Chapter 1: My Younger Sister Is the Reborn Heroine, and I’m Just a Foolish Innocent?

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Autumn, 1976.

Tian Xiang’s marriage prospect was snatched away by her cousin.

On that day, the matchmaker had arranged for the two young people, who had never met, to rendezvous at the entrance of the People’s Park. The young woman was to wear a white dress with a red cardigan and a blue floral satchel slung across her shoulder. She was beautiful and kind-hearted, the most admired young lady in the neighborhood.

Lu Feng, the young man, matched all the criteria perfectly. Who could have imagined that the one who showed up wasn’t Tian Xiang but her cousin, Tian Chuying?

Tian Chuying was truly cunning; in order to secure this marriage, she didn’t stroll around the park with Lu Feng as planned but instead dragged him to “bump into” Lu’s mother.

Lu’s mother was instantly taken with the cheerful-looking girl—well-built and seemingly fertile, with a sweet tongue that charmed her thoroughly. She immediately told the matchmaker their family agreed to the match.

When word spread that the young couple had taken to each other, Tian Xiang’s mother, Hu Honglian, was overjoyed. She was already planning to ask her husband to bring some gifts to thank the matchmaker after work. Unexpectedly, the neighbor from across the street rushed over in a panic.

How could Tian Xiang have gone to the arranged meeting? She had landed in the community health clinic!

Hu Honglian was stunned. Only upon reaching the clinic did she learn that her daughter’s engagement had been stolen. Tian Chuying, that wretched little schemer, had drugged her daughter to keep her out of the way.

This was intolerable!

In a fit of rage, Hu Honglian scooped up sewage from the public latrine and waited for Tian Chuying to return, dousing her with the foul water.

The two families quarreled furiously in the courtyard, the uproar only subsiding when Director Wu from the neighborhood committee intervened.

To steal her cousin’s betrothed—what a disgraceful thing.

Director Wu looked at Tian Chuying with undisguised contempt. But now the groom’s family had already agreed—what could be done?

Hu Honglian’s eyes were red with anger; she had worked so hard to find this match for her daughter.

Lu Feng was a clerk at the Red Fifth Street Machinery Factory, an exemplary worker. She had met him before—tidy, bespectacled, an educated man with a good salary. Most importantly, he was from Red Fifth Street. If her daughter married him, she would live in an apartment building and could secure a good job.

Director Wu sipped her coarse tea and thought for a moment before saying, “Why don’t you ask Xiangxiang what she wants? If she still has feelings for the Lu boy, I’ll put my reputation on the line and talk to Lu’s family, see if we can arrange for them to meet again.”

But matchmaking wasn’t like shopping at a market—see the younger sister, then come back for the elder?

Hu Honglian felt uneasy. Lu Feng was the ideal son-in-law in her eyes, but not so ideal that he could just pick and choose among the Tian daughters.

Yet…

Thinking how rare a man like Lu Feng was, her heart burned with resentment at having him snatched away. She decided to go ask her daughter what she thought.

But before she could act, a stinking, filth-covered Tian Chuying burst into the room ahead of her and knelt before Tian Xiang’s bed.

“Sister, you can have anything you want, but I will never give up Lu Feng!”

In the shabby brick house, Tian Xiang, half-reclining on the bed, turned her head to look at her.

Tian Chuying’s hair was in disarray, her face marked with scratches from Hu Honglian’s nails, utterly disheveled and pitiable.

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Yet her eyes were more resolute and venomous than ever before.

Tian Xiang couldn’t understand it. Her cousin had always been a bit spoiled, but never foolish—why would she do something so reckless?

Just yesterday, when she’d heard Tian Xiang was going to meet Lu Feng, Tian Chuying had even laughed and said that once her sister was married, she’d find a way to introduce her to someone from Red Fifth Street too—she wanted to live in an apartment and work in a big factory, to have a good life.

But in the blink of an eye, she’d sent a bowl of laxatives, utterly deranged.

Tian Xiang’s father, Tian Weibing, and her elder brother, Tian Weijun, both worked at the lumber mill. The two families shared the same courtyard, separated only by a wall.

Each brother had two sons and a daughter. Tian Xiang and Tian Chuying were the youngest daughters, only two months apart in age. As children, they shared a bed; as they grew, they remained close, more like real sisters than cousins.

That’s why, when Tian Chuying brought over tofu pudding that morning and insisted Tian Xiang try a bite, she did so.

But that one mouthful nearly emptied her out. If the neighbor from across the street hadn’t found her fainted at the restroom door, who knows what might have happened.

Tian Xiang asked, “Why?”

Neither of them had met Lu; even if she coveted his circumstances, was it worth going this far?

A younger cousin stealing her elder cousin’s match—what a humiliation for the Tian family.

Tian Xiang’s voice was feeble, as soft as a drop of water.

The slanting sunlight filtered through the window, lighting her pallid face, delicate and gentle, beautiful enough to inspire envy.

“Sister, don’t ask so many questions. The truth is, we’ve liked each other for a long time.”

Of course, Tian Chuying couldn’t say, “Because I’ve been reborn!”

In her previous life, she’d met several men, one worse than the next. She finally chose a decent one, but before they could marry, he was arrested for a crime.

While her fiancé was in prison, Tian Chuying became a laughingstock.

It was Lu Feng who, with a book and a silk scarf, opened her heart again.

Tian Chuying knew Lu Feng was loyal and responsible. Since he had chosen her cousin, he would marry her. She hadn’t wanted to trouble him and decided to watch over him from afar.

But each time she saw him treat her cousin well, saw her get into university and grow ever more accomplished, admired by all, Tian Chuying grew increasingly resentful and jealous.

If she had been the one to meet him first, wouldn’t she now be the one adored by all?

With that thought in mind, last night Tian Chuying was reborn.

Rebirth was wonderful! She could fight and seize, she could marry Lu Feng.

Tian Chuying’s eyes shone with pride, a faint smile on her lips.

What did she mean, they’d liked each other for a long time?

Tian Xiang was baffled and sighed. “Chuying, you ought to explain yourself.”

It was just a man; if she wanted him that badly, she could have him.

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She was a good, respectable young woman—there was no shortage of prospects. Without Lu Feng, there was always Chen Feng or Li Feng.

Three-legged toads are hard to find, but two-legged men are everywhere.

Was it really worth tearing both families apart for one man?

“Since things have come to this, your family should offer some compensation, and in the future...”

You two should just make the best of your life together.

But before Tian Xiang could finish her sentence, she saw a wisp of mist rise above Tian Chuying’s forehead, quickly coalescing into several words:

—Reborn Heroine.

Reborn heroine?

What on earth was that?

Tian Xiang’s words caught in her throat. She stared, wide-eyed, and rubbed her eyes.

Good grief, the words were still there, clear as day.

“Amazing!”

Ignoring her feeble body, Tian Xiang threw off the covers and approached Tian Chuying, reaching out to touch the mist-formed words above her head—only for Tian Chuying to grab her wrist midway.

Tian Chuying glared at her. “Sister, are you trying to hit me?”

Outside, Hu Honglian shook off Director Wu’s hand, wanting to barge in. “And what if she is? For doing something so vile, a beating’s too light—you ought to be drowned in a pig cage!”

“Mom, wait,” Tian Xiang said, her attention wholly captured by the floating words.

She pulled her hand free and, while Tian Chuying was distracted, swiped her left hand over the words above her head—only to grasp empty air.

Yet the words remained!

Baffled, Tian Xiang turned to the doorway. “Mom, do you see? Why does she have words floating above her head?”

No sooner had she spoken than white mist began to rise over the heads of Hu Honglian, Director Wu, and the neighbor from across the street, quickly coalescing into the labels: “Top Villain 1,” “Supporting Role 46,” “Onlooker 1.”

Tian Xiang: “???”

She hurriedly grabbed the mirror from the cabinet to check her own reflection.

At that moment, the mist above her own head solidified into three words:

“Naive. Kind. Hopeless.”