The sun in July was blistering, and the cicadas on the trees were chirping incessantly, making people feel even more stiflingly hot. On the other hand, the river bank of San Yuan Village was cool and pleasant.
"Splash!"
A middle-aged woman washing clothes by the downstream of the river looked up and was just about to wipe the sweat from her forehead when she saw a skinny figure jump into the river.
Her eyes widened in shock, and When she realized what had happened, she began running towards the scene, shouting, "Someone jumped into the river! Someone jumped into the river..."
Then, she saw another green figure leap into the river, moving so fast that she couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.
By the time she got there, she saw a young man carrying a drowning girl out of the river.
With every step he took, he left large puddles behind.
This man was very handsome! Even as a middle-aged woman, she felt her face heat up at the sight of him.
"Is that not the daughter of the Shu family... Shu Ran? Why did she jump into the river?" Yao Yuchang identified the girl and exclaimed in surprise.
The man glanced at Yao Yuchang, didn't have the time to answer, and after setting the girl down, he knelt to perform artificial respiration on her.
Seeing the man kissing Shu Ran, Yao Yuchang's eyes widened in shock. It was broad daylight, how could he dare display such indecency in public?
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but wasn't sure what to say.
"Ssst…"
The girl spat out a lot of water, and the man heaved a sigh of relief. Only then did he turn to Yao Yuchang and ask, "Do you know her?"
Yao Yuchang didn't respond to the man's query, instead, her eyes widened as she counter-asked, "What were you doing just now?" The man seemed very decent, not likely to act indecently, so why did he kiss Shu Ran?
"I'm performing artificial respiration, it's a first aid method!" The man said earnestly, and then looked down at the girl who had fallen into the water. After making sure she was okay, he said, "Could you watch over her for a while? I have to go."
Yao Yuchang nodded blankly and squatted down to check on Shu Ran.
Several villagers who were working in the nearby fields came over, Yao Yuchang turned to one of the women and said in a worried tone, "Aunt, could you go and call Shu Ran's mom from the Shu's house?"
"Right, I'll go straight away." The woman nodded and turned to run towards the Shu's house.
Not long after, a thin middle-aged woman with a sallow complexion staggered over, falling onto Shu Ran and started crying loudly, "Little Ran, why did you have to do this? What will your mother do...?"
The woman's cry was despairing and sorrowful. The people around, when they heard it, associated it with her fate and showed sympathetic expressions. Those with soft hearts even shed tears.
"Ye Mei, Little Ran is okay now, don't cry." Yao Yuchang comforted Ye Mei, who had been crying heartbrokenly, gently patting her back.
With her face smeared with tears and snot, Ye Mei looked at Yao Yuchang in disbelief and asked tearfully, "Is Little Ran really okay?"
"Really alright!" Yao Yuchang said with certainty.
Elated, Ye Mei's face broke into a smile. Wanting to cry and laugh at the same time, she grabbed her daughter's shoulders and began to shake her, crying, "Little Ran, wake up, wake up...
Shu Ran was shaken awake, her chest uncomfortable due to swallowing too much water. She opened her eyes to see a sallow-faced woman crying in front of her.
The sound of rushing water was in her ears.
She furrowed her brows, where was this?
"Little Ran, you're finally awake, you almost scared mom to death, even if something big happened, you shouldn't think of doing this." Ye Mei hugged Shu Ran into her arms and said while crying.
Shu Ran wanted to struggle, but she was too weak to exert any force. She lifted her arm to push the woman hugging her away, but to her surprise, she couldn't!
Is this hand, as skinny as a chicken claw, hers?
"Xiao Ran, it's good that you're okay. If something really happened to you, your mom really couldn't bear to go on!"
The middle-aged woman who had just been calling Ye Mei was looking at Shu Ran, speaking while wiping away tears.
Speaking of Ye Mei, she had a hard life. After marrying into the Shu family, she was treated like an old workhorse. She gave birth to Shu Ran early on and later had another child, a son. Having both a son and a daughter is considered a word "good" and a happy thing.
However, her son died when he was three, and Ye Mei was injured during his birth and never conceived again.
Shu Ran, following her mom, was also not treated well by the Shu family. From the incident to the present, no one other than Ye Mei, has even come to see how she is doing.
Looking at the woman with a weathered face and the worn clothes patched with mending, Shu Ran widened her eyes. Then she felt the world spinning, her head as if it were about to explode, and a memory that wasn't hers was forcefully stuffed into her head.
Her body stiffened. Had she...reborn?!
Reborn into the 80s, in the body of a girl with her same name.
However, this girl isn't 35 years old, she's at the blossoming age of eighteen!
And the middle-aged woman crying and holding her now is her mother in this era.
Shu Ran feels so indignant that she wants to cry!
After struggling for ten years and finally becoming a high-level executive, she was planning to go to Bali for a vacation, but before she could, she somehow ended up here.
She remembers clearly, at the company's mid-year sum-up meeting, after she finished speaking, many of her colleagues came to toast her, and without realizing it, she drank too much.
After it ended, the company's partner invited her to sing, "President Shu, would you like to join us?"
"Thank you, Mr. Xie, I'm feeling a bit unwell, I'd like to go rest." Shu Ran waved her hand, smiling as she declined.
Mr. Xie didn't insist. As long as Shu Ran could bring profit to the company, whether she sang or not wasn't that important.
After Mr. Xie and his group left, Shu Ran looked at her assistant, and tiredly said, "Take me home."
"Alright, Director Shu," the assistant respectfully responded.
The car drove down the bustling western city streets, Shu Ran's head leaning against the window, she closed her eyes to think, gently feeling the summer breeze.
The assistant drove, sneaking glances at Shu Ran through the rearview mirror, murmuring, "Director Shu is so beautiful, and her business is successful - why doesn't she want to get married?"
People in the company all whispered behind their backs, saying that Director Shu had a fling with Mr. Xie, and that's why her business was successful.
Only she knew, Director Shu and Mr. Xie didn't have a penny's worth of relationship. Director Shu's current success was all due to her own hard work.
She wanted to explain, but Director Shu helplessly said, "People will always gossip, you can't explain it to everyone. As long as I have a clear conscience, that's enough!"
Shu Ran's ear twitched, pulling out a self-deprecating smirk.
Marriage...if that person is not him, then what's the point of it?
Just as the assistant was musing, a truck drove straight towards them. She widened her eyes with terror, hastily steering the wheel, but the two cars still collide.
Shu Ran's forehead hit the seat in front, causing stars to flash before her eyes. Then watched as her car broke through the roadside railing and fell into the river below.
Shu Ran wanted to cry but couldn't. She went from the city's moat into the river!
"Uh, I'm alright." As soon as she spoke, Shu Ran paused. Was this charming voice hers?
Yao Yuchang said, "Sister Ye Mei, see, little Ran is awake now, you can stop crying. Luckily a soldier was passing by and rescued her."
Finished speaking, Yao Yuchang looked in the direction of the man who’d left, pointing to a blurry figure and said, “It was him who jumped in the river to save little Ran.”
