“So this is what the Ghost Messenger meant by a surprise?”
They assigned her a man?
In the darkness, Ye Xiaojin slowly came to, her eyelids fluttering open. By the faint light filtering in through the window, she could vaguely make out the person before her.
His features were hidden in the shadows, not quite discernible, only the sharp, angular contours of his silhouette visible.
Having traveled far and wide for years and seen countless men, she could tell from that silhouette alone that this was a man with excellent bone structure.
Mm, she was quite satisfied with this allocation!
But as she glanced around the room, her lips curled downward in disappointment.
The environment really wasn’t up to par—the room was shabby, the service lacking. She felt terrible right now, desperately thirsty, her body burning as if being roasted, with an indescribable heat.
Yinsi had even allocated her a man, so why couldn’t they have gotten her a glass of water?
Negative review!
Damn it, this spinning sensation, this feeling of being scorched all over while a million ants gnawed at her—it was unbearable.
What kind of situation was this?
In just a moment, she had no time to think, driven by an overwhelming, indescribable craving.
In the darkness, the man’s eyes snapped open. Looking at the woman causing trouble, his voice was low and icy. “Let go… do you have a death wish…”
Ye Xiaojin paused mid-motion. His tone was cold, but that deep voice at this moment sounded… rather alluring.
She closed her eyes, a faint smile curling at the corners of her lips.
This man was handsome, sure, but he didn’t seem too bright. She was already dead—what did she need a life for?
Following the sound upward, Ye Xiaojin located the source of that icy aura and sealed it.
The man drew in a sharp breath, heat igniting in his abdomen, desire spiraling out of control. He turned his head away, his voice harsh. “You brought this on yourself.”
“Yinsi assigned you. At worst, I’ll take responsibility for you. Don’t dawdle.” The craving grew stronger, and Ye Xiaojin began to lose patience.
When alive, one couldn’t do as one pleased; but as a ghost, why should she still deny herself?
She had lived twenty-five years without ever truly experiencing this, acting only on instinct.
Yet in the man’s icy, cold eyes, flame after flame slowly began to kindle.
…
Ye Xiaojin woke with a start, choked by suffocation.
She opened her eyes to find an extremely furious… handsome face before her.
She tried desperately to pry away the hand gripping her throat, but the man’s grip was like iron pincers—she couldn’t budge it an inch.
Her pupils contracted sharply. She sensed an absolutely formidable strength—this was the power of a man!
She had once taken on ten burly men single-handedly and emerged victorious, yet now she was pinned down, unable to move at all.
This man was far too powerful.
“Xiao ah, Xiao bao, are you up?” A frail, elderly voice sounded, followed by a few coughs.
“Xiao bao?” Not hearing Ye Xiaojin’s reply, the aged voice called out again, footsteps approaching the room.
Ye Xiaojin pounded fiercely at the pressure point on the man’s arm. His grip suddenly loosened, and she seized the chance to roll aside, gasping for air, assuming a defensive stance against him.
Hearing the footsteps draw closer to the room, Ye Xiaojin shouted to stop them, “Don’t come in! I haven’t slept enough yet—I’m so tired.”
She was afraid that if the old man came in, it would anger this man, and the two of them would be killed together in an instant.
“What’s wrong with your voice? Have you caught a chill?” Hearing the hoarseness in his granddaughter’s voice, Ye Hong asked with concern.
“Maybe I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m hungry—I want some porridge. Can you cook some for me?”
Ye Hong agreed without a second thought: “Alright, alright, you didn’t sleep well last night, so go back to sleep. I’ll call you when the porridge is ready!”
The old man was not skilled in cooking, and the only old servant in the house, Lao Zhuang, had gone to town yesterday to buy grain and hadn’t returned yet. But he did know how to make porridge—his precious granddaughter was hungry, and that was a matter of great importance.
Ye Hong immediately turned around and shuffled toward the kitchen, leaning on his cane.
Hearing the old man’s weak and unsteady footsteps, Ye Xiaojin’s memories surged forth, chaotic fragments of information crashing and colliding in her mind.
As the world’s number one assassin in the 21st century, after killing the woman who had raised and trained her, she had retired to the city where she grew up, intending to spend her remaining years guarding her memories of her grandfather. But she was then diagnosed with a tumor in her brain—without surgery, she had only four months to live.
With surgery, there was a ninety percent chance she would die on the operating table.
So when she saw a runaway truck about to crash into a school bus full of students, she floored the accelerator and rammed straight into the truck.
Watching her own body shatter and tear apart, she instead felt a sense of relief.
No need to wait four months, no need to count down the days until death. Being able to go see her grandfather sooner was, in a way, a blessing.
And so, without looking back, she followed the Ghost Messenger who had come to collect her, drifting all the way to Yinsi.
She had been queuing up to register at Yinsi, casually listening to the old-timers gossip, when the Ghost Messenger who had escorted her came over mysteriously and told her to wait aside—there was a surprise in store for her.
Last night, she recalled those old-timers talking about arranged ghost marriages, so she assumed the surprise was that they were assigning her a husband.
Now, she suspected the so-called surprise was having her possess the body of the Ye Xiaojin who had just died in this Dayin Chao.
After all, that was their actual specialty—it was only because her head had been squeezed by a door last night that she thought Yinsi would dabble in matchmaking.
Same name, same surname. This Ye Xiaojin was the granddaughter of Ye Hong, a retired general who had returned to his hometown.
Back when Ye Hong was away at war, enemy spies infiltrated the capital and slaughtered the entire Ye family. The spies were utterly vicious—not only did they kill, they destroyed the bodies as well. Every member of the household, including the servants, perished, leaving only the original owner, who had survived by sleeping in a cave of the rockery out of childish playfulness.
And so, at seven years old, the original owner became the sole surviving descendant of the Ye family.
Not long after, Ye Hong returned triumphant from battle. Upon hearing the devastating news, the old general, already gravely wounded, vomited blood and collapsed unconscious before the gates of the General’s Mansion. Though he regained consciousness days later, he had lost all his martial arts prowess, and his body collapsed entirely.
Knowing he could no longer serve the country, the old general surrendered his military authority and petitioned the emperor to resign. The emperor, feeling deep guilt that such a thing had happened right under his nose, bestowed upon him much gold and silver before granting his request.
Ye Hong then brought the sole surviving descendant, Ye Xiaojin, back to his hometown—Shuiwan Village, Qingyang Town, Ganning County, Ganbei Prefecture.
With over a dozen family members cruelly slain, the gray-haired mourning the young, Ye Hong was wracked with grief and guilt, and so he doted on the original owner all the more.
As a result, the original owner was spoiled beyond measure by Ye Hong, growing into a willful, arrogant, and reckless young woman. Though she was exceedingly beautiful, her reputation was terrible, and with the old man’s picky standards, she had yet to be married off.
But the laws of Dayin Chao decreed that any woman who remained unmarried at seventeen brought guilt upon her parents and relatives, and the authorities would forcibly arrange a marriage for her.
Ye Hong was no longer a great general now, but a common citizen. If his granddaughter did not marry, she truly would be forcibly wed by the authorities.
He did not fear being punished himself, but he could not bear the thought of his precious granddaughter being assigned some crooked melon or split date—a widowed old man—by the authorities. He worried even more that after his death, his granddaughter would have no one to rely on.
Village Doctor Li had already given his diagnosis: he had fewer than ten days left to live…
So, drawing on their old brotherly bond and the debt of a life-saving favor, he proposed to Old Prince Xiao Zhan of the Zhennan Prince’s Manor that his granddaughter marry into the manor.
The Zhennan Prince was the only non-imperial prince in Dayin Chao, having followed the late emperor in founding the dynasty. By this generation, the title had already been hereditary for three generations.
The prince had two sons and one daughter. The man before her was the second son of the Zhennan Prince, Xiao Moye, who, favored by imperial grace, had been appointed by the current emperor as the heir to the Zhennan Prince’s title over the eldest son of the manor when he was young.
Xiao Moye had been sent by the Old Prince to escort her to the capital. As for which son of the Zhennan Prince’s Manor she would marry, that would be decided upon arrival in the capital.
But she had taken one look at the handsome Xiao Moye—whose beauty blurred the line between male and female, yet did not lack masculine vigor—and fallen for him. Being spoiled and willful, how could she allow the man she had set her eyes on to possibly not become her husband?
So, taking advantage of Ye Hong’s poor health and early sleep, she drugged Xiao Moye and, while he was dazed, helped him into her own room. Her reasoning was likely that if they were discovered in her room, she could claim Xiao Moye had come to her; if it were in Xiao Moye’s room, she would be suspected of throwing herself at him.
Having heard that the first time was painful, she drugged herself as well. She had obtained some potent drug from who knows where, but her body could not withstand its effects, and she died on the spot. She had transmigrated here, and under the drug’s influence, she had taken the young prince by force…
Ye Xiaojin let out a sigh. So transmigration really did exist in this world, and she had actually encountered it.
Though she wished to see her grandfather soon, she was already alive now—she could hardly just kill herself again.
The question was, how was she supposed to face what had happened last night?