“Bow to each other as husband and wife! Now to the bridal chamber!”
Amid deafening cheers and laughter, Fang Yao was ushered and pushed into the wedding chamber. As the crowd rushed out to the feast, the door clicked shut and the raucous noise from the courtyard finally softened.
Leaning against the bed curtains, Fang Yao swayed unsteadily. Beneath her red veil, she gazed down at her crimson wedding coat, then slowly ran a hand over her flat, empty stomach. The realization struck like thunder: she had been reborn. Back in 1982. Back to the very day of her wedding to Xu Manjiang!
“Heh… hehe…”
A bitter, hollow laugh tore from her throat, brimming with hatred that burned in her chest.
In her past life, she had married Xu Manjiang and month after month, she failed to conceive. His family insisted the fault lay in her sickly body. For five long years, they forced her to swallow bitter tonics and endure every cruel folk remedy they could find, wearing her down day by day.
At last, she fell pregnant. Only to discover, when her due date drew near, that Xu Manjiang had been carrying on an affair with his cousin’s wife, Li Xuemiao and gotten her pregnant too.
Only then did the truth come to light: her five years of barrenness were no accident. Li Xuemiao had secretly slipped contraceptive herbs into her meals all along! Li Xuemiao’s own husband had been crippled in an on-duty accident; disgusted by his disability yet too restless to remain faithful, she had turned to Xu Manjiang. Together they plotted to drive Fang Yao away so Li Xuemiao could take her place.
And Xu Manjiang was even more loathsome. He had sweet-talked Fang Yao into caring for his parents, while planning to pass off Li Xuemiao’s child as his crippled cousin’s heir seizing the family fortune without a shred of suspicion.
When Fang Yao learned the truth and stormed in to expose them, Xu Manjiang, egged on by Li Xuemiao, beat her savagely all for the sake of his so-called “son” in her belly. The blows sent her into fatal labor. She hemorrhaged to death, alone and betrayed.
But Heaven had spared her. Given her a second chance.
Fang Yao’s fingers curled into fists until her nails bit into her palms, drawing blood. The door swung open and her breath caught. Her blood turned to ice.
Footsteps. Firm, steady, drawing near. Something was wrong.
Xu Manjiang reeked of cheap tobacco and spirits. This man… he carried a crisp, clean scent. And his stride was nothing like Xu Manjiang’s lurching gait. Her senses screamed it: This is not him.
Fang Yao swept back her veil. Their eyes locked. She found herself gazing into a pair of sharp, stern eyes.
Xu Qingzhou stood before her in a crisp, brand-new army green uniform. Medals gleamed brightly on his chest; a great red wedding blossom pinned to his collar lent warmth to his strikingly handsome, resolute features. His jaw remained tight, though and the corners of his eyes flickered with shock.
“You?”
“How is it you?”
They spoke in unison.
Fang Yao darted a glance about the room, taking in unfamiliar furnishings and realization crashed over her. All four of them had bowed together at the ceremony… only to have the brides delivered to the wrong chambers.
“It seems the brides were mistakenly swapped. I shall go inform the others in the front courtyard at once.” Embarrassment burned on Xu Qingzhou’s face, flushing his cheeks dark red. He turned, pulled open the door, and strode out.
Fang Yao stayed where she stood, thoughts racing. She was meant to marry Xu Manjiang today. How had she ended up here in Xu Qingzhou’s room?
She remembered now… as she had stepped through the gate, Li Xuemiao had deliberately shoved her hard.
Clutching her veil in trembling hands, a terrifying yet brilliant certainty took root in her mind.
Li Xuemiao had been reborn too.
She knew knew that Xu Qingzhou would soon be injured in service and left permanently crippled. So she had struck first. Swapped their places. Traded Fang Yao’s groom for her own determined to marry Xu Manjiang instead.
Xu Qingzhou’s mother, Wang Hua, came hurrying inside in a panic over the mix-up. Rushing too fast, she caught her foot on the threshold and tumbled squarely onto her backside.
“Auntie! Are you hurt?” Fang Yao hurried to help her up.
Wang Hua gripped Fang Yao’s arm, patting her hand anxiously. “I’m fine. Quick Qingzhou has gone to the front courtyard. Go quickly too, before it’s too late. We must fetch Xuemiao and set this right.”
Two cousins marrying on the same day should have been a double blessing. If word got out that the brides had been delivered to wrong beds, the family would become the laughingstock of the entire village!
Fang Yao understood her urgency. But she knew something no one else did: Li Xuemiao had engineered this swap deliberately to make it irreversible. Even if they rushed over now… it was already too late.
She steadied Wang Hua gently. “Auntie, you’ve hurt your leg. Let me support you. We shall go together. A moment more will not change anything.”
“You’re right. Come we must hurry.”
Wang Hua had taken quite a fall; she limped heavily, cold sweat beading on her hand where Fang Yao held it.
When they reached the front courtyard, they found Xu Qingzhou standing rigid-faced beneath the trees. Xu Manjiang had been dragged half-asleep and rumpled from his bed by Wang Cuilian reeking, unmistakably, of liquor.
Wang Cuilian shook him roughly. “You drunken fool! Couldn’t even recognize your own bride? Tell me have you touched her?”
Xu Manjiang flinched beneath Xu Qingzhou’s cold, piercing glare, looking distinctly guilty.
“Mother!” he blustered. “It’s my wedding day! What sort of man would I be if I did nothing at all in the bridal chamber?”
From within the room rose the sound of Li Xuemiao’s muffled sobbing. Xu Qingzhou’s hands curled into fists. He stepped forward, ready to strike when a voice rang out behind them, sharp and thrumming with venomous rage.
“Xu Manjiang! You utter beast!”
Fang Yao stormed forward. Glaring at the man who had ruined her past life seeing his face, recalling every trace of his cruelty and hypocrisy she raised her hand and brought it down with every ounce of her strength.
Crack.
Her arm stung from the impact; her palm burned as though pierced by a thousand needles.
But standing before the man who had murdered her, she cared not a whit. She would have her revenge. Before anyone could react, she raised her other hand.
Crack!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Fang Yao rained blow after blow upon him left, right, left until the burly Xu Manjiang cringed, covering his head and scrambling for cover. The onlookers stood frozen, stunned by her ferocity.
At last Wang Cuilian threw herself between them, seizing Fang Yao’s arms. Tears streamed down her face. “Fang Yao stop! What’s done is done. You may beat him to death, yet it will not undo a single thing!”
Fang Yao was beyond seeing reason. Had Wang Cuilian not held her back, she would have torn Xu Manjiang apart with her bare hands. Even restrained, she landed two more stinging slaps before falling back, chest heaving.
Word of the disaster had spread. Wedding guests who had lingered after the feast, along with neighbors from miles around, crowded into the courtyard and peered over the outer wall whispering, pointing, mocking the Xu family’s shame. More than a few remarked that the new Fang bride was positively terrifying.
Old Madam Xu, who valued dignity above all else, stamped her cane furiously. She ordered everyone inside her quarters and the gates barred tight.
Minutes later, the entire Xu household gathered in the old matriarch’s chamber. Li Xuemiao who had already consummated her sham marriage with Xu Manjiang was brought in, fully clothed, by Wang Hua. Wang Hua, already cold toward her, released her with a sharp motion and took her place at Xu Qingzhou’s side, face stony.
Xu Manjiang huddled beside his parents. Fang Yao and Li Xuemiao stood facing each other in the center of the room two brides, one intended, one usurped.
Li Xuemiao spoke first, wailing and feigning outrage. “Your entire family is utterly incompetent! How could you deliver brides to the wrong chambers? You have ruined my innocence dishonored me before I even began married life! I cannot go on living!” With a shriek, she hurled herself toward a wooden pillar, as if to dash her head against it.