Chapter 1

Shu Yue died—and only at the moment of death did she discover that the daughter she had raised for eighteen years wasn’t hers.

That girl was actually the child of her husband’s elder brother and sister-in-law. Shu Yue’s own son had died long ago—while she herself had painstakingly raised an ungrateful viper who ruined her and her entire family.

“Mom, what kind of mother are you? All you ever do is force me to study. Can studying feed me? Even if I study well, what’s the point? A woman’s real success is to marry well—that’s the most dignified life. You don’t even understand that simple truth. You’ve lived this long for nothing. But since you’re about to die, I’ll tell you a secret: I’m not your daughter. I’m the daughter of Cheng Jing’en and Huang Fang.”

“Why are you staring at me like that? Are you so close to death you can’t even understand human words? I’m your niece, not your daughter. My mother, Huang Fang, wanted me to have a good life, so she switched me at birth with your son. That’s right—you gave birth to a boy, and he was swapped for me the day we were born. And your son? Hmm… was it at age three or four that he drowned in the river? You were the one who found the body and carried him home, remember? That was your real child. Not me.”

“And since you’re dying, I’ll give you one more gift: your entire family—those two old fossils, your uncle and aunt, and those cousins you’re always bragging about—they’re all going to die too. Isn’t that nice? You’ll be reunited in the afterlife! Thoughtful of me, right? Since you raised me, I know you can’t bear to leave them, so I made sure to poison everyone at once. You can all die together, inseparable forever.”

Hearing such venomous words from the girl she raised with her own hands, Shu Yue’s heart filled with despair. Heaven had no justice. She had never done anything evil in her life—so why this cruel fate? The daughter she loved and protected turned out to be her in-laws’ child, while her own son had drowned.

She had been clinging to life by a thread. Now, after learning the full, hideous truth, she no longer wished to live. Blood filled her mouth as she glared wide-eyed and died unwilling, breath caught in bitter rage.

As consciousness faded, she tried to recall her son’s face—but too many years had passed. She couldn’t picture him anymore. Curse Cheng Hui. Curse Huang Fang. When she reached the underworld as a vengeful ghost, she would hunt them down and make them pay.

Pain… excruciating pain. Especially in her abdomen, as if her body were being torn apart. She hadn’t known death would hurt this much—like giving birth all over again. She still remembered laboring for a full day and night to bring her child into the world, pain beyond words.

If she’d known her precious son would be stolen and replaced, would she have endured such agony to give him life—only to see him suffer and die so young?

“Mom, is this really okay? When she gave birth just now, I saw her open her eyes. If we swap the babies and she wakes up, she’s going to cause trouble.”

“Let her cause trouble! I’m doing this for you, isn’t that reason enough? You’ve already given birth to three girls. If you still can’t bear a son, the Cheng family will throw you out. This is your best chance. Shu Yue’s family background isn’t bad—even if their political status isn’t great, who knows what wealth they might have hidden? Your daughter will live better with her than with you. And you’ll finally have a son—your in-laws won’t dare look down on you. What’s there to hesitate about?”

“Mom… I can still give birth again. I’ll have my own son someday. Raising someone else’s son just feels wrong.”

The voices sounded strangely familiar. Shu Yue tried to open her eyes, but her body wouldn’t respond. She could only listen, her mind racing.

A baby swap? Because there was no son? Replace a daughter? This… sounded just like her own life. But why?

And these voices—she knew them. Could it be that she’d met acquaintances right after dying and arriving in the underworld?

“Hurry up! To make sure she went into labor the same day as you, I scattered beans outside her door so she’d slip and fall into early labor. Now swap the babies quickly and clean up the beans, or someone might figure it out.”

At that moment Shu Yue’s chest felt crushed under a heavy stone. She recognized the voice—Huang Fang’s mother.

“I know. I… I’ll switch them now.”

This second voice was Huang Fang herself.

What was happening? She was dead—yet she could hear Huang Fang and her mother speaking, as if she were back in the delivery room years ago. Were they dead too? Or… was she somehow alive again?

“Ah! Sister-in-law, you… you’re awake?”

Huang Fang froze in shock. Carrying her own newborn daughter, she had just reached Shu Yue’s bedside to make the switch when Shu Yue suddenly opened her eyes—eyes cold and sharp as knives, enough to make Huang Fang nearly drop the child.

“How is this possible? She wasn’t supposed to—”

Huang Fang’s mother didn’t believe it either. She’d deliberately tried to weaken Shu Yue: scattering beans to cause the fall, prolonging labor to make her bleed, starving her during childbirth to keep her unconscious, even hoping to harm her future fertility. No one else was around; as the midwife, Huang Fang’s mother could control the situation completely.

After so much blood loss and no food, Shu Yue shouldn’t have woken up this quickly. Yet when she came closer and met those ice-cold eyes, even the old, experienced woman felt her heart stop.

Shu Yue was awake. Truly awake.