Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Mmph~"

"I'm still alive?!"

Lu Wanxiao opened her eyes groggily, hearing an icy, ruthless voice. Following the sound, she saw a face—angular, handsome, and otherworldly, but gaunt and pale—with eyes that were indifferent, gloomy, and tinged with a hint of ruthlessness.

A hot guy?!

And he looked like trouble!

That was Lu Wanxiao's first reaction. Before she could say anything, the sickly handsome man limped out of the room on his crutch, not sparing her an extra glance, leaving Lu Wanxiao completely dumbfounded.

Wait, what the hell?

Wasn't she on a plane to Sanya?

Countless questions flooded Lu Wanxiao's mind as she quickly looked around.

The room was rustic and crude—so crude that a rock thrown in would hit the back wall directly.

There was a worn-out cabinet with a few clothes inside, a square stool missing a corner, a table with a broken leg propped up by a stone. The quilt was faded from washing, and she herself was dressed in patched coarse linen. However, her hands were unexpectedly fair and delicate, with obvious bruises on her wrists, as if someone had gripped them hard. There were also a few small scrapes, fresh wounds still aching faintly.

Holy crap, did she transmigrate?

Geez, she'd just inherited a nine-figure fortune and hadn't even started enjoying it yet. And they send her to a dump like this?

Oh right, her plane had crashed.

"Sigh~"

Thinking about how she had worked so hard to get that inheritance but died before spending a single cent, Lu Wanxiao was sick to her stomach.

Recalling the sickly handsome man's words, she closed her eyes and searched through the original owner's memories.

After processing them, Lu Wanxiao couldn't help but blurt out, "Holy crap!"

The original owner shared her name. Her dad was a Xiucai who failed the provincial exam multiple times, so he became a teacher in Taoxi Village, teaching children from nearby villages to make a living.

He had lost his ability to have children in an accident and never married. The original owner was an abandoned baby he found while gathering firewood on the mountain.

Since no one came to claim her, he raised her. But as a man, he was a bit rough and clueless about kids. Without help or guidance, and busy with work, he was slack on discipline, letting her do as she pleased.

What was even more baffling was that Scholar Lu, a well-read man, believed "a woman without talent is virtuous" and never taught the original owner to read, broaden her horizons, or learn sense.

As a result, the original owner was willful and way more clueless than other kids her age.

But was that what "a woman without talent is virtuous" meant?

Unbelievable!

When the original owner was fourteen, Scholar Lu fell severely ill and, on his deathbed, used the life-saving debt to force his student to take her in.

Song Changting was a year older, good-looking and elegant, a famous child prodigy from Jinghe County who had passed the imperial exam at thirteen. The original owner giddily daydreamed about being an official's wife.

But her dream didn't last six months. On his way to take the provincial exam, Song Changting got caught in a chase and accidentally injured, crippled in one leg. The county doctor said the injury was too bad to heal easily and suggested they seek a renowned physician in the prefectural city.

The family was not well-off, and the original owner feared spending money on a failed cure, leaving them with nothing. So she just took him home, leaving Song Changting permanently disabled.

With her official's wife dream shattered and no one earning money, for the past two years, the original owner had not only been nasty but also blown through all the family savings. Claiming the family was too poor to suffer at home, she "gave away" Song Changting's little brother to a childless, well-off couple in town. This made his already dying mother's condition even worse, and she was holding on by pure willpower, but she didn't survive the winter.

That wasn't the end. After spending the money from selling her brother-in-law, she ran out of funds and tried to hook up with a widowed hunter in the village.

She took the hunter's money and meat but had no intention of sleeping with him. Eventually, the hunter beat her, and she got beaten to death.

This was the mother of all pieces of work—the ultimate hot mess!

Lu Wanxiao facepalmed in disbelief.

She had time-traveled to such a poor place, with a crippled husband she got stuck with—she could accept all that.

But why did she have to transmigrate into such a scumbag? And wake up right after nearly cheating on her husband!

If fate wanted her dead, it could have just killed her outright!

There was no need to let her live again like this. Dying in that crash would have been less messy.

If it weren't for the original owner's father's life-saving favor to Song Changting, and his own disability making him helpless, he would have probably strangled her long ago!

After lying in bed for a while and cursing the original owner a thousand times, Lu Wanxiao got up, picked up the cold medicine on the table, gave it a sniff—it was medicine for swelling and bruises—and chugged it in one go.

Given what the original owner had done, Song Changting probably wouldn't have called a doctor for her.

So this medicine was probably called in by the hunter, who was scared she'd die and get him in legal trouble, after he brought her back.

She wondered how much goldthread they put in—it was bitter enough to make her guts curl.

Lu Wanxiao wanted to drink water to rinse her mouth, but there wasn't even a drop of water on the table, just the empty bowl.

She got up, threw on a random piece of clothing, and walked to the door. Behind it, she found a thick, long wooden stick. After a moment's thought, she realized the original owner had placed it there to wedge the door shut, scared Song Changting would strangle her in her sleep.

Lu Wanxiao: "..." Afraid of death yet so reckless—what a messed-up brain!

Following memory to the kitchen, she found Song Changting cooking. He glanced at her expressionlessly, without even a second glance.

Seeing the nearly empty water vat, she knew Song Changting had hobbled to the river behind the house and carried it back on his crutch. She couldn't bring herself to take a ladle of water to rinse her mouth.

The meal wasn't ready yet, and Song Changting would need hot water to soak his feet later. Her thin arms and legs had just been beaten, and she couldn't haul water right now. Besides, it was pitch black outside, no streetlights or flashlights—what if she fell into the river?

She didn't want to die again so soon after being reborn.

With a sigh, she said, "Let me do it. Go sit and rest." She walked over, took the knife from Song Changting, chopped the wild greens on the chopping board, added them to the pot of congee, and then tended the fire.

But Lu Wanxiao forgot that this wood-fired stove wasn't as easy as she thought. She stuffed in a few sticks and poked around, but instead of building the fire, she snuffed it out.

Ah... this was a bit awkward.

Lu Wanxiao looked up to see Song Changting standing there, staring at her expressionlessly. She gave a dry laugh, "Heh, um, maybe you should handle this. My hand hurts, and this firewood isn't cooperating." She stood up and stepped aside.

Actually, the original owner, though lazy, greedy, and utterly infuriating, could manage the fire.

But Lu Wanxiao, despite having the memories, knew it in her head but not in her hands.

Song Changting said nothing, hobbled over with his crutch, poked the fire a few times with the poker, and the fire caught again.

The congee was made of wild greens and brown rice—more greens than rice. Lu Wanxiao tried it for the first time—plain, no oil or salt, the taste was... pretty awful. Still, she still downed two small bowls. After all, it was the only food in the house.

After the meal, Lu Wanxiao took the initiative to wash the dishes. Song Changting gave her an indifferent look, then hobbled out of the kitchen on his crutch.

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