When she thought about it, she had been lonely her whole life. She had "family," but they never treated her as one.
After her enlightenment, she began to make friends, but in the end, she unconsciously put distance between them. She had a shield around her heart, afraid of giving too much to others anymore.
In essence, these friends were just a little better than acquaintances, which was a pity in retrospect. Some of those people were genuinely very good and were sincere to her.
Her grandfather didn’t stay with her for long, either. Basically, after he helped her awaken and left her some books to study, his body gave way, too.
As she lay down, she couldn’t help but review the events of her past life. This was to remind herself about when and where she made the wrong choices.
Sometimes, one wrong choice could mean a lifetime of wrong choices. As someone who had experienced a lifetime, this was something she learned the hard way.
In her past life, she was trapped in that house until she was about to be sold off to the mentally-unstable son of a factory director. These days, that position was like the modern CEO and people wanted to curry favor with them.
Her stepfather decided to use—to sell—her to get promoted.
To escape that fate, she managed to sneak away en route to the groom’s house. She went to register herself as an educated youth. She took the open slots for places that were departing as soon as possible, which happened to be the humid and lush South. The departure was the morning after she registered.
Fortunately, she was holding on to her hukou, her household registration, because it was required when getting the marriage certificate. They didn’t think she’d dare to run away after getting beaten up, so they dared let her hold it.
With nothing but the clothes on her back, she ventured into the unknown. She kept to herself, followed the rules, and worked hard on her assigned tasks.
Because she had been working since she was a child, she could endure the hardships of farming, though her arms would feel like it would fall off most nights.
But the important part was that she was free, so despite the hardship, she could sleep with a smile on her face.
However, even when she tried to just live in peace, it didn’t mean others would let her have peace.
Over the years, she got a bit older and her features began to mature a bit. She finally had her period at this point, which allowed her body to catch up to her peers.
She didn’t tan much like the others and her skin was naturally moisturized, so her skin naturally appeared better than others. This made her appearance, which was already delicate and pretty, to stand out even more.
She also filled up a bit, from the skeletal skin-and-bones to someone with some meat at the right places.
Ironically, she ate better in the countryside than back in the City. After all, as long as she worked, she could eat something. The mountain was also lush and she could often forage a lot of things to supplement her meals.
Very early on, she was subject to various harassment from men and jealous bullying from the women. She was even framed various times. Had she not been alert and observant, she’d have lost a layer of skin in less than a year.
This only ended when she got married, though she was still subject to the occasional verbal abuse from her in-laws. At the time, even if her mother-in-law and sister-in-law’s attitude wasn’t very good, it wasn’t worse than her experiences back in her natal home, so she didn’t mind it much.
She worked hard for the family. When she saw opportunities to make more money, she took them all, and she didn’t question when she had to give it all to her mother-in-law.
However, as the business grew bigger and bigger, she saw more and more of the world. She naturally grew apart from her chauvinistic husband and her parasitic family.
Eventually, she went free, and she took away all the benefits they got from her.
The shift from luxury to poverty was too much, and some of them went crazy.
The details of her death were unclear, but she was fairly sure at least one of those people had something to do with it. For now, she did not have the energy to dwell on her death—at least it allowed her to reset—nor did she want to live in hatred.
In this life, if she did not encounter them, then she would have nothing to do with them. However, if they kept showing their faces, she wouldn’t mind skinning them.
She didn’t just want to change her ending; she wanted to change the direction of her life. One of the first things to do was to get rid of her abusive natal family.
She not only wanted to take down her stepfather, but also the family he was trying to get her married into. Those people were bad seeds and would later make some other women suffer in her place—and there was more than one, from what she heard later in life.
That kind of scum had to be stripped of power so they couldn’t hurt others anymore.
The man her stepfather was selling her to was only 21 years old, but he looked like 30. He had an openly lecherous expression on his face, indicating that he had no qualms about propriety, nor did he have any respect for her.
His face was also very difficult to look at. Even back then, back when she was a doormat, she resolutely refused to marry someone who hurt her eyes just by looking at him.
She slipped up and said this out loud, which was why she was beaten up later that same day.
Despite all odds, she had strict aesthetic standards. It was like no matter how well she cleaned the house or how well she could handle meat carcasses, she would never touch poop.
You know, despite her body being underdeveloped and thin at this time, she was still quite the little beauty. Her skin was fair and smooth, thanks to genetics, considering her mother also had smooth skin.
Her features were so delicate and eye-catching that even she, later in life, often admired herself in the mirror.
As for the man she actually married, he was quite handsome and scholarly. Their relationship actually started pretty well and there were real feelings involved. It was just that his core was apparently flawed, and when he experienced power, it morphed him into the worst version of himself.
Of course, she’d never touch such trash again.
Rather, after experiencing several years as a strong, independent woman who was free to do what she wanted without a mother or a mother-in-law yapping in her ears, she felt like that kind of life was so good!
It’s decided: She was never going to marry in this lifetime!