To Be the Male Lead's Deceased First Wife in a Historical Chinese Exam-focused Novel - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: It’s You Who Hates Me

Yan An let out a long sigh, ultimately deciding to discard the idea of restarting her life.

Being hit didn’t hurt, but that didn’t mean that if she took her own life now, it wouldn’t be painful. She was still very afraid of pain.

With that thought, she came to the side room. Upon opening the door, she saw a pile of books inside. It seemed this room had been converted into a study. Recalling the plot of the novel, it seemed the entire family had prioritized the original owner, even letting her live in the best room, the east one.

Yan An stared blankly at the study, which contained only a desk and a cabinet.

She distinctly remembered that Wen Ying hadn’t come back and slept in the same bed as her last night, and there was no bed in this room. So where was Wen Ying sleeping?

Yan An searched the courtyard, even opening the door to the west room, but still couldn’t find anywhere for Wen Ying to sleep.

Just as she was puzzled, Wen Ying entered the courtyard with a few other people. Faced with this situation, Yan An had no choice but to temporarily suppress her questions. She looked at the middle-aged men and then at Wen Ying, her expression a silent question.

She knew Wen Ying had gone to inform some people, but she couldn’t match each face to a name yet.

“This is the village chief, this is the clan leader, this is Second Uncle, and this is Doctor Zhou.” After Wen Ying’s calm introduction, she went to prepare tea for them.

The men who had come with Wen Ying showed a complex expression upon hearing her introduction. Although Wen Ying had explained the situation to them before they came, seeing it with their own eyes was another matter entirely.

She had only fallen into the water and passed out; could she have really lost her memory?

“My dear niece, do you truly not remember anything?” The village chief looked to be about forty years old. Perhaps due to hard work, his hair was already quite gray, and he had a beard. He looked at Yan An with great trepidation.

Hearing this, the Yan clan leader and Second Uncle also looked at her eagerly.

Faced with their gazes, Yan An showed a slightly embarrassed smile. “Village Chief, I really don’t remember anything.”

“You don’t even remember the books you’ve read?” Second Uncle Yan asked anxiously.

Yan An paused for a moment, then slowly nodded.

There were still some differences between ancient and modern times. Admitting she didn’t remember would probably be better, right? Otherwise, if she said she remembered now but then couldn’t recognize the characters later, it would be a huge embarrassment.

Second Uncle Yan looked as if he had been choked.

Doctor Zhou, who had come along, stepped forward to examine Yan An. After a round of pulse-taking and checking her eyelids, he shook his head at the village chief and the others who were looking at him eagerly. “Her body has recovered very well. I don’t see any issues. As for the memory loss, it might be due to the shock to her brain when she fell into the water. The memory loss is temporary and should gradually recover before too long.”

In short, he didn’t have any good solutions right now.

The other three felt a glimmer of hope upon hearing that she might regain her memory soon. After all, the Yan family didn’t just owe them money; because Yan An had passed the xiucai (scholar) exam at the age of fifteen, she had brought great honor to the village. If she could pass the jinshi (imperial scholar) exam in the future, the entire village would benefit.

Wen Ying brought out a few bowls of water. The family was so poor that they couldn’t even offer coarse tea to their guests.

The others paused for a moment at the sight but quickly pretended that nothing was amiss. They drank some water, asked Yan An a few more questions, and seeing that she truly knew nothing, they became a bit awkward. Finally, they gave her a few words of advice and left, preoccupied with their own thoughts.

Yan An and Wen Ying got up to see them to the door, watching them leave. It almost seemed as though they were more upset about Yan An’s memory loss than Wen Ying was.

Wen Ying stood beside Yan An, watching the elders’ figures gradually disappear down the long slope. She suddenly spoke up, “Husband, we still owe Doctor Zhou three thousand seven hundred coins.”

Yan An was brought back to her senses by the sudden address. She didn’t have time to worry about what Wen Ying called her; she was too shocked by her words. Her eyes widened, and she clutched her chest, unable to utter a single word.

They hadn’t even paid off the more than thirty taels of debt, and now they had an additional four taels? How were they supposed to live like this?!

Wen Ying saw her expression and pursed her lips, asking, “Is something wrong, Husband?”

She looked at Yan An’s hand covering her chest. If there was still something wrong, the debt would only increase.

Yan An quickly shook her head. “No, no, I’m not uncomfortable at all. My body is just fine!”

She felt like the shock of the three thousand seven hundred coins had given her the strength to punch a cow to death!

Hearing her say this, Wen Ying lowered her gaze and said nothing more.

“Let’s go back,” Yan An said, feeling a bit weak. She turned and walked back into the courtyard, her heart aching.

She hadn’t enjoyed any of the benefits of the original owner’s life after transmigrating, but she had inherited a pile of this mess!

Wen Ying looked at her back. Her eyes dimmed slightly at Yan An’s silent attitude toward the family’s debt. After closing the door, she followed Yan An back into the courtyard and silently took the bowls the village chief and the others had used to wash them.

In truth, when she had returned earlier and entered the kitchen to see the pots and bowls already washed, her heart had been stirred.

Not just during her time living with Yan An now, but even when Yan An’s parents were still alive, Yan An had never done such a thing. Yet now, she had washed the dishes and chopsticks herself.

Wen Ying had a sense of unreality.

“Oh, right, where did you sleep last night?” Yan An stood at the kitchen door, looking at Wen Ying inside.

The woman’s face was haggard, clearly a sign of not having rested well.

Wen Ying turned to look at her, silent for a moment, then asked, “Is something wrong?”

The words Yan An had said to her since waking up with memory loss were already more than all the words she had said to her before the memory loss combined since she got married.

“N-nothing’s wrong. I just saw that there were no extra beds in the house, so I was wondering where you slept,” Yan An said, a little embarrassed. After transmigrating, she had taken the original owner’s place, which meant she was in the position of oppressing Wen Ying.

Hearing her words, Wen Ying looked away and said calmly, “I slept in the kitchen.”

After she married, she was supposed to sleep with Yan An, but Yan An would never tolerate her sharing a bed. So when Yan An’s parents were still alive, Wen Ying had always slept on a straw mat on the floor in Yan An’s room. When the weather was warm, it was still bearable, and that was how she had managed.

Yan An’s parents knew their time was short, so they had arranged for Yan An to marry Wen Ying early. Their bodies, already weakened by illness, held on until Yan An left to take the autumn exams, afraid that their deaths would cause their daughter to miss three years of opportunity.

Unfortunately, Yan An’s parents, despite their pain, received the news of her failure. They passed away before she even returned, and all the funeral arrangements were handled by Wen Ying.

There was a custom here to burn the old belongings of the deceased to accompany them. This meant that a large portion of the family’s things were gone. Even though Wen Ying desperately needed a bed, the bed Yan An’s parents had slept on had to be burned and sent with them.

With Yan An’s parents gone, Yan An wouldn’t even allow her to sleep on a mat on the floor in the room.

Now that the weather had turned cold, sleeping in the kitchen all night was difficult, even with Wen Ying’s resilience.

Yan An’s eyes widened when she heard Wen Ying’s answer. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She didn’t know if she had overlooked it or if it wasn’t written, but she had no idea that Wen Ying hadn’t even had a bed to sleep in before.

Her throat tightened for a moment. Yan An lowered her head, casually rubbing her eyes. She felt an increasing contempt for the original owner. How could a person be like that? Even if you didn’t like someone, you shouldn’t torment them like that!

“Don’t sleep in the kitchen anymore. Sleep with me,” Yan An said.

She couldn’t stand the thought of herself sleeping comfortably in a bed while Wen Ying was in the kitchen. She still considered herself a decent person.

Wen Ying looked at Yan An, a little dazed. Her eyebrows slowly furrowed, and a hint of confusion appeared in her eyes.

Could memory loss really change a person’s personality this much? Could someone who was so disliked before now be treated so normally?

“There’s no need,” Wen Ying refused.

Even if Yan An allowed her to share a bed now because of her memory loss, when she regained her memory later and recalled the current situation, she would probably hate her even more.

Although when she first married Yan An, Wen Ying had held a small hope that they, being two women, might live in mutual respect, unlike her two older sisters. But reality had quickly shattered that hope.

Let alone mutual respect, Yan An hadn’t even treated her with a normal expression.

“You…” Yan An frowned. She hadn’t expected Wen Ying to refuse. She would rather sleep in the kitchen than be close to her?

“Do you hate me?” Yan An asked.

Wen Ying, who had just finished cleaning the tea bowls, stood silently. Although the years of hardship had worn her down beyond her youthful peers, in this moment, upon hearing Yan An’s words, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of grievance.

“It’s you who hates me,” she said, enunciating each word clearly and solemnly, leaving no room for Yan An to misunderstand her meaning.

Yan An looked at her slightly reddened eyes and started to feel flustered, unable to say a single word.

This made it look like she had been bullying her.

Well, after knowing what the original owner had done, her saying that was indeed a form of bullying.