Hailee had a dream. In the dream, there was a girl with the same name as her, but much prettier.
The girl was beautiful and the only daughter in her family. Since birth, everyone had spoiled and protected her.
Maybe because she was so protected, she was naive and didn't understand the hardships of life.
Two years ago, some educated youths were sent to their village. Hailee asked her brother to take her to welcome them. Who knew that visit would lead to a tragic relationship.
Among the youths was a man named Mike. He looked gentle and refined. While others looked down on the village's ox cart and called them "country bumpkins," Mike smiled kindly and thanked them for coming to pick them up.
Not only did Mike not look down on them, he even chatted with them happily along the way. He seemed very friendly.
Eighteen-year-old Hailee had never met anyone like him. She immediately had a crush on him and started paying attention to him.
When she found out that Mike was weak and couldn't do farm work, she begged her father, the village leader, to give him an easier job. Her father strictly refused, so she secretly started helping Mike.
Since Mike didn't earn enough work points to get enough food, she gave him her saved-up pocket money.
When his clothes were torn, she secretly mended them or saved up to buy him new ones.
When he refused, she thought it was because he had good morals. But Hailee could clearly see that this was fake, just a trick to fool her.
If Mike truly didn't want help, he could have returned it. But every time, he acted like it was hard for him to accept, then still took it and said, "Just this once."
If that wasn't fake kindness, what was?
But in the dream, Hailee was foolish. She couldn't see his true nature and believed he had noble character.
So for two years, while Mike lived in the village, Hailee used everything the Su Family had saved for her to support him. Because of her poor diet that year, she became thin, while Mike looked healthier and whiter than when he first arrived.
Hailee did much more for Mike than that.
Last year, when she graduated high school, the Su Family didn't want her to suffer in the fields. They used their connections to get her a job as a teacher at the commune.
Then Mike said he admired teachers the most and wished he could teach too. Hailee, without a second thought, gave the job to him.
At the time, what did Mike say?
"You've done so much for me. I won't let you down."
Hailee was moved. She thought it was Mike finally returning her feelings, that it was his confession. She thought they could finally be together.
But what happened? Not even two months after Mike became a teacher, there were rumors that he was with someone else.
She asked Mike, and he pretended to be innocent. He lied and said those were just baseless rumors, that he and the girl were just normal colleagues.
Hailee believed him. Even after she saw them walking back from the commune laughing together several times, she still believed him whenever he said something nice.
She was so afraid that Mike would fall for someone else, she treated him even better.
She rarely worked in the fields, but she started going daily to earn work points. She wrote letters to her older brother in the army, lying and saying she needed money, just to buy things for Mike.
She even went to the black market in secret to trade for food for him.
Mike said he didn't want it, said he felt sorry for her, but in reality, he accepted everything and took it home to eat with his mistress.
Hailee was too deep in it to see the truth, but the rest of the Su family could see clearly. They tried to talk to Hailee, but she insisted that Mike loved her. She even had a big fight with them because of him.
When the Su family went to confront Mike, that jerk would twist the story and exaggerate things to tell Hailee. He would even pretend to be helpless and say he had to break up with her.
With Mike stirring up trouble between them, the Su family had been living under a lot of pressure recently.
Until a few days ago, news came out that Mike was going to marry Yara. Hailee got furious and went to threaten Yara, telling her to stay away from Mike.
Yara showed her the marriage certificate between her and Mike and told Hailee to hide nearby. Then, right in front of Hailee, she asked Mike about his feelings for Hailee.
What did Mike say back then?
Mike looked at Yara with the same deep, affectionate gaze he once used on Hailee and said, "What, are you jealous? I told you already, she was the one clinging to me. I had nothing to do with her."
"I made it very clear to her before. The one I like is you. She just wouldn't let go. And her dad used his position as team leader to pressure me. What could I do?"
Mike had never said anything like that to her. Her dad never used his authority to force Mike to treat her well. Hearing him lie like that, Hailee couldn't hold it in anymore. She ran out. She wanted to confront Mike face-to-face.
Then Mike dropped his act. "Like you? Don't be ridiculous. How could I possibly like a village girl like you? I've always liked Yara. If Yara hadn't said it was fun watching you get played like a fool, do you think I'd waste my time pretending with you?"
"Someone like you disgusts me just by looking at you."
She had poured her heart into him like feeding meat to a dog. For that dog, she had even hurt her own loving family. Feeling hopeless, Hailee jumped into the river.
Whoosh—Hailee woke up from her dream. She shot up, breathing heavily, and patted her chest.
She muttered to herself, "Oh my god, what kind of brainless love-addict is this? Even that veggie-digging Wang Baochuan would be ashamed."
The dream helped Hailee understand. She really had died, but somehow ended up reborn in the body of this river-jumping Hailee.
Thinking about what the original Hailee went through made her grit her teeth in anger.
She kept talking to herself, "I don't know how this happened, and I didn't choose to be in your body, but now that I am, your family is my family. Your enemies are my enemies."
"Don't worry. That scumbag who took what was yours, and Yara, that fake innocent, I won't let them off."
Hailee hadn't survived in the apocalypse because of her looks. It was her fierce, ruthless nature.
She never waited overnight to get revenge. No matter who it was, if they crossed her, even if it meant going down together, she would make them pay.
Now that she had become the Hailee of the 1960s, that meant Mike had scammed her, and he even had the life of the original Hailee on his hands.
Hailee gritted her teeth. "Scumbag Mike, just you wait. Once I get my strength back, I'll settle this score with you, nice and slow."
"I'll make sure you learn what happens when you mess with Hailee the Hellbringer."
It had been a long time since she felt this angry.
Mike had officially caught her attention.