The operating table at the township hospital doesn’t have a sterile cloth, just a makeshift pad of loose, weighed sanitary paper.

Suizi picked at the paper. It felt terrible, hard to the touch, easy to break during use, and seriously exceeding bacterial standards.

How could they perform surgery on this thing without risking infection?

Wait, why did this feel so real? Suizi widened her eyes and, without thinking, slapped herself.

Snap!

The crisp sound echoed in the dilapidated operating room.

It hurt! This wasn’t a dream!

She was reborn in her twenties this year, in the eighties!

"Lie still, the anesthetist will be here soon, don’t delay our shift!" The female doctor said displeasedly.

Suizi sat up and slipped into her underwear as quickly as she could.

"I’m not having the surgery. I want to keep the baby."

It was early winter, and Dongbei was already freezing.

She had on thermal underwear under her thick wool trousers, and over those trousers another layer of velvet trousers. It was quite a hassle to put on.

The two doctors, seeing her about to run, pushed Suizi back onto the operating table.

"Lie still and don’t fidget!"

Suizi struggled desperately, although she looked chubby, she wasn’t strong. She was no match for the two old women.

She was held down on the operating table, her legs raised like a pig waiting to be slaughtered at the New Year.

This scene was not strange to Suizi.

She often dreamt of this scene.

This was a rural health clinic, where her nightmare began.

She was fooled by her older sister into having an abortion, after a miscarriage induced infection led to lifelong infertility.

For a dowry of 200 yuan, her stepmother married her to the most good-for-nothing hooligan in the village.

The hooligan was idle but a good breeder. She was pregnant within a month of their wedding.

One day, her stomach suddenly started hurting and the hooligan was not at home.

Her "nice" sister brought her to the clinic, saying she was going to maintain the pregnancy. After an IV she fell asleep, and when she woke up, the child was gone.

She thought the doctors were saving her baby, but they were actually performing an abortion!

The child was gone, and the hooligan smashed up the hospital. He was locked up for half a month. She was terrified at the time, fearing that he would beat her or kill her when he got out.

She fled to the city overnight, thinking she had escaped from her desperate and suffocating marriage.

Little did she know that after she left the hooligan, the following decades would be worse than death.

Only when she was killed did she realize that after she left him, he was always searching for her.

After her death, he spent everything to avenge her.

The man she thought was a demon was the only person in the world who cared about her.

She would dream of her ill-fated child reaching out to her and calling her mom, dream of the hooligan stealing melons in the middle of the night and calling his wife to eat, but when she woke up she had nothing, just a solitary person.

Now she was reborn. She would keep the child and lead a steady life with the hooligan.

As the two doctors attempted to pull down her underwear, she struggled with her hands and feet to stop them.

The doctors were huffing and puffing from the exertion.

The door opened and the anesthetist came in, a man.

"Old Liu, give her the anesthetic."

"What’s all the fuss about?"

"This woman is a psychopath. Her family said that no matter how much she fusses, the baby has to be aborted."

"I’m not a psychopath, let me go!" So it was her sister who had been scheming behind her back!

They actually told the doctor she was a psychopath; no wonder they used anesthesia. They were afraid she wouldn’t agree to the abortion if she was awake!

"Why are there so many psychopaths today — there is one here and another outside causing chaos — stop making a fuss, you’re not a psychopath, you’re a little fairy. After a little shot, you’ll be off to see the Jade Emperor, be obedient."

While coaxing her, the anesthetist prepared the medicine. Anesthesia was in short supply; many people who had abortions didn’t use anesthetics. They just suffered through it, yelping with pain.

In desperation, Suizi called out a name she had kept in her heart for years.

"Yu Jingting, where are you?"

She remembered that when she woke up in her previous life, she saw a furious face. She could only gamble, hoping he was at the hospital at this moment.

Seeing the anesthetist inserting the needle into the infusion tube, Suizi bit the doctor’s hand to protect her child in her belly, and when she had the chance, she pulled out the infusion tube.

That stuff was definitely not good for her child.

Thinking the madwoman was having an episode, the doctors tried to block her from three directions.

With the infusion stand in hand, Suizi gestured wildly, mustering all her strength to scream:

"Yu Jingting! Someone wants to kill your son and make the Yu Family childless!"

The door was kicked open, no, it was kicked off entirely.

"I’m going to damn your ancestors for eighteen generations! Who dares to harm my son! I’ll assassinate his mother in the middle of the night, damn the scumbag who birthed him!"

Seeing the man cursing and swearing as he rushed in, Suizi felt a warmth in her heart that brought tears to her eyes.

It was him, he was really here.

As soon as Yu Jingting entered, he saw his wife, with one bare leg, revealing her chubby leg that resembled a little radish, and the teeth marks from the previous night...

The most fucking thing was, there was another man in the room!

Yu Jingting’s pupils reddened as he charged at the anesthetist with his fists flying.

"Damn your mother, you dare to look at my wife?!"

Seeing this, the anesthetist couldn’t believe it. God almighty, wasn’t he the "madman" causing chaos outside?

"You can’t hit him!" Suizi hugged Yu Jingting from behind.

"Let go! You hid the abortion from me, we’ll settle scores when we get home!" Yu Jingting angrily said.

Just like in her previous life, he was terrifyingly fierce. Suizi used to hate his shouting and cursing, but now seeing him, every pore of her body felt familiar.

Upon closer inspection, he only had a fierce mouth towards her but never laid a hand on her, he didn’t even touch a finger.

"If you dare to hit someone, I’ll hit your son! I’ll hit him through my stomach!" Suizi could feel Yu Jingting stiffening in her arms.

"What are you all gawking at! Turn around!" His fat wife’s beautiful legs were only for him!

The doctor and anesthetist collectively turned around, thinking how did these two psychopaths end up in the same family?

"Hurry up and put on your pants — what are you crying for? No crying!" Yu Jingting saw her crying and his heart twisted like a knot, he wiped her tears in a fluster, but the more he wiped, the more she cried.

Angrily, he roared at the terrified doctors: "Didn’t you hit my wife?"

The doctors — who were bitten by Suizi and kicked several times — thought to themselves: ’How the hell did this cross your mind?’

Can’t you see how your chubby, mad wife has beaten us up? She even wrecked the operating room!

"Why is she crying if she wasn’t hit!"

"Don’t yell at the doctor, I’ve just been missing you..." Suizi hugged his waist from behind, crying a downpour.

Yu Jingting was taken aback, a line in big letters suddenly appeared in his mind: Oh god, my wife has gone mad!

Ever since Chen Hansui married him, her eyes were like water faucets without valves, always tearing up. If she wasn’t crying, she was about to cry. Seeing him she would tremble as if she was scared to death.

If she wasn’t mad, why wouldn’t she be scared of him anymore; why would she hug him and say she misses him?

"And you say you didn’t hit her! My wife is scared into talking nonsense!" Yu Jingting rolled up his sleeves and was about to hit the anesthetist.

Fearing that he would be arrested for assault like in her previous life, Suizi could only muster up her courage and threatened:

"If you dare to fight, you won’t be allowed on the bed ever again."

Not allowing him onto the bed... this matter was really serious.

Yu Jingting retracted his fist.

The doctor left the operating room with Suizi and prescribed some medication to prevent miscarriage.

Suizi’s eyes narrowed when she saw a bottle of folic acid on the table.

"I’ll take one of those bottles."

The widespread distribution of folic acid was not yet a thing; if patients didn’t ask for it, doctors usually wouldn’t prescribe it.

Yu Jingting picked up the bottle; despite only having a few years of education, his guess reading was sufficient for him to understand the instructions. He only put it down when he was certain it wouldn’t harm the child.

The hands holding the medicine were not rough and hardened like a farmer’s, his fingers were slender without a hint of callouses.

At the end of the year when the Production team calculated their labour points, he always received the highest points for male workers. But it had nothing to do with desire to work hard.

He always found all sorts of excuses to avoid work. Both Team Captains had been beaten by him and dare not criticize his actions. They feared that reducing his work points would earn them a beating.

Suizi stared spellbound at his profile.

His looks inherited from his mother, who was once the most beautiful woman in Wang Family’s compound with her fox eyes, were undoubtedly handsome. Combined with his sword-like eyebrows, sparkling eyes, and dense lashes, people were usually too scared to approach due to the fierceness that radiated from him.

Standing at 186 cm, he looked thin yet muscular. His shaved head and threatening appearance made him look like he just walked out of prison.

On the streets, he was the kind of person who’d be stopped and asked for identification.

She thought of his solid eight-pack abs, strong arms effortlessly lifting her, each touch and close contact...

"Go to the window to pay," the doctor interrupted Suizi’s colorful memories.

Yu Jingting felt his pockets, containing only a few five-mouth coins and several cigarettes.

Squeezing through hardship was his specialty. He rolled his eyes, then raised his voice.

"Did you have a referral letter from the commune and Production team when you operated on her?"

Yu Jingting grabbed the doctor by the collar, thundered:

"You dare to operate on my wife without following procedure! You almost killed my child, and now you dare talk about payment?"

"Don’t hit him!" Suizi held Yu Jingting’s hand.

The doctor breathed a sigh of relief, glad to meet a coward-

"Speak to them sensibly—Did you take red envelopes? Is the hospital director here? I know where the Health Bureau is."

Suizi said softly, her words made doctor tremble with fear.

This "coward" was harder to deal with than the one who wanted to hit people! Desperate, the doctor had tears in his eyes.

Yu Jingting gazed at his chubby wife with approval—why was she especially pleasing to him today?

In the end, they didn’t spend a penny. Not only did they get the medication, but they also received meat, egg, and sugar coupons hand-delivered by the doctor. The red envelopes that were given were spat out—doubled.

Once they left the hospital, Yu Jingting brews his emotions.

Although she had just stood up to the doctor, who knew if this was all just an act for him?

If he didn’t scare her a bit, what if she went behind his back to get an abortion again?

"You, this woman, really is—" the words "unbelievable" were on the tip of his tongue. But, when he saw her pitiful look at him, he couldn’t yell at her.

"You are scary."

I want to eat you! Yu Jingting roared in his heart, but his voice softened by a few notches.

"Weren’t you brave when you were dealing with the doctor just now?"

Suizi lowered her head and kicked the stone on the ground.

"They are outsiders, I’m not afraid of them. You’re family, it’s different. If you don’t yell, I’ll talk to you."

She said he was family!

Yu Jingting’s heart swelled with joy. Just as he was about to reach out and hug her, he felt something wasn’t quite right.

Was it suspicious that one second she wanted to abort, and the next she wanted to live her life with him?

He took a dry cigarette from his pocket. As a principled tough guy, he couldn’t give in just because she was acting cute. He had to stay calm—huh, where’s the cigarette?

The cigarette was taken by her.

Yu Jingting: ???

"Second-hand smoke is bad for children." She muttered in a low voice.

"Trying to control me?" He squinted his eye.

Suizi shivered uncontrollably under his gaze.

The man’s gaze was as sharp as a hungry wolf. In order to protect their child, she endured her fear of him and met his eyes.

"Pregnant women exposed to second-hand smoke may cause deformities, miscarriages, and premature births in the baby. You shouldn’t smoke anymore."

Yu Jingting’s temples throbbed. He believed that he needed to ask his mother to perform a spiritual ritual to exorcise a demon. He suspected she was possessed by a spirit.

She didn’t dare look at him before, and now she even dared to tell him what to do?!

"I see you care about the child in your stomach now. If I hadn’t come in time, would you have aborted? I know you’re reluctant to marry me and are always thinking of escaping. If you want to go, give birth to my child first!"

Yu Jingting pretended to be generous, but his heart was filled with malice—want to run? There is no way! If she dares to run, he would catch her back and make sure she can’t get off the bed! See if she’ll run then!

Thinking that this woman is always pondering about running away felt like a stone weighing on his chest. Annoyed, he once again reached into his pocket for a cigarette. Before he could even touch it, a soft hand reached in and took his last few dry cigarettes.

She threw the cigarettes on the ground and, under his astonished gaze, forcefully stomped on them, crushing them into pieces.

"You’re revolting—-" He was wide-eyed in surprise. Was this still his timid wife who cried at the slightest thing?

"Why are you so angry? I told you not to smoke in front of pregnant women! Plus, I never wanted to get rid of the baby! I was tricked into coming here!"

Suizi’s lips trembled. The unfairness of her previous life rushed back to her, causing tears to fall.

This crying state was the one he was familiar with.

The angry man from just a few seconds ago suddenly panicked, clumsily wiping away her tears.

"Don’t cry!"

"They bullied me, and you bullied me too. I was so scared, and you yelled at me! You wrongly accused me of not wanting the baby!"

"When did I bully you? Stop crying. It’s cold, your face would crack—Hey! Why is there more and more tears? If you continue crying, old chap, old chap—"

She was made of water, her tear ducts were overactive. Every single tear drop was like a hot one burning Yu Jingting, leaving him speechless for half a day, unable to think of how to punish her.

"You are still angry!" Suizi bumped into his chest. The man’s body stiffened, not knowing where to put his hands.

They had been married for so long, she had never taken the initiative— was this her throwing herself at him?

"I naturally have a loud voice, I wasn’t yelling at you. Don’t cry. You said someone tricked you into this, who did? Tell me. I’ll beat him up."

His wife, who took the initiative to throw herself into his arms, felt softer than when he used to forcibly hold her?

Upon hearing his intention to fight, Suizi shivered. She remembered the scene of him being taken away by the police in her previous life.

"You won’t go out and fight, then I’ll tell you."

Suizi thought that there should be a more dignified and secure way to get revenge. There’s no way she could let this dimwit go out and fight people, he couldn’t be locked up again.

With her around, he had to be a good man, she wouldn’t allow him to follow his old path.

The soft voice made the man dazed. He almost thought she was sweet-talking him. He barely heard what she was saying—wait, something’s not right! He almost fell for her trick.

The man suddenly realized, why was she so unusual today, pretending to be good, she was confusing him, planning to run away, right?

"Did that bastard Li Youcai entice you again? Did you want to abort the baby and go with him?"

Suizi was a rare vocational school graduate in the Wang Family’s enclosure. If it weren’t for her stepmother’s greed, this bountiful, cultured, and fertile wife who radiated the luck of prosperity and offspring would not have ended up with Yu Jingting.

Li Youcai lived only a house away from Suizi’s family, the two grew up together and were classmates at vocational school, matching each other in talent and beauty.

If it weren’t for the Li Family’s poverty, Suizi’s stepmother wouldn’t have sold... married Suizi to Yu Jingting.

The whole village thought Suizi’s marriage to Yu Jingting was like a beautiful flower stuck in a dunghill, even Yu Jingting thought so himself.

When he found out she was planning to abort their child, his first thought was that she planned to elope with that handsome but fickle Li Youcai.

The name Li Youcai was like a curse from the devil, sparking a hateful light in Suizi’s eyes.

In her past life, Suizi met up with Li Youcai after running away for several years, and he tricked her into going up the mountain before pushing her off.

Not only did he lie and cause her death for the hefty insurance payout, but he also buried her body in the wall of the Yu Jingting family’s ancestral mansion, fearing that her spirit wouldn’t rest, and imprisoned her soul with a Bagua soul-locking array in the wall.

For this reason, Suizi had been sitting on top of the wall as a ghost for many years.

Every year on her birthday, Jingting would return to his old home and stay for a night, getting thoroughly drunk while waiting for her to come home.

Little did he know, the woman in his heart had been sitting on the wall watching him, separated by the realms of the living and the dead all those years.

Suizi swore that if she could escape from the soul-locking array, the first thing she would do is to treat him well, and the second was to seek revenge on Li Youcai and those who had harmed her.

Hearing her enemy’s name on the first day of her rebirth, Suizi felt like she had fallen into a chilling dungeon. Her body slightly shivered, her teeth clenched tightly, wishing she could find Li Youcai and take his life right away.

Seeing Suizi silent, Yu Jingting, thinking he guessed correctly, spoke in a low, gravely voice while holding her shoulders.

"You might as well forget about that pretty boy Li Youcai, I just saw him with your sister the day before yesterday."

This nauseating name being repeatedly brought up by him was making Suizi feel sick to her stomach.

"Don’t mention that man," she warned him. The very thought of him was making her feel queasy!

"So you can’t let go of Li Youcai?"

With all her might she struck her small head into his chest, like a tiny hammer, causing Yu Jingting to take a step back.

With his eyes wide open in shock, wondering if she had gained the courage of a wild beast, she continued to use her head to hit him as she hugged his waist.

What kind of move was this...? Yu Jingting didn’t dare move a muscle, in fear she would lose balance. Was this her quirky way of being affectionate or angry?

The two of them had already reached the front of the movie theater. An uncle selling roasted sweet potatoes was sitting nearby, popping melon seeds while he watched their tussle with delight.

As Suizi continued to head-butt Yu Jingting, the uncle burst out laughing.

Yu Jingting, while allowing his wife to vent, also had to glare at the giggling uncle, silently cursing at him in his mind - mind your own business!

The uncle was cowed by this aggressive man’s fierce glare, thinking privately: if you’re so tough, then try being tough on your wife! In front of your wife, you’re as docile as a newborn...lame!

"Why do you keep bringing up that bastard! Every time you mention him, I feel nauseous. I asked you not to talk about him but you keep doing it!"

Hearing the name of that scum repeatedly had triggered severe morning sickness in Suizi.

Unable to hold it back, Suizi vomited onto Yu Jingting, which, to her surprise, didn’t anger him but had him slightly pleased.

"You really don’t like Li Youcai anymore?"

"You’re still talking about him - yuck!"

Again, she threw up on him, all over his clothes.

With nothing much left in her stomach, all she was bringing up was water.

After retching, Suizi’s face turned red. She took a handkerchief from her pocket and attempted to clean him up.

Yu Jingting took the handkerchief sniffed it. It had that familiar sweet smell of his wife. How could he bear to use it?

"What are you waiting for, clean it up!" Suizi’s face turned even redder as she pushed him.

Yu Jingting casually put the handkerchief in his pocket.

He turned and stretched his hand out at the grilled sweet potato vendor.

"Give me some paper."

Grilled sweet potato vendor: ???

"Your grilled sweet potatoes have such a harsh smell that it made my wife want to vomit." Yu Jingting took out the anger he felt towards his wife on the outside world, and he immediately disliked the way the old man was looking at him with amusement.

The vendor was riled but dared not speak. He pulled out a roll of toilet paper from underneath the paint can converted into a sweet potato griller, he was about to tear off a piece but Yu Jingting grabbed it, crudely and carelessly using almost half the roll.

If looks could kill, he would have been dead from the vendor’s glare.

"What the hell are you looking at?! Look again and I will dice your head into a grilled sweet potato!"

Yu Jingting threw the remaining paper back, picked up a grilled sweet potato under the vendor’s repressed gaze, and gave it to Suizi.

Vendor: !!! Both eat and take? Have you no shame?

That’s how Yu Jingting behaves in the village — unreasonably bullish and domineering.

Suizi felt uncomfortable, checked her pockets, which were even cleaner than her face.

She slipped her hand into his pocket and pulled out a five-cent coin, which she handed to the vendor under Yu Jingting’s dismayed eyes.

"My boyfriend likes to joke around, please don’t take him seriously -- is that enough?"

The vendor didn’t dare claim it was insufficient. Although the young wife was sweet and civil, the man next to her was intimidating. One look was enough to tell he was no gentleman. If he said it was not enough, this gentleman could flip over the sweet potato bucket.

"That’s enough, take your time!" But please leave quickly, you’re scaring people!

Yu Jingting felt suppressed— he had never paid when eating at the Wang’s stall!

While dealing with this irksome feeling, he heard his wife sweetly calling him her boyfriend, which instantly brightened his mood.

He was so happy that he forgot why they had argued earlier.

It was only after the couple had left that the vendor heaved a long sigh of relief and muttered to himself:

"Scaring someone to death. How did such a beautiful plump young wife end up with such a troublemaker? And he dared to complain that my sweet potatoes stink — then why take them?"

The sweet potatoes grilled by this ancestral craft, how could they not be delicious? Humph!

As Suizi held the warm grilled sweet potato, her feeling of nausea was suppressed somewhat and the anger provoked by Li Youcai also dissipated a bit.

She couldn’t let Yu Jingting know about her past life. Not to mention that it would scare him, but given his temperament, if he knew how aggrieved she had been, wouldn’t he pour a bucket of gasoline and burn the entire Li family?

Li Youcai’s death was no loss, but she still hoped to spend her days with Yu Jingting. What would she do if he got involved?!

She would not let Li Youcai off, she first wanted to deal with Lun Lamei who facilitated her abortion, then figure out a way to deal with that scum Li Youcai.

"If not for the — white face Li to instigate you to get an abortion, then who was it?"

Yu Jingting was feeling good for several minutes because of her referring to him as "boyfriend". When his excitement faded, he remembered this matter again.

"You have to promise me to let me handle this matter, you can only assist me, you can��t lay a hand on them!" He was heavy-handed and could easily cripple someone.

"Stop nagging and spill it!"

He doesn’t have to hit, he could kick.

He could also punch, hit with a shovel, pour a bucket of cold water on them and hang them on a tree, smear honey on a small sparrow and sprinkle millet to let the chickens peck — Yu Jingting’s poetic talent peaked at this moment.

If he had this rich vocabulary when he was in school, how could he not have finished junior high school?

"It’s my stepmother’s ally, Lun Lamei, we should confront her when we return home." Suizi, unaware of Yu Jingting’s malicious intentions, honestly told him the truth.

"Ah, Mom’s?" Then they can’t smear honey on the bird — can it be smeared somewhere else?