Chapter 1: Reborn on a Windy, Snowy Night

"Shen Yongzhi, open the door! Open up! For the sake of a woman, you’re abandoning your own mother! Aren’t you afraid of being struck by lightning, of dying a wretched death?"

The hoarse, desperate screams echoed through the empty courtyard. Shen Guilan, dragging her crippled leg, pounded with all her strength on the cold, heavy wooden door before her.

Beyond this door lay the home she and her late husband had built brick by brick, yet now it shut her out, leaving her stranded between life and death.

Each dull thud of her fist against the door reverberated with a muffled "bang, bang, bang," striking her own heart with every blow, shaking her very insides out of place.

Inside, faint lamplight seeped through the cracks, casting restless shadows of several figures. They seemed deaf to the grief and anguish outside, unmoved by her cries.

Time slipped by, and with it, Shen Guilan’s strength faded, draining away with her body’s failing warmth.

Hunger gnawed at her, twisting and cramping her stomach until her vision swam with darkness.

She could hold on no longer. Her body gave out, and she slid down the door, collapsing onto the ground.

From her clouded eyes streamed hot tears of shame and regret.

Snow had begun to fall again, though she didn’t know when. Flakes settled one by one upon her, soon cloaking her thin clothing in white.

As her consciousness blurred, at last a voice came from inside—a voice sharp as a poisoned needle, stabbing straight into her ear.

"Shen Yongzhi, if you dare open that door for your old hag of a mother today, I’ll take your son and go back to my family tomorrow! Make your choice!"

A shrill female voice rang out—it was her daughter-in-law.

"Oh, my dear granddaughter-in-law, don’t get angry. Yongzhi wouldn’t dare! If he did, I’d be the first to break his legs!" came the voice of her mother-in-law, Zhang, as sycophantic and venomous as ever.

And her son, Shen Yongzhi—the son she’d raised with so much suffering, the son who'd been timid his whole life—cowered to the side, not daring to utter a word, a quail awaiting slaughter.

How ridiculous! Shen Guilan had spent her whole life working herself to the bone for this family, given everything she had, and had even lost her youngest daughter… only to raise such a pathetic coward of a son! If only heaven would give her another chance! She would tear apart the cruel hand of fate herself and make those who wronged and humiliated her pay dearly!

Regret gnawed at her, a venomous snake consuming the last of her strength.

Just as she felt herself slipping entirely into darkness, a heart-wrenching cry seemed to pierce through the heavy door and howling wind, reaching her very soul.

"Mother!"

It was Xiuwei’s voice—her youngest daughter, Xiuwei! The girl who had been sold to Landlord Zhang because Shen Yongzhi had no money for a wife, the girl her mother-in-law had traded away!

Back then, she had acquiesced to selling her daughter. By the time remorse set in and she went looking for her, it was already too late—the deed was done...

"Mother, I’ll take you to the doctor, wake up! Don’t leave me alone!"

Xiuwei hoisted her up, her own legs crippled by the landlord’s beatings, limping unevenly out of the courtyard. As she felt the frail back of her daughter beneath her, Shen Guilan’s chest filled with grief and rage: Xiuwei, it’s your mother who failed you. If there’s a next life…

"Mother!"

Once again, that voice rang out, but this time it was no longer muffled by a door—it was right beside her!

Shen Guilan jolted all over and snapped her eyes open.

Gone were the swirling wind and snow, gone the tightly shut door. Instead, above her was the familiar, musty thatched roof.

Beneath her was a hard plank bed covered with dry straw; though uncomfortable, it still held the warmth of the living.

She sat up abruptly and looked down at her hands.

They were calloused, but still whole—her knuckles were thick, yet not yet twisted and deformed with age.

She touched her leg—the one she’d broken gathering firewood on the hillside. Now it was whole and uninjured!

What… what was happening?