Chapter 4

When I opened my eyes again, I was in the countryside.

Raina stood alone watching me: "Sean is so good to you. He was worried you'd suffer here, so he came specially to check on your future living conditions."

"You'd better learn to adapt. After all, in this remote rural area, you can't just sit around waiting to be fed. You have to work the fields."

After speaking, she went outside.

Holding Sean's arm, she introduced him to her parents: "This is my boyfriend. That woman inside is his sister. She was raised too delicately at home, so they're sending her here for you to toughen her up."

"Treat her however you'd treat any other girl."

Her last sentence was in a heavily accented dialect.

Translated, it meant: treat her like a pig, a dog, or livestock—anything goes.

She walked to my side, smiling brightly at me, still speaking in dialect: "Right, bitch?"

She thought I couldn't understand and kindly explained: "Sophia, I'm praising you."

"Aren't you happy?"

Expressionless, I looked at her smug face, grabbed her father's ashtray from the bed—still full of cigarette ash—and splashed it directly on her face. I mimicked her words: "Bitch."

"I'm praising you too."

Raina's face instantly turned ashen gray.

She shrieked and reached up to touch her face. The more disheveled she became, the more she cried from anger.

Sean quickly grabbed her hand, pulled out a wet wipe, and wiped her face.

He looked at me with fury: "Raina just had a miscarriage. Her health is already poor."

"How could you do this to her?!"

Raina's parents got agitated too. Her father picked up the coal tongs from the floor and was about to hit me with them: "You bitch! How dare you hurt my daughter!"

I grabbed a pillow and threw it at him: "So what if I hit her? Kill me if you dare."

"She seduced my man and got me sent to this godforsaken place."

"If you don't like it, call the police. Get yourselves all arrested."

The other neighbors who came to watch heard my words, and their eyes changed as they looked at them.

"I thought his daughter married a rich man. Turns out she's a mistress."

"And she brought the real wife here. How wicked."

"Wait, I heard she was dating him properly and they were going to get married officially?"

Raina couldn't stand the pointing and gossip. She snatched the wet wipe from Sean's hand and threw it away.

She snapped back at the crowd: "You're listening to her bullshit! I'm Sean's wife. Ask him if you don't believe me."

"Sean, say something! You promised me!"

Sean had already slipped back into character. He touched her head, helping her out: "Everyone, stop talking nonsense. Raina and I are the couple."

"She's just a woman trying to seduce me. I sent her here to teach her a small lesson. I didn't expect she still hasn't changed."

His expression was full of disgust: "Now she's even trying to frame Raina."

"I remember Raina telling me your village has ways of dealing with women like this..."

My heart suddenly lurched.

I had a bad feeling.

"It's time to teach her a proper lesson."

I slowly backed away until my back hit the wall. The room was locked.

Several burly women rushed in with willow branch whips.

They lashed down at me.

"Mistresses are possessed by demons!"