Bab 2: Chapter 2: Rebirth
A multitude of questions sent Lu Jingqiu into a bit of a panic. She shone her flashlight around, and upon seeing a crooked jujube tree, horror flooded her eyes.
This place was a perpetual nightmare from her previous life.
Back then, Xia Lin had come to tell her she was going to marry Gao Shu. Jingqiu couldn't accept this reality, nor did she want to give up so easily, so she staged her own disappearance in the mountains to make Gao Shu worry about her.
But fate had other plans. After running up the mountain, she regretted her decision as she ventured too deep and got lost. Wandering in circles, she couldn't find the path down and had no choice but to sit under the crooked tree and wait to be found.
To be located quickly, she flashed her torchlight toward the distance, hoping to signal them. Unfortunately, instead of Gao Shu and the others, she attracted men from a neighboring village who had come to steal trees at night. Seeing a lone and pretty educated youth like herself, they harbored evil intentions.
That night, her calls for help went unheard by the heavens and the earth alike. She was brutally violated.
It was also during this time that she missed the telegram from her father and the last chance to see her mother. This led to a rift between her and Father Lu.
The man she'd pursued for years married someone else. Her body desecrated, her mother's passing—in the face of these multiple blows, she became silent and withdrawn. Her mental health even broke down at one point, causing her to miss the college entrance exams that year.
Within one or two years, all the other educated youths had left after passing their exams. As a woman with no connections left in the village, she couldn't avoid being harassed by idle men.
It was later when Gao Shu and Father Lu came to Ten-miles Village that they found out about their daughter's suffering over the years. Gao Shu adamantly brought her home. Back home, seeing Xia Lin and Gao Shu flaunt their love every day only aggravated her condition. Eventually, her father had no choice but to send her to a sanatorium, hoping for a turn for the better.
But what no one knew was that Lu Jingqiu had endured the darkest decade of her life, ten years that could turn a sane person mad.
When your family is around, it's heaven; when they're gone, it's hell. There, the doctors and nurses treated her like an imbecile. The least disobedience elicited electroshocks until she complied.
Any resistance was met with abuse and humiliation. She often received spoiled food, once leading to gastritis, and within six months, she'd wasted away to skin and bones.
Every time her family visited, the doctors said her wasting was due to her refusal to eat. No matter how she explained, her father and aunt never believed her.
It wasn't until after Father Lu's accident, when she begged her aunt, that she was finally discharged. After some time to recover, she gradually resumed a normal life.
Thankful to the heavens, she had arrived at the very place her nightmare began.
Escape? No, she intended to redeem herself.
Lu Jingqiu calmed down at the thought of what was to come.
She stood up with her flashlight, searching the area until she found a sharp stick to hold.
Then, she picked up a few rocks the size of fists and placed them in her pockets, hidden in a concealed spot.
She shone her flashlight on her wristwatch - it was already past nine in the evening.
It was around this time.
"There definitely was someone here just now; where did they go?"
Jingqiu had been hiding for no more than five minutes when a dark figure approached from behind the tree.
"Are you looking for me?"
"Hey, is that a girl? Hehe." Before the man could see clearly, Lu Jingqiu viciously smashed a rock onto his head from behind.
"Ah, you witch, where are you from? How dare you hit me?" The man said, clutching his head, staggering a few steps, and about to find something to retaliate against Lu Jingqiu.
Unfortunately for him, Jingqiu didn't give him a chance, driving the sharpest end of the branch into the man's thigh. Pain forced a loud cry from him, "Ah, you wench, I have no quarrel with you, why hit me?"
"No grudges, huh, our grudges couldn't be more serious. What are you doing here in the middle of the night? Don't tell me you're planning to harm a young girl."
"I'm not, I came to chop wood?"
"Stealing wood, you mean."
"I didn't steal anything."
Lu Jingqiu had no interest in hearing his excuses, and once again she jabbed with the fork, this time nearly hitting the man's vitals. The man shuddered in fear, no longer caring about the pain.
Ignoring his pain, he grabbed the branch from Lu Jingqiu's hand and stood up, "Damn it, if I don't give you a lesson today, I wouldn't be doing justice to my injuries."
Even though Lu Jingqiu was prepared, she couldn't match a man's strength. As the man was about to take her branch away, Lu Jingqiu clenched her body and with one foot, kicked directly between his legs.
The man howled in pain, clutching his crotch as he knelt on the ground.
"Wang Fugui, right? Today I'll ruin you, you filthy man. Let's see how you'll harass women after this."
"You, who are you? How do you know what I was planning, grandmother, I was wrong, please let me go."
"Grandmother here is the Mountain Goddess, sent from the heavens to punish you, Wang Fugui. I know all about the female comrades you've hurt before, and today you'll face your retribution."
"Grandmother, I won't dare again, I won't dare, please spare me. I've only slept with the widows in our village a few times and normally do some petty theft. I came to chop wood today just to sell it to the lumber mill for a little spending money, please spare me, I won't dare to do it again."
Lu Jingqiu certainly didn't believe his nonsense. Recalling her own "previous life", her hatred intensified. Seizing a stone, she raised it to smash onto the man.
Seeing that begging for mercy was useless, the man tiptoed and limped towards the back mountain. Lu Jingqiu, who had harbored a lifetime of resentment, couldn't possibly let him go.
Armed with branches and stones, she chased after him. Before she could strike, she heard a faint "swish" followed by a piteous, long wail that grew distant.
Lu Jingqiu shone her flashlight down and saw a very steep slope. The fall wouldn't kill him, but he would be severely injured.
Seeing no movement from below for a long time, she realized that the man's chances were slim. At that moment, Lu Jingqiu's tense heart suddenly collapsed, and, disregarding her image, she slumped to the ground and began to cry loudly.
....
"Jingqiu, how are you feeling? Is your head still dizzy?"
At that moment, Lu Jingqiu, who was unconscious, suddenly sat up, closing her eyes, staggering as she got up from the ground.
The weather in mid-June was fickle, clear one moment, and cloudy the next, directing the harvesters with clarity. The sunlight was still dazzling, shining in every corner, making it difficult to breathe. The people of Ten-miles Village were busy harvesting day and night without rest, as the village chief said there would be heavy rain every year around this time.
They had to gather the grain into the storehouse before the rain came.
Lu Jingqiu came back very late that night. By the time she returned to the Educated Youth Spot, everyone in the girls' dormitory was asleep.
Her disappearance had gone unnoticed, just as in her "previous life".
Even if she came back disheveled in the early morning, nobody cared.
She had actually thought about playing missing to get Gao Shu's attention, which was ridiculous.
She couldn't imagine her last wish before death had come true. She thought it must be that even heaven felt sorry for her, giving her a chance to start over. After that day, she developed a fever, which only gradually got better after three or four days.
During those three or four days, she lived in turmoil, lying in bed sometimes excited, sometimes panicked.
Excited that she had been reborn, panicked about what had happened to that man.
Bab 3: Chapter 3: Letting Go
"I'm feeling better now; I can go down to the field today," Lu Jingqiu said as she followed her dormmate Yun Yuzhi to collect the farming tools.
She had arrived here the autumn before last, and had already spent two years in Ten-miles Village. Being an only child in her family, with both parents holding good jobs, she would have stayed in the city to work, as arranged by her parents after high school graduation, if it weren't for the unexpected.
For the sake of Gao Shu, she had secretly run off to the countryside.
What she hadn't anticipated was that within a year, Gao Shu had already found someone he liked there.
The youngest daughter of the local village chief, Xia Lin.
Gao Shu was both surprised and repelled by her arrival.
So, over these two years, Lu Jingqiu watched, with eyes wide open, as Gao Shu and Xia Lin grew closer and closer.
She found herself increasingly irked by Xia Lin, frequently putting a spoke in her wheel and often speaking ill of her at the Educated Youth Spot.
She also created many misunderstandings between the couple, but alas, how could an outsider like her compete with the village chief's daughter?
Every time she caused trouble for Xia Lin, she ended up assigned the hardest and most unpleasant tasks by the village chief, a lose-lose situation, yet she fought on determinedly.
After two years of such torment, the couple had not parted but had instead grown even closer.
Yun Yuzhi held a sickle in one hand and pulled Lu Jingqiu with the other, discreetly gesturing with her chin toward a spot not far ahead, and whispered, "I heard they're about to get married."
Only then did Lu Jingqiu look up at the two walking side by side in the distance, chatting and laughing. Even in a semi-worn blue shirt, the man couldn't conceal his dashing looks. And the woman, with her oval face and a pair of bright eyes, was so fair-skinned that even a slight pout presented an irresistibly sweet and endearing charm.
Apparently, Gao Shu liked someone petite and lovely, a pity, for she was not.
With just a glance, she lowered her head and hummed a response.
Lu Jingqiu did not realize that her inherent grace and elegance of character were akin to that of a young lady from an esteemed household of ancient times—something even Yun Yuzhi and the others envied deeply.
Unable to bear seeing her this way, Yun Yuzhi sighed and said, "Jingqiu, to be honest, Xia Lin isn't as pretty as you. We never expected Gao Shu to end up with Xia Lin.
"When you first arrived, you were fussy and complained about everything, and we didn't like it. But finding out you came for Gao Shu was quite a surprise.
"You've known him since childhood, yet he's never given you a proper look. If I were you, I'd let it go.
"Over these two years, from the way you eat and live, I can tell your family is well-off. If it doesn't work out, just have your parents pull some strings and leave this place. Why stay here and torment yourself watching them?"
Lu Jingqiu lifted her head and smiled at Yun Yuzhi, "Sister Yuzhi, thank you for your advice, I understand."
Yun Yuzhi stared at Lu Jingqiu's crescent-moon like smiling eyes, taken aback for a moment: "You..."
In the past, anyone who spoke to Lu Jingqiu like this would have seemed to her as reveling in her misfortune, making fun of her. But today... it was unexpected.
In her previous life, when Yun Yuzhi spoke like this, Lu Jingqiu's face would have soured, and she would have jerked her hand away, retorting coldly.
But having lived a lifetime, Lu Jingqiu knew that Yun Yuzhi genuinely had her best interests at heart.
At this Educated Youth Spot, there were originally four girls, excluding Li Qian, who, before the summer harvest, had a falling out with the entire spot over a university recommendation spot.
Now, only Yun Yuzhi, she, and Li Yinger were left.
If we're talking about before, she and Li Qian were closest, while Yun Yuzhi and Li Yinger got along better. Li Qian's family was rather poor, and ever since Lu Jingqiu arrived, the delicate her was unwilling to work and often gave things away in exchange for help, with Li Qian being one of them.
Later, she became her little follower. The things sent to her from home, whenever she took them to Gao Shu and he didn't accept them, she would angrily throw them aside, and most of them ended up with Li Qian.
Yun Yuzhi and Li Yinger disapproved and even warned her a few times to be careful with Li Qian.
Regrettably, Lu Jingqiu did not take it seriously. Yun Yuzhi and Li Yinger often said Lu Jingqiu was foolish with money to spare. In these times when everything was expensive, she treated it like dirt, completely unconcerned.
However, they had also taken advantage of Lu Jingqiu's generosity in their daily lives. Last winter, just before the New Year, when everyone's grain coupons had run out, and they were all digging up wild grass to eat on the nearby mountains, Lu Jingqiu generously took out the grain coupons mailed from her home and bought several kilos of coarse grains, allowing everyone to spend a slightly less hungry winter.
Of course, they also benefitted from Gao Shu's presence. Knowing that Gao Shu would not take her food, Lu Jingqiu came up with this method.
Additionally, for that spot in university, Li Qian deceived Lu Jingqiu out of ten yuan and scammed five yuan from both her and Yinger. Because of this incident, Lu Jingqiu, who originally did not get along with them, formed a united front against Li Qian, and that was when the three of them got a bit closer.
Otherwise, Yun Yuzhi would not have said those heartfelt words to Lu Jingqiu.
"Sister Yuzhi, since the night Xia Lin brought me the invitation, I've realized something. I've chased after Gao Shu for so many years, only to end up with nothing; suddenly, it seems not worth it.
You were right; I am an only child to my parents, and I didn't have to come down to the countryside. But for his sake, I rushed here heedlessly and did not move him at all. Instead, I made him think of me as a burden.
I was a bit impulsive, a bit stubborn, but I don't regret it. Since I liked him, I had to come and try. If I didn't try, how would I know the outcome?
But coming here hasn't been a loss either. In two years, I've learned a lot of things. After the summer harvest is over, I want to ask for leave to go see my parents. I miss them."
Yun Yuzhi laughed, "It's good you can think this way."
The two happily held hands and walked towards the allocated fields. Lu Jingqiu looked over the wheat fields and felt an indescribable warmth in her heart.
In her previous life in Ten-miles Village, aside from Gao Shu, she didn't care about anything else, constantly submerged in endless work, filled with dissatisfaction and complaints. There were few joyful things for her, not even a friend to speak of.
Heaven allowed her to return to this place, and now, aside from Gao Shu, everything else felt so beautiful.
Oh, right, and her mother, she had to go back.
In her previous life, she had played a disappearing act on the back mountain, which led to that incident, resulting in her missing the telegram from her father and her last chance to see her mother. Missing those were the mistakes she could least forgive herself for.
Gao Shu and Xia Lin? If you talk about them as the main male and female leads, even they didn't end up being so wonderful in the end! This lifetime, she no longer wanted to guard a man with a heart of stone. There were plenty of melons at home; instead of wasting that idle time, she'd rather sit in the courtyard and enjoy a melon instead.
Suddenly returning to thirty years ago and having to work in the fields upon arrival, plus just getting over an illness, Lu Jingqiu was truly struggling. Luckily, today wasn't her turn to cook.
These days were busy with farm work, and everyone was occupied. The cooking duties fell on Li Yinger and Li Qing, both of whom taught at the elementary school.
Seeing them return, they quickly approached Yun Yuzhi and nudged her arm, whispering, "Why isn't Gao Shu here?"
The voice was very small, fearful that Lu Jingqiu would hear.
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