Volume One, Chapter 1: Forty Years of Wrong, No Longer Enduring It

White Xuanyuan listened to the dead tone on the phone and slowly let her hand fall.

She had waited forty years, and for forty years her husband and children had wronged her.

In the end, they did not even come to see her one last time.

When she woke again, her hair was in disarray and her face still burned with pain.

Once her vision focused, she found herself in a drafty earthen house, pitch-black all around, so dark she could not see her own hand before her face.

A man reeking of alcohol was pressing down on her, his gaze icy.

It was Xue Junping.

The village’s notorious thug and scoundrel.

“Run, damn it, why aren’t you running?”

“Weren’t you pretty tough just now?”

White Xuanyuan was stunned for a moment before she understood.

She had been reborn.

In her previous life, on the eve of Fu Heng’s transfer back to the capital, she had been called out by Shen Wen.

Shen Wen was the widow of Zhang Jianping, Fu Heng’s fallen comrade.

Before Zhang Jianping died in the line of duty, Fu Heng had promised to look after Shen Wen for him.

That night, just after she opened the door, Shen Wen pulled her outside and said her husband had been injured while fighting criminals and was in grave danger.

She had followed in a daze, only to be struck unconscious after taking just a few steps. When she came to, she saw the lecherous Xue Junping.

She had resisted with everything she had, but in the end she was still caught red-handed in an “adultery” trap by the people Shen Wen had summoned.

Even worse, the moment she left, a fire broke out at home.

In the end, it was Shen Wen who rushed into the room and saved the child.

After that, Shen Wen spread everywhere that she was shameless, that she had long been involved with Xue Junping, and that once she heard Fu Heng was going to die, she meant to kill the child too.

Fu Heng believed her.

Ignoring White Xuanyuan’s desperate pleas, he took the child and returned to the capital with Shen Wen.

He never saw her again for the rest of his life.

Compared with the panic and helplessness of her former life, she was now clearly calm.

“Brother, you’re hurting my hand.”

White Xuanyuan called weakly. She turned her head slightly, and the loose strands of hair that had fallen over her forehead dropped away, finally clearing her sight.

Xue Junping was numbed by her soft, sweet voice and promptly let go.

“Good girl, that’s more like it. If you’d been this obedient from the start, you wouldn’t have had to suffer just now.”

He had no fear at all.

It was dark, and White Xuanyuan was just a woman with no strength to resist. If she dared disobey, a few more slaps would make her obedient enough.

White Xuanyuan casually gathered her hair and tied it up in a bun with a rubber band.

“Brother, I don’t like it this way. Let me be on top, all right?”

Her eyes stayed lowered the whole time. Short wisps of hair fell along her small face, making her look meek and well-behaved.

Seeing her soft, fair face, Xue Junping relaxed without suspicion.

He sneered inwardly. Women were all cheap.

Always pretending to be reserved, pretending to be aloof.

And now that there was no one else around, she was just a worthless slut for anyone to handle.

White Xuanyuan rose unhurriedly, buttoned up her clothes, and absentmindedly rubbed her wrist.

In her previous life, with no one to rely on and a full stomach all she needed, she had idled away her time learning all sorts of things from young people.

Including combat sports.

White Xuanyuan sprang up and kicked the door open.

Of course, she would have liked to give Xue Junping a vicious beating.

But reason told her that the house was probably on fire, and she had to rush back first to save her son.

When Xue Junping realized the woman had tricked him, he immediately leaped off the bed.

White Xuanyuan heard the movement behind her and spun around sharply.

A cold glint flashed in her bright eyes, and Xue Junping was startled to see it.

He could not help laughing.

Just a woman.

What was there for a big man like him to fear?

Before he could even throw out a harsh threat, White Xuanyuan had already swung a high fist at him.

One blow knocked out two of his teeth.

Xue Junping reeled dizzily, and before he could even stand, she had yanked him up with force.

A smooth, powerful shoulder throw followed by a textbook elbow strike left Xue Junping beaten half to death.

He wanted very much to curse, but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was blood spurting from his chest.

After stamping and crushing the bones in his toes, White Xuanyuan forced herself to be a good person.

If she really killed him, she would only drag herself into prison.

Not worth it.

Without once looking back, White Xuanyuan ran home. From a distance, she saw a faint wisp of white smoke rising from the house.

By the time she reached the doorway, there were still no visible sparks outside.

She glanced at the lock on the front door, and her eyes turned cold.

This was something that had not happened in her previous life. And along the way, there was no sign of Shen Wen at all.

She cast a contemptuous glance at the rusted lock.

Drawing up her knee, she kicked hard and smashed a hole straight through the door.

The fire had started in the kitchen stove, and it was not very large.

She extinguished it by herself.

Afraid to leave her son at home alone, she bathed him, changed clothes, and took Fu Yuan to the hospital.

When she reached the entrance, her eyes were still faintly wet and swollen like a walnut.

Having lived through another life and now seeing the tiny person in her arms, she felt emotion swelling in waves.

Then, seeing the familiar figure in the ward, she froze for a moment.

Fu Heng lay weakly on the bed. When he saw White Xuanyuan standing at the door holding the child, his usually stern gaze flickered with surprise.

White Xuanyuan was wearing a spotless white cotton blouse, her side ponytail neatly tied.

Her porcelain-white face was streaked with tears, her lips glossy, the corners of her eyes faintly flushed red.

Unlike her usual grim, dusty look and her perpetually furrowed brow, she was indescribably lovely.

White Xuanyuan ignored the leader and the doctor beside him. As soon as she entered, she threw herself into the man’s arms and began to sob.

Her shaky, broken little sobs made her seem as though she had suffered a grievous wrong.

Fu Yuan in her arms was awakened by the cold tear drops and the sniffling sounds. He stared at her in confusion.

“Mommy.”

He turned his head, looked again, and called out once more, “Daddy?”

White Xuanyuan wiped her tears, looked around the room, and quickly locked onto one person.

Song Feiqing, Fu Heng’s very close comrade.

So close that he often said, openly and indirectly, that White Xuanyuan was not good enough for Fu Heng, and that once he returned to the capital, he would introduce his own sister to him.

She thrust Fu Yuan into Song Feiqing’s hands and said tearfully, “Comrade Song, could you please hold him for me?”

For an instant, Song Feiqing’s expression stiffened.

Because White Xuanyuan was absurdly suspicious and had spread all sorts of things, saying his thoughts were filthy and that he wanted to make his sister his mistress.

Come now.

Every year there were plenty of educated youths who returned to the city without bringing their wives.

If Fu Heng went back to the capital alone, what else could that be but being single?

Introducing his sister to him—how could that be called being a mistress?

That was called a proper match.

Women always talked nonsense.

Even so, with the leader present, he did not dare say much. In the end, he stiffly took Fu Yuan.

White Xuanyuan tossed aside the burden in her hands and kept up her performance by clutching Fu Heng’s hand.

“Husband, does it still hurt?”

“You have no idea how hard it was for me to bring the child to see you. I cried the whole way, and my eyes are swollen like this…”

Seeing how bitterly she was crying, the leaders and doctors around them tactfully withdrew from the ward.

Fu Heng gazed steadily at her, and seeing her cry, a dull ache rose in his heart.

Of course, what he felt more than anything was puzzlement.

He did not like this little wife of his.

Her temper was bad, and she did not like to talk.

So aside from the intimacy between husband and wife, they rarely spoke.

Yet now White Xuanyuan was suddenly chattering away like a spilled basket of beans.

For a moment, he even wondered whether she had been possessed by a ghost, or whether some seal on her had been lifted.

He said dryly, “It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

The room fell quiet for a while, then he asked faintly, “How did you get here?”

White Xuanyuan had sparkling tears in her eyes and looked at him with a soft, childlike expression.

Even her speech was unlike her usual stiff, hoarse manner; it was sweet and tender.

“I came by ox cart all by myself. Three hours. It was so tiring. Look, my legs have even gone skinny.”

“I worried about you all night, and my eyes are full of stars.”

Fu Heng looked at her for a long time, feeling baffled, but still offered a humane suggestion.

“There isn’t another bed here you can sleep on. Why don’t you go rest at the guesthouse?”

White Xuanyuan shook her head.

Though she was exhausted to the point of death, and though she had absolutely no desire to come and care for this faithless man, she had to keep a close watch.

Otherwise, the moment she left, that Shen Wen would come running in to poison everyone’s ears with her lies.

Even if she no longer liked Fu Heng and was planning to go find her master, she still did not want to be wronged for no reason, just like in her previous life.

She looked at him pitifully.

“Husband, don’t send me away, all right? If you talk like that, I’ll cry.”