“Grandma, hurry up and get up to play with me!”
“Grandma, stop sleeping already, the sun’s shining on your butt!”
“Grandma, I’m hungry.”
“Grandma! Grandma…”
As the cries grew fainter and fainter, Qin Suian struggled again and again to wake up. She couldn’t stop worrying about her granddaughter, Little Hu, but in the end, her consciousness still slowly faded away completely.
May, 1982.Xiaohe Village, Honggang County.
“So then, let’s have both families discuss it properly and pick an auspicious wedding date, shall we?”
Still reeling from the memories of her previous life crashing through her mind, Qin Suian finally snapped awake when she heard the loud voice.
“Pick what date? The date for your Lin family’s funeral?” she blurted out.
“What? Fuyuan’s wife, are you crazy?” Matchmaker Wang Dahua suspected she’d heard wrong and stared at Qin Suian like she’d been possessed.
The Wang family and the Lin family all looked at Qin Suian in shock.
Just a moment ago she’d seemed perfectly normal—how had she suddenly gone mad?
“Mom? Are you okay?” Xiaojuan had been sitting there shyly with her head lowered, too embarrassed to look at the Lin family.
Hearing Qin Suian suddenly explode like this, she hurried over in concern.
Meanwhile, the Lin aunt and nephew glared furiously at Qin Suian, deeply displeased.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Is this how your Wang family treats future in-laws?” Aunt Lin, Lin Qiao, pointed at Qin Suian and cursed loudly.
“I thought your Wang family had a decent reputation, that’s why I considered your Xiaojuan. We even offered such a high bride price! Who knew you people would be this foul-mouthed and lacking in manners!”
“And your Lin family has morals? You’re trying to trick our Xiaojuan into marrying your idiot son!”
Rebirth, past-life memories—those could wait. First she had to call off this marriage.
This marriage was a pit of fire.
“Y-you… what nonsense are you spouting? Our Lin Mao isn’t stupid! He’s handsome! Plenty of girls fancy him. Your Xiaojuan is more than lucky enough for him!” Lin Qiao hadn’t expected the truth to be exposed so suddenly, yet she still stubbornly denied it.
The Wang family members all looked skeptically at the young man before them.
He seemed perfectly normal—spoke clearly too. Nothing about him looked foolish.
“Yeah, he is handsome. Because his name is Lin Jun, not Lin Mao. Lin Mao is still back at your house eating manure.”
Qin Suian remembered clearly: in her previous life, it had been Lin Mao’s younger brother, Lin Jun, who showed up from the matchmaking all the way to the wedding day. The Wang family had been completely deceived.
That night, in the bridal chamber, the Lin family finally sent in the mentally disabled Lin Mao. Only then did Xiaojuan realize she’d been tricked.
She pounded on the door and cried, begging to go home, but nobody paid her any attention.
Beforehand, the family had already taught Lin Mao what to do to “get himself a wife,” so he tried to force himself on Xiaojuan.
During the struggle, Xiaojuan accidentally shoved him into the door. The back of his head struck a nail hanging on the wall, killing him instantly.
When the Lin family discovered what had happened, they hurriedly rushed him to the hospital, but it was already too late. Lin Mao had long stopped breathing.
In the end, Xiaojuan was sentenced to five years in prison.
After her release, she was like a shell of a person. Less than two years later, she died in despair.
Her poor daughter’s whole life had been ruined by the Lin family.
This time, Qin Suian would never let Xiaojuan suffer that fate again.
“You!” Lin Qiao knew the truth had truly been exposed now, but she still tried to hold firm.
“Our Lin Mao is just immature, that’s all. Once he gets married, he’ll grow up and become sensible.”
Only now did Xiaojuan realize this had all been a scam. The man she’d been courting wasn’t Lin Mao at all. The person she was supposed to marry wasn’t the handsome young man in front of her, but a fool.
She had nearly been deceived.
“If Lin Mao is really that wonderful, then why did you need Lin Jun to trick people? Wang Dahua, you’re from Xiaohe Village too, yet you colluded with outsiders and took this dirty money. Aren’t you afraid your guts will rot?”
Wang Dahua was a famous matchmaker throughout the nearby villages and had always had a good reputation. Who would’ve thought she’d ruin Xiaojuan’s life over a little money?
“Fuyuan’s wife, don’t falsely accuse me! I was kept in the dark too. How was I supposed to know the Lin family was this shameless?” Wang Dahua panicked as well.
Qin Suian ignored her. She could deal with Wang Dahua later.
First she needed to settle things with the Lin family.
“Wang Fuyuan! Are you stupid? The Lin family is bullying us right in our faces and you’re still standing there dazed?!” Qin Suian shouted at Wang Fuyuan, who had been frozen off to the side.
Only then did Wang Fuyuan seem to snap back to reality. Looking at the Lin family, he finally showed the anger he should’ve had from the start.
“Why aren’t you taking your things and getting the hell out?!”
Seeing Wang Fuyuan like this only made the flames of fury inside Qin Suian burn hotter.
If there was one person she hated most in her previous life, it was Wang Fuyuan—the kind of man who was spineless outside the home but acted like a tyrant inside it.
In the courtyard, Qin Suian found a wood-chopping knife. Grabbing it, she charged straight toward Lin Jun.
He was another black-hearted piece of trash.
“What are you doing?! Fine, the marriage is off, but why resort to violence?!” Lin Qiao was startled too. She wanted to step forward and stop her, yet feared getting caught in the chaos herself.
“You’re an accomplice too.”
Qin Suian had never intended to let her off either.
Back when she was fifteen or sixteen, Qin Suian had joined the local militia. She’d trained in martial arts and even handled guns before. She was never afraid of fighting.
But after marrying into the Wang family, because she failed to give birth to a son, she had been suppressed for decades—and had long forgotten that fierce spirit within herself.
After Lin Jun recovered from the shock, he proved fairly agile and tried to snatch the knife away. But Qin Suian’s ferocity completely overwhelmed him, and with the wood-chopping knife in her hand, he was no match for her.
She slashed his arm several times, then kicked him to the ground and stomped viciously on that area a few times. The pain made him curl up into a ball.
“Xiaojuan, come here. This family nearly ruined your life. You should vent this anger yourself!” Qin Suian called out to her daughter.
In her previous life, she had endured humiliation her whole life. In this life, she would never let her daughter live the same miserable way.
Seeing her mother standing up for her, Xiaojuan finally found her courage.
She grabbed a broom and started beating Lin Jun with it.
“You liar! You filthy scammer! Your whole family is rotten!” Xiaojuan had grown up helping with farm work, so she was sturdy and strong. She hit hard enough that Lin Jun howled in pain.
Lin Qiao wanted to help Lin Jun, but Qin Suian had already kicked her to the ground too. She could do nothing.
Meanwhile, every member of the Wang family watched the chaos unfold with thoughts of their own.
“Fuyuan, stop your wife. The Lin family may be awful, but if someone dies, that won’t end well,” said the stepmother-in-law, Jiang Xiumei, after enjoying the show long enough.
What a pity. She had originally thought that since the Lin family offered such a high bride price, Wang Yaowen’s future bride price could be raised too. Maybe they could even marry a city girl.
Even if Lin Mao really was an idiot, once Xiaojuan married into the Lin family, they could probably squeeze another payment out of them.
But looking at Qin Suian now, there was clearly no way this marriage would happen anymore.
The moment Wang Fuyuan heard Jiang Xiumei’s soft and gentle voice, his obedient-son instincts immediately activated.
“That’s enough, Qin Suian.”
When facing Qin Suian, Wang Fuyuan instantly switched back into his “head of the household” mode.
Qin Suian acted as if she hadn’t heard him. Seeing Lin Jun trying to get up again, she went over and kicked him several more times.
“If I ever see anyone from the Lin family again, I’ll beat you again. Better lock your doors tightly when you sleep at night.”
Qin Suian stomped down one more time. Lin Jun screamed in agony, nearly passing out.
If she didn’t need to conserve her strength, Qin Suian definitely wouldn’t have let the Lin family off so easily.
The moment Qin Suian backed away, Lin Qiao hurried over to help Lin Jun up. Before leaving, she remembered to grab the engagement gifts they had brought, then fled in humiliation.
Wang Dahua also took the chance to slip away.
Now it was the Wang family’s turn.
“I want to split the family,” Qin Suian declared bluntly to Jiang Xiumei.
The true head of the Wang family was Jiang Xiumei. For something like dividing the household, her approval was essential.
The Wang family itself wasn’t too complicated.
The current family head was Wang Xianghua.
The eldest son, Wang Fuyuan, and the second child, Wang Xue, were born to his first wife, who had died young.
The third son, Wang Fujiang, was born to Jiang Xiumei after she remarried into the family.
Jiang Xiumei was highly skilled at manipulating people. After marrying into the Wang family, she quickly won over both Wang Xianghua and Wang Fuyuan. Once she gave birth to Wang Fujiang, her position became completely secure.
Later, the Wang and Qin families arranged an exchange marriage: Qin Suian married into the Wang family, while Wang Xue married into the Qin family.
Later on, Wang Fujiang married Jiang Yun, a distant niece from Jiang Xiumei’s side of the family.
Jiang Xiumei wasn’t the openly vicious type of mother-in-law. On the contrary, she always appeared kind-faced and soft-spoken.