In the Great Zhou Kingdom, Anqing County, Dawang Village.
When Feng Xinyao returned to the Shen family in a disheveled state, the yard in front of the Shen house was crowded with villagers.
“What a tragedy! I raised her for ten years, and she ran off with some wild man without a word. I… I can’t go on living!”
Before she even got close, she could hear Old Lady Shen, her mother-in-law, wailing.
Feng Xinyao sneered inwardly. The original owner had clearly been sold to a brothel by her, yet she was spinning it as running off with a man. What a venomous mind.
She had been a military doctor with the peacekeeping forces. After a terrorist attack, she had unexpectedly transmigrated to this place. No sooner had she arrived than she faced two burly human traffickers with ill intentions.
Fortunately, she knew some martial arts and dealt with those two traffickers cleanly and swiftly.
The original owner was the child bride of Shen Ye, the eldest son of the Shen family in Dawang Village. The eldest Shen son was ten years older than her, and on their wedding day, he had been conscripted into the army and taken away.
Over the years, the original owner had worked like a beast of burden in the Shen household, enduring endless abuse. And as her looks grew more striking, her lecherous younger brother-in-law had begun eyeing her covetously.
A while back, Shen Ye had suddenly returned, dumped three children, and left again.
Since then, Old Lady Shen had been weeping and wailing, spreading the word that Shen Ye had been gone for ten years without leaving a single coin, yet had saddled them with three burdens.
The Shen family, taking advantage of the original owner’s soft and spineless nature, had dumped the three children on her to raise. But no one had anticipated that when famine struck, the black-hearted old couple would try to sell her to a brothel for money!
Overwhelmed with grief and fury, the original owner had died on the spot. And that was when she, Feng Xinyao, had taken over her body.
Feng Xinyao’s face darkened. If it weren’t for the fact that the Shen family still held her household registration papers, she would have walked away the moment she dealt with those two traffickers.
She wanted to step forward and confront the old hag, but then she thought better of it. Displaying the fresh and old scars on her body, she wept:
“If the family is short on silver, Mother-in-law could just assign me more work. Why did you have to sell me to a brothel? If I hadn’t fought tooth and nail to escape, my virtue would have been ruined!”
Feng Xinyao spoke with tears streaming down her face, and with her body covered in wounds and her porcelain-doll face, she couldn’t help but stir pity in others.
Hearing her voice, the Shen family and the gathered villagers all turned to look at her.
“How are you back? Weren’t you… didn’t you run off with some wild man?”
Old Lady Shen was visibly startled when she saw her, nearly blurting out the truth.
Feng Xinyao sneered inwardly, but on the surface she sobbed:
“I thought I had done right by the Shen family. My husband fathered children with another woman outside, and I never once harbored a disloyal thought. And in return, my mother-in-law black-heartedly sold me to a brothel, then slandered me for running off with a wild man to ruin my reputation. Is this how Mother-in-law conducts herself?”
With red-rimmed eyes, Feng Xinyao inwardly thanked the original owner’s doormat personality—at a time like this, a good cry put her in the right.
“You—”
Old Lady Shen frowned, feeling a tightness in her chest. She had actually been rendered speechless by Feng Xinyao?
“You’re the shameless one, and you dare say I don’t know how to conduct myself? I think I’ve been too soft on you all this time.”
Old Lady Shen rolled her eyes so hard they nearly disappeared, her gaze darting around in search of something to hit Feng Xinyao with.
But Feng Xinyao showed no fear at all, continuing her tearful complaint: “In broad daylight, could a wild man just come into the house and snatch me away? The whole Shen family isn’t dead—would they just stand by and watch me leave with some strange man?”
Hearing this, the villagers watching the commotion also muttered that it didn’t add up. Who would just stand by and watch their daughter-in-law run off with another man?
That would be a disgrace of the highest order.
“You little wench—”
Old Lady Shen, unable to win the argument, raised her hand to strike. Feng Xinyao was about to fight back when she heard a burst of violent coughing from behind her.
Following the sound, she saw a thin, frail old man hobbling slowly toward her with a cane, his back bent.
Feng Xinyao knew this was her father-in-law, Shen Fa.
The old wretch looked sickly, but in truth he was hale and hearty, with a black heart and ruthless hands. His appearance of being at death’s door was merely a ploy to seize the relief supplies the county gave to poor households.
He was far more cunning than Old Lady Shen. His coming out now certainly meant he had no good intentions.
“Fellow villagers, please forgive us. This matter is truly our Shen family’s failing. Our eldest son fathered a child with someone outside, and the family couldn’t keep occupying Feng girl forever. Seeing she had found someone to her liking, we let her go. Alas, good intentions turned into a bad deed.”
Old Man Shen wore a look of apology, and the villagers’ previously suspicious expressions softened considerably at his words.
Feng Xinyao’s voice deepened, suppressing the chill radiating from her as she said, “It’s fine if you won’t admit to selling me. If it comes to that, let’s call Uncle Lizheng and go ask the human traffickers. Then you’ll have to spit back the ten taels of silver you received.”
With that, Feng Xinyao turned and walked away.
“How dare you!”
At the mention of returning the silver, Old Man Shen lost his composure, grabbing his cane and rushing two steps ahead to block her path.
With his back to the villagers, Old Man Shen’s face twisted with malice: “We’ve been family for over a decade. Are you really going to sever ties completely with our Shen family? Have you considered the consequences?”
The consequences of casting off this family of scum and standing on her own?
She ignored Old Man Shen’s obstruction, and as she sidestepped around him, she couldn’t help but remind him, “Old Man Shen, since when did your leg stop being lame?”
Old Man Shen: “…”
Afraid his feigned illness would be exposed, he dared not chase after her, but quickly thought of another tactic and said to the villagers, “Quick, stop Feng girl! If she goes and makes a scene at the human traffickers’ place, and they set their sights on our village, that would be disastrous!”
Hearing this, the villagers stepped forward to block Feng Xinyao.
Feng Xinyao was speechless, but as a newcomer, she couldn’t very well knock everyone down and cripple them. Just as the standoff grew tense, a young but resolute voice sounded from behind her.
“Grandpa and Grandma wanted to sell Stepmother. When Stepmother struggled, those two human traffickers knocked her out and carried her away.”
Feng Xinyao turned at the sound and saw a little boy running out from the Shen family’s woodshed.
The child’s clothes were so dirty they shone with a greasy sheen, and his small face was smeared with mud, making his features hard to make out. But his round, bright eyes were filled with resilience.
This was the eldest son of her nominal husband, Shen Yu, six years old.
The boy had a pair of twin younger sisters, just turned three and barely able to speak properly.
Feng Xinyao didn’t know why he would testify on her behalf, and she couldn’t help but feel moved. That old pair in the Shen family had less humanity than this child.
Feng Xinyao turned back, about to have the child say more, when she saw Old Lady Shen pick up a willow branch from the ground and suddenly lash it across the child. A red welt instantly rose on his tender skin.
“You ungrateful little brat! I’ll beat you for spouting nonsense. I’ll beat you to death!”
Seeing the child beaten like that, fury blazed in Feng Xinyao’s eyes. She strode over in one step, snatched the willow branch from Old Lady Shen’s hand, snapped it in two, and tossed it to the ground.
“You can lay such vicious hands on your own grandson—selling a child bride is hardly beyond you.”
Feng Xinyao’s tone was icy, her gaze at Old Lady Shen carrying a veiled menace.
Old Lady Shen couldn’t help but tremble under her stare. How was it that this girl, who used to be so meek she couldn’t squeeze out a single word no matter how hard you beat her, seemed to have become a completely different person?
She instinctively stepped back, casting a helpless glance at her old man.
Old Man Shen was also seething inside—he hadn’t suffered such a loss in decades.
Hearing the villagers gossiping about the Shen family behind them, he felt utterly humiliated and knew he had to quell this matter quickly.
Old Lady Shen, her face dark and grim, strode toward Shen Yu, about to threaten him, when Shen Yu suddenly darted around her and pulled a bulging money pouch from inside his robe.
“You little brat…”
At the sight of the money, Old Man Shen abandoned his pretense of lameness and lunged straight at Shen Yu.