"Iris Ashford, if I said I’d marry you, then I will. But if you bully Vivian again, I won’t let it slide!"

"Hand over the bead around your neck. Vivian taking a liking to your stuff is your good fortune, so don’t act clueless!"

Iris had only just sorted through the original owner’s memories when those words crashed into her ears and lit her temper on the spot.

She looked up and saw a man who was decent-looking enough, dressed in a white shirt and green military trousers, standing over her and staring down with nothing but disgust in his eyes.

When she saw him reach out to snatch the bead from her neck, she didn’t even pause to think. She lifted her leg and kicked him hard.

The man wasn’t prepared at all. He was sent sprawling onto the ground.

Clutching his stomach, which hurt so badly his face had gone pale, he stared at Iris in utter disbelief.

"Iris Ashford, you—"

"Me what? You really think you’re somebody?"

"My parents wanted me married into your family because they traded resources and connections for it. They weren’t begging you to take me. This is called each side getting what it wants, got it? Idiot!"

"If you were really that into Vivian Ashford, why didn’t you say so sooner? Why didn’t you make a scene with your own family? What are you strutting around in front of me for? And now you want to steal my bead too? Keep dreaming!"

"You two are a perfect pair of filthy dogs. Neither of you is any good!"

After tearing into Nathan Holloway, Iris conveniently dragged Vivian into it too.

"Go back and make it clear to Vivian Ashford. Since she’s already acknowledged her birth parents and cut ties with my mom and dad, she’d better stay far away from me and stop stirring up trouble!"

"If I catch her pulling any more tricks, I’ll deal with her... and you too."

After saying that, Iris didn’t spare them another glance. She turned and walked off.

Only then did Nathan finally come back to himself. He scrambled up from the ground and shouted at her back,

"Iris Ashford, you shrew! Believe it or not, I can go home right now and break off the engagement!"

That shrew had only just returned to the Ashford family, and the Ashfords had already gone running to beg his grandfather, asking the old man to force him to marry her.

Otherwise, how could he possibly be willing to marry a woman so plain and so rustic?

Iris Ashford did not even spare them a glance. She only lifted a hand and waved behind her.

"Fine by me. If this engagement stays on, then I’m the dog."

"And one more thing. Everything you took, every last bit of it, you’d better return it to me. If you try to play tricks, I’ll make sure you learn what regret feels like."

Nathan Holloway was so angry his face turned dark and stiff. He shouted at her back, "Iris Ashford, don’t you regret this later! You really think you’re some kind of prize? Looking like that, who’d want you?"

Of course Iris Ashford would not regret it. She was no longer the same Iris Ashford who used to swallow every insult and keep quiet.

As for being ugly? Country-looking?

Iris Ashford lowered her head and looked at the baggy gray cloth clothes hanging off her body, then reached up and touched her messy hair. It really was not much to look at.

But she knew perfectly well that waking up in 1973 was already a done deal.

This body itself was not bad at all. The way she looked now was only a disguise she had put on herself.

The original girl had worked like an ox in her foster parents’ home for eighteen years. What she ate, what she wore, what she used, all of it had always been the worst. She had only just returned to her biological parents’ side two days ago.

Her father was a brigade commander, and her mother a professor at Jing University. By rights, after finally finding their daughter, they should have cherished her properly. But they had run straight into hard luck.

The original girl’s father had been set up, and it was clear he was about to be sent down.

They felt guilty, so they shamelessly went to an old friend for help, trying to arrange a marriage for the daughter they had just found. At least that way, she would have a decent place to land and would not have to suffer alongside them.

As for Vivian Ashford, the foster daughter they had raised for eighteen years, the moment she heard they were about to be sent down, she packed up a good pile of things and ran back to her biological parents’ home. She also cut ties with Father Qiao and Mother Qiao cleanly and completely.

It was only after Vivian Ashford returned to the Qiao family that Iris Ashford learned the truth about her own background.

Iris Ashford was slowly sorting through the original girl’s memories when suddenly, someone stepped in front of her and blocked her path.

Vivian Ashford stood there before her, chin lifted, one hand stretched out as if she had every right in the world.

"Hand over the bead bracelet."

Iris Ashford looked at her coldly, then let her gaze slide past her to the two brothers behind her, the same two who had loved bullying the original girl since childhood.

"What gives you the right?"

Vivian Ashford lifted a hand and pointed straight at the bead hanging at Iris Ashford's neck.

"Because that belongs to the Ashfords. You don't get to take it."

Her eyes locked onto that bead as if she wanted to bore a hole through it.