After returning to her bedroom, Yin Weiyue collapsed onto the bed and let out a long breath of turbid air. Having been tense all afternoon, she finally had time to settle her emotions about transmigrating into the book.
She wondered how her eldest sister was doing right now.
In her past life, her eldest sister was the person who treated her best. She had a wide range of interests and knew how to do everything—not only was she well-versed in all kinds of Chinese herbal medicine, but she also knew martial arts, boxing, wilderness survival, farming, and hunting.
If not for her eldest sister’s selfless act of saving her life back then without asking for anything in return, Yin Weiyue would have died right when the zombie outbreak first began. How could she have lived fifteen extra years? Her eldest sister was her closest kin—at once a father, a mother, a teacher, and a friend.
She prayed to Heaven to treat her eldest sister well, hoping that she too had transmigrated into a book somewhere and could live freely once more.
As for her own transmigration, Yin Weiyue accepted it quite well, viewing this resurrection as Heaven’s compensation for her painful past life.
Staring at the ceiling beam, her fingers tapped against the bed surface one by one as her thoughts drifted back to the novel she had read many years ago.
In truth, the [One-Way Pain Sensitivity] was only one of the reasons she chose not to divorce. Another even more crucial reason was that all three generations of the Yin family would soon be collectively executed, leaving not a single person alive, regardless of age or gender.
Although she had only read the first ten chapters of *Transmigrating to Ancient Times to Be Empress*, it was a very fast-paced, satisfying novel. Moreover, the author was exceptionally kind and understood readers’ mindsets very well; the opening chapters were all massive ten-thousand-word releases, rich and satisfying.
Because of this, quite a bit of key information driving the plot was explained within those first ten chapters.
The title of the very first chapter in the text was “Prequel.” Its main content was written from the angle of “the villain framing the Crown Prince for colluding with the Marquis of Xingwu Manor to commit regicide and usurp the throne,” depicting the daily life of the Huo Manor under house arrest, serving as the prologue and introduction to the entire book.
And what she was experiencing right now was precisely the content from that preamble.
Facing such blatant frame-up, although the old Emperor had lost most of his power, he still weathered the pressure and did not execute nine generations of the Huo family. Instead, he issued an imperial decree stating: The Crown Prince was to be confined within the Crown Prince Manor; Marquis of Xingwu Huo Anjiang was stripped of his peerage, while his eldest son Huo Yuan and second son Huo Jian were stripped of their military posts and thrown into the imperial prison together; the Huo Manor was searched, all servants were confiscated, and their family members were put under house arrest within the Huo Manor.
However, the investigation into the truth had not stopped.
The partially sidelined old Emperor ostensibly ordered the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate to jointly investigate the Crown Prince’s treason case, but in secret, he secretly dispatched trusted confidants to thoroughly investigate the Fourth Prince’s faction—a secret investigation that lasted two whole years.
The Fourth Prince thought he controlled the overall situation and held victory in his hands. Even though the Emperor did not sentence the Huo family to death, he did not panic—until he realized the danger, but by then it was already too late.
Seeing that all evidence framing the Crown Prince was about to be overturned, the Fourth Prince feared his exposure would drag him down, so he cut off his tail for self-preservation, simply pushing the Yin family forward to bear all the guilt.
And the time for Yin Jianzhang to step forward and bear the guilt was precisely three days from now. At that time, three generations of the Yin family would be thrown into the grand prison, and ten days later, the Fourth Prince would personally pronounce the sentence of immediate decapitation. Once Yin Jianzhang died, the regicide and treason case against the Crown Prince and the Huo family would be rehabilitated.
However, the original host in the book signed the divorce paper on the spot, returned to her maiden home, and met her unfortunate end just like that. As for the Huo family, although their treason case was rehabilitated, they did not escape their predicament.
Because the Fourth Prince failed in his scheme and suffered a loss, failing to bring down the Crown Prince and losing the Yin family instead, he was furious and determined to eliminate the biggest obstacle, the Huo family.
Thus, using the four-word excuse “their crime remains suspicious,” he forcibly continued to detain the father and sons of Huo Anjiang. He conducted numerous investigations and finally found a fault half a year later.
When Huo Anjiang was young, he had recommended a captain of a thousand. Although this man was brave and skilled in battle, he held a slave status. The laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty were strict and explicit: those with slave or lowly status were strictly forbidden from entering officialdom or joining the military, and violators would be sentenced to exile.
In the face of the law, Huo Anjiang’s exile became a settled matter, but it wasn’t enough to implicate his family. Yet the Fourth Prince struck at this moment, putting the Huo family right at the crest of the wave.
Although Emperor Chengxuan wanted to save the Huo family, his health had been poor in recent years and he had relinquished too much authority, while the Crown Prince was overly kind and benevolent; the primary power of state affairs had long quietly fallen away. The Duke of State and the Fourth Prince controlled the lifelines of the court, with the officials bowing and obeying them, leaving the Emperor and Crown Prince in a state of being “partially sidelined.”
If they insisted on pursuing the Fourth Prince at this time, not only could the Huo family not be saved, but it was feared that a trapped beast would resort to desperate measures and trigger a palace coup, causing court turmoil and bringing disaster to the common people. The old Emperor exhausted everything just to protect the Crown Prince; facing pressure from multiple sides, he could ultimately only choose to sacrifice the Huo family.
Six months after the Yin family was executed, the Huo family clan was sentenced to exile eight thousand miles away in northeastern Yunnan for three years. However, through the Fourth Prince’s handiwork, while the Huo family was ostensibly exiled for three years, in reality, they and over five thousand convicts were forced into an isolated, ancient deep forest for twenty years.
The Huo family members were isolated from news during their house arrest. It was only half a year later during exile that they learned it was Yin Jianzhang who had framed the Marquis of Xingwu Manor.
Thinking of the plot in the book, Yin Weiyue sighed.
Although she had transmigrated in soul, she had not inherited the original host’s memories. She only knew from the content of the book’s preamble that Yin Jianzhang and his wife deeply doted on this only daughter.
However, as a bystander, it was truly difficult for her to empathize with the original host’s familial affection. Setting aside the other clan members, concubines, and children of the Yin family for now, just speaking of their family of three, they had truly committed every evil deed imaginable, being utterly cruel and unfit to be human.
From her perspective, for the sins committed by Yin Jianzhang, his wife, and the original host, even dying ten times over would not be excessive. Her worldview was far too incompatible with theirs; dying early to atone for their sins was actually quite fitting.
Although Yin Jianzhang and his wife doted heavily on their daughter, they could not treat human lives like grass, murder, and commit arson just because they were qualified parents who didn’t favor boys over girls. As for the other innocent people of the Yin family being decapitated, that was even less of her fault for transmigrating—it was the product of feudal laws of joint liability.
Be that as it may, Yin Weiyue felt that after all, she had occupied the original host’s body to survive. Even if she hadn’t occupied it, the original host would surely have died anyway, but at least it was a form of fate between them.
Although hope was slender, Yin Weiyue still decided to do her best to see if she could change the Yin family’s outcome, if only to repay this bit of fate.
She suddenly remembered something brushed over in the preamble: although the Second Prince and Fourth Prince were born of the same mother, there was a deep rift and long-standing resentment between them. In the end, the Second Prince died at the hands of his younger brother in a gruesome state.
As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is a friend.
If at this critical juncture, she used the hatred between the Second Prince and Fourth Prince as a lever, letting Yin Jianzhang secretly hand over the evidence of the Fourth Prince’s plot to usurp the throne to the Second Prince within three days, and used this as a condition for the Second Prince to protect three generations of the Yin family, it might actually succeed.
This was the only way she could think of right now to save the Yin family. Of course, it didn’t rule out the possibility that after the Second Prince used this opportunity to eliminate the Fourth Prince, he might kill the donkey after it ground the grain, in which case the Yin family would still end up decapitated.
In short, she would do her best. Whether it succeeded or failed depended on Heaven’s will.
Although she had to do her best to save the Yin family, her plans still had to account for the possibility of failing to save them. Because when all was said and done, she was merely a prisoner without troops or power, confined and unable to leave.
Added to that, the Fourth Prince moved too quickly; the evidence of Yin Jianzhang framing the Crown Prince had long been presented to the court, just waiting for them to be thrown into the grand prison three days later and executed seven days after that.
Even if she knew the plot of the first ten chapters in advance and practiced martial arts well, she still couldn’t fight against an entire feudal dynasty!
Therefore, first of all, she must absolutely not divorce. Remaining a daughter-in-law of the Huo family meant nothing more than embarking on the road to exile six months later, but if she became a daughter of the Yin family, ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent of her transmigration would be in vain.
Perhaps she had a third way to live? That was to free herself from both the Yin family and the Huo family simultaneously, avoiding both decapitation and exile, severing past ties, and living for herself?
Heh, maybe in a dream, but once awake, she still had to accept reality.
In ancient times, women from prominent families had only two normal ways to separate from their maiden families: either become a nun or get married. She couldn’t become a nun because she loved eating meat, nor did she believe she could marry herself off again within three days after a divorce.
Thus, whether due to the [One-Way Pain Sensitivity] or the execution of the Yin family, remaining a daughter-in-law of the Huo family for now was the safest option. As long as she stayed in the Huo family, by Huo Jun’s side, and ensured this “baggage” stayed healthy, it equaled her staying healthy.
Facing exile six months later, Yin Weiyue had to make thorough preparations. She needed to properly untangle the plot to prevent missing anything.
Chapter 1 of *Transmigrating to Ancient Times to Be Empress* was the preamble, mainly covering the reasons for the Huo Manor’s conviction and the daily life of the Huo family’s female members under house arrest, but starting from Chapter 2, it officially entered the main narrative.
This book was actually a flashback novel. The main text opened from the moment when the infant-transmigrated female lead, Zhang Yulin, was killed by Huo Tianni, and then reborn back to the day of exile.
In Zhang Yulin’s inner monologue, it was described that she was killed by Huo Tianni in the twentieth year of exile—meaning that the Huo family lived in the ancient deep forest for at least twenty years, because Zhang Yulin had failed to escape right up until her death in her past life.
At that time, the author probably wanted to leave a hook; the first ten chapters did not explicitly reveal that Huo Tianni was Huo Jun, but the lines between the text conveyed Zhang Yulin’s immense hatred toward Huo Jun. Thus, when Yin Weiyue read the text, she did not know that Huo Jun and Huo Tianni were actually the same person.
Yin Weiyue didn’t know why Huo Jun would kill Zhang Yulin after turning dark, but judging from the original book’s development, their opposition was bound to happen.
The reborn Zhang Yulin would possess a spatial dimension with a 1:1 time ratio. Although the spatial area was only ten square meters, it contained a spiritual spring inside.
The spiritual spring water could strengthen the body and enhance beauty, and most crucially, the space could store supplies without them spoiling. Although it was only ten square meters, Zhang Yulin used it to store life-saving salt and food.
While the space was good, it had quite a few limitations as well:
1. For instance, living creatures could not be placed inside the space, nor could humans other than Zhang Yulin enter—not even corpses.
2. There was no soil inside the space, no spiritual plants grew, and crops could not be cultivated; seeds placed into the space would lose their ability to sprout and could not be farmed.
3. The water output of the spiritual spring was extremely low, producing only a fixed two hundred milliliters of water per day, equivalent to the amount in a small bottle of mineral water.
4. Drinking the spiritual spring water inside the space had the effect of strengthening the body and enhancing beauty, but once brought out of the space, it became ordinary spring water with all special effects disappearing, only able to quench thirst.
The reborn Zhang Yulin relied on this space and her memories of her past life to achieve a perfect comeback, using it to avoid many detours she had taken in her previous life.
Yin Weiyue recalled the content describing the day of exile in the book once more—more than half the people in the First Branch had died right on that day.
This was a long story.
On the day of exile, the leader of the escorting guards was a trusted aide of the Fourth Prince, and all the soldiers were confidants personally selected by this leader.
Their ultimate purpose was to find fault with the First Branch; their inspection could almost be described as harsh and abnormal, leaving the First Branch unable to bring anything along. On the road to exile, they could only rely on the one black steamed bun a day given by the escorting guards to sustain their lives—this section was truly far too tragic.
The Fourth Prince had no intention of sparing the Huo family at all. He ordered his subordinates that on the day of exile, they must use any means necessary to deal with the Huo family, swearing to wipe out Huo Anjiang’s line completely before exile.
On that day, the first to suffer were the two small infants of the First Branch. Using the excuse that the crying was too noisy, the escort leader brutally slapped the infants in swaddling clothes several times. The small infants almost passed out from crying. Lady He, Lady Su, and Mrs. Feng stepped forward to stop them, but seeing that Lady He had a distinct charm while nursing, the official harbored evil intentions and deliberately felt her up in public.
Huo Jun and Huo Dong rushed forward to protect their eldest sister-in-law.
Huo Jun, who was already injured during the Huo Manor’s division incident, was slashed on the arm by a soldier drawing his sword the very next second. At this time, one of the officials had a particularly sharp nose; besides the scent of blood, he also smelled the scent of salt and quickly locked onto his target—little Huo Dong.
He grabbed Huo Dong and tore open his clothes, discovering that the inner clothing was wet, having concentrated salt water poured over it. It turned out Huo Dong had heard his sisters-in-law say that there would be a shortage of food and salt on the road to exile, which was why he secretly came up with this method.
When Yin Weiyue read up to this point back then, she felt it was a great pity; it wouldn’t have been discovered originally, but who knew there would be someone with a dog’s nose among the escorting officials?
Huo Dong privately hiding salt and Huo Jun stepping forward to resist gave the escort leader a perfect excuse to kill people. He first lunged with a sword toward Huo Dong. After all, Huo Dong was only nine years old and completely terrified; Huo Jun immediately used his sickly body to block, taking a heavy sword blow to the abdomen.
Huo Wanying watched this scene with tear-filled eyes.
She saw her Seventh Brother bleeding profusely after taking two sword strikes, collapsing into a pool of blood unable to support himself, while an official was raising a broadsword toward the terrified Huo Dong. Not far away, two infants in swaddling clothes lay on the ground with red, swollen faces, several nephews and nieces wept loudly, and her mother and two sisters-in-law were being humiliated in public…
Huo Wanying cried out loudly: “You beasts! If you want to look, come look at this miss!”
With a tragic expression, she shed her clothes piece by piece in public, shedding them until not even her undershirt remained. These escorting officials had long received instructions from above: whoever tormented the Huo family members the hardest would receive the greatest reward.
Those few officials were naturally all drawn by Huo Wanying in her blooming youth, stepping forward to drag her into the Huo Manor. In this opening, Huo Wanying snatched one person’s sidearm and stabbed to death the two soldiers closest to her, including the one with the dog’s nose.
Her final words were: “Though I am a woman, a scholar can be killed but not humiliated!” After speaking, she cut her own throat and died on the spot.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Feng’s lungs had already been damaged by Huo Shan’s wife, Lady Jiang. Seeing her daughter die a tragic death, she spat blood and died in emotional agitation.
The last sentence she left in the world was: “Wanying, look—mulberries all over the mountains and plains, waiting for Nanny Sui to brew mulberry wine for you. You love drinking it most.”
Nanny Sui was Huo Wanying’s wet nurse, long confiscated by the imperial court.
When the father and two sons of Huo Anjiang were escorted back from the imperial prison to the exile team, they happened to see this tragic scene. The three fought back like madmen, only to be branded with the charge of rebellion and slaughtered in the street.
Though Zhang Yulin currently wore an air of detached neutrality, once her memories of her past life returned on the day of exile, she would hold only hatred toward Huo Jun.
This was quite normal; after all, facing the murderer who killed her, no one would be without hatred—except perhaps a holy mother Mary Sue, which Zhang Yulin was not.
As for the male lead, Huo Kai, just like the rest of the Huo family, he did not step forward to help.
It wasn’t that he was heartless enough to watch them die without saving them, but rather that he was meat on the chopping block—saving them meant death. He still had his own legitimate family to protect; if he died as well, the Third Branch would most likely not survive until reaching the exile destination either.
Thinking of all this, Yin Weiyue sighed.
On the road to survival, the Huo family’s First Branch had no competitors at all—only natural enemies!
Fortunately, at this time, Grand Secretary Zhang Zhongqian, who was already in office, brought out the iron certificate and cinnabar document granted to his ancestors by the late Emperor, which finally stopped these people from continuing to harm the rest of the First Branch. He ordered people to bury the deceased and brought a physician to treat Huo Jun’s injuries, barely preserving his life.
With the First Branch using their lives to delay time, the Second, Third, and Fourth Branches behind suffered almost no losses. Moreover, they weren’t even body-searched, successfully bringing out the silver and money on their persons.
Grand Secretary Zhang united several loyal ministers and brave generals in the court to submit a joint memorial, allowing Huo Jun and the others to recover from their injuries before embarking on exile, and requested the removal and replacement of the escort leader Suohong.
In the imperial court, the two factions argued endlessly. In the end, the Fourth Prince could not cover the sky with one hand, nor could the Emperor make full decisions.
Finally, the general content of the imperial decree was: The Huo family and others would recover for three days before taking to the road; Suohong was not replaced, but Suiyang Li, who was serving as an Attending Censor at the time, was dispatched alongside him as an escort commander.
Although Suiyang Li held a humble official rank, during the exile journey, his authority was equal to that of Suohong of the Fourth Prince’s faction. Although he had no prior connection with the Huo family, he was an upright and honest official, so with his inclusion, Suohong would never dare to persecute the Huo family openly.
Three days quickly passed. Huo Jun watched with his own eyes as his father, mother, brother, and sister died tragic deaths, and his eldest and second sisters-in-law were humiliated—the pain in his heart far surpassed the pain of cutting flesh.
Who could have thought that before even embarking on exile, half of the First Branch would be dead, leaving behind only the severely injured Huo Jun, the paralyzed Old Lady, Lady Su, Lady He, and six children?
On the day they took to the road for exile:
The Old Lady was paralyzed and carried on Huo Kai’s back; Huo Qiu ignored the objections of the Second Branch’s legitimate mother and insisted on carrying Huo Jun; Lady He and Lady Su brought six children, painstakingly embarking on the road to exile just like that.
However, good times did not last long. The Old Lady saved her daily steamed bun for the children to eat, starving to death on the seventh day of the journey.
Lady He lost her breast milk, and the two small infants died as well. Lady He’s mind turned to ashes, cutting her wrists with a sharp stone to commit suicide. Under Suohong’s instructions, the remaining four children were brutally strangled with ropes by a group of exile convicts; upon discovering this, Lady Su sought revenge at all costs, perishing together with one of the villains.
In less than ten days of exile, only Huo Jun remained alive in the entire First Branch.
When Yin Weiyue read up to this point in her past life, she cried until bubbles blew from her nose. Even now, recalling the plot in the book made her heart ache, especially when Huo Wanying died.
After getting along for an afternoon, she felt that the people of the First Branch were quite sincere apart from Huo Jun, so she didn’t want a fierce and unyielding woman like Huo Wanying in reality to die a second time.
Since she herself had the chance to transmigrate and return to life, perhaps the fates of these people in the First Branch could have a chance to change as well? Most importantly was Huo Jun—she absolutely could not let him be frequently and severely injured like in the book.
The content of the first ten chapters was only written up to the fifteenth day of exile, where Zhang Yulin used her past life memories to help an old lady who understood pharmacology, receiving her guidance and saving a trusted aide of Suiyang Li.
Yin Weiyue didn’t know the content after that. There were still six months until the day of exile; if she truly decided to save the rest of the First Branch, then everything had to be stepped up.
Yin Weiyue Ultimately didn’t have the kind heart of her eldest sister to save a person unconditionally without regarding gains and losses; she carefully weighed the options between saving and not saving.
After deliberating for a while, Yin Weiyue finally decided to save them. The primary reason remained the [One-Way Pain Sensitivity]—she didn’t know when Huo Jun would actually rise and turn into the big villain Huo Tianni, but if she didn’t save him at the start, she would suffer right along with him.
If she only saved Huo Jun, referring to his performance in the book, he would certainly disregard life and death for his kin; with a physical frame like his, he would one hundred percent get injured again. This endless cycle was no way forward, so she might as well plan thoroughly and properly, delivering rescue directly at the source.
Once she thought it through, she began working on a plan.
In her past life, Yin Weiyue and her eldest sister had lived alone in the deep mountains for fifteen years; entering deep mountains was just like returning to her old home. She wasn’t afraid of spending twenty years inside, but living comfortably wouldn’t be quite so easy.
Right now, the Huo family had been confined for nearly two years. Their family fortune and food had all been confiscated back then, relying on pawning clothes and bedding to exchange for food, but it was far better than being thrown into the grand prison.
At least within the Huo Manor they had freedom of movement; when sleeping there were no rats, cockroaches, or bedbugs; the food wasn’t spoiled, the clothes didn’t smell; there was a water well in the Marquis Manor yard, allowing them to wash and clean themselves.
However, after exile, it wouldn’t be this comfortable anymore. But currently, the very first danger—the riot to divide the family estate—could be considered resolved.
With Mrs. Chen intimidated, she shouldn’t dare to instigate dividing the estate again. Furthermore, today she made the Old Lady and the First Branch see the Third Branch’s true colors clearly; they wouldn’t harbor soft-hearted feelings toward the other branches out of guilt or self-blame anymore.
Without the matter of dividing the estate, the Old Lady wouldn’t be paralyzed from rage, Huo Jun wouldn’t be struck with canes, nor would his left ear be deafened. Mrs. Feng’s lungs wouldn’t be damaged from beatings, Lady He’s breast milk wouldn’t be frightened away, and those two little ones wouldn’t starve to death right at the start of exile.
With a good start, subsequent matters could proceed more smoothly. However, this was merely the first hurdle—the most critical part remained the day of exile.
The book stated that from the time the escorting officials searched their bodies to the time Grand Secretary Zhang arrived with the iron certificate and cinnabar document to rescue them, a total of two quarters of an hour elapsed. Therefore, as long as she found a way to stall Suohong and the soldiers during this period and ensure no deaths occurred, then once the imperial decree arrived, the First Branch would be saved.
Sigh, her train of thought was finally untangled.
Yin Weiyue summarized it: she now had to find ways to solve four major difficulties:
First: Try every possible means to contact the Yin family to inform them of her plan; as for the Yin family’s fate, leave it to Heaven’s will.
Second: Improve the physical fitness of all members of the Huo family’s First Branch within six months.
Third: When the escorting officials searched bodies and caused trouble, she must find a way to hold out for two quarters of an hour without injuries or deaths.
Fourth: Bring as much salt as possible without the escorting officials discovering it. According to Zhang Yulin’s inner monologue after her rebirth, she knew there was no way to obtain salt in the deep forest; spending at least twenty years inside, their bodies simply couldn’t hold out without salt.
If the Yin family was saved, she would sever ties with them, having nothing to do with each other from then on; if they couldn’t be saved, she truly had no recourse—such was Heaven’s will.
As for the members of the First Branch, as long as they smoothly embarked on the road to exile six months later, Yin Weiyue had ways to make this group of people survive.
Hardships would certainly have to be endured, but she wasn’t afraid. At worst, they would start from scratch; she had lived in the deep mountains for fifteen years in her past life, so wilderness survival had already become a part of her life.
Yin Weiyue silently thanked her eldest sister in her heart once more, because her eldest sister had saved her across two lifetimes.
“Seventh Sister-in-law.”
“Seventh Aunt.”
At this moment, naive children’s voices outside the door interrupted Yin Weiyue’s thoughts. Opening the door, four children appeared before her, standing in a line like a Wi-Fi signal icon.