The red candle flickered, and the firelight cast twisted and swaying shadows on the earthen wall.
Su Wanqing opened her eyes suddenly, her chest heaving violently, like a drowning person finally surfacing.
Before she could clear her thoughts, a fragmented and chaotic memory flooded into her mind - being sold to the Shen family for ten taels of silver by her mother's family, the whole village bursting into laughter during the church visit, and her mother-in-law, Zhao, slapped her in public and made her mouth bleed: "You have entered my Shen family, and it is your blessing to give me a son!"
She looked down at her hands - they were rough and cracked, with black mud embedded in the nails, and the faded and yellow wedding dress on her body still had a musty smell.
A broken bowl overturned in the corner of the room, and the sour smell of rotten rice mixed with the smell of wood ash entered the nose.
