Yu Fanfan awoke to a chorus of crisp birdsong. Beside her, Four-Eyes stirred, hisy eyes darting toward her as he whimpered in pain.
“Be a good boy, Four-Eyes,” she cooed. “Stick with me, and I’ll take you all over the world.”
But first, she thought, there are things I need to settle.
She had taken over this body, and she’d already promised the original owner she would avenge every slight and grievance. Debts, after all, always had to be paid.
Yu Fanfan raked her tangled hair back, securing it with a vine. With a grunt of effort, she scooped up the crippled Four-Eyes, ignoring the wary look in his eyes.
She scanned the lush, green forest, then set off, following the original owner’s memories back to the narrow path they’d used to escape into the mountains the day before.
By the time she reached the foot of the mountain, she stumbled upon a winding stream.
The stream was cool and crystal clear. Yu Fanfan gently set Four-Eyes down on a patch of dry ground by the bank before stepping toward the water to wash up.
She planned to gather some herbs to treat him and find some tonic for herself, but there was no rush. For now, she just needed the essentials. Finding a smooth, round stone, she began to crush the herbs she had collected—some to be applied as a poultice, others to be chewed.
After tending to Four-Eyes, she chewed a mouthful of the bitter herbs herself. Drawing on her deep knowledge of botany, she managed to dig up some sweet root from the bank to cleanse her palate.
She ate a handful, licking her lips and rubbing her empty stomach as she resumed washing in the clear water.
Now that she had a moment, she used the still surface of the stream as a mirror, studying her new reflection from every angle.
The original owner was a beauty, she thought.
The body was young and supple. Her face—a look Yu Fanfan personally admired—seemed like a blend of the actresses Zhao Liying and Zhao Silu from her previous life, complete with a touch of soft, youthful fullness in her cheeks. However, her skin was a sallow yellow, lacking the luminous porcelain glow of the two Zhao beauties.
This is a massive upgrade, Yu Fanfan thought, grinning foolishly at her reflection. My past self was just plain and pretty. I’ve hit the jackpot!
She finally pulled herself away from the stream, her gaze shifting to the village and fields ahead. Wisps of cooking smoke rose in the distance, but the sight of the manor—the place the original owner had feared—made a cold glint flash in Yu Fanfan’s eyes.
Turning back to the whimpering Four-Eyes, she sighed. “Four-Eyes, I’ve got a big job to do. You’re all broken up, and I can’t take you with me. You’ll just have to suffer through this for a bit, okay?”
Who’s to blame for this mighty and divine dog ending up like this? Four-Eyes wondered. But what choice is there? A dog under the eaves must bow its head.
He responded with a low, reluctant growl, but Yu Fanfan ignored him, hugging him close as they set off.
The day was still young. In the village, people were just beginning to stir, preparing for their daily chores.
Yu Fanfan relied on the original owner’s memories to dodge the guards and slip back into the walled courtyard, a two-section manor of blue brick and grey tile where the original owner had been imprisoned.
Before entering, she stashed Four-Eyes in a thicket of weeds outside. She patted his head, instructing him to wait patiently for her return and not to wander off. Only then was she satisfied.
Tucking the grumpy dog securely under a pile of brushwood and brushing the grass from her clothes, Yu Fanfan managed to avoid the stewards and maids who were already stirring about the courtyard. Her stomach rumbled, so she decided to head straight for the kitchen, where smoke was already curling into the air.
With a mix of nerve and cunning, she created a distraction to lure the two busy kitchen staff away. She successfully pilfered enough food to satisfy her own hunger and even thoughtfully stashed a backup supply for Four-Eyes.
Her original plan was to find a couple of taels of silver and hire a carriage back to The Capital to demand justice. After all, this was the city outskirts, and the city itself was a long way off.
The journey here had taken over half a day. She wasn’t foolish enough to attempt the trek on foot with her current physique.
She also wanted to see what had become of those bastards who had attacked her in the night. Were they still here? Had they died?
Yu Fanfan quietly followed her memories back to the room where the original owner had been kept. Once there, she lay in wait and observed. The room was completely empty. There wasn’t a single trace of blood, let alone any sign of the men from the previous night.
Yu Fanfan was bewildered. How could the manor be so quiet when a grown woman had vanished? Weren’t those men nervous after failing their mission? Weren’t they afraid their master would punish them for their incompetence?
The poor modern woman had no way of knowing how these ancient people thought.
She was a discarded wife, an orphan with no one to lean on, and she was sick. To flee the manor in the middle of the night, dragging her frail body through the desolate wilderness—anyone would have assumed she’d either died or been crippled. And even if she had miraculously survived, who knew what a woman who vanished in the dead of night would do or encounter?
Even if she returned unharmed, what reputation would she have left?
The noble houses were fastidious about such things. A discarded wife like her would never be allowed back into the duke’s manor. To them, she was merely an ant—insignificant and utterly dispensable.
Of course, Yu Fanfan knew she had no time to dwell on this. She was too busy.
Since the room was empty, she steeled her nerves and slipped inside, searching for the original owner’s belongings. Her heart sank as she realized how pitifully sparse they were. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for the woman’s wretched state.
It made sense. The original owner had been sick when she was sent away, and the shock of the divorce had left her dazed and disoriented. She had been thrown out of the duke’s manor empty-handed, with nothing but the divorce letter slapped into her hands.
So, not only was there no silver, but she couldn’t find a single copper coin after tossing the room upside down.
Wait, Yu Fanfan thought, she must have had some jewelry on when she left.
The arrogant duke’s manor would have been too concerned with appearances to strip her of her clothes and ornaments before sending her away. That would have given her a chance at a new start, but the village head’s wife had clearly set her sights on those treasures.
By now, Yu Fanfan realized, everything she owned—every piece of jewelry and every tinkling ornament—is probably in that woman’s room.
No, I have to get it back, Yu Fanfan thought. At the very least, I need enough to pay for a carriage.
She was a modern woman, raised in the New Century to be independent and self-sufficient. Now, she also possessed the original owner’s immense strength—a power the woman had never dared to use. What did she have to be afraid of? Her courage was boundless.
She crept through the courtyard, searching again. Perhaps her luck had finally turned after hitting rock bottom, because she managed to slip into the Village Head’s Wife’s room.
She searched the space thoroughly, but the valuable jewelry and ornaments she’d been looking for were nowhere to be found. They were likely too precious for the village head’s wife to leave out, hidden away in a spot so secure that Yu Fanfan, a complete novice at theft, couldn’t find them.
This was her first time stealing, and she was doing it on someone else’s turf. Constantly alert to any noise outside, Yu Fanfan didn’t dare linger. Just as she was about to leave, she spotted a box tucked into the inner corner of the kang bed.
She yanked the small yellow lock open with brute force, revealing three small silver ingots and several silver fragments inside.
Too anxious to count the silver, Yu Fanfan snatched the box and bolted. She retraced her steps, scaled the wall, and remembered to retrieve Four-Eyes, her new little henchman, from the bushes.
Only after she had run a safe distance—well beyond the reach of immediate pursuit—did she sink ungracefully against a tree stump in the shade to catch her breath. After feeding Four-Eyes a few scraps, she settled cross-legged on the ground and began to tally her loot.
“Ten taels each for the ingots,” she murmured. “And these smaller pieces… if the original owner’s memory serves me, each one weighs a tael or so, maybe a few mace.”
She counted them carefully. “One, two, three… Good heavens, with the three ten-tael ingots, there’s at least forty taels here! A small fortune!”
She thought back to the original owner’s memories of the northwest.
A wealthy peasant family of five can live on just four or five taels a year, she mused. The Village Head and his wife must be quite the entrepreneurs.
Yu Fanfan couldn’t help but marvel.
If I remember my history lessons correctly, she thought, even a first-rank civil official like Li Hongzhang only earned one hundred eighty taels of silver and one hundred eighty bushels of rice a year.
Of course, she couldn’t recall the exact amount of the “salary-augmentation silver” paid under the table. But for a mere couple of village heads—and servants at that—to keep nearly fifty taels stashed away in a chest… they were absolutely two fat rats!
Yu Fanfan stroked the box, her resolve to demand compensation from the Cheng Manor hardened. She felt she deserved a hefty payout: a youth-loss fee, mental anguish damages, personal injury compensation, and the full return of her dowry. To settle for anything less would be an injustice to herself.
Tucking the box firmly against her chest, she cradled Four-Eyes and trudged nearly five li to the nearest town. There, she paid the steep price of two taels at a large inn to hire a mule cart and buy some dry rations.
With a limp Four-Eyes in her arms, she climbed onto the cart. At the driver’s loud shout, the mule set off toward the capital.
***
The next day, at the Cheng Manor in the capital…
In Yangning Hall, located in the manor’s inner courtyard, the old ancestress, Lin Liqing, was finally waking from a blissful, prolonged slumber.
She was the eldest daughter of the Lin Clan of An Commandery, having married the Old Duke of Cheng, Xie Zhaozhong, at the age of fifteen upon reaching adulthood. Even now, she continued to wield her considerable influence over the Cheng Manor.
Her personal maid, who had been waiting patiently outside, entered the room with a slight bow.