The sudden bitterness and pain flooding her throat forced Xu Zhitao to desperately claw back a shred of consciousness. Before she could even open her eyes, she heard a disturbingly familiar conversation.
“Madam, Miss Taotao’s breathing is very weak, and her whole body is burning hot. Could she die?”
“Don’t worry. The wretched girl looks sickly, but she takes after her roots—country folk have tough lives. All day long she’s scheming to seduce Young Master Shen. With that temperament, marrying her off would only create enemies. Only someone with Tingting’s kind heart and beauty is worthy. The master is too benevolent to say anything, but sooner or later she’ll bring him trouble. Finding her someone who won’t worry about food and clothing is the most I can do as her mother.”
“But she’s still ill right now…”
“Being ill is even better. Delicate and soft, she won’t scratch. People need to know contentment, not foolishly dream of rising to the heavens in one step. Was the medicine administered?”
“Ad-administered…”
“Let’s go. In a quarter hour, bring someone up through the back door. This medicine is potent. I’ll bring people over in two quarters of an hour.”
The moment the door closed, Xu Zhitao’s eyes snapped open. Those familiar words, that shameless face!
In a flash of lightning, she understood her situation perfectly. She had died, and now lived again—reborn to the day in her previous life when she had fallen into the abyss!
That woman whose speech was occasionally peppered with a Shanghai accent—Guo Hongying—was her biological mother. A woman remarried, who to dispose of this burden of a daughter and to curry favor with her stepdaughter, to demonstrate her loyalty to the Qin family, had on this very day in her previous life sent a thirteen-year-old girl to a man’s bed, then made a grand show of leading a crowd to catch them in the act, and smoothly married her off to that “adulterer.” How had they put it?
“You have no shame, can’t endure loneliness, gave your body to him so early—who else could you marry?”
She had instantly become the laughingstock of Shanghai, a loose woman worse than a dance hall girl, a plaything. Every vile word was thrown at her; even beggars outside the city could trample on her.
Heaven knows, she was only thirteen!
Not to mention being wantonly tortured and humiliated by that man—later, when he saw the Qin family truly wouldn’t stand up for her, his good-for-nothing friends all got to “share in the glory.” Within two months, she was dead, two lives lost in one body.
One sack, one pit—that was her final resting place.
Yet they still had a two-word evaluation for her: “Bad luck!”
Her own mother was even more shameless, sparing no effort to dump every filthy thing onto her, as if such unbridled humiliation, trampling her underfoot, was something glorious.
More ironic still, the man her mother spoke of who could provide food and clothing was also from the Shen family—Young Master Shen’s elder brother, the famously foolish young master with violent tendencies and no fewer than three lives on his hands. And the person he was most obsessed with was none other than Qin Tingting.
Half a month later, her biological father returned from a mission and, upon hearing the news, came to demand justice. Guo Hongying dismissed him with a casual “died of illness.” Her spirit watched helplessly as her iron-willed father, clutching her bones, turned white-haired overnight.
Within half a year, news spread that the state would be liquidating capitalists. That Miss Tingting—the daughter of Guo Hongying’s second husband, her stepfather—using the peach wood protective plaque her biological father had left her, accidentally unlocked a storage divine skill called Kongjian, packed away all of the Qin family’s assets, and was escorted by her mother, stepfather, and that precious Young Master Shen to Hong Kong like stars surrounding the moon, living a life everyone envied.
And her biological father, tormented by guilt, regret, and longing, his spirit broken, soon sacrificed his life during a mission.
Xu Yongze, Changlin, and their brothers, upon learning of her death, all wanted to confront Guo Hongying. But the moment they reached Shanghai, they encountered a group of young masters fighting and suffered disaster through no fault of their own.
The elders at home, upon receiving the news, were so enraged their blood reversed flow, and soon passed away.
A perfectly good family was thus shattered.
The more she thought, the more the malice in her heart grew uncontrollable. Everything was because of her death.
She didn’t hate others—only the woman who had given birth to her. If you don’t love, don’t give birth. Without affection, why keep her by your side? How could a biological daughter be treated so cruelly?
Was it all for Qin Tingting? Guo Hongying wasn’t unaware of what Qin Tingting had done to her. But did currying favor with a stepdaughter require sacrificing her own daughter?
This was a question she had never understood during all her years as a wandering spirit. But now, it no longer mattered. She had been reborn. In this life, at this moment, she was still fine, still that clean and pure Xu Zhitao.
Since she had returned, she couldn’t sit and wait for death. She had to live, to leave this den of tigers and wolves, this filthy quagmire. She had to live well.
Collecting herself, she swept her gaze around the room. It was still that room nominally hers, which she had never once lived in, that had instead become Guo Hongying’s private storeroom, usually kept locked. In her previous life, this became “where she had stolen the key to open it herself, wanting to sneak out family belongings to elope with her adulterer.”
“Ugh… er… Damn it!”
A familiar strange sensation surged through her body. She bit her lip hard. She knew—the medicine was taking effect.
Today was her stepfather’s birthday. Downstairs was lively, and she could faintly hear footsteps on the stairs. No time!
Wave after wave of drugged heat assaulted her, her willpower eroding bit by bit. She could barely stand. The growing noise downstairs grew ever more ironic, but the approaching footsteps, each one, stamped upon her heart.
She staggered up, circling the room, desperately seeking some means of escape. But this was merely a second-floor room sandwiched between two others, its only window nailed shut. Someone was certainly guarding the door outside. Her limbs were weak—escape was impossible.
She couldn’t help but despair. Could it be that even reborn, she still couldn’t escape that cage?
No, impossible. She had to live. She still had to find her father. There had to be a way, there had to still be a way!
Downstairs, Guo Hongying socialized while catching a maid’s meaningful glance, then led people upstairs with a beaming smile.
“I must tell you all, this record—my husband specially had someone bring it back from Hong Kong. I hear it’s all the rage over there!”
“Oh, we know, we know—we know your Old Qin dotes on you, you…”
“Ah… Xiaofeng, why is this room open?”
“Ah!”
Before the maid could play her part, a scream rang out from inside at the perfect moment. Guo Hongying pushed open the door.
“Ah!”
The assembled ladies screamed in unison. Guo Hongying herself staggered back in shock.
The expected lascivious scene was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a thick, pungent smell of blood assaulted their noses, making one tremble uncontrollably.
Guo Hongying was also dumbfounded. What was this situation?