Volume One, Chapter Two: If You Wish to Leave, Then Leave

“Mom? Look at how ecstatic Tang Wanwan is, it’s like she’s possessed!”
“Dad, I told you, as long as you agree to let Tang Wanwan come back, she’ll do whatever you tell her to do!”
Zhao Lingling watched Tang Wanwan alternate between crying and laughing, unable to contain her smug delight.
She cursed inwardly: What a fool!
Sold off, yet able to be so happy!
Pathetic wretch!
“Tang Wanwan, does this mean you agree to marry into the Meng family as a substitute bride?”
Zhao Youcheng pulled his military coat tighter, stomped his feet, and after questioning Tang Wanwan, looked up at the sky and cursed, “Damn it! What rotten weather, it’s freezing to death out here!”
Having vented his frustration, Zhao Youcheng strode forward and kicked the still-laughing Tang Wanwan.
“I’m talking to you! Are you so happy you’ve gone stupid?”
He kicked her hard, but Tang Wanwan felt no pain—she was already numb from the cold, her senses dulled.
Yet, that kick snapped her out of her stupor.
Her gaze became icy, and she glared fiercely at Zhao Youcheng.
Her swollen, reddened hands pressed against the snow as she staggered to her feet.
She spoke, word by word:
“No! I don’t agree! And I won’t return to the Zhao family either!”
The chill in Tang Wanwan’s eyes made Zhao Youcheng shiver involuntarily, then he glared back in disbelief and anger.
“Tang Wanwan! This is your last chance to return to the Zhao family! I advise you to think carefully!”
Hearing Tang Wanwan’s refusal, Jin Cuihua furrowed her brow, “Wanwan, the Meng family is a good match. Don’t regret missing it!”
Tang Wanwan brushed the snow from her knees, sneering, “Since it’s such a good match, let your younger daughter have it!”
She turned to leave.
“Don’t be ungrateful!” Zhao Lingling panicked at Tang Wanwan’s refusal.
If this wretch won’t marry, am I really supposed to do it myself?
No! Never!
She would never marry that pervert Meng Tao!
Zhao Lingling stomped her foot, ran to block Tang Wanwan, and pointed arrogantly at her.
“You filthy farm girl, peasant, marrying into the Meng family is your blessing—how can you refuse?! Uncle Meng is manager of a state-run restaurant, someone you could never hope to catch up to, no matter how hard you work your whole life!”
At nineteen, Zhao Lingling, spoiled since childhood, wore all her emotions openly.
Tang Wanwan lifted her eyes to meet Zhao Lingling’s gaze.
She scoffed inwardly.
This was once the beloved sister she cherished.
Now, panic and venom twisted her features, her intention to shove Tang Wanwan into ruin laid bare for all to see!
A chill swept through Tang Wanwan’s heart, her eyes growing colder still.

“Miss Zhao, since it’s such a blessing, keep it for yourself!”
With that, Tang Wanwan turned to face Zhao Fuguai and Jin Cuihua: “Comrade Zhao, Comrade Jin, from today forward, our ties are severed—if we meet again, we are strangers!”
Leaving those words behind, Tang Wanwan sidestepped Zhao Lingling and walked away without a backward glance, stumbling into the distance.
The four members of the Zhao family stood in the doorway, exchanging bewildered looks.
Zhao Lingling’s eyes reddened as she stomped, “If she won’t marry, I certainly won’t! If you want to do business with the Meng family, sort it out yourselves!”
With those words, she had already run back into the yard.
The Zhao couple lingered outside, troubled, then returned to the house, brow furrowed.
Tang Wanwan was no longer easy to fool!
They’d have to find another way for the Meng family match.
——
On the road back to Shitou Village, memories flashed through Tang Wanwan’s mind like lanterns on a spinning carousel.
Her pace quickened.
She had to go home.
Back to her birth parents and little sister.
Back to Lu Hang!
In this life, she would cherish everything!
In her previous life, after years of humiliation in the Meng family, she had regretted it and tried to return to Shitou Village in secret.
But when she left the Tang family, she had forcibly pushed her father, causing him to break his leg; he passed away within a few years.
This time, she would never be so reckless again!
——
Shitou Village.
Inside a mud-brick room of the Tang family.
Old Tang knocked the dirt from his shoes and sat beside the kang, sighing.
His weathered, ruddy face showed a hint of guilt as he looked at his injured new son-in-law.
His daughter and son-in-law had been married only three days, and Wanwan had already run away twice.
This time, she had even injured her husband.
For a simple farmer like him, it was hard not to feel ashamed before his son-in-law.
“Hangzi, Wanwan is still young and foolish. I’m sorry you’ve been wronged. Truthfully, it was my debt of gratitude that made you our son-in-law. If there’s anyone to blame, blame me!”
“Dad, you shouldn’t say that. If not for you, I’d have been devoured by wild dogs on the mountain, and I could never blame you.”
Lu Hang’s expression was calm, neither happy nor sad.
As if everything happening now was within his expectations.
“Dad, don’t worry. When you asked if I wanted to become your son-in-law, I agreed wholeheartedly.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m a rough country boy that Wanwan doesn’t like me.”
Tang Wanwan had studied, lived as a privileged lady in the Zhao family for twenty years; it was understandable she didn’t care for a coarse man.

She always liked cultured, fair-skinned scholars—Lu Hang had known this from the start, but still, he’d strangely agreed to the marriage.
Lu Hang was a man of principle: since he agreed, he would accept Tang Wanwan, for better or worse.
What was there to feel wronged about?
He was a grown man—talking about feeling wronged would be ridiculous!
“Eh!”
“I don’t know if what I did was right or wrong. You’ve lost your memory and don’t know your own background. Maybe one day, when you regain your memory, you’ll turn out to be from a wealthy family, and it’ll be Wanwan who’s marrying up.”
“If that’s the case, then I’ve held you back!”
Two months ago, Old Tang had gone up the mountain for firewood and found Lu Hang unconscious and injured.
He brought him home, nursed him for over a month, until his wounds were mostly healed, but his mind remained lost—he remembered only his name, nothing else.
So, the amnesiac Lu Hang stayed with the Tang family.
Lu Hang was tall and strong, clearly a capable worker.
Old Tang had three daughters and no sons, and after spending time with Lu Hang, he found him honest and reliable.
Just then, the recently returned second daughter was determined to go back to the Zhao family.
If the Zhao family had accepted her, Old Tang would have respected her wish for a better life.
But every time she returned from the Zhao family, she was injured—it was clear they would never accept her.
Despite being illiterate, Old Tang still had his pride.
Seeing his daughter suffer at the Zhao family’s hands, he felt both heartache and frustration!
Why insist on going to people who don’t want you?
Old Tang wondered if marrying her to a son-in-law who would live with them might make her settle down and stop running to the Zhao family.
He had no sons anyway, and in the countryside, it wasn’t uncommon to bring in a son-in-law.
So, after discussing it with his wife one night,
the old couple set their sights on Lu Hang and asked him—he agreed.
Three days ago, they held the wedding; Wanwan had agreed, but used the occasion, when everyone was less vigilant, to escape.
When she returned, she refused to share a room with Lu Hang.
Old Tang felt deeply guilty.
He worried he’d dragged this good young man into the Tang family’s troubles.
“Hangzi, if Wanwan stays stubborn in the future, and you want to leave, just go!”
Saying this, the old man’s voice was tinged with bitterness, tears glistening around his eyes.