「March.」
In Jinshan Bay, a seaside village in southern Shencheng, spring seemed to be arriving late this year.
The wind was strong and the temperature was low.
In a room with drawn curtains, a woman with a gauze bandage wrapped around her forehead lay on the bed.
Two similar-looking girls, about three years old, were huddled in a corner, their eyes filled with terror as they shivered and cried nonstop.
Han Xiaorui’s forehead throbbed. She felt groggy, drifting in and out of consciousness on the bed.
Then, she faintly heard voices speaking in deliberately hushed tones.
"Jianming, Xiao Li is about to give birth. You need to get a divorce, and quickly."
The young man on the sofa, Yang Jianming, had wheat-colored skin, monolids, and was rather handsome. "Mom, I want to get divorced soon too, but Xiao Rui won’t agree."
The middle-aged woman who had just urged her son to get a divorce was Zhang Xiufang. Her face was a bit plump with slightly high cheekbones, and her thickly drawn eyebrows gave her features an even more shrewish look.
"If she won’t divorce you, then beat her. Beat her three times a day. Nine times in three days."
"Nonsense!" A tall, sturdy, dark-skinned, middle-aged man, Yang Zhigang, snapped.
He looked at his only son, Yang Jianming, in disappointment. "This is Jianming’s fault. Why should we beat Xiao Rui? No matter what, Xiao Rui has given Jianming two children."
Zhang Xiufang rolled her eyes, her expression full of disdain. ’She had long been dissatisfied.’
Her son could have found a good local wife, but this Han Xiaorui had shamelessly insisted on marrying him, even getting pregnant before the wedding.
If she had given her two clever and bright grandsons, she might have thought a little more highly of Han Xiaorui.
But no, this Han Xiaorui had to go and have two girls—and idiots, at that.
"Just look at what she’s given birth to! They’re almost four, and those two girls still can’t even talk. Plain and simple little idiots."
"Even if they can’t talk, they’re still our granddaughters." Yang Zhigang wrung his hands. They were his own flesh and blood; he couldn’t bear to cast them aside.
But his son had messed around and gotten together with Zhang Lili.
And this Zhang Lili was a distant relative from his wife’s side of the family.
Zhang Xiufang had never liked the fiery and headstrong Han Xiaorui, who wasn’t a local. Now that she had a "new daughter-in-law" in her sights, she spent all day instigating her son to get a divorce.
Zhang Xiufang glared at her husband, Yang Zhigang. "If he doesn’t divorce her, Xiao Li is going to have an abortion. I took her for a check-up. It’s a boy."
Hearing this, Yang Zhigang’s straight spine seemed to slump. The struggle and hesitation deep in his eyes finally dissolved into a long sigh.
"Jianming, divorce isn’t as simple as just going to the Civil Affairs Bureau and swapping a red booklet for a green one. That doesn’t solve the problem."
"You have children. Even if you can’t be husband and wife, the children are a bond between you that can never be broken in this lifetime."
Zhang Xiufang glanced toward the bedroom, utterly disgusted with her two non-verbal granddaughters.
"Han Xiaorui treasures those children so much. Once they divorce, she’ll definitely insist on getting custody."
"We’ll pretend we want the kids too. To get them, Han Xiaorui will have to give up any claim on the assets."
"SMACK!" Yang Zhigang’s face was ashen with anger as he slammed his hand on the table. "People who have no conscience or morals will face retribution."
Yang Zhigang’s family owned a large fishing boat. He prayed to the gods before every trip out to sea and believed in karmic retribution.
Three years ago, when his granddaughters were born, he had gone to the hospital to see them instead of going out to sea, and thus avoided a maritime disaster. He was the sole survivor from his boat. His two granddaughters had saved his life.
Yang Jianming didn’t want to face his two non-verbal daughters. He felt like he was being mocked everywhere he went.
Ever since giving birth, Han Xiaorui had become a different person. Not only was she rail-thin with frizzy hair, but she would also fly into a rage and start screaming like a madwoman at the slightest provocation.
From the bottom of his heart, he wanted a divorce too. Besides, he much preferred the younger Zhang Lili.
"Dad, what do you think we should do then?" Yang Jianming scratched his head.
The voices outside woke Han Xiaorui. Hearing the conversation, she pinched herself hard a few times.
The pain made her face contort!
A flood of memories surged into Han Xiaorui’s mind, causing her pupils to shrink and her heart to race.
She had returned to 1985 from the tenth year of the apocalypse.
The apocalypse: the greenhouse effect, a thinning atmosphere, the polar ice caps completely melted. Almost all the cities on Earth had been submerged by the ocean.
To adapt to the harsh environment, many plants and animals had mutated.
Han Xiaorui had awakened a Water Ability, allowing her to breathe freely underwater, sense whether marine life was poisonous, and possess exceptionally high-level fishing and catching skills.
She had been fishing at sea when she was caught in a storm. Lightning flashed and thunder roared as the curtain of rain seemed to connect the sky with the rising sea level.
A massive wave crashed over her, pulling her into a vortex like a black hole, and she lost consciousness.
Looking at the tear-stained children trembling by the bed, Han Xiaorui quickly pieced together her current situation using the body’s memories and the conversation outside.
She now had two children who were on the autism spectrum.
The original owner of this body had found out about her husband’s affair, had a breakdown, and slammed her head against the wall. And then... she was gone.
Han Xiaorui’s soul had entered the body of this woman who shared her exact name.
’Since I’m borrowing this body to live, I must take on its responsibilities.’
She took out two lollipops and handed them to her daughters. "Don’t be afraid. Mommy isn’t leaving. You have some candy first, I’ll be right back."
Han Xiaorui kissed both children on the forehead, gently comforting them.
Han Xiaorui opened the door and appeared in the living room, stunning the three members of the Yang Family.
"Yang Jianming, we fell in love on our own terms and got married full of wonderful dreams. I even dropped out of a good university just to take care of our two children."
"You cheated, you’re embarrassed by our two daughters, you want to escape your responsibilities as a father, and you want a divorce."
"I’ll grant you that wish, but we need to be clear on *how* we’re getting this divorce. Your mother just said I could have the children, but that I’d have to leave with nothing."
"If you try to scheme against me like this, I’ll report you to the police for domestic abuse and go to the Women’s Federation to accuse you of child abandonment. We’ll see if you can keep your job at the university then."
This Han Xiaorui was not the original, who had given up on life and killed herself by running into a wall.
Yang Jianming looked at the gaunt-faced, sallow-haired Han Xiaorui with a complicated expression, unsure of what to say.
His father-in-law, Yang Zhigang, on the other hand, glared at his son before turning to his daughter-in-law with a guilty look.
"Xiao Rui, Jianming has wronged you. Our Yang Family has wronged you. I have a suggestion. Jianming is a good-for-nothing, but Pingping and An’an still need you."
"As long as you don’t leave the children, I’ll transfer this house to your name and give you two hundred yuan a month for living expenses."
Zhang Xiufang grew anxious and kicked Yang Zhigang hard.
’They could have gotten this divorce without spending a single cent!’
"Stop kicking me. I know what you’re thinking. You despise those two non-verbal granddaughters, but I don’t. I feel for them."
"If I didn’t have to go out to sea, I would never leave both granddaughters entirely in Xiao Rui’s care. But I’d trust you with them even less, so it’s better to let Xiao Rui raise them."