He Shiyi pressed the shovel against Lu Guihua’s stomach.
Searching through memories of her past life, she shouted at Lu Guihua word by word.
“There is no mother in this world like you. You saw other people’s daughters secretly sleeping around and building brick houses for their families, and you actually urged me to do the same.
You said it would be a waste of my pretty face and my seductive, fairy-like figure.
If that man who fooled around hadn’t been executed, my lifetime of purity would have been ruined by you, my own mother.
When you couldn’t profit from me, you panicked like headless flies.
You kept searching everywhere for husbands for me and collecting their bride prices.
Then right before the wedding dates, you would change your mind, demand more bride price, and force them to cancel the engagement.
For six years, you’ve made plenty of money off my marriages.
I never saw a single cent of that money. It all went into food and drink for your greedy stomachs.
To protect myself, to avoid being beaten to death by you,
I let you use my marriage to cheat people everywhere.
Your greed was never satisfied. You even tried to make me, while already engaged, seduce Luo Lingfeng.
A whole family of vampires, dreaming of scamming money from Luo Lingfeng.
Every day you coaxed me, pressured me, forced me to trick him out of the demobilization money he got after five years in the army.
Luo Lingfeng was a soldier and also a production team leader. How could I dare provoke him?
Being stuck with parents as ignorant and greedy as you, and shameless siblings-in-law—
I must have had eight lifetimes of terrible luck!”
Neighbors gathered at the doorway, all wearing expressions of people watching drama unfold.
Lu Guihua clutched her stomach and collapsed to the ground in terror.
She looked at the neighbors and pointed at He Shiyi, screaming as if it had nothing to do with her.
“Oh my heavens! This girl has really gone crazy, talking nonsense! I can’t understand a word she’s saying. I’m her real mother. How many real mothers would let someone ruin their own daughter?”
He Shiyi’s sister-in-law Chen Juan couldn’t read the situation.
Holding her four-month pregnant belly, she smiled and tried to grab He Shiyi’s hand.
“Little sister, I’ve had morning sickness these past days. I really want to eat dog meat and drink dog soup. You love me the most, so just let Dad kill the dog.”
Memories from her past life flashed in He Shiyi’s mind.
Ever since her brother He Yi married Chen Juan, her past self had become her sister-in-law’s servant.
Serving food and drinks, bringing wash water, cooking and washing clothes—she did everything.
The suffering of her past life made He Shiyi explode.
She cursed at Chen Juan: “You damn woman! You’re pregnant and still want to eat dog meat and drink dog soup? Don’t you know that can cause a miscarriage? Do you even have a brain? Even pigs are smarter than you. With your IQ, what kind of child could you even give birth to? All day you just show off, acting like some empress in front of me. Ordering me to serve you food and drinks. Last night you even shamelessly told me that when your belly gets big and you can’t bend over, you want me to wipe you and wash you. Shameless, greedy, lazy woman. If you dare eat my dog, believe it or not, I’ll make sure you don’t see tonight’s moon!”
“Ah!…”
Chen Juan’s face instantly turned pale.
Her legs trembled, and she collapsed into her husband He Yi’s arms.
Grandmother Madam He stomped and shouted anxiously.
“Zhu! When this girl came back last night, I thought she looked possessed. I thought she’d calm down after sleeping, but she’s worse now. Go get your aunt to come give her acupuncture!”
He Zhu’s aunt Zhou Ying, from the He family’s in-laws side, was He Shiyi’s great-aunt.
She had a family-inherited acupuncture technique used to treat facial paralysis caused by wind illness.
He Zhu ran toward his aunt’s house.
The neighbors all watched coldly, lips curled.
The whole family had been exploiting one gentle, weak girl.
Even rabbits bite when cornered, let alone humans.
He Shiyi was fighting back against an unfair fate.
Everyone knew what she had been like since childhood.
The neighbors saw clearly—no one was blind.
For years, the He family had lived off their daughters.
When the eldest married out, they relied on the younger ones.
When He Shiyi had just turned fifteen, the He family already started searching everywhere for a husband for her.
Relying on her beauty, they made things difficult for every family that wanted to marry her.
For six years, He Shiyi was either getting engaged or breaking engagements.
The He family had cheated countless bride prices from people.
Everyone in the family except He Shiyi was lazy and gluttonous.
Villagers all worked in the production team and couldn’t earn money outside.
Most families barely had spending money, yet He Zhu would sneak into the city every few days to eat at restaurants.
Several times he was caught by city patrols rounding up vagrants.
Detained, released, detained again—never learning his lesson.
Since He Shiyi became an adult,
Madam He and Lu Guihua hadn’t cooked or washed clothes for five or six years.
The farm work assigned to the He family by the production team— five people slacked off, while only He Shiyi worked silently and tirelessly.
If not for He Shiyi, the He family probably would have starved to death.
“Have you heard? He Shiyi will marry Wu Fengshou in one month, but two days ago He Zhu sneaked into the city again to arrange another marriage for her.”
“Of course I heard! He Zhu wants her to marry Wu Fengshou’s uncle Wu Qiang, that lame old bachelor. Wu Qiang promised to hand over his monthly thirty-yuan pension to He Shiyi to manage, and he’s treated He Zhu to drinks several times.”
“What? Wu Qiang is forty or fifty, right? How can a young girl marry an old man halfway into the grave? That’s terrible fathering.”
“I’m not talking about Wu Qiang. I mean another man.”
“Who? How many men can one daughter be promised to?”
“I heard it’s a widowed city official. It rained two days ago so there was no work in the production team. He Zhu secretly went into the city twice to meet him.”
“I also heard that Wang Mazi from the next village, who works at the town supply cooperative, promised to buy He Yi and his wife a bicycle if they marry their sister to him.”
“Looks like one He Shiyi isn’t enough to divide among the He family!”
“Exactly! Last night after dark, I saw Lu Guihua’s brother Lu Wangcai carry half a sack of white flour into the He house. Lu Guihua closed the door right after, and the siblings whispered inside for a long time. I listened outside the door—guess what I heard?”
“What did you hear?”
“Lu Wangcai wants He Shiyi to marry his son in exchange for another marriage alliance.”
“Did Lu Guihua agree?”
“Of course she did. For half a sack of flour.”
“Sigh… As long as someone treats He Zhu, the father, to meat and alcohol, gives Lu Guihua some gifts, and buys He Yi and his wife something, this whole family would find a hundred husbands for He Shiyi if they could.”
…
All the neighbors’ gossip reached He Shiyi’s ears.
[In this family, every single one of them is waiting to eat my flesh and drink my blood. I’ve walked straight into a wolf’s den.]
[I, He Shiyi, am not some saint, not some pure and noble white lotus, and not the weak person I was in my past life.]
[I will not indulge them, and I will never sacrifice my own happiness to support them for the rest of my life.]