Her head throbbed with a dull ache, as though someone were pounding away inside it with a hammer. Shen Jiao frowned in discomfort. How had this cold become so serious?
She had always been healthy. Normally, whenever she caught a cold, she could recover simply by drinking more hot water. Even if she found that too troublesome, she would only have to endure it for a few extra days. She almost never suffered from headaches like this.
It looked as though she would have to take some medicine this time. She might even need an IV drip.
She would go once the sun came up. It was the middle of the night, and she felt far too lazy to get out of bed.
She pulled the quilt more tightly around herself. In her dazed state, she did not notice that its texture felt completely wrong. The only thought in her mind was that tonight seemed unusually cold.
It was early spring, when the weather could turn warm one moment and chilly the next. It truly was far too unpredictable.
“Hey, Comrade, are you all right? Wake up!”
Who was that?
Who would disturb someone’s sleep in the middle of the night?
Wait. Why was there someone in her home?
She had always lived alone, and she had not invited any friends to stay over tonight. However, she did not even have the strength to open her eyes.
The next moment, she felt someone lift her into their arms. She tried to struggle, but instead sank into a deep, dreamless sleep.
When she opened her eyes again, her nose was filled with the distinctive smell of hospital disinfectant.
There were wooden-framed windows, a plainly furnished hospital ward, and an enamel mug with a distinctly old-fashioned design sitting on the bedside cabinet. Five large characters were printed across it:
**SERVE THE PEOPLE.**
The blood-red words stung Shen Jiao’s eyes.
Combined with the brief life of a girl from the late 1970s that she had seen in her dreams and the flood of unfamiliar memories that had suddenly poured into her mind, even a complete idiot would have realised what had happened.
She had transmigrated.
She had transmigrated into the body of a girl from the late 1970s who shared her exact name.
Fortunately, Shen Jiao had been alone in her previous life and had no one she was particularly attached to.
After her parents divorced, they had each remarried and had more children. No matter which family she stayed with, she had always been the unwanted extra.
Her father did not want her. Her mother did not want her. Neither set of grandparents wanted to raise her, either.
Ever since she was young, her parents had passed her back and forth between their families like a ball neither side wanted to keep.
It had not been easy for her to grow up and improve her life through her own hard work. She had finally built a career of her own, only to transmigrate without warning.
The only thing she regretted was the new apartment whose mortgage she had only just finished paying off.
Her parents’ two families would probably end up in a lengthy argument—or even a lawsuit—over it. However, none of that had anything to do with her anymore.
The original owner of this body was also named Shen Jiao.
She was a member of the Shenjia Village Production Brigade under Xiangyang Commune in Anyuan County, Pingyuan Province.
Although she was only twenty-one this year, she had already been married for three years.
At eighteen, she had married Qin Zhifeng, an educated youth who had been sent down to work in their production brigade.
Their marriage had been good at first. However, after the National College Entrance Examination was reinstated, Qin Zhifeng passed the examination and was admitted to a university in the capital.
He then took all the family’s savings and left.
After that, they never heard from him again.
Shen Jiao’s family had never been particularly wealthy, but while her parents were alive, they had been comfortably well-off compared to most people in the village.
Her father was the captain of the Shenjia Village Production Brigade, while her mother was extremely capable and almost always earned the maximum number of work points.
Their family’s favourable circumstances had been one of the reasons Qin Zhifeng had married Shen Jiao in the first place.
After their marriage, however, Qin Zhifeng had treated Shen Jiao quite well.
Although people constantly proclaimed that women held up half the sky, the women in rural areas had not yet been truly liberated.
It was not that men spent all their time beating their wives. Most people were not deranged enough to hit their wives for entertainment.
The main problem was that women had to perform the same labour as men during the day, yet once they returned home, they were still expected to handle all the housework.
Men never touched domestic chores.
Aside from the cooks who prepared communal meals, hardly any men in the entire village knew how to cook. That was why the women in this area often jokingly referred to their husbands as “lazybones.”
Qin Zhifeng had been different.
He did not believe that men should refuse to do housework. Whenever he returned from work, he helped Shen Jiao cook, clean, and perform other household chores.
Who in the village had not envied Shen Jiao for marrying such a considerate husband?
Therefore, after the college entrance examination was reinstated and Qin Zhifeng announced that he wanted to take it, Shen Jiao’s family had naturally supported him wholeheartedly.
Qin Zhifeng had lived up to their expectations and was admitted to Capital University.
At the time, everyone had been jealous of Shen Jiao’s good fortune.
Her “lazybones” had become a university student. In the future, she would share in her husband’s success, move to the city, and become someone who lived on state-supplied grain.
It was not only other people who had been envious. Shen Jiao herself had been delighted.
During that period, her vanity had been satisfied to an unprecedented degree.
In the end, however, Qin Zhifeng left and never returned.
After beginning university, he had sent home only two letters, both asking for money.
Nearly an entire year had now passed without so much as another word from him.
Last summer, Shen Jiao’s parents had both died in an accident.
She had sent Qin Zhifeng telegrams and letters, but he had never responded.
Everyone in the village said that Qin Zhifeng was just like the other educated youths. Once he entered university, he began looking down on the rural wife he had left behind.
However, Shen Jiao refused to believe them.
They had once been so loving. She believed that Qin Zhifeng would return one day and take her to live with him in the city.
After her parents died, the family lost two people who could earn work points, and their lives became much more difficult than before.
Her older brother did not complain. She was his biological younger sister, after all. Besides, she was not eating and drinking for free. She worked and earned work points for the family as well.
Her sister-in-law, however, was not so understanding.
At first, she only made snide remarks and criticised Shen Jiao indirectly. After the New Year, she became even more blatant and eventually threw Shen Jiao out of the family home.
The trouble had begun when her sister-in-law got into a fight with someone.
Unable to defeat her physically, the other woman had taunted her about Shen Jiao being abandoned by her educated-youth husband.
When her sister-in-law returned home, she flew into a rage. After viciously berating Shen Jiao, she threw her out of the house.
With nowhere else to go, Shen Jiao obtained a letter of introduction from the village brigade and travelled to the capital to search for her husband, Qin Zhifeng.
Although she refused to admit it aloud, she had already accepted in her heart that her husband had probably abandoned her.
That was also why she had never dared to come to the capital and look for him before.
The truth turned out to be exactly what everyone had suspected.
Qin Zhifeng had become the archetypal faithless husband. After arriving in the capital, he had married another woman.
At that moment, Shen Jiao felt as though the sky had collapsed.
Even so, she did not grovel before that heartless man.
Although Shen Jiao was not particularly capable, she had never lacked backbone. She immediately demanded a divorce.
Qin Zhifeng had not expected her to be so agreeable and naturally accepted with almost indecent eagerness.
After leaving Qin Zhifeng’s home, Shen Jiao found her life painfully ironic.
She had devoted herself wholeheartedly to Qin Zhifeng and remained faithful to the moral boundaries of marriage. She would never have flirted or become involved with another man while she was still married.
Who could have expected that men apparently preferred bad women?
Qin Zhifeng’s new wife was no decent person, either. She and Qin Zhifeng were both complete scum.
The woman had also been an educated youth. After the college entrance examination was reinstated, she had been admitted to Capital University.
Like Qin Zhifeng, she had married while she was living in the countryside.
How did Shen Jiao know?
Because she and that woman’s rural husband had gone to confront the pair together.
As for the result, the woman and her rural husband had naturally also agreed to divorce.
That woman was truly heartless.
Her husband’s elderly grandmother was seriously ill and did not have much time left. Before she died, her only wish was to see her university-student granddaughter-in-law once more.
The woman’s husband begged her to return with him for one final visit before they completed the divorce.
Who would have thought that she would refuse outright?
She even hurled the most vicious and cutting insults at him. She had looked no different from a foul-mouthed shrew.
So men really did prefer bad women.
A woman like that had somehow inspired the devotion of two men. Meanwhile, Shen Jiao had dutifully followed every expectation placed upon a wife, only to be despised by her own husband.
Severely shaken by everything that had happened and unable to afford a guesthouse, the original Shen Jiao spent the night sleeping in the railway station’s waiting room.
She caught a chill, developed a high fever, and died.
When she opened her eyes again, the current Shen Jiao had taken her place.
After sorting through the original owner’s memories, Shen Jiao strongly approved of her decision to divorce.
She was also extremely relieved that the original Shen Jiao and Qin Zhifeng did not have any children.
Otherwise, not only would the divorce have been far more troublesome, but more importantly, Shen Jiao was nowhere near prepared to become a mother.
She was still very much single herself.
However, the original owner had been somewhat soft-hearted. Perhaps she had also been too devastated to think everything through carefully.
Divorcing Qin Zhifeng so easily was letting that bastard off far too lightly.
When he left home for university, he had taken nearly all the family’s savings.
Later, whenever he wrote home, the original Shen Jiao had sent him money twice more.
Qin Zhifeng needed to return every penny.
While she was at it, she should also demand some compensation.
“You’re awake. Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Should I fetch the doctor?”
A deep voice sounded beside her.
Shen Jiao turned her head and saw a tall, upright man entering the hospital ward.
He wore a faded green military uniform that had been washed so many times it had almost turned white. His hair was cut extremely short, and he had a square face, thick eyebrows, and large eyes.
He gave off an impression of steadiness and reliability.
He was none other than the man who had accompanied the original Shen Jiao to Qin Zhifeng’s home yesterday.
Gu Xinguo—the rural husband of Qin Zhifeng’s new wife.
It seemed that he was the one who had saved her.
The original Shen Jiao and Gu Xinguo truly were suffering from the same misfortune. Both of their spouses had placed magnificent green hats on their heads.
As the saying went, the enemy of one’s enemy was a friend.
Should she recruit him as an ally so they could fight the scumbag couple together?
“So it was Comrade Gu who brought me to the hospital. Thank you so much. I really don’t know what might have happened to me otherwise.”
“It was nothing.”
Gu Xinguo paused before asking, “But why would a female comrade like you sleep in the station waiting room instead of staying at a guesthouse? It’s cold there, and it isn’t safe.”
Obviously because she could not afford a guesthouse.
Shen Jiao gave him an awkward smile without answering.
Gu Xinguo also realised that he had asked a foolish question and did not press the matter.
Instead, he handed her the breakfast he was carrying.
When Shen Jiao smelled the distinctive fragrance of millet porridge, the stomach that had received no food since the previous night growled loudly.
Her face immediately turned red with embarrassment.
“Thank you for breakfast, Comrade Gu.”
Only after finishing breakfast did Shen Jiao have the energy to discuss today’s important matter.
Yesterday, they had agreed to meet the scumbag couple today and complete their divorces.
Before they left, Shen Jiao hoped to reach an agreement with Gu Xinguo. Their chances of defeating the shameless pair would be much greater if they presented a united front.
“Comrade Gu, you were once a soldier and have seen much more of the world than I have. I wanted to ask you something. Qin Zhifeng took money from my family when he left for university. Now that we’re divorcing, shouldn’t I demand that he return it?”
“You should.”
Two simple words.
He killed the conversation instantly.
Shen Jiao suddenly had no idea what to say.
She had only used the question as a way to become closer to him.
They were natural allies now. They ought to exchange information, support one another, and work together.
However, this man looked as though he had absolutely no interest in speaking. How was she supposed to plan a strategy with him to make the scumbag couple pay dearly?
Gu Xinguo truly was in no mood to talk.
No man would be happy after discovering that his wife had placed a green hat on his head.
Moreover, his grandmother was currently in hospital, and her life had already entered its final countdown.
All he wanted was to complete the divorce as quickly as possible and return to the hospital to care for his grandmother.
He had no desire to create additional trouble.
Seeing his attitude, Shen Jiao abandoned her plan to recruit him in her battle against Qin Zhifeng and extract greater benefits.
Still, Qin Zhifeng probably wanted to escape their marriage even more desperately than she did.
Surely, he would return the money without much resistance.
Shen Jiao did not have much money left.
Gu Xinguo had even paid her hospital fees in advance.
If Qin Zhifeng returned the money, she could immediately repay Gu Xinguo.
He might be too kind to mention it, but she could not shamelessly pretend the debt did not exist.
Besides, she currently had no home to return to and no money.
The money Qin Zhifeng owed her would solve her immediate crisis.
It was a debt he owed the original Shen Jiao, so she had every right to demand it.
Shen Jiao had always been healthy.
The only reason her condition had become so serious the previous night was that she had suffered a tremendous emotional blow and then caught a chill.
Now that the soul inside the body had changed, her heart was no longer weighed down by grief. After receiving an IV drip, she immediately recovered considerably.
At the very least, she was well enough to accompany the scumbag back home and complete their divorce.
Qin Zhifeng and his new woman were even more desperate to divorce than Shen Jiao and Gu Xinguo were.
By the time Shen Jiao and Gu Xinguo arrived at the railway station, the other pair were already waiting.
They had agreed yesterday that they would first travel together to Shen Lin’s hometown to complete one divorce, then go to Gu Xinguo’s hometown to complete the other.
Gu Xinguo’s hometown was not particularly far from Shen Jiao’s commune. It was in Linqing County, a little over a hundred li southeast of Xiangyang Commune.
Their destinations were more or less along the same route.
“Why are you only arriving now? Look at the time!”
The moment Qin Zhifeng saw them, he immediately began complaining.
Back when he had been a sent-down educated youth, circumstances had forced him to marry an ignorant village woman.
That marriage was a stain on his life.
He did not want to remain connected to this village woman for even one moment longer.
Shen Jiao could not stand the sight of his sanctimonious expression.
What a waste of such a handsome face.
The corner of her mouth lifted into a mocking smile.
“Qin Zhifeng, yesterday’s decision to divorce was extremely rushed, and there were several things I didn’t consider carefully.”
“When you left for university, you took money from my family. Also, since you are the party at fault in our divorce, you should pay me compensation.”
“Did you bring the money?”
Qin Zhifeng stared at her with both annoyance and astonishment.
He truly had not brought any money.
In fact, it had never even occurred to him that he should give Shen Jiao anything.
His own family had never been wealthy. After entering university, he had relied entirely on the school’s living allowance.
Where was he supposed to find the money?
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