"These days everyone talks about freedom in love and marriage. Ours was fixed by our parents. We ought to move with the times, break from the old ways, and get divorced, Er Ya."
"And you don't need to worry about having nowhere to go after the divorce. Even if we part, we're still family. You can keep living here just the same. I'll treat you like my own sister, and my parents will treat you like a real daughter too. You..."
The moment she opened her eyes, Stella Ashford found herself in a strange world, and before she could make sense of anything, she heard that whole speech.
What kind of shameless nonsense from a scumbag was this?
A marriage arranged by parents? Treat her like a sister? Get divorced and still live under the same roof?
The more she listened, the hotter her temper burned. She thought, If I keep swallowing this, sooner or later it'll make me sick. Back down once, and the anger only gets worse. Keep enduring it, and something bad is bound to happen.
In the end, she couldn't hold it in. With a sharp smack, she swung her hand and slapped the bastard hard across the face.
Right after that, the whole room went dead quiet.
Lawrence Whitfield had never imagined that Penny Ashford, who had always been hardworking, thrifty, careful in every little thing, and who treated him like the sky itself, would one day slap him.
That one blow stunned him clean through. For a long while, he just sat there, unable to react.
Pressing a hand to his burning cheek, he finally stammered after a good moment, "Y-you dared to hit me?"
Stella Ashford nodded and said evenly, "Yeah. I hit you. Got a problem with that?"
Got a problem with that?
Lawrence Whitfield shot to his feet. Just moments ago he'd been putting on a polite face, trying to "talk things over," but now the mask came off completely.
"What the hell is wrong with you? I was talking to you properly about our divorce, and you just up and hit me? Look at you, acting like some shrew. Who could stand living with a woman like you? Girls in the city are gentle and soft-spoken, every one of them..."
Stella Ashford raised her hand again.
Lawrence Whitfield snapped his mouth shut and edged back a little. Then, puffing up his chest, he stepped forward two paces and said, "Listen here, Penny Ashford, I'm not scared of you. I just don't stoop to arguing with women. I've said what needed saying. Think it over yourself. Tonight I'll make do and sleep in Fourth Brother's room."
After he went out, Stella Ashford pressed a hand to the faint ache in her chest. Then she touched it and found it flat as a board. Lowering her eyes, she looked over this body of hers. It was so thin it was almost frightening, all sharp bones and no flesh.
Her chest was flat as a washboard, let alone anything like a B cup. There was barely any meat on her at all. At a guess, she weighed no more than seventy or eighty pounds.
Her skin was rough and coarse, dark from the sun. Her palms were packed with thick calluses, and even her finger joints were big and knotted. One look was enough to tell this was the body of someone born to hard labor.
Compared to the graceful figure Stella Ashford had before she came here, this body was worlds apart.
She really couldn’t figure out how the original owner had let herself end up in such a miserable state.
Stella Ashford lifted her eyes and looked around the room again. The walls were plastered with yellow mud, the floor was packed dirt, and on the wall hung the kind of leader’s portrait people commonly kept in those days.
In the corner was a kang built from clay. A small table sat on top of it, and on that table there was only a kerosene lamp. The flame on the wick was no bigger than a soybean, casting a dim, yellow glow through the room.
At that moment, she was sitting right on the edge of the kang.
From the original owner’s memories, she had already learned that she and that heartless man from earlier had been husband and wife for three years.
Back in the hard years, every household was scraping by. The original owner’s family had traded twelve-year-old Penny Ashford for eight jin of sweet potatoes. From that day on, Penny was sent to the Whitfield family, where she worked like an ox and a horse and was raised to be Lawrence Whitfield’s child bride.
Life had been poor, sure, but at least she had something to hold on to.
Later, Lawrence Whitfield enlisted in the army, and once he left, he was gone for four whole years.
It was only because Beatrice Whitfield kept pressing him, over and over again, that he finally came back and married the grown-up Penny.
But only a few days after the wedding, a telegram came from the army. Lawrence Whitfield turned around and left again without a second thought.
He did not come back until today.
His return had made the whole family happy, and the original owner was no exception.
After the couple went back to their room, Penny had been full of joy, sweet in her heart, but Lawrence Whitfield didn’t even bother with a polite word. The moment he opened his mouth, he asked for a divorce.
He even said theirs was an arranged marriage, and in the new society people ought to pursue free love, not let themselves be tied down by old-fashioned thinking.
To the original owner, who had grown up in the Whitfield family since childhood and had always treated Lawrence Whitfield like the sky above her head, those words hit like a thunderclap out of a clear sky. Her mind went blank, her chest felt tight, and she could hardly breathe. She had already been malnourished and sickly to begin with. How could she possibly endure a blow like that? Dazed and unsteady, she simply passed away.
And right after that, Stella Ashford entered this body.
The world Stella Ashford had lived in before was completely different from this one. It was far more advanced, for one thing. And over there, strength ruled above all else. From the age of three, every person could summon their own soul companion.
Soul companions came in all kinds—plants, animals, even some very unusual forms.
The one she had summoned was a White Jade Ginseng.
The white jade ginseng had always been good for the skin and for building up the body. Ever since she’d bonded with this medicinal soul pet, Stella Ashford had picked up quite a few prescription formulas too.
Later, when foreign enemies invaded, everyone pulled together against them. Stella Ashford worked support in the rear, but she still did her share and helped a lot.
They fought like that for five full years before they finally drove those outsiders off their planet.
The moment Stella Ashford let herself relax, she dropped into a deep sleep. When she opened her eyes again, the world around her was no longer the same.
From the original owner’s memories, she learned that this world had no such thing as soul pets. People here were all ordinary folk.
Still, one thing was good—these days were peaceful.
Now that she had ended up in Penny Ashford’s body, this marriage had to go, no question. But once the divorce was done, she needed to think carefully about how she was going to live after that.
There was no going back to her birth family.
If she wanted to go anywhere else, she’d need a letter of introduction.
Every work unit was under state control, not somewhere a person could just walk into because they felt like it.
And she didn’t even have a single cent on her.
What a mess.
Still, none of that had to be dealt with right this second. The most important thing right now was getting this body back on its feet.
After pushing all those scattered thoughts out of her head, Stella Ashford summoned her white jade ginseng.
The little thing was plump and round, so cute it was hard not to like. On top of its head grew a few tender green leaves, and right in the middle of them bloomed a tiny snow-white flower.
It seemed happy to see Stella Ashford. It pressed two little leaves to her cheek and kept rubbing against her, warm and clingy like it was trying to make up for lost time.
Stella Ashford gently stroked the soul pet that had stayed by her side for so long, her eyes full of fondness.
In a soft voice, Stella Ashford said, "You’ve had a hard time following me around. This time, we’re going to properly nurse this body back to health."
"This body’s too weak, Shenbao. I need one petal from the flower on your head to help patch me up."
The petals were the most nourishing part of the white jade ginseng. Once she swallowed one, this battered body of hers would recover much faster.
The white jade ginseng seemed to understand her. Its leaves swayed lightly, and the tiny white flower on top gave a little tremble too before dropping a single petal.
Stella Ashford pinched the petal between her fingers, then gave the white jade ginseng a gentle pat before putting it away.
Without a word, Stella Ashford popped the petal into her mouth. It melted the moment it touched her tongue. A warm current slid down her throat and spread slowly through her body, reaching every limb and every bone.
The warmth felt like basking in the sun, soft and comfortable, seeping bit by bit into her worn-out body. She could clearly sense the hollow, depleted places inside her being slowly mended. The change was slight, but it was real.
After all that trouble, and after being thrown into a whole new world, Stella Ashford’s soul was still bone-tired. She could not be bothered to think any further. She climbed onto the kang and dropped straight into sleep.
