C1 Crossing Through

"Sis, what's wrong with you? Please wake up... sob..."

A weak female voice echoed in her ears, filled with heartbreak and breaking into sobs.

Further away...

"Hmph, just a burden! If she had to die, couldn't she wait a couple more days? Now we're left with this mess!"

"Exactly, Mom, I've been saying we should kick them out. Now look, more trouble for us!"

What on earth?

Xia felt like her head was about to split open, surrounded by unfamiliar voices, all dripping with disdain and contempt, except for the earlier crying.

What the heck? When did she get to know such a crowd?

She couldn't help but open her eyes. Above her was a broken beam covered in cobwebs, and Xia worried it might collapse. Suddenly, someone hugged her tightly, and the crying grew louder, "Sis, you're awake! Thank goodness you're okay, sob... Sis, why did you do something so foolish..."

With the embrace, her head throbbed even more, and Xia finally realized the pain.

She reached up to touch her head, finding her hand covered in blood, now dried to a dark red.

So the headache wasn't just in her mind!

Looking down at the two little girls clinging tightly to her, Xiaoxia noticed their clothes were made of rough fabric, patched in several places. Both girls looked malnourished, with one crying continuously while the other only made occasional "ah, ah" sounds. Was she mute?

Xiaoxia pushed them away without hesitation. She wasn't used to being hugged by strangers. Xiaodong, caught off guard by the shove, fell to the ground. She exchanged a bewildered glance with Xiaoqiu and stared at Xiaoxia. "Sister, what's wrong with you?"

Xiaoxia ignored her.

She slowly turned her head to look around, realizing that the visible ceiling beam was just the tip of the iceberg.

The house was in a state of utter disrepair. As Xiaoxia surveyed the room, only one phrase came to mind: bare walls. Looking again at the girls' clothing, she felt a dryness in her throat.

"What is this place?"

Xiaodong looked at her in confusion, suspecting her sister had hit her head. She quickly scrambled up from the floor. "This is our home! Sister, what's wrong? Don't scare me!"

Xiaoxia stood frozen.

The pain from her forehead was intense, and from that point, unfamiliar memories began to flood her mind, gradually filling her entire consciousness. As she sorted through them, Xiaoxia's face fell into a frown.

What on earth? Can you really time travel just by taking a nap? And where on earth am I? When people time travel, they usually end up in a palace or a mansion. Why did I land in such a poor family?

To make matters worse, I've been labeled as a jinx!

"Sis..." Xiaoqiu, who had never seen her sister like this, timidly tugged at her sleeve.

Xiaoxia looked over, speechless, but her heart unexpectedly softened.

Having received all the memories, she naturally recognized the two in front of her. The one crying and speaking was her younger sister, Xiaodong, who was frail from birth due to being premature. The one who couldn't speak was her other sister, Xiaoqiu, who had become deaf and mute after a high fever in childhood, as the family couldn't afford medical treatment.

"I'm okay," she reassured them.

Just then, the sound of an argument came from outside.

"Your daughter jinxed my son to death! You must return the silver dollar and pay for the funeral expenses!"

An elderly yet feisty voice retorted, "Don't even think about it! A married granddaughter is like spilled water; Xiaoxia is part of your family now. Either take her back, or accept your misfortune!"

Xiaoxia recognized the voice as belonging to her grandmother, and several other voices chimed in, belonging to the other adults in the family.

They were the ones who had been oppressing the three sisters for years. As if that wasn't enough, they sold her off to be a wife for a fool, all for a couple of bucks. Unfortunately, the fool tripped and hit his head on the wall on their wedding day, and that was the end of him. Afterward, the fool's family's business started to falter.

Naturally, they blamed it all on her, the girl rumored to bring bad luck to her father, mother, and sisters.

Right now, the two families were outside, locked in a heated argument.

Xiaoxia was almost amused by how angry she was. Imagine, she was the CEO of a multinational company, and now she had to put up with this nonsense? The original owner of this body had been timid, weak, and insecure, but that wasn't her style.

As the shouting outside grew nastier, Xiaoxia ignored her two sisters' attempts to hold her back and walked straight out the door.

The moment she opened it, sunlight flooded in, brightening the dim room. Xiaoxia stood there in the doorway, with dark red bloodstains on her forehead. Probably due to the blood loss, her face was pale, and the sunlight only made her look more ghostly.

No one expected that the "dead" Xiaoxia would come back to life.

Years of navigating the business world had given Xiaoxia a natural air of authority. Although this body's frailty had dampened it a bit, the sharpness in her eyes was as intense as ever.

Both groups immediately stopped arguing and stared at her in shock. It was the folks from the "Idiot's Home" who reacted first. The woman leading them screamed, "It's a ghost!" and scrambled away, stumbling as she went. Seeing their matriarch flee, the others lost all interest in the argument and quickly followed suit, leaving the place deserted in no time.

Shi Xiaoxia hadn't expected such a reaction just by showing up without even saying a word. But after a moment's thought, she realized it was probably due to their superstitions.

The remaining people, however, wouldn't be so easy to deal with. Her Second Aunt, Zhou Guihua, was braver than the rest. After glancing at Xiaoxia's shadow in the sunlight to confirm she wasn't a ghost, she mustered the courage to step forward and hesitantly asked, "You're not dead?"

Xiaoxia resisted the urge to roll her eyes and stared at her steadily. Zhou Guihua remembered Xiaoxia as someone who was always easy to push around, never daring to meet anyone's gaze like this.

Then Third Aunt, Zhang Rongrong, approached with a sharp voice, "No wonder you're a jinx. Even death couldn't keep you away. Mom, we can't keep her around anymore. Not only is she a waste of food, but what if her bad luck strikes again?"

Their grandmother, who had been the fiercest in the argument earlier but was now the most timid, finally snapped back to reality.

Now, they had confirmed that Xiaoxia was still alive. She let out a cold snort, "You've got quite the tough life. Well, since you're not dead, you saw those folks from the other family coming to claim you. Since you're married into their family, you're one of them now. Pack up and go."

Second Aunt chuckled, "That's right, Mom. This is how it should be. Let her go back to that family; it'll shut them up. Trading a sensible daughter-in-law for a foolish son isn't a bad deal for them!"

Xiaoxia frowned. The original owner of this body clearly wasn't much of a threat. Seeing her silence, they actually stepped forward to drag her off to that family.

But Xiaoxia wasn't foolish. Her body was still weak, and her two sisters weren't fighters either. Going head-to-head with these people was a losing battle. But go to that family? No way.

With that thought, she simply rolled her eyes and collapsed softly to the ground.