"Don't be afraid!"
The man gently picked her up, his coarse voice as if it had been sandpapered.
She had been tortured in the cellar for three years, her limbs broken, her tongue forcefully clipped off by them…
He wasn't here to torment her?
Lin Anning was startled. Could it be that he was here to save her?
The next moment, a voice that made her tremble passed through the air.
"Mom, not good, he found someone."
"A cripple with a broken leg, a sickling half dead, what's there to fear?"
After a tussle, there were two dull thuds as the person holding her fell heavily to the ground.
Her palm felt a sticky, warm liquid, and the fingertips' temperature gradually turned cold.
"Mom, I, I've killed someone…"
"Don't be afraid. If we're doing it, we're going all the way, fill up the cellar, and no one will know."
The damp, cold earth poured over her head, bit by bit, burying all sound.
The man mustered his last bit of strength to get her to the entrance of the cellar, tremblingly took her hand, and wrote a sentence in her palm.
"An'an, be safe and sound!"
As the final stroke was completed, his hand went limp and released its grip.
Useless, she wouldn't survive.
The last sliver of light at the cellar entrance was sealed off, as someone's television sound leaked through.
"Dear viewers and friends, the first Spring Festival Gala is now officially starting..."
So today was New Year's eve!
Accompanied by distant laughter and joyful voices, Lin Anning took her last breath, dying with tears in her eyes.
She was the malicious supporting character in a novel about a true and false heiress; she was also the fake heiress who had been switched at birth.
Five years ago, the real heiress Su Jiaojiao was found and returned. She was frail and sickly and couldn't stand the robust and cheerful Su Jiaojiao.
So, she used every means possible to make life difficult for Su Jiaojiao, persecuting her.
But unexpectedly, Su Jiaojiao never complained, instead tried even harder to please her evil sister.
It wasn't long before everyone discovered her misdeeds and took turns supporting Su Jiaojiao.
Furious and desperate, she decided to go all out and directly kill Su Jiaojiao, but ended up nearly losing her own life.
The marriage that had been arranged with the Huo Family was also given to Su Jiaojiao because of their disappointment with her and their guilt towards Su Jiaojiao.
Even after being harmed so many times, Su Jiaojiao still couldn't bear to send her to the police station, pleaded for her, and after discussing with Lin's parents, sent her back to the countryside to recuperate.
They hoped she would settle down, but who knew she would sneak back to the Lin Family, intending to die together with Su Jiaojiao!
This time, no one could persuade her; the Lin Family directly locked her in the cellar, and she, already a sickling, struggled for three years before dying.
But all of this was an illusion!
Until her death, Lin Anning could not come to terms with it.
Why had those who promised to stand by her, whom she had helped, whom she had saved, turned against her because of a few glances from Su Jiaojiao?
Was it just because she was the evil supporting character in the book? She couldn't accept it...
…
Lin Anning felt somewhat hazy, smelling the gardenia from outside the window, and tilted her head in confusion.
She saw a calendar with a green background and pink peonies on the wall, with the year 1977 written on it.
1977?
Had she been reborn? Back to the year she was 19?
Before she could think further, she heard cursing and muttering coming from downstairs.
"Damn it, it's dark as hell, where's the light?"
Lin Anning suddenly sat up, covering her mouth to suppress the cough that threatened to erupt.
It was a rebirth!
Tonight was the beginning of the nightmare of her previous life.
The Lin parents took the recently returned Su Jiaojiao to a factory celebration, telling her to rest at home.
Before leaving, the considerate Su Jiaojiao warmed her a cup of milk, but after drinking it, she passed out.
When she awoke, she found a man undressing her, struggled to knock him out, and crawled downstairs, only to find the front door locked tight.
To suppress the drug's effects, she had no choice but to immerse herself in a bathtub to stay conscious.
In a dazed state, the Lin parents burst in with a crowd of people, and just as she opened her mouth to speak, she was cut off and accused of indecent conduct with men.
At that moment, the man came downstairs and said in front of everyone that she had seduced him willingly.
Angered and panicked, she had soaked in the cold water too long and fainted.
When she awoke, the Huo Family had found out.
Even as she knelt and swore a poisonous oath, nobody believed there was something wrong with that glass of milk; instead, they blamed her for her lack of decorum, shifting the blame onto Su Jiaojiao.
Following the incident, the Huo Family immediately agreed to a marriage swap.
After Su Jiaojiao married into the Huo Family, she enjoyed success both in love and in her career, later giving the family a son and a daughter, and was adored to the skies.
In the end, she was surrounded by her children and grandchildren and lived to the age of eighty.
But her, she bore a lifetime of infamy, locked in a cold cellar by her so-called parents, living out her life in gasps and wheezes, her body even gnawed on by rats and cockroaches...
Now that she had been given a second chance at life, she would never make the same mistakes again.
She intended to find her real family, as well as the person who saved her that night only to die a terrible death, and repay him properly.
The moment the man pushed open the door, he was knocked out cold by Lin Anning, who then quickly climbed out of the window to confirm he wouldn't die.
She even had to thank Su Jiaojiao; when she came back, Lin Anning's parents had planned to make her give up her room on the second floor.
But Su Jiaojiao, with a "sister's love," took the initiative to move into the attic on the third floor.
Because of this, Lin Anning's parents felt pity for a good while, complaining to everyone about how heartless their elder daughter was, not giving an inch to her younger sister.
In fact, the room she lived in was just a small chamber built against the window, just above the kitchen, and whenever someone cooked, the room was filled with the smell of cooking fumes.
Cold in winter and hot in summer; when it rained heavily outside, it drizzled inside.
On the other hand, the attic, which had been finely decorated for Su Jiaojiao, was full of sunlight, warm in winter and cool in summer, very comfortable.
At the moment, Lin Anning's head was spinning, her body burning up as if on fire, she clumsily climbed over the roof to an unoccupied small building opposite.
According to the timeline from her previous life, Lin Anning's parents were about to bring people home to catch her in the act.
Unable to run, she decided to hide first.
Lin Anning struggled up to the attic with her weak body and was surprised by its cleanliness and simple furnishings.
There was a bed by the window and a desk against the wall.
Lin Anning wasn't sure if it was the effect of the medicine, but it seemed like she was hallucinating.
She saw a man lying in the bed.
His face was hidden in the shadows, indistinct.
Moonlight spilled over the man's upper body, creating a play of light and shadow on his well-defined muscles.
Further down, there were loose trousers hanging around his hips.
Those legs, longer than her own life!
Unable to hold on, Lin Anning staggered forward, her legs gave out, and she fell onto the man.
Her face pressed against his washboard abs, she sighed contentedly.
Ah, so comfortable.
The coolness drove away the heat on her body, yet she yearned for more.
Wasn't she the wicked side character? Having lived twice, what was wrong with finding a man to relieve the effects of the drug?
What. Was. Wrong!
"You got a partner? Get up, the state has come to assign you one!"
"Hmm?"
From above came the man's deep, husky voice; Lin Anning lifted her head impatiently to face his astonished expression.
Sharp military haircut, fierce facial features, more handsome than any male actor in the magazines.
But as she gazed upon his face, she furrowed her brow.
"You look like that dog I hate."
"Never mind, nothing to choose from, I'll make do…"
She turned over, straddling the man, her soft fingertips unable to remove the bothersome clothing.
Frustrated, she bent down to bite with her mouth, wearing only a loose-fitting long-sleeved cotton shirt for sleeping.
Hanging loosely on her body, bending over instantly exposed a large expanse of fair skin on her chest, lustrous and clearly defined.
Her gaze turned sultry, the very image of a bewitching spirit,
Ensnaring souls and lifethreatening.
At the crucial moment, the man held onto his pants, clenching his teeth.
"You hate me? And what is this you're doing?"
Because she felt so uncomfortable, Lin Anning's voice was choked, and she couldn't see the man's face clearly.
"Let me touch! I'll take responsibility for you!"
"Fine. Touch!"
After a moment of silence, the man chuckled low with gritted back teeth, grabbed her by the nape of her neck, and brought her into his arms for a fierce kiss.
The attic was engulfed in darkness, as Lin Anning obediently lay on top of him…