Lin Yao felt the world spinning around her, her head throbbing as if struck by a heavy hammer, waves of dull pain washing over her.
She struggled to open her eyes, finding herself in a desolate grove, the surroundings eerily silent and gloomy.
The ground beneath her was damp and soft, emitting a foul, decaying scent mixed with the faint smell of blood.
Lin Yao remembered she had just finished meeting a client’s demands and was about to head to a barbecue restaurant for a meal. But before she could even pack up her things, a sharp pain shot through her chest, her vision went black, and she heard the panicked shouts of her colleagues. When she woke again, she was lying in this desolate place.
Her head ached intensely, and memories that didn’t belong to her flooded her mind.
The young girl in these memories, who looked just like her, was also named Lin Yao. She was only twelve years old and had been tricked by her aunt into becoming someone’s concubine. Midway, she realized something was wrong and tried to escape but ended up losing her life in a twist of fate.
Her aunt, Hu Shi, had heard while at the market that a wealthy local, Hu Yuanwai, was sending people to scout for young girls, offering a reward of twenty taels of silver. Seizing the opportunity, Hu Shi hatched a wicked plan to sell her niece to the old man as a concubine.
In the countryside, an ordinary family’s yearly expenses amounted to only three or four taels of silver. Twenty taels would be enough to support a family for five years, and if used for a wedding, it would be considered an extravagant affair.
Hu Shi had two sons—one eighteen and the other sixteen—both of whom had yet to marry. Hearing about such a lucrative deal, she was unwilling to let it slip away.
So, just two hours earlier, Hu Shi had seized the chance while the original host’s brother was away hunting in the mountains and approached her.
“Ah Yao,” Hu Shi said, holding her hand with feigned concern, “there’s a wealthy family in the county looking for clever and obedient maids. The work is light, and the pay is high—five hundred copper coins a month. If you go, you can earn a lot to help support the family, and your brother won’t have to work so hard.”
Though young, the original host knew her aunt had always been harsh and critical of her family. Still, tempted by the idea of easing her brother’s burden, she hesitated but eventually agreed.
Along the way, however, the original host noticed Hu Shi growing increasingly nervous, her pace quickening, and began to suspect something was amiss.
As they passed a secluded corner, the original host saw several burly men dragging a young girl, who was weeping bitterly. Realizing the danger, she turned to flee.
Hu Shi, seeing this, grabbed her arm with surprising strength, “You wretched girl, where do you think you’re going!”
The original host struggled desperately, but in the scuffle, she tripped over a rock, hitting her forehead hard. Blood gushed out instantly.
The excruciating pain blurred her consciousness. She heard her aunt mutter a curse—”What bad luck!”—before feeling her body being dragged into the woods.
Just before her consciousness faded, she faintly heard the sound of her aunt’s hurried footsteps fading into the distance.
The poor girl, already malnourished and frail from years of starvation, couldn’t withstand the ordeal and quietly died there, making way for Lin Yao’s arrival.
After sorting through the chaotic memories in her mind, Lin Yao sighed inwardly. This was truly a world where the strong preyed on the weak.
Now, having been reborn in another’s body, though granted a second chance at life, she felt no joy—perhaps because of the tragic fate of the young girl, or perhaps because of the life she was about to face. Placing her hand over her heart, she whispered, “Leave your unfinished business to me. Rest in peace.”
After resting for a while, Lin Yao leaned on the tree trunk beside her and slowly stood up, her legs still trembling, the pain making her grit her teeth. As she walked, she searched through the original host’s memories for information about this era.
This was the final years of an ancient fictional dynasty called the Da Yan Dynasty. The Da Yan Dynasty had once experienced centuries of prosperity and flourishing, but now it had entered its turbulent and precarious final years.
The world had descended into chaos, with natural disasters and human calamities following one after another.
For several consecutive years, droughts had ravaged the land, leaving the common people with no harvest. Droughts were followed by floods, causing countless people to become displaced and contract epidemics.
Yet, in this critical time, the court turned a blind eye to the suffering of the people. Relief funds and supplies were delayed, and starved corpses littered the land.
Taxes grew increasingly heavy. Officials at all levels, seeking to line their own pockets, added layers of surcharges. Under the oppressive weight of these taxes, the common people lived in unbearable hardship.
Corvée labor further crushed the people.
The court embarked on massive construction projects, building palaces and city walls, with an almost insane demand for labor. Nearly every household had its able-bodied young men forcibly conscripted.
Those conscripted for corvée labor toiled in harsh conditions, suffering from hunger and inadequate clothing, while enduring beatings and abuse from overseers. Many died from exhaustion on the worksites, their bones never returning home.
Resentment simmered among the populace, and the people’s dissatisfaction with the court grew daily. Small-scale uprisings began to emerge in some regions. Though still insignificant for now, the spark had been quietly ignited.
Meanwhile, within the court, various factions vied for power through overt and covert struggles, creating utter chaos. Powerful ministers controlled the government, forming cliques for personal gain and purging dissidents. The emperor, indulging in wine and women, paid no attention to state affairs and allowed the situation to deteriorate step by step.
Neighboring countries also noticed the decline of the Da Yan Dynasty and began to stir, attempting to take advantage of the chaos to claim a share of the spoils.
The entire Da Yan Dynasty was like a great building on the verge of collapse, teetering precariously.
The small mountain village where the original host lived, though remote, was also shrouded in gloom. Many of the village’s able-bodied men had been conscripted, large tracts of farmland lay fallow, and grain harvests decreased sharply year by year, filling everyone with anxiety.
The father of the three siblings—Lin Changkang—had also been taken away by the conscription officers. Originally, it shouldn’t have been his turn, but Lin Demao couldn’t bear to send his eldest son to the army, so he forced his second son to replace his elder brother.
Half a year ago, a batch of wounded soldiers including their group was sent back to their hometowns. Those who returned said they hadn’t seen Lin Changkang since not long after entering the military camp, and he had most likely died on the battlefield long ago.
Upon hearing this news, the original host’s mother, Jia Shi, immediately fainted.
When Lin Demao heard that his second son might have died on the battlefield, he showed no grief. Instead, not wanting to spend money on Jia Shi’s medical treatment, he immediately began pushing for dividing the family property.
In this era where filial piety weighed heavily on people, Jia Shi and the three Lin siblings, though resentful, had nowhere to plead their case. Their grandmother, Zhu Shi, wanted to argue on their behalf, but Lin Demao paid no attention to her words.
In the end, Lin Demao only allotted them three drafty thatched huts and a bag of coarse rice. The farmland that should have gone to the male heirs, the original host’s mother’s dowry, and even the dowry that the original host’s father had saved for her were all withheld by Lin Demao.
Jia Shi had already fainted once upon hearing the news of her husband’s disappearance, leaving her physically weak. After moving into the drafty thatched huts, she caught a cold. Despite taking several doses of medicine, she showed no improvement and passed away within a few days.
After Jia Shi’s departure, the three children were left struggling to survive.
To pay for Jia Shi’s medical treatment, the three siblings had exhausted all the family’s savings. Watching their food supplies dwindle, the eldest brother Lin Cheng ventured into the mountains more frequently.
At fifteen years old, Lin Cheng had learned some hunting skills from his father since childhood. However, being still young, each trip into the mountains yielded meager results, and the family could barely maintain basic sustenance.
The original host also had a younger brother named Lin Song, now four years old. With his chubby, adorable face, he was usually well-behaved and sensible. Yet, having suffered from hunger since infancy, his small face was sallow, and his frame thin and undersized.
After sorting through the original host’s family relationships, Lin Yao suddenly felt that her previous life of living alone—unburdened by attachments, where feeding herself meant feeding the whole family—was truly heavenly.
Meanwhile, half an hour earlier, Lin Cheng had descended the mountain with a pheasant and a wild rabbit he’d hunted that day, hoping to provide a full meal for his younger siblings. But when he stepped through the doorway, Lin Yao was nowhere to be seen.
Lin Cheng called out several times, but only Lin Song came running out from the dilapidated thatched hut.
His second sister had promised to buy him maltose candy when she left home, telling him to wait obediently. But after waiting and waiting with no sign of her, he had grown increasingly anxious.
The little one scurried to find his brother, his eyes already red-rimmed when he saw Lin Cheng. With a tearful voice, he cried, “Brother, Second Sister is missing! She said she’d buy me maltose candy, but I waited so long and she never came back.”
A sense of foreboding washed over Lin Cheng. When the family could hardly afford enough food, where would they get spare money for maltose candy? He feared his younger sister might have been deceived.
Lin Cheng dropped the game and inquired throughout the village, asking everyone he met if they had seen Lin Yao, but most villagers shook their heads.
Frantic with worry, Lin Cheng followed the path out of the village, calling Lin Yao’s name along the way.
As dusk fell and visibility narrowed, Lin Cheng grew more desperate. He continued searching along the forest edge, thorns tearing his clothes unnoticed.
Until, amidst a patch of wild grass, he discovered a fallen hair ribbon. He recognized it—their mother had woven it for his sister before she passed away. His heart sank instantly, and he quickened his pace, rushing toward the wilderness woods.
At that moment, Lin Yao, stumbling along her way, finally emerged from the forest and coincidentally encountered Lin Cheng rushing into the woods.
Seeing his sister’s face smeared with blood, hair disheveled, and body covered in mud and disarray, Lin Cheng didn’t hesitate. He immediately dashed forward, hoisted her onto his back, and strode swiftly homeward.
“Yao, don’t be afraid! Your brother is taking you home!” Lin Cheng urged anxiously.
On the journey home, perhaps due to their sibling bond—even though Lin Yao actually had no connection to this youth named Lin Cheng—her body gradually relaxed, her consciousness dimmed, and she fell asleep.
Back in the thatched hut, Lin Cheng carefully laid Lin Yao on the bed, then turned to search for medicinal herbs.
Having hunted in the mountains year-round, he’d suffered numerous injuries large and small, so the family always kept hemostatic and anti-inflammatory herbs on hand.
Lin Song stood nearby, small hands nervously clutching the hem of his shirt, eyes filled with worry and fear.
He gently blew on the wound on Lin Yao’s forehead—the last time he had fallen and gotten hurt, his mother had done the same for him, saying that blowing on it would ease the pain.
Lin Cheng crushed the herbs and applied them gently to the wound on Lin Yao’s forehead.
After a long while, Lin Yao gradually regained consciousness. As she relaxed, the pain in her body became more pronounced, and her throat felt terribly dry. She let out a hoarse whisper: “Water…”
Lin Song, who had been resting his head by the bedside, immediately rushed to the table upon hearing his sister’s voice. He poured a cup of water and brought it to Lin Yao’s lips.
Drinking directly from the chipped bowl held in Lin Song’s small hands, Lin Yao consumed two full bowls of water before finally feeling some relief.
Lin Cheng had been dressing her wounds earlier before stepping outside to handle game. Hearing the commotion, he immediately set aside the prey and hurried inside. Seeing his younger sister finally conscious, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“A-Yao, what happened today?” Lin Cheng asked. Supporting herself against the bed, Lin Yao sat up straight and, under the worried gazes of her two brothers, recounted the day’s events.
The more Lin Cheng listened, the tighter his fists clenched, his knuckles turning white. Ever since their father disappeared, their uncle’s family had been bullying them at every turn, and now they even entertained thoughts of selling his sister. He roared in anger: “How could Aunt be so vicious! I’m going to confront her!” He made to charge outside.
Lin Yao quickly grabbed his arm, weakly saying: “Elder brother, we have no evidence. Without proof, she’ll certainly deny everything and might even turn the tables on us. Let’s wait for another opportunity.”
Lin Cheng gritted his teeth but ultimately nodded, helping Lin Yao lie back down to rest.
The room was dim and damp. Lying on the worn-out bed, Lin Yao’s head remained heavy and muddled, yet her thoughts grew active.
In these turbulent times, survival depends on oneself.
Since fate brought her here through transmigration, it couldn’t possibly be just to let her die again. She would definitely find a way to carve out a path to survival.
Author’s Note:
Check out my upcoming novel “The Villainess Fears the Persistent Suitor” (Gourmet Detective Stories) wow~[Flop-eared bunny]
Sudden strange cases emerge in Yuhang County:
The Hwamei Bird claims seven lives, leaving only half a footprint at the scene;
A corpse-transporting driver screams in terror when the sturdy man in the coffin turns out to be a woman in red bridal attire;
A chaste maiden awaiting marriage is impersonated – where is the mastermind hiding…
Hua Linlang has transmigrated, becoming the wealthiest beauty of Yuhang County.
Unfortunately, her parents died unexpectedly, leaving her an orphan girl eyed greedily by relatives waiting to claim her family fortune.
Hua Linlang: …No big deal.
As a modern double-degree overachiever in forensic medicine and criminal psychology, though she accidentally overworked herself to death, she brought all her skills along.
While solving cases, she’ll revitalize her ancestral business, expanding restaurants and food establishments nationwide!
The new county magistrate Ji Huai, ambitious and brilliant, solves cases with divine skill.
He initially regarded Hua Linlang as the prime suspect, but she unraveled the clues before him, revealing the mysteries behind the cases with a single remark.
From then on, he investigated cases while she conducted autopsies; he pursued criminals while she created profiles.
When he worked overtime on an empty stomach, she thoughtfully handed him a bowl of Osmanthus Rice Wine.
Ji Huai was deeply moved – how could he let such an ideal match slip away!
The beauty before him shone with captivating grace, perfectly matched with his handsome elegance!
The next moment, his ideal match parted her rosy lips: “Three taels per bowl, Magistrate Ji – paying in silver or charging to your account?”
Ji Huai: …..
Everyone called Hua Linlang a temptress, but Ji Huai felt that if this “temptress” would stay for him, he’d gladly accept his fate.
Watching her calm profile during an autopsy, he softly asked:
“Hua Linlang, in your world, besides cases and money, could you make room for something else?”
Beauty Hua: “Such as?”
Ji Huai: “Me.”
Flower Beauty: “Get lost.”
Ji Huai: “See you later.”
The male lead self-romances.
Early stage: “She must have ulterior motives.”
Later stage: He trapped her within a confined space, his scorching breath brushing past her ear: “Linlang, you’d better be scheming for me.”