“Hongdou, get up and eat. After your meal, drink the medicine.” Xu Shi set down the tray in her hands, gently touched her daughter’s forehead, and breathed a sigh of relief upon feeling the fever had subsided.
Yu Hongdou’s small frame was buried beneath the blankets, with only half her head visible as she nodded obediently.
Seeing her daughter’s docile appearance, Xu Shi’s heart swelled with tenderness. She glanced toward the door, then stealthily retrieved a boiled egg from her sleeve and tucked it into her daughter’s bedding.
“Third sister-in-law, let’s go!” A voice called from just beyond the window, startling Xu Shi. She hurriedly responded and stepped out.
With a creak of the wooden door, silence enveloped the room. Yu Hongdou, her wide eyes staring blankly, let out a slow sigh.
Just three days ago, Yu Hongdou had been an overworked office employee waiting for food delivery during overtime. As torrential rain poured outside, she’d called the delivery rider to advise him not to rush and prioritize safety, while planning to buy instant noodles or biscuits from the vending machine downstairs. But upon entering the elevator, her world went black then bright—and in the blink of an eye, she’d become a minor character in an ancient farming romance novel.
Tian Yi Man Man was currently the most popular farming romance novel. Its web drama adaptation featured collaboration between a rising actress and top idol, with the plot remaining largely faithful to the original—satisfying book fans, drama enthusiasts, and dedicated fans of both lead actors alike.
The story followed time-traveler Tian Manman as she outsmarted her troublesome relatives, built wealth through culinary skills, reunited with her childhood sweetheart, used her wit to help him achieve success, and despite admiration from nobility, resolutely chose her childhood companion—creating a sweet tale of lifelong devotion and prosperous harmony.
The male lead was Yu Heng—precisely Yu Hongdou’s fourth uncle who had left home to join the army at sixteen. As for Yu Hongdou? She was a minor character destined to die early, serving as a stepping stone for the female lead’s advancement and the male lead’s growth.
The Yu family currently housed three generations under one roof. The family patriarch Yu Panshi and matriarch Li Shi had raised four sons and two daughters. Apart from their married daughters and youngest son Yu Heng who left home early, the other three sons and their families lived with the elders.
Yu Panshi had been an orphan who begged on streets until fortunate enough to be adopted by an herbal shop owner. Growing up in the shop, he learned about medicinal herbs and basic literacy. Life had been stable—the childless owner treated Yu Panshi as his own son, planning for the young man to inherit the shop in exchange for caring for him in old age.
But disasters struck. The herbal shop couldn’t survive the hardships, and the owner lost both his business and health, passing away shortly after. After arranging the owner’s funeral, Yu Panshi fled with his meager savings to their current location—Taoyuan Village.
His literacy, knowledge of medicinal herbs, and ability to treat minor ailments earned Yu Panshi modest renown across neighboring villages while accumulating some family assets. Thus the small Yu family gradually prospered, filling the patriarch with pride whenever he saw his numerous descendants—resulting in nearly twenty family members crammed together.
As the saying goes: “Large trees grow separate branches, grown children establish separate households.”
In daily life, siblings already competed for parental favor and greater benefits. After marrying and having children of their own, each branch’s self-interested calculations became increasingly difficult to suppress.
Yu Hongdou became the first victim of the open conflict within the Yu family.
The root cause lay in her father, Yu Fu—head of the Yu family’s third branch—who had saved the life of a young nobleman. To repay the debt of gratitude, the nobleman arranged for Yu Hongdou’s elder brother, Yu Song, to serve as a prison guard in the county magistrate’s office.
Though a lowly position with a meager monthly salary of two taels of silver, the job was stable and lifted the family out of peasantry, elevating them to the status of “officials.”
This stirred envy and resentment in the other two branches. The second branch, regardless of their private feelings, maintained a facade of composure. However, the first branch—who saw themselves as the future leaders of the Yu family—struggled to accept the situation.
This was especially true for Liu Shi, the newlywed daughter-in-law of the first branch. She believed her arrival had brought fortune to the family, coinciding with this coveted appointment. Moreover, she was pregnant with the Yu family’s fourth-generation eldest grandson. Convinced that the entire family’s future rested on the first branch, she argued that her husband—as the eldest grandson—was the most suitable candidate in terms of status, age, and education.
But Old Master Yu was no fool. While he often showed favoritism in trivial matters, meddling with someone’s future was a line he refused to cross. This opportunity belonged to the third branch—they were still his descendants, and their prosperity would reflect well on the entire Yu family.
After the old master laid down the law, Liu Shi dared not complain openly. Yet, she grew increasingly hostile toward the third branch, using her unborn child as an excuse to stir up trouble.
Yu Fu, the third branch’s head, had accompanied his son to the county seat and had not yet returned, leaving his wife, Xu Shi, and their daughter, Hongdou, behind. Timid and submissive, Xu Shi often avoided Liu Shi, especially after being admonished by her mother-in-law—who longed for a great-grandson and family harmony—to keep the peace. Unfortunately, her avoidance only emboldened Liu Shi.
One day, little Hongdou was nibbling on a fruit while accompanying her mother to wash clothes by the river. Liu Shi spotted her, grabbed the child’s arm, and accused her of theft, driving the terrified girl into the pond.
“The death of the third branch’s daughter and the return of the fourth son to a chaotic Yu family” marked the beginning of Tian Yi Man Man. The young Yu Hongdou, frightened and traumatized, developed a high fever after being rescued from the water and passed away that very night.
Driven mad with grief, Xu Shi grabbed a knife and chased after Liu Shi and the first branch members who shielded her. By chance, the fourth son of the Yu family—who had just returned home with military honors after the war—arrived and, unaware of the situation, intervened to stop Xu Shi. From that moment on, the third branch held a deep grudge against him.
Leveraging their connection with the nobleman, the third branch began scheming against both the Yu family and the fourth son. When the fourth son learned the truth, guilt weighed heavily on him. He tried to protect the Yu family while avoiding direct confrontation with the third branch, yet he faced repeated reprimands and even narrowly escaped death.
After the female protagonist, Tian Manman, married the fourth son, she cleverly resolved his predicaments, gradually mending relations with the third branch and uniting the Yu family. She worked to heal the rifts between the branches and, after giving birth to a daughter who bore some resemblance to Yu Hongdou, finally softened the third branch’s hearts. In the end, the third branch chose to sacrifice their own interests to further the male protagonist’s career.
Reading from the female protagonist’s perspective, one might feel that the past was over, the deceased were gone, and the third branch was both pitiable and blameworthy.
But now, as someone living through it, Yu Hongdou could only think: To hell with that!
A mere five-year-old girl, sitting by the roadside eating a fruit, had lost her life for no reason. It was the first branch’s jealousy that led to murder, yet the entire Yu family still clung to the delusion of “family harmony brings prosperity” and sought to sweep it under the rug. What a pipe dream!
Yu Hongdou sighed, unsure whether the original young girl had moved on to her next life or had merged souls with her. Since she had now become Yu Hongdou, she would take good care of the Third Branch. Whatever female leads or male leads existed, she was determined to protect the Third Branch and ensure their peace and happiness!
Having set her resolve and goal, Yu Hongdou crawled out from under the quilt. She picked up a bowl as large as her head and gulped down half of the coarse rice porridge. Then, she retrieved the egg hidden in the bedding and ate it. Ignoring the bowl of dark, bitter-smelling medicine, she leaned against the windowsill and peered outside through a crack in the window.
Today was the day to settle the matter of Liu Shi’s attempt to harm her. The Yu family had gone to the village chief’s house, leaving her alone at home.
After watching through the window for a while and confirming that no one else was around, Yu Hongdou sat cross-legged on the kang and activated her golden finger.
Two days ago, she had transmigrated while burning with fever, drifting in and out of consciousness. It was only yesterday, after the fever subsided, that she fully regained her senses and obtained a Sign-in System.
As a modern young person accustomed to the internet, she quickly adapted to the idea of transmigration and systems. After skimming through the system instructions, she summarized the key points:
Though she had never experienced it firsthand, she was familiar with the concept. After understanding how this golden finger worked, Yu Hongdou, despite her frail condition, wanted to test it. However, under her mother’s watchful eye, she hadn’t even been able to leave the bedding, let alone find a sign-in spot.
【Host: Yu Hongdou】
【Sign-in Points: 7 (Automatically +1 after 12 a.m. daily)】
【Backpack:】
On the semi-transparent panel glowing with golden light, three lines of information were concise and clear. Below the backpack was a row of empty slots, looking pitifully meager.
Yu Hongdou’s gaze lingered on the “7” sign-in points for a moment. She glanced around the empty, shabby room, hesitated, then slowly climbed down from the kang, opened the door, and looked out into the yard.
The Yu residence followed a standard rural layout: four main rooms, four side rooms each to the east and west, and adjacent to them were mud-brick, thatch-roofed granaries, firewood sheds, livestock pens, and so on. To Yu Hongdou, everything seemed both unfamiliar and novel.
She slowly stepped over the high threshold and stood in the middle of the yard, looking around curiously. As she turned her head, she noticed a green positioning icon faintly visible near the east side of the main room.
The icon resembled the round-headed, pointed-bottom positioning markers used in electronic maps from her previous life, emitting a soft, green glow that floated mid-air, flickering intermittently.
Yu Hongdou glanced at the tightly closed courtyard gate and the doors of several rooms before walking up to the icon. She realized that due to its floating nature, part of the icon was embedded in the wall. She couldn’t help but complain inwardly, “Negative review!” It’s clipping through the model.”
【Sign-in Location: Apothecary Apprentice Yu Panshi’s Medicine Room. Consume 1 point to sign in?】
Huh~ So her so-called grandfather was merely an apothecary apprentice.
Still, this holographic sensation was both eerily bizarre and thrilling. Staring in amazement at the floating icon and text, Yu Hongdou figured she had 7 points anyway—why not give it a try?
She reached out and touched the icon.
[Sign-in successful: Obtained one case of ancient commonly used prepared medicines.]
Ancient? Commonly used prepared medicines? One case?
Amid Yu Hongdou’s bewildered expression, the Sign-in System panel automatically opened, revealing a small wooden case now occupying one of the slots beneath the backpack.