The man's gruff voice didn't intimidate Su Xiaofeng in the slightest. However, the force he applied on her arm really did hurt.
She slowly opened her eyes.
The mottled ceiling, dim room, a window covered in cobwebs, with a layer of oiled paper pasted on it that had yellowed over the years.
By the bedside was a square table with its paint peeling off. On top of it lay a few books, a teacup, and a beautiful Bronze Mirror. Nothing else.
Old Man Su brandished a one-meter-long bamboo whip, his dark face unexpressive. Only his eyes revealed that he was very angry.
"Su Xiaofeng," Old Man Su saw her awaken and sharply cracked the bamboo whip on the square table, which responded with several echoes, "tell me, whose child is in your belly? Is it that rogue from earlier?"
She raised her hand for a glance, noticing it was rougher than her own.
Strange environment, unfamiliar faces, coupled with a foreign body, her brain experienced a brief blankness. The wound on her forehead throbbed slightly, and in that moment, memories that weren't hers flooded into her mind.
She, Su Xiaofeng, a single entrepreneur from the 21st century who wanted her own child without marriage, had taken substandard medicine during sex and had sent herself back to the year 1993.
The original Su Xiaofeng was timid and meek, speaking little, feeling inferior, and after being molested by a rogue which was discovered by her father, she had hit her head on a rock in the ensuing struggle and died.
But that wasn't the most important thing—the original owner of the body was two months pregnant.
Upon learning this, Su Xiaofeng almost wanted to burst out laughing. Haha, perfect, she had gotten a child without sleeping with a man, precisely her ideal from a past life.
What was this if not 'searching high and low to no avail, only to find what you sought effortlessly'?
"Xiaofeng, speak up, is the child in your belly that Liu An's?" said He Ximei, her stepmother, anxiously asking as she saw the strange smile on Su Xiaofeng's face.
Internally, she cursed Su Xiaofeng upside down, calling her clueless for not picking anyone better than a rogue. If you're going to marry a rogue, you might as well marry Pengzi.
Su Xiaofeng put away the smile, her hands instinctively resting on her belly, just as she was about to speak, a commotion erupted outside.
"Brother-in-law, Liu An has come with his dad, holding two jin of pork and two jin of pastries, suggesting a marriage proposal," He Ximei's brother burst in announcing loudly.
"He still dares to come." Old Man Su glanced at the bed, "Dead girl, I will deal with you later."
He then left.
Old Man Su's nickname didn't come from any disability—in fact, he was robust and healthy. It was said that as a child, he liked to imitate the walk of the elderly, which earned him the nickname from the villagers.
News that Liu An and his father were at Old Man Su's house for a marriage proposal gathered the villagers once again, crowding around tightly in layers.
Liu An was pleased with such a turn of events. The more people who knew about the seed he had planted in Su Xiaofeng, the better. That way, she would have no choice but to marry him.
The house of Old Man Su was the oldest in the village, everyone else lived in whitewashed brick houses, only the Su's mud-walled dwelling remained, with a tattered roof, akin to a newly built cattle shed compared to others.
Liu DaTou, holding two jin of pork and two jin of pastries, upon seeing Old Man Su come out, raised his drake-like voice, "My in-law, I've heard that Xiaofeng's pregnant, and the child is Liu An's, so the boy promptly sent me over to propose, as a sign of sincerity."
"Right, Uncle Su. I was rash and thoughtless earlier. I'm not irresponsible, Xiaofeng is carrying my child, I'll take responsibility, just give your blessing and I'll have Xiaofeng enter our door immediately," Liu An, with a sly and unsavory appearance, could be summed up in one phrase: weaselly looking.
"Pish," He Ximei spat at Liu An, "Liu An, you shameless thing, don't you know what you're like, trying to be a toad wishing to eat swan meat?"
What sort of person was Liu An? Nothing but a good-for-nothing loafing lout, neglecting his duties, none of the decent families' daughters would agree to marry him.
"Auntie, I don't like what you're saying," Liu An chuckled, "Do you know why Xiaofeng was with me? Because she said you wanted to marry her off to an idiot. She said that she'd rather be with me than spend her life with an idiot."
Liu An finished and burst into loud laughter, "Folks, Xiaofeng's thoughts aren't wrong. An idiot can't feed a family, and might even be inhumane. Marrying me is certainly better than marrying an idiot."
"He Ximei, did you hear that? Xiaofeng would rather be with Liu An than with an idiot. Tsk tsk, only you could drive a stepdaughter to such extremes," villager Hu Xiulan chimed in.
"Exactly, I heard she wanted to trade Xiaofeng for a marriage. If not for that desperation, why would Xiaofeng fall for someone like Liu An and even get pregnant?" villager Zhang Jiuying agreed.
"When all is said and done, you are the one who ruined Xiaofeng. Without you, how could she have fallen to her current situation? They say, a stepmother is just a stepmother, and with a stepmother comes a stepfather," Hu Xiulan spoke up again.
He Ximei had a dimwitted son, whose IQ didn't even match that of a nine-year-old child, tall but considered useless by the villagers, his life set to stay that way. Given Old Man Su's poor circumstances and the son's low intelligence, no girl would wish to marry an idiot.
Even if they were He Ximei, they would set their sights on Su Xiaofeng.
Hearing Hu Xiulan's words, He Ximei, who naturally had eyes as big as a bull's, glared even wider in anger, "Hu Xiulan, you're spouting nonsense, when have I ever forced her?"
She had her own desires, but she had never forced Xiaofeng.