Chen Xiaoqian's head was pounding, the harsh sounds from the low-quality loudspeakers looped and blared incessantly in her ears.
"Three items for ten yuan, it's a good deal!"
The pungent smell of mixed seasonings filled her nostrils, mixed in with the particular chaos and commotion of the Farmers' Market.
Xiaoqian frowned, ever since she had succeeded in her business after earning her Ph.D., she had left poverty behind and never set foot in a wet market again. She had a full-time nanny serving her, and only shopped in upscale supermarkets.
She opened her eyes to find herself squatting in front of a stall, an assortment of inferior goods were haphazardly displayed, and advertisements blared out incessantly from the speakers.
Hadn't she already died?
A handsome and extraordinary man appeared in her mind, and at the image of him crying while holding her dead body, her heart ached a bit.
She had killed all her enemies, ingested deadly poison, and ended her life as a female boss villain, leaving this shitty world to join her dead daughter.
She had thought she would leave alone, but to her surprise, Yu Minglang shed manly tears for her right before her death.
Xiao Qian, I've searched for you for so many years, why was I still too late?
The warmth of his tears still seemed to linger on her face, his sorrowful voice echoing in her ears.
It seemed there really was someone willing to shed tears for her, a woman who had done countless terrible deeds. And that person was an exceptionally outstanding man.
Now she squatted at a stall in an old Farmers' Market where all were dressed in very outdated fashion. She even noticed a Millennium calendar stuck to the door which had been faded by the sun.
Was this a pre-death flashback?
Lowering her head to look at her clothes, she was wearing a long, grass-green dress that extended below her knees, the style was very outdated.
It was bought by her thrifty mother for her 18th birthday, there was a fingernail-sized mend underneath the belt, she was nearly scolded to death by her mother for carelessly ripping it.
The age of 18 was a watershed for Chen Xiaoqian's life, although she later obtained a doctorate in psychology and became the most successful person in the industry.
But if given the choice, she would rather return to her impoverished life before 18 because if she hadn't gotten engaged to that scumbag ex-husband at the age of 18, she wouldn't have lost so many wonderful things.
For instance, her most beloved daughter, and kindness.
If she had not revenged and killed her daughter's scumbag ex-husband Ni Jianren, she would not have ended her own life and met Yu Minglang, who was willing to shed tears for her, at the end of her life.
Her brilliant life ended with the death of her daughter, she still owed Yu Minglang the truth.
Suddenly, she felt something wet on her face. Was she back to her last moment when Yu Minglang's tears fell on her face?
"Yu Minglang, I am dying. Long story short, I had a daughter for you. That scumbag Ni Jianren killed her. After killing him, I suicided. You must feed his ashes to dogs and get some monks to make sure he never reincarnates. Then put my ashes with our daughter's!"
"What the hell are you blabbering about, nonsense!"
Chen Xiaoqian opened her eyes, but she didn't see that handsome and extraordinary man, only a woman in a plaid shirt.
The wetness on her face... seemed to be her spit?
"Are you... my mom?" Xiaoqian hesitated.
Her mother's image was still that of her thin, gray-haired, frail figure at the moment of her death due to breast cancer.
So when the plump, white figure of her mother appeared, Xiaoqian felt slightly uneasy.
Jia Xiufang saw her daughter dithering over a basin, and dared to talk to her like that. Angry, she kicked Xiaoqian with the crook of her leg.
"Are you nuts? You don't even recognize your own mother?!"
The familiar roar, Xiaoqian felt very uneasy.From the moment she made it big, her mother, who always favored her brother and would never treat her kindly, began to tiptoe around her. This caused Xiao Qian to sarcastically realize that in this world, truly nothing cannot be bought with money.
Family, marriage, friendship, what can't be bought with money?
For a long time, no one has had an emotion towards her other than flattery. Whether it's the tears Yu Minglang shed for her or the rant that her mother is throwing at this moment, they made Chen Xiaoqian, a villainess standing at the top of the food chain, especially nostalgic.
"You dawdling girl, still can't make a decision! With that attitude, you're aiming to marry? Dream on!" Jia Xiufang saw her daughter in a stupor and immediately let the swear words fly.
"Indeed, what I married was not human."
The man she married was disgusting, and utterly disrupted her life after turning 18.
In retrospect, before she was 18, she was a girl with proper values. If it weren't for those scumbags constantly pressuring her, how could she have turned into a villainess who climbed to the top, stepping on everyone else?
Jia Xiufang saw her daughter staring at her and got so angry that she grabbed a plastic basin from the side and threw it straight at Xiao Qian's head.
"You stupid girl, always so clueless! You were in charge of buying wedding items and you bought a basin for ten yuan each? With this level of naivety, you'll be bullied to death by your future in-laws!"
Jia Xiufang had a lot of complaints about her daughter's impending marriage. She didn't want her daughter to get married so young, but her husband was already hooked by the dowry offered from the groom's side, and her mindless daughter said yes. Jia Xiufang was extremely unhappy about this.
The memory of being scolded and beaten by her mother because she bought the wrong basin for her wedding was deeply ingrained in her mind.
She was young at the time and didn't understand why her mother seemed to be always on the verge of madness, constantly picking fights and scolding her whenever an opportunity arose. But after having her own daughter, Chen Xiaoqian suddenly understood her mother's feelings at that time: she was frustrated at her lack of fight.
She remembered when her mother hit her with a basin. She dodged and they both ran around the market. The vendor who sold the basin followed closely behind. In the end, her mom slipped on a banana peel and fell. She cried out loudly, scolding Xiaoqian for being so foolish, for not knowing to buy the expensive basin, for deciding to get married so early. You only get married once in your life, why couldn't she buy a good basin? How could she be raised to be this naive? What would she do if she was bullied after getting married? That man was so much cleverer than her!
At the time, she found her mother extremely annoying, her 'countryside shrew' temperament was evident. But as she thought back now, it was probably the way that her uneducated and rural-born mother expressed her dissatisfaction with her daughter's early marriage.
Later on, the brutal reality of life forced Xiao Qian to toughen up. She practically destroyed everyone who crossed her. But the time she missed the most, were those days when she was scolded for being a silly girl.
The plastic basin hit Chen Xiaoqian and it hurt unusually, the pain so palpable that it didn't feel like a dream. Jia Xiufang hit her twice, and was puzzled when her daughter didn't run away from the pain as usual. She waved her hand in front of Xiao Qian's face.
"Qian'er, what's wrong?" Could she have hit her too harshly? But she hadn't exerted much force.
"Mom, if I hit you, would it hurt?" Xiao Qian pinched her mother's hand.
Jia Xiufang was taken aback, then suddenly exploded. She picked up the basin again and began furiously hitting Chen Xiaoqian.
"You ungrateful girl, how dare you hit your mother, are you revolting!?"
It hurt, truly hurt! Xiao Qian's heart suddenly started to beat faster. This was definitely not a hallucination. Could it be, she had really returned to when she was 18?
Jia Xiufang was now enraged from being pinched by her daughter and began to hit her even harder with the basin. Xiao Qian stood up and ran for her life, with her mother chasing behind her with the basin. Seeing the drama, the vendor who sold the basin joined in the chase and started shouting.
"Eldest Sister-in-law, you're fighting over a basin that costs ten yuan for three. That's too much!"
The summer breeze blew on her face, feeling so real. She could feel the vigour of her younger body, a stark contrast to the constant exhaustion at 38, dependent on sleeping pills to sleep. Chen Xiaoqian was running in the wind, the beauty
of this rebirth was too real.
The cussing and hitting from Jia Xiufang faded in the background, while the dirty roadside sceneries passed quickly. Xiao Qian found the messy and poor market that she once despised charming. Even the snotty old beggar on the roadside seemed rather bright and merry.
She had actually been reborn!
This blessed fate, usually reserved for good women, had unexpectedly fallen on her, the villain. Suddenly, Chen Xiaoqian's foot slipped. She had slipped on a banana peel!
She fell down gracelessly, landing smack on her butt. The banana peel that her mom was supposed to slip on was stepped on by her instead. The pain was so real.
The pain confirmed it for her, everything was real, not a hallucination, not the rapid sequence of memories before death.
Suddenly, Xiaoqian's gaze fell on a corner of the market, an uncontrollable impulse surged within her.
The scene before her eyes deeply affected her. At this moment, Xiaoqian realized that though she had been reborn,
Her Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder had also followed her back.