“Niannian, what are you up to, you silly girl?”
Hearing her own name, Lin Nian shuddered and snapped fully awake.
What was going on?
Wasn’t she supposed to be dead already?
The flood had swallowed her benefactor, Gu Zeyun and it had swallowed her mouth and nose as well…
The suffocating sensation hadn’t completely faded. Lin Nian gasped for air, trembling as she lowered her head to look at her hands.
They were young, slender hands no wrinkles, only calluses from work and chilblains from the cold.
She had actually been reborn at eighteen, on the very night she and Shen Chengye had secretly pledged themselves to each other.
In her previous life, she and Shen Chengye had liked each other. He said he had something to tell her and asked her to meet him by the river. She went there full of joy.
Who would’ve thought she’d end up waiting for hours, dizzy from the cold wind, and finally slip and fall into the water.
Shen Chengye rushed over and pulled her out. The sight of the two of them, soaked through and clinging to each other, was seen by Aunt Zhao. Before long, the entire village knew.
Back then, Lin Nian secretly rejoiced. Always obedient, she rebelled against her parents for the first time, lying that she had lost her chastity, and smoothly married the man she loved.
What awaited her, however, was an abyss.
That man who swore he loved her when his allowance was issued, the very first thing he did was give it to the widowed Liu next door, saying she was a fallen comrade’s wife and couldn’t be left unaided.
Later, claiming it was hard for a woman to raise a child alone, he directly brought her son Xiaojun home to raise.
From then on, Xiaojun became his godson, and every good thing in the household had to go into that boy’s stomach.
Even when Lin Nian was pregnant, the eggs her mother Zhao Shuzhen sent over to nourish her body were secretly kept by Shen Chengye for his godson.
She could barely endure all of this.
But Shen Chengye only went further. Taking advantage of her weakness after childbirth, he gave away her one-month-old daughter to a comrade from another place who couldn’t have children!
Faced with her questioning, Shen Chengye was full of remorse.
“He’s a man people would laugh at him if he had no children.”
“Besides, we already have Xiaojun. Having a little sister would make him overthink things.”
“When he grows up and gets a job, you can have as many children as you want. We’re going to spend a lifetime together why care about these three or five years?”
Lin Nian was furious beyond words. She could only desperately search for news of her daughter. On the way, she ran into Gu Zeyun, a former blind-date prospect she had once rejected. After hearing about her ordeal, he protected her all the way west.
Later, when they encountered a mountain flood, Gu Zeyun gave her the only chance to survive until he himself was utterly exhausted…
A gust of cold wind blew past. Lin Nian shivered violently.
Since she had been reborn, she would stay as far away from Shen Chengye as possible!
With no time to think further, Lin Nian stepped forward, grabbed Aunt Zhao by the arm, and walked home with her.
“I was feeling around for wild duck eggs,” she said. “I thought it’d be quiet at night and the ducks would be asleep, but it was pitch-dark I couldn’t see a thing and didn’t find a single egg.”
As she spoke, she paused, then casually added,
“Oh right, Aunt Zhao didn’t you say you wanted to introduce a nice young man to me? Do you still remember?”
Aunt Zhao turned to look at her, puzzled.
“That’s true, but didn’t you say you wanted free love?”
Sigh wasn’t that because I was foolish in my last life?
Lin Nian’s lips twitched. In the end, she put on a pitiful expression.
“Aunt Zhao, I was just sulking at my parents back then!”
“You know my dad he only has eyes for Xiaodong. When you mentioned a high bride price, I thought it was one of those old bachelors who can’t find a wife.”
“But then I thought it over who are you, Aunt Zhao? Everyone in the village knows you’ve got the best character. You’d never do that sort of thing. I’ve been meaning to apologize to you.”
“Aunt Zhao, you really care about me. I like you the most!”
Aunt Zhao had never faced such an onslaught. Dazed by the praise, she couldn’t help but beam with joy.
“Oh my, that’s what it was! Nian-girl, you’ve always been such a good child. If there’s something good, it’s only right to think of you!”
“The man may be older, but his conditions are excellent! If he weren’t already twenty-nine and his family weren’t anxious, it wouldn’t be our turn.”
“You should go meet him! People even set their blind dates at the state-owned restaurant definitely not a bad deal!”
At this point, Aunt Zhao grew a little excited.
The Gu family was genuinely generous. Before she’d even begun formally arranging the match, they had already stuffed her with plenty of good things apples, chocolate, and even a whole bag of brown sugar.
Their requirements weren’t high either: just a woman with a gentle temper who could take care of a man.
She’d had selfish thoughts of her own, of course, but both of her children were sons, her niece was already married and famously fierce at that.
After thinking it over again and again, she still felt that Lin Nian was the most suitable: obedient, and fair-skinned to boot.
After all, that family were city folk. She couldn’t very well introduce someone too rough around the edges and risk offending the man’s side.
Who would’ve thought Lin Nian would refuse? It had worried her sick.
But now it was all right! The girl had finally come to her senses!
That meant all the matchmaker gifts she’d accepted wouldn’t have to be returned—and she might even get a big red envelope.
When they reached the gate, Lin Nian bade Aunt Zhao farewell and quietly pushed open the courtyard door.
The yard was silent. Only a dim, yellow oil lamp still glowed in the main room.
Good looks like everyone’s asleep.
Lin Nian let out a sigh of relief, but the door to the main room creaked open with a zhiya sound, revealing the anxious face of her mother, Zhao Shuzhen.
“You little rascal! Where did you run off to in the middle of the night?!”
“Don’t tell me you went to see that Shen boy again!”
Lin Nian didn’t say a word.
Looking at her mother’s familiar face, her nose stung and tears fell.
It stunned Zhao Shuzhen.
“Nian-girl… do you really like him that much?”
“Fine. If you want to marry him, Mom will help you!”
“But about that Widow Liu he has to give you an explanation! And he must promise to cut ties with that woman!”
Oh no she’d been misunderstood.
Lin Nian quickly wiped her tears and explained.
“Mom, I didn’t go see anyone.”
“I went down to the river to feel around for duck eggs. It got dark, I didn’t find a single one, and I almost fell into the water.”
“Just then Aunt Zhao passed by. I told her that tomorrow I’m going on a blind date with Gu Zeyun.”
Zhao Shuzhen froze for a moment, clearly hesitant.
“Really?”
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her daughter.
It was just that Shen Chengye was far too good at sweet-talking people.
The whole village was talking about it he’d come back on leave a few days ago and hadn’t even gone home. He’d taken his allowance straight to Widow Liu’s place.
If you said there was nothing going on, who would believe it?
Yet Lin Nian had believed him.
No matter how much they talked it through at home, her naïve daughter had still defended that man.
So how had she suddenly come to her senses now?
Could it be that she wanted them to let their guard down, only to elope with Shen Chengye later?
There was a girl in the neighboring village who’d been tricked that way her married life was a living hell, and she complained about it everywhere.
She had to warn Nian-nian: men couldn’t be trusted so easily.
Zhao Shuzhen hesitated for a moment, then suddenly heard her daughter speak again.
“Actually, even if I don’t get married, the two of us can still live very well.”
“Mom, you have to believe me. One day your daughter will make a lot of money and take you to the capital to enjoy the good life.”