Chapter 1

“Mom, when that useless girl Jiang Ci wakes up, make sure she insists that Gu Qingchuan harassed her. Gu Qingchuan’s aunt just gave us 200 yuan, and she said once Gu Qingchuan is convicted of the harassment charge, she’ll give us another 300 yuan.”

“Ah, but harassment is a serious crime! It could lead to a beating, and we don’t even know if that girl was really harmed by Gu Qingchuan. Shouldn’t we wait for her to wake up and ask her?” 

“What’s there to ask?” Jiang Hongyu said decisively. “When she was taken to the hospital, her blouse was torn. It must have been that Gu Qingchuan kid taking advantage of her while she was unconscious just because she’s pretty!” 

Jiang Hongyu was certain and urged her mother, “Besides, Gu Qingchuan is just an unemployed vagrant, and even if he is the Wolf cub of a landlord’s family, he’s no better than the rest. Even his own aunt wants him in prison. For us to say a word and get 500 yuan, why wouldn’t we do it?” ^[1]Wolf cub is a derogatory term for someone perceived as dangerous or untrustworthy

500 yuan? Her husband’s monthly salary was only 36 yuan, and now someone was offering them a fortune. Why not take it?

Grandma Xu glanced at Jiang Ci, who was still unconscious on the hospital bed. For the sake of that 500 yuan, she gritted her teeth and said, “When that useless girl wakes up, tell her that after she fell down the slope, Gu Qingchuan took advantage of her while she was unconscious and had her go to the police station to testify against him!”

“Mom, now you’ve got it right! I’ll go to Gu Qingchuan’s aunt to get the remaining 300 yuan. When Jiang Ci wakes up, you take her to the police station.”

Grandma Xu cruelly pinched Jiang Ci’s thin arm beneath the blanket, but the person on the bed remained completely unresponsive.

“The doctor said she won’t wake up anytime soon, so I’ll go to the police station first and give my statement. I’ll say the useless girl told me all this when she woke up,” Grandma Xu said as she tore Jiang Ci’s discarded blouse into shreds, preparing to take it to the police station as “evidence” of her being violated.

“A money-losing good, and you think she’s worth keeping around to take over an official job at home? Now her reputation is ruined, so when she wakes up, she can obediently go to the countryside for all I care.” ^[2]Money-losing good is derogatory term used to insult girls, implying that they are a burden to their families because they do not bring financial benefit

Jiang Ci was already awake. When Grandma Xu had pinched her, it hurt, but she had endured it. 

She wanted to wait until these two left. She didn’t want to make the same mistakes she had in her previous life. 

A few hours earlier, Jiang Ci had gone into the mountains with the advanced production team to pick chestnuts. She had become separated from the others in the deep mountains and fallen down a slope. 

It was Gu Qingchuan who had carried her out of a mountain hollow and rushed her to the People’s Hospital for emergency treatment. 

Gu Qingchuan had carried her on his back for six hours without stopping. 

Her grandmother and Auntie had shamelessly accused Gu Qingchuan of taking advantage of her while she was unconscious. 

Because of Gu Qingchuan’s bad family background, no one was willing to listen to his side of the story. 

At that time, she had been in a coma for half a month, and by the time she woke up, Gu Qingchuan had already been sentenced and sent to Qingshan Prison. 

Before she could testify on behalf of Gu Qingchuan to clear his name, she herself was reported for speculative trading and sentenced to several years in prison.

Half of her life and Gu Qingchuan’s had been destroyed by those people.

When Jiang Ci was released from prison, none of her so-called relatives came. Only Gu Qingchuan was there to pick her up.

He took her home and brought her into the business world with him, and within ten years, that man became the richest person in Qin Province.

He gave her the happiest ten years of her life.

When she was critically ill, the man’s heart shattered. In a hoarse voice, he asked her if she had any regrets in this lifetime.

Struggling to breathe, she said her final words, “That year, when I fell down the slope, you carried me to the hospital. If only I had woken up earlier, you wouldn’t have had to spend those years in prison for nothing.”

After saying that, Jiang Ci closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she had returned to fifteen years earlier.

Perhaps, before she died, heaven had heard her unwillingness to let go and allowed her to be reborn at the age of seventeen—back to the moment when she had fallen down the cliff while picking chestnuts and was taken to the hospital.

The Jiang Ci, who woke up early this time, grabbed the man’s half-worn jacket from the cupboard and slipped out of the hospital, avoiding the medical staff.

In an hour, her man would be wrongfully convicted of harassment. She had to get to the police station now.

She had to save Gu Qingchuan and couldn’t let those people make him spend years in prison for nothing. 

—o—o—o—

“So you’re saying that Gu Qingchuan didn’t harass you when he saved you?” 

“No, I was fully conscious the whole time, only fainting when we were close to the hospital,” Jiang Ci replied, her wide, clear eyes filled with shock. “Officer, Comrade Gu was a hero. He carried me on his back for six hours through the mountains. You can’t be a good person! I was even planning to give him a silk banner to show my gratitude.”

The female police officer who was taking notes paused and looked up at the young girl in front of her—she was no more than seventeen or eighteen years old. Her eyes were pure and innocent, not the eyes of someone who would lie.

Could it really be that they had wrongfully accused the boy from the Gu family, the one with a landlord background, who hadn’t said a word since he was brought to the station?

“Your grandma, Grandma Xu, was just here. She said that after you woke up at the hospital, you were on the verge of suicide, claiming that Gu Qingchuan had harassed you in the mountains and had even torn your clothes.” 

The Officer pulled out the torn silk blouse Grandma Xu had brought as evidence. “Your grandma said your clothes were already ripped like this when you were sent to the hospital.”

She looked at the girl with deep sympathy. “Are you afraid that this will affect your reputation, and that’s why you’re changing your testimony? Don’t worry, young lady. We will keep your identity strictly confidential, and your name as the victim won’t be leaked.”

“Not leak it? This is a fabricated accusation, yet you want to force it onto me and Gu Qingchuan.”

In her previous life, after Grandma Xu returned from the police station, she spread the rumor that Jiang Ci had been defiled by Gu Qingchuan, ruining the job opportunity Jiang Ci had promised.

Without the job, she was forced to sell the mountain goods she made, only to be reported for speculative trading and jailed for several years.

This blouse, now torn to shreds, was something Jiang Ci had made for her seventeenth birthday, but she had never had the heart to wear it until that day.

The first time she wore it, she never imagined it would be turned into evidence against her man by Grandma Xu.

When she was sent to the hospital, the blouse had only a few small tears from getting caught on branches. But Grandma Xu, determined to frame Gu Qingchuan, had torn it from the collar down to the hem.

Grandma Xu had ruined her reputation for 500 yuan. After being reborn, Jiang Ci had long since become numb to the actions of these people.

“When I was taken to the hospital, the blouse had only a few small tears. How did it turn into rags when it got to the police station?”

Jiang Ci shook out the blouse, which was now evidence, and angrily accused, “Officer, this blouse was definitely torn apart by my grandma. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the doctors at the hospital. They can confirm it.”

The young girl spoke with such confidence that the policewoman’s resolve began to waver. The matter of the blouse could easily be clarified with a quick inquiry at the hospital, but there was still something the Officer needed help understanding.

“Grandma Xu is your grandmother, right? A young girl’s reputation is so important in these times. If nothing really happened, I don’t understand why she would go to such lengths to do this to you.”

Jiang Ci explained her situation, her eyes slightly reddened, and tears welled up in her large eyes as she choked on her thought: ‘Why? Of course, it’s because of the 500 yuan that Gu Qingchuan’s Aunt promised them, and also for the job opportunity.’

At this point, Jiang Ci was no longer as impulsive as she had been in the past. It wasn’t the right time to mention the 500 yuan. Even if she did, Gu Qingchuan’s Aunt wouldn’t admit it. Once she secured the job, those people would expose themselves without her needing to say a word.

She paused for a moment, gathering herself before speaking of the distressing family matters. “Everyone in my family has a job except for me. When my grandfather retired, he said I should take his place at Qinchuan Machinery Factory, but my grandmother didn’t agree. She said that a girl is a ‘money-losing good,’ not worth giving up a formal job in the family for. She fought with my grandfather for days, saying she wanted to sell the job to a relative of hers for 800 yuan. My grandfather refused.”

“I never imagined my grandmother could be so cruel. She thought I would no longer have the face to take over my grandfather’s position if my reputation was ruined. But she’s my grandmother! How could she be so heartless?”

The policewoman sitting across from her empathized deeply. Wasn’t this exactly what she had gone through herself?

The policewoman’s current job as a district officer was one she inherited from her father. At the time, her mother didn’t want her to take over the position and insisted that it should go to her sister-in-law, arguing that once a daughter got married, she would be considered an outsider and no longer part of the family.

The fight over the job had caused a serious rift between her and her mother. Now, the policewoman felt great sympathy for Jiang Ci, thinking to herself that this young girl was in an even worse situation than she had been back then.

Jiang Ci continued, her voice determined, “Comrade Gu saved me, and he should be commended for it. But because of my grandmother’s selfishness, he’s being accused of a crime as serious as sexual harassment. He’s completely innocent. Officer, you must uphold justice.”

Jiang Ci stood up, and with full determination, she declared: “If you don’t, I’ll smash my head right here in this station. I’ll use my blood and my life to demand justice!”

The terrified policewoman rushed to embrace Jiang Ci, afraid she might do something reckless.

“You’re the victim here; of course, we believe you,” she reassured her. “Your grandmother is ignorant of the law—just a careless word from her could ruin the lives of two young people. We’ll definitely give her a proper reprimand and educate her thoroughly.”

She then gently comforted the trembling girl, handing her the pen from the table.

“Here, sign and leave your fingerprint on this statement, and then Gu Qingchuan can go home.”

“Thank you, Sister Officer.” Jiang Ci said, quickly signing her name and pressing her fingerprint on the record.

She flashed a sweet smile at the policewoman and said, “Officer, you weren’t deceived by my grandmother. You saved both me and Gu Qingchuan. I’ll definitely bring you a banner of gratitude tomorrow.”

The policewoman was momentarily taken aback by the girl’s bright smile, thinking that probably very few young men could resist having impure thoughts about such a beautiful girl.

Gu Qingchuan was a good young man, and she felt they needed to release him as soon as possible. It was disheartening to see someone who had done a good deed being falsely accused of misconduct; who would dare to stand up for justice in the future?

“Do you want to see Gu Qingchuan?” the policewoman asked as she prepared to file a report and inform her superiors about releasing Gu Qingchuan. “He’s in the holding room in the back.”

“I won’t see him today; I’ll go to his house to thank him in person another day,” Jiang Ci replied.

She handed the police officer the jacket she had brought from the hospital, the one Gu Qingchuan had draped over her when she was injured.

“Officer, it’s chilly outside. Please let Gu Qingchuan wear the jacket when you release him,” she requested.

The last time she had seen Gu Qingchuan, it had only been for the briefest moment, a blink of an eye.

But the Gu Qingchuan she remembered from fifteen years ago was a different person. She was used to seeing him as someone strategic, calm, and confident.

He always mentioned that before she turned seventeen, whenever he saw her, he carried a bit of self-doubt.

Jiang Ci lowered her head to wipe away the moisture at the corners of her eyes.

Now that she was back, she wouldn’t let Gu Qingchuan feel inferior anymore.

She would seek him out.

But not now. Her home must already be in chaos.

Grandma Xu was probably scheming to give her grandfather’s job to one of her relatives and spreading rumors about her at home.

Jiang Ci felt a cold smile form on her face. That job was hers, and no one could take it from her.

If Gu Qingchuan were to be saved, then she would also fight for that job.

Right now, she needed to go home and claim her work.