Xie Mingzhu had transmigrated just yesterday, coinciding with Marquis Zhenyuan’s burial. The old lady of the household had passed away two years prior, leaving only a betrothed younger sister-in-law.
As the eldest sister-in-law acting as mother figure, and having received an Imperial Mandate along with endless streams of gold and silver rewards carried into the mansion, she accepted her fate—even though the Marquis had left her with five children upon his passing.
With her husband gone, she had both sons and daughters, an Imperial Mandate, and inexhaustible wealth. Why would she run away? Staying to enjoy her good fortune was the obvious choice.
In her delight, she hadn’t even bothered to properly acquaint herself with all five children. She roughly knew that the third and fifth were her original body’s biological children, both apparently daughters.
The eldest was from the deceased first wife—a son, making him the legitimate heir. Now that Marquis Zhenyuan had died in battle at the frontier, the heir to the marquisate would undoubtedly be him.
Next was the second child, a girl left behind by a concubine who died during childbirth.
The fourth was also a girl, said to be born from Marquis Zhenyuan’s relationship with a female physician who saved him after he was injured at the frontier. The physician had integrity—unyielding and unwilling to become a concubine. She preferred to remain an unofficial consort, so this fourth child had previously been raised outside the mansion.
She must have truly loved Marquis Zhenyuan deeply, for she abandoned her young daughter to follow him to the frontier. Heaven seemingly couldn’t bear to separate them—it was said that before dying, they embraced and jumped off a cliff together.
When soldiers found them in the valley, only wolf-gnawed bones remained, indistinguishable from one another, fused together in death. They were brought back together, making a joint burial inevitable.
The original host, already frail, couldn’t accept that an unofficial consort would share her husband’s burial plot. While she might have reluctantly accepted him being buried with his first wife, the finality of the situation on the burial day overwhelmed her. In a fit of rage and despair, she breathed her last—making way for the present Xie Mingzhu.
Exhausted from receiving imperial edicts and rewards today, she hadn’t yet learned the children’s names or personalities. She planned to rest through the night and properly engage with them tomorrow.
But in the middle of the night, Xie Mingzhu was startled awake by chaotic noises. Before she could inquire, a maid rushed in to light the lamp, panicked: “Madam, there are many City Defense Battalion soldiers outside, and Imperial Guards are swarming the streets. Something major must have happened!”
Though new to this world, Xie Mingzhu recognized such commotion usually indicated rebellion or similar turmoil. She quickly reviewed the imperial family dynamics: the Emperor, though aged, was in good health. However, the Crown Prince had been demoted to commoner years earlier due to issues involving the late Empress, leaving the Eastern Palace vacant—an irresistible temptation for the princes.
As the original host was an inner-quarter woman from a merchant family with little knowledge of court affairs, and Marquis Zhenyuan—a military general—was often stationed at the frontier, Xie Mingzhu found no useful information in her inherited memories.
Fortunately, Marquis Zhenyuan had died for the nation. No matter who ascended the throne, it shouldn’t affect them. The real fear was that someone might exploit the chaos to break in and plunder their wealth.
At this thought, she grew somewhat fearful, especially after receiving so many rewards just that day. “Quickly, send people to every courtyard. Have all the young masters and young ladies brought to me. Besides the guards, everyone else should also gather in the courtyard.”
She added another instruction, telling them to bring whatever weapons they could wield for self-defense.
The maid, already terrified by the sounds of slaughter outside, turned deathly pale upon hearing this. She scrambled away, notifying people as she ran.
Soon, all five children and her sister-in-law Xiao Mo’er were brought over. The servants who had been guarding the side garden and the rear courtyard also gathered here.
The sounds of fighting outside grew even more distinct now. Everyone wore expressions of panic, trembling all over, tightly clutching their wood-cutting knives or clubs.
“Sister-in-law, what should we do?” Xiao Mo’er, who lived in the courtyard facing the street, had been closest to the killing cries and was naturally frightened out of her wits. Her voice trembled as she spoke.
“Wait.” Xie Mingzhu had no other choice. As a fine young person from a modern harmonious society, what experience did she have in such matters?
Now they could only wait for the two sides to finish their struggle and reach an outcome sooner.
The bright moon hung high, but the mid-February wind still carried winter’s chill. The scent of blood in the air grew increasingly thick.
Amid the ongoing sounds of slaughter, Xie Mingzhu and the others waited with nerves stretched taut, waiting and waiting.
Never had time seemed to pass so slowly.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the sounds of fighting outside diminished. Their Marquis Zhenyuan’s residence had been fortunate enough to avoid being attacked by the rebels. Outside, everything seemed to have returned to silence.
The dawn before sunrise began to faintly appear in the east.
It seemed as if all calamities had passed.
Xie Mingzhu’s nerves, strained tight all night, finally relaxed. Looking at the exhausted children who had long fallen asleep in the nursemaids’ arms, she said, “Take the young masters and young ladies inside to sleep.”
Noticing that her sister-in-law’s face remained pale, and fearing she might be too scared to return to her own courtyard, she added, “You should rest here for now as well.”
Xiao Mo’er naturally didn’t refuse. Although she wasn’t particularly close to this sister-in-law, there was no one else to rely on now. “Yes, sister-in-law should rest soon too.”
How could Xie Mingzhu find time to rest?
She needed to arrange matters for the servants.
Those who needed rest should rest for a while, and those who needed to go out and gather information should do so.
As for herself, she didn’t dare even to close her eyes.
For some reason, even though the sounds of slaughter outside had ended—indicating that the outcome had been decided—her heart remained unusually panicked.
All her fatigue had been scared away.
After drinking half a cup of hot tea to calm her nerves, the first group of servants sent to gather information returned.
Entering the room, one of them fell to his knees with a thud before her. “Madam, the streets outside are stained red. I intended to go further toward the main street, but found Lord Liu’s residence completely surrounded by Imperial Guards.”
The battle had ended at daybreak, yet Imperial Guards were still blocking officials’ doors—this was clearly a house raid!
Who had ultimately won? And which prince had Lord Liu been supporting?
She stood up abruptly in terror. What kind of joke was heaven playing on her? Was this some kind of major purge?
As she pondered this, another servant arrived.
This servant had apparently slipped on the blood-soaked streets, his clothes stained with fresh blood.
He practically collapsed upon entering, “Madam, it’s terrible—we’re surrounded by Imperial Guards.”
“What?” Xie Mingzhu’s body went limp, her vision darkened, and she fainted on the spot.
It wasn’t that she lacked resilience—rather, this body was inherently frail. Having stayed up all night in a state of anxious vigilance, she simply couldn’t withstand such a shock.
When she awoke again, the sound of weeping surrounded her.
Her embroidered silk dress had long been stripped away, replaced by a coarse hemp prison garment over her underclothes.
Beside her, Xiao Mo’er was in the same state, her hair disheveled, all traces of the Marquis’ daughter’s grace and elegance gone.
The five children huddled nearby, three still unconscious, lying on moldy straw.
Xie Mingzhu anxiously asked the sobbing Xiao Mo’er, “What happened?” This wasn’t just falling from the clouds into a mud pit—there should at least be some transition period!
Her question only made Xiao Mo’er weep more bitterly, as if her heart were breaking. She hadn’t even cried this desperately when her brother died.
The eldest, Xiao Yunyan, turned to her with lifeless eyes, his expression one of utter despair. “Last night, the Second Prince attempted a coup and was executed. Great-uncle was both his tutor and accomplice. The Emperor was furious and ordered the extermination of the Liu family to the ninth degree.”
The nine degrees included the father’s four clans, the mother’s three clans, and the wife’s three clans.
They were only being exiled to Lingnan because Marquis Zhenyuan had died for the country—this was already a lenient punishment. Otherwise, their heads would have rolled by now.
Xie Mingzhu flew into a rage, springing up from the ground as her mouth moved faster than her thoughts: “What the hell! His son messes up, and instead of killing the son, he kills us unimportant people…”
Her outburst startled even the despondent Xiao Yunyan and shocked the tearful Xiao Mo’er into wide-eyed silence.
Fortunately, Xiao Yunyan reacted quickly, rising to cover her mouth. “Mother, watch your words!”
Only then did Xie Mingzhu remember—she was a prisoner now.
This wasn’t her era either; she really ought to be more cautious.
But she couldn’t help her anger. Her gold, silver, and jewels hadn’t even warmed in her hands, and her Imperial Mandate was gone too.
The cell stood empty except for their family. A faint beam of light seeped through a small window high above.
The children, previously unconscious, were startled awake by her voice and now stared at her with pitiful expressions.
Among them, the eldest Xiao Yunyan was eight, second child Xiao Yunqing seven, followed by six-year-old twins Xiao Yunnuan and Xiao Yunwan, and finally her own youngest—two-year-old Xiao Yunshi.
The chubby two-year-old, though fair and clean, was terrified by the strange and frightening environment, her lips trembling on the verge of tears she didn’t dare shed.
After all, the original owner had been an extremely strict mother, obsessed with bearing a son. Even her own daughters received little affection, so the children naturally kept their distance.
Now, little Yunshi shrank back at her gaze, hiding behind her sisters.
Xie Mingzhu suddenly felt sorry for the child, but trapped as she was, she had no energy to comfort her. Xiao Mo’er’s renewed sobbing grated on her nerves. “Stop crying,” she snapped.
Xiao Mo’er ignored her.
It was Xiao Yunyan who explained further, “The Wang family was also implicated. While we were being thrown into prison, the Wang family was taken to the East Gate Marketplace and beheaded.”
Xie Mingzhu finally realized—the Wang family! Wasn’t that Xiao Mo’er’s fiancé’s family?
Well, it was understandable for her to weep over her dead husband.
She sighed and asked Xiao Yunyan, “Do you know when we’ll depart?”
The eunuch who delivered the edict for the family’s confiscation hadn’t specified, but as the future heir of the Marquis household, Xiao Yunyan had his own estimate. “Many have been executed this time. I doubt they’ll let us stay long.”
What remained unknown was whether the authorities would exile them to Lingnan, with its miasma-filled forests, or to the northern ice plains.
Either way, even if they miraculously survived the journey, this household of women and children would struggle to stay alive.
At this thought, despair washed over his young face.
Xie Mingzhu had meant to ask more, but then it struck her: exiles had to supply their own clothing and provisions. Yet their home had been ransacked, their wealth confiscated, and their servants sold off.
How could they rely on anyone else?
She herself came from a merchant family. Orphaned early, she had entered the Marquis Zhenyuan’s household with a vast dowry, which over the years had been drained to fund military supplies and provisions.
Whatever little remained had now been seized.
And since they were implicated by Marquis Zhenyuan’s maternal uncle, there was no hope from that quarter—they’d likely lose their heads even before her sister-in-law’s fiancé’s family!
So she fixed her gaze on Xiao Yunyan. “Does your maternal grandfather’s family have any survivors?”
There were, but Xiao Yunyan held no illusions. “Mother, why ask what you already know?”
Xie Mingzhu deflated.
She’d forgotten: Xiao Yunyan’s mother was the Grand Preceptor’s daughter, who had inexplicably favored the martial Marquis Zhenyuan.