Chapter 1

Lin Qingping died. She died at the age of sixty-eight. She had fallen ill, but it was not a terminal illness—she did not have to die. It was her beloved nephew who pulled out her oxygen tube.

She was the eldest in the family and had spent her whole life supporting her Maternal Family and helping her younger brother.

Her own mother coaxed her, persuading her to buy houses and cars for her younger brother and her nieces and nephews; coaxed her into writing a will, leaving all her assets to her younger brother and nephew; coaxed her by saying that, when she grew old, her younger brother and nephew would take care of her in return.

However, when she fell ill, not only did her younger brother and nephew fail to offer her even a bowl of hot soup or a warm meal, her beloved nephew even pulled out her oxygen tube.

At that time, the doctors had made it clear—her condition was not incurable, it just required money. But her dear nephew grew impatient.

In the middle of the night, he came into her single-bed hospital room and pulled out her oxygen tube. The discomfort woke her, and she tried to call for the doctor, but her nephew covered her mouth.

Her nephew revealed a twisted, ferocious expression.  

“Auntie, you’re almost seventy already. People die eventually, so why waste money? You have to understand—every single day you lie in this hospital bed, you’re wasting my money! All of it is mine!”

A single tear slid down from the corner of her eye…

If someone were to ask her whether she had any regrets in this life—yes, she did.

What she regretted the most was not treating him well—her husband, Gu Juncheng, the man who had died so early. In all the many, many years after that, she had never again met anyone as good as he had been.

Her nephew’s ferocious face gradually blurred before her eyes. In the final moment before her last breath, what appeared in her vision was that dark-skinned, rugged face.  

“Gu Juncheng…”—this name flashed through her mind, and then she lost consciousness completely.  

In that instant, the pain of regret filled every corner of her heart.  

Gu Juncheng, if I could do it all over again, I would never treat you like that…  

What Lin Qingping never could have imagined was that everything truly could begin again.  

---

She lay on the bed in Gu Juncheng’s old house, staring anxiously at the window under the lamplight, where a Double Happiness character was pasted.  

She had returned—48 years into the past—back to when she was just 20 years old.  

That year, her mother had accepted a betrothal gift of 100 yuan from the Gu Family, and forced her to marry into their household.  

She had gone unwillingly, and from the start, she could not stand her husband, the second son of the Gu Family, Gu Juncheng.  

She despised his dark skin, despised that he was 7 or 8 years older than her.

She despised his rough and unrefined manners from years in the military.

She despised that he already had a child.

She despised how far his home was from hers.

She despised how he tossed everything to her, including that child…  

She made scenes in the Gu Family day and night, turning the household upside down.

She even moved whatever she could from the Gu Family over to her Maternal Family.  

A few years later, Gu Juncheng died in the line of duty.  

Despite how terribly she had behaved, in Gu Juncheng’s final letter, he still left these parting words.

His pension would all be given to her, and that he was sorry for having delayed her youth for those few years…

Later in life, she had managed to open a restaurant, starting from a Small County Town, then expanding to the city, and finally to a major metropolis. The pension he had exchanged his life for had been her startup capital…

Lin Qingping lay on the bed, her thoughts in disarray.

Night had already fallen, yet Gu Juncheng still had not come into the room.

Half a year ago, she had reluctantly married Gu Juncheng. To avoid consummating the marriage on their Wedding Night, she had gone so far as to freeze herself into a high fever in the dead of winter.

The very next day, Gu Juncheng had returned to his unit on an urgent assignment.  

Therefore, nothing had ever happened between them.

Gu Juncheng was an extremely perceptive man. She had never been able to hide her feelings from him. Knowing that she was unwilling, he had, in their past life, found an excuse to sleep in a separate room during this same home visit.  

Would he do the same again in this life?

She carefully calculated in her mind—there were only four years left until the time of his eventual death.

If the outcome in this lifetime was destined to be the same, then in these few years, no matter what, she was determined to stay by his side and cherish the time they had.

After much contemplation, she steeled herself and rushed out of the room.

Gu Juncheng was taking a shower. She knew it! He was in the Bathing Room beside the Pigsty—she could hear the sound of water splashing.

She took a deep breath to gather her courage, then charged forward and pushed open the crooked, useless door that provided no real privacy.

Then her eyes froze.

They had been husband and wife for an entire lifetime, and yet she had never known that his body looked like that!

Though his skin was on the darker side, he was a soldier, after all! That vibrant masculine energy, those perfectly sculpted muscles—he was nothing short of a living statue!

She must have been blind in her past life to have ever disliked him!

Her gaze clung tightly to his figure, following the beads of water rolling down his skin, slowly moving downward—

At that very moment, she was that tiny droplet of water—utterly entranced, clinging, helpless!

But Gu Juncheng quickly wrapped himself in a towel.

“Get out!” he barked coldly, the command sharp and forceful.

“I… I came to get the clothes you changed out of!” she stammered, her face flushing crimson in embarrassment.

She snatched up his discarded clothes and fled, bumping her arm hard against the doorframe on her way out. The pain was sharp and immediate.

Back in the room, her heart was still pounding wildly. Her mind replayed the image of those tiny water droplets rolling down his bronzed skin.  

She let out a soft, stifled whimper—“Ying”—then slipped under the quilt, still clutching her sore arm.  

She groaned silently—truly, male beauty leads people astray!  

She had completely forgotten about the injury on her arm from that morning!

Earlier that day, she had encountered a Village Hooligan in the mountains who tried to grope her.

In the struggle to escape, she had fallen and scraped a large patch of skin off her arm. The bleeding had already stopped, but now, after banging it twice in a row, the wound had begun to ooze blood again.

She hissed in pain, only to hear the sound of the door creaking open.

He was back!

She hurriedly lay down and feigned sleep.

Sure enough, when the door opened, it was him. He wasn’t wearing anything, but had wrapped himself in a piece of old, worn cloth.

Lin Qingping stared at that piece of cloth and, for some reason, felt an inexplicable wave of disappointment.

His expression was dark as he entered the room. Spotting his clothes on the table, he spoke in a cold voice.

“You took my clean clothes.”

Lin Qingping: …

At that time, her mind and heart had both been a complete mess—how could she have possibly paid attention to whether the clothes were clean or dirty? It had just been an excuse anyway!  

But she couldn’t let him have the upper hand now.

“Who… who told you to yell at me? When you yell, I just… I just…”  

She stammered and stumbled over her words, her voice growing smaller and smaller. Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and she looked utterly aggrieved.

Gu Juncheng: …

For a moment, Gu Juncheng was speechless. He took his clothes and stepped back out.

When he returned, he had already put on a pair of pants and a vest—an army-green vest that left his arms and shoulders exposed. Droplets of water still clung to his skin, trickling down the defined lines of his muscles…

Lin Qingping was completely spellbound.

She didn’t snap out of it until he walked to her bedside and stopped.

He looked down at her, eyes narrowing slightly as if he were thinking deeply.

Her breath caught in her throat.

This hadn’t happened in the last life!

Suddenly, the air was thick with moisture, heavy and hard to breathe.

“You… ah—”

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, she felt her hand being lifted.

She let out a startled cry.

“Does it hurt?” he asked suddenly.

The unexpected, deep voice—low and raspy, coming from deep within his throat—cut through her chaotic thoughts with precision.