"Vivienne, your man’s done with you. You need to do as we say, hand the job over to Felicia, then find a decent family and remarry."
"We’ve already met the fellow. His background’s clean as can be. He doesn’t even mind that you used to be some rich capitalist girl. You just marry over there and live proper, that’s all."
"I’m not marrying. And I’m not giving up my job either."
"If he’s really that good, why don’t you let your precious Felicia marry him instead?"
The words had barely left her mouth when Vivienne Ashford froze all over.
Hadn’t she already died?
Died in Heishan Village, that godforsaken backwater...
Then how was she still able to speak?
Following the sound, she slowly turned her head. The moment she saw the man in front of her, her eyes went wide.
It was her real father, Gerald Ashford.
She wasn’t dead?
She was back in this house, the one she’d been in before they sold her off?
"You..."
Before she could finish, her head suddenly felt like it had burst open. All the misery from her last life came flooding back at once, savage and clear.
She had actually been reborn in 1975.
Reborn to those few days before her own father and mother sold her to traffickers.
In her last life, right after she was born, she and Felicia Ashford had been switched by mistake, because both women in the maternity ward had husbands with the surname Fang.
By a cruel twist of fate, Vivienne Ashford had been taken to the Fang family on the capitalist side and raised as a pampered young miss for eighteen years.
Then, when she turned eighteen, Felicia was injured in a car accident, and only then did both families realize the girls had been mixed up.
But even after that, her adoptive parents had never insisted the girls be exchanged at once. They treated both her and Felicia well, as if they had simply ended up with two daughters instead of one.
Later on, even after her adoptive parents gave away half the family fortune, people still kept their eyes on them. Someone reported them, and they were sent away.
Afraid she would get dragged down with them, her adoptive parents hurried to have Gerald Ashford and his wife take her back. Her name was entered into her biological family’s household register.
The price for that was simple enough on the surface. Aside from the portion specially kept for her and Felicia Ashford, everything left in the family estate went to Gerald Ashford. All her adoptive parents wanted was for the two girls to be properly looked after.
Gerald Ashford agreed readily enough at first, all smiles and fine words. But once he had sweet-talked Vivienne Ashford out of the money and valuables in her hands, his whole face changed.
As the days passed, he and his wife never once treated her kindly. Big jobs, small chores, every bit of work in the house got shoved onto her shoulders.
And Felicia Ashford was a perfect little white lotus, always putting on that pitiful look, as if she’d been wronged beyond reason.
In the end, Gerald Ashford and his wife would turn around and blame Vivienne instead.
Vivienne Ashford did have two biological older brothers, but what good did that do her? They had grown up with Felicia Ashford since childhood, and in their hearts, she was the only real sister they acknowledged.
As for Vivienne Ashford, they barely spared her a proper glance.
Two years earlier, when the family got a quota to send someone down to the countryside, everyone sat around talking it over again and again. In the end, they decided Vivienne should go in someone else’s place.
Vivienne Ashford refused, of course. It just so happened that Ambrose Gallagher had come back home on leave around then. She saw an opening, set up a trap, and married him.
But Ambrose Gallagher had never been happy about the marriage. On the wedding day itself, he left. Once he was gone, he stayed gone for two whole years, not even sending back a single message.
And later on, just like today, Gerald Ashford and his wife tried to persuade her to remarry. Back then, all she wanted was to win their approval, so she nodded and agreed.
Who would have thought they never meant to find her a decent husband at all? They sold her straight to human traffickers.
She ran with everything she had, fled again and again, only to be dragged back every single time.
And every time they caught her, a savage beating followed, until her whole body was covered in wounds.
Only later did she understand that Felicia Ashford had been the one stirring things up from behind the scenes the entire time.
She hated them. Hated them to the bone.
But hatred was useless. She could not escape. She was locked inside a dark, damp cellar, where if she was not being abused, she was being beaten.
It was not until the day her adoptive parents finally found her and saved her that she saw sunlight again.
Back then, she had already been at the very end of her rope.
Her adoptive parents had tried to get justice for her. In the end, they set Heishan Village on fire, and they died in that blaze too.
The moment that came back to her, Vivienne Ashford’s eyes turned red.
She hated them. Hated every single person in this house.
Since heaven had given her one more chance to live, then she was going to settle the score. She would get justice for the woman she had been in her last life, and for her adoptive parents too.
"Why are you glaring at me? We’re doing this for your own good. If you stay in this house, you’ll ruin your brother’s future."
"That’s right, sister. Mom and Dad are thinking of you." Felicia Ashford’s voice was soft and sweet, fake enough to make skin crawl. "The man they picked for you comes from a solid family, clean background and all. I heard he’s especially considerate. If you marry into that home, your life later on definitely won’t be bad."
The second Vivienne heard that syrupy voice, the hatred in her chest shot straight up.
She sprang to her feet, grabbed Felicia by the collar, and slapped her hard across the face several times.
Slap, slap, slap.
After those sharp, crisp cracks, Felicia’s fair little face swelled red almost at once.
"If he’s that good, why don’t you marry him yourself?"
"Y-you... Vivienne Ashford, have you lost your mind? You actually dared to hit Felicia?"
Gerald Ashford stared at her in shock, then his face darkened at once.
He truly had not expected that this useless girl, usually timid at home, only knowing how to work and obey, would dare raise a hand today.
With that thought, he lifted his arm to strike back.
But Vivienne did not give him the chance. She raised her leg and kicked the soft spot behind his knee.
"Ugh—"
Gerald let out a muffled grunt and dropped to his knees on the spot.
Vivienne immediately stepped aside. She had no interest in letting him kneel to her.
"Vivienne Ashford, are you crazy? You even dare hit your own father? I’m not letting this go!"
Vivienne Ashford remembered every dirty little trick Felicia Ashford had pulled on her in her last life. If she didn’t settle some of it now, then when?
Her hand flew like a spinning fan, slapping Felicia across the face again and again, not stopping until that face was swollen like a pig’s head, her lips puffed up like two fat sausages.
Gerald Ashford had been knocked half senseless. His knee hurt so badly it felt like it was splitting apart. Watching Felicia get beaten into that state, he was both panicked and furious.
"Vivienne Ashford, you unfilial wretch! You dare lay hands on your own father? I’ll kill you today, you little beast! I’ll make sure you die without even a grave to lie in!"
In her last life, she had listened, obeyed, bent over backward to please them. And what had it gotten her? The same end. A death with no place to be buried.
Heaven had given her another shot, not so she could go back to being some spineless coward. She had crawled back from hell. She was here to collect every debt.
Seeing Gerald Ashford struggle to his feet and lunge at her, Vivienne lifted her leg and kicked again, landing right on the spot he had hurt before.
"Beast? You think you’re fit to call yourself my father? I’m your real daughter, but you treated me like dirt while putting that white-lotus Felicia Ashford on a pedestal. Bah! Just wait. Your punishment’s coming!"
Gerald Ashford’s face turned a nasty shade of blue with rage.
This damn girl had really changed. It was like someone else had taken her place. The way she looked at him now was filled to the brim with hatred.
"You wanted to sell me to traffickers? Fine then, I’ll fight you all to the bitter end!"
Gerald Ashford and Felicia Ashford, who had just been trying to get back up, went limp all over again. Their mouths dropped open, but not a word came out.
How did she know?
Nobody had told her. Not a soul.
"Who told you that nonsense? How could we ever do something like that? You... you’re making filthy accusations!"
The guilty panic that flashed across their faces for that one moment made everything clear. In her last life, she really had been stupid beyond saving, letting these animals ruin her so completely.
"Sis, you’ve really got it wrong. Mom and Dad never once thought of selling you. You’re their own flesh and blood. How could they do something that heartless?"
Seeing that vile thing Felicia Ashford still had the nerve to talk, Vivienne rushed over and kicked her several more times.
Gerald Ashford watched his precious daughter crumple on the floor, one hand clutching her chest. His eyes went cold with hurt and anger. "Vivienne Ashford, you’ve gone mad. Completely mad. Your head’s full of wild nonsense, and now you even dare hit us."
Their scheme had fallen through. They were burning with hate inside, but at the same time, they were scared of this changed Vivienne Ashford standing in front of them.