1 Chapter 1: Salted Fish and Cat

A massive dream ended with the soil pouring down on her head.

Looking up, she could see a group of blurred figures shoveling soil on her ceaselessly, and it seemed that there was a man standing high above watching her.

She couldn't make out his face, but his voice was incredibly clear.

"I still remember the first time I saw you, wearing dirt-stained countryside clothes, not very attractive, but your eyes were beautiful, and I was instantly drawn to you."

The woman in the pit was beautiful, but not overly stunning; she had a unique charm to her.

Provocative, unrestrained, yet seemingly conservative and demure.

At first glance, she didn't appear to be a good woman, but it was hard to pinpoint what was wrong with her.

In plain terms - cunning and good at acting!

She looked up at him, "This thing... that's how I felt back then and now."

He laughed, "You tell me."

She also laughed, "It feels like I've been splashed with dog shit."

He remained calm, "But you swallowed that dog shit, and you swallowed it many times."

Double entendre, ambiguous and vulgar.

"It seems like you're quite proud of yourself?"

"Not proud, just a pity, after all, you're the woman I slept with for so many years... being buried alive must be hard to bear, I still feel a little heartache."

Unbridled insults would inevitably lead to retaliation.

"I can't even list all the economic crimes you've committed, the stock market crash, the freezing of your overseas assets, you know how many lives your hands are stained with. The investigation order has been issued; I'm guessing it's not easy for you now to even buy a bus ticket like those in our countryside… The higher you climb, the more it hurts when you fall."

Her words were light, but they caused everyone shoveling soil to pause.

Why did they have to bury her alive?

He blew out smoke rings and cursed her clearly - Qin Yu, you are a bitch!

The cigarette butt was flung from his fingertips, and the fiery light fell on her face, scorching hot, mixed with the soil... suffocating.

And there was his laughter after his anger.

"But you're too naive, some things are all bark and no bite, people who haven't grasped the rules inside a circle think they can manipulate the rules and only make themselves look ridiculous and pathetic. Just like you are now."

He squatted down, like a naughty boy passing the time by watching the fish in a creek.

"Hard evidence isn't as solid as a mountain, and those with doubts aren't punished. They can't catch me, and even if they spread the net wide, it's useless. But you probably won't have a chance to see any of it anyway."

She indeed couldn't see it anymore, because the last massive layer of soil came down.

Total darkness.

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Three miles east of Zhunei Village, there is the Village Health Center shared by several villages. No one noticed when the girl lying on the bed behind the snow-white curtain woke up, but many people's worlds changed in an instant.

— Because the power just went out.

It was already getting dark in the autumn evening, and when the light bulbs went off, the room became much darker. The famous Qin Yuan of Zhunei Village, also known as "Elm Bump," realized that his daughter was awake. He stood up immediately, his clumsy face showing emotion, but still not knowing what to say, he managed a dry, "Xiao Yu, how are you feeling? Are you still dizzy? Will you faint again?"

Qin Yu saw this slightly messy and dirty face suddenly and felt a strange emptiness in her eyes. It was a weird look, dazed as if she had lost her soul, but in the end, turning into pain and fear.

No one could understand it, but as a father, Qin Yuan did. He just didn't know why, but he felt heartbroken and was about to say something when Qin Yu fainted again.

Qin Yuan called the doctor, and soon, a yawning, lazy doctor came. He checked Qin Yu's eyes and face, said something with his mouth opening and closing, and finally waved his hand impatiently.

"Why did you come when you knew you couldn't understand? Your wife would have been a better option!"

His words happened to be heard by the doctor's wife, whose face turned ugly. She cursed, and the doctor immediately became embarrassed, speaking to Qin Yuan with solemnity, "Doctor's orders must be followed. Otherwise, why see a doctor? Never mind, speaking to you is useless since you can't hear. A deaf person like you, what else can you do? Just sawing wood is about it..."

The short, slightly over five foot man verbally abused the nearly six foot tall Qin Yuan. The latter could only stand there woodenly, and after venting his frustration, the short doctor wrote something on a piece of paper, tossed it to Qin Yuan, and held out his hand, gesturing for one hundred.

In the early twenty-first century, in the countryside, one hundred yuan was already a considerable sum. Qin Yuan didn't understand why the doctor wanted so much money just for casually checking on his daughter and not even giving her any medicine. But he had no way to argue with him, because there was only one doctor in their area.