Volume One, Chapter 1: Return to 1988

“Help me! Can anyone save me?”

Blazing flames and thick smoke rose as everything in the room crackled and burned.

Song Yi shouted desperately, searching for a way out.

But the sudden fire was too fierce. Scorched, overturned furniture blocked every path, and the choking smoke stung her eyes, trapping her inside.

“Song Yi.”

“Shu Wan.”

“Aunt Jiang, where are you?”

Song Yi’s eyes lit up as she shouted, “Xie Yu, Yi Chen, Yi Fei, I’m here! Save me!”

Xie Yu hurried up with his son, Xie Yi Chen, and daughter, Xie Yi Fei. Seeing her, he paused in surprise and anxiously asked, “Why are you here? Where’s Shu Wan?”

Today was Song Yi’s birthday, and Jiang Shu Wan, a university alumna of Xie Yu, was invited to the celebration.

After the luncheon, Jiang Shu Wan felt unwell, so Xie Yu had her rest upstairs. Unexpectedly, the house caught fire.

“Jiang Shu Wan? She’s in the guest room at the back,” Song Yi coughed, covering her mouth. “Xie Yu, Yi Fei, Yi Chen, please rescue me!”

The fire was too intense; if she stayed any longer, she would die.

Xie Yu was about to raise the fire extinguisher but was stopped by Yi Fei.

“Dad, there’s only one extinguisher. We have to save Aunt Jiang first—her legs are bad,” Yi Fei said earnestly.

Song Yi stared in disbelief. “Yi Fei, I’m your mother! Are you really going to let me die for the sake of a stranger?”

Yi Fei frowned. “Mom, can you stop being so selfish? Always thinking only of yourself? You know Aunt Jiang has bad legs and is our mentor. What will Yi Chen and I do if something happens to her? Wait, we’ll save Aunt Jiang first, then come back for you.”

Song Yi felt a chill in her heart. “Selfish? Unreasonable? Yi Fei, don’t you realize that in a fire like this, even a minute’s delay could cost me my life?”

Yi Chen sneered, “If that’s not unreasonable, what is? Saving someone only takes a few minutes. What’s the big deal if you wait a little longer? Forget it. Dad, Yi Fei, stop arguing. Let’s go find Aunt Jiang.”

Xie Yu finally chose to listen to Yi Chen and Yi Fei. “Song Yi, just wait here. We’ll be back soon.”

“Back! You’ll come back!”

Song Yi watched helplessly as the three walked away, her heart shattering.

She had always known Xie Yu’s feelings for Jiang Shu Wan were special, and that Yi Chen and Yi Fei liked her more than their own mother.

Perhaps in their eyes, she was merely a housekeeper, while only someone like Jiang Shu Wan—a talented woman—was worthy to be their mother and wife.

But she never imagined that, though it would take just a moment to pull her out, and rescuing Jiang Shu Wan didn’t require all three of them, they would still choose to save Jiang Shu Wan first, leaving her to perish.

In their hearts, her life was worth less than a stranger’s.

***

The temperature inside the room climbed relentlessly, and the intense heat began to warp everything before her eyes.

The chandelier above crashed down, striking her back with a heavy blow.

Song Yi groaned, curling up on the floor in pain as her consciousness began to fade.

She knew clearly—she was dying.

Through the roaring flames, she gazed sorrowfully toward the corridor, memories flashing like a lantern: Xie Yu, Yi Chen, Yi Fei.

Since marrying Xie Yu at twenty, bearing his children, managing the household, and painstakingly caring for the two children, she never expected that in a moment of crisis, they would care more for a stranger than for her.

Pregnant for ten months.

The agony of childbirth.

Thirty-five years of companionship.

In the end, it wasn’t enough to surpass a stranger.

Didn’t they realize she might die?

No.

They knew.

They simply did not care.

If there was a next life, she would never live like this again.

Everything blurred. Song Yi felt her body weaken.

***

“Song Yi, don’t blame me for being blunt, but if you hadn’t clung to our Xie Yu, flattering him and even paying for his university tuition, I would never have agreed to this marriage.”

The sharp, disdainful voice was so repugnant it made her stomach turn.

Song Yi blinked, staring at the woman before her—Xie Yu’s mother, Zheng Hongxia—still sharp and bitter despite appearing younger.

She thought she was dead. How was she seeing Zheng Hongxia’s expression from when she came to propose?

Could it be…

Song Yi looked at the calendar on the wall and her eyes widened.

1988?

She had been reborn!

***

Back to thirty-five years ago, before marrying Xie Yu?

Was fate giving her a second chance because she had been too foolish in her previous life?

In her last life, after meeting Xie Yu, she was blinded by love. Despite her parents’ objections, she married into the Xie family, serving them like a free maid, even selling her home to pay Xie Yu’s university tuition.

After Yi Chen was born, Zheng Hongxia suddenly broke her leg. Song Yi didn’t even rest during her postpartum month and rushed to the hospital to nurse her.

Yet Zheng Hongxia still looked down on her, often telling other patients that Song Yi had only graduated middle school, was semi-illiterate, and unworthy of their university-educated Xie Yu.

Angry, Song Yi complained to Xie Yu, who said, “She’s my mother. She raised me with hardship. How can you be so harsh to her?”

What hardship? His mother suffered raising him—what did that have to do with her? Was it her fault his mother had to suffer?

But at the time, she didn’t think this way. She blushed under Xie Yu’s persuasion, promising to care for Zheng Hongxia well.

Under Xie Yu’s manipulation, she cared for Zheng Hongxia her whole life until her death.

Yet even so, she never received kindness. When Zheng Hongxia died, she left all her savings to Xie Yu’s eldest sister and youngest sister—about three hundred thousand yuan each—giving Song Yi only thirty thousand.

And claimed it was only out of respect for Xie Yu that she gave her that.

Did she need thirty thousand?

Zheng Hongxia wasn’t giving her money—she was humiliating her.

The pain from the fire still hadn’t fully faded. Song Yi trembled with hatred, her eyes bloodshot. “So this is how Aunt Zheng thinks? In that case, this marriage is off.”

Zheng Hongxia suspiciously asked, “What did you say? Off?”

What was this little tramp playing at? Didn’t she want to marry into the Xie family desperately? Was she unhappy with the bride price?

Song Yi’s mother looked at her doubtfully. “Nan Nan, don’t say things in anger.”

Although she disliked Zheng Hongxia’s arrogant attitude, she knew Xiao Yi had always loved Xie Yu.

Zheng Hongxia sneered, folding her arms. “You’re barely a middle school graduate, a semi-illiterate, and you think you deserve our university graduate Xie Yu? That’s already a blessing from your ancestors. And you complain that three hundred yuan is too little as a bride price? There’s not even three hundred now! At most, I’ll give one hundred. Marry if you want, don’t if you don’t!”

Song Yi’s mother frowned. With Zheng Hongxia’s attitude even before the wedding, what kind of daughter-in-law would she be?

Song Yi smiled bitterly, the smile not reaching her eyes. “One hundred? Maybe you should look for another girl. After all, Xie Yu is a university graduate. Even if the bride price is only one hundred, I believe you won’t lack suitors. The door is that way. I won’t see you off.”