After the Male Protagonist Transmigrated into the Body of a Widowed Spouse - Chapter 1

Looking at the dilapidated house in front of him, Gu Lin was still unwilling to believe that he had transmigrated.

He lay on a thin, brittle wooden bed. With just a slight turn of his body, the frame let out a creaking sound. Raising his eyes to the wooden beams and roof tiles above, he fell into deep thought.

Gu Lin clearly remembered being struck by a car that ran a red light while on his way to a part-time job, falling unconscious from heavy blood loss. Although he vaguely heard the ambulance arrive to rush him to the hospital, and clearly heard the doctor announce that the surgery was successful, that was when he had completely lost consciousness.

Never had he expected that upon opening his eyes, instead of the white ceiling of a hospital, he would see thick roof beams and gray tiles.

Gu Lin was completely dazed, assuming he hadn’t fully woken up yet. He closed his eyes and slept a little longer, but when he opened them again and saw the exact same scenery, he finally confirmed that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him. He had arrived in an unfamiliar environment.

Why was he here? Before Gu Lin could ponder further, a sharp, piercing pain suddenly shot through his brain.

The young man painfully frowned and clutched his head as wave after wave of memories rushed into his mind like a surging tide. Gu Lin’s expression gradually turned grim.

He had transmigrated. What was even more absurd was that he had transmigrated into a male-protagonist web novel titled The Hegemony of Statecraft.

He hadn’t transmigrated as the protagonist, a supporting character, or even the ultimate villain. Instead, he had transmigrated into a minor cannon-fodder character who tormented and abused the male lead in the early stages of the story. The original owner shared a very similar name with him: Gu Lin. He was the second wife married by the male lead’s father. Relying on his youth, beauty, and the doting affection of the male lead’s father, Gu Lin always bullied the male lead behind the father’s back. Later on, after the male lead’s father died from severe injuries sustained while hunting in the mountains, the original owner was unwilling to remain a widow. He planned to run away with the family’s remaining silver and elope with his secret lover, only for his plot to be exposed and discovered by the male lead two days before their escape, after which he was killed by the protagonist.

At this thought, Gu Lin couldn’t help but gasp.

He hurriedly reviewed the original owner’s past to see how far things had gone with the lover. After flipping through the memories, Gu Lin discovered that the original owner had just finished handling the funeral of the male lead’s father and had died of sudden cardiac arrest from sheer exhaustion. Coincidentally, he had transmigrated right at that moment, meaning the original owner had not yet discussed eloping with the lover.

Gu Lin let out a sigh of relief, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

His life was saved after all; he had no intention of taking the fall and dying for the original owner.

Suddenly, a knock on the door broke the quietness of the room. Gu Lin’s eyelids twitched with an ominous premonition.

Sure enough, a low male voice came from outside: “Sweetheart, it’s me. Open the door quickly.”

Hearing this, Gu Lin felt his scalp tingle, as both the words and the voice matched the secret lover from the original owner’s memories perfectly.

There was no way Gu Lin was going to open the door for him. He called out to the outside, “Leave immediately, or I’ll start shouting for people.”

The voice outside paused for a moment before Liu Sanlai spoke in a clinging, greasy tone: “Sweetheart, are you still throwing a tantrum with me? Stop being angry, let your husband in so I can dote on you properly.”

Gu Lin felt so nauseated by the man’s words that he almost threw up. He sternly shouted, “Get lost right now!”

Gu Lin couldn’t understand how the original owner had managed to get mixed up with such a disgusting piece of work.

Seeing that Gu Lin’s attitude was entirely different from before and that every word he uttered pushed him away, Liu Sanlai’s previously amorous and lustful expression instantly vanished. As a grown man, how could he endure being ordered around and ridden over by a ge? Regardless of whether Gu Lin was just playing hard to get, Liu Sanlai intended to teach him a proper lesson so the other would know that he would be the master of the house even after they got married.

He certainly wasn’t as spineless as Hunter Zheng, who used to spoil Gu Lin.

A look of anger stained Liu Sanlai’s face as he slammed against the door and cursed, “You little bitch, don’t be ungrateful! Open the door and let me in right now, or don’t ever expect me to marry you later!”

Though he cursed like that, Liu Sanlai had no intention of calling off the marriage. Gu Lin’s appearance was famously striking across dozens of villages; how could he bear to let go of such a beautiful ge? Furthermore, Hunter Zheng had hunted for many years and must have left behind a significant amount of money. Liu Sanlai was absolutely determined not to let slip such a fat piece of meat.

Watching the wooden door begin to shake from the impacts, Gu Lin dragged his weak body up, got out of bed, and picked up a pair of scissors from the vanity table. A fierce glint flashed across his face. If the man dared to break in, he wouldn’t hold back.

Suddenly, a commotion arose outside the door.

The village chief shouted angrily, “Liu Sanlai, what on earth are you doing?!”

A flash of inspiration crossed his mind, and Gu Lin knew his chance to completely shake off Liu Sanlai had arrived.

He put down the scissors, pinched his own thigh until his eyes welled up with heat, and then flung open the bedroom door. Running out, he burst into tears of apparent terror and cried out, “Uncles and aunts, save me! Liu Sanlai took advantage of the fact that there was no one else home to break in, trying to force me to marry him and take the silver left behind by my late husband! If I refused, he threatened to ruin my reputation outside!”

“My husband has only just passed away, and already someone is bullying their way into our home. My life is truly bitter!”

The slender, frail ge sobbed with his entire body trembling, his voice breaking with unstoppable grief and sorrow whenever he mentioned his deceased husband. With his pale complexion and red, tear-soaked eyes continuously shedding drops, he looked thoroughly pitiful and deserving of sympathy.

Although Gu Lin was a man, he had witnessed plenty of loud, tearful weeping fits from unruly women in modern times, so putting on a crying act wasn’t too difficult for him.

Human nature naturally tends to sympathize with the weak. Even though the original owner had been spoiled in the past, he had never genuinely offended anyone in the village. Moreover, Hunter Zheng had been a kind-hearted man during his lifetime, and many present had received favors from him. Now that he was gone and his widow and child were being bullied, they naturally couldn’t just stand by and watch.

Hearing Gu Lin try to distance himself entirely from their relationship, Liu Sanlai’s eyes turned red as he pointed and cursed, “You bitch, you’re clearly spouting nonsense! Just watch how I beat you to death.”

With those words, he lunged forward, trying to strike Gu Lin. However, the strong young men in the crowd wouldn’t allow him to act so lawless; several of them stepped forward together, intercepted Liu Sanlai, and forced him down to his knees.

Immediately, a stream of dirty and foul language poured from Liu Sanlai’s mouth, even boasting about various intimate encounters he claimed to have had with the original owner. Seeing this, the onlookers cast suspicious glances at the young man.

Seeing this, Gu Lin let his tears fall straight down his cheeks into the dirt, wearing a look of utter wretchedness as he said to Liu Sanlai, “If I truly had an illicit affair with you, how would I dare to make such a big scene? It’s clearly because you saw that my husband is gone and the Zheng family lacks a grown man to stand as head of the household, so you wanted to bully me. But don’t forget, the Zheng family still has male heirs; how could we ever let you come here and swallow up an orphan’s inheritance?”

With that, he looked toward the crowd, his pale face tinged with a streak of resilience as he said, “Dear uncles and aunts, my husband treated me so well. How could I lack any shred of conscience and abandon our past affection to be with someone else the moment he passed away? If I have ever done anything to wrong my husband, let me, Gu Lin, meet a miserable death!”

Ancient people placed great weight on oaths, especially toxic curses like this that could not be uttered lightly, believing that the gods above would listen. Seeing Gu Lin make such a severe vow, everyone present believed his words.

Besides, looking at Gu Lin’s flower-like appearance even without a trace of powder or makeup, if he wanted to remarry later, plenty of suitors would line up begging for his hand. He would never lower himself to look at Liu Sanlai.

Seeing that the crowd believed him, Gu Lin lowered his gaze slightly and pretended to wipe away his tears.

Of course he dared to swear; it wasn’t him who had wronged Hunter Zheng. The one who had an affair with Liu Sanlai was the original owner, Gu Lin, which had nothing to do with him.

The young men stuffed a rag into Liu Sanlai’s mouth to keep him from spewing any more filthy talk that would offend everyone’s ears.

A middle-aged woman walked over and placed a comforting arm around Gu Lin’s shoulder. Gu Lin, unaccustomed to being so close to a woman, stiffened his body for a moment. Believing he was heartbroken to the extreme, Sister Zhao comforted him, “Mrs. Zheng, stop crying. Right now, it’s just you and little Zheng in the household. If you cry yourself sick and collapse, what will happen to this family?”

Sister Zhao’s family had also received kindness from Hunter Zheng, and seeing that their benefactor was gone and Gu Lin was being bullied made her feel deeply distressed.

A middle-aged man in the crowd also spoke up to the village chief, “Village Chief, a widow remarrying is standard practice, but there is no such thing as a widow being forced into remarrying. If everyone acts like Liu Sanlai, who in other villages would ever dare to marry their daughters and ges to Lower River Village in the future?”

Upon hearing this, the others chimed in. Their sons were all approaching marriageable age, and they could not let a rotten apple like Liu Sanlai ruin their marriage prospects.

Although he was the village chief of Lower River Village, he didn’t hold as much absolute authority as village chiefs in other villages. Chiefs elsewhere were often heads of prominent local clans with substantial power, but the residents of Lower River Village had fled there as refugees over a dozen years ago, and they didn’t all share the same surname. Therefore, before making decisions on certain matters, the village chief had to listen to the opinions of the villagers.

Seeing that everyone had unanimously decided to punish Liu Sanlai, the village chief pondered for a moment and said, “In that case, banish Liu Sanlai from Lower River Village.”

The village chief had his own considerations. Liu Sanlai had committed many petty thefts and wrongdoings in the past, but because he was young, they hadn’t cast him out of the village for fear of ruining Lower River Village’s reputation. Now that he was an adult, they no longer needed to harbor such concerns.

Furthermore, Lower River Village was already marginalized as a village of outsiders. In recent years, their situation had only improved slightly by arranging marriages with neighboring villages. If Liu Sanlai single-handedly ruined the marriage prospects of Lower River Village’s younger generation, he would be the first not to allow it.

With a stern expression, the village chief said to Gu Lin, “Mrs. Zheng, rest assured and focus on raising little Zheng. No one will ever come to force you into remarrying again.”

Gu Lin wiped the tear tracks from his face and expressed his gratitude to the village chief and the surrounding uncles, older brothers, and aunts, saying, “Thank you, Village Chief and everyone, for your righteous assistance.”

Looking at the delicate, flowerbud-like ge standing before him, the village chief let out an internal sigh. This young ge was only eighteen years old. Now that Hunter Zheng had just passed away, he had temporarily lost his pillar of support and only wanted to stay with the child to live quietly. But as time passed, how could he possibly hold out alone? Most likely, once the mourning period ended, he would end up remarrying anyway.

Yet, saying nothing more, the chief patted the young boy beside him and said, “Go on, little Zheng, go back home with your father.”

Hearing this, Gu Lin finally noticed the young boy standing next to the village chief.

This must be his stepson, Zheng Hao, the male lead of the original novel.

Gu Lin looked at Zheng Hao. The dark-skinned boy looked back at him. Despite being a child, the boy’s pitch-black eyes seemed entirely devoid of light. As Gu Lin shifted his gaze away from Zheng Hao’s eyes, his expression paused. The child’s tender face was filled with untamed hostility and ferocity.

And all of those emotions were directed straight at him.

Gu Lin swallowed hard.

After offering a few more words of comfort to Gu Lin, the crowd dispersed, leaving only the adult and the child facing each other in the empty courtyard.