Volume One, Chapter One: Reborn on the Wedding Night

“Damn old man, just look at what you’ve done to your son. How’s he supposed to go in and see his wife like this?”
“Hey, another drink! You can see your wife any day now that she’s home. Come, Xiuyi, have another glass with your father.”
The man’s face was flushed, his speech slurred as he rambled on, holding out his cup to the young man before him—Lu Xiuyi—who was already so drunk he’d lost all consciousness.
“Drink, drink, drink! All you two know is drinking. Why don’t you just drink all night?” The woman stood nearby, hands on her hips, scolding in frustration.

Inside the bridal chamber.

Jiang Yuan opened her eyes. Right in front of her, a brilliant red double happiness character was pasted on the wall.
A red quilt embroidered with mandarin ducks covered her, and everywhere in the room were red decorations—thermos, kettle, enamel mugs, all in vibrant reds and purples, even the square table in the corner had been sprayed with red paint.
She looked down at herself: a brand-new navy Zhongshan suit, with an enormous red flower pinned to her chest.
Everything around her screamed that she was married.
And tonight was her wedding night.
Jiang Yuan blinked, still unable to believe what she was seeing.
She…had she been reborn?
She only remembered that, nearing forty and uneducated, she’d finally found a cleaning job at a company.
Today was her first day. To clean the glass in the corridor, she’d climbed a ladder and leaned out. Who could have guessed her foot would slip? The next moment, she was falling from a tall building, dozens of floors high.
Then, when she opened her eyes again, she was here.
So…
Before she could make sense of it all, someone knocked on the door a few meters away.
“Knock, knock, knock. Qingmei, come out and help Xiuyi inside.” Lu’s mother called from outside.
“Qingmei?” Jiang Yuan froze instantly. Wasn’t that her cousin’s name?
Then Xiuyi must be the man who was supposed to be her cousin’s husband, but who ended up as her own. Their marriage lasted only a year.
So, she had been reborn to the night of the arranged marriage swap.

Her parents had accepted money from her cousin’s family, agreeing to swap marriages: she would marry Lu Xiuyi, a village outcast, and her cousin Li Qingmei would marry the village chief’s son, Liu Fendou.
Now that it had happened, she’d thought about resigning herself to fate, living peacefully with Lu Xiuyi. But after a year of cold neglect from him, her sensitive heart couldn’t take it anymore.
Just then, her cousin offered her a job in the city, promising it would help her escape from Lu Xiuyi and this family.
She agreed with hope, but little did she know that was the beginning of her tragic fate.
Sold into the mountains, disfigured, abused, left utterly alone…
Until death finally came.
Jiang Yuan trembled all over, a chill rising up her spine. She didn’t want to repeat her mistakes.
“Qingmei, did you hear me?”
No one answered. Lu’s mother knocked again.
Suppressing her surging emotions, Jiang Yuan tried to make her voice sound calm. “Yes, Mother.”
She threw off the quilt, eyes wide. Her plump body took up most of the bed, nothing like the thin figure she’d become decades later.
She had almost forgotten—when she was young, she was as round as her name, fitting the phrase ‘plump and sturdy’ perfectly.
Putting on her shoes, she opened the door. By now, Lu’s mother was gone from the yard, and the man at the stone table was rising unsteadily to his feet.
Jiang Yuan rolled up her sleeves and hurried over. Lu Xiuyi staggered, his gaze unfocused, and he collapsed against her, his warm breath tinged with alcohol brushing her neck.
“Hey…” Jiang Yuan propped him up, grateful for her own weight, otherwise she’d have been crushed to the ground.
“Wake up first, I can’t hold you much longer.”
Lu Xiuyi still retained a flicker of awareness. Hearing her, he managed to lift his heavy body just enough for Jiang Yuan to breathe a sigh of relief. She wrapped her arms around his waist and arm, and together they wobbled into the house.
“Whew.” Jiang Yuan laid him on the bed, shaking out her sore arms.
Lu Xiuyi lay with eyes shut, several buttons on his white shirt undone, sleeves rolled up, his wheat-colored skin flushed, the aloofness faded from his face.
“Hey, can you get up?” Jiang Yuan called. Hopefully he wouldn’t sleep himself to death; he hadn’t even taken off his clothes.
“Mmm…mmm…” The man murmured, completely unconscious.

Helpless, Jiang Yuan knelt down to take off Lu Xiuyi’s shoes, then began to remove his white shirt, which reeked of alcohol and needed to be changed.
“So heavy.” Jiang Yuan struggled to pull the shirt out from under him, but he was dead weight and wouldn’t budge.
“Where would you find a wife as good as me, and you still dare to give me the cold shoulder?”
Grumbling, Jiang Yuan climbed onto the bed, half of her body draped across his abdomen, trying to turn him over.
“Ah!” Jiang Yuan gasped, eyes wide—he’d turned over, but now he was on top of her.
Lu Xiuyi hovered above, his drunken eyes quietly gazing at her. Suddenly, he leaned in, his breath mingling with alcohol.
For reasons unknown, Jiang Yuan’s face burned red, a haze of intimacy settling between them.
Perhaps her parched heart had gone too long without warmth. Jiang Yuan stared at his moving Adam’s apple, feeling intoxicated herself.
She’d been given another chance at life. If she wasn’t going to leave this family again, the first thing she had to do was make sure Lu Xiuyi accepted her as his wife.
Tonight was their wedding night. Jiang Yuan resolved to secure their marriage, leaving Lu Xiuyi no room for regret.
If he treated her with icy indifference, she would respond with fiery passion, determined to melt the frost in his heart.
No more hesitation—Jiang Yuan encouraged herself, suddenly reaching up to clasp the back of Lu Xiuyi’s head. In the next moment, their lips met.
She tentatively tried to pry his lips apart, but as soon as her soft tongue touched him, Lu Xiuyi took the lead, his faint alcoholic breath mingling with hers, filling the space between their lips and teeth.
Moonlight slanted through the window onto the peach branches outside. Peach blossoms, dormant all winter, quietly bloomed on the tips, and inside the room, spring filled the air.

“Yuan’er, today is the third day of your marriage to Xiuyi. After breakfast, let Xiuyi accompany you back to your parents’ home.” At the table, Lu’s mother reminded her.
Since that night, Jiang Yuan hadn’t fully awakened the next day, but Lu Xiuyi had already spoken to Lu’s father and mother.
The two were married, the ceremony done, and now the matter was settled. Lu Xiuyi was a responsible man; he would take up the duty.
At the table, a guilty blush crossed Jiang Yuan’s chubby cheeks. That night, she’d forced the issue—Xiuyi had tried to stop when he regained some clarity, but she’d pinned him down with her weight and made sure the deed was done.
Afterwards, Lu Xiuyi never mentioned it again, only saying she should stay in the family, that she was now the daughter-in-law of the Lu household.