“Nannan, why are you crying? Mom’s here.”
Seeing her precious daughter in tears, Zhou Chunfeng’s heart ached at once.
“Mom…”
Shen Qinghe threw her arms around Zhou Chunfeng, feeling the warmth of her body. Only then did the drifting, unsettled feeling in her heart finally calm after her rebirth.
“Good girl.”
A pair of rough yet warm hands rested on Shen Qinghe’s head. “You’ve been wronged.”
“Little sister’s awake!”
Hearing the commotion, the Shen family all gathered around.
“Dad, Big Brother, Sister-in-law…”
Shen Qinghe called to them one by one, her voice catching.
Shen Xingqing’s eyes were full of concern. “Nannan, are you feeling better?”
“Dad, I’m fine now.”
“Great-aunt, you’re finally awake!”
Several nieces and nephews rushed over to surround Shen Qinghe. The youngest, Wubao, hugged her leg tightly. “Great-aunt…”
A trace of hesitation flashed across Zhou Chunfeng’s face. After thinking it over, she still spoke with some reluctance, “Nannan, your dad and I both feel that Gu Linchuan isn’t very reliable. How about… calling off this marriage? What do you think?”
“That’s right, little sister—Gu Linchuan is really not a good person!”
“Okay.”
“Huh? Then that would—ah?”
Zhou Chunfeng reacted a beat late, thinking she’d misheard. “Nannan, what did you just say?”
The rest of the Shen family all turned to Shen Qinghe in unison, faces filled with surprise.
“Mom, I’m saying we should just forget about this engagement.”
Shen Qinghe buried her face in her mother’s arms, her voice sounding muffled.
Zhou Chunfeng knew her daughter had always been very satisfied with the Gu family boy. Hearing her speak like this, she thought Nannan was actually unwilling, so she sighed and said, “Nannan, if you really can’t bear to part with him, marrying him is fine too. No matter what, your dad, mom, and your three brothers and sisters-in-law will always be your support.”
Shen Qinghe wanted to cry again, but she held it back. She pulled away from Zhou Chunfeng’s embrace and spoke solemnly, “Mom, I’m serious. I don’t want to marry Gu Linchuan anymore.”
“Why?”
Zhou Chunfeng still found it hard to believe. Hadn’t her daughter always thought Gu Linchuan was the best marriage prospect in Shenjia Bay? She’d been unhappy whenever anyone tried to introduce someone else. How had she suddenly come to her senses now? Could it be that today’s incident had really broken her heart? That damned Gu Linchuan! She would definitely give him a good scolding later!
“I was already in talks to marry Gu Linchuan. When I fell into the water, he didn’t save me—instead, he went to save another woman. What use do I have for a man like that?”
Sadly, such a simple truth had eluded her in her previous life, as if her heart had been blinded by lard. She’d only understood it after going through so much…
Thinking of her past life, a flicker of pain flashed in her eyes.
Gu Linchuan and Lin Yingxue had known each other for a long time. They were even from the same place! Back then, before anything happened to the Lin family, Lin Yingxue had been the Lin family’s eldest young lady, and Gu Linchuan’s father was the Lin family’s driver. They’d grown up knowing each other. But after the Lin family fell, the Gu family acted as if they didn’t know Lin Yingxue and her mother at all. Shen Qinghe naturally assumed they truly didn’t know each other.
Who would have thought that Lin Yingxue was the white moonlight Gu Linchuan could never erase from his heart?
Because Lin Yingxue’s family background was politically problematic, marrying her would affect Gu Linchuan’s future, so he set his sights on Shen Qinghe instead. And she—she was a complete fool. Whatever Gu Linchuan said, she believed, slaving away for others for nearly twenty years for nothing!
In her previous life, she had accidentally uncovered the truth. But Gu Linchuan’s hard-won position, earned through years of struggle, was not something a rural woman with no background or job could contend with.
Very soon, she was sent to a mental hospital, where she stayed for seven long years.
During those years, it wasn’t that she hadn’t tried to expose the sordid affair between Gu Linchuan and Lin Yingxue—but who would believe the words of a mental patient?
She could only remain in the hospital, enduring Lin Yingxue’s occasional provocations and her own increasingly deteriorating body.
Until the day her body could no longer hold on. Lin Yingxue came to see her with her son, Gu Yuan. Under Shen Qinghe’s insults, the hot-tempered Gu Yuan blurted out something she had never known—that everyone in her family, except her second sister-in-law, had been burned to death in a huge fire on New Year’s Eve several years earlier!
And the culprit was Lin Yingxue herself.
She hated Shen Qinghe too. In her eyes, she’d once been the Lin family’s eldest young lady, and even after settling in Shenjia Bay, she was still far better off than a country woman like Shen Qinghe. Yet because of her own status, she couldn’t marry Gu Linchuan and had to remain the mistress in the shadows—for more than twenty years. Even her son had to call Shen Qinghe “mother.” How could she not hate her?
But the real reason she burned the Shen family alive was that the Shen family didn’t believe Shen Qinghe was mentally ill and kept trying to visit her at the hospital. Afraid they’d discover something, Lin Yingxue simply set the fire to permanently eliminate any future trouble.
When Shen Qinghe learned this, it was like a bolt from the blue. In a final, crazed burst of strength, she perished together with Lin Yingxue and Gu Yuan. Before she died, her only regret was that Gu Linchuan wasn’t in the ward—otherwise, she would have dragged all three of them to hell together!
If not for her, her family wouldn’t have died such innocent, tragic deaths in her past life. It was all her fault! She shouldn’t have ignored her family’s advice and insisted on marrying Gu Linchuan! If she’d misjudged people and died for it, she deserved it—but her family didn’t deserve such an end!
Thankfully, heaven had given her another chance. This time, she would protect her family no matter what. A firm resolve flashed in Shen Qinghe’s eyes.
“Exactly! Gu Linchuan is basically useless!”
Shen Qingsong chuckled. “Little sister, it’s great that you’ve finally come to your senses!”
Shen Qinghe nodded. Her second brother had never liked Gu Linchuan much, feeling he was rather cold toward her. Unfortunately, she’d been blind before, always mistaking that coldness for unyielding integrity.
Zhou Chunfeng beamed from ear to ear. “Good, good, good! Then we’ll call it off. It’s not like it was settled yet anyway. You must be hungry, right? I boiled you some eggs with brown sugar—eat up and nourish yourself.”
Shen Qinghe followed Zhou Chunfeng into the kitchen. As she ladled out the eggs, Zhou Chunfeng complained, “You child are just too kind-hearted. That Lin woman—I could tell at a glance she was no good. A capitalist’s lackey—what decent sort could she be? If she fell into the water, then so be it. Why did you have to jump in and save her? Just because you know how to swim, you act so recklessly. You must’ve been scared this time, huh? Let’s see if you’ll still dare to be so rash in the future!”
“And listen—next time you see someone fall into the water, just shout for help, okay? There are people everywhere in this village. Why should a young woman like you be the one jumping in…”
“I know you think Gu Linchuan is good-looking and capable, but marriage is a lifetime matter. It’s not enough that he’s impressive—you have to see how he treats you. Otherwise, no matter how good he is, it has nothing to do with you!”