“It hurts…” Xu Changxia couldn’t help but let out a soft groan in her sleep.
“Then shall we stop?” A sharp, cold male voice immediately came from above her.
Xu Changxia shuddered, most of her sleepiness vanishing instantly.
She only then realized what that sensation had been!
But she was fifty years old! Her beauty had long since faded! How could…
She snapped her eyes open and looked at the man pressing down on her. The contours of his resolute face were firm and brimming with the aura of youth; he looked twenty-something at most.
“Who are you?!” Xu Changxia froze for a few seconds before suddenly grabbing the quilt nearby to wrap herself up.
In the dim light, she caught a glimpse of the man’s lean, powerful upper body out of the corner of her eye, as well as the faint lines of his V-tapered abdomen revealed when she pulled the quilt away.
Xu Changxia’s face burned even more intensely, and she jerked her gaze away as if she had been electrocuted.
“Since you’re so resistant that you’d even go as far as biting your tongue to kill yourself, then let’s just forget about this.” The man was silent for a few seconds before withdrawing.
There was a trace of an indefinable, strange emotion within his cold voice.
With that, his movements were decisive. He got up, sat on the edge of the bed, and picked up a military jacket, draping it over his shoulders.
Belatedly, Xu Changxia noticed the pain at the tip of her tongue; her mouth was currently filled with the metallic taste of blood.
She had no idea what had just happened. While wrapping herself tightly, she instinctively glanced at the man’s back again.
This one glance made her freeze once more.
If she wasn’t mistaken, the jacket the man was wearing was a military uniform style from at least thirty years ago!
“You…” Before she could see clearly, the man had already finished dressing and stood up, pushing the door open and striding away.
Xu Changxia looked at the combat boots on his feet, and a sudden realization struck her.
She looked down at the quilt covering her. It was an old-fashioned, bright red satin quilt embroidered with twin lotuses on a single stalk and a dragon and phoenix—symbols of a propitious marriage.
Stunned for a few seconds, she hurriedly jumped off the bed, walked toward where she remembered the light switch to be, and pulled the cord.
The light flickered on. She took a quick look around the room. Sure enough, she was in the Jiang family’s old home!
At this moment, the room was clearly decorated as a bridal suite. The red characters on the calendar hanging on the opposite wall were blindingly bright under the forty-watt bulb. Today was December 1, 1981! The day of her engagement when she was eighteen!
Xu Changxia staggered back a few steps and sat down on the sofa.
The situation was clear: after her death, she had experienced a Rebirth, returning to the night of her engagement banquet thirty-odd years ago!
The man just now… he must be her fiancé, Jiang Yao, who had died in battle shortly after their engagement?!
The situation had been tense at the end of ’81. The Jiang family was worried that Jiang Yao could be sent to the battlefield at any moment, so they had arranged for them to share a room on the night of the engagement.
She had only met Jiang Yao four times and wasn’t familiar with his face. Plus, the lights had been off just now, so she hadn’t recognized him immediately.
She gave her arm a hard pinch. It hurt, and the skin turned bright red.
She then picked up the old-fashioned thermos on the table and poured a cup of water into an enamel mug. Ignoring the steam, she took a direct sip.
As soon as it hit her mouth, she instinctively spat it out from the heat.
“Ow!” she cried out, hurriedly standing up to wipe the water off herself.
However, as she looked up, she saw herself in the mirror across from her.
The person in the mirror was indeed her younger self, with an exquisite oval face. At the moment, her eyes were watery from the scald, and her small, cherry-like mouth was bright red and slightly swollen.
Only now was Xu Changxia certain that she had truly been reborn.
Heaven has eyes!
In her previous life, five months later—May of 1982—Jiang Yao died in battle, his body never recovered.
Too many things had happened within those five months, eventually leading her to make the worst mistake of her life: remarrying his younger brother, Jiang Chi. That was the beginning of her thirty-year nightmare.
She had died by suicide.
The final scene of her death was still vivid in her mind; even now, her heart throbbed with a dull ache.
Fortunately, God had given her a chance to repent and start over!
And tonight was the beginning of her rewriting her destiny!
Xu Changxia sat on the sofa, slowly scanning the unfamiliar yet familiar surroundings.
She knew exactly which day Jiang Yao would die in battle! This time, she could warn him in advance to be careful.
Jiang Yao’s current rank was equivalent to a Lieutenant Colonel, and he was a Battalion Commander. To become a Battalion Commander at twenty-six was a rare feat even in this era. If Jiang Yao could avoid the tragedy five months from now, he would surely have a brilliant future!
Even if, in the worst-case scenario, Jiang Yao still couldn’t escape his fate of dying in battle, his high rank meant his family would receive eight thousand yuan in death benefits and a small two-story house.
In her previous life, if she hadn’t been so indecisive and hesitant to register her marriage with Jiang Yao, she could have lived a good life even as a widow with those protections.
Looking back now, she had been incredibly foolish.
Furthermore, even if they didn’t successfully register the marriage, she was someone living a second life. She could surely use her own hands to escape poverty and get rich!
Opportunities were everywhere right now; she would have countless chances to climb upward!
In just a few minutes, Xu Changxia’s mind raced as she clearly considered the pros and cons of everything and all the possibilities for the future.
After a long while, she stood up, walked quickly back to the bed, and pulled back the quilt to check.
There were no traces of intimacy on the bed, and her body didn’t feel any discomfort. So, her first time with Jiang Yao just now had been forcibly interrupted by her.
But in her previous life, her first night with Jiang Yao had been completed.
In this era, the idea of someone biting their tongue to commit suicide on their wedding night to drive away their fiancé was unheard of. Jiang Yao must be very disappointed in her.
Therefore, the most important thing now was to go and coax back the angry Jiang Yao.
She made up her mind and planned to go directly to where Jiang Yao was.
Just as she put on her clothes, someone pushed the door open and walked straight in.
“Who is it?” Xu Changxia was startled. She instinctively turned her back, hurriedly fastening the last two buttons of her clothes.
“Me.” The person at the door hesitated for a moment before replying in a low voice.
Xu Changxia turned around to see that it was actually Jiang Yao’s younger brother, Jiang Chi.
She froze for a moment, then immediately turned to finish buttoning her collar.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, her brows furrowed.
“What? You didn’t want me to come?” Jiang Chi walked behind her with unsteady steps.
He seemed to have been drinking; Xu Changxia could smell a faint scent of alcohol.
She immediately took two steps back to put distance between herself and Jiang Chi, replying coldly, “I already made everything clear to you before the engagement banquet.”
“Is that so, my dear sister-in-law? Didn’t you say that you actually didn’t want to marry my brother?” Jiang Chi’s dark eyes held a hint of malice as he countered.
Xu Changxia stared at him in silence.
In the hallway outside, Jiang Yao, who had returned, stopped in his tracks.
Clutching the styptic medicine he had brought for Xu Changxia, he looked through the semi-transparent frosted window, silently watching the two people inside the room.