Song Ziyao had been killed by her ex-husband’s white moonlight.
In truth, Song Ziyao could not understand it at all. The entanglement between her, her ex-husband, and his white moonlight had already ended nine years ago when she divorced him. Why did that woman still hate her so much that she was willing to commit a crime just to run her over and kill her?
Yet when Song Ziyao died, she was not afraid at all, nor did she cling to life.
Because her life had already become a withered flower a year earlier, when Tan Jinhe died.
Song Ziyao had been blind in both eyes and heart. She had wasted more than twenty years of her youth on her ex-husband before finally waking up to reality at the age of forty and resolving to divorce him.
After the divorce, she met Tan Jinhe.
The first time she met him, she had just had a cup of coffee thrown in her face by her ex-husband’s younger sister and was in a miserable state. Tan Jinhe appeared, shoved a cup of coffee into her hands, and told her to throw it back.
Thus, for the first time in her life, Song Ziyao did something her stepmother always claimed only shrews would do.
It was also the first time she experienced the strange satisfaction of striking back immediately after being wronged.
Tan Jinhe entered her life with an overwhelming presence.
Then he used warmth and tenderness to smooth over her wounds.
He taught her courage, taught her to love herself, and taught her how to enjoy being loved.
Naturally, they came together.
But before they could spend the rest of their lives together, fate separated them forever.
Tan Jinhe died of late-stage stomach cancer at the age of fifty.
He gave Song Ziyao a vibrant and colorful life unlike anything she had ever known before ruthlessly leaving her behind.
When the white moonlight drove into her, Song Ziyao welcomed it with a smile.
Her soul slowly drifted away from her body. She saw her ex-husband stumbling toward her corpse, and she also saw the white moonlight panic in terror.
Then everything became darkness.
However, when Song Ziyao opened her eyes again, she was not in the Underworld.
Instead, she found herself in the home of her youth—a place long buried in the farthest corners of her memory.
Slowly, she sat up and climbed out of bed, looking around in disbelief and reaching out to touch everything.
The wardrobe, bookshelf, and desk were all coated in the same red lacquer, though some spots had already begun to peel.
In the center of the desk lay a copy of Anna Karenina. Within easy reach on the left sat an enamel tea mug, while on the right, against the wall, stood a pen holder and an iron-framed mirror.
Song Ziyao picked up the mirror.
The person reflected inside had raven-black hair, snow-white skin, bright eyes, and pearly teeth.
The baby fat still lingering on her cheeks made her look soft, delicate, and pure.
This was the young Song Ziyao.
Untouched by life’s wounds.
Untouched by the erosion of time.
With a snap, she laid the mirror face-down on the desk, revealing the bright red peony painted on its back.
Her heartbeat quickened as she looked toward the calendar hanging on the wall.
1975.
After death, she had actually returned to when she was eighteen years old.
Eighteen.
She had not yet become entangled with her ex-husband!
Just as emotions surged within her, sounds came from outside the room.
The silent house suddenly filled with voices.
“Mom, I want braised pork! It’s been ages since we’ve had any.”
“Your little sister said this morning that she wanted steamed buns. We’re making buns today.”
“That’s so unfair! You always spoil her! Which one of us is actually your biological child?!”
Feng Shihui had just been about to scold her daughter when the door to one of the rooms opened and Song Ziyao walked out.
Immediately, Feng Shihui put on a gentle smile.
“You’re awake from your nap? Go wash your face. I’m kneading the dough now. Later we’ll make buns together.”
Looking at the stepmother before her, Song Ziyao felt only unfamiliarity.
The face, decades younger, was unfamiliar.
The warm smile on it was even more unfamiliar.
Ever since Song Ziyao had insisted on divorcing her ex-husband and Feng Shihui could no longer squeeze benefits out of the Lu family through her, the woman had never smiled at her again.
Only then had Song Ziyao realized that all the kindness her stepmother had shown her since childhood had been an act.
“Oh, right. I went to the Lu family today.”
As Feng Shihui set down the vegetable basket in her hands, she said to Song Ziyao, “Your Auntie Chen Yan said we should wait until Lu Ming comes back from school and let you two meet first. After all, it doesn’t matter how much us adults arrange things. What matters is whether you young people like each other.”
Lu Ming.
Song Ziyao’s ex-husband.
That twenty-two-year marriage had brought her nothing but pain.
And the beginning of it all had been Feng Shihui’s “well-intentioned” scheme.
Feng Shihui was quite capable. No one knew how she had become acquainted with Chen Yan, the Youngest’s Wife of the Lu family. Not only that, she had successfully made a favorable impression on Chen Yan and inspired the woman with the idea of taking Song Ziyao as her daughter-in-law.
At that time, Song Ziyao had never even dated anyone before and was resistant to marriage.
But Feng Shihui had already trained her into an obedient little lamb. When Feng Shihui told her to meet him once, she obediently agreed.
Who would have thought that after that single meeting, she would fall in love with Lu Ming at first sight?
What Song Ziyao had not known was that Lu Ming already had someone in his heart.
The woman he loved came from a family with a problematic class background, and Chen Yan disliked her.
Chen Yan had chosen Song Ziyao because her family background was politically clean, she was beautiful, and her personality was gentle and compliant. She saw Song Ziyao as nothing more than a tool to make her son settle down.
Feng Shihui knew all these inside details.
Even so, she did everything she could to make the marriage happen because she wanted to use Song Ziyao to climb the social ladder and secure benefits for her own biological children.
Together, the two women deceived and coaxed Song Ziyao, making her believe that Lu Ming was also in love with her.
And so she happily threw herself headfirst into the relationship.
Shaking her head, Song Ziyao cast aside all the painful memories from her previous life in the Lu family and went to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face.
Meanwhile, Feng Shihui continued enthusiastically.
“Lu Ming’s conditions are truly excellent. There’s no need to mention his family. As for Lu Ming himself, once he graduates from the Worker-Peasant-Soldier University, there’ll definitely be plenty of good jobs waiting for him to choose from. His future—”
Before Feng Shihui could finish speaking, Song Ziyao silently pulled open the front door and walked out.
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
Feng Shihui froze for a moment before frowning and asking Song Zishan, “What’s gotten into her?”
“How would I know?!” Song Zishan pouted and rolled her eyes. “She’s got such a bad temper. That’s because you’ve spoiled her.”
No, that wasn’t right!
Song Ziyao had been raised to be gentle, obedient, and polite. She would never slam a door in Feng Shihui’s face like that.
A strange expression appeared on Feng Shihui’s face.
Could it be that Song Ziyao was really that unwilling to get married?
Now that she could see through her stepmother’s hypocrisy, Song Ziyao felt nauseated the moment she looked at her.
After leaving the house, she took a deep breath of fresh air and began making her way toward her destination, guided by unfamiliar memories.
The Andong Province Steel Factory was a massive enterprise employing tens of thousands of workers. Its benefits and待遇 were excellent. For housing alone, there was a vast area of single-story homes and dormitory buildings in the west, while several apartment blocks had been constructed in the north.
Although Song Ziyao’s father, Song Gaofei, was now the Deputy Factory Director, he had only been an ordinary worker when housing allocations were made. By rights, he had not been qualified for an apartment unit.
The Song family’s apartment had been obtained entirely thanks to Song Ziyao’s maternal family.
Song Ziyao’s biological mother was named Luo Lin.
Luo Lin was the daughter of the former factory director and had once served as the chief of the Equipment Department at the steel factory.
Eleven years earlier, when the steel factory responded to the national call to support Third Front Construction, Luo Lin had enthusiastically volunteered to go to Southwest China, leaving behind her five-year-old daughter.
A year later, however, while transporting a batch of equipment, she encountered a landslide.
She desperately managed to save several of her colleagues, but she herself was swallowed by the mudslide along with the equipment.
Not only did the factory provide generous compensation, but because housing allocations for the new apartment buildings were taking place at the time, they also gave Song Gaofei a three-bedroom apartment and asked him to move in with the former factory director and his wife, who had lost their only daughter.
Unfortunately, the elderly couple had already been in poor health.
Combined with the grief of losing their daughter, they survived less than a year before passing away one after the other.
Afterward, Song Gaofei married Feng Shihui.
Officially, it was so someone could help take care of Song Ziyao.
When Feng Shihui arrived, she brought along a ten-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter.
It was said that both her natal family and her former husband’s family had problematic class backgrounds, so people initially kept their distance from her. But over time, Feng Shihui won over the neighbors with her virtue, gentleness, and gracious demeanor.
Of course, she also treated Song Ziyao exceptionally well—even better than her own biological children.
As a result, the young Song Ziyao became attached to her and regarded her as her real mother.
There was one thing Song Ziyao had never understood in her previous life.
What kind of mother would neglect the children she had given birth to and instead shower affection on someone else’s daughter?
If she did so, then she must have had an ulterior motive.
The late afternoon sun blazed fiercely overhead, but Song Ziyao’s gaze gradually turned cold.
She would never allow herself to become entangled with Lu Ming again.
Nor would she allow her stepmother to take advantage of her any longer.
As for her regrets…
Half an hour later, Song Ziyao arrived at the factory’s Educated Youth Registration Office.
“Hello, Comrade. I’d like to register to go to the countryside.”