"It hurts so bad..."

Come on, seriously? She’d only stayed up all night reading a novel, and that was enough to kill her?

Would the insurance company at least pay her parents something?

And that mortgage... she probably wouldn’t have to keep paying it now, right?

She was just about to relax when it hit her all at once—

Hold on. Wasn’t she already dead?

Then why did her whole body still ache this much?

Dominic Ashford heard the person in his arms say it hurt, and his heart tightened. It was his first time too. He was running on pure instinct, barely keeping enough sense to lower his voice and murmur a few words to soothe her...

"Mmh..."

Lily Mercer felt like a leaf tossed around on rough water, rising and dropping with the waves. She wanted to get away, but every time, she was pulled back... then slammed down again.

Her eyes cracked open through the haze.

This... who was the man on top of her?

His abdomen was sharply defined,

his shoulders broad, his waist lean and tight.

So even in the underworld, something this good could happen? A man, delivered right to her?

Didn’t get a chance like this every day.

Her head was still spinning, but her hands had already moved on their own, winding around the man’s neck.

"Keep going."

Lily Mercer decided she was going to make up for thirty years of being single and enjoy this properly for once.

She had no idea how much time passed.

Maybe it was an hour. Maybe longer.

At last, the man on top of her stopped moving.

When Lily Mercer came to, the first thing she felt was pain all over, like every bone in her body was crying out. Worst of all was the ache between her legs, that raw, tearing soreness no one could say out loud. It snapped her fully awake in an instant.

Her eyes flew open.

"What... what is this place?"

Lily tried to sit up, but the second she moved, a muffled groan slipped from her throat. Right after that, a flood of memories crashed into her mind—

But none of them were hers.

They belonged to another girl called "Jiang Lanlan."

Autumn, 1978. Jiangjia Village, Wuxing Commune. Third daughter of Gerald Mercer, the village party secretary. Nineteen years old this year.

Her eldest sister-in-law, Winifred Mercer, had suddenly started bleeding at eight months pregnant. The barefoot doctor said they needed ginseng to keep her alive, so she took it upon herself to go into the mountains and look for medicine.

In the end, halfway up the slope, Fiona Langdon from the same village "accidentally" bumped into her, and she went rolling straight down the hillside.

That was where the memory cut off.

But Lily Mercer—no, now she ought to be called Lana Mercer—suddenly had another wave of memories surging through her head.

They were from the novel she'd secretly stayed up reading last night while slacking off.

The title was Reborn Lucky Koi of the Seventies: The Happy Life of the Female Lead, one of those period stories.

There was a "Jiang Lanlan" in that book too. Same sound as her name, and her ending was beyond miserable.

Fiona Langdon, the reborn heroine, tricked her out of the family's inherited luck-bringing bracelet, and after that the whole family was destroyed:

Her pregnant sister-in-law died with the baby. Her eldest brother went to prison trying to get revenge and was beaten to death inside. Her second brother took the blame for someone else and got shot. Her father, the village secretary, was reported and stripped of his position. And she herself was drugged and sent off to an old bachelor living in the mountains, then later fell from a cliff and died.

And Fiona Langdon? She took that stolen bracelet space and the memories from her second life, married an officer, started doing business, and lived high and easy. The author even wrote her up as some "kind-hearted, strong-willed heroine who stayed good through hard times."

Lana had been so furious reading it that she went straight into the comments and started cursing:

["Has the author lost every last shred of conscience? You call Fiona Langdon kind? This is theft. This is ruining lives! What did Lily Mercer and her family ever do to deserve being used as stepping-stones for the heroine?"]

Right after cursing the book out... everything went black in front of her eyes.

When she opened them again, she had become the very same Lily Mercer from the novel.

"I... I crossed into a book?"

If things followed the plot, Fiona Langdon would steal her family heirloom bracelet;

then her eldest brother, trying to avenge his dead wife and child, would end up hauled into custody and beaten to death alive;

her second brother would be shoved out to take the blame and shot dead with a single bullet;

her father, the village party secretary, would be reported and stripped of his post, and she herself would be drugged, sent off to some old mountain bachelor, and in the end fall to her death from a cliff.

This whole family had it way too hard.

But right now, she had landed inside this book herself and even become the cannon-fodder supporting girl, Lily Mercer. Somehow that felt even worse.

She had only just transmigrated, and she'd already slept with a man. If she died again now, would she still make it in time?

Still reeling, Lily Mercer tried to get off the man.

She had barely propped herself up when her eyes went wide and round.

Was this never going to end?

At this rate, she might die here the second she entered the book.

She truly could not accept dying like this.

Dominic Ashford was wrapped in the scent of the woman before him, and his gaze darkened a little.

His arm circled her waist, and he lifted her face and kissed her without hesitation.

"Mm..."

Lily Mercer struggled with all her strength, feeling like she was about to run out of air.

Dominic Ashford caught both her restless hands, and the want he had been holding down finally snapped loose.

After a long while, he looked at the woman in his arms and said in a low voice, "Let's get married."

It was the first thing Dominic said after his mind fully cleared. His voice came out rough and hoarse.

The first time, he'd been drugged and out of control, and he'd forced her.

The second time, she might have been the one to start it, but just now he had been fully conscious, and still he had taken the lead. Even when she struggled, he hadn't stopped.

He had done this with his own two hands, so he had to bear it.

From now on, he would spend the rest of his life treating her right.

Lily Mercer's mind was a mess. Right now, there were only two roads in front of her. Either she married this man, or she acted as if none of this had ever happened.

Slowly, little by little, she moved herself away from him.

Somewhere on her body, in a place too awkward to name, the pain was sharp and real.

Her fingers shook as she pulled on her clothes. Through the loose strands of hair falling over her face, she quietly looked at the man in front of her.

This man was... seriously handsome.

That brow bone, that nose, that firm line of his jaw...

Even in the modern entertainment world, he'd still count as top-tier among the tough, masculine types.

And that body...

Well. No point pretending otherwise.

Only, as far as she remembered, the original Lily Mercer in the novel didn't have any partner at all.

Still, looking at him now, maybe she hadn't exactly gotten the short end of the stick...?

The moment she pulled away, Dominic instinctively straightened his own clothes as fast as he could.

"Comrade," he said, his voice still rough, though he tried hard to keep his tone steady, "my name is Dominic Ashford. I'm a soldier from the XX Military District. ...This whole thing is on me. It's all my fault. I'll take full responsibility."

"I can go file a marriage application right now. On my honor as a soldier and as a Party member, I swear I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, protecting you, and respecting you."

Dominic paused, then added, "My family is in decent shape. I absolutely won't let you suffer even a bit—"

"Wait. Stop talking."

The second Lily Mercer heard the name Dominic Ashford, she felt like everything on her hurt even more.

That aloof heartthrob from the later part of the story—the one Fiona Langdon chased so hard and still could not get—had actually shown up right in front of her.

Had the plot gone off the rails or what?

Why had he appeared this early?

The book had only mentioned him a few times, saying he was some supporting male lead with a strong background.

"I don't want you to take responsibility for me."

Lily Mercer turned him down on the spot.

What she wanted was simple: stay alive in this cursed book, keep her family safe, and stay as far away as possible from all these people from the novel.

"If you really feel bad and want to make it up to me, then give me something useful."

"Something useful?"

Dominic Ashford frowned.

"Yeah, useful." Lily Mercer nodded and pointed with her finger. "Money. Coupons. That's what I'm short on right now."

Her sister-in-law needed nourishing food, and the whole family was strapped for cash everywhere you looked.

Morality could not fill an empty stomach.

Since he insisted on compensating her, then he could hand over something real she could actually use.

This "mental damages fee" and "nutrition fee"—she felt no guilt at all taking it.

As for marriage? Better not.

Dominic Ashford's eyes shifted slightly.

He looked at how casual she was, as if what had happened was no more serious than getting bitten by a mosquito.

Without a word, he took out a kraft-paper envelope, then pulled a stack of folded coupons from another pocket and handed them over together.

"Two hundred yuan. Thirty jin of national grain coupons. Ten feet of cloth coupons." His voice was low and muffled. "I know this still isn't enough, and it still can't..."

"That’s enough. Really, enough."

Lily Mercer cut him off again. She reached out, took the envelope and the ration coupons from him, and shoved them straight into her pocket without even checking them.

Two hundred yuan. That was serious money. And all those nationwide coupons too.

Her sister-in-law’s supplements, the household expenses, even the startup money for her second brother’s business... now there was finally a way to cover it all.

This whole thing... sure, the start of it hurt like hell, but the ending... well, it wasn’t completely bad?

Bah, bah, bah. Lily Mercer, what nonsense are you thinking?

This was compensation. What she was owed.

Dominic Ashford looked at his suddenly empty palm, and it felt as if a piece of his chest had been scooped out with it, heavy and sinking.

"There’s this too."

He lifted a thin silver chain from around his neck. Hanging from it was an old, dark-gold military badge.

He held out the chain and the badge together toward her.

Lily Mercer didn’t reach for it. She only flicked him a glance, a clear question in her eyes.

"This is my military badge." Dominic Ashford looked straight at her, his tone firm enough that there was no room to bargain. "My unit number and my name are engraved on the back. You can keep the money and the coupons... call it compensation if you want. But this badge—you have to take it."

He stepped half a pace closer. Before she could say a word, he set the silver chain and badge lightly on the chair beside her.

"If one day you change your mind, or if you run into trouble later on—remember this clearly, real trouble." He fixed his eyes on her and stressed every word. "Bring this and come find me. I mean what I say. I won’t back out."

In times like these, a solemn promise from a soldier might really be worth more than money.

Especially when he was a man with connections.

If there was no escaping the mess with Fiona Langdon and Raymond Holloway after all... then keeping an extra safeguard in hand could only help.

Take it. Call it... insurance for herself.

After a few silent seconds, she finally reached out and picked up the military badge, still faintly warm.

"Alright."

That was all she said. She looped the chain around her fingers twice, then closed her hand tight around it and the military badge together. "So now we’re square, aren’t we, Comrade Dominic Ashford?"

Dominic Ashford looked at her, something unreadable sitting in his eyes. He neither said yes nor no.

"I’ll take you back."

He turned and moved to head for the driver’s seat.

"No need." Lily Mercer refused without hesitation. Her tone was cool and distant, plain as day. "I know the way. You... should get going too."

She didn’t look at him again. Pulling her coat tightly around herself, she forced down the ache in her body, pushed open the car door, and stumbled out.

The moment her feet touched solid ground, the chill of the morning wind swept over her. She paused for a second, shifted her legs a little, then aimed herself toward the village and slowly made her way forward.