"One hundred yuan! This one's the eldest. Strong build, good size. Throw in another ten jin of cornmeal, and you can take him right away!"

"What? One hundred? Harriet Caldwell, why don't you just go be a bandit? A useless little girl at most is worth fifty! Sell or don't sell, your choice!"

The sharp, nasty haggling drilled straight into Serena Caldwell's ears, word by word. The back of her head felt like it'd been smashed with a hammer. Pain seeped out from deep in her bones, so fierce it felt like her whole body had come apart. Her vision kept going dark.

She struggled to force her eyes open. Before her sight even cleared, she felt something clamp hard around her leg. A skinny little figure, thin as a bean sprout, threw itself at her. Two tiny hands gripped her leg with all their strength. The child's voice was already hoarse from crying, but she still kept shouting, "Ma! Ma, you're awake! Hurry and stop them! Don't let them sell Big Brother! Please don't let them sell him!"

Ma?

Serena's head buzzed loud as thunder. Then a flood of strange memories rushed up all at once, crashing into her mind like a burst dam.

She had actually crossed over.

She'd been the best of the best in modern medicine, skilled in both Chinese and Western practices. All she'd done was slip while gathering herbs in the mountains, and that had cost her life. And now, when she opened her eyes again, she'd become a miserable woman from the 1960s in Hongqi Production Brigade, also named Serena Caldwell.

What made her scalp prickle even more was this—this original owner hadn't just been weak and submissive. She had given birth to... quintuplets.

Right now, her sharp-tongued mother-in-law Harriet Caldwell was standing there with her hands on her hips, jabbing a finger at a little boy nearby while she bargained with a shifty-eyed man, spit flying everywhere.

"Seventy! And I'll throw in this little girl too! Seventy for both, not one cent less!"

Harriet spat on the ground and shot a glance at the bony little girl beside Serena.

The rat-faced man's eyes lit up at once. He rubbed his hands together, grinning from ear to ear. "Fine! Seventy for two. I'll hand over the money right now!"

"Ma! Don't sell Big Brother! Don't sell Big Sister!" The children were already scared out of their wits. Their faces were white as paper as they cried and rushed over, squeezing themselves in front of Serena like a clutch of baby chicks trying their hardest to guard the nest.

"Get lost! A bunch of worthless burdens!" Harriet cut them a vicious look and lifted her leg to kick them.

"Don't touch my little brothers and sisters!"

A little girl with two sprouting pigtails suddenly darted out. Her face was smudged with dirt, but her eyes were bright in a way that made people stare. She spread her thin little arms wide and blocked the younger children behind her.

This was Second Girl, the fiercest-tempered of the five.

Harriet kicked at her without hesitation, but to her surprise, that skinny scrap of a girl actually shoved back hard enough to make her stumble half a step.

"Well now, you dead girl, got some nerve, don't you?" Harriet's face turned green with anger. She raised her rough, heavy hand high, clearly about to slap Second Girl across the face.

"Stop!"

The shout wasn't loud, and weakness showed plainly in it, but it landed like a stone dropped into still water. The whole room went silent in an instant.

Serena braced one hand on the ground and slowly forced herself upright. The wound on her head was still bleeding, thin streams of blood running down her cheek and staining her whole face, making her look downright terrifying, like someone who had just crawled up from the grave.

But her eyes were nothing like the old Serena Caldwell’s.

The Serena from before had always been timid, shrinking back at every harsh word. But now, her gaze rested on Harriet Caldwell, heavy and cold, with a chill in it that was hard to name. Just one look from her was enough to make a person’s back go stiff.

"Well, look at that, you’re not dead?" Harriet’s heart skipped when those eyes landed on her, but she quickly put on her usual sharp, nasty face. "I knew you were faking it. What’s the point of playing dead? Useless thing. And you popped out a whole litter of little useless things too. The pot at home’s about to run dry. If we don’t trade a couple of them for money, what, you expect the whole family to starve with you?"

"Listen good, eldest daughter-in-law."

From the corner, Bernard Caldwell, who had kept quiet till now, finally spoke in a slow, dragging voice. The dry tobacco pipe in his mouth clicked as he puffed on it.

"Nathan Caldwell’s been in the army five years. Dead or alive, not one word from him. And this family’s still been feeding you and those five brats. That’s already more kindness than you deserve. Sell off two of them, at least the house gets something to chew on. You can call that their share of duty to the family."

Their share of duty.

What a fine way to dress it up.

Serena let out a cold laugh in her heart.

From the memories left behind by the original owner of this body, she knew Nathan Caldwell had gone to the border five years ago, not long after they were married. Once he left, not a single letter ever came back. Soon after he was gone, she found out she was pregnant. And when the babies came, there were five of them.

Even in the twenty-first century, that would’ve been enough to break a person.

In this hungry, barren sixties, where even one full meal was a luxury, it was nothing short of disaster.

That was exactly why the original Serena’s body had collapsed completely. Back then, medicine was scarce, doctors were scarce, everything was scarce. The fact that she had survived childbirth at all was already a blessing from heaven.

These past few years, with no man in the house, everything had been controlled by Bernard Caldwell and Harriet Caldwell. They pinched and cut back food every way they could. What reached Serena and the five children’s mouths wasn’t even enough to count as leftovers. The five little ones were all yellow-faced and bone-thin, no different from refugee children fleeing famine.

To save one more bite for her children, the original Serena had starved herself year after year. Her body had long since been hollowed out. And just now, with that one shove from Harriet, she had simply died on the spot.

"Mom..."

Dabao, the one they’d named to be sold, had his little face drawn tight, but his eyes were strangely steady. His two small hands clutched Serena’s hand hard.

"Mom, I’m not scared. Don’t fight with Grandma."

Serena’s heart clenched all at once.

This was Dabao, the calmest and steadiest of the five, the one with the most sense.

"Mom, Erbao’ll hit her! Erbao’ll protect Mom, protect big brother, little brother, and sisters!" Erbao was hot-tempered, waving both little fists like an angry baby lion.

"Waaah... Mom, I’m scared... they’re bad people..." Sanbao was trembling, tears filling her eyes.

"Mom, that bad uncle said he was gonna sell us deep into the mountains..." Avery Caldwell leaned close to her ear, his voice so soft it was barely louder than a mosquito.

The youngest, Wubao, wrapped himself tightly around her leg. His eyes were wet with tears, but he stubbornly refused to cry. He just kept patting her back, one little pat after another, his tiny hand so gentle, like he was trying to help her catch her breath.

Five pitiful, good children.

In an instant, they dragged out every last bit of feeling the original Serena had left behind in this body. A monstrous rage burst up from deep in her chest.

Sell her children?

For a few jin of cornmeal?

Forget the fact that she was their mother now. Even if she were only a stranger passing by, she still would never allow this kind of child-selling filth to happen right in front of her.

"Anybody who dares lay a hand on my children and sell them, just go ahead and try." Serena Caldwell spoke in a voice so calm it was almost strange, not a trace of temper in it, like she was merely saying something ordinary over supper.

"You little shameless bitch, you think you can talk back to me?" Harriet Caldwell was humiliated after being challenged in front of an outsider. Her face turned red with rage, and she nearly stamped her feet. "This deal is happening today, no matter what! Seventy yuan. Cash in one hand, child in the other!"

The moment the words left her mouth, she reached straight for the eldest boy’s arm.

"You’ve got a death wish." Serena’s eyes went icy in an instant.

Back in the modern world, she had made her name through medicine, but she had always known the body was a person’s true capital. Years ago, she had deliberately studied combat in a proper, systematic way. She wasn’t some top master, no, but dealing with a few common people like the ones in front of her was more than easy enough.

The second Harriet lunged, Serena shifted lightly to one side and, without making it obvious, hooked her foot against the ground.

"Ouch!"

Harriet missed completely and crashed hard onto the dirt floor. Her mouth slammed down first, and one of her front teeth snapped clean off on the spot.

"This is outrageous! You curse on this family, and now you dare hit people too!" Bernard Caldwell saw his wife sprawled on the ground, flung his dry tobacco pipe aside, and charged over with his eyes wide, one hand reaching right for Serena’s hair.

The shifty-eyed trafficker saw the mess break out and hurried over too, thinking he could use the chaos to snatch the children away first before the deal fell apart.

One in front, one behind. She was boxed in from both sides.

And right at that critical second, the warm jade pendant hanging close against Serena’s chest suddenly gave off a searing sting. That jade had been a family heirloom of the Shen family. She had worn it against her skin from the time she was old enough to remember. She had never expected that after crossing through time, it would come with her here too.

A faint flash of white light flickered past. It felt as if someone had stuffed a mountain of things into her mind all at once. Dense streams of information poured in, wave after wave:

[Medical Space Station activated!]

[Functions: unlimited medical supplies, storage, basic injury scanning and treatment.]

A vast modern medical space appeared just like that in the depths of her mind—sterile operating rooms, all kinds of precision instruments far beyond this era, shelves packed full of medicine... everything was there.

At the same time, the space had already begun scanning the condition of her body.

[Scan complete. Host has suffered a blow to the head, mild concussion, and a slight skull fracture. Begin repair process?]

"Repair!" she barked inwardly.

A rush of heat spread out from the jade pendant on her chest and surged straight toward the back of her head. In only a few seconds, the piercing pain and that dizzy, spinning sensation vanished completely, as if they had never been there.

Once her body recovered, her mind cleared right up with it.

Staring at her father-in-law and the trafficker rushing at her, Serena Caldwell curled her lips into a cold little smile. Medicine could save people, sure. It could also make them suffer.

There were three hundred and sixty-five acupoints on the human body. She knew exactly which one hurt the worst, which one gave way the fastest, and which one could drop a man where he stood.

"Ahhh—!"

A shrill scream shot straight up to the rafters.

Serena Caldwell didn’t step back. She charged forward instead, quick as a flash. One kick landed hard behind Bernard Caldwell’s knee, while her elbow slammed at the same time into the trafficker’s chest, right on the Shanzhong point.

The two of them crumpled at once like their bones had come apart. One clutched his leg and rolled on the ground, the other held his chest and collapsed, unable to force out even half a word.

Everyone in the room was dumbstruck.

No one had expected Serena Caldwell, who usually lived with her head down and took every hit and insult without a sound, to turn into a completely different person today—someone this... frightening.

"You... you’ve gone crazy, haven’t you?" Harriet Caldwell struggled up from the floor. Looking at the scene in front of her, her lips trembled badly.

Serena Caldwell slowly turned around. There was still blood at the corner of her eye, and her gaze pinned itself to Harriet Caldwell’s face as she walked toward her step by step. "I warned you just now. You didn’t take it seriously."

"What are you trying to do? I’m your mother-in-law, no matter what!" Harriet Caldwell’s legs had gone weak. Her voice shook, and she kept edging backward.

Serena Caldwell said nothing. She walked straight to the corner of the wall, reached out, and picked up the rolling pin. It was as thick as a child’s arm. She weighed it in her hand, that chill at the corner of her mouth never fading. In an instant, the whole room seemed to freeze over.

Serena Caldwell gripped the thick rolling pin and fixed Harriet Caldwell with an icy stare. A faint smile tugged at her lips as she said, "Now let’s settle this properly. You trying to sell my son—you’d better give me an explanation."