Chapter 1: Responsibility

Pain, pain that pierced the heart and cut into the bones.

Su Xiaoyin felt that she was about to die.

Her body was like a piece of driftwood in the sea, constantly battered by waves, unable to find the shore, yet also unable to sink into the seabed.

She did not know how much time had passed before the pain was gradually replaced by a strange sensation.

In the midst of tingling numbness, there seemed to be the sound of a man’s urgent breathing by her ear.

That sound was sometimes near, sometimes far, sometimes breaking, sometimes continuing.

She wanted to push the person away, yet inside her, there was a ball of fire forcing her to desperately lean closer.

Su Xiaoyin struggled to lift her eyelids, and before her appeared an unfamiliar, handsome face flushed red.

She instinctively reached out, but the man seemed to have predicted her intent. He grasped her hands and pressed them above her head, leaning down to press against her.

Su Xiaoyin heard herself let out a shameful sound from her mouth.

At this moment, a memory that did not belong to her slowly poured into her mind.

It seemed that she had borrowed a corpse to return to life.

Ten years into the apocalypse, Su Xiaoyin and her teammates had gone through countless hardships, building a base and fighting zombies. Just when victory was in sight, the Zombie King’s dying strike landed on her body.

The kind of pain that split her liver and shattered her gallbladder seemed not yet to have disappeared before she was transported into a book she had once read.

That book had characters with completely broken worldviews and extremely strong dramatic conflict. Ever since it was released, its popularity had remained high, but in the end, it was resisted and taken down.

Its content mainly told the story of the female lead Lin Limei, who had suffered all kinds of hardship in her previous life, and after being reborn, used foresight to gain wealth and fortune, eventually becoming the virtuous wife of the male lead and living happily with him for a lifetime.

The male lead in the book was a chauvinistic widower with three children, and also a phoenix man, yet such a man still made all the women in the book flock toward him.

On the path of success for the male and female leads, there was no lack of resentful cannon fodder, and the original owner was the most cannon-fodder-like among them.

The original owner’s entire family were commune cadres, and they treated her very well. But a mountain flood caused the ten-year-old original owner to become an orphan.

She had a sweet appearance, a gentle temperament, and her family had a house, a private plot of land, and also pension money.

When the Su family met misfortune, she instantly became a piece of coveted meat.

The commune leaders were considered fair, allowing the original owner to choose for herself which family to live with.

The female lead’s family and the Su family had originally been neighbors, and their relationship was not bad.

Adding that the Lin family was skilled at disguise, after a round of coaxing and deceptive persuasion, the original owner quickly fell into the trap they had set.

In order not to leave behind a handle, they even verbally set an engagement between the original owner and the Lin family’s second son, Lin Tianyang.

The problem happened to lie in this engagement.

As days passed, Lin Tianyang grew up to be more and more accomplished. During his studies, he had good grades, and after graduating high school, he even tested into a job at the county furniture factory by himself.

People seek higher places, and water flows to lower ground. Lin Tianyang, having taken a liking to the daughter of a leader at the factory, wanted to break off his engagement with the original owner, which was understandable.

But the Lin family was greedy and insatiable. They wanted to dissolve the engagement yet did not want to return the things of the Su family, and they also wanted a good reputation.

So they thought of a sinister method, making the original owner actively commit a mistake.

They planned to find a village hooligan to ruin the original owner’s innocence and put on her the label of promiscuity, so they could seize the initiative.

Only, the original owner had good luck, and halfway through, she was saved by Lin Limei’s fiancé, Yuan Songzhi.

Later, when one scheme failed, the Lin family conceived another, and the original owner was eventually still plotted against.

Under Lin Tianyang’s arrangement, the original owner ended up sleeping with his good friend, who was also the male lead.

Having lost her purity, she could only marry the male lead, who had three children.

But no one expected that ever since the original owner married the male lead, the male lead’s family began to rise step by step, and later, because the original owner recognized her biological relatives, the entire family moved to the capital.

Meanwhile, the gradually declining Lin Limei could only see them on television.

Reliving another life, the Lin family still chose the same path, but Lin Limei could not bear for the original owner to live better than her, and also hated her former husband Yuan Songzhi, who had never taken her seriously.

Thus, Lin Limei replaced the one who was supposed to ruin the original owner with Yuan Songzhi, which led to the current scene.

The original owner had a weak constitution. Frightened and drugged, she suffered a heart attack and died, which gave Su Xiaoyin the chance to cross over.

So now, the one entangled with her was Lin Limei’s fiancé, Yuan Songzhi.

At this moment, Su Xiaoyin felt extremely fortunate that she was a plant-type ability user and possessed healing powers.

She directed her ability to protect her heart vessels, then purified the medicinal effects within her body. Yet after it ended, the desire within her body had not lessened in the slightest.

Sounds of unbearable need slipped out between her teeth. With her hands unable to move, Su Xiaoyin could only take the initiative to kiss the other party, but in just an instant, she was overwhelmed, nearly losing herself.

She quickly made use of their intimate contact to help him purify the remaining drug effects in his body.

Sensing that his grip on her hands loosened, Su Xiaoyin met his gaze.

In Yuan Songzhi’s eyes, confusion, pain, guilt, and various complex emotions intertwined, and beneath his reddened eyes, there was a deep sense of brokenness.

“I…” As soon as he opened his mouth, his voice was terribly hoarse.

“Don’t say too much first, hurry and gather your things to leave, they will be here soon.” Separating from his burning hot body, Su Xiaoyin lowered her eyes, pretending to be calm as she rummaged for her clothes.

“They?” Yuan Songzhi clearly realized as well that he had been schemed against, and a shadow passed through his eyes.

Su Xiaoyin tossed his clothes to him. When she was putting on her clothes, she discovered that her vest had been torn out of shape, though still barely wearable, while all the buttons on her outer garment had been ripped off. It was imaginable how urgent this man before her had been at that time.

Who knew how strong the drug was that Lin Limei had given him. Truly vicious.

Su Xiaoyin let out a sigh and bent her head to search for the buttons on the ground.

If someone were to pick up these buttons, even with ten mouths, she would not be able to explain clearly.

Seeing her actions, Yuan Songzhi’s face, which had just returned to normal, instantly flushed red. Saying an apology, he quickly lowered his head to help look for the buttons as well.

Fortunately, the space was not large, and soon the two of them had found all the buttons.

“Go this way, I know a small path to the commune.” Yuan Songzhi glanced at her gaping clothes and loose vest, quickly turning his eyes away.

Knowing people were coming to block them, they naturally could not go down the mountain.

Su Xiaoyin made no comment and followed him.

The rarely traveled small path was overgrown with weeds and full of thorns.

Limping, Yuan Songzhi walked in front to clear the way. He did not notice that behind them, the trampled grass had already revived with life, even growing more lush than before.

Watching him desperately pushing aside thorns, Su Xiaoyin furrowed her brows.

Unable to care for the man’s suffering, she picked some sharp thorns, wrapped them in leaves, and tucked them away, then broke off a thick stalk of hemp.

While Yuan Songzhi was not paying attention, she activated her ability. The green hemp quickly withered in her hands. With forceful rubbing, she barely managed to control it with her power to pull out hemp threads.

That earlier scene with Yuan Songzhi had drained much of her strength, and along this path, she had been constantly using her ability. Now, holding the makeshift needle and thread, Su Xiaoyin’s limbs were weak, and she had completely lost her strength.

Coincidentally, ahead there was a flat patch of grass. Su Xiaoyin called out to him.

“Wait, let’s rest a bit, I can’t walk anymore.”

Yuan Songzhi turned his body, then suddenly turned back again, as if he had seen a terrifying beast.

Su Xiaoyin lowered her head, her cheeks burning, and casually tugged at her loose vest.

Her figure was too good, she could not be blamed.

Besides, was this not the trouble he had caused?

She found it strange. This man was quite odd—after already sleeping together, he was still so innocent.

On second thought, given the era, it was normal.

“For today’s matter, I will give you an explanation.” Yuan Songzhi’s voice was somewhat soft, and it was not hard to hear the cautious tone in it.

Su Xiaoyin sat casually on the grass, sewing the buttons as she asked, “What kind of explanation?”

In this era, after the two of them had done such a thing, it seemed marriage was the only path, even though they had been tricked into sleeping together.

Thinking this, Su Xiaoyin lifted her eyes to glance at the man with his back to her.

Speaking fairly, Yuan Songzhi’s overall conditions were very good.

He had a tall and strong build, decent looks, and although his family only had a mother and a younger sister, the two had always had a good reputation in the brigade.

More importantly, he was now the manager of a state-owned restaurant in town. In these years, a formal job was an iron rice bowl, and it was well known that state-owned restaurants had plenty of perks.

In addition, he had retired from the army due to injury and received a disability subsidy.

This was also the main reason why, despite knowing he was lame, Lin Limei insisted on marrying him.

The reason Lin Limei had become his fiancée was that she had fallen into the water and been rescued by Yuan Songzhi. In this conservative era, once there was physical contact, marriage was the only outcome.

Naturally, the matter was a scheme of Lin Limei’s. For this, she did not hesitate to put herself in danger. She was truly ruthless.

But the Lin family, gaining an advantage, still pretended to suffer. Even with such a good marriage, they were not satisfied, demanding a bride price of one hundred yuan as well as the “three turns and one sound.”

In the previous life, much of the discord between Lin Limei and Yuan Songzhi came from this greedy face of the Lin family.

But Lin Limei did not think so. She only believed that Yuan Songzhi was cold-hearted and unfeeling, unworthy of her, and she had been bent on revenge against him.

“You may already know something about my situation. My family has only my mother and younger sister as relatives. After we marry, you can live with me in town, or live with them at home. They are easy to get along with and can take care of themselves.”

Yuan Songzhi’s tone was calm, showing no joy or anger.

“I now work at a state-owned restaurant, earning 58 yuan per month. Apart from the 10 yuan given to them, the rest can all be handed to you.”

Hearing this, Su Xiaoyin understood his meaning.

“So, you are proposing to me now?”

After a long time without hearing a response, Su Xiaoyin lifted her eyes and followed his gaze to her hands holding the needle and thread.

Su Xiaoyin gave no explanation. She had no other choice now anyway.

In any case, he could not discover her ability because of this.

“This incident was aimed at me, and I dragged you into it. I will take responsibility for you.” Yuan Songzhi’s voice lowered.

Perhaps seeing that she did not care, this time Yuan Songzhi did not turn his head away, yet still properly refrained from staring at Su Xiaoyin.

Su Xiaoyin lifted her eyelids and glanced at him. Seeing his ears flushed red in discomfort, she curved her lips, “Not necessarily.”

She told him about how Lin Tianyang had a relationship at the factory and therefore wanted to harm her.

“As for why they chose you, that I do not know. Perhaps Lin Limei has someone she likes more.” Thinking of the other party’s character, Su Xiaoyin added another sentence, “Or perhaps she just wants to swindle the one hundred yuan bride price from your family.”

This was not Su Xiaoyin speaking nonsense. Many people did not know that Yuan Songzhi had an eight-hundred-yuan disability pension, so everyone thought the Lin family was crazy to make the Yuan family pay such a high bride price.

It did not look like a sincere marriage alliance.

Her speculation was well-founded.

Yuan Songzhi furrowed his brows, lost in thought.

Su Xiaoyin curled her lips and spoke her own thoughts, “If you have feelings for Lin Limei, you don’t need to marry me just for so-called responsibility. No one saw what happened today. I can also pretend it never happened.”

Yuan Songzhi raised his head in astonishment, then his pupils suddenly shrank.

“Stop! What are you doing!”