“Ye Sheng, you killed my son! I curse you to die a horrible death!”
“Ye Sheng, just you wait—I’m going to make you pay!!”
Ye Sheng felt a splitting headache, her scalp as if it were being torn open, pulled and yanked until she had no choice but to open her eyes. The curses still echoed in her ears, but the pitch-black surroundings before her were utterly unfamiliar.
The air reeked of rotting leaves and mildew, and behind her back was a rough wooden wall.
Startled, Ye Sheng tried to move her arms only to realize her hands were bound behind her. Had she been kidnapped?
She remembered stepping out of the courthouse after winning a case involving a minor who had been assaulted and murdered. The defendant’s parents had swarmed her with curses and abuse. Because of the case, she hadn’t rested properly for over a month, and her low blood sugar had caused her to faint.
Could someone have kidnapped her while she was unconscious?
That didn’t seem possible—she had been right at the courthouse entrance. Even the boldest criminal wouldn’t dare kidnap someone there.
Ye Sheng moved her arms, trying to break free from whatever bound her wrists, but the restraints only tightened, making her wince and gasp. Looking down, she realized she wasn’t wearing her professional suit but a strange floral dress she’d never seen before.
As she stared in confusion, a flood of memories that didn’t belong to her surged into her mind.
…
It took Ye Sheng a full two hours to process all the foreign memories in her head and come to terms with one undeniable fact: she had transmigrated!
She had crossed over to 1992, into the body of a young woman who was also named Ye Sheng.
The original Ye Sheng was twenty-two years old, fair-skinned and beautiful, working at the city cultural troupe. Raised under her grandmother’s influence, she played the guzheng exceptionally well. Yet, at her parents’ insistence, she had married Zhou Yanshen, a thirty-year-old fighter pilot stationed at the remote northwestern frontier.
From their arranged introduction to their wedding, they had only met twice. On their wedding day itself, Zhou Yanshen had rushed off due to a flight mission, not even having time to consummate the marriage.
At first, the original Ye Sheng was smitten by Zhou Yanshen’s handsome appearance and had wanted to make the marriage work. But when he left on their wedding day and then went silent for five or six months, she couldn’t bear it.
Having been pampered and fawned over her whole life—she loved being the center of male attention—combined with the various conflicts of living with her in-laws, she began to question her marriage. She decided this wasn’t the life she wanted. Then she started an ambiguous relationship with a new pretty-boy colleague at her workplace.
So she took an extended leave from work, packed her bags, and traveled thousands of miles to find her husband and demand a divorce.
Despite her good looks, the original Ye Sheng wasn’t particularly sharp. After getting off the train in Urumqi, she was tricked into getting into a car and was eventually kidnapped to this place.
Ye Sheng closed her eyes. The traffickers had planned to take the original Ye Sheng into the mountains to force her into unspeakable flesh trade with the lumberjacks there.
When they arrived last night, the two traffickers, feeling safe at last, let their long-suppressed lust for the girl’s beauty get the better of them and tried to force themselves on her. The original Ye Sheng would rather die than submit—she slammed her head against the wooden wall and passed out.
The two traffickers checked her, found no signs of life, and panicked. They fled without a second thought.
Ye Sheng figured she must have transmigrated into this body in that window of opportunity.
No wonder her head was splitting—she’d hit it. The sticky substance on her face was probably dried blood.
Ye Sheng had been abandoned at birth due to a congenital heart condition and grew up in an orphanage. She knew that only hard work could earn her the life she wanted, so she studied diligently all the way to law school and became a lawyer, hoping to earn more money to help more children in the orphanage.
The orphanage director’s assessment of her was that she was naturally optimistic and never bowed to fate. Like a seed with extraordinary vitality, even in the most barren and dark soil, she could sprout and bloom into the most brilliant flower.
So Ye Sheng was able to quickly accept her current situation. She needed to find a way to untie the ropes and escape from here—only by getting out could there be any hope of survival.
She searched around the dim room and was pleasantly surprised to find a dagger in the corner, perhaps dropped by the human traffickers in their hasty escape.
She crawled over with great effort, closed her eyes, and recalled the techniques her coach had taught her during her martial arts training. Awkwardly gripping the dagger in her hand, she slowly sawed through the ropes binding her wrists.
She didn’t know how much time had passed; it felt like her wrists were about to break when the ropes finally gave way.
She rubbed her wrists as she stood up and stretched her legs. Fortunately, only her forehead was injured—everything else was fine.
She walked to the wooden cabin door, pushed it open, and froze.
Surrounding her were vast, endless mountains, with a narrow winding path leading to an unknown destination.
For a moment, Ye Sheng felt despair. Judging by the condition of the cabin, no one had lived here for a long time—perhaps it was once a shelter for lumberjacks or a temporary resting spot for herders.
The last rays of the sun fell on the treetops of the mountains, casting a layer of golden light. Dusk was settling all around, and night was approaching. If she didn’t get out of the mountains quickly, she would either freeze to death tonight or be devoured by wild beasts.
Gripping the dagger, she was about to step out of the cabin when she met a pair of eerie green eyes.
Ye Sheng’s scalp tingled instantly. How had she not noticed the wolf lying in the grass just a few meters away?
Seeing someone come out, the wolf slowly rose to its feet. It was a gaunt creature with sparse fur, seeming unsteady on its legs as it staggered toward Ye Sheng.
Ye Sheng didn’t dare take it lightly. She closed her eyes, almost able to feel the pain of sharp wolf fangs piercing the flesh of her neck. But to die like this—she refused to accept it!
She gritted her teeth and steeled her resolve, deciding to fight. Even if she was bitten to death by the wolf, she would stab it several times first. Only then would dying not be a loss.
Clutching the dagger tightly, she watched the wolf leap into the air and lunge at her face. Ye Sheng gritted her teeth and swung her blade to meet it head-on. Whether she lived or died, she was determined to plunge the knife into the wolf’s heart.
Just ten centimeters from Ye Sheng, the wolf suddenly crashed heavily to the ground.
A loud thud rang out, startling Ye Sheng into stepping back a few times. Only then did she see a dagger with a military-green handle embedded squarely in the center of the wolf’s forehead.
Someone had saved her!
In this desolate mountain, there was someone else besides her!
Ye Sheng turned joyfully toward the direction the dagger had come from and saw a tall, imposing man striding toward her through the twilight.
The light was dim, and she couldn’t make out his features clearly, but the sight of his camouflage uniform alone brought her an inexplicable sense of calm.
The man walked up to Ye Sheng with long strides, his sharp, hawk-like eyes fixed on her. He paused for a few seconds, a flicker of surprise passing through his gaze, then spoke coldly: “What are you doing here?”
Ye Sheng looked at the man’s painted face and instinctively answered with honest obedience: “I was kidnapped and brought here.”
Zhou Yanshen was taken aback, not expecting Ye Sheng to fail to recognize him at all: “Where do you live?”
Ye Sheng inexplicably felt that the man looked familiar—perhaps his temperament resembled some celebrity’s? Having always had a special fondness for military green, her mind took a sudden turn: “I’m here on vacation. Could you help me find a hotel? By the way, comrade, which unit are you from? I’ll definitely come back to thank you later.”
Zhou Yanshen watched as Ye Sheng showed no trace of post-kidnapping fear, chattering away and trying to get chummy with him.
He spoke coldly: “My name is Zhou Yanshen!”