“Darling, do as I say, and you’ll be well taken care of!”
Jiang Yan’s eyes snapped open.
A man’s huge, doughy face was inches from hers!
Beneath his lecherous, small eyes were two egg-sized eye bags, and his garlic-breath mouth lunged towards her.
Was she having that recurring nightmare again?
Just eighteen years old, she had been drugged by her own mother and sent to an old man in exchange for her stepfather’s family’s wealth and prosperity.
But hadn’t she already died?
Without hesitation, she had leaped from a thirty-story building, hoping that the guilt and regret she felt towards her adoptive parents would dissipate with her physical form, and at the same time, free her husband, Huo Ying.
Jiang Yan desperately turned her head and saw the calendar on the wall: 1976!
The man’s slobbery mouth missed, and he continued to drone on: “I can prevent you from being sent to the countryside to suffer. Your mother can work at the match factory gluing cardboard boxes, your father can work at the steel rolling mill as a boiler operator, your sister can be a factory worker at the cotton mill, and when your younger brother graduates…”
What he was saying was exactly what she had experienced at eighteen!
She had been reborn back to the year she was eighteen!
Ah, she still had a chance to save her adoptive parents who loved her like a precious gem!
Then she could no longer be at the mercy of others!
But the power difference between men and women was too great. The perverted hand had already slipped under her clothes, and soon she would be completely exposed. Then the door would be kicked open, and her biological mother and stepfather would appear, clenching their fists and shouting angrily:
“Section Chief Zhu, you’ll be rotting in jail… unless you come up with 500 yuan as a bride price, send your mother-in-law to the neighborhood committee to wear a red armband, your father-in-law to the cinema to show movies, and your sister to an office in an office building!”
The whole family wanted to be distinguished, not to do hard labor like gluing cardboard boxes, operating boilers, or spinning cotton!
Her biological mother and stepfather’s scheme succeeded, but the events of that day became a lifelong shadow, a handle for ridicule and accusation.
Jiang Yan suddenly spoke in a coquettish voice “You’re lying! You don’t want to live with me at all!”
The man froze, his perverted hand pausing: “Why would you think that?”
The girl’s small mouth pouted: “You already have four children. You won’t have any more children if you marry me. How can a couple live long without children?”
Not only did he have four children? He also had a mother paralyzed in bed, a sharp-tongued and vicious father more nagging than an old woman, and a wife whose hair had turned half white from toil, only to be beaten to death.
Jiang Yan felt more and more wronged as she spoke, “I want you to swear that you will have at least one child with me, otherwise I won’t agree to you.”
The man’s heart bloomed with joy. He sat up, withdrew his perverted hand, and held it up to his ear: “I swear to you…”
“Thump!”
A flashlight smashed into the man’s temple. He grunted and fell off the bed like a sack of rags.
“Give me back my clothes!” Jiang Yan let out a sound that adults would understand, quickly got out of bed, tidied her clothes, and ran towards the door, grabbing a stool and hiding by the door.
“Bang!” The door was violently slammed.
Hearing the keywords, that couple indeed made their move.
According to her memory from her previous life, the first to rush in after the door was broken down would be her stepfather. As long as he was dealt with, her biological mother would be no threat.
However, her stepfather should have banged on the door several times before it opened. Why did it open with just one bang now?
A man rushed in, agile as a leopard.
The moment to change her destiny had arrived.
“Whoosh!”
Jiang Yan swung the stool at the back of the man’s head with all her might.
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, the man suddenly turned.
His sharp, blade-like gaze met Jiang Yan’s terrified one and immediately softened.
His hand, which was about to strike with a “black tiger digging its heart” move, quickly retracted.
This was the agility that only those with special training possessed, something Jiang Yan could not achieve.
“Thump!”
The stool hit the man’s head hard. Without a sound, he fell to the ground like a log.
Jiang Yan’s hands remained in the posture of swinging the stool, but her mouth opened wider and wider.
Had she been hallucinating? She had mistaken the treacherous and ugly stepfather for her tall and handsome husband from her previous life Huo Ying?
The stool was snatched away. Jiang Yan didn’t have time to regain her senses. She took a hit to the head, closed her eyes, and collapsed softly onto the man on the ground.
Just as she was about to faint, her biological mother’s gritted teeth pierced her eardrums like needles: “You wretched girl, where did you find this wild man to harm us? If you want to die, I’ll send you both to the underworld as husband and wife!”
Her stepfather’s gasping could be heard: “Stop! If you beat her to death, where will we find our good life?”
Jiang Yan secretly opened a crack in her eye.
Her stepfather limped in, half his face bruised and swollen, one eye unable to open, making him look even more ferocious and ugly.
The man she had knocked unconscious clearly couldn’t be her stepfather.
“Let’s drag this man to the side room first, then drag that wretched girl, Section Chief Zhu, onto the bed, strip them, and have them embrace each other. Even if Section Chief Zhu doesn’t admit it, she’ll have to. What’s ours is still ours.”
The couple, one on each side, grabbed the man’s arms and dragged him to the adjacent room.
Now Jiang Yan could see clearly.
Even in his unconscious state, the man was still heroic and imposing, with chiseled, deep, and handsome features, smooth and healthy bronze skin, and a tall build that, even when being dragged, revealed broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and incredibly long legs.
It was Huo Ying!
But in her previous life, they hadn’t even met at this time?
Her heart was churning like a stormy sea, but Jiang Yan didn’t have time to think. Seeing her biological mother and stepfather drag the man into the room, she only had time to pick up the flashlight before the two of them came out, panting, their faces filled with surprise and doubt:
“…This man clearly isn’t an ordinary person. We have no enmity with him, we’ve never even met him, so why did he attack us?”
“How the hell should I know? Never mind that, let’s get down to business quickly. It’ll be troublesome if he wakes up.”
As they spoke, the two took their positions. The stepfather immediately pulled the top of Section Chief Zhu’s shirt over his head, revealing a large, pale, greasy belly.
Her biological mother placed her hands on Jiang Yan’s pants and suggested to her stepfather with a smile: “Shouldn’t we take off the pants first?”
“Thump!”
The flashlight hit her temple. The woman fell to the ground with a thud.
Jiang Yan jumped up and rushed to the door. As soon as she unbolted it, her stepfather’s hands pressed down on her shoulders from behind, and he sneered sinisterly: “You don’t want your mother to undress you, do you want me to?”
Jiang Yan cowered in fear, pleading: “No, please don’t touch me. I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”
A wicked and lewd smile spread across the man’s lips.
He knew exactly how to make a delicate flower like Jiang Yan obedient.
But in the next second, he let out a startled scream.
Jiang Yan’s head slammed backward onto his nose.
The man, in pain, tears and snot mixed with blood streamed from his nose. He swung his hand to strike the back of her head with such force that it would surely knock Jiang Yan out, if not kill her.
Unexpectedly again, Jiang Yan thrust her hips backward, violently colliding with his protruding part.
The stepfather, like a stabbed pig, screamed and clutched his lower abdomen with both hands, falling to the ground.
Jiang Yan was covered in cold sweat.
In her previous life, her biological mother and stepfather had locked her in the house. Only after Section Chief Zhu had fulfilled all their demanding requests did they marry her off to him.
In the darkness, she had slit her wrists and committed suicide.
Her biological mother found her and could only send her to the hospital. During her treatment, she seized an opportunity to escape. Just as her stepfather was about to catch her, she encountered Huo Ying.
He saved her and then married her without hesitation. No matter what had happened in her past life, or what would happen in this life, he was the benefactor she would always be grateful to.
Now, with Huo Ying’s life and death unknown, how could she escape alone?