Chapter 2

Beaten to death, her grave dug up, her soul almost scattered—how could she care about anything else?

At this moment, Yan Qingqing wanted only one thing: to live!

A surge of fierce strength erupted within her. She grabbed a rock and went after Qin Hongying and Yang Zhaodi, raining blows on them!

The brick smashed down on their bodies and heads without mercy!

Qin Hongying and Yang Zhaodi were stunned. They had dared to beat Yan Qingqing before only because she never fought back.

But now Yan Qingqing was fighting them like her life depended on it—who would dare keep hitting her?

This woman is crazy! A complete lunatic who recognizes no kinship!

Qin Hongying took a blow to the waist so hard she thought it would break. Clutching her side, she twisted her hips and bolted. Yang Zhaodi didn’t fare much better—her head split open. After hurling a few vicious curses, she, too, fled home!

“Yan Qingqing, you cheap slut! Filthy whore! Just wait, I’ll kill you tomorrow!”

When both of them were gone, Yan Qingqing’s strength drained out of her. Her hands trembled, her hair was soaked with sweat, and she collapsed onto the ridge between the fields.

Tears streamed down her face.

In the moonlight she saw her own hands smeared with blood, and she sobbed even harder.

Thank heavens—Heaven still had a trace of mercy. She had been reborn!

Yan Qingqing swore to herself: since she had been given another life, she would never let these people trample her again!

Birth parents? Adoptive parents?

She would settle accounts with these scum, for the injustice of her last life!

But for now, the most important thing was to hurry back to the Gu family she had just married into—she couldn’t let them be implicated.

Besides, the Gu household was the only place she could go.

Yan Qingqing, trembling and aching, forced herself to stand and started along the ridge back to the village.

She used to be terrified of walking at night—there were so many burial mounds scattered through the fields. But now, she wasn’t afraid at all.

For the dead, even having a mound to lie under was a blessing.

In her previous life, she had been a wandering ghost for so long—her grave dug up, her body destroyed, her soul nearly shattered. That agony defied description.

As she neared the village entrance, Yan Qingqing suddenly heard faint sobbing.

Her face stayed calm, without fear, as she turned her head. Near a lonely grave, something was crying.

Was it some pitiful soul—or pitiful ghost—like her?

Yan Qingqing walked over slowly. When she got close, she realized it was a white fox! Its foot was caught in a tree root.

The fox looked up at her with round, innocent eyes full of sorrow.

Yan Qingqing didn’t say a word. She crouched down to free it.

The root was twisted tight and hard to remove. Yan Qingqing knelt there, her hands numb and trembling in the cold, working for over half an hour until the fox was free.

She wasn’t afraid of animals now—human hearts were far more terrifying than ghosts.

The fox whined softly. Once freed, it trotted off, but after a few steps it turned back, bowed toward Yan Qingqing, tossed her something, and disappeared into the moonlit night.

Yan Qingqing looked down and picked up what it left—a peach pit?

She didn’t think much of it. A cold wind made her shiver violently, so she slipped the pit into her pocket and hurried back to the Gu household.

The Gu household.

Yan Qingqing’s mother-in-law, Madam Gu, was weeping beside the marriage bed.

“Second son, wake up! Say something to your mother—I can’t even see how you’re doing! Your father’s back pain keeps him from moving, and every coin we had went into getting you a wife. But you just got married today, and your bride was called away by her family and hasn’t come back—what if something’s happened to her?”

On the bed lay a tall man, motionless.

His breathing was labored, eyes tightly shut, his handsome face twisted with pain.

Madam Gu’s vision was failing—she could barely do chores, let alone see clearly. She reached out to feel her son’s face, and her fingers recoiled from the heat in shock. She burst into tears.

“Second son! You have a fever! How can it be so high? No, I have to find a doctor!”

She had just turned to stumble out when she ran into someone.

Yan Qingqing, though from the same village, hadn’t been close with the Gu family—Old Sow Village was big, and they hadn’t interacted much.

Madam Gu squinted at the young girl who appeared before her. “Qingqing? You’re back? Did your mother’s family give you trouble? Second son is burning up! I must fetch a doctor!”

Watching the anxious, half-blind woman stumble, Yan Qingqing sighed inwardly.

Though she hadn’t known them well before, she’d heard plenty about the Gu family.

The Gu parents had two sons and one daughter.

The eldest, Gu Shan, had married a domineering wife. Not long after, they quarreled with the parents because she resented how much the younger son, Gu Chi, ate and even planned to sell off the youngest daughter, Gu Tiantian. They split the household—but “splitting” meant Gu Shan and his wife stripped the home bare, not leaving even a grain of rice for the parents, brother, or sister.

The two families lived wall-to-wall but treated each other like strangers.

Madam Gu’s eyesight was clouding over, her eyes tearing in the wind. Father Gu’s old battlefield injury had wrecked his spine; bedridden now, he lived in constant agony.

Gu Tiantian, only seven, seemed slow-witted. The family was barely scraping by.

Fortunately, Gu Chi had a fearsome reputation. Tall, broad, and as strong as three men, he kept the household afloat despite everything.

No one had expected disaster a month ago—Gu Chi had gone hunting boar, was gravely injured tumbling down a mountainside, and split his skull open. The town doctor said there was no hope.

He’d lain unconscious ever since. In desperation, Madam Gu scraped together eight hundred yuan to marry him a wife, hoping the wedding joy would drive away misfortune.

By coincidence, that bride was Yan Qingqing.

Yan Qingqing quickly soothed her mother-in-law: “Your eyes can’t see clearly, and walking at night is dangerous. Please don’t go out. Boil some hot water first. I’ll check on him and wipe him down, then I’ll fetch the doctor.”

Madam Gu, panicked, agreed right away. “Good, good, I’ll boil the water now!”

Though she couldn’t see clearly, she could still manage simple tasks at home.

Once Madam Gu went to the kitchen, Yan Qingqing hurried to the bed.

She didn’t even glance around the room—her eyes went straight to the man on the bed, and her heart suddenly tightened.

Gu Chi’s frame was massive. Even in winter, wearing only a thin shirt, his broad chest and powerful muscles showed through. The man radiated strength.

But what truly shocked Yan Qingqing was his face.

Though she’d occasionally glimpsed him in the village, she’d always been too frightened by his icy presence to look him in the eye. Village girls always spoke ill of him.

Cruel, cold, terrifyingly strong. They said he could hold down a full-grown pig with his bare hands, snap a tree trunk apart, crush the village millstone with one punch.

Yan Qingqing herself hadn’t married willingly—her birth mother and adoptive mother had pressured her relentlessly, weaponizing “the debt of giving birth and raising you” until she gave in.

But now, looking at the man before her—his sharply chiseled features, as if carved by a master artisan—her heart pounded wildly.

Who would have thought there was such a good-looking man in Old Sow Village?

Gu Chi’s lips were tightly pressed, nose straight, skin a healthy bronze, sword-like brows forming a strong, striking outline. He looked as if Nuwa herself had sculpted him with pride.

Yan Qingqing hesitated, then pressed her hand to his forehead—only to yank it back instantly. “Good heavens! He’s burning up—he’ll be cooked alive!”

She quickly checked his breath—then froze.

He didn’t seem to be breathing at all.