In 1973, at the old Whitmore family house.

"Hannah, the notice came. You’ll be leaving with the army tomorrow. Commander Fletcher’s a man with a bright future ahead of him, so you’d better treat him right."

Inside the old Western-style house, Hannah Whitmore was curled up in the corner of the sofa, head lowered as she idly fiddled with the Seagull watch on her wrist. Hearing her aunt go on and on, she answered without much interest, "Mm. Got it."

Up by the railing on the second floor, Jade Whitmore stared at the lazy figure downstairs. Even sitting there so casually, Hannah still carried that soft, tempting air all over her, and it made Jade grind her back teeth hard.

"So Cousin’s really about to become an officer’s wife. What a lucky life."

Hannah lifted her eyes and gave her a glance, light and dismissive.

Ever since half a month ago, when she woke up stark naked beside Carson Fletcher’s bed, she had understood everything.

Jade had come back too.

And she had stolen this marriage from her again.

In her last life, the crackdown on capitalists had only grown harsher. Before her father was sent away, he had arranged a marriage for her just to keep her alive, making sure she would marry Carson Fletcher, a military officer.

The moment Jade heard about it, she grew jealous of the title of officer’s wife. So she joined hands with her parents. When Carson came to visit, they drugged him. Then Jade pretended to be Hannah, spent the night with him, made a big scene about him taking responsibility, and naturally married into the Fletcher family.

Back then, Hannah had thought of her cousin’s reputation and stepped aside on her own. In the end, she married a rough country man.

After marriage, Hannah and her husband worked the land in the countryside, growing crops and setting up factories. Later, when reform opened the door, they went into business and made a fortune. She became a well-known businesswoman across the country and had a son and a daughter.

After that, it came out that her husband was the lost youngest son of a powerful official. Once he returned to his family, Hannah became a rich and powerful lady of the house, living a smooth and happy life.

As for Jade, after marrying Carson Fletcher, things went badly.

Because Carson had never forgotten being drugged and trapped into that marriage, there was always a knot between them. Jade couldn’t stand the hardship of following the army around, and she looked down on Carson for not being educated. The two of them never had much to say to each other, and their feelings only grew colder with time.

Later, Carson was injured in the leg during a mission. Jade turned right around and asked for a divorce. People pointed at her everywhere she went, gossiping behind her back. Ashamed and miserable, she was on her way back to her parents’ home when she ran into criminals and died in the street.

"Cousin, once you marry over there, you really ought to live properly with Commander Fletcher."

Jade spoke again, her voice dripping with mockery.

In her heart, she was thinking that Carson Fletcher had always been a strange-tempered man, rough in both word and manner. And later on, he’d even end up lame. Just to be safe, she had used the same trick from the previous life and drugged him again.

This time, Carson would definitely hate Hannah to the bone.

Once Hannah married him, she’d have plenty to suffer.

"Commander Fletcher became a regiment commander at such a young age. Your cousin really did marry well."

Jade’s mother, Vivian Whitmore, picked up the words from the side. Her eyes gleamed with calculation.

"Hannah, once you leave, who knows when you’ll be able to come back? Things outside are a mess right now, and nobody can say what’ll happen next. How about taking out the gold bars your father left you first? Your uncle and I can keep them for you. You’re just a young girl. Carrying that much money with you isn’t safe."

Hannah let out a cold laugh.

She knew exactly what Vivian Whitmore was after.

In her previous life, this woman had said the very same thing. She claimed that once Hannah went to the countryside, it wouldn’t be easy coming back and forth, and that with the times so unstable, she ought to take the gold bars her father had left in the bank and let them keep them for her.

When the time came for her to invest money in planting, they always had an excuse ready. One thing they would not do was take the money out.

Back then, Hannah Whitmore had thought of how, after her father was sent down, they had at least taken her in and looked after her. So she never dug too deep into it.

Who would’ve thought it would take ten whole years after her father’s death for her to learn the truth? He could have had his name cleared and gone back to the city. It was her eldest uncle and aunt who had quietly stirred things up behind the scenes, blocking him at every turn, all so they could swallow up what he left behind.

What a rotten way to repay kindness.

Now both she and Jade Whitmore had lived once already and come back. Jade still wanted to scheme against her. Fine, the marriage arrangement hadn’t changed, but that didn’t mean Hannah was going to keep swallowing her anger. Whatever her father left her, these people could forget about getting their hands on it.

"We’ll talk about that another time. If the family really needs money in a hurry, I can send a telegram. You can take it to the bank and withdraw it. They’ll release it."

When Vivian Whitmore heard that, she didn’t press any further. She was afraid that if she said too much, Hannah might start getting suspicious.

"Madam, Miss, Mr. Qi is here."

Hannah heard the maid’s voice and lifted her eyes toward the doorway.

It was Jonah Grayson, the man who had been her husband in her previous life.

Jade’s eyes lit up at once. She ran down the stairs in quick little steps and went right over to hook herself around Jonah’s arm. This man was going to be her biggest support in the years ahead.

"Oh? So this is my future brother-in-law?" Hannah said with a smile, looking him over with an unreadable, teasing sort of gaze.

Jade immediately stepped in front of Jonah. Hannah had the face of a born seductress, and in their last life she had been husband and wife with Jonah. Just thinking of that made Jade instinctively wary.

"Brother Junsheng, let’s sit over there."

Jade tugged Jonah away and sat with him somewhere farther from Hannah. Vivian watched her daughter being so affectionate with this country boy and truly couldn’t make sense of it.

The lad looked poor from head to toe. She honestly did not see what her daughter saw in him.

Vivian glanced at the string of bananas that were nearly rotten and the two tins he had brought, then curled her lip. "Junsheng, bringing all this over must’ve tired you out on the road, huh?"

Who came to visit carrying things like that?

"Mom, what are you saying?" Jade shot her mother a reproachful look.

Right now Jonah Grayson might not look like much, but in the future he would be a well-known big boss, and the son of an official at that. She had plenty of good days waiting for her. As for Hannah, she could go suffer Carson Fletcher’s cold face and spend her life with a cripple.

"Brother Junsheng treats me so well. I only said I liked this bracelet, and he bought it for me straightaway."

Jade Whitmore leaned against Jonah Grayson, her face shy and sweet as she said, "Brother Junsheng’s a little short on money right now, but whatever he has, he’s willing to spend on me. Once he makes something of himself later on, am I really going to worry about not living well? Don’t you think so, Cousin?"

Hannah Whitmore looked at how thrilled she was over nothing more than a silver bracelet and muttered to herself, She really hasn’t seen much of the world.

Jade was acting all soft and affectionate with Jonah now for one reason only: she had her eye on the fact that one day he’d turn into the pampered young master of a rich family. What she didn’t stop to think about was that right now, Jonah was just a poor country boy from the middle of nowhere.

When a city-bred young lady fawned over a broke young man like that, all it did was make him feel puffed up, like he was somebody important, till he could hardly tell who he was anymore.

How could Jade possibly know how, in her last life, Hannah had been the one to lift Jonah up step by step? She knew even less that his later fortune had depended entirely on her. All that family wealth had been managed by Hannah’s own hands. Without her, Jonah in this life would never amount to much. He’d spend his days stuck in that backwater mountain village and nothing more.

Besides, Jonah had never been any decent sort of man to begin with. If Hannah hadn’t kept such a close watch on him in her last life, then with all his wandering eyes and rotten little schemes, who knew how many illegitimate children he might have left outside? Since Jade wanted trash like that so badly, then fine, she could have him.

Hannah couldn’t be bothered watching her keep up the act. She stood and headed upstairs. Behind her, Jonah kept sneaking glances at her back. When the matchmaker had first come to him and said a city girl had specifically asked to marry him, he’d nearly been over the moon. Sure, she was a capitalist’s daughter, but she had money and she was pretty too. Why wouldn’t he agree?

Who would’ve thought she had an even prettier cousin?

Jonah started calculating in secret. If only he could trade for the other one.

Up in her room, Hannah locked the door, steadied her breathing, and silently repeated those two words again and again in her mind.

Then a flash of white light streaked across her eyes, and that familiar place appeared before her. The corner of her mouth lifted into a smile.