In the winter of 1970, the north wind howled without pause. It hit people’s faces like knife blades, cold clear into the bones.

The little village had been quiet one second, then a sharp, panicked cry tore straight through it.

"Something’s happened! Someone fell in the water!"

"Quick, go have a look!"

"In weather like this, how’d anybody end up in the river?"

Nobody could make sense of it right away, but a life was at stake, so everyone dropped what they were doing and ran toward the riverbank.

It was the dead of winter, the wind over the water cut like ice, and not one soul had expected anyone to fall in.

By the time the crowd reached the bank, before they could even ask what had happened, they saw a figure in the middle of the pond, bobbing up and down in the water, looking ready to sink for good at any second.

Team leader Gordon Ashford heard the commotion and hurried over too. The moment he arrived, he shouted for anyone in the village who could swim to get in and save the person.

The words had barely landed when the whole bank went silent.

Most of the village men and young fellows had grown up around the water and were decent swimmers, but this was the bitter end of winter, the water so cold it could flay the skin off you. Nobody dared jump in lightly.

Gordon Ashford looked at them shrinking back and felt both angry and anxious. Usually, when he told them not to go in the river, he couldn’t stop them no matter what he said. Now that something had really happened, every last one of them had gone mute.

Just then, a woman on the bank pointed at the figure rising and sinking in the water, her voice shaking. "I saw clearly. That’s Old Second Ji’s girl, Amber Holt!"

"Looks like... looks like it really is..."

"It’s her! It’s Amber Holt! Hurry up and save her, we can’t just stand here and watch her drown!"

"Then who’s going in?"

One man had only just started to move when the woman beside him yanked him back hard. "My man’s not going into that water. If any of you want to save her, you go."

Everybody in the village knew what kind of girl Amber Holt was. A perfectly good young woman, yet her behavior was all wrong. Of all things, she insisted on climbing into a man’s bed, and not just any man’s bed either, but Nathan Mercer’s, the golden boy of the whole village.

Nathan Mercer was the only high school graduate in the village. He’d already joined the army and had a bright future ahead of him. He was the hope of the whole place. Plenty of families had their eyes on that match, hoping to tie themselves to the Mercer family and win a better road for their own children and younger kin. And yet that lazy, gluttonous Amber Holt had somehow latched onto him.

Why, she herself had even been thinking about matching her own younger sister with Nathan Mercer.

Seeing nobody move, Gordon Ashford’s face darkened further. He barked again, "Are you people saving her or not?"

But the villagers still shook their heads one after another. "Not me! I’m not going!"

Deep down, most of them felt that if not for Amber Holt, their own sister or daughter might already have married Nathan Mercer. One way or another, they all carried a bit of resentment toward her.

Gordon Ashford had never expected the people under his watch to be the sort who’d stand by and let someone die. Inwardly, he was already thinking he’d have to crack down hard on political and moral education in the village from now on. He swept his eyes over the crowd, saw all of them dodging and avoiding his gaze, and his temper shot up. Still, he understood one thing clearly: even if he forced them into the water, if they dragged their feet and didn’t truly try, the Holt girl still wouldn’t make it.

At that moment, Amber Holt was shivering violently in the water. Wasn’t she supposed to be at work in the office? How had she ended up in a river? She remembered her boss saying they had to strictly carry out the 996 schedule from now on, really throw themselves into the grind, and then he’d hand out bonuses. For the sake of that bonus, she’d practically treated his words like an imperial decree, getting up earlier than the chickens and sleeping later than a dog...

What was going on...

All of a sudden, another mouthful of water rushed into her mouth. Only then did she fully realize she’d fallen into the water. "Help! Help! Somebody save me!"

The people on shore all froze. Staring at the water, they thought, that girl actually called for help?

Splash.

While everyone was distracted, a figure jumped into the water and swam toward Amber Holt.

"Who was that?"

"Who else could it be? Old Second Ji, obviously. He knows his daughter’s reputation is rotten, so he had no choice but to jump in himself."

"Hey! You people—" Gordon Ashford gestured furiously at them, so angry he couldn’t even get a full sentence out.

The woman who’d been gossiping before curled her lip, tugged her husband, and squeezed herself back into the crowd. Truth be told, right then she was hoping with all her heart that Amber Holt had already stopped breathing.

"Amber, Amber, Daddy’s coming. Daddy’s coming right now." Amber Holt was choking on water again and again, her whole body nearly numb, when a voice reached her ear, thick with tears. At that, she was finally able to shut her eyes in peace.

Edmund Holt grabbed Amber Holt and struggled toward the shore. But it was the harshest stretch of winter, and both of them were wrapped in thick cotton-padded jackets, heavy as stones once soaked, making them terribly hard to drag.

"Why are you all still standing there? Get down and help!" Gordon Ashford shouted, so anxious that he took the lead and jumped in himself.

When the other young men saw that, they finally started going into the water too, helping Edmund Holt haul Amber Holt toward the bank.

"Amber, wake up. Wake up now." Edmund Holt kept calling her name while patting her cheek lightly.

"Could it be she’s really gone?"

Someone in the crowd muttered that under their breath, and Gordon Ashford shot them a hard glare at once.

"Amber, wake up, please wake up. If anything happens to you, how’s your dad supposed to keep living?"

"Edmund Holt, instead of panicking here, hurry up and get Amber onto your back. Go find your eldest son and get her to town. Maybe there’s still time."

Gordon Ashford truly couldn’t bear to watch Edmund Holt like this any longer.

It was like Edmund Holt had suddenly snapped awake. He hurriedly scooped Amber Holt up and tried to run, but her padded jacket was soaked through, heavy with water. The old man lost his grip in one instant, and instead Amber Holt pitched downward headfirst. "Amber—"

"She spit water! She spit water out!"

"Cough, cough, cough, cough-cough."

Amber Holt couldn’t understand how on earth she had fallen into the water. Had she failed to finish her work, and her boss thrown her in as punishment?

"Wuwuwu..."

That black-hearted boss had no conscience at all. Where else was he going to find someone who worked harder than she did? What a waste of all the effort she’d given.

Hearing Amber Holt cry, the people watching all reacted differently. Some were stirred up, some sighed, but they all understood one thing: the girl had a big life. Against all odds, she hadn’t died.

"Let’s go, let’s go home. What’s left to look at?"

The woman from before was furious. She’d stood in the freezing wind waiting all this time, wasn’t it because she’d been hoping Amber Holt would come to grief? Now that the girl was still alive, what was the point of staying? With that, she dragged her man, who’d only come to gawk, down from the riverbank.

"Oh my, Xiulan, Xiulan, have you seen my eldest daughter-in-law?"

Below the riverbank, Nathan Mercer’s mother, a green headscarf wrapped around her head, spotted Mabel Drummond and her husband coming down and hurried over to ask.

Mabel Drummond’s eyes shifted. "Auntie, it’s not really my place as a junior to say much, but if you truly can’t stand Amber Holt, you could’ve just turned her out. Why force the girl to jump into the river?"

"Jump into the river?" Nathan Mercer’s mother went deathly pale. She did look down on that girl for clinging to her son by dirty means, but she had never told anyone to make her jump in the river. This little jinx did nothing but bring trouble to their family. If this matter made its way to the army, what would happen to Nathan’s future?

The more she thought about it, the tighter her chest grew. She gathered her steps and ran up the riverbank as fast as she could.

"Amber, Amber..."

Amber Holt felt miserable. She wanted to find that black-hearted boss and demand an explanation. Why had he hurt her? She was going to call the police!

But the moment she opened her eyes, what she saw made her jump. Who were these people? And what were they wearing? Every one of them had dark, weather-beaten faces. Could it be...

She didn’t dare think any further. Her eyes rolled back and she was just about to faint again.

At that moment, Gordon Ashford moved fast and pinched the spot under her nose. She couldn’t pass out even if she wanted to.

"Who are you people? Who am I? Where am I?"