It was early June. The northern summer was just beginning to stir, a hint of warmth threading through the cool air.
In fields of palm-high corn, sun-darkened men and women swung their hoes, methodically clearing away the weeds.
"Captain—the An family and the Chen family are going at it!"
Sun Dazhuang, the captain of Shili Gou, straightened up and opened his mouth, revealing a set of crooked, yellow-stained teeth.
"What? How can they be fighting on a wedding day?!"
"You'd better go take a look! There's blood!"
Sun Dazhuang tossed his hoe aside and ran anxiously toward the Chen family home with the messenger. A crowd of curious onlookers trailed behind them.
The group scrambled through the Chen family's main gate, which was decorated with red "double happiness" characters for the wedding. They rushed forward to break up the fight, but the courtyard was already a chaotic brawl, and no one was listening.
"Anyone who doesn't stop now will have their work points docked!"
An Ning had just regained consciousness when she heard that sentence.
'Stop?'
'Are they fighting?'
'My teachers said that fighting together is the best way to strengthen a bond. I should get up and join in.'
'But docking work points… Is fighting some kind of point-based system?'
Lying on the ground, An Ning twitched her fingers and toes. Her spiritual power coursed through her body, mending her injuries. 'Time-space travel successful. Body functions normal. Cleared for combat.'
She came from an interstellar civilization that had no agriculture. Raised in a laboratory, her skills and spiritual power had been meticulously cultivated by a team of instructors. She was, at last, the chosen operative for the Ancient Earth Seed Project.
"SOB... SOB... Chen Mingliang and I are truly in love! Please, don't blame him! If you have to blame someone, blame me!"
Her clothes in disarray, Miao Xiaohua knelt on the ground, weeping pitifully. Beside her, Chen Mingliang—the man who was supposed to be the groom today—knelt bare-chested, a look of profound emotion on his face.
"I'll kill you, you shameless hussy! You have the nerve to cry? You dared to push my An Ning? I'll beat you to death!"
An Ning opened her eyes and watched the woman who was trying to lunge forward, only to be held back. From the original owner's memories, she identified the woman as her biological mother, Lin Cuihua. The person cradling her head was a legal relative—her eldest sister-in-law, Zhou Guifen.
The original owner of this body was supposed to marry Chen Mingliang today. But when the groom's party failed to show up, the An Family went to investigate. They found Chen Mingliang and Miao Xiaohua in the middle of... 'that'... in the bridal chamber. The two families immediately came to blows.
The commotion was huge. After all, the two families lived in houses that backed onto each other, separated only by an alley. The original An Ning had followed the crowd to see what was happening.
But the original An Ning had been a slow developer since she was a child. She wasn't unintelligent, just remarkably slow at everything she did. To make matters worse, a high fever at age three had damaged her vocal cords, leaving her mute.
Everyone at the front was so caught up in the brawl that no one noticed her. While trying to dodge a blow, Miao Xiaohua had stumbled back and collided with the girl, knocking her head against a rock. That's when all hell broke loose, with some people trying to help her, some still fighting, some looking for a doctor, and one running to get the captain.
"Mom..."
The word came out loud and clear.
"An Ning, you… you can speak?"
Her sister-in-law, Zhou Guifen, stared in disbelief as the formerly mute An Ning sat up. She quickly reached out to support her.
The surrounding crowd was just as shocked to see An Ning suddenly speak.
"Holy crap! How can she talk?"
"I bet she was just that angry."
"You know, you might be right. If something like this happened to Wang Tanzi, he'd probably be angry enough to get up and walk."
"No kidding. This is enough to disgust a dead man back to life."
"It must be that even the heavens couldn't watch this anymore, so they let Ning Ya… I mean, they let her speak."
As the crowd buzzed with chatter and theories bordering on Mysticism, An Ning's mother, Lin Cuihua, ran over, her hands and feet trembling with excitement, her face a mask of disbelief.
"Daughter, say 'Mom' again?"
"Mom."
"Yes! Yes! Mom's here! Mom is right here."
Tears streamed down Lin Cuihua's face. Behind her, An Ning's father, An Sancheng, asked anxiously, "Daughter, and me… who am I?"
An Ning obediently called him "Dad," but once was hardly enough. Everyone wanted her to repeat it, just to be sure.
This repeated confirmation puzzled An Ning. 'Do all Ancient Earth People have poor hearing?'
'In that case, should I 'do as the Romans do' and pretend my hearing is bad, or should I let it stand out?'
Regardless, she went around greeting everyone. Her older brother, second brother, and the rest of the An Family were all ecstatic. For a moment, the scene of catching the adulterers had morphed into a surreal family reunion.
Once the greetings were finally over, An Ning drew the An Family's attention back to the matter at hand. In her belief system, revenge had to be swift, lest one be struck by lightning.
She pointed to the two on the ground—who were putting on a miserable, love-struck display—and announced, "I have something to say."
"Yes, yes, go on, speak," Lin Cuihua urged, eager to hear An Ning say more. Her daughter could talk!
An Ning offered Lin Cuihua a sweet smile before turning her gaze to the two people kneeling on the ground. 'This Miao Xiaohua is strange,' she thought. 'She's eighteen, but she has the spiritual power of someone in their forties.'
Kneeling on the ground, Miao Xiaohua's mind was in turmoil. 'How can An Ning talk? In my last life, she was never able to speak.'
'In her last life, Chen Mingliang hadn't liked An Ning; he had liked her, Miao Xiaohua. But she had looked down on him back then, choosing instead to follow someone else south to find work.'
'It was only when she returned to the village later that she learned Chen Mingliang had made a fortune. The two of them had then secretly rekindled their affair, helped by the fact that An Ning couldn't bear children.'
'For some reason, she, Miao Xiaohua, had been reborn on the very day of his wedding to An Ning. She didn't want to repeat the mistakes of her past life. This time, she would make things with Chen Mingliang a done deal and secure this 'potential stock' for herself.'
"An Ning! I'm so sorry, we didn't mean for this to happen! Please, just let us be together! Chen Mingliang doesn't love you! Your engagement was just a childhood arrangement, it doesn't count!"
Miao Xiaohua reached out, trying to grab An Ning's leg.
An Ning sidestepped her neatly and asked, a puzzled look on her face,
"You mean you weren't a willing participant?"
Having dodged the grab, An Ning's expression turned serious. "If it wasn't consensual, you can file a report against Chen Mingliang."
"No, no! We... we were both willing."
Miao Xiaohua couldn't possibly bring herself to report Chen Mingliang. She lowered her head after speaking, only to hear An Ning's voice ring out again.
"If you were willing, then it was intentional."
"As for the 'childhood arrangement' you mentioned, that's a matter between the An family and the Chen family. You, however, are from the Miao Family."
"Also, that plea to 'let you be together' is not the right one to use here. What you committed is called… adultery."
After speaking, An Ning gave a firm nod. 'That's what my teachers taught me. I'm not wrong.'
'But… why has everyone gone silent?'
At that moment, many of the villagers were staring wide-eyed, their mouths slightly agape. They couldn't help but wonder, 'Do all mutes speak so fluently once they start?'
Not a single curse word, yet it felt so incredibly satisfying to hear.
An Ning scanned the crowd. She assumed they were all politely waiting for her to continue, so she did.
"I am calling off this wedding. However, the Chen family and the Miao Family must give me a proper account for this. My head injury will not be for nothing."
To put it simply: they need to pay.
The moment An Ning finished speaking, her mother, Lin Cuihua, immediately backed her up, shouting, "That's right! What are you two families going to do about this?"
After Lin Cuihua shouted, An Ning's father, An Sancheng, took a single step forward. He said nothing, simply fixing the opposing families with a cold, hard stare.
Behind him, An Ning's eldest brother, second brother, her younger twin brother, Uncle An, and all the other men of the An family took a step forward in unison. Their stance was clear: 'We're ready to settle this with our fists. If you think you can, you'll have to go through us.'