Su Wan blinked, and before her eyes appeared a pair of fair, clean hands. In the palm of those hands lay a jade token of emerald green.
Carved into the jade token was a fluffy fox. Its narrow eyes seemed to be speaking to Su Wan. She blinked, then suddenly grabbed the jade token and clenched it tightly in her palm.
“Wanwan? W-what’s wrong?” Zhao Mengxue hadn’t expected that just after she persuaded Su Wan to take out the jade pendant, and had only just taken it into her own hands, Su Wan would suddenly regret it and snatch it back.
One of Zhao Mengxue’s hands was still stretched out in midair. She awkwardly, and unwillingly, curled her fingers into a fist.
She forced out a strained smile. “Wanwan? Didn’t you want to know whether Gu Huaizhi is cheating? Without this jade pendant, Brother Zhang probably won’t help you investigate.”
Zhao Mengxue!
A name Su Wan would never forget, even in death.
In her previous life, it was precisely Zhao Mengxue who tricked her out of the jade pendant, secretly emptied out her family’s entire fortune, and even, after she tumbled down the stairs and lost her child, kicked her when she was down and reported her.
On the eve of Su Wan’s departure, Zhao Mengxue finally revealed her true face. The two hugged at the train station, Su Wan crying so hard she was almost gasping for breath.
Then she heard Zhao Mengxue whisper in her ear, “Heh heh, Wanwan, do you know why you were reported and sent to the countryside?”
Su Wan’s body stiffened. She looked at Zhao Mengxue in disbelief.
Zhao Mengxue’s face was full of smug satisfaction. The two were still hugging, Zhao Mengxue’s arms wrapped tightly around her as she leaned close and softly told her everything she had done.
From the jade pendant space, to emptying out Su Wan’s home, to writing the report letter.
Su Wan couldn’t believe it and demanded to know why.
Zhao Mengxue’s expression was something she still remembered clearly: on that extremely gentle face surged thick jealousy. Her twisted expression made her look like a demon.
“Because you’re stupid! Why should you get to live such a good life and marry such a good man? What I hate most is people like you who gain everything without effort!”
In the end, Su Wan dragged her just-aborted body to the bitterly cold Great Northern Wilderness. Her already damaged body simply couldn’t endure such grueling farm labor.
After struggling on for two years, Su Wan fell gravely ill and died in a dilapidated shack.
Su Wan lowered her head, her left hand clutching the jade pendant, the nails of her right hand digging into her palm until blood welled up. Only then did the stabbing pain force her muddled mind to snap awake.
She suddenly lifted her head, startling Zhao Mengxue. “Wanwan?! What’s wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?”
Su Wan stared fixedly at Zhao Mengxue’s face, which was full of concern, without blinking.
“Zhao Mengxue?” Su Wan’s voice was hoarse to the point of terror, and Zhao Mengxue felt her scalp prickle under that gaze.
“Wanwan? Don’t scare me!” Zhao Mengxue felt something was very wrong. Su Wan had never looked like this before. She had always been innocent and naïve, but now her eyes were frightening.
Su Wan blinked, turned her head to look around, and didn’t speak for a long while.
Zhao Mengxue’s concerned voice continued ringing in her ears as she grabbed Su Wan’s arm. “Wanwan, come on, let’s go to the hospital!”
Su Wan shook her off, stood up, and said with her back to Zhao Mengxue, “I’m not feeling well today. You go back first. I want to sleep for a bit.”
Zhao Mengxue felt the situation was extremely strange. Today’s Su Wan was strange in every way, but she didn’t want to give up yet.
“Wanwan, that jade pendant…”
Her gaze swept toward the jade pendant clenched in Su Wan’s hand, greed impossible to hide.
Su Wan’s voice turned cold. “Go out first. We’ll talk about this another time.”
Zhao Mengxue’s expression stiffened, then she spoke again with apparent concern. “Alright then. Wanwan, I’ll go back first. I’ll come see you tomorrow.”
The sound of the door opening and closing rang out. Su Wan, who had been forcing herself to stand, immediately went limp and collapsed onto the sofa, tears streaming down in big drops.
Her hand clutching the jade pendant tightened even more, almost numb to pain.
She, Su Wan, had actually been reborn!
Looking at the familiar living room and the jade pendant in her hand, Su Wan was utterly certain that she had truly been reborn—reborn back to 1970.
In her previous life, it was in this very year that she was tricked out of the jade pendant by her best friend Zhao Mengxue. She even listened to her advice, sought a divorce from Gu Huaizhi, and completely fell into the abyss.
Thinking of Gu Huaizhi, Su Wan immediately remembered that at this time she seemed to have already told him she wanted a divorce. To force Gu Huaizhi to come back, she had practically gone wild with her antics.
First, she pretended to be pregnant to force Gu Huaizhi to leave the army. Who would have thought he wouldn’t believe it? Although he did come back once, he only stayed a few days before returning.
Then she demanded a divorce, making a huge scene and even saying she had fallen in love with someone else, forcing Gu Huaizhi to agree.
But she hadn’t actually wanted to divorce him. She only wanted to force him to leave the army and come back.
Thinking of this, Su Wan hurriedly picked up the phone to dial. She couldn’t divorce him—how could she bear to divorce Gu Huaizhi!
In both her past and present lives, he was the only man she had ever loved, and she had even forced him into marriage. How could she truly be willing to divorce?
She remembered that at this point she had already told Gu Huaizhi she liked someone else. Of course, that was a lie. She also remembered his response back then.
Even after a lifetime had passed, her heart still felt as if it were being stabbed, the pain piercing to the bone.
Gu Huaizhi had answered her like this: “Alright, then let’s divorce.”
His voice was still as pleasant as ever, a clear, jade-like tone, yet the words he spoke were just as cold as jade.
Su Wan placed the jade pendant on the table, grabbed the receiver with one hand, and began dialing with the other.
On the other end, the operator’s voice was very familiar—it was Xiao Li. Almost every time she called, eight out of ten times it was Xiao Li who answered.
“Xiao Li, this is Su Wan. Could you let Gu Huaizhi answer the phone?” Su Wan’s voice trembled. Even Xiao Li could hear that something was wrong and quickly replied,
“Alright, please wait. I’ll have Battalion Commander Gu call you back.”
“Okay.” Su Wan hung up the phone, not daring to move even a step, guarding the phone as she waited for the man to call her back.
Those short twenty-odd minutes felt like an eternity. Her fingers kept rubbing together restlessly, the fair skin turning red, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the phone.
The moment the bell rang, Su Wan snatched up the receiver and blurted out, “Huaizhi, I—”
“Uh, this is Xiao Li. Battalion Commander Gu has gone on a mission and hasn’t returned yet. If you have anything, I can pass it on.”
All the air seemed to leak out of Su Wan at once. She didn’t know whether Gu Huaizhi truly didn’t want to take her call and had Xiao Li say he was on a mission.
“He really went on a mission?” Su Wan still couldn’t quite believe it and asked tentatively.
“Yes, he left this morning,” Xiao Li replied with certainty.
Su Wan could only say, “Alright then. When Huaizhi comes back, please have him call me.”
After receiving confirmation, Su Wan hung up the phone and picked up the jade pendant, preparing to study it.
Holding the pendant, she examined it carefully. The jade was smeared with the blood seeping from the wound on her right hand. As she watched, it seemed as though the blood was being absorbed into the jade.
The emerald jade took on a trace of crimson. The blood slowly flowed, gradually sliding into the fox’s eyes.
Suddenly, Su Wan felt her surroundings change. She stared in shock. Before her was a pool of water, steaming faintly, like a fairyland.
Beside it lay a large stretch of black soil. Farther away stood a wooden house. A white bundle suddenly darted out of the house and ran straight toward her.
Su Wan jumped in fright. What was that thing, running toward her?
“Impudent human! How dare you not bow when you see this venerable one!” The white fox ran up to Su Wan, sat upright, and spoke human words.
Having lived again once already, Su Wan didn’t find the scene particularly shocking. She examined the white fox before her.
The pure white fox had not a single stray color, and its voice was that of a soft, cute少年.
So this was the jade pendant space that Zhao Mengxue had stolen back then?
No wonder she had been so smug. She really had been unbelievably stupid.
Thinking of her previous life, Su Wan even admired herself for not having bitten Zhao Mengxue to death just now.
In her previous life, Su Wan suspected that Gu Huaizhi was cheating, and that the other woman was his childhood sweetheart, Li Guixiang, with whom he once had an engagement.
She had heard this news three months earlier from Gu Xingyao. Of course, Gu Xingyao hadn’t said her brother was cheating—only that Li Guixiang had also gone to join the army. Su Wan already knew Li Guixiang was Gu Huaizhi’s childhood sweetheart.
Back then, when she had forced Gu Huaizhi to marry her, Gu Xingyao had said that her brother already had an engagement, and that Sister Guixiang was still waiting for him to return.
After the two married, aside from the bedroom—where Gu Huaizhi seemed to turn into a completely different person, always taking her to the brink—at all other times he was still that cold, abstinent man. Su Wan had always suspected that Gu Huaizhi couldn’t forget Li Guixiang.
Gu Xingyao’s words completely triggered Su Wan. She already didn’t want Gu Huaizhi to go to the army, and now that she learned his childhood sweetheart was there as well, she felt even more uneasy.
But she couldn’t endure the hardship of joining him. She had been pampered since childhood—how could she possibly go to such a harsh place to follow the army?
She told everything to her best friend Zhao Mengxue, and this time was no exception.
Zhao Mengxue gave her an idea: pretend to be pregnant to trick Gu Huaizhi into coming back.
She did as told, but the fake pregnancy was seen through. Gu Huaizhi stayed only three days before returning to the army. Zhao Mengxue then came up with another idea.
She said no man could accept his wife falling in love with someone else—especially Gu Huaizhi. Use this trick to lure him back first.
If Gu Huaizhi returned to catch her in the act, Su Wan could then question him about whether he was involved with Li Guixiang. At that point, Gu Huaizhi would know Su Wan hadn’t actually cheated, and if he felt guilty, he would surely reveal it.
Her head clouded, and wanting to test whether the man cared about her, Su Wan really did tell Gu Huaizhi she loved someone else and wanted a divorce.
Now the divorce report had probably already been submitted!
Su Wan dazedly recalled that in her previous life it was the same. Zhao Mengxue took her jade pendant and said she had handed it to Brother Zhang on the black market. Brother Zhang was extremely well-connected and could obtain information from anywhere, even the military district.
Then Su Wan learned from Zhao Mengxue that Gu Huaizhi really had been excessively close with a female comrade. Her heart turned to ashes. After hearing this, she tumbled down the stairs and lost the child.
This time, the pregnancy hadn’t been fake—it was real.
Su Wan had wanted to rush to the Southwest Military District to confront Gu Huaizhi, but Zhao Mengxue persuaded her not to. Until one day she returned home to find it had been robbed, everything completely looted.
No wonder the police hadn’t been able to find anything back then. She suspected Zhao Mengxue had used the jade pendant space to move her family’s belongings.
At that time, she had just miscarried, and Zhao Mengxue had come to care for her, giving her plenty of opportunities to make a move.
After that came years of wandering misery. Dragging her sick body to barely work the fields, Su Wan, a pampered young lady, endured countless hardships doing farm labor in the countryside.
It was the coldest part of the Great Northern Wilderness. Su Wan’s hands were covered in frostbite. After the skin split open, her hands bled, yet she still had to work desperately.
If she didn’t work, she wouldn’t get food. She had no money at all, unlike other educated youths who received money and ration coupons from home.
Some men also coveted her beauty. Su Wan accepted help from none of them. She worked desperately on her own. There was someone in her heart; other men never caught her eye.
On the day she died, heavy snow was falling outside. A tattered quilt covered her body. The kang beneath her had long gone cold, but she couldn’t get up because she was ill.
At the moment her consciousness was about to sink into darkness, she saw someone push open the door. A man in military uniform entered with wind and snow, his tall figure backlit, almost blocking the doorway entirely. She was pulled into a warm embrace.