Chen Xiaoqian's head was splitting with pain, the sound of a poor quality speaker roaring in a loop beside her ear.
"Ten dollars for three items, can't get ripped off, can't be fooled!"
A pungent smell hit her nose, like various seasonings mixed together, accompanied by the unique noise and chaos of a farmer's market.
Qian frowned. Ever since she graduated with her Ph.D. and successfully started her business, bidding farewell to poverty, she had never stepped into a vegetable market again, having a dedicated maid to serve her and shopping only in high-end supermarkets.
She opened her eyes and found herself squatting in front of a stall, a pile of shabby goods messily displayed, with the speaker continually playing noisy advertisements.
Wasn't she already dead?
In her mind appeared the image of that handsome and extraordinary man, thinking of him holding her corpse and crying, her heart ached a little.
She had gotten rid of all her enemies, swallowed deadly poison, and ended her life as a villainous female boss, following her deceased daughter to leave this damned world together.
She thought she would leave lonely, but unexpectedly, Yu Minglang shed man's tears for her before she died.
Qian, I've been looking for you for so many years, why am I still late by one step!
On her face, it seemed as if the warmth of his tears still lingered, his sorrowful voice echoing in her ears.
It turns out there really was someone who would cry for this woman who had done all sorts of bad things, and such an upright and outstanding man at that.
Now she was squatting in front of a grocery stall in a very old farmers' market, the people around were wearing very outdated clothes, she even saw a faded millennium calendar pasted on the store door at her feet, bleached by the sun.
Is this a flashback of memories before death?
She looked down at her clothes, a grass-green knee-length skirt, very outdated in style.
A thrifty gift from her mom for her eighteenth birthday, with a fingernail-sized tear under the belt, accidentally ripped, she almost got scolded to death by her mom.
18 was a watershed moment in Chen Xiaoqian's life, although she later earned a doctorate in psychology and became the top person in her field.
Yet if she could choose, she would rather return to the impoverished life before 18, because if she hadn't gotten engaged to that scumbag ex-husband at 18, she wouldn't have lost so many wonderful things.
For instance, her sweetest daughter, for instance, kindness.
If it hadn't been for revenge, for killing her scumbag ex-husband Ni Jianren who killed her daughter, she wouldn't have ended her life, meeting Yu Minglang who was willing to shed tears for her at the final moment of her life.
Her brilliant life ended with the death of her daughter, ultimately owing Yu Minglang a truth.
Suddenly, she felt a watery sensation on her face, could it be, she was going back to that dying reality where Yu Minglang's tears fell on her face?
"Yu Minglang, I have only one breath left, I'll keep it short, I gave you a daughter, killed by that scumbag Ni Jianren, I killed him and then committed suicide, remember to feed the scumbag's ashes to the dogs, find a few masters to ensure he never reincarnates, then put my ashes together with my daughter's!"
"What nonsense are you babbling, jibber-jabber!"
Chen Xiaoqian opened her eyes, not seeing the handsome and extraordinary man, but a woman in a floral plaid shirt.
The water on her face seemed to be the woman's spit?
"Are you... my mom?" Qian hesitated.
The impression of her mother in her mind was still stuck on that moment she died, white-haired and unrecognizable due to breast cancer.
So when she saw her plump mother appear, Qian felt a bit out of place.
Jia Xiufang saw her daughter picking bowls, dawdling endlessly, and had the nerve to talk to her like that, angrily kicked Qian in the back of her knees.
"Are you daft? Can't even recognize your own mother!"
The familiar shrewish roar was something Qian was not used to.
Since she became successful, her mother, who favored her brother over her, never gave her a good face, Qian was always cautiously watching her expression, ironically realizing that there really was nothing money couldn't buy in this world.
Family, marriage, friendship, what can't money buy?
For a long time, no one had shown her any emotion beyond flattery, whether it was Yu Minglang's tears for her, or her mother's current roar, they made Chen Xiaoqian, a villain boss standing at the top of the food chain, particularly nostalgic.
"You little girl, dawdling and still haven't picked anything! With you like this, still want to get married? You marry sh*t!" Jia Xiufang saw her daughter still dazing and spouted obscenities.
"Yes, I married the wrong person."
The man she married was utterly disgusting, and turned her life post-18 into a chaotic mess.
Thinking back, before 18, she was still a morally upright pretty girl, if the scumbags hadn't kept forcing her, how could she have become the villainess who stepped on everyone to climb to the top?
Jia Xiufang saw her daughter staring at her blankly, angrily picked up a plastic basin from the side and hit Qian on the head with it.
"You silly girl, always so foolish! I asked you to buy wedding items, and you buy basins three for ten bucks, with you being so clueless, won't your in-laws bully you to death after you marry?"
Jia Xiufang was very opinionated about her daughter's marriage, she didn't want her to marry so early, but her husband had already taken a liking to the dowry offered by the other party, and her daughter naively agreed, leaving Jia Xiufang particularly displeased.
Because of buying wedding basins, she was scolded and hit by her mother, this memory was particularly deep.
At that time, she was young and didn't understand why her mother kept going crazy, always finding faults and scolding her whenever there was a chance, but after Chen Xiaoqian had her own daughter, she suddenly understood her mother's feelings, summed up in four words: hating that iron cannot become steel.
Remember when her mother hit her with a basin, she dodged, the mother and daughter ran around the market, with the basin seller chasing behind them, until her mom stepped on a banana peel, fell to the ground, and wailed that this silly girl didn't even know how to pick an expensive basin for her only wedding, would she have any sense at all, and what if she got bullied after marrying, since that guy had more tricks up his sleeve?
At that time, she thought her mother was particularly annoying, her rural shrew nature evident, but looking back now, perhaps this was the way her under-educated, rural mother expressed her disapproval of her getting married too early.
Later, life ruthlessly pushed Qian to develop a stomach full of schemes, almost vanquishing everyone who opposed her, yet what she missed most was those times when she was scolded as a silly girl.
The plastic basin smacked on Chen Xiaoqian's body, particularly painful, so painful it didn't feel like a dream, Jia Xiufang hit her twice, seeing her daughter didn't run as usual after being hit, she waved her hand in front of Qian's face in doubt.
"Qian'er, what's wrong?" Could it be she hit her too hard? It can't be, she didn't exert herself.
"Mom, if I hit you, would you feel pain?" Chen Xiaoqian pinched Jia Xiufang's hand.
Jia Xiufang was stunned, suddenly erupting like a volcano, snatching up the basin, and furiously pounding it on Chen Xiaoqian.
"You ungrateful girl, how dare you hit your mom, you're rebelling!"
It hurt, it really hurt! Qian's heart suddenly raced, this was definitely not an illusion, could it be, she really returned to her 18th year?
Jia Xiufang had been angered by her daughter daring to pinch her, grabbing the basin and hitting, Qian stood up, and desperately ran forward, Jia Xiufang carrying the basin chased after her, the stall owners seeing this, protested, running behind Jia Xiufang, shouting as they chased.
"Big sister, you're grabbing basins three for ten, that's too much!"
The summer wind blew on her face, so real, she could feel the youthful energy in her body, unlike at 38, the kind of endless fatigue reliant on sleeping pills due to chronic insomnia, Chen Xiaoqian ran in the wind, the beauty of this rebirth too real.
Behind her was Jia Xiufang's relentless pursuit, the dirty environment on the roadside, Qian felt the once contemptuous messy poor market so adorable, even the old beggar with a running nose on the roadside, seemed so bright.
She actually was reborn!
This treatment that only good women had, unexpectedly fell on her, a bad person, Chen Xiaoqian's foot slipped, she stepped on the banana peel!
Without image, she fell on her bum, originally supposed to be stepped on by her mom, but she stepped on it, the pain was so real.
Feeling pain meant everything was real, not a hallucination, not a flashback before death.
Sensing the pain, Qian's heart suddenly raced, this definitely wasn't an illusion, "real", not just a life-flashing before her eyes before death.
But then, a scene unfolded before her eyes, deeply stimulating her, and at this moment Qian understood, that while she had missed many things in life, the most precious thing was right in front of her, longing for nothing more than another chance.
She realized that, although she had been given a second chance, she couldn't change the past, but perhaps she could change the future. And, that overwhelming realization filled her with hope and determination.