“Smack! Smack!”
“Xie Yuantang, will you marry or not!”
In the backyard of the Xie residence, sharp, ruthless sounds of whipping came from the woodshed, accompanied by pitiful, childish screams.
“Aunt Lian, Tangtang hurts so much… I beg you… Tangtang doesn’t want to get married, doesn’t want to do the Chong Xi (Luck Ritual)…”
“Tangtang is only nine years old… Tangtang wants to be with Mother… Aunt Lian, please…”
Wei Lian sneered coldly, kicked away her hand, and lashed out with two more smacking whip strikes.
As the sharp whip cracks fell, the small figure on the ground convulsed violently, curling into a ball from the pain.
“You little bitch! If you want to die, I’ll grant your wish!”
“If it weren’t for you having to take Yumo’s place in performing the Luck Ritual for that foolish Fifth Prince, do you think you’d have been brought back to the Xie family?”
The thin and small Xie Yuantang, covered in blood, curled up on the ground, weeping softly.
Wei Lian listened carefully for a moment, hearing her call out for “Mother,” and immediately whipped her across the face.
“Mother? If you don’t agree to the Luck Ritual, I’ll send your mother to the underworld first!”
The whip mark tore from her cheek to the corner of her mouth, and Xie Yuantang finally dared not call for her mother again.
“Mother, why isn’t she dead yet?”
Nine-year-old Xie Yumo pushed the door open and entered, frowning in disgust as she covered her nose and mouth: “How disgusting. Just kill her. Anyway, that short-lived Fifth Prince won’t live long either. After the Luck Ritual, she’ll be dead too.”
Xie Yuantang struggled to open her eyes, looking at the “younger sister” standing before her, Xie Yumo.
“Younger sister, please save me…”
“Save you?”
Xie Yumo looked as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world, a sweet and harmless smile spreading across her face: “Alright, I’ll save you right now.”
With that, Xie Yumo snatched the whip from Wei Lian’s hand and began lashing it at Xie Yuantang.
Though young and lacking strength, she was malicious, aiming almost every whip strike at Xie Yuantang’s face.
“How dare you call me younger sister!”
One whip.
“The Xie family can only have one legitimate young lady. What are you, daring to be my sister? I’ll tear your mouth apart!”
Two whips.
“Just like your mother, born with a seductive face. Watch me draw a turtle on your face! Your mother dared to compete with my mother for a man, and you dare to compete with me for Father!”
Three whips.
Xie Yuantang lost count of how many whip strikes she endured. Her small face was covered in whip marks, and mottled blood stains trickled from her hair down her face and neck, making her look like a fierce ghost emerging from the River Styx.
Xie Yuantang felt her head growing heavier and her eyes struggling to stay open.
It hurts so much…
Mother, where are you…
After what felt like an eternity, the whipping finally stopped. Xie Yuantang heard Wei Lian’s voice: “Don’t waste time with her. Just force a bowl of Dumbness Drug down her throat to ensure she can’t say a word.”
Dumbness Drug?
Xie Yuantang struggled to open her eyes and saw Wei Lian approaching with the poison: “Be sensible and drink this bowl of medicine. Save me the effort of beating you.”
Xie Yuantang’s pale little face flinched in panic as she cried and struggled.
“No… Tangtang doesn’t want to become mute. Tangtang wants to talk to Mother, doesn’t want to become a little mute!”
Terrified, her small body trembled uncontrollably, and she clamped her mouth shut, refusing to drink.
Wei Lian’s expression darkened. She raised her hand and slapped Xie Yuantang, then viciously pinched her chin: “This isn’t up to you! You don’t want your mother to die with you, do you? If you don’t drink this, I’ll take this bowl to your mother. How does that sound?”
Mother…
The image of her mother’s gentle, sickly smile flashed before her eyes. Xie Yuantang froze, and Wei Lian took the opportunity to grin ferociously as she poured the bowl of Dumbness Drug into her mouth.
“If you had just agreed to the Chong Xi ritual earlier, wouldn’t it have been easier? Truly disgraceful!” After kicking Xie Yuantang viciously to vent her anger, Wei Lian turned and left the woodshed.
Lying in a pool of blood, Xie Yuantang mustered all her strength to keep her eyes wide open, staring unwillingly toward the doorway.
At the far end of her vision, she saw her father Xie Zhaoqing standing there in his official robes.
So he had been there all along.
She watched as her father, with a doting smile, caught Xie Yumo who threw herself into his arms.
“Waaah, Father, that wretched Xie Yuantang refused to go through with the Chong Xi ritual! She even cursed at me~”
Xie Yuantang thought she saw her father glance in her direction. Using her last ounce of strength, her blood-stained fingers slowly crawled toward the door.
[Father, Tangtang is here… Father, save Tangtang…]
But Xie Zhaoqing merely glanced over before looking away, hugging Xie Yumo as he comforted her: “Don’t mind her. I have plenty of ways to make her take your place in the Chong Xi ritual.”
“I kept her alive all these years precisely to serve as your disaster shield. You’re my only precious daughter, Yumo.”
“Hehe, Father is the best~”
Watching as the family of three departed arm in arm, Xie Yuantang stared blankly, two trails of bloody tears streaming from the corners of her eyes, tracing paths down her whip-scarred cheeks.
Her raised fingers finally fell limp…
Hiss, it hurts!
Damn, why does my whole body ache!
Xie Yuantang furrowed her brows tightly. Wasn’t she just researching zombie genes in the laboratory? Could she have been bitten by a zombie?
Gag~
This jolting is making her nauseous!
Do zombie toxins cause nausea too?
“Hurry up! The Empress has given orders – we must throw her onto the Fifth Prince’s bed before midnight for the Chong Xi ritual to be complete.”
The Empress? Fifth Prince? Chong Xi?!!!
Wrong!
Inside the wedding sedan, Xie Yuantang’s eyes snapped open.
A cold, sharp gleam flashed through her dark pupils – a look that the nine-year-old Xie Yuantang would never have possessed, but one forged through slaughter amidst hordes of zombies in the apocalypse, filled with bloodlust and indifference.
Xie Yuantang surveyed her surroundings, her frown deepening.
Why was she in a wedding sedan? And why was her body covered in wounds?
What’s with this small body? It doesn’t look even ten years old – did she shrink after being poisoned?
“Bzzzt”
Suddenly, a buzzing filled her mind as overwhelming memories flooded her consciousness, the pain so intense she knocked her head against the sedan wall.
After a moment, Xie Yuantang finally accepted one fact.
She had time-traveled!
Transmigrated into the body of the original owner who shared her name and was merely nine years old.
The original owner was the true daughter of the Prime Minister’s household, but had been switched at birth and drifted abroad, allowing the fake daughter Xie Yumo to enjoy all the privileges of being the Prime Minister’s legitimate daughter.
While Xie Yumo basked in boundless affection, the original owner suffered under her adoptive mother’s abuse and servants’ bullying.
While Xie Yumo enjoyed imperial desserts from the palace, the original owner ate leftover scraps meant for feeding dogs.
Finally found and brought back to the Prime Minister’s residence to reunite with her birth mother Leng Yunwan, she never expected they only wanted to use her – to make her replace Xie Yumo in marrying the Fifth Prince for the Chong Xi ritual.
When the original owner refused, they threatened her with Leng Yunwan’s life. Locked in the woodshed and whipped, then force-fed the Dumbness Drug, she was ultimately beaten to death.
Closing her eyes, Xie Yuantang could still see the scene of the original owner shedding bloody tears. She sighed slowly and clenched her fist.
Though she didn’t know why she had transmigrated here, since she had replaced the original owner to continue living, she would help her collect every debt owed!
Those who owed her – every single debt – she, Xie Yuantang, would make them repay tenfold, a hundredfold!
Just then, the wedding sedan chair came to an abrupt halt.
From outside the sedan came the voice of the elderly matron: “We’ve arrived—”