Chapter 1 Jade Pendant

The day Shu Qingyao died, the weather in Jiangcheng was beautiful.

That day, she was unusually spirited, and the doctor allowed her husband, Xie Hezhang, to come visit her.

Two rounds of chemotherapy for breast cancer had drained all her energy. Lying in bed, surrounded by the beeping of various precision instruments, she looked at the man walking towards her.

He had lost weight, his body gaunt, his handsome eyes deeply sunken, filled with heartbreak.

“Husband, I’m sorry… We promised to grow old together and watch our children grow up…”

Tears streamed down her face as she looked at the man sitting by the edge of the bed, tightly holding her hands. Her heart was filled with resentment.

She hated it!

She hated that fate had made her waste half her life, hated that she had met Xie Hezhang so late!

She hated that she had finally found happiness, only for fate to cruelly snatch it away from her!

“Husband, if there’s a next life, I hope I can meet you sooner.”

“I’m sorry…”

“I’m truly sorry…”

Looking at the man with his eyes filled with despair, Shu Qingyao felt a heart-wrenching pain, filled with reluctance. She held Xie Hezhang’s hand, but her strength gradually faded…

…

Their meeting was an accident.

That year, betrayed by her ex-husband and best friend, she was exhausted both physically and mentally. At a charity banquet, she met Xie Hezhang.

She got drunk and accidentally slept with Xie Hezhang.

She, who was considered a useless hen by her ex-husband’s family, discovered a month later that she was pregnant with triplets.

Unwilling to abort the children, and not wanting them to be born out of wedlock, she sought out the father of the children and demanded a marriage contract.

Unexpectedly, Xie Hezhang, who was a year younger than her, not only took on the responsibility of a husband, but also willingly stayed home full-time to take care of her and the children.

Five years of knowing and cherishing each other, Xie Hezhang’s gentleness and consideration had opened Shu Qingyao’s heart, which had been closed off to marriage and family.

They married first and fell in love later, knowing and cherishing each other, building a relationship that everyone thought wouldn’t last.

However, good times didn’t last.

Shu Qingyao was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer.

…

Perhaps due to her intense anxiety and worry, Shu Qingyao died.

But her soul remained attached to Xie Hezhang.

She watched as Xie Hezhang cremated her.

She watched as he placed her ashes in the cemetery.

She watched as he repeatedly wiped her photo on the tombstone.

She watched as he continued to care for their three children.

She watched as he took on the responsibility of a husband, comforting her brother and father.

Then, one day, Shu Qingyao watched as Xie Hezhang, after getting off work from the company, refused the driver’s offer and drove to the cemetery alone. He carried a bottle of liquor and sat in front of her tombstone, gently reaching out to touch her photo on the tombstone.

The woman in the photo had bright eyes and a charming smile, still her most beautiful self, with a pair of beautiful cat eyes that exuded vivacity and cunning.

“Yao Yao, I’ve taken care of the children.”

“Your brother and father are also living normal lives…”

“But…”

“I miss you.”

“Yao Yao, I really miss you.”

She would never know that after seeing her photo in Xie Hezhang’s wallet when he was 25, he had been in love with her for 20 years…

This man, who was mature and steady in front of everyone at the company, finally broke down completely. He trembled as he reached out to touch the woman’s face on the tombstone.

His voice was lifeless.

“Yao Yao, my stomach isn’t good, you always told me not to drink… But I miss you so much, forgive me, let me get drunk once, I want to see you…”

“All this time, you haven’t entered my dreams once, are you resenting me, resenting that I couldn’t save you?”

Watching Xie Hezhang drinking in front of her, Shu Qingyao’s soul was shattered with pain.

She lunged forward with a heart-wrenching cry, “Xie Hezhang, no, no, please don’t drink…”

But she kept missing.

Xie Hezhang had a bad stomach.

He couldn’t eat spicy food and never touched alcohol.

Now, he was drinking such strong liquor just to dream of her!

“Xie Hezhang… Xie Hezhang…”

The helpless Shu Qingyao knelt on the ground, watching in despair as the man seemed to feel no pain, taking sip after sip of the strong liquor.

Until a streak of blood.

Suddenly spurted from Xie Hezhang’s lips.

He covered his mouth, vomiting blood, struggling to fall in front of her tombstone. He looked at her on the tombstone, trembling as he reached out, as if trying to touch her face.

But his hand finally fell limply.

“Help, help! Someone, please save him!”

Shu Qingyao’s heart was torn apart. She threw herself onto the man, her hands repeatedly passing through his face, but she couldn’t touch him no matter what.

Despair tears fell one by one onto the jade pendant on Xie Hezhang’s body.

They mixed with the blood gushing from Xie Hezhang’s mouth, emitting a faint glow.

…

…

…

…

“Yao Yao, Yao Yao, your brother is back.”

Her mother, Bian Rong, came from outside, her voice full of joy.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

She knocked a few times on the door without a response. Bian Rong complained at the door, “This child, it’s already noon, she doesn’t know to get up!”

Then a cheerful male voice sounded from outside: “Mom, it’s still early, let Yao Yao sleep a little longer. I’ll go take a shower first.”

“You just know how to spoil her! …Wait, I’ll get you some clothes to change!”

…

Shu Qingyao lay in bed with her eyes open, her heart pounding.

She wasn’t…

Dead already?

She sat up abruptly from the bed, and a jade pendant fell from her chest.

The jade pendant, which had originally emitted a lustrous glow, had lost its brilliance and become dull.

This jade pendant was a relic of Xie Hezhang’s deceased mother, which Xie Hezhang had given to her.

After her death, he took it back and kept it close to his body.

In the mirror on the desk opposite, a delicate and pretty face was reflected.

Her skin was as white as snow, her black hair was scattered, and she had a youthful innocence and naivety that she lacked in her middle age.

There was a calendar on the desk, 1976.

1976!

She had actually returned to the age of eighteen!

Shu Qingyao’s heart was filled with excitement. She couldn’t help but pinch her thigh hard, and she cried out in pain.

“Click.”

The door was opened from the outside.

Her mother, Bian Rong, stood at the door with her hands on her hips, her face full of anger. Her eyebrows were furrowed: “Shu Qingyao, get up when you wake up! Your brother is back, he brought you a bunch of gifts, and you’re still in bed, the sun is already high!”

Shu Qingyao looked at her mother’s young face and was a little stunned. Seeing that her younger daughter was still in a daze, Bian Rong, who had a hot temper, was even more angry: “Shu Qingyao…”

Before she could finish, Shu Qingyao rushed out of bed like a little cannonball, tightly hugging Bian Rong’s waist, burying her face in her mother’s arms, her eyes slightly moist.

Because she and her ex-husband, Jiang Xun, had been married for a long time without children, Jiang Xun’s mother, Jiang Ying, in the countryside, came to their house to make trouble several times. Bian Rong once had a cerebral infarction while arguing with Jiang Ying and stayed in the hospital for a month. In the end, she passed away.

Unexpectedly, fate had given her a chance to return to the age of eighteen!

This time, she would no longer be entangled with Jiang Xun, that hypocritical villain, and she would not give Jiang Ying, that rural shrew, the opportunity to bully her mother!

Shu Qingyao sniffed the familiar scent on her mother, her heart trembling with excitement.

“You child, you cry when I say a few words to you?”

Bian Rong lowered her head and saw that her daughter’s eyes were red, looking like she was about to cry. She felt a pang of sympathy and softened her tone: “You’re so old, you cry all the time. Your brother will laugh at you if he sees you.”

Shu Chi had already taken a shower and came out of the bathroom. He was wearing a white cotton shirt, his black hair was dripping wet, and he was wiping his short hair with a dry towel. As soon as he saw Shu Qingyao, he grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth: “Yao Yao, did you miss your brother?”

It’s hard to imagine that this boy who was smiling so brightly would become an iron-faced general in the army, feared by new recruits who secretly called him “Shu Yanwang” (Shu King of Hell).

Shu Qingyao remembered that this was the third year Shu Chi had joined the army and his first time home for a visit. She was five years younger than Shu Chi, and he had always spoiled her rotten. When Shu Chi joined the army and became a soldier of the people, the whole family was happy, but she cried uncontrollably, crying and shouting that she wouldn’t let him go.

Shu Qingyao looked up at Shu Chi, her soft voice a little hoarse: “Shu Chi, you still know how to come back!”

“How do you talk to your brother! You’re so disrespectful.”

Bian Rong left and closed the door behind her.

Shu Qingyao sat on the edge of the bed, her head lowered, looking at the jade pendant in her palm, her heart beating faster and faster.

She…

She had returned to 1976.

Then, could she go find Xie Hezhang now?

Thinking of the man who loved her deeply, Shu Qingyao felt a bitter and sour taste in her heart.

In her previous life, fate only gave her five years to be with Xie Hezhang. This time, she would find him sooner, be with him sooner, and spend her life with him!

But where was Xie Hezhang now?