Chapter 2

“Mom, I want to marry Li Jian! I don’t want to marry Sheng Tunan. So what if he’s a high-ranking official? If I marry him, I’ll just be a lonely widow.”

“Mom, I want Li Jian. He’s the strongest man in the whole company. I like that kind of guy! Marrying him, I can become a mother without the pain, and his two sons will take care of me in my old age. I want him, I don’t want to marry a high-ranking official and be a lonely widow…”

Zhan Xinyue was awakened by a noisy, piercing sound. Before she opened her eyes, she smelled a humid, musty odor.

What was going on? Wasn’t she dead?

She sniffed carefully, and the musty smell seemed to be mixed with the scent of earth and grass. Zhan Xinyue had a ridiculous guess in her heart and quickly opened her eyes.

Moonlight shone through a hole in the roof, and Zhan Xinyue saw mud-brick walls, uneven floors, and broken windows.

Zhan Xinyue turned sideways and reached out to touch the bed sheet, which was patched with countless patches. One of the patches had come undone, revealing the straw underneath.

“Zhan Hongyan, what are you going crazy about? You woke me up in the middle of the night. What nonsense are you talking about, a young unmarried girl? Sheng Tunan became a battalion commander at only 25 years old. He’s strong, handsome, and healthy. Why would you be a lonely widow? You don’t want to be a battalion commander’s wife, you want to marry a man with two burdens, an outsider who just came from the north a couple of years ago. What are you thinking? And ‘strongest’? You’re an unmarried girl, what are you thinking about in your head? Do you even have any shame?”

Outside the door, Chen Juxiang was furious, scolding her second daughter in one breath without pausing.

“No, I want to marry Li Jian. Sheng Tunan is in the army, he doesn’t come back twice a year. Isn’t that a lonely widow? I don’t care, Mom. If you really want what’s best for me, let me marry Li Jian.”

Zhan Hongyan rolled her eyes and said, “Grandpa appeared to me in a dream. He told me that Zhan Xinyue was adopted, and he also told me that Li Jian will become very rich in the future. When I marry him and become a wealthy wife, I will definitely take good care of you and buy my brother a big house, moving him to the city.”

The pie that Zhan Hongyan painted for Chen Juxiang was big and round. Besides, she had only learned about Zhan Xinyue being adopted when she was about to die in her previous life.

Now she brought it up, she wasn’t afraid that Chen Juxiang wouldn’t believe it was a dream from her grandfather.

Zhan Xinyue listened to the conversation between the mother and daughter outside the door and realized that she and her sister, Zhan Hongyan, had been reborn.

They were reborn in 1977, when Zhan Xinyue was 20 years old and Zhan Hongyan was 18. The two sisters were engaged and about to get married.

In her previous life, Zhan Hongyan, due to the arranged marriage, married the battalion commander Sheng Tunan. She didn’t want to suffer in the army, so she didn’t follow him. Sheng Tunan was very busy and rarely came back. Zhan Hongyan couldn’t stand the loneliness, so she cheated and got pregnant.

After the truth came out, Sheng Tunan decisively divorced Zhan Hongyan. The pregnant Zhan Hongyan was abandoned by her lover. She was overwhelmed by her emotions and had a difficult labor. She suffered for three days and three nights and eventually died on the operating table.

When Zhan Hongyan died, she learned that Li Jian had become rich during the reform and opening-up, and he showered Zhan Xinyue with love and affection, spending lavishly on her. His two sons were also smart, intelligent, and adorable.

Zhan Hongyan, reborn, didn’t want to suffer through childbirth again. She wanted to steal Zhan Xinyue’s life, marry Li Jian, become a wealthy wife, live a luxurious life, and become a mother without the pain.

Zhan Xinyue scoffed in her heart. Zhan Hongyan died early in her previous life, she didn’t know that Li Jian’s wealth was all earned by Zhan Xinyue herself, and she didn’t know that Li Jian’s so-called “sister” who shared the same surname as his mother, Liu Ruyan, was actually his childhood bride.

“Good,” Zhan Xinyue yawned and muttered to herself, “Last life was too tiring, this life, whoever wants to be a stepmother can be one!”

Besides, she had an unknown ailment that didn’t suit marriage.

In her previous life, Zhan Xinyue learned traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts to get revenge, and with her amazing business talent, she could live a happy and carefree life on her own this time!

Outside the door, Chen Qiuju believed Zhan Hongyan’s words. She was superstitious, and the fact that Zhan Xinyue was adopted was unknown to her son and daughter, so it must have been her father who had a dream.

“You can marry Li Jian. Xinyue will listen to me, she’ll do whatever I tell her. But what about Sheng Tunan? Should we let Xinyue marry him? I don’t want that dead girl to get away with it. If she marries him, when Sheng Lao Tai dies, she’ll go to the army. Who will do the housework?”

“Then let her lose her virginity so she can’t get married, and let her be a cow and a horse for the family for the rest of her life! Mom, didn’t Dad want to be a squad leader? Let’s send her to the company commander’s bed, hehe.”

Zhan Hongyan’s eyes lit up. In her previous life, she had affairs with many men. She knew that Huang Jianjun, the company commander who seemed serious and upright on the surface, was actually a lecherous man behind closed doors, and he had a whole set of tricks for tormenting people.

“Huang Jianjun is not that kind of person.” Chen Juxiang shook her head.

“Mom, listen to me. What man doesn’t cheat? Zhan Xinyue is really beautiful. Give her to the company commander, Dad will definitely become a squad leader. You’ll be the company commander’s wife, and you’ll have an easier time working in the future.”

Zhan Hongyan said through gritted teeth. Why could Zhan Xinyue be so beautiful? Even under the sun all day, she wouldn’t tan. Her skin was white and dazzling, her figure was graceful, and her features were so beautiful that it was impossible to look away.

In her previous life, Zhan Xinyue became a wealthy wife, with money to dress up, she became even more dazzling and beautiful, a beauty that could topple nations. Zhan Hongyan clenched her fists. This life, she would make Zhan Xinyue a slut, a woman no man would want!

Zhan Hongyan approached Chen Juxiang and whispered, “Mom, don’t we have some incense at home? Let’s take advantage of tonight, Dad is not home, he went to the county high school to send money to my brother. Let’s drug Zhan Xinyue and then call the company commander!”