Chapter 1: I Am Your Husband

“A-Ci, your sister has been pampered since she was a child; she can’t carry anything heavy or do any hard labor. Sending her to the Northwest with the army would be the death of her.”

Listening to the weeping beside her, Wen Ci slowly opened her eyes. Her brows were tightly furrowed as she looked at the middle-aged woman dressed in bright, glamorous clothing before her. Standing beside the woman was a tall man.

The two bore a striking resemblance.

One could tell at a glance that they were mother and son.

“I heard that the Huo family boy is an officer in the Northwest with a decent salary. You definitely won’t lose out by marrying him; at the very least, it’s better than staying in the countryside.”

As Wen Ci listened to the man’s “earnest” persuasion, countless memories flooded into her mind, and her eyes turned chillingly cold.

She was a female war god from the apocalypse. Just as she had finished slaughtering all the zombies and was preparing for a victory banquet, an apocalypse-level zombie had broken through.

It shattered humanity’s last hope, and she immediately transmigrated here. She possessed all the memories of the original owner, who had just been angered to death moments ago.

Upon learning the reason for the original owner’s death, Wen Ci couldn’t quite understand it.

The original owner shared her name, Wen Ci.

Wen Ci was originally the daughter of the Jiang family in the capital’s residential compound, but the family nanny had swapped her with her own daughter. Wen Ci had been taken away to be raised in a poor, rural village.

She had suffered endless grievances since childhood. By the age of three, she was already doing the cooking and laundry for the family, and her foster parents would beat and scold her at the slightest provocation.

In the seventies, girls were the least welcome; every household hoped for a son to carry on the family line. Wen Ci’s parents felt she was a disgrace to the production team for being a girl, and she had always suffered in silence.

It wasn’t until the day Wen Ci turned eighteen that a tall, handsome man came to their door, bringing a box of peach blossom cakes and claiming to be her biological brother!

He had come to take her home.

Only then did Wen Ci learn that her biological parents were city dwellers and members of the compound. She had been filled with joy and anticipation at the thought of meeting them.

But…

Just two days after she returned home, the Huo family from the same compound came to propose marriage, claiming that a betrothal arranged by their ancestors could not be changed. The groom was a soldier stationed in the remote Northwest.

They were to register the marriage and hold the wedding within the month, then follow the army to the Northwest.

The Huo family wanted to marry Jiang Ye, the fair-skinned, pampered biological daughter of Wen Ci’s foster parents, but she had already been dating a boyfriend since high school.

When Mr. and Mrs. Jiang forced their daughter to break up, they accidentally revealed that she wasn’t their biological daughter. Unable to bear the sight of the daughter they had cherished for years crying, the Jiang family set their sights on Wen Ci. They wanted her to take Jiang Ye’s place, marry Huo Jingyuan, and go to the Northwest to live.

When Wen Ci learned the truth about why she had been brought back, she was literally angered to death.

Wen Ci sighed softly. If she were the original owner, she would have chosen to abandon this shallow kinship entirely; why would she let herself…

Seeing that she was unmoved, Jiang Chen frowned and put on the airs of an older brother, no longer speaking kindly: “Today, you will marry him whether you want to or not. You have no choice.”

Hearing this, Wen Ci raised her eyes and swept a faint glance at the middle-aged woman before her—the original owner’s biological mother, Su Guilan. She pondered for a few seconds before speaking: “Do you really want me, your biological daughter, to take the place of your foster daughter in this marriage?”

A look of anxiety crossed Su Guilan’s face. Jiang Ye and Wen Ci were both like flesh and blood to her—one was the foster daughter she had pampered by her side since childhood, and the other was the biological child who had been taken away.

She couldn’t bear to part with either, nor could she bear to see her daughter suffer in a place like the Northwest.

But…

The marriage contract with the Huo family had been set by their elders, and she had no power to change it. She only had two choices. Jiang Ye’s boyfriend was already a prospective university student.

The Huo family, however, had fallen on hard times; their house in the compound had been reclaimed, and while she wasn’t sure of his exact rank in the Northwest, she only knew he was an officer.

Although Wen Ci was her own flesh and blood, she had, after all, grown up in the countryside.

Marrying Huo Jingyuan could be considered a good match.

Su Guilan looked at Wen Ci’s face, offering no answer.

But from the look in Su Guilan’s eyes, Wen Ci understood this “biological mother’s” choice.

Wen Ci cast a glance at her surroundings.

They were in a teahouse by Shichahai. They were sitting in a private room on the third floor, and outside the window was the sparkling water of Shichahai.

Shichahai was called a “sea,” but it wasn’t a sea; at most, it was a lake.

Wen Ci calculated how much time it would take to jump from the window and swim to the opposite shore.

“If you marry Huo Jingyuan, our Jiang family won’t treat you poorly. We’ll give you one thousand yuan as a dowry. You can spend that money however you like.”

One had to know that the average monthly wage for workers in the capital in the seventies was only about 60 yuan. The dowry the Jiang family offered could support an ordinary family for ten years.

But Wen Ci couldn’t stop her thoughts. She was fully immersed in her calculations. Once confirmed, she walked to the window. Fortunately, it was spring.

If it were winter, Wen Ci definitely wouldn’t have jumped into Shichahai.

“I’m begging you, okay?”

As Ms. Su’s voice fell, Wen Ci climbed over the window and dove into Shichahai. With a loud “splash,” many people on the street began to shout.

“Someone jumped into the sea! Help! Someone save her…”

Wen Ci’s swimming style was graceful. In no time, she had reached the middle of Shichahai. Hearing the passersby, she couldn’t help but pout—what a fuss.

Just then, the man on the shore carrying a luggage bag dropped it and stripped off his military uniform. He didn’t even have time to assess the situation on the water.

He dove fiercely into Shichahai.

Huo Jingyuan swam toward Wen Ci with a powerful stroke. He surfaced and wrapped his arms around her waist. Wen Ci looked at the man with the deep, sharp features before her.

She forgot to struggle or resist, staring straight at him. From his rescue movements, she could feel that his frame was lean and incredibly powerful.

The man’s appearance could be described as stunning.

After Wen Ci was pulled onto the shore, she saw the alluring abdominal muscle lines beneath his white shirt. Instinctively, she took a few extra looks and embarrassingly drooled.

“Just passing by?”

Huo Jingyuan’s gaze was cold. When he had pulled the woman from Shichahai to the shore and met her burning gaze, he realized she knew how to swim.

She probably hadn’t fallen in; she was just swimming in Shichahai.

At this moment, Jiang Chen ran from the teahouse to the shore without stopping. He was both angry and worried, not expecting his biological sister to have such a fiery temper.

She had actually jumped into the sea. He frowned tightly and scolded: “It’s just asking you to follow the army to the Northwest, is it worth jumping into the sea?!”

Hearing this, Huo Jingyuan’s gaze fell on Jiang Chen. As a fellow member of the compound, he had seen the Jiang family a few times. Withdrawing his gaze, he looked down at Wen Ci

“What did you just ask me?”

“Huh?” Wen Ci blinked and repeated what she had just said: “Are you just passing by?”

Huo Jingyuan curled his lips. The coldness he had previously displayed, like a thousand-year-old snow-capped mountain or an emotionless immortal, vanished.

As his lips curved, the snow melted, and the immortal descended to earth.

Huo Jingyuan’s voice was deep and powerful: “I am your husband.”