Ye Qingmei woke with a start, her eyes flying open in horror as she realized someone was lying beside her.
And it was a man.
Disbelieving, she rubbed her eyes and took a closer look. He was strikingly handsome, with sharp, chiseled features that looked as if they had been carved by a master sculptor. Even with his eyes closed, there was an ethereal, tranquil beauty about him.
She was still staring when his eyes suddenly snapped open, locking onto hers.
He didn’t speak, his lips pressed into a thin, hard line. Dark fury simmered in the depths of his pitch-black eyes, and an aura of menace radiated from him—powerful, terrifying.
Ye Qingmei shuddered, her mind going blank. Her pale fingers clutched the sheets beneath her as she instinctively shrank away.
Who was this terrifying man? Was this hell?
She was supposed to be dead. So why was she lying next to a stranger?
When he pinned her beneath him, panic surged through her. She struggled instinctively. "Don’t touch me."
Jiang Jingchen let out a cold laugh, as if she had just told the most ridiculous joke. His fingers clamped around her chin, forcing her face up as he leaned in close, his voice a slow, deliberate whisper against her ear. "Stop pretending. You went through all that trouble to crawl into my bed—wasn’t it just to get me to fuck you?"
His tone sent chills down her spine.
Driven by sheer survival instinct, Ye Qingmei shook her head, her voice trembling. "I didn’t."
Her feeble denial only made Jiang Jingchen’s lips curl in disdain.
"Didn’t?" He let out a humorless chuckle, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes. The cold smirk vanished, replaced by an icy ruthlessness. His grip on her chin tightened painfully.
Ye Qingmei thrashed against him, but her strength was no match for his.
He paid no heed to her struggles, merely narrowing his eyes as he watched her. Soon, she was no match for him, pinned down so tightly she couldn't move an inch—like a fish lying helplessly on a chopping block.
Releasing his grip, his gaze turned razor-sharp as he leaned close to her ear, his voice eerily calm. "Ye Qingmei, if you value your life, watch your tongue." With that, he flung the words at her, leapt off the bed, and stormed out.
"Get out." The door slammed shut behind him with a deafening crash, leaving only the echo of his departure.
Ye Qingmei's brow furrowed deeply, the tension in her nerves finally snapping as she exhaled in relief. Slowly, she took in her surroundings—the sparse furnishings, the full-length mirror on the wardrobe opposite her.
The room was small, barely ten square meters, its mud walls coated in peeling whitewash. A calendar hung crookedly, the date glaring back at her: March 10, 1988.
She froze, then let out a heavy sigh. Turning back to the mirror, she barely recognized the reflection staring back. A garish plaid shirt with a floppy collar hung haphazardly on her frame. Her hair was a tangled bird's nest, her eyebrows thickly drawn, her cheeks smeared with theatrical rouge. The crimson lipstick had bled beyond her natural lip line, and her plump face nearly swallowed her eyes. A spare tire of fat bulged around her waist, straining the buttons to their limit.
She had truly been reborn—into *this*? A wave of terror and despair threatened to choke her.
*Why?* Why *this* body? The old her hadn’t been a beauty, but she’d been slender, delicate. If not for that car accident, she’d have graduated college by now.
But where could she even go now? That terrifying man could crush her like an ant without breaking a sweat.
Ye Qingmei sucked in a sharp breath, shaking her head as if to fling the fear of him from her bones.
"Second Brother, are you up yet?" A bright, girlish voice suddenly called from the doorway.
She looked up to see a girl of sixteen or seventeen burst into the room, dressed in a dainty floral blouse.
"Ye Qingmei!" Jiang Jingyu, Jiang Jingchen’s younger sister, glared at her, fury radiating from every pore. "What are you doing in my brother’s bed? Where *is* he?"
Ye Qingmei lowered her eyes and shook her head faintly.
"You—you shameless—!" Jiang Jingyu’s voice climbed higher, her finger jabbing accusingly. "Hanging around my brother like a lost puppy was bad enough, but now you dare crawl into his bed? Just you wait, Ye Qingmei!" With that, she spun on her heel and stormed out.
Ye Qingmei stared blankly at the retreating figure, muttering to herself, "Why does everyone in this family have such a temper?"
Jiang Jingyu stormed into the room, gripping a brick with fury in her eyes. "Ye Qingmei, how dare you harm my second brother!" Without hesitation, she hurled the brick straight at Qingmei's head.
Caught off guard, Qingmei took the full impact. Darkness swallowed her vision as fragmented memories—foreign yet vivid—flooded her mind.
This Ye Qingmei shared her name but had been infatuated with Jiang Jingchen, the second son of the Jiang family, since childhood. Jingchen was a capable man, making a name for himself in the military and now serving as a company commander. He would never marry someone like Qingmei. The night before, during the wedding celebration at Jingchen’s uncle’s house, she had watched him stumble home, drunk and disoriented. Seizing the moment while the Jiang family was busy next door, she had sneaked into his bed, convinced that this scheme would force him to marry her. But she never expected to wake up reborn in this body.
Qingmei could hear voices around her, feel someone lifting her, and the careful dressing of her wound. She struggled to open her eyes but remained trapped in darkness, slipping in and out of consciousness for what felt like an eternity. Then, abruptly, a heated argument erupted outside the door.
"This marriage is happening whether you like it or not. Your Jingchen promised to get engaged to my Meizi the next time he comes home on leave. If you refuse, I’ll take Meizi straight to his military base and let his superiors decide who’s in the right. I won’t waste my breath arguing with you two—get out of my sight!"
"Don’t you dare! It’s your shameless Meizi who’s been lusting after my brother! She’s the one who crawled into his bed while he was dead drunk—he didn’t lay a finger on her! How dare you force him to marry some lazy, ugly, fat cow!"
The shrill voices grew louder, piercing Qingmei’s skull like knives. A sharp throb pulsed through her forehead as she finally forced her eyes open, wincing at the pain.
"My Meizi may be a little plump, but that just means she’ll bear healthy children! What’s it to you? It’s not like she’s eating your rice—who are you to judge? And even if she was drunk and accidentally ended up in Jingchen’s bed, does that give you the right to hit her? She still hasn’t woken up—who knows if there’s permanent damage? You think you can just attack people and get away with it? Where’s the justice in that? If Jingchen hadn’t already agreed to the engagement, I’d have had your whole family arrested by now!"