Changle was awoken by hunger; it felt as if a fire was burning in her stomach, making it wail in despair. The hunger was intense enough to make her dizzy even without opening her eyes!
"Oh heavens!" a sharp female voice rose. "What time do you think it is? You have to prepare and get to the bridge! Once you run out of breath, these five taels of silver will be gone! Do you folks in the fourth house not want to live? Are you waiting for her father to be drafted as an able-bodied man? That will surely cost you all your lives!"
In the aftermath, wails of grief rang out. "My poor daughter! It's not that your mother wants to drive you to death, it's that our entire family is relying on you! Oh, woe is me..."
Changle felt herself being pulled and prodded, clothes being put on her. She was too weak to move and could only force her eyes open to see a wax-yellow face of a woman, clad in rough cloth, struggling to put her into a course, bright red wedding attire.
Recognizing the woman in front of her as her mother, Fourth Aunt Zhao, Changle was momentarily stunned. The woman should be technically the mother of this ancient body's original owner, Zhao Cuihua!
Though she was now in the ancient times, she wasn't in the timeline she remembered, it was an entirely chaotic era.
The world was unstable, various nefarious forces sprouted and grew, even daring to challenge the monarch's authority, causing wars to break out everywhere. The standard of living for the common people was low, suffering was rampant compounded by years of calamities and disasters, with nine out of ten households unable to make ends meet!
Luckily, they were located in a remote area, sheltered by continuous mountains. While resources were not abundant, they were at least unlikely to starve.
However, in this society where men were superior, women's status was very low, and lowly families who didn't have men were doomed to death!
The able-bodied men the matchmaker just mentioned were to be drafted by the local tyrant to fight, not knowing who they serve, but most likely they wouldn't return alive!
Fourth Aunt Zhao, though she loved her daughter, had to push her on this path of no return in the face of such cruel reality.
It was known as the path of no return because the man Changle was set to marry, Xiang Dalang, was an unusual fellow!
The Xiang family had sought refuge in Zhao Village five or six years ago. The large family had to spend a fair sum of silver to settle down in the village. While they bought a plot of land for their household of around ten heads, they were still poor as church mice. Xiang Dalang's mother, Old Lady Pi, was a well-known shrew in the entire locality, going so far as to beat her mother-in-law when she lost her temper.
Xiang Dalang was the eldest son but he was a simpleton! His mother disliked him for his gluttony and squandering food, and so, he was driven into the mountains not long after settling down in Zhao Village.
The older folks always marveled at how tough Xiang Dalang was for surviving alone in the mountains for five or six years. Now being of marriageable age, the simpleton managed to save a few taels of silver from hunting, and hired a matchmaker to find a wife for him!
Unfortunately, the old matchmaker proclaimed it as the third match that ended tragically: the bride didn't even enter the groom’s house before she died! Thus, this simple-minded fellow with a tough life gained another terrible reputation, that of being a wife-jinx!
At present, even Zhao Cuihua, who is about to be his fourth wife, is not looking to have a good ending. She hasn't even ascended the bridal sedan chair yet, but it seems like she's already on her deathbed…
Changle, hearing her mother's sobbing and her father's sighs, as well as the incessant gossiping of her neighbors and relatives, felt extremely indignant inside!
Although she had no impression of this simple-minded man, nor did she feel the need to defend such an idiot, she angrily wondered why she was deemed to be "cursed to death".
It was clearly that girl named Zhao Cuihua, her predecessor, who had involved herself in a clandestine affair and was all-too-eager to walk towards her own demise…