"One hundred jin of coarse grain. Take these two little girls and be on your way. They’ve been raised nice and pretty. Keep them for yourself later or sell them on, that’s your business!"
The voice was so sharp it sounded like a dull blade scraping across raw iron, stabbing straight into Evelyn Whitmore’s ears.
One hundred jin of coarse grain...
Little girls...
Boom—
It was like a muffled thunderclap crashed inside Evelyn’s head. The fog in her mind blew apart in an instant.
She forced her eyes open, and the first thing she saw was her mother-in-law Mabel Caldwell’s mean, greedy face. Mabel was gripping the arms of two skinny little girls, thin as dry stalks, and shoving them forward with a fawning smile toward a greasy-faced man whose shifty eyes kept darting all over the place.
Those two little girls were her daughters—Lily Whitmore and Iris Whitmore—the children she had nearly died bringing into the world.
"No—!"
The scream tore out of Evelyn’s throat, raw and broken.
Like a mad she-wolf, she lurched up from the icy earthen kang. Her whole body was so weak it felt ready to fall apart, but she didn’t care. She threw herself forward like she’d lost her mind and yanked her two trembling daughters into her arms, holding them tight.
"My children... Who dares lay a finger on my children!"
Everything from her last life came rushing back, one scene after another, like the cruelest nightmare.
It was this very afternoon.
This black-hearted old woman had done it today—while Evelyn burned with fever and drifted in and out of sense, she had sold her daughters to traffickers for one hundred jin of coarse grain.
When Evelyn woke and cried until she went blind with grief, Mabel and her brother-in-law Victor Whitmore had pinned her down hard, cursing her as a useless jinx, a hen that couldn’t lay eggs and still dared make trouble.
And after that, the famine came. Of the five children she had left, Ethan Whitmore was driven to hard labor until he collapsed and died from exhaustion. Jasper Whitmore and Sophie Whitmore were sold off to an opera troupe, and no one knew how much suffering they went through. Dorian Whitmore and Owen Whitmore tried to stand up for their older brother and sisters, only for Victor Whitmore to break their legs and toss them into a deep mountain ravine to be eaten by wild beasts...
As for Evelyn herself, after endless torment and regret, her life was finished off by a bowl of drugged porridge.
At the moment of death, she had sprawled on the freezing snow like a stray dog nobody wanted, while her soul seemed to hang in the air above, watching with her own eyes as one child after another met a miserable end... That pain had ripped her clean apart, like being burned alive in a blazing fire.
"My children... Mama’s precious hearts..." Evelyn clutched the frail little bodies in her arms as hard as she could. Tears burst out like floodwater, hot and endless, falling onto the children’s icy little faces.
She was back.
Somehow, carrying a chest full of hate and regret, she had come back to the moment right before everything went to ruin.
"You crazy woman! What the hell is wrong with you?" Mabel Caldwell got shoved so hard she nearly dropped to the ground on her backside. Her temper flared at once. She raised her hand and slapped straight at Evelyn Whitmore’s face. "I’m trading these two worthless girls for grain to keep this whole family alive, and you dare stand in my way? You’ve got some nerve now, huh?"
Evelyn Whitmore had both daughters locked tight in her arms. There was no room for her to dodge.
But this time, she didn’t shut her eyes the way she had in her last life.
She lifted her head. In those eyes that had always looked meek and obedient, there was now a blood-red blaze, bitter and savage, like something crawled up from hell itself.
"If you touch even one finger on them, I’ll fight you to the death."
Her voice was hoarse, but the vicious force in it made people’s hearts skip.
Mabel Caldwell’s hand actually stopped in midair, frozen there by that look.
This useless daughter-in-law, the one she could curse and beat any day she pleased, why did she seem like a different person today? Those eyes... just looking at them made her feel a chill in her gut.
"Hey, come on now, sister-in-law of the Whitmore family, is this deal happening or not?" The greasy buyer rubbed his hands, already annoyed. "Can’t even handle one woman? Are you selling these little girls or not? Give me a straight answer."
Mabel Caldwell snapped back to herself, and greed stomped flat the last bit of fear.
A hundred jin of coarse grain. That was enough for the whole family to get through winter without starving.
"Sell them? Of course I’m selling them!" Mabel Caldwell spat to the side and glared at Evelyn Whitmore with vicious eyes. "You useless hen that can’t lay a decent egg, and all you gave birth to were money-losing girls! If they can be traded for food and keep this family breathing, that’s their good fortune! Now let go of them!"
The words had barely fallen when she reached out to snatch the children.
"Mom!"
"Mom! I’m scared!"
Lily Whitmore and Iris Whitmore screamed till their voices went sharp, their little hands clutching hard at Evelyn Whitmore’s clothes.
"Get away from us!" Evelyn Whitmore was like a mother wolf guarding her cubs. She lunged forward and bit down hard on Mabel Caldwell’s arm.
"Ow—!" Mabel Caldwell let out a shriek of pain and jerked her arm back. A deep row of teeth marks was already stamped into the flesh, bright beads of blood pushing out.
"Are you insane? You shameless thing, you’ve really gone mad!"
Chen shi was shaking with rage. She grabbed the broom by the wall and brought it down on Evelyn Whitmore in a wild flurry. "I’ll beat you to death today, you unfilial wretch! Beat you to death!"
The broom smacked across Evelyn’s thin back, one blow after another, each hit landing with a dull, heavy thud.
It hurt. Of course it hurt.
But compared to what her children had suffered in her last life, what was this little bit of pain worth?
Evelyn clenched her teeth so hard her jaw ached. She didn’t make a sound. She only pulled her two girls tighter into her arms.
"Grandma! Don’t hit my mom!"
From the doorway, five children of different ages came rushing in all at once. In front was Ethan Whitmore. He was only eight, but he planted himself there like a little man, arms spread wide in front of Chen shi, his eyes so red they looked like a rabbit’s.
"You little brats too? You want to rebel with her?" The sight of her eldest grandson daring to block her made Chen shi even madder. She lifted the broom and was about to strike him too.
Right then, Evelyn moved.
She jerked her head up. Before anyone could react, she snatched a pair of bright scissors from the sewing basket by the edge of the kang.
With a sharp swipe—
The cold tip of the scissors went straight to her own throat.
"Nobody move!"
Evelyn screamed the words so hard her voice nearly split. At once, a thin line of blood appeared on her pale neck where the sharp point had broken the skin.
The whole room went dead silent.
Chen shi froze with the broom in her hand.
The greasy-faced buyer stumbled back a step, scared out of his wits.
The five children who had just run in all stood there dumbstruck, staring at their mother in panic.
One arm of Evelyn’s held the two girls tight. The other hand raised the scissors high. Her eyes were red as fire as she glared at every person in the room, and in the end her gaze locked hard onto Chen shi’s frightened face.
Grinding her teeth, she forced out each word from between them. There was a desperate, savage edge in her voice.
"I’m telling you right now—if anyone here so much as lays one finger on my daughters, I’ll die on the spot for you to see!"
"My life may be cheap, but don’t forget who I married. I married Regiment Commander Whitmore! If I die in the Whitmore family’s house, and die because you people drove me to it, then think it over real good. Do you think the higher-ups won’t send someone down to investigate? When that time comes, forget your hundred jin of grain. Every last one of the Whitmores will be dragged down with me!"