“Big Sis, Cui Wenzhou still refuses to divorce you? How can that be?”
“If he won’t divorce you, you’ll never be able to be with Zhao Yang. Zhao Yang is so gentle and considerate. He’s far better than that stiff, emotionless Cui Wenzhou. You’ll only find true happiness if you’re with him.”
“If nothing else works, you’ll have to go a little further. Cut your wrists, refuse to eat, threaten to kill yourself—whatever it takes. Once Cui Wenzhou finds out you tried to commit suicide, he’ll be terrified. And once he’s scared, he’ll naturally agree to divorce you.”
Xu Shuning shook her muddled head, listening to the incessant chatter around her. She frowned impatiently.
What kind of nonsense were they talking about? Were they actually talking to her?
Divorce? She didn’t even have a boyfriend, let alone a husband. What on earth was she supposed to be divorcing?
Her mind was still foggy. She narrowed her eyes and looked ahead.
The completely unfamiliar surroundings, which carried a distinct period-era feel, along with the strangely dressed strangers standing in front of her, left her utterly stunned.
What was going on? Where was she?
She clearly remembered that she had just finished an operation. After getting off work, she had gone home and stayed up late reading a novel.
She had been complaining about the plot when, somehow, she had ended up here. And who were these people standing in front of her?
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her head, followed by a flood of unfamiliar memories.
Xu Shuning pressed a hand to her forehead and frowned. By the time she had absorbed all the memories, she felt as though her entire world had been turned upside down.
She was a modern medical student who had finally made it through years of hard work, only to transmigrate just like that.
And not into just any novel.
She had transmigrated into the very historical-era novel she had stayed up late reading and criticizing.
She had become the cannon-fodder supporting female character who happened to share her name.
The original Xu Shuning had lost her biological mother at a young age. Her father remarried, and her stepmother brought a daughter with her.
That girl was Xu Shuning’s stepsister in name, but in reality, she was her half-sister, sharing the same father.
She was also the female protagonist of the novel—the entire story revolved around her.
And the three people standing before Xu Shuning were none other than her scumbag father, stepmother, and stepsister.
Although the original Xu Shuning had lost her mother when she was young, she had a grandfather, grandmother, and maternal uncle who doted on her.
Not long after her mother’s death, her grandfather took her in. She remained with her maternal family until she returned to live with her father nearly a year later.
When Xu Shuning was still very young, her grandfather had arranged a marriage for her. Her fiancé was the grandson of one of her grandfather’s old comrades-in-arms from Beijing.
His name was Cui Wenzhou.
Cui Wenzhou was twenty-five years old and came from a distinguished military family. His grandfather was a commander in the Beijing Military Region, while his father was a division commander. The other senior members of his family also held positions in various military regions.
As for Cui Wenzhou himself, he served as a regiment commander in the Beijiang Military Region in Heilongjiang Province.
Xu Shuning and Cui Wenzhou had only met twice before their marriage.
The only impression she had of him was that he was a cold, rough-looking man.
The original Xu Shuning had never wanted to marry someone like him. She liked warm, sunny men, and Cui Wenzhou clearly wasn’t that type.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t win against her grandfather. In the end, she could only reluctantly agree to the marriage.
Their wedding night had been a nightmare for her.
The man had been rough and completely lacking in tenderness. Having been spoiled and pampered since childhood, she felt deeply wronged.
She cried and drove him out of the room, telling him that she never wanted to see him again.
It was the first time Cui Wenzhou had ever encountered a situation like this, and for a while, he was completely at a loss.
The more he tried to approach Xu Shuning, the more she rejected him. He couldn’t even find an opportunity to comfort her.
As fate would have it, he received orders from his unit at that very moment and had to return immediately.
Xu Shuning refused to see him, so he had no choice but to leave in a hurry.
Because of Cui Wenzhou, Xu Shuning threw a huge tantrum at her grandfather.
Only a few days after Cui Wenzhou returned to his unit, she moved back into her father’s home with her stepmother and stepsister.
A month after returning to the Xu family, Xu Shuning met Zhao Yang—the scumbag who would ultimately ruin her life.
One day, she went out to buy something. When she came out of the store, she encountered some troublemakers.
Zhao Yang appeared out of nowhere and protected her, even getting injured in the process.
After that, Zhao Yang began appearing around Xu Shuning frequently, sometimes deliberately, sometimes seemingly by coincidence.
He treated her like the perfect warm and caring man, constantly asking after her and showing concern for her every need.
Compared to the cold and seemingly indifferent Cui Wenzhou, Zhao Yang’s behavior created a stark contrast.
This continued for three months.
The original Xu Shuning was only eighteen years old. How could a young girl withstand such relentless attention?
Little by little, she fell for him.
Her scumbag father, stepmother, and stepsister also frequently spoke badly about Cui Wenzhou in front of her while subtly praising Zhao Yang.
The more she heard it, the more obvious the comparison became in her mind.
Before long, she became convinced that Zhao Yang was far better than Cui Wenzhou.
Under their manipulation, the original Xu Shuning began demanding a divorce from Cui Wenzhou because she believed that once they divorced, she could finally be with Zhao Yang.
When her grandfather learned that she wanted a divorce, he firmly refused to agree.
But by then, the original Xu Shuning had already been thoroughly brainwashed by her father and stepmother. She had begun to resent her grandfather.
She believed that the reason she was unhappy was because her grandfather had arranged the marriage without asking her.
In her eyes, her grandfather had forced her to marry Cui Wenzhou merely to preserve his own reputation. She thought he had never genuinely cared about her happiness.
Encouraged by her father, stepmother, and stepsister, she resorted to threatening suicide.
She had a huge argument with her grandfather and even shouted that she wanted to sever ties with him.
When Cui Wenzhou learned that she had attempted suicide, he became terrified that something would happen to her.
In the end, he could only harden his heart and agree to the divorce.
After the divorce, Xu Shuning couldn’t wait to chase after the happiness she believed she had finally found.
Instead, Zhao Yang drugged her.
When she woke up, she had already been sold into a remote mountain village.
She was forced to bear children for an old man and endured endless abuse and suffering.
In the end, she died a miserable death.
She had only just turned twenty.
Until the very end, the original Xu Shuning never realized that everything had been a carefully orchestrated scheme from beginning to end.
And the people behind it were the very people she trusted most.
After Xu Shuning disappeared, her grandfather couldn’t find her, so he confronted her father.
Her father lied and told him that she had left with the man she loved.
Her grandparents refused to believe him and immediately began investigating her whereabouts.
But before they could find her, someone reported that the Wen family was hiding property belonging to the exploiting classes.
The investigators searched the family’s home and dug up more than a dozen gold bars from the courtyard.
The only person who escaped the disaster was Xu Shuning’s cousin, who was stationed in Heilongjiang. He managed to sever ties with the Wen family in time.
Everyone else in the Wen family was sent to the northwest for labor reform.
Less than two months after arriving in the northwest, Xu Shuning’s grandmother fell ill and passed away.
Her grandfather’s health also deteriorated rapidly, and in the end, he didn’t survive either.
After the Wen family was sent away, Xu Shuning’s father, stepmother, and stepsister celebrated at the Xu residence.
The people who had reported the Wen family were none other than Xu Shuning’s own father and stepsister.
Xu Shuning’s maternal grandmother had come from a wealthy family, and her ancestors had left behind a considerable fortune for their descendants.
During the war, Xu Shuning’s grandfather had fought for the country, while her grandmother had quietly supported the war effort from behind the lines, donating money and supplies.
Most of the family’s wealth had ultimately been donated to the country.
What remained had been deliberately kept as a means of giving their descendants something to fall back on.
Originally, Xu Shuning’s father and his family knew nothing about any of this.
Although Xu Shuning’s mother, Wen Mingxin, had stubbornly insisted on marrying her father despite her parents’ objections, she had never revealed the full extent of the Wen and Su families’ wealth to him.
Come to think of it, the Xu family’s tendency to lose themselves completely in love really was hereditary.
Back then, Xu Shuning’s father had deliberately approached her mother, Wen Mingxin, after accidentally learning that her father was an officer in the Nancheng Military Region.
He wanted to use the Wen family’s connections to escape his identity as a poor young man from the countryside.
Wen Mingxin was just as hopelessly love-struck.
She genuinely fell for him and insisted on marrying him, even though he was nothing more than a poor student at the time.
Her father warned her that the man’s character was questionable and that she shouldn’t marry him so hastily. He urged her to observe him for a while longer.
But Wen Mingxin had already made up her mind.
She believed her father was only trying to break them apart.
She became so determined to be with him that she even eloped with him, creating a scandal for the family.
In the end, her parents had no choice but to give in and allow the two of them to marry.