Late autumn had arrived. The sky was cloudless, and the sun beat down mercilessly on the yellowed earth. The roadside ditches had long since dried up, exposing cracked riverbeds. Fish and shrimp had vanished without a trace, while stunted weeds swayed in the wind, rustling softly.
A crowd of ragged refugees surrounded a woman lying on the ground, her face covered in blood. They spat at her with undisguised contempt, as though she had committed some unforgivable crime.
“Old Gen, what’s the point of keeping a daughter-in-law who doesn’t know how to behave and has brought shame to the family? Might as well smash her to death!”
“Exactly! We’ve fled so far from home already, and she’s still thinking about running back to that lover of hers.”
“If you ask me, killing her would be a waste. Sell her in the next town instead—we might get a few taels of silver. Otherwise, if she really runs off next time, won’t she have eaten your family’s food for the past two years for nothing?”
“She hasn’t moved for quite a while. Don’t tell me we actually stoned her to death?”
“She’s definitely pretending. I wouldn’t believe Jiang could die even if everyone else did. She’s full of schemes, and her life is tough as nails. How many times has she thrown a fit and played dead before?”
Pain—
So much pain—
Every inch of her body hurt like hell.
Jiang Li struggled to open her eyes.
Instead of the dismembered corpses and snarling zombies she expected to see, a crowd of people dressed in ancient clothing stood around her, pointing and whispering. Some were even gripping stones, eager to throw them.
Her boyfriend and her best friend had coveted the supplies stored inside her spatial ability.
They had lured her out of the safe zone before revealing their true colors, alternating between threats and persuasion.
The two people she trusted most had betrayed her, gotten together behind her back, and even tried to steal everything she had.
How could she possibly have agreed?
In the end, the cheating scumbag and his mistress shoved her straight into a horde of zombies.
She had no idea whether the supplies in her storage space had survived, but she knew one thing for certain—
There had been no escaping death.
The agony of zombies tearing flesh from her body still lingered, making it impossible for her to accept the unbelievable scene before her.
A middle-aged woman saw Jiang Li wake up and sneered, pointing at her.
“See? I told you Jiang was faking it. People like her are a scourge that’ll live for a thousand years. How could she die so easily?”
Jiang Li remained dazed for only a moment.
Soon, memories flooded into her mind as though someone had implanted a chip in her brain, forcing her to witness another woman’s entire life.
The woman shared her name—Jiang Li.
But while she herself had been twenty-three years old when the apocalypse struck, this Jiang Li was only seventeen, already married for two years.
She lived in a country called Great Qi, a dynasty that had never existed in Chinese history. Her ancestral home was Jiang Village, Biyao County, Suzhou Prefecture.
Her parents had married her off for half a dou of wheat to a crippled widower named Xu Dali from Taoyuan Village.
Not only was Xu Dali a widower, but he also had a son and a daughter, and was seven years older than she was.
Back at her parents’ home, she’d already had someone she loved.
Given Xu Dali’s circumstances, she had looked down on him completely. She refused to settle down and live honestly with him, constantly finding excuses to return to her maiden home just so she could meet her sweetheart.
Biyao County had suffered ten consecutive years of drought.
For the last three years, not a single drop of rain had fallen.
The land was no longer fit for human habitation, and nearly the entire county had fled as refugees.
Her husband’s family had forced her to join them.
But she refused to give up on her lover, believing he was still waiting faithfully for her back in Jiang Village.
Ironically, both this woman and Jiang Li had been equally blind when it came to men.
Jiang Li had awakened a spatial ability during the apocalypse and ended up being exploited by a worthless scumbag.
This woman had encountered the same type of man.
Ancient society placed tremendous importance on a woman’s chastity.
Yet although her so-called lover had never formally proposed marriage, he constantly took liberties with her, touching her inappropriately and repeatedly trying to seduce her into crossing the final line.
If a man truly loved a woman in such an era, how could he bear to disgrace her like that?
The woman had been laughably naïve.
After just a few sweet words from him, she’d actually believed those actions were perfectly normal between lovers.
Fortunately, her innocence had also protected her.
She insisted on waiting until she had left the Xu family, determined to save her precious virginity for their wedding night.
No matter how much he coaxed her, she refused to give in.
That was why the scumbag had never gotten what he wanted.
Jiang Li might have been a fool herself, unable to see through the man who betrayed her.
But when it came to someone else’s situation, she saw everything with perfect clarity.
Perhaps that was what people meant by, it’s always easier to see things as an outsider.
Again and again, the woman had run away.
Again and again, she’d been dragged back.
Again and again, she’d been beaten until she was covered in bruises.
Back in the village, only her husband’s family had hit her.
Now that they were refugees, even complete strangers felt entitled to beat her.
Whether it was because of the wound on her forehead or because of the flood of memories she couldn’t digest all at once, her head throbbed as though it were about to explode.
Jiang Li was certain now.
She had transmigrated into the body of the village woman Jiang Li from the Great Qi Dynasty.
Seeing her repeatedly clutching her head while silently enduring everyone’s abuse, Xu Genshen worried she might truly have been beaten senseless.
He asked cautiously,
“Can you still stand?”
Jiang Li turned to look at the elderly man.
The memories immediately identified him.
He was the original Jiang Li’s father-in-law, Xu Genshen.
In truth, he was only forty years old, but years of hardship had made him look much older.
His face was sallow and gaunt.
Half of the hair tied atop his head had already turned gray.
His cracked, purplish lips were covered with dry, peeling skin.
Judging from his appearance, he’d probably gone without even a mouthful of water since setting out to search for her.
Jiang Li had to admit that the original owner’s actions deserved condemnation in any era.
But Xu Genshen, who hadn’t wanted to dirty his own hands, had encouraged—and even incited—others to attack his daughter-in-law.
She despised him for that as well.
“Who threw the stones at me?”
The moment she spoke, Jiang Li realized her throat was so dry it felt glued together. It was so parched she wanted to gag.
Combined with the blood loss, she felt dizzy and utterly weak.
Xu Genshen answered matter-of-factly,
“Everyone here went through the trouble of looking for you. What’s wrong with taking a couple of throws? You’re not dead, are you?”
If the original Jiang Li hadn’t died…
How could she have appeared here?
No matter how disliked the original owner had been, and no matter how many faults she’d had, Jiang Li felt she owed her something in return for receiving this body.
She owed the young woman a tremendous debt.
She was just considering whether to remember every hateful face present when one of her enemies volunteered herself.
The middle-aged woman who had just declared that “a scourge lives for a thousand years” stepped forward arrogantly.
“I started the stoning. So what? A cheap little slut like you? If you were my daughter-in-law, I’d beat you eight hundred times a day! Women like you have shamed every decent woman alive.”
Jiang Li looked at her, swaying slightly as she forced herself to stand.
A layer of icy frost settled in her eyes.
The woman was also from Taoyuan Village.
Her name was Cao Qin.
Back in the village, she had loved nothing more than gossiping and stirring up trouble. Whenever something happened to another family, she absolutely had to stick her nose in and chatter about it.
Expressionless, Jiang Li enunciated each word slowly.
“I… will… remember… you.”
Cao Qin felt a chill run down her spine.
Jiang Li’s face was smeared with blood.
Even her teeth looked red as she spoke.
And those utterly emotionless eyes staring straight at her…
Anyone would find them terrifying.
She instinctively took a step back, her confidence wavering.
“What? You think you can fight me? You shameless whore! Be grateful nobody drowned you in a pig cage!”
Jiang Li let out a cold laugh.
“I don’t have the strength to argue with you right now.”
“But remember this.”
“When my injuries heal, I’ll make you pay for every single thing you said and did today.”
No matter how unfaithful the original Jiang Li might have been, it wasn’t Cao Qin’s place as an outsider to punish her.
This body had been starving for a long time and was now seriously injured.
There was no way Jiang Li could retaliate immediately.
Besides, if she attacked now, everyone present would side with Cao Qin against her.
The most important thing at the moment was treating her wounds.
In an era without advanced medicine, a bacterial infection could easily be fatal.