Volume One, Chapter One: The Rebirth of the Impostor Heiress Tang Wanwan
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“Tang Wanwan, as long as you agree to marry in your younger sister’s place, we’ll allow you to return to the Zhao family.”
It was the depths of winter, the wind biting cold, snowflakes drifting down from the sky. For three days and nights, the snow had fallen, piling up into a thick, heavy blanket.
Tang Wanwan knelt at the Zhao family’s gate, her body long since frozen stiff.
But unwilling to return to her birth parents in their impoverished mountain village, she had gritted her teeth and endured for most of the day.
Only when the sun dipped westward and the orange-red glow of dusk painted half the sky did the Zhao family’s crimson doors finally creak open from within.
Out stepped her former adoptive parents, Zhao Fugui and Jin Cuihua.
With them was the second brother, Zhao Youcheng, who had once been switched with her at birth!
And her younger sister, Zhao Lingling, who used to be affectionate and kind, but whose attitude had changed overnight once she learned Tang Wanwan was not the Zhao family’s child.
As soon as they emerged, it was Zhao Youcheng who threw out such a sentence.
This was the result of their family discussion after half a day.
As long as Tang Wanwan was willing to marry in place of her younger sister Zhao Lingling to the Meng family in the neighboring county—a family who had long been rivals—they would not mind claiming Tang Wanwan as their own.
“First, go back and divorce that live-in husband of yours. Agree to the Meng family’s marriage proposal, and the Zhao family’s doors will open to you once more!”
Tang Wanwan only heard a buzzing in her ears.
Her head felt as though it would split open, the pain unbearable.
Her throat was dry and sore, and she could not speak.
Seeing Tang Wanwan’s silence, Zhao Lingling let out a sneer.
“Tang Wanwan, the Meng family is a wealthy household. If I weren’t unwilling to leave our parents, this fine marriage would never have fallen to you. Once you divorce your husband and become a secondhand woman, the Meng family is willing to overlook it because of your looks. You should be grateful and not get above yourself!”
Tang Wanwan hung her head, struggling to lift her eyelids.
Her eyes felt as heavy as if weighted with lead.
She had to summon all her strength just to open them a sliver.
Who was this?
Hadn’t she died?
After years of lingering illness, she’d died on her thirty-eighth birthday!
If she was dead, how could she hear people talking?
Wasn’t it said that death was like a lamp extinguished?
“Wanwan, as long as you agree, we’ll bring you home!”
The voice at her ear continued.
Tang Wanwan’s muddled mind gradually cleared.
At last, her eyes opened fully.
The first thing she saw was the ten centimeters of snow beneath her knees and her hands, red and swollen with cold, hanging in front of her.
Slowly, she raised her head.
All around was a field of white; the four members of the Zhao family stood before the door, clean and neat in thick military coats.
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The contrast with her own wretched appearance was striking.
Tang Wanwan stared at the younger faces of Mr. and Mrs. Zhao, momentarily stunned.
Children ran past, leaping and shouting, throwing snowballs and building snowmen.
Neighboring wives and old women came out to spectate, pointing and whispering in her direction.
The noise reached her ears as if muffled by a soundproof wall, everything seeming distant and unreal.
She glanced around, her heart jolting, pupils contracting sharply.
At last, she recognized this place: the old Zhao family residence.
The place where she had once lived for nearly twenty years.
In that instant, fragments of memory from her following eighteen years of life surged into her mind—countless shards, flooding her consciousness.
Tang Wanwan’s face reflected her shock—she—
At last, she understood.
She had been reborn!
Reborn on the very day she was driven from the Zhao family, and later agreed to marry in their place!
Tears of excitement welled in her eyes.
Twenty years ago, in 1960.
Both the Zhao and Tang families gave birth at the county hospital. In those days, the maternity ward was one big communal room.
It was common for several women to give birth at the same time.
In the chaos, the Zhao and Tang families’ babies were switched.
The son born to Jin Cuihua—now Zhao Youcheng—was sent to the rural Tang family.
The daughter born to the Tang family—herself—was brought to the Zhao family.
From then on, she and Zhao Youcheng exchanged fates.
Zhao Youcheng was taken to Shitouzhai, growing up as a peasant child in the mountains.
She became the eldest daughter of the prominent Zhao family in the county, living for twenty years as a pampered young lady untouched by hardship.
But a stolen life cannot be kept.
Half a year ago, Zhao Youcheng and Zhao Fugui met by chance, their resemblance too great to ignore.
Tracking down the midwife and nurse from that year, they finally learned the truth: the children had been switched.
In the 1980s, sons were especially treasured.
A daughter for a son!
The Zhao family did not hesitate. That very night, they rushed to Shitouzhai and brought back Tang Youcheng—now renamed Zhao Youcheng.
At the same time, they packed her—still dazed and confused—off to the Tang family.
In those six months, she refused to accept her fall from a pampered young lady to a peasant girl. The taste of plummeting from the clouds into the mud was unbearable.
So she tried again and again to return to the Zhao family.
Begging, pleading, making a scene, resorting to every tactic—she did it all, wanting only to reclaim her life of luxury.
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But who would trade a prized son—one who could be added to the family register—for a girl who was nothing but a burden?
Again and again, the Zhao family drove her out, humiliated her, and yet she clung stubbornly to her obsession. For more than half a year, no matter how coldly these former family members treated her, no matter the harsh words, even the beatings and curses, she refused to leave the Zhao family’s door.
In her past life, she coveted the Zhao family’s wealth and comfort. Accustomed to luxury, she could not bear the sight of the Tang family’s mud-brick home in Shitouzhai, their poverty so extreme that not one member of the household had a patchless garment.
She was used to fine grain and could not stomach pickled vegetables and coarse cornbread, let alone hunger!
She made a scene at the Tang house, raising hell.
At the Zhao family’s door, she groveled like a dog, begging for shelter.
On this very day, in her previous life, the Zhao family finally relented. If she would marry in her sister’s place, they would accept her again. She agreed without hesitation.
They spoke of the Meng family’s son as if he was a fine catch.
At the time, she thought it a blessing—a chance to marry well and return to the Zhao family. What a happy reversal of fortune!
But when she joyfully went to the Meng family in place of her sister, she found herself in a wolf’s den.
A place that devoured people without leaving bones behind.
Her mother-in-law was crude and shrewish, her father-in-law snobbish.
The Meng family’s eldest son, though decent in appearance, was a monster.
Because their eldest son liked men and was addicted to cruelty!
They wanted a wife for him only to silence gossip.
She served the Meng family like a beast of burden, a tool for making money, and was tortured for sixteen years. In the end, barely clinging to life, she was thrown out of the house.
That day too was snowy. Just as she thought she would freeze to death in the snow, ending her life of misery—
Lu Hang, then over forty—the live-in husband she had always despised—sought her out, gave her the last sliver of light in her life, and, bearing no grudges, took her home to care for her.
Sadly, after years of abuse, her body held out only two more years before she died.
The memories of her past life swept through her mind like a hurricane—
Thinking of it, Tang Wanwan began to cry.
And then, she laughed.
How wonderful!
She had been reborn!
Reborn on the day she fell into the Zhao family’s trap, reborn before she betrayed her birth parents and Lu Hang!
Everything could still change!