Ten yards away stood a pavilion. The woman sitting inside had refined features, with a broad forehead and moth-like eyebrows. She was bright and elegant, with a resolute gaze—the kind of appearance preferred for a primary wife in the great households of the capital. She was unlike Lin Shu, who had almond eyes and a delicate nose, appearing so pitiable that she lacked that sense of dignified presence.
To use the words of her rival from her previous life, she looked like a delicate flower that needed a man’s utmost pampering; instead of working hard herself, she was better off finding a powerful man to shield her.
To this, Lin Shu had never offered a rebuttal, but she had turned around and used her fists to shatter the heads of several zombies. From then on, that rival never dared to utter another word of nonsense.
There was no one else around, so Lin Yao didn’t bother putting on an act. She went straight to the point: “Lin Shu, I’ve already heard the words you said yesterday. But if someone like you could truly repent, the sun would have to rise from the west. I won’t beat around the bush with you. Take this money and go as far away as possible. You can go anywhere, except Tianshui Village!”
Thinking of her family and the villagers in Tianshui Village, Lin Yao’s heart was filled with complex emotions.
Her father was foolishly filial and obsessed with saving face, her mother was weak, and her youngest sister was frail and sickly. In the past, the family had relied entirely on her for support. Now that she was gone, she didn’t know if her parents would continue to be bullied by her eldest uncle’s family. And then there were the villagers of Tianshui Village…
Normally, there were squabbles and arguments, but after two years, what Lin Yao missed most was their simple honesty and straightforwardness. They were nothing like the noble families in the capital; whether it was the ladies and young misses or the maids serving them, their words were always like needles hidden in silk. In her previous life, because of her uncouth manners, she had been mocked and ridiculed everywhere. She had been naive then, unable to understand the hidden barbs in their speech, only feeling uncomfortable everywhere. Having been reborn, she had calculated every step to ensure she would never again fall into that isolated and helpless state of her past life.
But she was exhausted in both body and mind.
Lin Shu stared at the purse pushed toward her. It was stuffed full. If it were silver, there would be at least ten taels, but seeing Lin Yao’s posture, she suspected it was filled with gold.
She opened it to take a look, and as expected, it was full of glittering gold nuggets!
As expected of the schemes of a reborn female lead. If Lin Shu dared to accept these gold nuggets, it would be like a child walking through a crowded street clutching gold—every passerby would become a thief. If she truly met with disaster, no one would blame the female lead; after all, she had acted out of “kindness.”
But the female lead was born in the countryside—how could she not understand this?
Thinking this way, Lin Shu couldn’t help but think of the original female supporting character’s fate. The girl had gone mad and died of self-mutilation at the manor. The book only mentioned it in passing, but could the female lead have had a hand in pushing her toward that end?
Lin Shu gave her a slight smile. “Sister Yao, thank you for your kindness. But I have already expressed my determination to the Marquis and the Marchioness; I must go back. Not only because I have nowhere else to go now, but because I want to return to fulfill my filial duties to my parents. I heard that there is a younger sister at home who is physically weak, so it is all the more reason for me to return. Whether it is my parents or my sister, I will take good care of them. You can rest assured, Sister Yao.”
Lin Yao’s willow-like brows furrowed. It is precisely because of that that I cannot rest assured!
If Lin Shu were truly someone who understood filial piety, how could she have become estranged from the Marchioness?
She was someone who was sweet on the outside but cold on the inside! She only knew how to act spoiled and play the obedient child in front of her elders. Her filial piety was only lip service; in reality, she was selfish and never considered others. In her previous life, Lin Yao had suffered immensely because of this. In this life, she had also learned to act weak and play the victim, and combined with careful planning, she had slowly exposed Lin Shu’s true face, ensuring she received her due retribution!
Everything had originally been under her control, but who would have expected that at the last moment, Lin Shu would suddenly turn the tables? Instead of going to the manor, she actually wanted to return to Tianshui Village.
“Lin Shu, there are no outsiders here, so don’t use that act of playing the obedient child with me. If this bag of gold nuggets isn’t enough, what do you want? Name your conditions.” Lin Yao’s patience was exhausted. Tianshui Village was her bottom line; she would never allow a vicious and selfish person like Lin Shu to harm her family.
Lin Shu thought of the female lead’s stubbornness in the book and truly didn’t want to entangle with her any further.
“Sister Yao, we are both going back to our respective homes to find our respective fathers—what is wrong with that? Everything in the Marquisate is yours now; I won’t fight for it anymore. I am simply returning to where I belong. Besides, I am an outsider to the Lin family of the Marquisate, and you are also an outsider to the Lin family of Tianshui Village. Tell me, as an outsider, what right do you have to stop me from seeking my biological parents?”
This string of words left Lin Yao speechless.
Her lips trembled, appearing quite angered, but after a moment, she gave a mocking laugh. “Fine, go then. Go back to that Tianshui Village. The villagers there live in thatched huts and eat chaff and wild vegetables. Ha, you can’t even distinguish the five grains; I imagine you don’t even know what chaff is. Chaff is the skin of the rice. Although the texture is terrible, when the harvest is poor, the villagers rely entirely on it to survive; it can serve as half a year’s worth of rations. The vegetables we grow in the fields must be carried to the town to be sold; we ourselves eat the wild vegetables from the mountains, which are bitter and astringent. As for clothes, they are mostly coarse cloth. When we can’t afford cotton clothes in winter, we sew layers ourselves and stuff them with straw and reed catkins…”
Lin Shu listened intently, nodding like a chick pecking at grain. “Got it, got it. Thank you for helping me understand Tianshui Village better.”
Lin Yao’s expression gradually went blank.
Lin Shu gave a soft smile. “Sister Yao, you said so much just because you’re worried that if I go to Tianshui Village, I’ll continue to cause trouble. But you’re overthinking it. I could cause trouble in the Marquisate because I was the Marquis’s daughter, with money and people at my disposal to be used by me. But what do I have now? My pockets are cleaner than my face, and I am so weak that I can’t even take care of myself. How could I cause trouble? Besides, they are my real family. My future life depends on them; why would I harm them?”
Lin Yao fell silent for a moment, just staring at her, as if trying to confirm something through her tone and demeanor.
Lin Shu let her look. After all, everything she said was the absolute truth, without a single lie.
After a long time, Lin Yao said with a complex expression, “I will assume for now that you have truly repented. But are you really going to Tianshui Village? A pampered young lady like you will never get used to such a poor life.”
“How will I know if I don’t try?” Lin Shu smiled sweetly, the calculation gone from her eyes, leaving them clear and clean. Even Lin Yao, an enemy who had loathed her for two lifetimes, was momentarily stunned by the sight.
Lin Shu didn’t just have the original owner’s memories; she had read the book and knew what kind of place Tianshui Village was.
The ancestors of Marquis Zhongyong were generals who had helped the founding emperor of the Dayuan Dynasty conquer the world. By the time it reached her “cheap” father’s generation, the family was no longer as prominent as before, but the Marquis was very capable. He had managed to secure a real post through his own efforts and gained the Emperor’s favor.
However, this process had not been smooth. In his youth, the Marquis had been stationed in the southern barbarian lands and suffered quite a bit. The Marchioness, deeply in love with him, had accompanied him to his post. When his three-year term ended, the Marquis was summoned back to the capital for a promotion due to his excellent performance. But at the time of their return, the Marchioness was pregnant.
The Marquis had originally intended for his wife to give birth before returning to the capital, but the Marchioness was unwilling. She had calculated the dates; even if they traveled slowly, they could make it back to the capital in time for the birth.
Unexpectedly, they encountered bandits on the road. After a period of flight, the group ended up in a small village in the Southwest. The Marchioness was so startled that she went into labor early and had to give birth on the spot. That premature child was Lin Yao.
The village was remote and poor. If it hadn’t been an absolute emergency, and if there hadn’t happened to be a village woman giving birth with a midwife nearby, the Marchioness would never have given birth in that village.
They only stayed in that mountain village for three days before the Marchioness and her party moved to a town with much better conditions. Only after completing her month of postpartum recovery did she continue north.
That difficult period was disliked by the Marchioness, and she rarely mentioned it. It wasn’t until two years ago, when an evil servant revealed the truth about the intentional switching of the children, that the original owner learned of this part of her mother’s past. This only made her reject the truth even more, secretly swearing that even if she died, she would die in the capital and never set foot in that impoverished mountain village.
However, the place that appeared to be poor mountains and treacherous waters to outsiders was a treasure trove of mountains and waters in Lin Shu’s eyes.
The mountains were never short of wild game. There were no useless weeds in the mountains; if you recognized them, they were all treasures. And as it happened, she recognized them.
She hadn’t lost her mind, nor was she trying to scheme against anyone. She was simply going back to live the life she wanted.
“You…”
“Do you have any words you want me to bring to my mother?” Lin Shu asked proactively.
Hearing this, Lin Yao’s jaw tightened. “I have no words to bring. If you can truly serve our parents in peace, I can let past grievances be forgotten.”
Lin Shu: … No wonder the male and female lead can drag out their angst for so many chapters. Besides the male lead not speaking his mind, the female lead is also stubborn.
“Since there’s nothing to say, I’ll be going. This journey will take two months if it goes smoothly; I need to leave early. Perhaps I can make it home in time for the Dragon Boat Festival.”
Lin Yao was speechless, her gaze toward Lin Shu very strange, as if she suddenly didn’t recognize her.
Lin Shu waved her hand at her and turned back to the carriage.
As the carriage clattered away, Lin Yao remained staring at it, unable to pull her thoughts back.
“Ah Yao.” A man’s low, gentle voice woke Lin Yao from her drifting thoughts.
She looked up at Gu Yi’an, who had walked to her side at some unknown point. Her expression was still stubborn, yet she unconsciously revealed a hint of dependence.
“Lin Shu has already left the capital. You no longer have any excuse to refuse me. Shall we marry?”
“Yi’an, let me consider it a bit longer.”
“Still more considering? Ah Yao, what exactly are you worried about? I have already explained—I only saw Lin Shu as a sister!”
What Gu Yi’an didn’t know was that what Lin Yao had been conflicted about was not his attitude toward Lin Shu in this life, but in the previous one.
In her previous life, Lin Shu had married Gu Yi’an!
With a dowry of 180 carrying-cases from the Marquisate, ten li of red wedding decor—how glorious it had been.
Lin Yao had not personally seen how Gu Yi’an interacted with Lin Shu after the marriage, but every time Lin Shu returned to the residence, she looked happy and sweet.
Gu Yi’an had even dismissed the two room-sharing maids in the residence for Lin Shu’s sake, and he hadn’t taken a single concubine, giving her full dignity.
They had even… even had two clever and bright children.
Lin Yao’s fingers suddenly tightened, her fingertips turning white.
She admitted she was jealous of Lin Shu because she felt a person like Lin Shu didn’t deserve happiness at all.
But having been reborn once, she had never thought of fighting for anything. She just didn’t want everyone to be deceived by Lin Shu again. Even when Lin Shu had been so vicious as to try and ruin her at this birthday banquet, she had merely exposed Lin Shu’s trick. If she had been more ruthless, Lin Shu would have already lost her chastity.
Who would have thought that because she didn’t fight or grab in this life, all the things she had sought but failed to obtain in her previous life had come to her one by one.
Including Gu Yi’an.
Except for the first time, which she had carefully designed, she and Gu Yi’an were always having chance encounters. With more contact, Gu Yi’an had developed feelings for her, and she had also…
Clearly, in her previous life, he had never spared her a second glance.
This was the man she would have called “brother-in-law” in her previous life; she was Gu Yi’an’s sister-in-law.
If she were to be with Gu Yi’an, it gave her a sense of immoral shame, and it also made her feel as though she were intentionally stealing Lin Shu’s things.
“Ah Yao? Ah Yao?”
Gu Yi’an’s voice brought back the drifting Lin Yao. Various emotions clashed within her heart, until finally, the scene of Lin Shu turning to leave without hesitation replayed in her mind. Suddenly, the fog that had troubled her for many days cleared.
Forget it, it was all a matter of the past life. Even if Gu Yi’an and Lin Shu were husband and wife in the past life, so what? In this life, the one Gu Yi’an liked was her!
And with Lin Shu leaving today, she might never return in this lifetime. She would never again have to recall that happy and sweet appearance when she saw that face.
Lin Yao felt a sense of relief, and deep within her, an unconscious, secret, and shameful sense of joy emerged.
“Yi’an, I’ve made up my mind. Let us marry,” she said.