Chapter 1

"Vanessa West, remember that there will be a locust plague this autumn. It'll be a waste to plant wheat. You should harvest the saplings, sell them for silage, and use that money to make a fish pond. It'll be more profitable."

I jolted awake. This familiar dream made me realize I had truly returned to the past. However, I didn't intend to tell my parents. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

In my past life, my grandmother, Julia Simmon, appeared to me in a dream, warning me about the locusts. She told me that I had to tell my father to harvest the crops early, sell them, and get a fish pond with the money.

Grandma doted on me, so I believed her implicitly and immediately told Dad about the locust plague.

Since my father, Alan West, injured his hand while working, our family's only source of income was tending to the few acres of farmland we had.

It didn't just support our family, but it also funded my education. We could not afford to take any risks.

I was initially fretting over how to convince Dad about the dream since it was quite far-fetched.

Yet, Dad chose to believe me unconditionally. He harvested the wheat and used the money to raise fish. When the villagers mocked him, he stood proudly and said, "Vanessa is a college student. She knows better than I do. How could I, her own father, not trust her?"

Yet, reality dealt me a crushing blow.

When autumn came, there wasn't a single locust, let alone a whole swarm. Instead, we had the worst drought of the century.

Dad frantically tried to prevent the fish pond from drying up, but due to the relentless heat, the young fish ended up dying from overheating.

Dad fell ill, and our family lost everything. My mother, Hannah Smith, was so worried that she couldn't sleep at night. However, she still forced herself to smile and comforted me when she saw me, telling me not to blame myself.

I was remorseful, but Grandma appeared in another dream to guide me. "Vanessa, go to the oak tree at the hill behind the house. Your Grandpa buried gold bars there years ago in case of emergencies. Now's the time to dig them up."

I told my parents this excitedly.

Without a word, Dad grabbed a shovel and headed to the hill. Sure enough, he uncovered a crate. But when he opened it, he found that it wasn't filled with gold bars but heroin.

Before Dad could even understand what was happening, he was arrested on the spot. The police were lying in wait, and they mistook him for a buyer.

Due to the severity of the case, we were even denied visitation.

The investigating officers revealed that due to the sheer quantity of drugs he was caught with, he was very likely to face life imprisonment.

Under the weight of this devastating blow, Mom collapsed and lost consciousness. The diagnosis revealed that she had acute heart failure.

I wept myself into unconsciousness at Mom's bedside. That was when I saw Grandma again in a dream. "Go to Central Hospital and seek out Dr. Hank Vance. Only he can save your mother. Hurry, or she'll never recover!"

I rushed over to Central Hospital, falling to my knees and begging Dr. Vance. I finally managed to convince him to operate on my mother.

But unbeknownst to me, my boyfriend, James Larson, had gotten into a car accident. His heart was punctured, and he urgently needed surgery from Dr. Vance too.

Yet, because I intercepted him, James missed the optimal window for treatment and passed away.

As I was still reeling from indirectly causing James' death, Dr. Vance sadly announced that Mom was dying after a failed resuscitation.

I rushed into the ward but only managed to see her one last time.

Her gaze, which was always so loving, was filled with disappointment and confusion for the first time. She asked me why I destroyed our family.

I walked out of the funeral parlor in a daze, clutching her urn, when James' parents confronted me. They were convinced I was responsible for his death and stabbed me 18 times in a fit of rage.

I was rushed to the ER, and in my final moments, I saw Grandma again.

I wanted to confront her over her role in our family's destruction, but she raised the knife and stabbed me in the chest before I could speak.

My heart was punctured, and I died a horrible death in the ambulance. Now that I had returned to the past, I swore I would never believe in her misleading dreams again.