Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Sister… Sister-in-law, let go…”

I threw my hands up, struggling desperately, but my strength was rapidly fading.

The person strangling me was my own sister-in-law.

She had small, mung-bean-sized triangular eyes and slanted eyebrows so pale they were almost invisible.

With a bulbous nose, protruding lips, and teeth as yellow as if they had been dyed, my hideous sister-in-law squeezed my neck with vicious force.

Her face was contorted and her expression so ghoulish from the effort that she looked like a vengeful spirit crawled straight out of hell to claim a life.

“You slut!

“Don’t think I didn’t see it! He hugged you, didn’t he? He hugged you yesterday!”

I raised my hand and raked my nails across her face.

Ignoring the pain, she kept her death grip on me, her eyes wild and ferocious.

“You deserve to die! Once you’re dead, Yanlang will only love me. Everyone who tries to steal Yanlang from me deserves to die!

“The old woman is dead, and once I finish you off, Yanlang will have no one left but me!

“Why won’t you just die!”

I gave a few final, unwilling jolts of struggle before my hands fell limp.

My mother had just passed away. To observe the mourning period, I hadn’t touched a drop of water or a grain of rice for three days. I simply had no strength left.

My brother and I were twins. When we were seven, our father was killed by bandits while traveling for business.

It was our mother who had managed the family estate alone and raised us both.

After I married, my husband’s family kept a very tight rein on me, not even allowing me to return home once a year.

I hadn’t even known my mother was gravely ill.

This trip home was only possible because of the funeral.

During the wake that night, my brother and I were reminiscing about the hardships our mother had endured throughout her life.

Overcome with grief, the two of us couldn’t help but hold each other and weep.

Who could have known that this one embrace would cost me my life?

The sensation of suffocation hit me again.

I bolted upright, gasping for air, only to see a figure sitting by the bed, clutching their stomach and laughing.

“Oh man, you’re killing me! Ah Qing, look at that stupid face. You look like a drowned ghost, hahaha…”

The youth before me had a face as fair as polished jade and bright, clear eyes.

Because he was laughing so hard, he showed eight perfectly straight, white teeth.

And two shallow dimples on the sides of his face.

I stared blankly at my brother, my hand trembling as I reached out to touch his face.

His skin was warm and smooth, like the finest silk.

I gave it a hard pinch.

My brother winced and started yelping in pain.

“Hey! I didn’t mean to pinch your nose earlier, but I called you so many times and you wouldn’t wake up. You were sleeping like a pig!”

My brother gently patted my hand away.

Like he was presenting a treasure, he pulled a paper parcel from behind his back.

“Look! I went out of my way to buy these for you after school. Mung bean cakes and flaky pastries from Li’s Pastries!”

This was the fifteen-year-old Song Yan.

The cheerful, smiling boy who was as radiant as the midday sun-South City’s Number One Handsome Youth.

Ever since my brother’s hands were ruined and he could no longer write, I hadn’t seen him smile for ten whole years.

I had been reborn!

I had returned to this year, when the tragedy had yet to begin!