow it? I really don’t know what’s so special about a broken stone—she treats it like a treasure and wears it around her neck every day.”
Shen Baizhi’s expression darkened slightly. In fact, even in her previous life, she had always felt that Shen Baiwei possessed some kind of strange power—her life had gone far too smoothly.
Just like that ordinary-looking stone. She had clearly been the one to pick it up, yet Shen Baiwei had thrown tantrums and cried until she forcibly borrowed it, then treated it like a priceless treasure, wearing it every day. It was as if she could sense that the black stone was special.
Otherwise, Shen Baizhi wouldn’t have needed to come to Susu for help to get it back.
If she returned to the Shen family now, she would definitely be entangled by those biased relatives. They might even consider it unlucky for her to return alone to her parents’ home on the second day of marriage and tie her up to send her back to the Lin family.
She was still waiting to retrieve the stone and rush to the back mountain to intercept Shen Baiwei’s opportunity. She absolutely couldn’t waste time—so she could only trouble her sister.
“Susu, I need to get that stone back right now. You have to help me.”
Shen Baisu scratched her head.
“Of course I’ll help you, Sister. But she treats that stone like a treasure. If I go ask for it, she definitely won’t give it to me.”
Shen Baizhi curled her lips into a smile, leaned close to her sister’s ear, and whispered a few words. Shen Baisu’s eyes immediately lit up with excitement.
“Alright, Sister, let’s do it this way!”
“I’ll go get the dung basket—you go pick up cow dung!”
“Let’s meet by the little river!”