“She didn’t actually fall to her death, did she?”
“In this icy weather, it’s not right to just leave her lying on the ground. Why don’t we help her up and take her home?”
“You go ahead, I don’t dare. This youngest daughter-in-law of the Lao Zhou Family is a notorious Lai Zi, known for miles around. If you help her and she dies, that’s one thing. But if she doesn’t, she’ll probably wake up and bite back, making you pay until you don’t even have your pants left.”
…
Wen Nianxin awoke to a clamorous din.
She tried to raise a hand to block the glaring light, but before she could lift it completely, a sharp pain, like an invisible giant hand, seized her, stifling her breath and restricting her movement.
“She’s awake, she’s awake! She’s not dead yet!”
“Why aren’t the Lao Zhou Family here yet?”
“Dafu, go and call them again, quickly.”
As her consciousness gradually returned, Wen Nianxin slowly opened her eyes, only to find a large circle of people looming over her.
They were all staring down at her, seemingly whispering amongst themselves.
“You people… ahem~~”
The moment she spoke, her throat felt as if it were being split open by a knife. The sound that came out made her want to scream, “Baojuan, my voice!”
“You’d better not move. You’ve cracked your head open.”
“Who are you?”
“Why are you in my home?”
“Did the landlord let you in?”
She endured the discomfort and, with a grating, duck-like voice, blurted out all the questions on her mind.
If it weren’t for her strong heart since childhood, being surrounded by so many people would have surely scared her into a major fit.
“Zhou Zhan’s wife, did you fall and become stupid? What ‘your home’? What ‘landlord’? This is the village entrance!”
Hearing the name Zhou Zhan, Wen Nianxin’s mind suddenly buzzed, and an ominous premonition grew in her heart.
She quickly felt the ground beside her… The chill of the snow not only froze her palm but also chilled her to the core.
She was afraid she was truly done for!
“Everyone, make way! The Lao Zhou Family is here.”
“Chunmei, come quickly and see. Your third son’s wife seems to have fallen and become a fool. She’s spouting all sorts of nonsense!”
The crowd surrounding her quickly parted to either side upon seeing the Lao Zhou Family’s arrival, clearing a path.
Zhou Zhan’s mother, who had been at home pasting matchboxes, had heard someone say her third son’s wife had fallen to her death at the village entrance. She had initially thought it was just another new trick this troublesome daughter-in-law had come up with to swindle money.
Now, seeing her lying motionless on the ground, the snow beneath her head stained red with blood, she staggered and nearly fell.
“Third son’s wife, are you alright!?”
“You… what’s your name?”
Although she already had an answer in her heart about her identity, she asked again, refusing to give up hope.
“Oh dear, what are we going to do? She’s really become a fool! She doesn’t even recognize you, her mother-in-law, Wu Chunmei!”
Hearing those three words, Wen Nianxin felt as if she had just been handed a death sentence. Resigned to her fate, she closed her eyes.
Lao Zhou Family, third son’s wife, Zhou Zhan, Wu Chunmei… This combination of elements was exactly the plot of the audiobook she had casually clicked on last night while staying up late to make tanghulu for a client.
Last night, when she heard that a cannon fodder female side character in the novel had the exact same name as her, she had felt a bit uncomfortable and wanted to switch, but she was too busy to spend time finding another book to her taste, so she had just let it play.
Damn it all!
Don’t they all say transmigration novels are purely fictional? What was this situation now?
Even if she had to transmigrate, couldn’t she have been put into the body of a woman who was rich, beautiful, and talented?
She really wanted to experience a life with assets over a hundred million, driving a Porsche with her left hand and a Ferrari with her right.
But the person whose body she now occupied was not only obese, gluttonous, and lazy, but also a pathological liar with a foul mouth and a muddled brain.
Besides all these flaws, she had one other great talent: she was exceptionally good at offending people.
She had cursed out nearly everyone in their entire production team, causing people to avoid her like the plague.
While listening to the book, she had even complained that the original owner was a huge idiot. Well, look at that, now she was the idiot!
…
The current year was 1980.
The original owner shared her name and was also twenty-three years old.
Not only did she lack a single redeeming quality, but she was also married young. She had a soldier husband whom she had been married to for three years but had only met once. She was now in the Fu Yi Production Team, where her husband’s family lived.
The original owner was not a local but a Zhiqing who had come to the countryside from Mingzhao City, over five hundred kilometers away.
Her coming to the countryside hadn’t been entirely voluntary; her stepmother had signed her up directly.
To put it nicely, it was to encourage her to contribute to rural development. The real purpose was to get this eyesore out of the house and, in the process, take over the job at the textile factory that her maternal grandparents had arranged for her.
But the original owner had a screw loose. She was completely unaware of her stepmother’s true intentions and had always regarded this stepmother as her real mother, trusting and relying on her completely.
As for why she married her soldier husband, Zhou Zhan, it was purely by chance.
She had stumbled into a trap within a trap.
Originally, another female Zhiqing who shared her room, He Chunyan, had planned to scheme her way into marrying Zhou Zhan. However, He Chunyan was also stringing along a male Zhiqing at the Zhiqing courtyard, one who seemed honest but was actually ruthless and taciturn.
Wu Tianhua could tolerate He Chunyan stringing him along, but he couldn’t tolerate her trying to seduce another man while doing so.
That night, he made his move first, and a half-willing He Chunyan became his wife in fact.
To prevent the prize he’d secured from flying away, he had also, under the cover of darkness, sent the original owner—a person universally disliked by the entire production team—to Zhou Zhan’s bed while the Zhou family was having a celebratory meal with drinks.
The simple-minded original owner initially had no designs on Zhou Zhan, but after being incited by Wu Tianhua and others, she suddenly thought that latching onto Zhou Zhan and becoming a soldier’s wife didn’t seem so bad.
In the end, with a knife to her neck, she lay down on the ground at the Zhou family’s entrance and threatened suicide, successfully marrying Zhou Zhan.
…
“Third son’s wife, what’s wrong with you?”
Seeing her staring blankly at a single spot, unresponsive to her calls, Zhou Zhan’s mother grew anxious.
“Nianxin, are you okay? Don’t scare Mom!”
Although Zhou Zhan’s mother also disliked this youngest daughter-in-law, feeling she had ruined her youngest son’s bright future, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity seeing her now with pale lips and a bloodless face.
“Tell me, why did you run out in this snowy weather to chase after some Ding Ding Tang? If you wanted to eat some, you should have just told Mom. Mom would have had your eldest brother go buy it for you.”
If anything were to happen to her third son’s wife here at the Lao Zhou Family’s home, she wouldn’t know how to explain it to her in-laws, whom she had never met. At the same time, she didn’t want her young son to be labeled a widower in his twenties.
“What Ding Ding Tang?”
Her thoughts interrupted, Wen Nianxin looked with a somewhat dazed expression at the woman before her—the original owner’s mother-in-law. No, from now on, she would be her mother-in-law.
“Everyone said you were chasing the person selling Ding Ding Tang, and you accidentally slipped and fell like this.”
“Who said that?”
What a load of bullshit!
It was obvious some son of a bitch had pushed the original owner from behind, causing her to slam her head on a rock and die on the spot