Chapter One: Reincarnated as a Tragic Little Orphan

Just moments ago, Luo Yan was still celebrating her entry into the millionaire ranks, counting the model’s eight-pack abs as she sang joyfully.

“Under the big bridge at the front door swims a flock of ducks, come quickly, come quickly, count one two four six seven eight...”

The next moment, silence engulfed her ears, so quiet her head buzzed dully.

Luo Yan opened her eyes to a white ceiling.

Sitting up, she saw a labor-glorifying enamel basin, a bamboo-woven thermos, and everywhere embroidered cloth covers...

The room was decorated exactly like a home from the 70s or 80s. Could this be a dream?

Right—she had recently been reading a period tragedy novel. Coincidentally, the daughter of the protagonists shared her name. Maybe she'd just been reading too much and had slipped into a dream set in that era.

Yes, that must be it. Luo Yan closed her eyes and tried to sleep on.

But as soon as her head hit the pillow again, memories not her own flooded her mind.

Luo Yan, born March 6, 1976.

Her mother, Hua Li, a widow in all but name, lived in a military compound but had to take odd jobs outside to support herself and her child.

Her father, Luo Shicheng, was stationed with the army and rarely came home. He gave all his allowances to the widow of a fallen comrade, Liu Jingqiu, ensuring her children were well-fed and clothed, while his own family went hungry.

Luo Yan wanted to lash out.

The little three-and-a-half-year-old child didn’t understand why her parents acted this way, but she knew—she had read that heart-wrenching, soul-crushing novel too many times.

Hua Li’s grandfather and Luo Shicheng’s grandfather had a debt of gratitude between them, so the two families arranged a childhood betrothal for Hua Li and Luo Shicheng.

Luo Shicheng opposed the match but couldn’t defy the elders, so he married Hua Li, a country girl.

On their wedding night, however, Luo Shicheng was drugged by his childhood friend Liu Jingqiu.

Liu Jingqiu intended to force a consummation with Luo Shicheng, but he resisted the drug’s effects and fled.

At the same time, Hua Li, also drugged with a similar concoction, was arranged by Liu Jingqiu to be given to a balding, yellow-toothed widower.

When the widower was about to take advantage of Hua Li, Luo Shicheng happened to pass by, heard her cries for help, burst in, and knocked him unconscious. The ensuing scuffle triggered the drug’s effects on Luo Shicheng, causing him to lose control completely.

Their first night together was clouded by the drugs; neither remembered the other.

The first to regain clarity was Luo Shicheng, recalling only the girl’s awkwardness and a red stain on the sheets in the faint morning light. After dressing, he threw the widower out and rushed to fetch a doctor.

By the time Luo Shicheng returned with the doctor, Hua Li was gone.

Hua Li woke with hazy memories of a tall man abusing her, but the room was dark with the curtains drawn, so she never clearly saw his face.

The newlyweds didn’t spend their wedding night together; when they met again, one was disheveled, the other with swollen, red eyes.

From then on, one blamed herself for ruining a good girl and felt unworthy of the marriage; the other believed he had been violated by an evil person and spent his days weeping for his wronged wife.

But things only worsened.

Three months later, inexperienced with childbearing, Hua Li discovered she was pregnant.

She wanted to terminate the pregnancy, but the hospital required her husband’s signature.

Luo Shicheng, upon learning this, utterly despised his “impure” wife. Even as Hua Li begged him, he refused to sign, deliberately forbidding the abortion to burden her with lifelong shame.

Orphaned and abandoned, Hua Li, seeing her husband’s callousness and foreseeing a lonely existence ahead, decided against abortion and chose to raise the child alone.

Thus, the unwanted Luo Yan was born.

Luo Yan could only think, what a cruel fate.

Things went from bad to worse.

Liu Jingqiu, having married a comrade of Luo Shicheng and now a widow with children, frequently sought Luo Shicheng’s help.

Luo Shicheng, out of gratitude for his comrade An Guo’s sacrifice in saving him, obliged every request and gave more than half his allowances to Liu Jingqiu, while his wife Hua Li received none.

Hua Li, unemployed and unsupported by her husband, had to toil at odd jobs to feed herself and child.

This struggle continued until Luo Yan was three and a half, when Hua Li fell ill and collapsed.

Luo Yan remembered the novel’s account: this illness left Hua Li with chronic health issues.

Later, on the day the truth was revealed, Hua Li died gravely ill. Luo Shicheng, full of regret, struggled to raise his daughter to adulthood before joining her in death.

But wherever she was, Luo Yan could not accept such sorrow.

Since she had arrived, she vowed to rewrite this tragic ending into a happy one.

Turning her head, Luo Yan saw Hua Li’s face, flushed with fever, cracked lips.

Though gaunt and hollow-cheeked, Hua Li’s beauty still shone through—fragile, as if a mere touch might shatter her.

Luo Yan reached out to check her mother’s forehead and nearly burned her fingers.

This could not continue; Hua Li was certain to fall ill for life.

As the saying goes, a child with a mother is like a treasured gem; without one, a mere blade of grass. Luo Yan could not let her mother die young.

Slipping on her shoes, Luo Yan glanced at the folding mirror on the table and was startled.

This little baby, who should have had a chubby infant’s face, was so thin her skin clung tightly to her bones. Her already large eyes seemed terrifyingly wide from malnourishment.

Her hair was dry and yellowed, her gaze vacant. This was no image of a child—more like a withered old soul, more lifeless than even the most weathered elders.

What a cruel fate!

Darkness swam before Luo Yan’s eyes—not from anger, but hunger.

Mother and daughter were always hungry one moment and full the next. Now that Hua Li was ill, Luo Yan was starving too, having gone a full day and night without food.

She needed to save herself—and her mother. How could a child of barely three suffer so much?

She wiped a bitter tear from her face.

Luo Yan searched the kitchen. The rice bag contained only a pitiful handful of grains, with just two shriveled potatoes besides. There was nothing else.

What kind of hellish start was this?

She decided to endure it.

Exiting the kitchen, Luo Yan tried to open the door to seek help, but found two bolts securing it—one low enough she could reach by tiptoeing, the other too high.

Hua Li, a lone woman with a child, though living in a military compound, was cautious.

At dusk, the gate was bolted, the house locked tight—even in the summer heat, windows were barred from inside. Though it seemed foolish, only mother and daughter understood the fear behind it.

Though the door was hard to open, Luo Yan, a fellow female, bore no resentment toward her mother’s caution.

She dragged a chair and stepped on it, falling just short.

“Tch,” Luo Yan scratched her head, fetched a stove poker from the kitchen, and climbed back on the chair.

Using the poker, she hooked the bolt.

Click—the bolt slid open, and the door finally gave way.

Pushing it open, Luo Yan closed the door behind her, but the yard gate barred her path.

The night was falling.