Chapter 1: Forced to Change the Marriage Partner???

1976, the Yunfang Family Compound!

"Hey, listen to that noise... That niece of the Hao family is truly shameless, stealing a man at such a young age!"

"Oh my, that sound, it's truly mortifying!"

"That's Xia Zhi's room, who else could it be? How shameless! She looks so quiet and gentle on a daily basis, who would have thought she'd be so wanton in private!"

Inside the courtyard enclosed by a wattle fence, several women holding rice bowls, wearing headscarves and thick clothing, sat on the steps, their gazes all fixed on the wooden house directly ahead.

They listened to the waves of ambiguous sounds coming from inside.

The several aunts listened until their faces turned red. This Xia Zhi was truly too bold; this was an entire compound, with neighbors all around, it was hard not to hear those cries.

Xia Zhi wore a floral print top and blue trousers with patches; her dark, smiling face revealed delicate and playful features.

She had just stepped into the compound wearing a pair of rubber shoes when she saw the neighbors surrounding her room, pointing and whispering.

What was happening...

Holding the rice she had just gone to exchange, she asked Auntie Li, who was watching intently nearby, "What's wrong?"

Auntie Li didn't even look up, her eyes glued to the door, as she hurriedly said, "Hmph, what else could it be? In broad daylight, Xia Zhi is having an affair inside! Truly knows no shame!"

Truly worthy of being a girl with no mother and no father to raise her, so shameless!

Xia Zhi froze, then her lips twitched slightly. "The person inside is Xia Zhi, then who am I?"

The eavesdroppers nearby were startled by the familiar voice behind them.

They hurriedly turned around to look in shock at the Xia Zhi who had appeared behind them, then looked toward the door, the sounds still lingering in their ears.

"Zhi-zi? You're outside, then the person inside is..."

Hearing the loud, ambiguous cries from inside, Xia Zhi's expression instantly turned cold.

She looked at the onlookers and curled her lips into a cold sneer. No wonder Hao Liping had been acting evasively earlier, making her go out to buy things.

So they were waiting here to frame her. If she hadn't come back early, with the doors and windows closed, the neighbors would surely have insisted the person inside was her.

But this didn't match the contents of the book. There was no such segment in the book; had something gone wrong somewhere?

She said with a smile, "I don't know, we'll know once we take a look!"

Then, with a swift movement, she kicked hard. The wooden door immediately crashed to the ground, exposing the two people inside in all their nakedness to the crowd.

After Xia Zhi saw the situation clearly, a cold sneer curled at the corner of her mouth. If rice and flour weren't so expensive, she would have smashed them to death long ago!

Hao Liping hadn't expected Xia Zhi to be so bold as to kick the door open directly, and she immediately screamed in terror.

She hurriedly grabbed a nearby quilt to cover herself and roared, "Xia Zhi, are you crazy!"

She was unconsciously panicking; how had she come back so early?

Xia Zhi crossed her arms, watching her cousin and the man her original self had been engaged to since childhood with a cold sneer.

She covered her mouth and cried out in disbelief.

"Brother Gu, didn't you say you wanted to focus on your studies to prepare for the college entrance exams? And cousin, why are you in my house? And you two, this..."

Xia Zhi couldn't finish her sentence; she looked as if she had suffered a devastating blow, clutching her chest in agony.

Hearing her cry, the stunned aunts nearby snapped out of it, pointing at them and scolding with flushed faces.

"This, this, this... scandalous! It's simply scandalous!"

"Shameless, too shameless!"

The aunts outside pointed one after another at the two inside. How could there be such shameless people in broad daylight? It was one thing to have an affair, but how, how could they do it in someone else's room?

Xia Zhi watched the two people scrambling away in panic, a smile playing on her lips.

Three days ago, as a doctor, she had transmigrated into a book.

She had transmigrated into a novel about a female lead in the 1970s who had no parents, and the male lead was none other than the Gu Yunshen standing before her.

However, this plot was different from what she had read in the book. How did these two get together?

Wasn't Hao Liping supposed to be with the military officer, Lu Beiting?

Seeing how tightly the two were clinging to each other, they had probably been fooling around behind the original host's back for a long time.

Xia Zhi felt a wave of nausea. If she had a scalpel in her hand right now, she would have stabbed them long ago.

The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt. Xia Zhi looked around, grabbed a nearby chair, and hurled it at the two.

As she struck them, she cursed, "Hao Liping, to think you are my cousin! Everyone in the compound knows that he and I are engaged. How could you sleep with him!"

Hao Liping and Gu Yunshen hurriedly pulled up their trousers to hide, but they still took several solid hits from the chairs, causing them to grimace in pain.

"Xia Zhi, have you gone mad! You dare hit me!" Gu Yunshen looked at the woman who had always been obedient to him, shocked that she actually dared to lay a hand on him.

Gu Yunshen was handsome, possessing a scholarly air all over. He usually liked to wear white tops and black trousers, giving off a feeling of elegance and grace.

As for Hao Liping, she had been well-raised by the Hao family; her skin was somewhat fair, and she had the delicate beauty of a small-town girl, making people want to protect her.

Xia Zhi looked at the two, her face covered in tears as if she were weeping, while her heart sneered. It would be so much more satisfying if she actually beat them to death!

At this thought, her movements became even more ruthless.

"Ouch, ouch! Zhi-zi, stop hitting them, stop! Someone's going to die!"

The onlookers nearby snapped out of it and rushed forward to break up the fight; if someone actually died, it would be a huge scandal.

Seeing the aunts coming to mediate, Xia Zhi appropriately pulled back, dropped the chair, and threw herself into Li Chunhua's arms, wailing.

"Auntie, I've waited for Gu Yunshen for three years. I'm twenty-one now, what am I supposed to do with my life?"

The aunts nearby hurriedly comforted her, not forgetting to denounce Gu Yunshen and Hao Liping.

Xia Zhi smiled inwardly, having achieved her goal; truly, the child who cries gets the candy.

Before long, the two disgraced individuals were called together, and the wooden table in the middle of the main hall was moved aside.

Gu Yunshen and Hao Liping, both bearing injuries, knelt in the middle of the earthen floor.

Xia Zhi sat to the side, sobbing and wiping her tears, while secretly observing the people in the large room.

The head of the Hao family, Hao Dazhuang, Hao Liping's father; the mother, Chen Xiuping; and several neighbors who were enjoying the spectacle.

"Hao Liping, have you lost your mind?"

Chen Xiuping, who had rushed over after hearing the news from the fields, could not even afford to feel heartache when she saw her daughter's disheveled clothes on the ground.

She stepped forward and gave her a furious grab. In just a few days, she was supposed to marry Battalion Commander Lu; what kind of nonsense was she doing!

Besides, Battalion Commander Lu was a man of great talent and military merit. Wasn't she the one who had been clamoring and making a fuss about wanting to marry him?

Why was she going back on her word now?

(End of Chapter)