Just as she was about to speak, another wave of even more intense headache struck her, nearly killing her with pain once again.
A flood of memories that did not belong to her surged into her mind, pouring in like seawater.
Before she could fully process them, she fainted once more.
When she woke again, it was already midnight. This time, besides the pain, she was also starving—so hungry that it woke her up.
It was now early 1976 in Xinhua Guo. The original owner of this body was also named Yang Yiyang.
She was the third daughter of the Yang family, a working-class household in Ningcheng. Both her parents favored sons over daughters.
Here, men were revered while women were treated as servants. Men were the heavens, women were mere grass. In the Yang family, sons were masters, and daughters—like the original owner—were treated as maids.
The original owner had no presence whatsoever in the Yang family.
From a young age, she had to wash clothes, cook, sweep, and handle all the household chores for the entire Yang family.
All the housework was left to her alone.
She had been doing this for over a decade. If she disobeyed, she would be beaten—by everyone in the family, one after another—until she submitted.
As a result, the original owner’s spirit had been broken by the many men in the Yang family.
But she loved studying. Ever since graduating from elementary school, she hadn’t used a single cent from her family for her education.
She earned her tuition fees by mending clothes for others, assembling matchboxes, and collecting scrap to sell.
Despite these struggles, she managed to finish high school, though her grades weren’t the best.
In Ningcheng, unmarried men and women without jobs were now required to go to the countryside.
The original owner was quite beautiful, and many came to propose marriage.
To buy a job for Fourth Son Yang Haihe, who had dropped out after junior high, the Yang family spread the word: whoever offered the highest price could marry the original owner.
Among the suitors were old bachelors, fools, widowers who had outlived several wives, and even some of Yang Yiyang’s male classmates.
But seeing so many interested parties, the Yang family raised the price, selling her to the highest bidder.
In the end, it was a good-for-nothing ruffian from the Jiang Family—a troublemaker who only knew how to fight, steal, and cause trouble—who won her hand. He had once fainted after a fight and was saved by Yang Yiyang.
He, too, had reached the age where he would be forced to go to the countryside if he didn’t marry.
He went home and begged his mother, who had married into the Jiang Family as a second wife and given birth to him. She was a meek and submissive woman who endured hardship without complaint.
But to save her useless son from suffering in the countryside, she dared to steal the 1,000 yuan her husband had saved and brought it to the Yang family to propose marriage for her son.
Fearing the Jiang Family might back out of the marriage, the Yang family forced Yang Yiyang and Jiang Zihao to get their marriage certificate that very day.
There was no wedding ceremony, no dowry. Yang Yiyang was simply told to take two sets of worn-out clothes and follow Jiang Zihao back to the Jiang Family.
The outcome was predictable. The patriarch of the Jiang Family had saved that money for years, only to have it stolen and spent by his second wife.
He beat her half to death, demanding she get the money back, or he would divorce her.
To make matters worse, his son brought home the “shameless woman” bought with his stolen money, fueling his rage even more.
He swore he would beat his unfilial son to death, then force Yang Yiyang to return to her family and demand the 1,000 yuan back.
The original owner said at the time, “The Yang family won’t return the money.”
As a result, Jiang Heda—Jiang Zihao’s father—pushed her, causing her to fall and hit her head on the corner of a table. She lost her life on the very first day of her marriage.
All for that 1,000 yuan. When she opened her eyes again, it was now this new Yang Yiyang, with a different soul inside.
Since she would have to live on using this body, she would take it upon herself to settle the debts owed to the original owner.
However, she still faced the biggest problem: if she wanted a divorce, she had to return the thousand-yuan bride price to the man's family.
Otherwise, she could be arrested and sent for re-education for fraudulent marriage.
This matter was far from over—on the contrary, it had only just begun.
Today, things hadn’t escalated to the Yang family because both the woman who had been stolen and the one bought with money had fainted.
Tomorrow was bound to bring more trouble. They might even drag her back to the Yang family to demand the money back.
From the original host’s memories of over a decade, Yang Yiyang knew that even if she were beaten to death on the spot, the Yang family wouldn’t refund a single cent.
They might even be happy to extort another sum of money after their daughter was beaten to death.
Listening to her useless husband muttering all night long,
she learned that her newlywed mother-in-law had also been severely beaten and was now unconscious, lying right beside her.
She hadn’t eaten a single bite of food for a full day and night, and her stomach burned with a fiery ache.
If she didn’t eat something soon, Yang Yiyang thought she would starve to death on her very first day here.
She nudged the only person in the room who was still in one piece. "Wife, you’re awake. Are you okay? Does anything still hurt?"
"But we don’t have money to buy medicine for you. When it gets light, I’ll go find a few friends and see if I can borrow two yuan. Then I’ll take you all to the hospital."
Yang Yiyang didn’t want to listen to his nonsense anymore and cut straight to the point. "I’m hungry. Is there anything to eat?"
"I haven’t eaten in two days."
"Ah, but there’s nothing to eat at home right now! I haven’t had dinner either."
Perhaps he couldn’t bear the thought of his newlywed wife starving to death on her first day, so he said, "I’ll go out and think of something."
With that, he disappeared. About an hour and a half later, he returned, holding half a pack of sponge cakes.
"Let me help you sit up and eat a little. Have a couple of these first, then drink some water."
Yang Yiyang didn’t ask where he had gotten the cakes. She was so hungry she didn’t even have the strength to speak.
Even during the hardest days in the orphanage, she had never been this hungry.
After eating two cakes and drinking half a bowl of cold water, her stomach finally felt a little fuller. "Thank you!"
Jiang Zihao grinned. "You’re my wife. Why are you thanking me?"
Yang Yiyang took a closer look at this man. If nothing else, his face was at least pleasant to look at—he was somewhat handsome.
She didn’t have much strength left and, after eating a little, fell back into a deep sleep.
She woke up again at dawn, when loud, wailing curses erupted from next door.
"Which damned, limbless, rootless, short-lived ghost sneaked into our house last night and stole half a pound of my sponge cakes?!"
"Hope you die from diarrhea, you damned bastards!"
"Go reincarnate already, you cursed lot!"
"Treating my sponge cakes as your last meal!"
Yang Yiyang thought to herself that she had just been reborn last night when she ate them, and she hadn’t even finished them. So what she ate was a rebirth meal, not a last meal.
She turned to him and asked,
"Was it you last night?"
Jiang Zihao lowered his head and whispered sheepishly, "I was afraid you’d starve to death. I’m sorry."
Yang Yiyang took a deep breath. She had already eaten them, and now she couldn’t possibly admit to it. Otherwise, she’d be labeled a thief forever.
She could only take things one step at a time.
After finishing the two pieces of sponge cake and drinking a bowl of water, Yang Yiyang finally felt full.
Now she had time to ask, "What do you plan to do next?"
Jiang Zihao didn't know what to do either. "At worst, I'll let Father Jiang beat me again. If that's not enough, he can beat me a few more times."
Yang Yiyang thought for a moment and said, "This matter is far from over. Your father will definitely force us to go to my parents' house to get the money back."
"Once money goes into my parents' pockets, it's definitely not coming back. So you need to be prepared."
Zihao didn't know what kind of preparation she meant, but his wife's words made sense.