The moment Zhao Nuanyue opened her eyes, she found her surroundings had changed. She was back in the past, in the year she turned fifteen.
'Was this a reward for the bitter suffering of her previous life?'
But at least she had been of some use before her death. She had taken a fatal blow for the one man who had been genuinely good to her. Finally, she was free. She no longer had to live out her days burdened by a crushing sense of guilt.
Before she could think any further, her mother, Xia Yingyu, was calling for her to do the laundry, cook, and sweep. It was only after everyone else had finished eating that she finally got a chance to rest.
Only a cold steamed bun remained on the table. Zhao Nuanyue had no appetite for it, but her stomach ached with hunger, forcing her to pick it up and eat.
As Zhao Nuanyue struggled to swallow the dry bun, a steaming cup appeared before her. Her younger brother, Zhao Nuanyang, had poured her a cup of water.
Her younger brother, Zhao Nuanyang, smiled shyly. It was only when he faced her that he showed any expression. Zhao Nuanyue took the cup and smiled gently. "Thank you, Nuanyang."
Zhao Nuanyang nodded, remaining silent.
In her previous life, after her mother and stepfather forced her to go to the countryside in her stepsister's place, her younger brother had been sent to a mental asylum by her stepfather and step-grandmother. By the time she was able to return to the city, her brother had been tormented in the asylum until he was nothing but skin and bones. When he saw her through the bars, his eyes held surprise and a reluctance to let her go, but not a single trace of resentment. He even gave her the dozens of paintings he had created during his years there.
One of them depicted a girl with braided pigtails dancing gracefully in the sunlight while a boy played the harmonica nearby. In the corner of the painting were two words: "Nuanyue, Nuanyang."
Before her brother breathed his last, he had finally grasped her hand, a faint smile on his lips. Zhao Nuanyue understood then. Her brother hadn't been mentally ill in the true sense of the word. He was just a bit withdrawn, and those people had intentionally sent him to the asylum to be tormented to death.
Zhao Nuanyue had cried her eyes out, but no amount of seeking doctors or medicine could save her brother's life. It became a pain that would forever fester deep in her heart.
The only reason that family had allowed her to return from the remote countryside was not out of kindness, but to pimp her out to other men's beds in exchange for promotions, status, and wealth.
Her brother's death, coupled with her being passed from one man to another and forced to become a notorious socialite in private circles, had made Zhao Nuanyue grow weary of the world.
She had to have her revenge. And so, she spent more than thirty long years to finally achieve it, for her own sake and for her brother's.
After her vengeance was complete, she went to visit her brother's lonely grave. She fell asleep leaning against the headstone and dreamed that she had returned to her childhood.
But that was only a dream. It didn't take her back to her childhood. Instead, she had been shot. She should have died, but she hadn't. She was alive again.
Zhao Nuanyue drank the water and finished the steamed bun, and her stomach finally settled a bit.
She and her younger brother, Zhao Nuanyang, were twins. Their father, Zhao Xu, had sacrificed his life when they were five, becoming a martyr, and they became the orphaned children of a martyr. The state provided many benefits for such children. For instance, their mother, Xia Yingyu, was given a respectable job, and she and her brother received special government food rations every month.
Her mother had remarried a man named Zhao Jinghai. While he was far from a proper stepfather, he had one single redeeming quality: his surname was also Zhao. Because of this, even after their mother remarried, the siblings didn't have to change their names.
There was still a month left before the day she was sent to the countryside in her past life. She figured her weak-willed mother would bring it up soon—asking her to take her stepsister Zhao Huilan's place in the countryside, which would allow Zhao Huilan to get a job at the factory instead.
'I still have time to make a plan. This time, I'll take my brother with me, even if it's the last thing I do. Even if we have to go to the countryside, as long as I have a bite to eat, I won't let my brother starve. I absolutely cannot let them send him to a mental asylum.'
For the next few days, Zhao Nuanyue took her brother everywhere she went, hoping that with her encouragement, he could interact more with the world.
As long as he was by his sister's side, Zhao Nuanyang seemed just like any other boy, a constant smile on his fair, delicate face. At fifteen, he was already a head taller than Zhao Nuanyue.
Their maternal grandmother always said that Zhao Nuanyang looked just like his father. 'My father, Zhao Xu, must have been a very handsome man,' she thought.
Zhao Nuanyue gradually adapted to her new life. Three days after her rebirth, on a Sunday, her stepfather, Zhao Jinghai, and stepsister, Zhao Huilan, returned home.
Carrying a basket filled with wild vegetables, Zhao Nuanyue was leading her brother home when she saw Zhao Huilan sobbing uncontrollably in front of Xia Yingyu, gasping for breath between sobs.
"Mom, please, you have to help me! I've been in poor health since I was a child. If I go to the countryside, I'll probably never come back!" To get what she wanted, Zhao Huilan uncharacteristically called her stepmother "Mom." 'If I weren't trying to get her to make that wretched girl, Zhao Nuanyue, take my place, I'd never be this nice!'
'My real mom is still alive, and she's doing much better than this family. Of course I'm not going to ignore my own mother to cozy up to this hypocrite.'
'If Xia Yingyu doesn't agree, I'll make such a scene that she won't be able to stand living here anymore. She has the face of a pure 'White Lotus', but she brought two burdens with her. If it weren't for this woman, my parents might never have gotten divorced in the first place.'
Xia Yingyu was in a difficult position. 'Zhao Huilan is much healthier than my daughter Nuanyue, and she's two years older. The government is calling on the youth to respond to the nation's call and gain experience in the countryside... Zhao Huilan should be the one to go.'
"Huilan, Nuanyue is still so young..." Xia Yingyu said timidly, but Zhao Huilan cut her off before she could finish.
"Young? She's taller than me and eats more than I do!" Zhao Huilan's voice suddenly shot up as she shrieked, "It's already hard enough for my dad to support me, but he still has to support the three of you! And now that our family has hit a small bump, you're trying to push me into a fiery pit! What kind of black heart do you have? No wonder they say all stepmothers are cruel. Now I've seen it with my own eyes..."
Zhao Huilan let out a long tirade, giving Xia Yingyu no chance to retort. Meanwhile, Zhao Jinghai sat on the sofa with his head lowered, making no move to stop his daughter.
Xia Yingyu looked toward Zhao Jinghai. She knew his silence was a sign of his approval.
"That's not what I meant..." Xia Yingyu said, flustered. "Back then, your father promised he would take good care of..."
But Xia Yingyu was clumsy with words, no match for the sharp-tongued Zhao Huilan.
"Oh, not what you meant?" Seeing her soft approach wasn't working, Zhao Huilan switched tactics. "You're just protecting your own kids while abusing your stepdaughter! My father took you all in out of the kindness of his heart. Now it's time for them to repay our family, but you want to sacrifice me instead? How vicious! My grandmother was right about you—you're rotten to the core."
Hearing this, Zhao Jinghai finally looked up and frowned. "Huilan, don't talk to your mother that way! She's actually very fond of you."
Although he tacitly agreed with his daughter's words, he didn't want her dragging his own mother into it. 'She's an elder, after all,' he thought.