Chapter 1: The Stepmother of the Du Family

It was early spring in February, and a light drizzle persisted. The rain had fallen continuously for a whole month in Xiangtan Village, turning the dirt courtyard in front of the Du family’s house into a muddy swamp.

Du Wanchun lifted the hem of her skirt, now covered in mud, as she stepped into the house. Setting down the vegetable basket in her hand, she patted the dirt off her clothes.

Suddenly, a heavily pregnant woman stormed toward her, pointing a finger at her and cursing furiously.

“You wretched girl! Why are you only coming back now? Hurry up and pack your things—you’re getting married!”

This woman was Liu Shi, the stepmother her father had married five years ago.

She was a widow from the neighboring Osmanthus Village, and when she married into the Du family, she brought along a daughter who was the same age as Du Wanchun. Although she was officially a stepmother, everyone in the village knew that even before Wanchun’s mother had passed away, Liu Shi had already been fooling around with her father in the fields.

Rumors spread, and in the end, her mother succumbed to illness and died.

Du Wanchun had just turned fifteen this year, the age of coming-of-age. She had been born a little slow-witted, which made her father despise her all these years. Fortunately, her mother had always cared for her and raised her with love.

After Liu Shi married into the Du family, she treated her foolish stepdaughter like a servant—refusing to give her warm clothes in winter and depriving her of food in the summer. Though still a young girl in her early teens, Du Wanchun was tormented so badly that she became nothing more than skin and bones.

Her father, Du Dajiang, was just a simple farmer with no real ability. Liu Shi controlled him completely, and even when he saw his dim-witted daughter being bullied, he didn’t dare utter a word.

A few days ago, Magistrate Li from Cheng’an County sent a matchmaker to propose marriage on behalf of his son, saying he wanted to marry Du Wanchun, the so-called “foolish girl.”

This news shocked Liu Shi so much that she stayed up all night. Although Magistrate Li’s position wasn’t high, in Cheng’an County, he was like a local tyrant. If Wanchun married into that family, she would rise to a position of power like a phoenix soaring into the sky.

Overcome with jealousy, Liu Shi conspired with Du Dajiang and decided to let her own daughter, Liu Lanzhi, take Wanchun’s place in the marriage.

As the saying goes, “With a stepmother comes a stepfather.” True to this, Du Dajiang agreed without hesitation.

To prevent any complications, Liu Shi quickly arranged another marriage for Du Wanchun—this time to the eldest son of the Zhou family in the neighboring Changliu Village.

The Zhou family was infamous for its poverty. A widow, Zhou Da Niang, was raising three sons on her own. The eldest son was crippled, the second was blind, and the third was deaf. With no able-bodied men in the household, they were constantly bullied by neighbors—losing farmland, getting their land encroached upon, and barely having enough food to survive. Their situation was so dire that they were on the verge of starvation.

By marrying Du Wanchun into the Zhou family, Liu Shi was clearly pushing her into a pit of fire.

Du Dajiang sat to the side, taking a long drag from his tobacco pipe before speaking.

“Wanchun, don’t blame your father. You’re a fool. Marrying into the magistrate’s family would only be a waste. It’s better for you to marry into the Zhou family. It’s best for you and your sister.”

After saying this, he glanced at Liu Shi’s pregnant belly.

The Du family had only two daughters—Du Wanchun and Liu Lanzhi. Du Dajiang had always dreamed of having a son, and now, at her old age, Liu Shi was miraculously pregnant. She was already seven or eight months along, and every doctor they consulted confirmed it was a boy.

He knew that the Zhou family was a hopeless place, but for the sake of the son in Liu Shi’s womb, he was willing to sacrifice his own daughter’s future.

Even if it cost her life.

Du Wanchun slowly stood up and looked at Du Dajiang and Liu Shi coldly. After a long pause, she suddenly smiled and said,

“All right, Father. I’ll marry.”

Liu Shi, finally satisfied, crossed her arms and sneered, “That’s more like it. Now, go change your clothes and follow the matchmaker to the Zhou family!”

“Yes, Mother,” Du Wanchun replied obediently before turning and entering her room.

Her room was a small, dark woodshed. There weren’t many rooms in the house, and after Liu Shi and her daughter moved in, Du Wanchun was forced to move into this cramped space.

It had been raining for a whole month, and mold had grown all over the bed. As soon as she entered, the air was thick with the stench of damp decay.

She glanced around before retrieving a red wedding dress from an old cabinet. Her mother had sewn it for her before she passed, saying it was to be worn on her wedding day.

And now, she was finally going to use it.

She carefully took out the dress and changed into it piece by piece.

Outside, Du Dajiang and Liu Shi still thought she was a fool.

But they didn’t know that just earlier, she had accidentally fallen in the fields and hit her head. When she woke up, her mind had suddenly become clear.

She wasn’t foolish anymore.

She remembered Zhou Ruiyuan, the eldest son of the Zhou family.

She had seen him before. She was willing to marry him.

Years ago, when Zhou Da Niang brought her three sons to settle in Changliu Village, they had passed through her village.

She remembered that Zhou Da Niang was astonishingly beautiful, dressed in a bright yellow ruqun, looking just like the noblewomen from the capital.

The villagers often gossiped that Zhou Da Niang had been sold to a noble family in the capital as a child bride and later gave birth to three sons for a stable hand. After the stable hand died, she took her sons and returned to Changliu Village.

But Du Wanchun knew—Zhou Da Niang was no ordinary farmer’s wife.

A woman who could read and write, who was cultured and dignified, would never raise useless sons.

Rather than marrying the fat and foolish son of Magistrate Li, she would rather marry Zhou Ruiyuan.

After dressing in her wedding attire, she picked up her few belongings and stepped out of the home that had trapped her for over ten years.

Without looking back, she walked away from the Du family forever.