Chapter 1

"How can you just accept your fate like this? That Zhu Chang'an is a good-for-nothing troublemaker who can't carry a load on his shoulders or lift anything with his hands. Everyone knows marrying him means a life of hardship. Right now, he can still rely on his parents, but in a few years, with his older brothers and sisters-in-law being so fierce, he won't get anything good when they divide the family property."
The girl's voice was somewhat sharp, slightly grating to the ears.
Sang Ran kept her head down, letting the girl beside her talk until she was hoarse, while she herself remained silent. A few pale, delicate fingers twisted and intertwined, as if calculating something or just moving idly.
But that wasn't the case.
Sang Ran was keeping count: four paragraphs already, and the fifth was coming up.
Sure enough, within seconds, the girl grew a bit angry, pouting discontentedly as she tugged on her arm:
"Why aren’t you saying anything? Do you think I’m trying to trick you? I told you before not to hang out with Su Ya from the neighboring village, but you insisted. And look what happened, she stole your fiancé. Now they’re about to get married, and you don’t even react? And you’re still going to marry that good-for-nothing?"
Fifth paragraph.
Sang Ran blinked, counting down silently in her heart: three, two, one!
Just as she reached one, the door to the room they were in suddenly swung open. A middle-aged woman wearing a floral headscarf and patched gray clothes stood at the doorway, hands on her hips, frowning as she said, "Xiuxiu, Sang Ran has to marry him. Stop saying any more. Your mom’s been looking for you all over the village."
The exact same words.
Sang Ran’s heart sank, her back stiffening as she assumed a defensive posture.
Sang Xiuxiu felt awkward, being caught trying to persuade another woman to resist marriage made her blush. She immediately stood up, shooting a frustrated glance at the girl who still hadn’t uttered a word.
Seeing the clear displeasure on the girl’s fair and pretty face, she suppressed a twinge of envy for the Zhu family’s status. Instead, she focused on Zhu Chang’an’s rotten, rascal-like nature and felt a bit more at ease, a hint of schadenfreude flashing in her eyes as she hurriedly said, "Auntie, I’ll head back now."
The middle-aged woman then smiled politely and said, "Alright, come visit again sometime."
But as soon as Sang Xiuxiu left, her face immediately fell. Narrowing her eyes, she said coldly, "Sang Ran, listen to me, don’t pay attention to the nonsense Sang Xiuxiu was spouting. You have to marry him this time. I told you before to win over the Song family, but you refused. Now look, you can only marry Zhu Chang’an! And you must marry him!"
Huh?
No hitting?
Sang Ran pursed her lips, her tense body relaxing slightly, but she still didn’t speak.
She thought back to what had just happened, it seemed that because she hadn’t echoed Sang Xiuxiu’s words or expressed any desire to leave, things had played out differently.
Sang Ran quietly let out a sigh of relief.
Mother Sang didn’t notice anything unusual. Her daughter had always been quiet, well-behaved, and obedient. Her harsh tone earlier was only because she was afraid her daughter might be swayed by Sang Xiuxiu’s words.
Seeing that Sang Ran still hadn’t spoken, she guessed her daughter was upset and softened her tone:
"I know you don’t want to, but life is what you make of it. Even if Zhu Chang’an is useless, his parents dote on him. The old folks at the Zhu family can still work for another twenty years. It won’t be so hard for you after you marry in. Just keep your man happy, and everything will be fine. Besides, you’re so pretty, how many men in the surrounding villages can even afford to marry you?"
Sang Ran lowered her eyes with a mocking smile. It wasn’t that they couldn’t afford to marry her off, they just couldn’t pay the price her mother demanded for selling her daughter.
After her mother finished speaking and Sang Ran remained silent, the woman seemed to lose interest and waved her hand dismissively. "Come out and eat. Don’t act like someone’s mistreating you. You have the easiest life in this family, you know?"
"Mm," Sang Ran nodded, slipping on her black cloth shoes. When it came to meals, she still had to make her presence known.
Stepping outside, Sang Ran saw a scene straight out of a period drama: a house made of yellow earth, black tiled roofs, a simple fence enclosure, and two lively chickens hopping around the yard.
There wasn’t a trace of concrete or steel in sight.
Just then, a few young men returned home. The oldest was around twenty, the youngest only fifteen, all covered in a grimy mix of mud and sweat. As soon as they arrived, they rushed to the well, splashing cold water over themselves with unrestrained vigor.
Sang Ran pressed her lips together and followed her mother to fetch the dishes and rice, deliberately avoiding eye contact with them.
She wasn’t the original owner of this body and feared giving herself away.

Sang Ran had crossed over.
In her previous life, she had died in a car accident. Just before her death, a voice told her she could choose to live again, but at a cost.
In that final moment of terror, Sang Ran had nodded without hesitation.
Then, the excruciating pain vanished. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in this world.
At first, she had no idea what was happening and simply absorbed the memories of the original host’s eighteen years of life.
But after sitting for a while, the arrival of Sang Xiuxiu and her words reminded Sang Ran, she had transmigrated into a novel she had just finished reading.
The story was a sweet military romance set in the 1980s. However, a bug in the plot had sent the storyline careening in a completely different direction, and the aftermath of this narrative collapse had also surfaced in Sang Ran’s mind.
It was 1980, the third year since the college entrance examination had been reinstated.
The original Sang Ran was a self-reliant, strong female lead. In the neighboring village lived a family surnamed Song, whose eldest son, Song Jianguo, was exceptionally capable. Despite his family’s poverty, he had joined the military early and, through outstanding performance, supported his entire household.
The original Sang Ran had been engaged to him since childhood, but their interactions were minimal. Shy by nature, she found it hard to develop feelings for someone she rarely saw. Aside from knowing about the engagement, she never expected their paths to truly cross.
Originally, when Sang Ran turned eighteen and Song Jianguo twenty-six, they were supposed to fulfill their marriage agreement. He would later take her with him to his military post, where their relationship would gradually blossom, a classic case of love after marriage, leading to a lifetime of happiness.
But a bug had appeared in this story: a girl named Su Ya had been reborn.
In the original timeline, Su Ya was supposed to marry a good-for-nothing ruffian, a despicable man who ended up in prison early on and was later executed during a crackdown.
In that era, if a woman’s husband met such a fate and she lacked a strong personality, life would become miserable. Su Ya was no exception. Childless and abandoned by her own family, she endured poverty until, in desperation, she seduced another woman’s husband in the same village, constantly embroiled in fights and scandals.
By her forties, she had contracted a venereal disease from her promiscuous lifestyle and lay alone in a hospital bed, with no one visiting her.
It wasn’t until Sang Ran and her husband Song Jianguo returned to their hometown in glory that they heard about Su Ya’s plight. Kind-hearted and remembering Su Ya as a childhood friend, Sang Ran sent money to help her.
But this gesture made Su Ya extremely jealous.
Song Jianguo had risen steadily through the ranks in the military. Now retired, his family was well-off, and he even had a dedicated guard driving him around. As Song Jianguo’s wife, the original host was practically living the dream.
Yet Su Ya clearly remembered that during their younger years, Sang Ran’s life had been far worse than hers.
Perhaps it was due to her deep-seated obsession, but she actually reincarnated, right before the original host and Song Jianguo had officially settled their engagement.
A few days earlier, when Song Jianguo returned to discuss the marriage arrangement between the two families, Su Ya took the original host along to deliver meals to their working parents. In the end, both girls fell into the river.
The two girls were dressed identically, with the same hairstyle. At a glance, they looked like twins. Song Jianguo happened to pass by and rushed to save them, but the one he rescued was Su Ya.
It was summer, and they weren’t wearing much. In such a situation, with a man and woman clinging to each other, everyone in the surrounding villages saw it, and the girl’s reputation was ruined.
Moreover, at that time, Song Jianguo and the original host had no feelings for each other, their engagement was merely due to parental arrangements and a matchmaker’s mediation. For Su Ya’s sake, the two families had no choice but to call off the engagement.
As for the original host, who had also fallen into the river, she was saved by Zhu Chang’an, the notorious local ruffian.
The story took a sharp turn.
The original host’s parents were determined to marry their daughter into a wealthy family.
Originally, the engagement between the original host and Song Jianguo had been arranged by her grandfather. Before Song Jianguo’s rise to success, her parents had been eager to break off the engagement so their daughter could marry into a rich family, thereby enabling their three sons to find wives.
It was only later, when Song Jianguo proved his own capabilities, that Mother Sang became satisfied with the match.
Now that their daughter couldn’t marry Song Jianguo, marrying Zhu Chang’an was just as good. The Zhu family next door had three sons and two daughters, with Zhu Chang’an being the youngest.
Both of the Zhu family’s daughters had married into the city, where they enjoyed state-supplied rations and even supported their natal family.
Among the three sons, two were quite successful, working as senior technicians in factories. Only the youngest son did nothing but eat and drink idly, but the family could still afford to support him.
Marrying into such a family meant a life of ease.
In reality, however, Zhu Chang’an was a ruffian. At nineteen, he had accomplished nothing, spending his days idling, teasing cats and dogs, smoking, and gambling. He did everything except harass women.
In the early part of the novel, there happened to be a scene like this. Sang Ran had a good memory and counted on her fingers: in the plot, it took Sang Xiuxiu five full speeches to finally convince the hesitant and anxious Sang Ran to decide to try and escape this backward place.
As for Sang Xiuxiu, she was a relatively jealous minor character. In the early stages, she envied the original host for having such a good marriage arrangement. After the engagement fell through, did she suddenly realize that there was still a method like Su Ya’s?
So she set her sights on the Zhu and Song families.
She kept persuading Sang Ran, hoping she would either run away from the marriage or confront Su Ya. Either way, she stood to benefit.
Although Zhu Chang'an couldn't compare to Song Jianguo, within her range of choices, he was still a pretty good match.
The original host was indeed convinced, because what Sang Xiuxiu said was true, Zhu Chang'an was not a good choice for a husband and completely hit all the original host's red flags.
So the original host was tempted. However, as soon as she voiced her decision, Mother Sang happened to walk in.
Mother Sang politely saw Sang Xiuxiu out, but as soon as she left, she beat the original host, using both threats and incentives. Even after the original host gave in, Mother Sang wasn't satisfied and locked her at home until the Zhu family came to take her away for the wedding.
This was also why Sang Ran became wary of Mother Sang as soon as she entered the room.
Fortunately, because she kept her mouth shut, the situation didn't escalate into the same outcome as in the original host's memories.
However, due to this bug, the original host's life in this lifetime was truly miserable. Sang Ran remembered that in the altered storyline caused by the bug, although the original host married into the Zhu family, Zhu Chang'an turned out to be a problematic, clueless straight man.
Forced into the marriage, her reluctance was obvious to everyone. Naturally, Zhu Chang'an wasn't happy either and completely ignored her, continuing his frivolous lifestyle. Not long after, he got into a fight and was injured, leaving him with a permanent limp.
After a brief period of settling down, he got involved in gambling, was implicated by others, and ended up in the police station.
Mother and father Zhu had hoped that marriage would straighten their son out, but instead, not only was their daughter-in-law unwilling to marry into the family, their son also disliked her and grew even more rebellious. As a result, their attitude toward the original host soured.
After Zhu Chang'an was taken into custody, the Zhu family exhausted their savings trying to get him out. This led to conflicts with the spouses of their other children, and after several disputes, the family fell apart. Mother and father Zhu fell seriously ill, and their health deteriorated.
The original host was taken back by her parents, thinking life might improve, but it turned out even worse than at her in-laws'. She was constantly looked down upon by her brothers and sisters-in-law, and her parents even tried to marry her off to a widower for more money.
The original host became completely disillusioned with her parents and fled back to her in-laws'.
She expected them to turn her away, but to her surprise, Mother Zhu said nothing and simply let her stay.
After this ordeal, the original host finally came to her senses. She understood her situation and recognized who truly cared for her.
As the female lead, she still had her abilities and character. After cutting ties with her birth family, she gritted her teeth and started a business, supporting the family. Unfortunately, she never got to see Zhu Chang'an released from prison, he passed away while incarcerated.
Mother and father Zhu couldn't bear the blow and soon passed away as well. Without her pillar of support, the original host lost hope and chose to end her life.
After absorbing these memories, Sang Ran understood the price she had to pay.
She had to fulfill the original host's wish, to save Zhu Chang'an.
If Zhu Chang'an ended up on the same path as before, she would lose her life as well. In other words, her fate was now tied to his.
As Sang Ran ate her meal, she pondered how to accomplish the original host's wish.
Suddenly, she heard a "snap."
Mother Sang scowled and yelled, "There are only so many chopsticks in this house, Sang Ran! What’s wrong with you? How did you manage to break them?!"
Sang Ran awkwardly lowered her head, imitating the original host's behavior by staying silent. She made do with the broken chopsticks and continued eating, though a faint smile flickered in her eyes.
Her incredible golden finger had actually followed her over.
That made things much simpler.
Zhu Chang'an, who was eating in the neighboring Zhu Village, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine and instinctively hunched his shoulders.