For a moment, Su Ying wanted to slap herself why did the author have to write such a plot, tormenting good people instead of anything decent?
A useless, spineless father; a cruel, heartless stepmother; a spoiled, rotten younger brother. She really was a genius, landing herself in such a cliché, melodramatic mess of a story.
Just thinking about it made her furious, and the worst part was she’d actually woken up inside it.
Su Ying was beside herself with frustration, wishing it were all just a dream, but the dull throbbing in her nose told her otherwise.
She looked around frantically, and her gaze met a man standing not far away.
It was the man she’d run into at the gate earlier.
She recalled him vaguely: his name was Lu Dongsheng, a company commander stationed at a military base up north. The eldest of five brothers, he was twenty-four and still unmarried. In the book, he was Song Min’s destined match two years from now, he’d be wounded, disabled, and forced to retire from service. By then, Song Min would have graduated from medical school and be interning at the hospital, where she’d nurse him back to health. Su Ying hadn’t read further ahead, but she also remembered Song Min had a wealthy, well-connected boyfriend on the side.
Most importantly, the author had blessed the male lead with endless fortune and luck somewhere in the run‑down pigsty at the back of his home lay a chest of gold buried underground.
If she married him… could she turn fate around?
The book only hinted at Song Mei and Jiang Xiaofei being close, never going so far as to say they’d slept together after all, Song Min was the heroine; she had to remain pure and kind. Yet here they were, caught red‑handed in the act.
Su Ying’s mind was in a whirl; she couldn’t quite figure out what had changed.
Meanwhile, Lu Dongsheng frowned at the scene beneath the great pagoda tree, glancing over at Su Ying as if watching a play.
Frail, delicate, helpless he wondered how this girl would handle such a mess.
Someone nearby pointed at Jiang Xiaofei and said, “Oh, Xiaofei, if you want to marry the educated girl, that’s a fine thing why not talk to your father? You’re his only son, he’d give you anything. Why go and do something so shameful in broad daylight?”
Jiang Xiaofei stood with his shirt off; red marks and bite scars marked his neck proof enough it had been consensual.
“Shut your damned mouth!” Jiang Xiaofei roared. “Don’t try to fool me with that rubbish, you have no idea what you’re talking about!”
He shouted at the onlookers, who exchanged glances but said nothing his father was the village party secretary, after all. Anyone else would have been pelted with rotten vegetables and jeered out of the village.
He glanced at pale‑faced Su Ying and snarled, “And you, Su Ying if I find out you had anything to do with this, I’ll kill you.”
A woman standing behind Su Ying saw how arrogant he was and said kindly, “Yingzi, that pair’s already sharing a bed why would you still want him? If you ask me, call off the marriage.”
Tian Cuifen heard this and turned on her, glaring. “Who do you think you are? Mind your own business! This is our family’s affair what’s it to you?”
The woman muttered back, “I think you’re pushing Yingzi into the fire! Jiang Xiaofei’s so wonderful why not marry your own daughter to him?”
Tian Cuifen’s eyes narrowed; she rolled up her sleeves and raised her hand to strike, when Jiang Xiaofei shouted again: “Su Ying, I’m calling off our engagement!”
A flicker of delight crossed Su Ying’s eyes, though her face remained hurt and wronged. “Jiang Xiaofei, even if you didn’t want to end it I would, right here, in front of everyone.
This marriage is off. I won’t do it.”
Why keep trash like him around? She’d kick him out now and be done with it.
In the book, Jiang Xiaofei was lazy, good‑for‑nothing, all brawn and no brains. Once married, he’d value sons over daughters and let his family walk all over him. Marry him, and she’d be ruined for life her whole future gone.
Tian Cuifen panicked and shoved her. Su Ying was still weak; she stumbled and nearly fell.
Furious, before she could steady herself, Tian Cuifen grabbed her hair and pushed her face into the snow.
“You ungrateful girl! Did you ignore everything I told you? You think you can just call this off whenever you please?”
Tian Cuifen slapped her again and again until Su Ying’s head was spinning.
Damn it she was from the future! How could she be bullied by a character in a book? If she could, she’d march right up to the author and give her a piece of her mind stop hurting good people in your stories!
The meek, obedient Su Ying was gone; she fought back, seizing Tian Cuifen’s hair in return.
Just then, an ox walked past, leaving a steaming pile of dung in its wake. Su Ying saw her chance she pushed Tian Cuifen hard. The woman stumbled backward and landed right in the fresh, steaming dung.
Tian Cuifen shrieked in outrage; the crowd burst out laughing.
Even the villagers were stunned Yingzi had never acted like this before.
Su Ying’s braids were pulled askew; she wiped her nose and looked Tian Cuifen in the eye, unyielding.
“I said I won’t marry him, and I won’t! You’re so eager to see me wed is he your son or something? Let me tell you ever since you married my father ten years ago, I haven’t known a single happy day. Everyone here knows exactly how you’ve treated me.
None of this is my fault and I have the right to say no. From now on, if you dare hurt me, I’ll fight you to the death.”
She straightened her tattered padded jacket made three or four years ago, now far too small for her.
A villager called out, “That’s right, girl don’t marry a man like that! A woman’s life is like rapeseed: fall on fertile ground and you flourish; fall on barren ground and you suffer.”
Tian Cuifen struggled to her feet, covered in filth. The villagers stepped back, holding their noses what a stench!
From a distance, Lu Dongsheng smiled. Interesting she looked fragile, but had quite a spine.
Village doctor Zhang Shengli spotted him and hurried over. “Old Lu! What are you doing standing out here? It’s freezing come inside.”
Lu Dongsheng kept watching Su Ying, smiling. “That girl… how old is she?”
Zhang Shengli followed his gaze and grinned. “Oh? Taken a fancy to her, have you?”
“Just asking,” Lu Dongsheng said.