"Ah Ci, your sister has been pampered since birth. She can't lift a finger. Sending her to join the army in the Northwest would be the death of her."
Hearing the sound of someone crying, Wen Ci slowly opened her eyes. Her brow was furrowed as she looked at the lavishly dressed middle-aged woman before her. A tall man stood by her side.
Their features were remarkably similar.
It was clear at a glance that they were mother and son.
"I heard that young man from the Huo family is an officer in the Northwest. His salary isn't low. You definitely won't lose out by marrying him. At the very least, it's better than your life in the countryside."
As Wen Ci listened to the man's earnest attempts at persuasion, countless images flooded her mind, and a chilling coldness crept into her eyes.
She was a War God from the apocalypse. She had just finished slaughtering the last of the zombies and was about to hold a victory celebration when an apocalypse-class zombie burst in.
It had shattered humanity's last hope, and then she had transmigrated here. She now possessed all the memories of the body's original owner, who had, just a moment ago, died from sheer rage.
After learning why the original owner had died of anger, Wen Ci found it a bit hard to understand.
The body's previous owner was also named Wen Ci, just like her.
The original Wen Ci was supposed to be the daughter of the Jiang Family, who lived in a prestigious Beijing compound. However, the family's nanny had swapped her with her own daughter at birth, and Wen Ci was taken to be raised in a poor rural village.
The original Wen Ci had suffered endlessly since she was a child. By the time she was three, she was already responsible for cooking and doing laundry. Her adoptive parents would beat and curse her at the slightest provocation.
In the 1970s, daughters were not welcome. Every household hoped for a son to carry on the family line.
Wen Ci believed that being a girl had brought shame upon her parents in the village, so she always endured their abuse in silence.
On her eighteenth birthday, a tall, handsome man showed up at her door with a box of peach pastries, claiming to be her biological older brother.
He had come to take her home.
It was only then that Wen Ci learned her birth parents were city dwellers from a prominent residential compound. She was filled with joyful anticipation at the thought of finally meeting them.
But as it turned out…
Just two days after she returned home, the Huo family, who also lived in the compound, came to discuss a marriage proposal. They said it was an unchangeable engagement arranged by their ancestors. The man in question was a soldier stationed in the remote Northwest Region.
The couple was to register their marriage within the month, after which the bride would have to follow him to his post in the Northwest.
The Huo family's intended bride was the fair and delicate Jiang Ye—the biological daughter of Wen Ci's adoptive parents. However, Jiang Ye had been dating a boyfriend since high school.
Mr. and Mrs. Jiang tried to force her to break up with him, and in the process, they accidentally revealed that she wasn't their biological daughter. Unable to bear the tears of the girl they had doted on for so many years, they relented.
The Jiang Family then set their sights on Wen Ci, planning for her to take Jiang Ye's place, marry Huo Jingyuan, and follow him to live in the Northwest.
When the original Wen Ci learned the real reason she had been brought back…
She had literally died of anger.
Wen Ci sighed softly. 'If I were the original owner, I would have just abandoned these shallow family ties. Why would she let things get to the point of…'
Seeing she was completely unresponsive, Jiang Chen frowned and pulled rank as her older brother. His tone was no longer gentle. "You're getting married today whether you like it or not. You have no choice."
At his words, Wen Ci lifted her gaze and swept it coolly over the middle-aged woman before her—the original body's biological mother, Su Guilan. After a few seconds of thought, she asked, "Are you really going to make your own biological daughter marry in place of your adopted one?"
A troubled expression crossed Su Guilan's face. To her, Jiang Ye and Wen Ci were like the palm and back of her hand—it was impossible to choose. One was the adopted daughter she had raised and pampered from a young age.
The other was her own flesh and blood who had been taken from her.
She couldn't bear to send either of her daughters to suffer in a place like the Northwest.
But…
The engagement with the Huo family had been arranged by their elders, and she had no power to change it. She had to choose one of them. Jiang Ye's boyfriend was already set to be a university student.
Meanwhile, the Huo family had fallen on hard times; even their house in the compound had been repossessed. They didn't know Huo Jingyuan's exact rank in the Northwest, only that he was an officer.
'Although Wen Ci is my own flesh and blood…'
'...she did grow up in the countryside, after all.'
'Marrying Huo Jingyuan would still be a good match for her.'
Su Guilan looked at Wen Ci's face but said nothing.
But Wen Ci could see the choice of her "birth mother" in her eyes.
Wen Ci's gaze swept over her surroundings.
They were in a teahouse on the shore of Shichahai, seated in a private room on the third floor. Outside the window, the waters of Shichahai shimmered.
Though its name meant "sea," Shichahai was really more of a lake.
Wen Ci calculated how long it would take to jump from the window and swim to the opposite shore.
"If you marry Huo Jingyuan, the Jiang Family won't treat you poorly. We'll give you a dowry of one thousand yuan. You can spend the money however you like."
To put that in perspective, the average worker in 1970s Beijing earned only about 60 yuan a month. The dowry the Jiangs were offering could support a regular family for a decade.
But Wen Ci wasn't listening at all, her mind completely absorbed in her calculations. Once she had her answer, she walked to the window. 'Fortunately, it's spring.'
'If it were winter, there's no way I'd be jumping into Shichahai.'
"Please, consider this your mother begging you, all right?"
The moment Ms. Su finished speaking, Wen Ci climbed over the windowsill and leaped into Shichahai. With a loud SPLASH, many people on the street started shouting.
"Someone jumped into the water! Help! Somebody, help!"
Wen Ci's swimming form was light and effortless. In no time, she was in the middle of Shichahai. Hearing the shouts from the shore, she couldn't help but smirk. 'They're making such a fuss over nothing.'
Just then, a man on the shore carrying a duffel bag threw it to the ground, stripped off his military jacket, and without even taking a moment to assess the situation…
…dove headfirst into Shichahai.
Huo Jingyuan swam underwater, reaching Wen Ci's side in moments. He surfaced, wrapping a strong arm around her waist. Wen Ci stared at the man before her, taking in his chiseled features.
She forgot to struggle or resist, her gaze locked on him. From the way he moved to rescue her, she could tell he had a tall, incredibly powerful build.
The man was breathtakingly handsome.
After being pulled ashore, Wen Ci got a clear view of the enticing lines of his abs beneath his wet, white shirt. She instinctively stared a moment longer, her mouth practically watering.
"Just passing by?"
Huo Jingyuan's gaze was cool. The moment he'd pulled the woman from Shichahai and met her intense stare, he had realized she knew how to swim.
'She probably didn't fall in by accident. She was just swimming in Shichahai.'
Just then, Jiang Chen came rushing from the teahouse to the shore, looking both furious and worried. He hadn't expected his own sister to be so headstrong.
To think she would just jump into the water! His brow furrowed deeply as he yelled, "I just asked you to go with the army to the Northwest! Was it really worth jumping in the lake over?!"
Hearing this, Huo Jingyuan's gaze fell upon Jiang Chen. They were both from the same residential compound, and he had met the Jiangs a few times. He looked away from Jiang Chen and back down at Wen Ci.
"What did you just ask me?"
"Huh?" Wen Ci blinked, repeating her earlier question. "Are you just passing by?"
A small smile touched Huo Jingyuan's lips. The indifference he had projected moments before, like that of an eternally frozen mountain or an impassive, banished immortal, began to melt away.
As the corner of his mouth lifted, the snow mountain thawed and the immortal descended to the mortal realm.
Huo Jingyuan's voice was deep and resonant. "I'm your husband."