Cold.
A bone-chilling cold seeped through her skin like needles, burrowing deep into the spaces between her bones.
Yu Qinghuan moved her fingers, and her fingertips brushed against damp, moldy straw.
The air was filled with the sour stench of an outdoor latrine mixed with rotten sweet potatoes.
Her eyes snapped open.
Everything before her was pitch-black. Only a few slivers of pale, miserable moonlight filtered through the gaps between the crooked roof tiles above.
The dusty, broken stone mill and the pile of rotten firewood in the corner were all painfully familiar.
This was the Li family’s woodshed.
Still dazed, Yu Qinghuan reached down and touched her lower abdomen.
Flat.
There was none of the tearing agony she had experienced during her previous life’s difficult childbirth and massive hemorrhage. Nor was her hand covered in icy blood.
She fiercely pinched her own thigh.
Pain.
It hurt so much that tears nearly spilled from her eyes.
Hadn’t she died in the hospital after suffering massive blood loss while giving birth?
Why had she suddenly returned to the winter of 1976?
To the night before her wedding to Li Zhengting!
A burning sensation of hunger surged through her stomach, making her temples throb painfully.
Yu Qinghuan curled her lips into a self-mocking smile.
This scene was exactly the same as in her previous life.
Li Zhengting had been unable to return home to personally escort his bride because of an urgent, last-minute military mission.
The moment her fiancé left, her future mother-in-law, Miao Cuihua, locked her inside this drafty woodshed.
According to Miao Cuihua, this was a rule of the old Li family.
Before a new bride could enter the household, she had to be starved for three days and three nights to beat the wildness out of her. Only then would she learn to be filial and obedient to her parents-in-law.
In her previous life, Yu Qinghuan had been timid and insecure.
She was an orphan who had grown up depending on the kindness of others, always living under someone else’s roof. She believed that as long as she behaved herself and obeyed, she could earn her husband’s family’s approval.
So she obediently endured the hunger in the woodshed without uttering a single unnecessary complaint.
But her willingness to yield had only earned her endless abuse.
On the very first day of her marriage, Miao Cuihua forcibly took the dowry she had brought with her to subsidize the lifestyle of her lazy, gluttonous sister-in-law.
Yu Qinghuan worked herself to exhaustion as a substitute teacher at the county’s primary school, yet every single cent of her monthly salary was confiscated by Miao Cuihua.
Even when she finally managed to become pregnant and suffered a difficult childbirth accompanied by massive bleeding, Miao Cuihua and Li Chunhua guarded their purse strings and insisted that country women could give birth just fine at home.
They refused to spend a single cent to send her to the hospital.
She lay on the cold earthen kang, helplessly watching her life drain away along with her blood.
Before she died, she heard her sister-in-law, Li Chunhua, cracking sunflower seeds outside while complaining with undisguised disgust.
“That jinx! Why can’t she hurry up and die already? She’s such bad luck!”
Meanwhile, her military officer husband, Li Zhengting, the man she had believed she could rely on, was still thousands of miles away carrying out a secret mission.
By the time he finally returned, she had already turned into a mound of yellow earth.
At the thought of this, Yu Qinghuan’s chest heaved violently.
The resentment she had suppressed across two lifetimes surged wildly within her chest, burning her eyes red.
To hell with their ridiculous rules!
To hell with being a virtuous and gracious wife!
She had been given another chance at life. Whoever wanted to put up with this humiliating treatment could do so themselves. She was done serving these people!
Just then, a shrill, mean-spirited voice drifted through the dilapidated wooden door of the woodshed.
In the dead of night, the voice was especially clear.
“Mom, what if that girl can’t get up to get married tomorrow because you’ve locked her in there?”
It was her sister-in-law, Li Chunhua. Her tone was filled with casual disdain.
“Bah! She wouldn’t dare!”
Miao Cuihua’s voice immediately followed, accompanied by the sound of her spitting.
“That fatherless, motherless orphan girl should consider it a blessing from eight lifetimes of good fortune to marry our second son!”
“If I didn’t lock her up for one night, she’d really think she was some rich young lady from the city.”
“Once the wedding is over and our second son leaves, won’t this household be mine to control?”
“I’m telling you, tomorrow, as soon as they finish the wedding ceremony, make her hand over that one hundred yuan bride price.”
“That money came from our second son’s military allowance. What right does she have to keep it?”
Hearing this, the coldness in Yu Qinghuan’s eyes deepened.
One hundred yuan in bride price.
Li Zhengting had saved that money for a long time while serving in the military. He had specifically arranged for someone to deliver it to Yu Qinghuan so she would have something to protect herself with.
In her previous life, the money had barely warmed her pocket before Miao Cuihua tricked her into handing it over under the excuse of, “I’ll keep it safe for you two.”
Later, every cent of that money became part of Li Chunhua’s dowry.
“Mom, don’t forget about Yu Qinghuan’s substitute teaching position at the county primary school, either.”
Li Chunhua’s voice grew impatient, dripping with greed.
“I’ve already made arrangements with Officer Zhang from the city.”
“As long as I can get that teaching position, the Zhang family has agreed to marry me into their household. Then I’ll become a city woman!”
Miao Cuihua chuckled smugly.
“Don’t worry, my precious daughter!”
“That girl is as soft as dough. I’ll just make her press her fingerprint onto the transfer document in a little while.”
“If she dares to disobey, we’ll cancel tomorrow’s wedding and send her back to the village to spend the rest of her life as a peasant!”
“She doesn’t have the guts to refuse. Controlling her is as easy as crushing an ant.”
The mother and daughter grew more excited as they continued talking, already plotting how they would divide up their spoils the following day.
Inside the woodshed, Yu Qinghuan listened in silence.
In her previous life, she had surrendered her job simply because she was afraid of losing her marriage.
Without that job, she had become the Li family’s unpaid servant, waking up earlier than the chickens and going to bed later than the dogs.
Meanwhile, Li Chunhua sat comfortably in a county office, enjoying the life that should have belonged to Yu Qinghuan.
“Hah…”
Yu Qinghuan took a deep breath.
At that moment, she felt as though something deep within her soul had finally awakened.
It was the madness born from being pushed to the absolute limit.
Her reputation? The greater good? Filial piety?
To hell with all of it!
In this lifetime, Yu Qinghuan would rather be hated by everyone for being a lunatic than die from suppressing herself just to be a virtuous wife!
She would make every single person who had hurt her pay back what they owed her a hundredfold, a thousandfold!
Suddenly—
A cold, mechanical electronic voice rang out in her mind without warning.
[Ding! The host’s awareness of redirecting emotional exhaustion outward has awakened. The Rampage System is now binding!]
[Binding successful!]
[The host is currently in a state of hunger. The beginner’s gift pack has been issued.]
[Would you like to activate the Hundred-Billion Supplies Space?]
Yu Qinghuan froze.
A space?
She closed her eyes and focused her thoughts.
An endless, translucent dimension appeared before her.
Countless modern supplies were neatly arranged inside.
Rice, flour, fresh meat, cold and fever medication, and even all kinds of hardware tools—everything imaginable was available.
It was even larger than the biggest department store she had ever seen in her previous life.
Yu Qinghuan was overjoyed.
[Ding! Current Rampage Points: 0.]
[System Notice: Whenever the host refuses to waste energy suppressing herself and instead takes decisive, outrageous actions against others, she can earn Rampage Points and exchange them for powerful items in the system’s store.]
Yu Qinghuan curled her lips into a cold smile.
So she was supposed to go on a rampage?
Fine. Then no one in the old Li family would be getting any sleep tonight!
She mentally retrieved a large meat bun from her space.
The bun was still steaming hot, with thin dough and a generous filling. The moment she took a bite, rich, savory meat juices burst across her tongue.
Yu Qinghuan swallowed the bun in two or three bites before drinking some sweet, refreshing spiritual spring water.
A warm surge of energy instantly spread throughout her body. Her limbs, which had previously been weak and aching, were now filled with strength.
Even her senses had become extraordinarily sharp.
She could hear every rustle and movement outside with crystal clarity.
“Mom, I’m going to bed. I need to get up early tomorrow to put on my makeup.”
Outside, Li Chunhua yawned as she prepared to return to her room.
“Go on, go on. Don’t stay up too late and ruin your skin.”
Miao Cuihua’s voice was full of motherly affection.
Hearing the wooden door open and close, Yu Qinghuan knew it was time to act.
She slowly rose to her feet.
The woodshed door was already in terrible condition. It was held shut from the outside by nothing more than a twisted piece of wire.
Yu Qinghuan walked up to it.
She took a deep breath and gathered all her strength into her right leg.
Then—
She suddenly raised her leg and kicked the dilapidated wooden door with all her might!
“BANG—!”
An earth-shattering crash tore through the silent night.
The entire wooden door, together with its frame, exploded apart under the force of her kick!
Wooden splinters flew in every direction, scattering through the air.
A violent gust of cold wind rushed into the woodshed.
Yu Qinghuan slowly lowered her leg.
Her gaze fell on the corner of the woodshed.
A thick, heavy, solid elm-wood shoulder pole lay there, perfectly still.
The Li family usually used it to carry buckets of water. It weighed at least ten or fifteen pounds.
Yu Qinghuan walked over, bent down, and gripped one end of the pole.
With one hand, she lifted it effortlessly, as though it weighed nothing at all.
The corners of her mouth slowly curved into an extraordinarily gentle smile—one that was somehow utterly spine-chilling.
Old Li family, your retribution has arrived.
Dragging the shoulder pole behind her, Yu Qinghuan walked out of the woodshed one step at a time.
The cold wood scraped against the ground, producing a heavy, rasping sound.
Scrape… scrape…
Meanwhile—
Inside the main house, a dim yellow glow spilled from an oil lamp onto the earthen kang.
Miao Cuihua was sitting smugly on the edge of the bed, wetting her fingers with saliva as she counted the stack of bride-price banknotes in her hands.
She even hummed an unfamiliar little tune, her face creased with greedy delight.
The sudden sound of the door being kicked apart outside made her hand tremble. The banknotes nearly slipped to the floor.
“What was that? What on earth was that noise?”
Miao Cuihua muttered, just as she was about to raise her head and look out the window.
At that very moment—
A huge, distorted shadow slowly rose across the paper-covered window.
The shadow was dragging a long, heavy object in its hand. Stretched by the moonlight, it grew longer and longer until it completely engulfed Miao Cuihua’s figure…