Volume One, Chapter One: The Old Man Who Haunted Su Nuan Across Two Lifetimes

The low voice of the man roused Su Nuan from unconsciousness.

She opened her eyes to a blurred world and saw only a pair of broad, bony hands pressing hard against her chest. Furious, she was about to curse the lecher when she suddenly turned her head and spat out a mouthful of water.

Then she made out the scene before her.

A monstrous flood, carrying stones and branches, had surged over the riverbank and was raging across both shores. Everywhere she looked, there was only the faint outline of treetops on the water and scattered people in the distance, crying out in terror.

The catastrophe all around her made Su Nuan realize at once that she had been reborn.

It was the summer of 1975. A dam upstream had collapsed, and floodwaters had come crashing down, trapping millions.

Her scum of a father, in search of his beloved and that woman’s daughter, had cruelly abandoned her and her mother. Su Nuan had fled with her mother, only to encounter her father’s beloved’s daughter, Song Niannian, struggling in the flood. Her soft-hearted mother had immediately jumped in to save her.

Who could have known that the torrent would rise again at that very moment, not only sweeping her mother away without a trace, but also knocking Su Nuan off the bank.

Fortunately, it was not yet her time to die. Su Nuan had been rescued by the man before her.

By her estimate, the man was nearly six and a half feet tall, broad and powerfully built. Beneath the brim of his dark navy cap, his features were sharp and handsome. Unfortunately, his face was as cold as frost, and there was a finger-length scar on the bone of his right brow, making him look intimidating enough to keep people at a distance.

Su Nuan had an excellent memory. She remembered that this stern, severe man was called Gu Hanxiao.

Years ago, when her scum father was traveling on business, he had once saved Gu Hanxiao’s grandmother. Later, when Gu Hanxiao happened to pass through the city, he had not forgotten to visit the Su family and deliver a gift of thanks. Back then, she had been frightened by the scar on his brow, so much so that she remembered it vividly even after two lifetimes.

Before Su Nuan could thank him, fragmented whispers began reaching her ears.

“She must have put on that indecent low-cut undergarment on purpose. Just look at her—once it’s soaked, everything shows. Tsk. As expected of the shameless Su Nuan. Knowing the city has flooded and her home is gone, she starts trying to seduce the soldiers who came to rescue people.”

“...”

This really was not Su Nuan’s fault. Her figure was naturally generous, and an ordinary undershirt could not cover it at all, so she had no choice but to wear an altered one.

But Gu Hanxiao and the young soldier beside him did not know that. Both of them looked at her with undisguised disdain.

After today, the Su Nuan of her previous life and Gu Hanxiao would have no more involvement with one another, so Su Nuan could not be bothered to explain, nor did she care what he thought. Right now, all she wanted was to find her mother, whose life or death was still unknown. She returned Gu Hanxiao’s coat, thanked him, and staggered away.

What Su Nuan did not know was just how alluring a woman could be when her beauty was provocative and her clothes were soaked through.

Seeing the lecherous looks cast her way from all around, Gu Hanxiao clenched the navy uniform in his hand and quickly chased after her.

“Hey!”

In an instant, Su Nuan was covered head to toe by the oversized naval coat. She could no longer see the ground and, in her panic, grabbed at Gu Hanxiao’s collar to steady herself. Unexpectedly, the pull unbalanced them both, and they fell together to the ground.

The man’s tall body came down on her like a towering mountain, crushing the breath from her lungs. Their chests were pressed tightly together, and that only made her both ashamed and angry.

“You... you pervert! How dare you take advantage of a female comrade!”

“...”

Gu Hanxiao had no time to answer. All he knew was that the woman before him seemed somewhat familiar, her skin white as cream, her eyes soft and enticing, her thick lashes like a bird’s tail feathers. It did not merely send his heartbeat racing; it set his blood surging hot through every vein.

Such loss of composure made the abstinent Gu Hanxiao, who had long kept himself under strict restraint, especially irritated. He turned his eyes away, swiftly snatched up the wet uniform from the ground, and wrapped her up again. The movement was so fast Su Nuan had no chance to resist.

Su Nuan was utterly speechless. Before she could even open her mouth to denounce Gu Hanxiao for making trouble where there was none, Song Niannian squeezed over and cut her off.

“—Brother Gu?!”

With tear-streaked cheeks, Song Niannian looked at Gu Hanxiao.

“Brother Gu, I’m Song Niannian! Boo-hoo, Brother Gu, I was so afraid. I, I thought I was definitely going to die this time...”

As she spoke, she rushed into Gu Hanxiao’s arms, but he took a few steps back, and she lunged into empty air and landed face-first in the mud.

At that, Su Nuan burst out laughing.

Song Niannian was both angry and humiliated, but with outsiders present, she could not lose her temper. Forced to endure it, she could only continue crying with a flushed face. “Boo-hoo... it’s all my fault... not only did I harm myself, I even harmed others...”

The young soldier was adept at reading the room and followed her lead to comfort her. “Comrade, don’t cry. The flood is so big. It’s only natural that a weak young woman couldn’t save anyone.”

Song Niannian kept crying. “No, it’s my fault... If it weren’t for trying to save me, little Sister Su Nuan would never have fallen in, and Aunt Man wouldn’t have been swept away by the flood, boo-hoo...”

Her tears made her look pitiable enough to stir the young soldier’s sympathy.

But Su Nuan only felt a blaze of fury.

In her previous life, she had been blinded by the fake tears of Song Niannian and her mother, and had felt pity for them. Not only had she been the first to beg her scum father to let the mother and daughter live in the Su household, she had also sided with them together with her father, worsening the injustice her mother suffered in the Su family and driving her mother to a depression that ended in death.

And before her mother’s body had even gone cold, her scum father had joyfully brought Song Niannian’s mother into the house as his new wife. The mother and daughter, once inside the gate, used the same old tricks. They not only schemed against Su Nuan at every turn, just as they had once done to her mother, but also spread rumors behind her back that she was a temptress, that no one knew how many men she had lain with.

Su Nuan’s reputation had already been poor. With their constant insinuations, she became the infamous loose woman of the city.

And it was not enough for the mother and daughter to ruin her name. In order to seize the family fortune, they even drugged Su Nuan, leaving her to be violated by a vagrant and fall ill. Her scum father, ashamed of her, did not listen to a single explanation and cast her out of the house.

In the end, Su Nuan died miserably on the street, carrying a deep hatred for all three of them.

“Boo-hoo, it’s all my fault! I’ve wronged Aunt Man, wronged little Sister Su Nuan. I, I can only jump in and pay with my life...”

Snapped back to herself by Song Niannian’s wailing, Su Nuan let out a cold laugh.

“Fine. Then jump.”

“...”

Those words drew a frown from Gu Hanxiao first, and Song Niannian beside him was even more incredulous.

No matter how she thought about it, she could not understand why the foolish Su Nuan, who had always obeyed her every word, had suddenly become so cold and merciless.

“Didn’t you say you were going to jump into the river? Why aren’t you jumping?” Su Nuan pressed on.

“I...”

Song Niannian, forced into a corner, fumbled for words. The young soldier had no choice but to smooth things over with an awkward chuckle.

“Uh... I think this female comrade only spoke out of turn because she was too anxious about her missing mother. She surely didn’t mean it.”

Before he could finish, the survivors passing nearby all chimed in.

“Oh my, young comrade, why are you defending her? Su Nuan is the troublemaker everyone around here knows!”

“Exactly. Comrade Song’s father died on the battlefield, and her mother brought her to the Su family to live under someone else’s roof. Now she still has to suffer this loose woman’s temper. It’s truly pitiful.”

“Su Nuan has a poisonous tongue. I’d say she’s just finding an excuse to bully Song Niannian!”

Song Niannian shook her head with a bitter smile. “Everyone, don’t misunderstand. Little Sister Su Nuan isn’t bullying me. It’s all my fault...”

That nearly made Su Nuan laugh out loud.

Just like her mother, Song Niannian loved to speak only halfway, and with her tearful, pitiful act, she could always win other people’s sympathy. As for Su Nuan, she was the disobedient troublemaker, the shameless loose woman, so whether she was right or wrong, everyone would always assume she was the one at fault.

Song Niannian was kind and pitiful; Su Nuan was wicked and wanton.

That was how outsiders always judged them.

And someone who had already been drenched in filth did not care if one more stain was added to her name. In the past, when faced with such humiliation, Su Nuan had long since grown weary of explaining herself and instead chose to comfort the weeping Song Niannian. What she received in return, however, was endless betrayal and mockery.

At the thought of it, a bitter sting rose in Su Nuan’s eyes.

Never again.

She would never again feed her kindness to that beast, Song Niannian.

“Little Sister Su Nuan, I’m sorry...” Song Niannian continued her performance, kneeling before Su Nuan with tears streaming down her face. “It’s all my fault. I caused you and Aunt Man to fall into the water, and I made you get scolded... Little Sister Su Nuan, y-you can hit me if it will make you feel better!”

Though she was apologizing aloud, she had long since made up her mind.

She had fallen in love at first sight with Gu Hanxiao when he had once come to the Su house. Fearing that he might be like the vulgar men in the city and be seduced by Su Nuan’s alluring looks, she had to play the part of the weak one. The weaker she seemed, the more it would highlight Su Nuan’s viciousness. She would smother any possibility of the two of them developing anything before it could even take root.

Besides, from past experience, such a costly apology would usually move foolish Su Nuan to tears, making her kneel and apologize in return.

It was a perfect two-birds-with-one-stone scheme.

Thinking of this, Song Niannian nearly laughed out loud. But before she could savor her triumph, she heard Su Nuan say two words.

“All right.”

“...?”

Song Niannian looked up, only to meet the palm of Su Nuan’s hand coming straight at her face.