Chapter 1 Tang Huai is Reborn

Tang Huai loved her husband, Jing Peng, very much!

Since her naive and young girlhood, she had always loved him.

How much did she love him?

She loved him so much that even after three years of marriage without consummating the union, she harbored not a hint of resentment.

Furthermore, knowing she was Jing Peng's wife, she could fall asleep sweetly every night filled with thoughts of him.

On their wedding day, before the banquet had even ended, he went abroad for advanced studies.

That departure lasted three years.

A few days ago, he returned to the country, but had been busy at the company until just yesterday when he came home and mentioned that his company organized a family free health checkup or something of that sort. He brought her to the city's best Yingxin Hospital for a checkup—Jing Peng was so good to her!

During a kidney function test, she was given general anesthesia. When she woke up, she found herself lying in a hospital room.

Jing Peng told her that during the checkup, a problem with her kidney had been discovered and surgery was essential.

Now that the anesthesia had worn off, the wound hurt terribly.

But the thought of Jing Peng being by her side for the next few days made all the pain bearable.

"Jing Peng truly loves me. Finding out that there was a problem with my health, he immediately arranged for me to be hospitalized for surgery," Tang Huai said with a face full of happiness as she lay in bed.

At this moment, the door to the hospital room was gently pushed open, and her cousin of the same age, Tang Ying, sitting in a wheelchair, was pushed in by a nurse.

Seeing the smile on Tang Huai's face, she asked, "You can still be this happy lying in a hospital bed?"

Tang Huai felt close to Tang Ying and had no secrets from her. Instead of answering Tang Ying's question, she muttered, "I don't know when my wound will heal, or when your brother-in-law will go back to work."

After speaking, she looked towards Tang Ying. Seeing her sitting in a wheelchair, she asked in surprise, "Tang Ying, you're injured, why are you in a wheelchair?"

Tang Ying waved the nurse away with a hand gesture.

After the nurse left, Tang Ying counter-questioned Tang Huai: "You're in such a hurry to recover?"

Tang Huai was filled with joy, her mind full of thoughts of Jing Peng, and didn't inquire much about Tang Ying being in a wheelchair. She smiled shyly, "I've been married to your brother-in-law for three years, and we've been separated for three years too. We haven't even consummated our marriage. Now that he's back, if we could consummate and I could get pregnant on the first try, that would be great. Men his age usually have kids that can already fetch soy sauce, and we still haven't done the deed. Isn't it sad?"

"Your brother-in-law is no longer a virgin," Tang Ying said with a hint of smugness in her brows.

Tang Huai's smile stiffened, and she looked at Tang Ying in astonishment, "What did you say?"

Tang Ying looked at Tang Huai and laughed, "You're a virgin, but your brother-in-law is not, and moreover, he already has children."

Upon hearing this, Tang Huai's emotions suddenly surged, "Impossible! You're lying! I'm his wife, how could I not know if he has children!"

"Yingxin Hospital is his," Tang Ying lifted her chin proudly and looked at Tang Huai, "Sister, your brother-in-law's child is mine. Yingxin Hospital is also named after me. The person Jing Peng has always loved is me."

Tang Huai felt a tightening in her chest and tried to sit up, but just as she moved her waist, the wound was so painful that she lay back down.

She glared sharply at Tang Ying, shivering all over, whether from pain in her wound or her heart. She cried out, "You're lying to me! I don't believe it!"

Tang Ying's lips curled up with satisfaction, her eyes holding a touch of disdain, "Your brother-in-law married you with a purpose."

"What did you say?!"

Tang Ying lifted her chin slightly, her face full of arrogance, "You have a kidney that's inside of me."

"You're talking nonsense!" Tang Huai's emotions erupted as she yelled at Tang Ying.

Compared to the emotionally out-of-control Tang Huai, Tang Ying was much calmer. She smiled, "I'm not talking nonsense. Have you forgotten why you're lying here and why I have to sit in a wheelchair?"

On hearing this, Tang Huai trembled even more violently.

Tang Ying continued, "Three years ago, I was diagnosed with a problem, and when Jing Peng took you for a checkup, it turned out your kidney was a match for mine. But at that time, the doctors said that if a transplant was performed, future pregnancy would put more strain on it, rendering the surgery pointless. They suggested that I manage my condition and try to have children as soon as possible, and to have surgery after completing childbearing. Knowing you've always loved Jing Peng, I discussed with him and we agreed that he should marry you, all for today. For the sake of my health, Jing Peng had to begrudgingly marry you and then use work as an excuse to not be home all year. In fact, he has been living with me these past three years. A year ago, our son was born. As soon as the breastfeeding period ended, he arranged for my surgery. He has always been very concerned about my health."

Tang Huai completely lost control. She struggled to sit up and lunge at Tang Ying, but her painful body tumbled heavily off the bed to the floor.

With this fall, she felt as if her entire body had split open, pain spreading throughout. Struggling to lift her head, she screamed at Tang Ying with fierce intensity, "I don't believe it! Jing Peng wouldn't do this to me!"

Tang Ying looked coldly at Tang Huai, struggling on the floor like a ludicrous clown. Her smile twisted into a heavy sneer, "You're simply not worthy of Jing Peng!"

"Tang Ying." At that moment, a deep and cold voice came from the entrance of the hospital room.

Hearing that voice, Tang Huai's heart clenched sharply, and her body shook even more violently.

She struggled to raise her head, looking toward the door. A tall figure walked in, and she wept in pain, "Jing Peng..."

Jing Peng just glanced at her indifferently. That look carried a hint of disdain, which Tang Huai caught, causing her heart to ache.

Tang Ying looked up, her eyes filled with grievance as she coquettishly said to Jing Peng, "Jing Peng, I still couldn't hold it in, I told sister everything."

Jing Peng fondly stroked Tang Ying's head, his reproachful tone laced with endless tenderness, "You're too impatient. What if the surgery fails this time, or if we need it again next time?"

What?!

Tang Huai's heart lurched in shock as she stared at Jing Peng. He was after her life! He was plotting to murder her!

"A pair of despicable dogs!" Rage consumed Tang Huai, and she cursed out loud. The moment she finished, a sharp pain struck her chest, and her throat turned sweet, spurting out a mouthful of blood.

The wound in her waist hurt badly, her vision gradually darkened, and her consciousness was dissipating. Tang Huai felt she was dying. With great effort, she raised her head, seeking Jing Peng's eyes for help, but all she saw in return were his disdainful and indifferent gaze...

**

Her head throbbed with pain, her will was clear, but she couldn't open her eyes, an unsettling sensation akin to sleep paralysis.

The cry of a baby reached her ears, and Tang Huai was shocked: Was she not dead?

"Crying, crying, you know just to cry, you've damned your father, do you still have the face to cry!"

Upon hearing this voice, Tang Huai was jolted again. Wasn't that the voice of her mother?

But her mother had died before her marriage, how could she hear her voice now?

"Without a man in the house, how are we four women going to survive? Ahhhh..." It was still her mother's crying voice!

Tang Huai abruptly opened her eyes.

Before her lay a simple mud-brick house, the roof covered with tiles, and in several places, cobwebs hung.

Tang Huai pinched her own waist; it hurt badly. It wasn't a dream!

It turned out that she had been reborn! Back to the day she was eighteen, in the 1980s!

In the year she turned eighteen, her little sister was born, and on the third day, their sick father passed away.

She had tripped and fallen on her way back from her father's funeral, hitting her forehead against a rock and falling unconscious, only waking up the next day.

Outside, the cries of her mother and sister were incessant, making Tang Huai's head buzz.

"Liu Xiaoyu, have you prepared the money?!" a fierce and menacing voice echoed.

Tang Huai was startled; wasn't that the voice of her uncle Tang Youming?

Struggling to her feet, Tang Huai walked to the doorway and saw Tang Youming and his wife standing menacingly in the living room.

The living room was narrow, with a small table placed in the center which served as both a dining table and a desk.

Near the window stood a wooden bed, and at the foot of the bed, a bamboo chair, which was piled high with clothes, looking very untidy.

Liu Xiaoyu was sitting at the edge of the bed; by her feet lay a baby girl, while her sixteen-year-old sister Tang Li sat on the ground, her eyes red from crying.

Suddenly, Tang Youming and Yang Hongxing burst in with a ferocious air, startling Liu Xiaoyu so her face shifted color, and she choked out, "Third brother, when you agreed to lend Youxin the money interest-free, years have passed, why do you come now demanding interest?"

"We were fools back then! Anyway, you've had the money in hand for two years; you should pay us interest as if it were a bank time deposit," Yang Hongxing said loudly.

Yang Hongxing had a mean look about her, only ever thinking of how to take advantage of others and never letting anyone take advantage of her.

Five years ago, Tang Youxin borrowed ten thousand yuan from Tang Youming. When they borrowed the money, the brothers were quite harmonious, and in front of the village chief, they wrote a debt acknowledgment.

Two years later, Tang Youxin returned the money to Tang Youming, even giving him an extra twenty yuan, but Tang Youming adamantly refused, only accepting the original sum of ten thousand yuan.

Later, after a few petty disputes, cracks appeared in the brothers' relationship.

During Tang Youxin's illness, Tang Youming would come running every other day for interest, claiming that if the ten thousand yuan had been deposited in a bank for two years, there would have been at least one hundred yuan in interest.

"I truly have no money. This past year, with Youxin being sick, we spent quite a lot, and the funeral cost money too," said Liu Xiaoyu with a weak spirit, always feeling inferior in front of women who had given birth to sons, allowing herself to be dominated by her sisters-in-law and mother-in-law.