The north wind in December was like a knife, stinging her face. Lin Wanqiu was awakened by the cold, or more accurately, by the bone-chilling cold of the icy water that made her feel like her soul was about to leave her body—she was sinking in the frozen pond at the entrance of the village, her heavy cotton-padded coat soaked with water, pulling her down like a piece of lead, her mouth filled with muddy water that tasted fishy and bitter, and even breathing was a tearing pain.
"Help...help..." She tried her best to shout, but only a hoarse sound came from her throat. Her vision gradually went black, and the scene of her tasting king crab in her live broadcast as a food blogger in her past life strangely overlapped with the cold sense of death she was experiencing now. She remembered that she was in the kitchen chopping vegetables to meet the deadline for her live broadcast when she accidentally knocked over the oil pan. The burning pain from the hot oil splashing on her body hadn't subsided yet, so how did she end up in an ice hole when she opened her eyes?
Just as her consciousness was about to fade, a warm sensation suddenly came from her chest—it was the ancestral jade pendant she had worn around her neck before she transmigrated. Now, it seemed to come alive, emitting a faint white light in the icy water, spreading along her chest skin to her limbs and bones, dispelling some of the numbness from the cold.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and get her out of the water! If she dies right under our noses, our Nian'an will really be a motherless child!" A rough, hoarse female voice came from the shore. Immediately afterwards, several rough hands grabbed Lin Wanqiu's arms and pulled her out of the icy water with all their might.
The moment she was dragged ashore, Lin Wanqiu's teeth chattered from the cold. Her soaking wet cotton-padded coat was stiff and clung to her body like a layer of ice. She barely opened her eyes and vaguely saw several women in patched blue cotton-padded coats, frantically rubbing her arms and legs. There was also a little boy, as thin as a reed, about four or five years old, wearing an ill-fitting old cotton-padded coat, his little face red from the cold, clutching her clothes and crying so hard he could barely breathe: "Mother... Mother, don't die... An'an will be good, An'an will never go hungry again..."
Who is this child? Mother? He calls himself Mother?
Lin Wanqiu's mind felt like it was filled with a tangled mess, countless fragments of memories that weren't hers suddenly flooding in—the original owner of this body was also named Lin Wanqiu, a wife in the Hongqi Production Brigade. Her husband, Shen Tingzhou, was a military officer who "sacrificed" himself on the border six months ago, leaving her and her four-year-old son, Shen Nian'an. Without a man to support her, the original owner became a thorn in her husband's side. Her mother-in-law, Old Lady Shen, favored sons over daughters and treated her like free labor. Her sister-in-law, Zhang Lan, was lazy, greedy, and cunning, constantly sowing discord. This morning, when the original owner went to the river to wash clothes, Zhang Lan, under the pretext of helping her get soap, pushed her into an icy hole when she wasn't looking, deliberately calling out late, hoping she would "accidentally" drown so she could seize her meager dowry.
"What a tragedy! Falling into an ice hole in the dead of winter, even if you manage to pull her out, it's a long shot..." A woman in a gray cotton-padded jacket sighed, reached out to check Lin Wanqiu's breath, and her face immediately changed, "Oh dear! She seems to be dead!"
"She's dead?" Old Mrs. Shen had arrived sometime earlier. She was wearing a worn black cotton-padded jacket and a blue cloth apron around her waist. Her face was full of impatience, and she muttered, "It's good that she's dead! It saves her from occupying the Shen family's land and eating the Shen family's food! Nian'an, come home with Grandma. Grandma will find you a new mother!"
As she spoke, she reached out to grab Chen Nian'an, but the child, like a protective little animal, clung tightly to Lin Wanqiu's arm, crying even harder: "I don't want a new mother! I want my mother! Grandma is bad! Grandma is a bad person!"
"You've gone too far!" Old Mrs. Shen was furious at being rebuked and raised her hand to hit Shen Nian'an, but Lin Wanqiu suddenly opened her eyes and used her last bit of strength to grab her wrist!
Lin Wanqiu herself was stunned by this grab—her hand, though numb from the cold, now possessed an inexplicable strength that rendered Old Lady Shen unable to move. Old Lady Shen was also startled, looking at Lin Wanqiu's suddenly opened eyes. Gone was the usual timidity in her gaze; instead, it was as if it had been tempered with ice, sending a chill down Old Lady Shen's spine: "You...you're not dead?"
"Thanks to you, the King of Hell thinks my life is too cheap and won't take me." Lin Wanqiu's voice was terribly hoarse, yet it carried an undeniable coldness. She propped herself up, trying to sit up. The jade pendant on her chest grew even warmer, this time not just warm, but like a small stove inside her. It slid down her throat, slowly restoring some of her strength.
The women around were stunned—the Lin Wanqiu of the past was as soft as dough, and would only hide and cry when bullied by Old Lady Shen and Zhang Lan. How come she was like a completely different person today? Even her words were sharp!
Zhang Lan, hiding behind the crowd, turned pale upon seeing that Lin Wanqiu was still alive. She quietly retreated, trying to slip away in the chaos. Lin Wanqiu, with her sharp eyes, spotted her immediately and said coldly, "Sister-in-law, don't go! You said you'd help me get the soap, but how come I fell into the water as soon as I turned around? Tell me, the ice was perfectly fine, how did I just happen to fall in?"
When Zhang Lan was called out, she trembled with fright, but tried to remain calm and said, "You...you fell down by accident, what does it have to do with me? I was even trying to help you, but who knew you were so useless!"
"Really?" Lin Wanqiu propped herself up on her arms, shivering from the cold despite being soaked to the bone, but her imposing presence silenced everyone. "When I fell, it felt like someone pushed me from behind. Sister-in-law, you were closest to me, did you see who pushed me?"
Upon hearing this, the surrounding women all looked at Zhang Lan with suspicion in their eyes. Zhang Lan panicked, and her voice changed: "You...you're making false accusations! I didn't see anything! Who knows if you're trying to extort money from me!"
"I'm trying to extort money?" Lin Wanqiu sneered, her gaze sweeping over Zhang Lan's mud-splattered cuffs. "Sister-in-law, how come the mud on your cuffs is exactly the same as the mud by the pond? Everyone was on the bank just now, and you were the only one who said you were going to get soap for me and ran towards the river. If I really asked the commune people to investigate, do you think they could find anything out?"
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com