In the main hall, the dim yellow glow of an oil lamp flickered unsteadily, stretching the shadows of the family seated around it long across the mottled walls.
Lin Manzhi huddled at the edge of a narrow bench, her bony fingers clutching the patched hem of her clothes so tightly that her knuckles whitened. Her three daughters squeezed beside her. The eldest, Laidi, looked about seventeen or eighteen, yet her frail frame resembled that of a girl barely thirteen or fourteen. She quietly observed everyone in the room with a calmness far beyond her years. The second daughter, Zhaodi, and the youngest, Pandi, were nodding off from exhaustion, but still clung tightly to their mother’s sleeves.
“The day Sanyong sent word through someone…” Lin Manzhi’s voice sounded distant, hoarse almost beyond recognition. “I was being beaten by that beast. He’d gambled away the money from selling grain and picked up a carrying pole… swung it straight at my stomach…”
The oil lamp crackled, spitting sparks that illuminated the bruises covering her arm as she rolled up her sleeve.
Old Madam Lin suddenly covered her mouth and rushed out of the hall. Soon, the sound of violent retching echoed from the courtyard.
Laidi lowered her eyes, concealing the cold flash that passed through them.
No one knew what kind of soul lived inside that frail body.
In her previous life, she had been sold into the Drunken Spring Brothel at eighteen. She died under torment at only twenty-two. Now reborn, she remembered every face of those who had abused her. She remembered the final breath her mother took in the woodshed. Most of all, she remembered how, on that stormy night, her maternal grandparents’ house had been only thirty li away—yet no help ever came.
“The child I miscarried two years ago…” Manzhi stared at her cracked fingernails, her tone terrifyingly calm. “It had already formed. A boy. Blood soaked the entire kang bed. He thought it was unlucky… so he threw me into the pigsty and left me there to die…”
“That’s enough!”
Old Master Lin suddenly roared, slamming his tobacco pipe hard against the table corner, sparks flying everywhere.
His whole body trembled, his whitening beard damp with tears.
“If only… if only back then…”
“Grandfather.”
Laidi suddenly spoke. Her voice was sharp and clear like cracking ice.
“Last night… that man brought a trafficker home. They were discussing selling me for twenty taels of silver.”
Calmly, she pulled out a contract she had hidden in the sole of her shoe. On the yellowed paper were crooked fingerprints pressed in ink.
“I stole it.”
Manzhi suddenly began shaking violently, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut. Lin Sanyong leapt forward to support his elder sister, only to realize how frighteningly thin she truly was—nothing but bones beneath her clothes.
“Before dawn today, we escaped with only a handful of stove ash for protection,” Laidi continued. “On the road, we heard Fourth Uncle had passed the county exam…”
Suddenly, she dragged her two younger sisters to their knees. Their foreheads struck heavily against the brick floor.
“Please… give us a way to live! Laidi is willing to work like an ox or a horse!”
In the corner, the brass fittings of a camphorwood book chest reflected cold light.
Laidi stared at it, remembering that in her previous life she’d heard Fourth Uncle later became a clerk in the county office.
Her dark eyes shifted slightly.
She bowed again toward Lin Xiyong.
“Fourth Uncle… I can read. I can keep accounts.”
The whole room froze in shock.
Especially little Lin Sui’an, who was being held in his mother’s arms. Inside, his thoughts were in complete chaos:
Could this bargain-bin cousin actually be reborn too?! Wait… is this some bloody revenge rebirth novel and I’m the transmigrated baby? Did the Lin family fail to notice Aunt Manzhi’s suffering in the previous life, leading to Cousin Laidi’s tragic fate? And now she’s come back hating her maternal family, planning to sacrifice them all once she gains power?! This is terrifying!
All those frantic thoughts flashed through Lin Sui’an’s mind in only an instant.
Manzhi suddenly lifted her head.
“When did you…”
“A peddler taught me,” Laidi lied smoothly.
In truth, she had learned those skills in the brothel during her previous life, all to please customers.
Old Master Lin’s tobacco pipe clattered to the ground.
In the instant before the oil lamp went out completely, Laidi saw tears glimmering in her grandfather’s cloudy eyes.
Confusion flickered across her face.
Why, in her previous life, had no one from her maternal family reached out to help?
Using the dim light, Laidi quietly studied these relatives from her mother’s side—the first time she had ever met them in both her lives.
In her previous life, she died without ever stepping into this house.
And now, at last, she had seen the legendary grandfather and grandmother… her uncles… and the Fourth Uncle who had just earned the title of xiucai.
Fourth Uncle Lin Xiyong sat at the head seat. He was thin and scholarly, dressed in a faded blue robe. He looked refined, but his gaze was far deeper and steadier than Laidi had imagined—not at all like a useless bookworm.
Laidi clenched the fingers hidden in her sleeve.
She had to seize this lifeline.
“Father, we can’t just let this go!” Eldest Uncle Lin Dayong slammed the table, his voice low with fury. “What did that bastard promise me back then? And now he treats Elder Sister like this and even plans to sell my niece? Tomorrow I’ll break his legs myself!”
“That’s right!” the second and third uncles echoed together. “At dawn we’ll head to Shanghe Village and settle accounts with Li Maocai!”
Old Master Chen said nothing. He only smoked furiously, his deeply wrinkled face terrifyingly grim through the haze.
Laidi’s heart pounded.
They’re willing to help?
They truly intend to stand up for us?
She didn’t dare believe it too easily.
In her previous life, no help from her maternal family had ever come. In this life, she could only gamble once more.
“Father…” Manzhi’s voice trembled. “That beast… he knows people from the gambling den in town…”
“Who the hell cares!” Lin Dayong growled, fists cracking loudly. “He dares touch my sister and sell my niece? I’ll cripple him!”
Laidi’s eyes suddenly burned with tears.
So there really were people in this world willing to protect them.
“Don’t rush,” Fourth Uncle said calmly. “Elder Sister and the children should rest tonight. Tomorrow we’ll first go to Shanghe Village and assess the situation before deciding anything.”
He paused, his gaze settling on Laidi.
“Laidi… you can read?”
Her heart skipped.
“A little. The peddler taught me.”
Lin Xiyong studied her thoughtfully, asking no further questions. He turned to Old Master Lin instead.
“Father, tomorrow I’ll go to the county office and speak to the academic official. Maybe we can ask the yamen runners for assistance.”
Old Master Lin finally exhaled heavily and struck his pipe against the table.
“Fine. We’ll do it that way!”
They really intended to seek justice for them.
Laidi lowered her head and bit her lip hard to stop herself from crying aloud.
The atmosphere in the hall remained heavy when suddenly Fuping peeked out from behind Second Aunt Lin Xiayu. His round black eyes stared directly at Manzhi and her daughters.
“Great Aunt, why are you dressed like beggars?”
Instantly, every adult in the room stiffened.
Tian Guihua’s face changed color as she hurried to cover her son’s mouth.
“What nonsense are you saying?!”
But Fuping twisted away and pointed at Laidi.
“Cousin, why is there straw in your hair? Don’t you have combs at home?”
Laidi froze. Reflexively, she touched her dry, tangled hair, and her face flushed bright red.
Manzhi’s eyes filled with tears, her lips trembling too hard for words.
But then—
“Pfft!”
Zhaodi suddenly burst into laughter.
She was still young and didn’t understand humiliation. She simply found this round-headed little cousin amusing. Mimicking him, she pointed at his stomach.
“Then why’s your belly so round? Did you secretly eat meat?”
Fuping immediately puffed out his stomach proudly.
“I ate two big bowls today! And fatty pork too!”
“Wow!”
Zhaodi and Pandi widened their eyes in envy.
The adults exchanged glances.
Then Old Madam Lin suddenly laughed through her tears.
“This child…”
The suffocating tension instantly eased.
Lin Sanyong took the opportunity to rub Fuping’s head and scold jokingly, “You talk too much!”
Then he turned to Manzhi.
“Elder Sister, don’t take it to heart. This brat’s been a little fool since birth.”
Manzhi shook her head. Tears still streamed down her face, but this time, the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
So this was what it felt like—
For someone to ask about your misery in the most ordinary tone, without even a trace of disgust.
Laidi lowered her head and quietly wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
Perhaps, in this life… things truly would be different.