Chapter 1

July 10, 1978. It was a rare, auspicious day—everything favored by fate.

At the Chen household in Gazi Village, a large group of relatives and friends had gathered early in the morning to attend the ceremony.

“Rite complete! Close the coffin!”

This was the very first sentence Qiao Xinyi heard the moment she took over the body.

The coffin lid began to close slowly. Accompanied by the blaring of horns, she could hear voices outside the coffin congratulating the family.

With a loud bang, Qiao Xinyi kicked the nearly shut coffin lid clean off, sending it flying and injuring several people in the process. As she marveled at the strength of her new body, cries of horror reached her ears:

“Chen Daniu! Your crazy girl just came back from the dead!”

Qiao Xinyi climbed out of the coffin, and the first thing she saw was another coffin placed nearby. Though it was a mourning hall, it was strangely decorated—half in red, half in white.

She stood beside the coffin and swept her gaze across the entire room, finally locking eyes with Madam Chen, who was creeping toward her with a firewood stick.

A ghost marriage scene—so they were really planning to finish her off for good, huh?

Qiao Xinyi pretended not to notice. Just as Madam Chen approached, she lashed out with a solid kick to the woman’s stomach, sending her groaning to the floor and dropping the stick.

Without hesitation, Qiao Xinyi marched over, grabbed the woman, and heaved her into the coffin. Then she picked up the lid she had kicked away, slammed it back on, and even grabbed a few nails and a hammer lying nearby.

Before anyone could react, she pounded the lid shut with a few sharp bangs.

Once done, she tucked the hammer into her waistband, clapped her hands, and shouted loudly,
“Coffin closed! Rite complete!”

From inside the coffin came Madam Chen’s ghostly screams and frantic pounding. But Qiao Xinyi had moved too quickly—everyone in the hall was stunned.

Only when Qiao Xinyi waved her hand and urged,
“What are you all standing around for? Hurry and carry it up the mountain! Don’t miss the lucky hour,”
did people start to come to their senses.

The well-dressed matchmaker stomped her foot in panic.
“Mistake! Mistake! This one’s too old—she’s not worthy of my son!”

Qiao Xinyi ignored her completely, dodged Chen’s father as he lunged to catch her, and bolted outside.

As she ran, she shouted,
“Help! Murder! Someone’s trying to kill me!”

Don’t be fooled by how scrawny she looked—Qiao Xinyi ran like the wind and had a voice that could travel across the village.

Her scream threw the mourning hall into chaos.

It was still early, and the villagers hadn’t yet headed to the fields. Qiao Xinyi’s shouting brought everyone out to see what was going on.

Riding his bicycle down a nearby path, Fu Qingshan heard the commotion and sped up. But soon, the road ahead was blocked by curious villagers.

“Excuse me, what’s going on up there? I thought I heard someone shouting for help,” Fu Qingshan asked as he planted his long legs on the ground and steadily balanced his bicycle.

A villager turned around, surprised to see a young man in military uniform.

“Hey, who are you with? We haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I’m a comrade of Chen Zhuangshi, just passing through and helping him deliver something,” Fu Qingshan explained quickly, then asked again,
“Uncle, what exactly happened here?”

He looked toward the direction blocked by the crowd. The cries for help were growing fainter—it sounded like someone had run outside the village.

“The one yelling is Chen Daniu’s fool daughter,” the man replied. “Two days ago, Chen Daniu and his wife claimed she tripped over the doorstep at home and died. Then they collected 500 yuan in bride price from a family in the county whose son had died. They set up the mourning hall yesterday and were holding the wedding rites this morning.”

Then the man asked, “Isn’t that strange? A girl who was declared dead just came back to life this morning, alive and kicking?”

Another man nearby snorted,
“You drunk too much horse piss or something? Ever heard of someone dying just from tripping in their own house? And what a coincidence—she dies one day, and the next day, she’s part of a ghost marriage?”

“Exactly,” chimed in a third, lowering his voice. “If you ask me, I’d say Chen Daniu and his wife heard someone in the county was looking for a bride for their dead son. So the two of them killed their own fool daughter and sold her.”

“The Chens say she died tripping on the threshold. But in my opinion, they probably beat her to death. Maybe she stopped breathing temporarily and they thought she was dead. Turns out she wasn’t—and now that she’s alive again, there goes their 500 yuan.”

That last line summed up the speaker’s real point—schadenfreude at the Chen couple missing out on the 500-yuan bride price.

After all, at that time, even a decent city job only paid about forty yuan a month. A good village girl might go for two hundred yuan in bride price. And yet the Chen family’s “fool daughter,” already dead, was about to net them five hundred yuan? Everyone who heard about it was envious.
A fool was worth more than a good girl—especially a dead one.

“But the Chens are really heartless,” an older woman said. “That girl wasn’t born a fool. It was the beatings from her parents that made her that way.”

“She couldn’t marry, so they didn’t want to keep her around. But still, to kill their own daughter?”

Another auntie sighed,
“Looks like someone from the Chen family is already chasing after her. If they catch her, that girl will probably still end up back in that coffin. Five hundred yuan isn’t a small amount. The Chens have a son, too. He needs money for school, and for marriage later. A girl who can’t be married off is just a burden. Dead, at least she could bring in some money. That’s how they see it—as her final act of filial piety.”

“Fool or not, murder is still a crime!” Fu Qingshan snapped, his voice stern. Then he shouted,
“Make way! Get out of the way!”

As the crowd parted, he immediately hopped on his bicycle and took off after her.

Two legs couldn’t outrun a bike. After about ten minutes, Fu Qingshan caught sight of a young girl in a red blouse and black pants.

He saw her all by herself, beating up two young men so badly they were clutching their heads and howling. Off to the side, three more men with sticks were looking for a chance to jump in.

“Stop right there!”

Fu Qingshan tossed his bike to the side and charged toward the three men about to join the fight. He kicked one in the back of the knee and grabbed another, yanking him away along with the last.

“Who the hell are you to meddle in the Chen family’s business?” the man he’d kicked yelled.

But the moment he looked up and met Fu Qingshan’s dark, cold eyes, he froze.