Chapter 17 Chunni's Second Time Travel
Consciousness awoke with difficulty amidst the turbulence and pain.
Chu Yanxi first felt a burning pain in her wrist. Immediately afterward, a sharp, stabbing pain came from her lower abdomen, causing her to break out in a cold sweat.
She found herself being dragged forward by a brute force, her body staggering uncontrollably, each step so weak she could barely stand.
Her vision was blurry; all she could see was a rugged dirt road stretching out beneath her feet, with endless mountains on either side. The sunlight was blinding, yet she felt a chill run through her body.
"You brat, you cost my family a whole cow! If you don't behave, I'll break your legs!" A hoarse old woman's voice reached my ears, thick with local accent and undisguised malice.
She time-traveled again?!
Having had a previous experience with time travel, Chu Yanxi remained calm, enduring her physical discomfort as she observed her surroundings.
The woman dragging her was an old woman with a fierce face, wearing a dark blue coarse cloth shirt. The old woman was about sixty years old, with deep wrinkles on her face, and a pair of triangular eyes that gleamed with a fierce light. Her thin hands were unusually strong, gripping her wrists tightly like iron clamps.
Chu Yanxi looked down at herself. She was wearing an ill-fitting, dirty floral shirt and dark blue trousers, the fabric rough, and a pair of worn-out cloth shoes that didn't fit properly. Her body was extremely weak, hungry and thirsty, but what terrified her most was the persistent pain and heaviness in her lower abdomen, and an indescribable weakness, as if the very foundation of her life had been shaken.
As someone with professional training and basic medical knowledge, Chu Yanxi's heart sank. This peculiar physical pain and extreme weakness indicated that the original owner of this body may have just experienced a miscarriage.
It seems she really has time-traveled again.
Moreover, this time the situation is worse than the last—not only in terms of the circumstances, but also in the condition of this body.
"What are you looking at? Hurry up and get going! You still have to feed the pigs when you get home. Don't think you can lie down and enjoy life just because you lost your baby. My family doesn't support idle people!" Seeing that her steps were unsteady and slow, the old woman impatiently pulled her hard. Chu Yanxi's vision went black and she almost fell to the ground. The pain in her lower abdomen became even more intense.
Losing a child means not supporting an idle person?
It seems that the original owner's pregnancy was not voluntary, and the miscarriage caused her great trauma. In such a harsh environment, she will face cruel pressure.
Just then, Chu Yanxi's gaze caught sight of a figure on another path not far away.
A middle-aged man, dressed in an ill-fitting Zhongshan suit and looking like a cadre, limped along the mountain path, his right hand resting on the shoulder of a young man. The young man, wearing an orange jacket, was tall and slender, with a handsome face and clean, neat clothes; his demeanor was completely out of place in this mountain village.
It's Lu Zhe.
Their eyes met in mid-air. Lu Zhe's eyes flashed with shock and anxiety as he carefully examined Chu Yanxi's pale and weak appearance.
This time, he chose to take the initiative.
“Madam,” Lu Zhe quickened his pace to Chu Yanxi and Granny Wang, trying to make his tone as friendly as possible, “Where are you going? This woman looks unwell, do you need any help?”
Granny Wang, who was holding Chu Yanxi, immediately pulled Chu Yanxi behind her warily, her triangular eyes scanning Lu Zhe and Li Wenshu up and down: "My daughter-in-law is none of your business! What's so interesting about her walking around!" She spoke in a thick dialect, with a xenophobic and hostile tone.
"Auntie, I'm a clerk from the township government, my surname is Li." The man who looked like an official hurriedly stepped forward, smiling and introducing himself.
Wang Pozi interrupted impatiently, "Who cares who you are! It's none of our business in Shijian Village!" With that, she ignored her and dragged Chu Yanxi into the village with even more force, cursing under her breath.
Chu Yanxi was roughly dragged away. She turned around and exchanged a glance with Lu Zhe, then shook her head slightly, her eyes calm, signaling him to calm down.
Lu Zhe wanted to chase after him, but Li Wenshu stopped him.
"Comrade Lu, don't be impulsive." Li Wenshu watched Wang Pozi's departing figure and sighed helplessly. "That's just how Shijian Village is. It's far from the capital, with only one dangerous road leading to the town. It's very isolated. Outside, reform and opening up are in full swing, but here we're still clinging to the old ways. If they can't find wives, they buy them. Sigh, and it's not just this one family. How can we manage them? The roots are too deep; it's difficult."
Lu Zhe frowned: "Are we just going to let them buy and sell people? What about the law?"
Li Wenshu shook his head with a wry smile: "Law? Here, clan rules sometimes take precedence over the law. Unless something serious happens, otherwise... sigh, let's settle down first and think things through."
After saying this, he pointed to his sprained ankle and said, "My foot is really letting me down; I'm afraid I won't be able to get down the mountain for the next few days."
Lu Zhe stared in the direction where Chu Yanxi had disappeared, his heart sinking.
Chu Yanxi was dragged forward by Granny Wang, her steps unsteady.
"Old Wang, is this your new daughter-in-law?" an old man carrying a hoe asked with a grin, his eyes lingering lewdly on Chu Yanxi.
The old woman, Granny Wang, who was holding Chu Yanxi, spat and said, "What's it to you! Get down to your field!"
"Oh, she's quite pretty. Don't let her wither away like Chunni did in a couple of days." The old man persisted.
"Get lost! If I didn't pity her and no one wanted her, I wouldn't even be willing to pay the price of a cow." Granny Wang cursed and swore, pulling harder on Chu Yanxi's wrist until it ached.
Chunni? This name instantly triggered Chu Yanxi's memories.
It's another case from "Breaking the Cocoon," and that passage is filled with gore—
"The tragedy occurred in the autumn of 1992 in Shijian Village, a remote mountain village in southwestern Henan Province. That night, villager Wang Dazhu returned home drunk. Having lost all his savings gambling during the day, he had nowhere to vent his anger. He poured all his resentment on his wife, Chunni, and promised his six-year-old daughter to an old bachelor in a neighboring village as a child bride."
Looking at her two daughters huddled in the corner, trembling with fear, Chunni's years of pent-up fear, humiliation, and despair finally broke through to the breaking point. After Wang Dazhu fell into a drunken sleep, this long-trampled, silent, and docile woman picked up the cleaver she usually used for chopping wood.
The bloodshed shocked the isolated mountain village.
Chunni was dragged outside and tied up in front of the ancestral hall. The clan elders were furious, and the villagers were enraged. Shouts of "poisonous woman!" and "Pay with your life!" echoed through the valley. According to the clan rules that had been in place for centuries, the crime of murdering one's husband was punishable only by death, either by drowning or burying alive, with no leniency.
External laws are practically meaningless here; Shijian Village remains an independent kingdom ruled by ancient rules.
Recalling those words, Chu Yanxi felt a chill creep up her back.
She's transmigrated into a book again! This time, she's transmigrated into a small mountain village where the law is ignored and clan power is the only thing that matters!
She wasn't dressed as Chunni, the woman who killed her husband, but at this moment she was a woman bought by Granny Wang who had just experienced a miscarriage, and her situation wasn't much better.
There was no time for further thought; Chu Yanxi was roughly dragged into the village.
This is a typical remote mountain village, with dozens of mud-brick houses scattered in the valley, their roofs covered with gray-black tiles, and occasionally a few even more dilapidated ones with thatched roofs. The village roads are muddy and treacherous, with animal manure and garbage everywhere, and the air is filled with an indescribable mixed odor.
Several ragged children, barefoot, chased and played. When they saw Chu Yanxi's unfamiliar face, they curiously gathered around, only to be scolded away by Granny Wang. Some villagers stood at their doorways, curiously sizing up this new "daughter-in-law."
Chu Yanxi was dragged into an adobe house by Granny Wang and roughly shoved into the room.
A man in his thirties, with dark skin and an honest-looking appearance, ran out from the inner room, rubbing his hands together. His eyes darted greedily over Chu Yanxi's face and body: "Mom, is this...?"
“Here, your wife.” Granny Wang pushed Chu Yanxi forward and said to the man, “Second son, let me tell you, this time we spent a lot of money, so you better keep a close eye on her, don’t let her turn out like the eldest son’s wife…”
After scolding her son, Granny Wang turned and glared at Chu Yanxi. "What are you standing there for? Go to the kitchen and start a fire!"
Chu Yanxi did not move.
At this moment, her body was extremely weak, and her brain was rapidly processing the fragments of the original owner's memories.
In this story's world, her name is Yao Chunhua. She is a girl who was tricked while working in Jiangcheng. After being sold to a neighboring village, she refused to submit and suffered violent miscarriages every time she became pregnant. Finally, she was resold here.
Her expertise as a negotiation expert allowed her to leverage the existing conditions to gain the upper hand.
She clutched her lower abdomen with one hand, her voice weak and feeble: "Mom, I just lost my baby, and my body is severely weakened. If I go to tend the fire now, I'm afraid I'll faint by the stove, and then we'll have to spend money to call a doctor."
She looked at Wang Lao Er with her bright eyes, her gaze carrying a hint of deliberate vulnerability. "I know your family has it tough. You spent a lot of money just to give you a son to carry on the family line, to take care of the household, and to provide you with a wife, children, and a warm bed, right?"
The imagery of "wife, children, and a warm bed" was so beautiful that Wang Lao Er couldn't hide the eagerness in his eyes. He nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, yes, you are my wife, you will give me children!"
Chu Yanxi pressed her advantage: "Think about it, if I were to collapse from exhaustion and die now, wouldn't your family lose both your money and your loved one? I've worked as a caregiver in a city hospital, so I know a little about medicine. I just had a miscarriage and need to rest during my postpartum period. If I get sick or catch a chill during that time, it could leave lasting health problems, and I'm afraid it will be difficult for me to conceive again in the future."
She pinpointed the Wang family's sore spot—the need to carry on the family line and the "high" price they paid.
Wang Lao Er hesitated as expected, looking at Wang Pozi: "Mom, what she said... seems to make some sense?"
Granny Wang was a woman too, so of course she knew that miscarriage was harmful to the body. The reason she bought Chu Yanxi was precisely because she could get pregnant and give birth. With the crackdown on human traffickers so fierce these days, buying a wife was becoming increasingly difficult. If this woman couldn't have a child, then her investment in this ox would have been completely wasted!
Thinking about it this way, Granny Wang's attitude softened a bit, but she still wouldn't let it go: "Which woman doesn't get pregnant? You can just miscarry one and get pregnant again. What do you mean by 'postpartum confinement'? You're so delicate!"
Chu Yanxi lowered her eyes, her tone tinged with a hint of feminine weakness and grievance: "Mom, I'm only thinking of our family. Second Brother Wang is getting on in years, he must be longing for a son. I need to get better so I can carry on the Wang family line. How about this, I'll stay home and avoid cold water for the next few days, just do some light chores to recover. Second Brother, what do you say?" She posed the question to Wang Lao Er, subtly sowing discord between them.
Wang Lao Er's heart fluttered when she called him "Second Brother," and thinking of the important matter of continuing the family line, he said to Wang Pozi, "Mom, let her rest for a couple of days. It's a cow, don't really damage it."
Although Granny Wang was reluctant, seeing Chu Yanxi's pale face, she was afraid of ruining everything, so she said sullenly, "Fine, I'll do as you say. Second son, you keep a close eye on this for me, don't be in such a hurry. If you break this, you'll be a bachelor for life."
Wang Lao Er nodded repeatedly: "I know, I know, this is my wife, and she will give me a son in the future."
Granny Wang was still a little worried. She looked Chu Yanxi up and down, and after a while, she said, "Tie her hands and feet! Don't let her escape."
Just as Wang Lao Er was about to grab the rope, Chu Yanxi leaned weakly against the wall, her right hand on the corner of the table, and said with a wry smile, "Second Brother, please have pity on me. Look at me, I can't even stand up straight now, how can I run?"
Granny Wang spat on the ground: "What bad luck!"
Chu Yanxi took "feigning weakness" to the extreme: "Mom, can you get me some toilet paper? The blood is almost flowing down my legs. Don't worry, I'm a country girl. As long as I recover, I can do any farm work. My previous family treated me badly, like pigs and dogs. I didn't want to be on their side, so I was sold. Now I've come to terms with it. A woman follows her husband wherever he goes. Now that I'm in your family, and Brother Wang is so kind, I'll definitely live a good life."
Looking at Chu Yanxi's fair and pretty face and her sweet voice, Wang Lao Er felt a surge of desire. He held the rope, reluctant to go forward, and turned to Wang Pozi, asking cautiously, "Mom, how about we don't tie her up? I'll lock the door; she can't run away. Besides, there's only one path down the mountain in our village; how can she get out without someone to guide her?"
Granny Wang thought it made sense and reluctantly nodded. However, she still felt that a bought daughter-in-law should be treated like an ancestor. Resentful, she shoved Chu Yanxi into the inner room, took a roll of toilet paper from the drawer, threw it on the bed, and cursed viciously, "Useless thing! I really owe you something!"
Chu Yanxi picked up some toilet paper, tidied herself up, and sat slumped on the edge of the bed. As the smell of blood faded and the soreness in her waist and abdomen gradually subsided, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
In this round of negotiations, she used her "fertility" as a bargaining chip, barely managing to gain some breathing room and limited freedom.
Next, she needs time to recover her strength, and even more time to observe and find an opportunity to contact Chunni and change her tragic fate.
As for Lu Zhe, he is free and has connections in this world, so he should be of some use. We'll find a way to contact him again later.
At this moment, Lu Zhe and Li Wenshu were staying in a small house at the village office, and they were extremely anxious.
"Li Wenshu, isn't there any way to get her out? She's a living, breathing person! How can you buy and sell her like this? It's illegal!"
Li Wenshu lowered his voice: "Comrade Lu, I understand your feelings. But here, even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake. You, an outsider, dare to touch the wife they bought. That's like stirring up a hornet's nest; the whole village will fight you to the death! It's not worth risking your life for a woman you don't even know..."
Lu Zhe wanted to say, "That's a woman I don't know," but then he remembered that he had transmigrated from another world, and he couldn't bring himself to say it. He could only scratch his head in frustration, "Am I just going to stand by and watch?"
Li Wenshu patted him on the shoulder: "Don't rush, don't rush. You're a writer from the Provincial Writers Association, you should know the saying, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' Since you're here in Shijian Village to learn about local customs, just stay here and observe more while speaking less. If you want to rescue someone, first find out their wishes. If they really are abducted women, then once my leg heals and I come down the mountain, I'll ask the police for help in rescuing them. How does that sound?"
Just then—
"ah--!"
A piercing, distorted scream suddenly shattered the tranquility of the village.
The sound came from the east end of the village, filled with extreme fear and despair, sending chills down the spines of everyone who heard it.
Lu Zhe and Li Wenshu were both startled. After exchanging a glance, they rushed outside and stood in an open space, looking in the direction from which the scream came.
Suddenly, chaos erupted at the east end of the village, with voices, footsteps, and barking dogs creating a cacophony of noise.
"Someone's dead! Someone's dead!" someone shouted as they ran.
Something happened? Lu Zhe's heart tightened. Could something have happened to Chu Yanxi? The more he thought about it, the more panicked he became. He grabbed Li Wen's arm and pulled him outside, ignoring the fact that the other man was still limping: "Come on! Let's go see."
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Author's Note: Starting tomorrow, updates will be at 9 AM every day.
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