It hurts! It hurt so much!
The violent pain jolted Qin Shuyao awake. She could not suppress a painful gasp as she struggled to open her heavy eyelids. What greeted her eyes was a sea of festive red, along with deafening firecrackers and raucous laughter.
What… What was going on?
She clearly remembered being tortured to death by a family of beasts masquerading as in-laws.
“Hey, why are you idiots just standing there laughing? Go get some rope. Let’s tie the bride to the utility pole and teach her a proper lesson. Knock down her arrogance so she won’t lord it over her mother-in-law after she enters the household.”
Qin Shuyao’s scattered consciousness finally snapped back into place.
This scene was far too familiar.
This was her wedding day in 1985. On the day she married at nineteen, she had been subjected to a savage and frenzied wedding prank.
Even after so many years, she remembered it vividly. As the bride, she had been tied to a utility pole by several young men. Those scum took advantage of the chaos to grope and kiss her, even beating her with sticks.
She screamed in terror, cried, and begged for mercy. People crowded around to watch the spectacle, yet no one stepped forward to help her.
Even the groom and his parents stood by laughing, watching as she was beaten until she was bruised and sobbing in agony.
Encouraged by the deliberate indulgence of the host family, the pranksters grew increasingly brazen. No one knew who struck too hard, but a heavy blow smashed into her leg, shattering her kneecap.
On what should have been her most beautiful day, she became a cripple, suffering endless humiliation and torment.
“People say a wife must be beaten into obedience, dough kneaded into smoothness. But take it easy. Don’t beat my daughter-in-law too badly, or who’s going to carry on our family line?”
The familiar voice sent a chill down Qin Shuyao’s spine.
It was her mother-in-law, He Cuilian, a hypocritical and sinister woman with a smiling face. It was precisely because of that remark that the tragedy had fully unfolded.
Someone twisted Qin Shuyao’s arm. The pain cut through her, leaving her completely lucid.
If this was not a dream, then it meant heaven had taken pity on her misery in her previous life and allowed her to be reborn at the moment before her leg was broken by the wedding prank.
A hooligan took advantage of the chaos and slipped his hand beneath Qin Shuyao’s skirt with vile intent. Several others holding hemp ropes prepared to bind her to the utility pole and “discipline” her.
Raging fury surged and roared in Qin Shuyao’s chest. From somewhere deep within, she found strength she did not know she had. She lashed out with a kick, slamming her foot into the groin of the bastard who was trying to lift her skirt.
A scream rang out. The hooligan clutched his crotch and collapsed to the ground in a twisted posture, looking as if he had lost all breath.
The once noisy scene fell into dead silence. No one had expected the bride to fight back, let alone so ruthlessly. From the looks of it, she might have destroyed the young man’s manhood.
Moments later, the groom, Zhang Baogen, jumped out and pointed at Qin Shuyao’s nose, hurling abuse.
“Are you insane? Teasing the bride has been a tradition for hundreds of years. Ask any woman in this village. Who didn’t go through this when they married? Everyone just wants some excitement. How can you be so unable to take a joke?”
Qin Shuyao broke free from their grip and reached up to tear off the red flower from her head, letting out a cold laugh.
“Oh? So when they beat me, it’s a joke. When I kick them once, I’m the one who can’t take a joke? You really are masters of double standards.”
She stepped closer, staring at the man who had tortured her with countless inhumane methods in her previous life. Hatred filled her heart.
“If you want excitement, why not mess with the groom? Or is it because women are weaker and smaller, so we’re fair game for you men to toy with?”
“And you call this a tradition? Nonsense. Ancient weddings had bridal sedans and stepping over fire basins, lifting veils and drinking wedding wine. There was never a tradition of tying brides to utility poles and beating or abusing them.”
In her previous life, Qin Shuyao had worried about saving her in-laws’ face and did not resist at first. That hesitation cost her any chance of protecting herself and led to her miserable end.
Now that heaven had given her another life, she would never waste it again.
Anyone who dared to prank her today would be risking their life.
As for this marriage—
Qin Shuyao stripped off her red outer jacket and threw it to the ground. With open disgust, she stomped on it a few times and spat.
“I’m not marrying into this family.”
This time, it was the groom’s entire family who stood dumbfounded.
The Zhang family had chosen Qin Shuyao precisely because she seemed weak, easy to bully, and without backing.
Qin Shuyao was an orphan picked up by an elderly couple. She grew up relying on her shepherd grandfather and her blind grandmother.
Yet she was the first female high school student in ten miles, and one of the most beautiful young women for miles around. Her tender almond eyes and cherry lips had stolen the hearts of countless young men.
She never tanned easily. Even in the blazing heat of summer, the skin on her neck and arms remained snow-white and delicate. From the age of fifteen or sixteen, matchmakers had nearly worn down her doorstep.
No matter how generous the proposed bride price, her shepherd grandfather refused every offer.
“She’s a good student,” he would say. “As far as she can study, I’ll support her. Marriage can wait.”
It was only when her blind grandmother fell gravely ill and they could not afford treatment that the Zhang family came to propose. They promised that as long as Qin Shuyao married Zhang Baogen, they would send her grandmother to the provincial capital for treatment.
Qin Shuyao could not bear to watch the woman who had raised her with her own hands die from illness.
So she made the decision herself and agreed to the marriage, jumping headfirst into a bottomless pit of fire.
After the wedding, however, the Zhang family went back on their word, using her crippled leg as an excuse. Not only did they refuse to treat her grandmother, they imprisoned Qin Shuyao and subjected her to abuse. Soon after, news arrived of her grandmother’s death.
When she demanded a divorce, the Zhang family threatened the life of her shepherd grandfather, forcing her to submit and endure.
He Cuilian’s sharp, upturned eyes brimmed with vicious malice.
“Divorce? Fine! If you walk out of the Zhang family today, you can start collecting the shepherd’s old man’s corpse tomorrow. Don’t believe me? Try it.”
Qin Shuyao knew how despicable and shameless the Zhang family was. She did not dare gamble with her grandfather’s life. He was her only remaining family.
Yet even after she endured humiliation and stayed with the Zhang family, her shepherd grandfather still died, falling from a cliff while herding sheep.
The insatiably greedy Zhang family not only seized his dozen sheep and three tile-roofed houses, they also broke Qin Shuyao’s leg again just as it was about to heal, to prevent her from escaping.
Calling them animals was an insult to the word.
Pain and hatred tormented the strong-willed Qin Shuyao day and night. For others, a terminal illness meant terror. For her, it was released.
The Zhang family refused to treat her, and she did not want treatment anyway. She missed her grandparents desperately.
When Zhang Baogen heard that Qin Shuyao would not marry him, he panicked on the spot. He had coveted her body for a long time. Every night, his dreams were filled with the image of her lying naked beneath him.
“Mom, what do we do?”
He turned to his mother, only to see He Cuilian step forward, her gaze ruthless.
“You think you can just refuse to marry? Once you’ve entered this village, don’t even think about leaving. Even if we have to tie you up, we’ll drag you onto my son’s bed today.”
As she spoke, He Cuilian turned to the hooligans who had led the wedding prank. “As long as you don’t let her escape, you can play however you want. Auntie has only one requirement. Don’t take her virginity.”
At those words, the hooligans, already burning with lust, cracked their knuckles eagerly.
Fear surged through Qin Shuyao’s heart. No matter how stubborn or unyielding she was, she could not possibly stand against several strong, able-bodied beasts.
There were countless onlookers, but they were all relatives of the Zhang family. Who would help her? Who would protect her?
It seemed she had fallen back into despair. Even with a second chance to change her fate, she still could not break free from the chains of misery and suffering.
Just then, a figure wearing a military uniform and carrying a backpack passed behind the crowd and caught Qin Shuyao’s eye.
As if grasping a lifeline, she shouted with everything she had, “Chen Qilan, save me!”