“Manman, dreams are all fake. Your body is very weak right now—you can’t get out of bed.” Wang Huifang hurriedly pressed Shen Xueman down with concern, not letting her get up.
“No, in the dream Shen Shujiao—that thing—was very strange. I’m afraid that once she activates that immortal treasure, our whole family will be killed by her. Mom, please believe me just this once.”
As Shen Xueman, who had entered the period novel Marriage Favor in the Sixties for the second time, this was her second time using the same trick to deceive the original female lead, Shen Shujiao, into getting an abortion.
Back in the 21st century, Shen Xueman had been a high-level corporate workhorse, spending ten years as the secretary to a ruthless, boss-from-hell female CEO. The first time she transmigrated into this period novel, she became a legendary queen in this backward era, living a life of equal partnership with the male lead she chose, Lu Mingchuan—the most enviable model couple of all.
She lived to the age of one hundred, bringing her life in the book world to a perfectly complete end.
But at the brink of death, as she looked at her aged yet devoted high-ranking husband, her thoughts returned to Huo Zhoubai—the original male lead she had failed to conquer. She still felt regretful, unwilling, and furious.
She was a transmigrator who knew the future—how could she fail to handle even a male lead from a book?
When Shen Xueman opened her eyes again and discovered that she had been reborn into Marriage Favor in the Sixties once more, and even retained memories from her previous transmigration, she was ecstatic.
In this life, she was determined to win over Huo Zhoubai, the original male lead, and leave no regrets in her life.
So Shen Xueman followed the same plan as in her previous life and persuaded Shen Shujiao to get an abortion.
But she never expected that even after she had tricked Shen Shujiao into a shady clinic and success was right within reach, Shen Shujiao would suddenly go mad and force the abortifacient down her own throat.
Thinking of how miserably Shen Shujiao had been tortured by her in the previous life, and combining that with the cold, terrifying gaze Shen Shujiao had when forcing herself to take the medicine—like an evil ghost returned from hell—Shen Xueman concluded that Shen Shujiao had also been reborn.
Shen Xueman knew very well that the reason she had been able to live so freely and become a queen admired by all in the book world during her previous life was largely thanks to the jade pendant space. Therefore, she had to stop Shen Shujiao from activating that space.
Seeing how serious Shen Xueman looked, Wang Huifang didn’t dare to gamble either. After all, what a person sees when they are about to die—only those at death’s door truly know.
Shen Jinlong carried Shen Xueman on his back, and the group quickly left the hospital.
Outside the hospital, each of them got into a rickshaw and headed straight for the old Shen family residence.
The Shen family’s old house was not close by. Watching the rickshaw puller pedaling entirely by foot, Shen Xueman grew increasingly anxious.
For the first time, she regretted persuading the family to sell their small car—that piece of “capitalist evidence.”
Half an hour later, the group arrived at the Shen family’s old residence.
Led by Shen Xueman, they went straight to Shen Shujiao’s bedroom.
Under Shen Xueman’s guidance, Shen Jinlong opened the safe beneath Shen Shujiao’s bed, as well as the secret room hidden under the bedboards.
Shen Xueman tried turning the combination, only to find that it was incorrect. Had Shen Shujiao really forgotten the password?
In the original plot, Shen Shujiao forgot the password and never opened the safe for her entire life. It wasn’t until she was about to die and wanted to pass the jade pendant to her descendants that she had her eldest son force the safe open.
Thinking this, Shen Xueman clung to her last shred of hope and followed her family into the secret room.
In the original story, Shen Shujiao never discovered the secret of the jade pendant space until her death. In her previous life, Shen Shujiao had been killed by Shen Xueman early on during surgery.
There was no way she could know about the space within the jade pendant.
Comforting herself this way, Shen Xueman collapsed to the ground the moment she saw that more than half of the boxes in the secret room were missing.
“Manman, what’s wrong with you?”
“Dad, Mom, in my dream I saw dozens of large boxes in the secret room. There are only a dozen left here. Shen Shujiao really has that immortal treasure—she’s already taken away all the valuables from here.”
Shen Shengchang opened the boxes one by one. Seeing four boxes of gold, four boxes of silver, three boxes of silver dollars, as well as antiques, calligraphy and paintings, high-grade fabrics, medicinal materials, and more—over a dozen boxes in total—he grinned so widely his mouth nearly split to his ears.
“Impossible. If there were really such a miraculous treasure, Shen Shujiao would’ve taken everything long ago. How could she leave so much behind?” Shen Shengchang stroked the gold bars, his eyes gleaming with the golden light of getting rich.
The wealth here far exceeded what his own family had. He knew it—his short-lived second brother must have hidden away plenty of good stuff.
“That’s right, Manman. If Shen Shujiao that little slut really had such a magical treasure, she’d have taken all of this long ago. You’re overthinking it,” Wang Huifang said happily, touching the high-quality fabrics and already planning what styles of clothes to make with them.
“Exactly, little sister, you must be thinking too much. But your dream was accurate—your second uncle really did hide a secret room. You’re the great hero of our family’s rise to wealth,” Shen Jinlong praised, glancing at Shen Shengchang and his wife, who were equally absorbed in admiring the treasure.
“Dad, Mom, with so much money, let’s stop enduring this suffocating life of being controlled everywhere in the mainland. Let’s go to Hong Kong instead. I hear it’s paved with gold there now. If we take all this treasure with us, we’ll soon establish ourselves and strike it rich!”
Compared to the mainland, Hong Kong was indeed more prosperous at this time—but behind that prosperity lurked countless criminal forces.
Those who weren’t native to Hong Kong and brought huge amounts of wealth with them would quickly be carved up by those underworld forces.
Shen Xueman knew the original book’s setting well. Her so-called parents and brother were all terrible people.
When wealthy, they doted on their daughter; when disaster struck, their daughter became their shield.
In the original body’s fate, she died miserably in Hong Kong. Shen Xueman had no intention of following these three brainless cannon-fodder villains there.
Reborn into the book once more, her only goal was to get Huo Zhoubai.
“Dad, Mom, Hong Kong is under foreign control. It’s not as good as you think. It’s better to stay in Shanghai and live steadily,” Shen Xueman advised.
“Manman, don’t worry about that. I’ve already arranged things in Hong Kong. Mr. Smith said that once we arrive, he’ll help us settle down and register our residence there,” Shen Shengchang said confidently.
Seeing Shen Shengchang speak this way, Shen Xueman decided to secretly take the jade pendant, slip back to Shen Garden, collect the family treasures, and stay far away from these brainless cannon-fodder characters.
Just as she turned around, she saw a pitch-black object poking out from the entrance of the secret room.
Then several men wearing red armbands, their faces cold and stern, walked in.
In an instant, the safe in Shen Xueman’s hands fell to the ground. Her head buzzed as if an explosion had gone off, leaving only one thought in her mind—
She was finished.
This chapter has ended (please click the next chapter to continue reading).