When she opened her eyes and felt the heaviness in her chest, Mi Yao thought for a moment that she had restarted from a saved file. It wasn’t until Yu Xiu, crying as she handed over the medicine, that Mi Yao turned her face away in disappointment. The first six months after she transmigrated were the easiest days of her life—either lying around or scheming ways to pamper herself. If she had to repeat it all again, she wouldn’t mind in the least. Unfortunately, she clearly didn’t possess the golden cheat of rewinding time.
“Elder Sister, you’re awake…” Yu Xiu sobbed as she set the decoction by her side, gazing at Mi Yao with tearful pity. “I never thought you’d fall ill. If I had known you’d collapse from this, I wouldn’t have listened to Cousin Huan and let him take you away.”
Realizing the tightness in her chest was just cold stagnation, Mi Yao braced herself against the bed and sat up. “Go prepare me some cleansing tea, and candied fruit to mask the bitterness.”
Yu Xiu always carried tea leaves and preserves. Once she had arranged everything, Mi Yao drained the medicine in one gulp, chewed a rice cake, and finally looked back at the girl whose face was streaked with tears.
As half-sisters, Yu Xiu did resemble the original body somewhat. Both had almond-shaped eyes, though Yu Xiu’s face was squarer—less delicate, more obediently dull.
In the original’s memories, Yu Xiu had never been clever. Once, unwilling to kill the civet cat that had scratched her sister, she secretly plotted to set it free. When discovered, she had knelt for two days in fear that her sister would stop protecting her.
Because Mi Yao had always treated those around her like NPCs in a vacation game, this was the first time she studied Yu Xiu carefully, wondering what truly lay in her mind.
The novel had never explained Yu Xiu’s thoughts, so Mi Yao couldn’t tell whether letting Huan Guanbin take her away had been accidental or deliberate.
Seeing the endless tears welling in Yu Xiu’s eyes, Mi Yao spoke before the crying became unbearable: “Huan Guanbin asked you for help. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Hearing her sister’s voice hoarse from illness, Yu Xiu grew even more guilty. “Cousin Huan said you only married into Shu to ease Father’s mind. For the sake of the Yu family, even if you suffered, you would never leave with him. So he said we had to keep it from you…”
When Yu Xiu choked and couldn’t go on, Mi Yao continued: “So you see me every day, and you think I’m suffering?”
That—!
Yu Xiu’s eyes widened blankly, her muddled brain thrown into chaos by the question.
“Every day I eat whatever I want, drink whatever I please. I have endless silver, servants to wait on me—I don’t even wash my own face. Where exactly do you see suffering?”
“But… Elder Sister likes Cousin Huan.”
“Was that before, or now?”
“Before.”
“Then you understand the logic. Stop pretending to be stupid.”
As her words fell, Mi Yao saw Yu Xiu kneel and kowtow, her forehead striking the floor again and again, so hard it seemed she meant to smash it to pieces.
“What good does your kowtowing do me? Do you think if you bleed, I’ll pity you, decide you’re pitiful, forgive you for harboring malice, for letting villains abduct me, for nearly leaving me to freeze to death?”
The pounding of her head against the floor ceased at Mi Yao’s words. Yu Xiu lifted her pale face, her forehead swollen though not bleeding.
“Elder Sister…”
“I don’t buy into all that kowtowing and kneeling. To me, people are only divided into useful or useless. You made me suffer a loss—splitting your head open on the floor won’t bring me any benefit.”
After speaking, Mi Yao coughed a few times, lost interest in continuing, and lay back down to rest with her eyes closed.
Yu Xiu remained kneeling on the ground. Seeing her sister asleep, she nervously mulled over Mi Yao’s words. She could feel that her elder sister was no longer the same as before.
In the past, her sister liked Huan Guanbin. She never mentioned it to outsiders, but in front of her close maidservants, she often spoke of what he said or did, delighting in his unusual ideas. Half a year ago, after falling ill, her sister never spoke of Huan Guanbin again. Instead, she collected ancient beauty recipes and became obsessed with making herself more beautiful. No longer binding her chest or restricting her diet, she grew increasingly pleased with her fuller, more graceful figure.
It was precisely this change that made Yu Xiu afraid. If her sister were the same as before, then even as a concubine she might still win a little affection from her husband. But now, with Mi Yao’s poised temperament and goddess-like beauty, how could the man spare Yu Xiu a glance?
So she had casually mentioned to Huan Guanbin that Mi Yao did not wish to marry far away, that she was only yielding for their father’s sake. Huan Guanbin, however, spun it further, inventing a tale that Mi Yao was deeply miserable.
Yu Xiu even helped him drug her sister, believing he would truly spirit Mi Yao away—leaving Yu Xiu as the only bride bound for Yizhou. Who could have guessed Huan Guanbin would prove so useless? Within a single day, Mi Yao was back.
Recalling Mi Yao’s words just now, Yu Xiu trembled uncontrollably, unable to fathom what “useful” could mean if kowtowing was useless.
Mi Yao lay in bed for three days, drinking five or six bowls of medicine. By the fourth day, she finally felt the illness purged and her body functioning again.
During those days, Yu Xiu tried desperately to prove her usefulness. Whenever Mi Yao’s other maids were absent, she fussed over her sister with exaggerated diligence—nearly to the point of wanting to chew the food herself before feeding it to her.
“Where are Shuang Hua and Shi Ya? And where is this place?”
Only after several days did Mi Yao begin to wonder why she wasn’t at the post station, and why her maids weren’t by her side.
Yu Xiu, long accustomed to her sister’s carefree indifference, explained without surprise: “I don’t know why you’re here. Brother-in-law sent men to fetch me from the post station, saying I was to care for you.”
“They only fetched you?”
“They asked who was closest to you. I said I was your own sister. So they let me pack a few of your clothes and brought me here.”
Yu Xiu pursed her lips, then added her guess: “This should be Brother-in-law’s private residence. A small two-courtyard house, with only the gatekeeper’s family to serve.”
Thinking of her belongings, Mi Yao remembered the jewelry Huan Guanbin had thrown away. She went to the dressing table and saw the box still intact on the desk, and breathed a sigh of relief.
The so-called “number one beauty of Jiangnan” was only glamorous on the surface. Her father held a minor idle post, and because her birth mother had died early, he had quickly remarried. If not for her striking looks, even as the legitimate daughter, she would not have been valued by the Yu family. And even though valued, the Yu family was unwilling to provide much for her dowry. Most of the jewelry in her trousseau had come from Xiao Xu’s betrothal gifts.
Examining the four layers of jewels one by one, Mi Yao found Yu Xiu puzzling. She called her malicious, yet when packing, Yu Xiu had carefully included nearly all of the valuable items.
“Elder Sister… do you think Brother-in-law is angry with us?”
These past days, Yu Xiu had feared two things: Mi Yao settling accounts with her, and Xiao Xu’s strange behavior. Why had he abandoned them in this place without a word? Could it be that he no longer intended to take Mi Yao back to Shu for marriage?
But since Mi Yao hadn’t mentioned it, Yu Xiu dared not ask. Only now did she let slip her panic: “Brother-in-law… has he never seen Elder Sister’s face?”
If he had truly seen her, how could he possibly bear not to bring her back to his residence?
“He probably has matters to attend to in Jingzhou.”
Before Xiao Xu sought to marry the original, his foundation was built on quelling the unrest in Jingzhou. Jingzhou was the grain hub for several southern provinces, bordering Shu. She remembered from the book that Xiao Xu had spent considerable effort there—pacifying rebellions, then stirring them again, until he eliminated all rival factions and swallowed up Jingzhou like a fat prize. From there, he advanced along the Yangtze to seize Huainan. Leaving her here was likely part of his plan: to use her abduction as a pretext to stir trouble in Jingzhou.
In fact, being taken away by Huan Guanbin should have given him the perfect opportunity. From Kuizhou to Jingzhou, even at full gallop, it would take more than a day. Yet he found her in just one. That meant he hadn’t been waiting in Kuizhou at all—he had already been within Jingzhou’s borders.
Once she understood this, Mi Yao lay back down again. But by noon, when it was time to eat, she found she couldn’t stay in bed any longer.
While her cold lingered, food had tasted bland. Now that her illness had lifted and her sense of taste returned, eating coarse meals was sheer torment.
The roast duck gave off a fishy stench, the meat-filled buns were burnt, and though the cabbage soup was properly cooked, she couldn’t be expected to live on plain porridge and greens alone.
“Can you even stomach this?” Mi Yao looked at Yu Xiu. Though Yu Xiu was not favored, she had always stayed close to the original, and normally wouldn’t have been reduced to eating such fare.
“The meals are cooked by the gatekeeper’s old wife. I spoke to her about it—she agreed readily, but the dishes still turned out like this. At first, I thought she simply couldn’t prepare meat properly. But these past few days, everything you refused to eat she cooked again, with oil and spices in perfect measure, fragrant and rich, and all of it ended up in her family’s stomachs.”
Because Mi Yao had been ill, Yu Xiu hadn’t dared to quarrel with the gatekeeper’s family. But now that Mi Yao mentioned it, she immediately carried the dishes over to confront them.
Yu Xiu stormed off fiercely, only to return empty-handed a short while later—with an old woman in tow.
The old woman wore a gray-brown cotton jacket, unpatched but filthy. Her hair was greasy and tangled, her collar and sleeves stained black. Even before she came close, a foul odor clung to her. Her slovenly appearance was bad enough, but the moment she saw Mi Yao, she narrowed her eyes and scrutinized her up and down, clearly trying to assert dominance at their first meeting.
Thinking of Yu Xiu’s claim that this woman deliberately ruined the food, Mi Yao covered her mouth and gagged openly. “Don’t tell me—the medicine I’ve been drinking and the food I’ve eaten were all made by her?”
“Rest assured, Elder Sister. I brewed the medicine myself. The porridge was cooked by the gatekeeper’s wife. Only the meat dishes were hers.”
Mi Yao instantly felt relieved that she hadn’t touched any meat these past days.
“And you dare meddle with my meals? How could Xiao Lang possibly leave your family here to serve!?”
Granny Wu froze for a moment at Mi Yao’s true face. She had been brought here overnight, and the town commander had only instructed her son to keep watch over the sisters, forbidding them to wander—nothing more. Normally, Yu Xiu kept her away from the main house, so she hadn’t realized the sickly young lady inside was a beauty like a goddess, imperious and unlike any ordinary woman.
Granny Wu had meant to act fierce, to keep Mi Yao from making trouble. But hearing her sharp rebuke, she instinctively dropped to her knees.
“Madam does not know—my son once served under the town commander. After he was wounded in battle, the commander pitied him and allowed our family to guard this gate…”
“I suppose Xiao Lang pitied your son and gave him this house. But as mere gatekeepers, why tell me all this? Do you think I’ll be cowed because your son once served under my husband?”
Mi Yao sneered. Now that her illness had lifted, her appetite surged back, cutting off Granny Wu’s babbling. “Enough nonsense. Just looking at you makes me sick, and I can’t stomach your cooking. Hand over the silver Xiao Lang left, and send someone with my sister to buy me food I can actually eat.”
“The town commander ordered us to keep watch, not to let you wander.”
Seeing Granny Wu puff out her chest with renewed confidence, Mi Yao snorted: “A beauty like me naturally cannot be allowed to wander. Otherwise, what use are servants like you?”
With Mi Yao’s backing, Yu Xiu also found courage. She glared at the resentful old woman: “Still refusing to obey? Do you want my brother-in-law to come back and throw your whole family out?”
Granny Wu muttered about the commander’s orders and her son’s favor, stalling for a while. But when Mi Yao raised her proud eyes and refused to even look at her, she had no choice but to grudgingly fetch silver. She sent her daughter-in-law with Yu Xiu to buy Mi Yao’s midday meal.
After eating her fill, Mi Yao debated whether to nap again or have Yu Xiu fetch her some idle books to pass the time. As she hesitated, noise stirred in the courtyard. She slipped on her shoes, pushed open the door, and immediately saw a man walking toward her.
His face was uncovered this time, no leather mask hiding it, his pale lips visible. Yet she recognized him at once by those cold, untamed phoenix eyes and the aura of killing intent surrounding him. She stepped forward a few paces, her almond eyes shimmering as she looked up at him with playful reproach: “Xiao Lang, you know delicate flowers must be carefully tended—why do you still torment me so?”