“Manman, you’re an unmarried girl who’s pregnant. If word gets out, they’ll put you in a pig cage and drown you!”
“That’s right, Manman. Just listen to your aunt. Drink this medicine, then settle down and live a good life with Wang Yong.”
Su Man’s head throbbed painfully. She frowned slightly and opened her eyes, still dazed.
That voice… It was so familiar.
Slowly, with disbelief and shock, Su Man opened her eyes fully. Sure enough, she saw her aunt and uncle hovering beside her, their faces full of concern.
In Aunt Su Xiu’s hands was a bowl of dark, bitter-smelling herbal medicine, which she was repeatedly bringing toward Su Man’s lips.
An abortion medicine. An unmarried pregnancy. Wang Yong?
Wasn’t this what had happened fifteen years ago?
But hadn’t her aunt and uncle beaten her to death just moments ago and thrown her into the barren mountains to be devoured by wolves? How had she ended up here again?
Could it be…
She had been reborn!?
Seeing that Su Man remained silent, Su Xiu did her best to suppress the impatience in her eyes, putting on an expression of a loving aunt desperate to protect her niece.
“Manman, stop hesitating. Would your aunt ever hurt you? Hurry up and drink it!”
Looking at Su Xiu’s face, exactly the same as it had been in her previous life, Su Man couldn’t help sneering inwardly.
In her previous life, she had been returning from the fields after delivering something to her uncle when a strange man suddenly charged out of the bushes and took her virginity.
When Su Man woke up, she found a jade pendant the man had left behind in her pocket. But the man himself had vanished without a trace.
Overwhelmed by grief and rage, she wanted to report the incident to the police and seek justice through the law. But her uncle, Yang Shiyong, persuaded her not to.
“If you report it, everyone will find out that you’ve been defiled. What will the villagers think of you then? How will you ever get married?”
At the time, Su Man truly believed that her uncle was only thinking of her best interests. Foolishly, she gave up on reporting it.
But three months later, she discovered that she was pregnant.
And then came the scene unfolding now—
Yang Shiyong and Su Xiu had joined forces to force her to drink an abortion medicine, all so they could sell her off cheaply to Wang Yong, the mentally impaired bachelor who lived on the west side of the village!
In her previous life, they had lied to her, telling her that although Wang Yong was a little slow, he wasn’t a bad person.
Su Man had believed them. After having the abortion, she married him.
But she never imagined that her mother-in-law would somehow find out that she had once been pregnant and had an abortion. From then on, the woman nitpicked everything she did and made her life miserable. Even when Su Man was heavily pregnant and about to give birth, she was still forced to work in the fields!
Her sister-in-law was even more brazen, ordering her around and humiliating her without restraint. Even Zhang Wei, supposedly a “good man,” was influenced by his mother and sister’s behavior and frequently beat her.
Under such abuse, Su Man suffered three miscarriages. After giving birth to a stillborn child and losing the ability to ever have children again, she was dumped back at her parents’ home by her in-laws and left to fend for herself.
At the time, Su Man was only in her thirties, yet she had been worn down until she looked like a woman in her fifties or sixties.
Meanwhile, her cousin, Yang Xixi, had married a high-ranking military officer and become a commander’s wife, living a life of glory and respect.
Her life could not have been more different from Su Man’s.
Abandoned at her family home and despised by everyone, Su Man spent her days currying favor with her aunt and uncle just to get enough food to eat.
Then, one day, she accidentally overheard the two of them talking—
It turned out that the high-ranking military officer Yang Xixi had married was the very “wild man” who had taken Su Man’s virginity all those years ago!
It turned out that besides the jade pendant, that “wild man” had also left Su Man a letter, asking her to go find him at the military compound. He was willing to take responsibility for her!
It turned out that Yang Xixi had taken Su Man’s place, carrying that letter and marrying Sheng Xiao, becoming the proud and untouchable commander’s wife!
And the reason her mother-in-law had known about Su Man being assaulted, becoming pregnant, and having an abortion was also because Aunt Su Xiu had told her.
So it turned out that the miserable fate of her previous life had all been caused by her aunt and uncle’s family!
Overcome with grief and fury, Su Man had stormed in, intending to take them all down with her.
But after more than a decade of suffering in her husband’s family, her body had been completely ruined. Her frail frame was no match for her burly uncle.
Together, they had beaten Su Man to death, then thrown her into the mountains behind the village to be eaten by wolves.
And now, when she opened her eyes again, heaven had taken pity on her and allowed Su Man to return from hell!
In this life, she absolutely would not make the same mistakes again.
She would take back everything that belonged to her.
And she would make every bastard who had driven her to her death pay the price!
Su Man slowly composed herself and lowered her eyes, using her long lashes to conceal the murderous intent within them.
But the vicious aura radiating from her was enough to make Su Xiu shudder.
Goosebumps covered Su Xiu’s body. She scrutinized her usually timid and submissive niece, suddenly feeling that there was something different about her.
“Fine. I’ll drink it.”
Su Man suddenly spoke. She then tremblingly extended her slender hand, pretending to reach for the bowl of abortion medicine.
But the instant her fingertips touched the rim of the bowl, she suddenly slapped it out of the way.
“Smash!”
The ceramic bowl hit the ground and shattered into pieces. The crisp sound of breaking pottery exploded through the cramped earthen house.
Brown medicinal liquid spread across the dirt floor, with some splashing onto Su Xiu’s cloth shoes.
Su Xiu staggered back two steps. Her brows knitted together as she was about to unleash a torrent of abuse.
But Su Man beat her to it, putting on a panicked expression.
“Auntie, I’m sorry! I haven’t eaten much these past few days, and my hands suddenly went weak just now…”
Su Xiu was about to say something, but Yang Shiyong waved his hand.
“She didn’t do it on purpose, so let it go. After all, the most important thing right now is getting Manman to abort the baby as soon as possible.” Yang Shiyong turned to Su Xiu. “Go boil another bowl.”
“I’m not drinking the medicine.”
Su Man suddenly spoke.
Yang Shiyong froze for a moment, then knitted his brows and was about to explode in anger. But Su Man spoke first.
“Those folk remedies aren’t reliable. What if they damage my health and I can’t have children in the future? What if my in-laws refuse to let me marry into their family?”
Su Man watched their expressions carefully before slowly continuing, “Why don’t we go to the hospital instead?”
Yang Shiyong’s frown did not ease in the slightest.
“You make it sound so easy! Do you have any idea how much a hospital will cost?”
“It won’t be cheap, but the hospital will make sure everything is removed properly, and there won’t be any complications.” Su Man took a breath. “If I have the abortion at the hospital, I can get married the very next day. But with a folk remedy, I’ll bleed a lot and have to lie in bed at home for a long time.”
She deliberately lowered her voice.
“There are so many people in the village, and everyone loves to gossip. What if someone finds out and tells Wang Yong’s family? If they learn that I’ve had an abortion and refuse to give the bride price, what will we do?”
In her previous life, after Su Xiu had spent all of the bride price money from Wang Yong’s family, she had immediately turned against Su Man and told Wang Yong’s mother that Su Man had already had an abortion.
She had been terrified that Su Man might enjoy even one more day of happiness.
Su Man’s argument was perfectly reasonable, and she had hit precisely where Su Xiu and Yang Shiyong cared most—the bride price.
The two exchanged glances and hesitated for a moment. In the end, Yang Shiyong let out a heavy breath and relented.
“That’s true. If the Wang family cancels the marriage, our Su family will lose even more!” He waved his large hand. “Fine. We’ll go to the hospital. Your aunt can pay!”
Su Xiu shot Su Man a vicious glare before grudgingly asking, “How much do you need?”
“One hundred.”
“One hundred?! Do you think your body is made of gold?”
Su Xiu shrieked, the spite and nastiness in her eyes impossible to conceal.
But Su Man wasn’t worried in the slightest that Su Xiu would refuse to come up with the hundred yuan.