A Love Deal

Lily Carter opened her eyes and was immediately shoved hard.

“Little brat, don’t think you can pin this on me! I only gave you a little push; stop playing dead!”

A sharp, piercing voice filled her ears, laced with a rural accent, and she could faintly hear a child sobbing nearby.

Struggling to lift her eyelids, Lily focused on the middle-aged woman in front of her, her brow furrowing in confusion.

What was happening?

She wasn’t dead?!

Just as she was trying to make sense of it all, Lily felt a gentle tug at her pant leg. Looking down, she saw a pair of tear-streaked eyes gazing up at her.

“Mommy, I promise I’ll be good! Please don’t sell us!”

The little girl, no more than two or three years old, was painfully thin, clearly malnourished. Her clothes were tattered, patched up repeatedly, and dirty beyond recognition.

Lily felt even more bewildered.

What was going on?

At that moment, a little boy suddenly pulled the girl behind him, glaring protectively. “She’s not our mom! She’s a bad person!”

“Just hurry up! I’ll give you 500 for the kids, sell or not!”

Lily’s mind exploded as a flood of memories rushed in.

She wanted to cry.

But Lily couldn’t cry!

She had somehow crossed into a book!

She had become the villainess with the same name!

In the 21st century, Lily was a top chef, blending Eastern and Western cuisines, but during a cooking competition, she was fatally bitten by a snake that had been switched with a non-poisonous one.

And now, she found herself in the world of “The Military Wife of the 70s,” where the original Lily was foolishly deceived by her friends and a scumbag boyfriend, leading her to be sent to the countryside.

To continue profiting from the original Lily, they set her up, getting her drunk and sending her to the male lead’s bed.

The next day, the scumbag caught her in the act and turned the tables, claiming he would take responsibility. But the original Lily, infatuated with the male lead, felt guilty and paid him off, even giving him the living expenses sent by the male lead every month.

Now, the scumbag wanted to take advantage of the situation and sell her two children...

“What are you thinking? Hurry up and sell them!”

The middle-aged woman waved her hands in front of Lily, her greedy eyes fixed on the little boy.

“Not selling! Human trafficking? Aren’t you afraid of retribution?”

Lily felt a surge of anger as she unleashed a torrent of insults she had been holding back, grabbing the two children and preparing to leave. The little girl held her hand, while the boy stood protectively in front of his sister, looking wary.

Seeing her attempt to leave, the woman quickly changed her tone: “I’ll add fifty. The little girl isn’t worth much; don’t be ungrateful!”

“Get lost!”

Lily was secretly relieved. Thankfully, she had arrived just in time to prevent the original from selling the children.

The male lead’s mother was kind and tolerant, treating the original Lily with leniency, while cherishing her two grandchildren.

After the original Lily sold her children, her mother-in-law planned to expose her to the village committee, but the original Lily, terrified, poisoned her mother-in-law to death.

Once the male lead discovered the truth, he searched for the children, during which he encountered the female lead.

However...

The girl had been passed around and ultimately sold to a gang of beggars, left to fend for herself, and as she grew older, she was sold again, chained up and forced to bear children...

The original Lily also faced the consequences of her actions, dying in prison after being beaten repeatedly.

Thinking of the original’s tragic end, Lily shivered. She had to change the fate of this villainess and survive until the end!

“I’m here on behalf of Guo Lang. If you don’t sell, you’ll regret it!”

The middle-aged woman crossed her arms, waiting for Lily to yield.

Hearing Guo Lang’s name made the little boy pull away from her hand, and the little girl’s smile faded, her lips trembling.

Lily sensed the shift in their emotions and sighed inwardly. It seemed they were aware of the original’s connection to Guo Lang...

The idea of selling the children for money had also come from Guo Lang. He had been involved in shady dealings and had set his sights on the children, even hiring traffickers.

The original Lily had been like a puppet, doing whatever Guo Lang said, hoping to win back his affection.

“Just give me the kids, and I’ll get Guo Lang to pay!”

“You can ask Guo Lang for the money; I won’t sell!”

Lily felt both amused and angry. The original was such a fool, both naive and wicked, allowing herself to be toyed with while enjoying it.

“Hey, you!”

Lily pushed the woman aside and angrily declared, “If you don’t leave, I’ll report you to the village committee!”

After saying that, she picked up the little girl, who had curled up in fear, and urged the little boy to follow her as they headed towards the dilapidated house at the east end of the village.

“Mommy, you’re not selling us?”

The little girl nestled in her arms, her big watery eyes looking up at her with a mix of hope and fear.

“I won’t sell you, I promise! Can you trust me, Xiaodong and Xiaoxiao?”

“Okay!”

The little girl smiled sweetly, planting a kiss on Lily’s cheek.

The little boy remained silent, observing Lily like a little adult, sensing that today she was different from usual. She had never held his sister before.

But this woman was known for her deceit, having tricked them into following her under the pretense of finding sweet fruits in the back mountain.

Lily glanced at the two children, thinking that her son might be harder to deal with, perhaps having inherited the male lead’s stubbornness...

Upon returning home, Lily’s mother-in-law hurriedly called the grandchildren to her side.

Having raised the male lead alone, she was exhausted and bedridden with pain in her legs, which had given the original Lily an opportunity to take advantage of her.

Seeing that the children were safe and sound, without a hair out of place, Lily’s mother-in-law let out a sigh of relief and asked where they had been.

The little boy glanced at Lily but said nothing.

The little girl didn’t call her mom either, pointing at Lily and saying, “She tried to sell me and my brother to a trafficker!”

“What a sin!”

Lily’s mother-in-law sighed, angrily slapping her own disobedient leg.

They were so close to losing her precious grandchildren. What kind of sin had the Lin family committed to marry such a disaster into their family?

Watching her mother-in-law break down, Lily hid to the side, not daring to speak!

After a while, Lily’s mother-in-law, as if resigned, pulled out three dollars from her waistband and handed it to Lily.

“This is all I have left. Take it and buy some flowers. Just don’t sell Xiaodong and Xiaoxiao.”

“I’ll be able to work again in a few days; I won’t let you starve, mother.”

Lily listened to her mother-in-law and thought to herself how impressive it was.

In other families, the mother-in-law bullies the daughter-in-law, but in the original Lily’s case, it was all reversed. What had the original done to scare her mother-in-law so much?

No, she had to change her image in the male lead’s mother’s eyes, so she returned the three dollars that had been shoved into her hands.

“Mom, I’ve thought it through. I want to live my life with Lin Chu, taking care of the kids and honoring you!”