“Little bitch, do you know how long I’ve wanted you?”
“Shameless!”
“Cooperate a little, and you’ll suffer less.”
“Brother will take care of you.”
Lu Zhenting pinched Su Wanqing’s face, his disgusting breath spraying her ear, his hand wandering over her body.
“Lu Zhenting, you’re disgusting.”
Slap—
Lu Zhenting slapped Su Wanqing hard across the face.
“You’re sharp-tongued, huh? Later, you’ll beg me, be good, and I’ll make you feel good.”
No!!
“Don’t!”
“Let me go!!”
Suddenly, Su Wanqing woke up!
Her whole body trembled.
It took her a long time to calm down.
She realized she was in the Su family’s old mansion.
Her parents and brothers were still there!
She was still alive!
What was happening now?
The light from the crystal chandelier was pale, illuminating the faces in the room that looked like corpses.
Her father, Su Hongyuan, leaned against a carved armchair, coughing harshly, his whole body shaking.
His face was ashen.
Her mother, Shen Manyun, sat nearby, her carefully styled curls disheveled, eyes red from crying.
Her eldest brother, Su Mufeng, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, hiding red-rimmed eyes behind the lenses.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the redwood dining table.
In the center of the table lay a thin sheet of paper.
A “sent-down youth” notice.
This single piece of paper could crush the family.
Someone in the Su family had to go to the countryside for re-education.
“I’ll go.”
The voice that broke the dead silence came from Su Muyang.
He extinguished his “Da Qian Men” cigarette in the crystal ashtray with a sharp sizzle.
He stood up, his 1.8-meter frame casting a large shadow.
He walked over to his father, slapping his thin shoulder firmly.
“Mom, Dad, don’t worry.”
“Big brother is a scholar, can’t lift or carry anything, what’s he going to do in the countryside?”
“And as for Wanqing…”
He glanced at his sister in the corner of the sofa, full of indulgence.
“Her delicate nature… half a lifetime would be ruined there.”
“The family has to send someone. I’ll take this spot.”
Su Muyang’s voice was deep, resolute from his military experience.
No room for negotiation.
That was the sentence!
Su Wanqing sprang up from the velvet sofa.
Memories of her previous life exploded in her mind.
The musty, blood-scented cellar instantly filled her thoughts.
She remembered.
It was her second brother’s “I’ll go” that had pushed the Su family into disaster.
Within half a year in the countryside, he was trapped by a woman named Lin Zhaodi.
In the pitch-black cornfield, the woman tore her clothes and screamed, drawing the whole village.
She falsely accused her second brother of doing it.
A criminal record like that could ruin someone for life in that era.
Her fearless second brother was publicly shamed, fingered at, and scolded.
Red-eyed, veins bulging on his fists, he finally ground out three words through his teeth:
“I admit it.”
He took the blame to protect the Su family’s reputation.
He married that poisonous woman, and on their wedding night, was drugged, fell off a tractor, and broke his leg, becoming crippled.
Lin Zhaodi then turned around and got together with another educated youth, Lu Zhenting…
No!
She couldn’t let her second brother walk that deadly path again!
[!!! Finally! The heroine woke up! This timing is perfect!]
[Ten seconds later, her second brother would have already packed! Stop him! Hurry!]
[The dream begins here, sisters! That little bitch Lin Zhaodi in the cornfield is waiting for him to fall into her trap! Absolutely cannot let him go! ]
[Grab the spot! Heroine steps up! Charge!]
The barrage of thoughts in her mind cleared Su Wanqing’s chaotic consciousness.
She was reborn.
Back on the day that determined the Su family’s fate!
“No!”
Su Wanqing’s voice trembled but was as hard as stone.
“Second brother, you cannot go!”
All eyes in the living room turned to her at once.
Surprise, confusion, even slight displeasure.
To them, Su Wanqing had always been the pampered little princess, delicate and soft-spoken—when had she ever spoken up so loudly?
Su Hongyuan frowned even more, his voice filled with authority.
“Wanqing, stop this nonsense!”
“I understand!”
Tears filled Su Wanqing’s eyes as she rushed to the table, placing her small hands on the notice.
“Dad, I’m not being unreasonable! Second brother really cannot go. If he goes…”
“Then he can’t join the army! Doesn’t he want to be a soldier?”
“See? The little sister has grown up.”
Su Muyang smiled, his tall frame blocking her. He reached out to stroke her hair.
“Later… there will be a chance.”
His comfort was like a knife, stabbing into Su Wanqing’s heart.
It was because her second brother was too good, too selfless, that he fell into other people’s traps!
Without any defenses at all!
[Crying! Heroine, cry! For soft-hearted parents, tears are the best weapon!]
[Crying alone isn’t enough! What’s in your pocket? Take it out! The newbie bonus will blind them!]
Pocket?
Su Wanqing instinctively touched her dress pocket and felt a cold, hard rectangular box.
What was this?
Before she was reborn, Lu Zhenting had locked her in the cellar, leaving her with nothing…
A thought flashed through her mind, and a tear slipped down.
She clenched the carved wooden box in her pocket, her shoulders trembling as she cried, looking utterly pitiful.
“I don’t care! Neither brother is going! If someone has to go, it’ll be me!”
She lifted her tearful eyes, her gaze stubborn and terrifying.
“I can endure hardship!”
No matter the suffering, could it surpass that of her past life?
“What hardship can you endure?”
Her mother, Shen Manyun, could no longer contain herself. She pulled her into her arms, hastily wiping her tears with a handkerchief.
“You’ve never even washed a bowl. Sending you to the countryside isn’t asking for death!”
“Mom, I can survive!”
Seizing the moment, Su Wanqing pulled the carved wooden box from her pocket and slammed it on the table.
Instantly, everyone’s breath caught.
The small box was full of receipts, ration tickets, industrial tickets, meat coupons…
“These… where did these come from?”
Su Hongyuan’s voice changed, shocked as he stared at the items, forgetting even to cough.
Su Wanqing sniffed, following the words suggested by her mental “barrage,” crying as she spoke:
“It’s… it’s from a grandma I helped when she fell on the road. Her family secretly gave these to me as thanks.”
“They said times are chaotic, and I should keep them for emergencies.”
She looked at her father.
“Dad, with these, I definitely won’t have a hard life!”
[Focus! Wanqing, what does your father care about most? His wrongful case! Quick! Tell them, second brother staying has a purpose! He can help you check the old case! This is the trump card!]
[Add drama! Say it, then faint! You’re tiny—crying like this and fainting first, your mom will surrender immediately!]
Su Wanqing steeled herself, her pale face straining with all her strength.
“And… and Dad, your case isn’t over yet!”
“Second brother has connections in the army. If he stays in the city, he can help you move things, help uncover the truth of that old account!”
“If he leaves, who will help you!”
Before she finished, her body swayed violently.
Everything went black, and she fell straight back.
“Wanqing!”
“Sister!”
The living room instantly descended into chaos.
Shen Manyun acted quickly, catching her daughter, touching her cold face, terrified out of her mind.
“Wanqing! Don’t scare Mom! Wake up!”
Su Muyang rushed over as well, looking at his sister’s pale face with pain and guilt.
Su Hongyuan stood in place, his tall frame shaking hard.
Her last words hit him like a hammer.
The wrongful case…
That stone had pressed on his heart for over a decade.
Once a famous businessman on the Shanghai Bund, donating planes and cannons, he was ruined overnight.
Family property confiscated, reputation destroyed.
The Su family’s survival, keeping the ancestral home, and avoiding being sent to the far northwest for reform, was all thanks to friends using connections as a guarantee.
But this time, sending someone down, there was no escape.
Countless eyes were watching the Su family.
Su Hongyuan dreamed of clearing his name.
Muyang was their last hope.
Smart, bold, well-connected—if he stayed in Shanghai, maybe… just maybe there was a chance.
But Wanqing…
Sending his delicate little daughter to suffer in the countryside?
His heart ached unbearably.
“Let Wanqing go. Give her the family money and tickets, so she can have it easier in the countryside!”
“I’ll send my salary to my sister every month,” proposed Su Mufeng.
He had been weak since childhood. After school closures, the family found him accounting work in a factory. After the family’s misfortune, he survived on his and his second brother’s stipends.
“Mine too, she mustn’t suffer,” said Su Muyang, his tall figure, eyes red, voice choked.
He had promised to protect their little one, but now it seemed their little one was protecting them.
“Muyang, you personally take your sister there. I’ll check with Uncle Zhang, inventory the household, and let Wanqing take it all!”
Su Hongyuan’s hoarse voice commanded.
Su Wanqing quietly exhaled in her mother’s arms.
From a hidden angle, the corner of her mouth twitched.
In her mind, the “barrage” erupted in celebration.
[Victory! Step one perfectly completed! Second brother’s forced marriage trap successfully avoided!]
[Yay! Next is the newbie dungeon! Our delicate young lady is about to reach the battlefield!]
Su Wanqing knew the barrage was right.
This was just the beginning.
Grabbing the spot was the first step to rewriting fate.
Next were the roots of all her past suffering, the wolves lurking everywhere.
But she was not afraid.
With memories of two lives and her “barrage strategists,”
This time, she would make all those who harmed her family pay in full!