As the sun sets, the clouds on the horizon are tinged with a faint golden-red hue, resembling a meticulously painted picture blurred by water.
A gentle breeze swept by, swirling a few withered yellow leaves in the air before they gently fell back down.
Pedestrians hurried along the street, and no one noticed the frail figure trembling in the corner.
"Young lady, why hide? It won't hurt you to chat with us!" Several thugs surrounded a girl, their faces lewd and their eyes gleaming with a disgusting light.
The girl clutched the hem of her clothes tightly, her face as pale as paper, her almond-shaped eyes filled with terror and despair.
Although her clothes were old, they could not conceal her exquisite and otherworldly beauty. Her skin was as white as snow, and her features were like a painting, as if she were a fairy who had stepped out of a painting.
But at this moment, the fairy was forced into a desperate situation.
"You...you stay away!" The girl's voice trembled, like a candle flame flickering in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.
"Hahaha, little lady is shy!" The leader of the thugs laughed even more unrestrainedly and reached out to touch her face.
The girl suddenly took a step back, her back hitting the cold wall.
Her heart was pounding like a drum, her ears were ringing, and it felt as if the whole world was spinning.
Suddenly, her gaze fell on a sharp stone in the corner. In her despair, a thought flashed through her mind—rather than be humiliated, it's better to…
"Father, Mother, your daughter is unfilial..." she murmured softly, tears streaming down her face like broken pearls. The next second, she slammed her head against the wall!
"Bang--"
With a muffled thud, the girl collapsed softly to the ground, blood gushing from her forehead, staining her pale cheeks red.
The thugs panicked, looked at each other in bewilderment, and finally ran away cursing.
A crowd gradually gathered, some exclaiming, some sighing, but no one dared to step forward.
At that moment, a middle-aged couple stumbled through the crowd and saw the girl lying on the ground; they were struck dumb.
"Yun'er! My Yun'er!" The woman rushed forward, trembling as she embraced the girl, tears blurring her vision. Her clothes were patched, and her fingers were rough, clearly the marks of years of hard labor.
"Quick! Get a doctor!" The man's face was ashen, his voice hoarse, his back slightly hunched, and the deep wrinkles between his brows were a testament to the hardships of his life.
Some people in the crowd ran to fetch a doctor, while others shook their heads and sighed, "This world is truly a mess!"
The girl's consciousness gradually faded, and all she could hear were her mother's sobs and her father's anxious calls. She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt as heavy as lead.
"Am I... going to die?" she thought bitterly.
However, just as her consciousness was about to fade away, a flood of unfamiliar memories rushed into her mind—modern cities, skyscrapers, bustling shopping malls, a dazzling array of goods… and her name: Lin Wanqing.
"I……"
Her vision went black, and she fell into a complete coma.
"Yun'er... Yun'er... my lifeblood..."
The sound seemed to drift from a great distance, or like a whisper close to the ear.
Lin Wanqing felt a splitting headache, as if someone was hitting her temples hard with a hammer.
She struggled to open her eyes, and in her blurry vision, a wrinkled face hung above her, its murky tears dripping onto her cheeks, burning hot as if they were about to scorch her skin.
"Mother..." Lin Wanqing called out subconsciously, then was startled by her own voice.
This weak, tearful voice was definitely not her usual tone.
"She's awake! Thank God!" Lin Wanqing now knew that the woman was her "mother".
He suddenly burst into tears, his rough hands trembling as he touched her cheek.
"If you leave, how will your mother live!"
Lin Wanqing struggled to get up, but found that her whole body was limp and she couldn't muster any strength.
She then noticed that she was lying on a hard wooden bed, and the comforter beneath her was not the down comforter she remembered, but a thin layer of musty-smelling straw.
The roof consisted of bare beams and thatch, and spiderwebs clung to the corners of the walls, with a spider leisurely weaving its web.
"Where...is this?" she murmured to herself, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible.
"Yun'er, you scared your parents to death!"
A hunched-over middle-aged man approached. His coarse cloth clothes were patched, and his knuckles were large, clearly showing the marks of years of hard labor.
"That Wang Wu is a scoundrel, but you don't need to...you don't need to..." He couldn't finish his sentence and wiped his eyes hard with his sleeve.
Wang Wu? Lin Wanqing, who is now Lin Yun, tried hard to recall, but only remembered that she was a modern fashion designer. She was working overtime last night to revise the sample design for the Spring Fashion Week. How did she end up in this unfamiliar place after waking up?
She instinctively touched her forehead and felt a rough strip of cloth; the pain immediately shot through her body like an electric current.
"Hiss—" She gasped.
"Don't touch it!" Lin's mother hurriedly pressed her hand down. "The doctor said if the wound were any deeper... or..."
She couldn't continue, but she gripped Lin Yun's fingers tightly, as if her daughter would disappear if she let go.
A rustling sound came from outside the window, and Lin Yun then noticed several blurry figures moving around outside the paper window.
"I heard that the Lin family's daughter banged her head against a wall to protect her innocence?"
"That's right, Wang Wu said he'll be coming again tonight..."
"What a tragedy, the Lin family has already suffered enough..."
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