“Grandma, you can’t sell me! Mother~~ Mother, save me…”
In front of the mud-brick house, five-year-old Lu Yiyi was being dragged outward like a tiny chick, her small face bright red from crying.
The old woman slapped her face and cursed in a low voice, “What are you wailing for?! That sickly mother of yours has been unconscious for two days with only half a breath left. You actually think she can save you?”
Lu Yiyi’s cries stopped abruptly, her eyes filled with overwhelming terror.
Seeing this, Lady Zhao put on a hypocritical front and yanked her forcefully. “Stop wasting your energy. Once your mother dies, the family won’t even be able to afford a thin wooden coffin. As your grandmother, I am sending you to the brothel to enjoy good fortune! Exchanging you for a few copper coins will at least allow your mother to be laid to rest, which fulfills our familial duty as grandmother and granddaughter!”
“It was you people who killed my mother…”
Lady Zhao’s face changed drastically. Her eyes turned sharp, and she used her hand to tightly cover the struggling little girl’s mouth, dragging her further and further away.
“No—”
Yun Zhu bolted upright from the bed, the fading despair still clinging to the bottom of her eyes.
She looked around the familiar room as her rapid breathing gradually evened out.
She had dreamt of her daughter getting into trouble again…
In her dreams, her daughter Lu Yiyi was sometimes on the brink of death from illness, sometimes buried in a mud-brick hut collapsed by heavy snow, sometimes encountering bandits, and sometimes swept away by floodwaters…
Without exception, every single time, she dreamt of her daughter in danger.
It was an unfamiliar kingdom with unfamiliar surroundings; except for her daughter, everything was completely strange.
She pulled the small urn of ashes on the nightstand into her arms, holding it tightly.
Yiyi… her precious baby daughter…
How she wished everything was just a dream.
She had clearly just dropped Yiyi off at kindergarten this morning. How could the child have lost her breath after taking a simple afternoon nap?
She would forever remember that morning a year ago when her daughter threw a tantrum and refused to go out. Yet, because she was in a hurry to inspect the clinic and two pharmacies under her name, she heartlessly sent her to kindergarten after making sure the child wasn’t sick…
Why had she cared only about work?
Why had she ignored her daughter’s crying and throwing a fit?
The one who deserved to die was her!
“Yiyi, Mommy is sorry…” Yun Zhu held the small urn in unbearable agony.
Now that her daughter was gone, what meaning was there left in her living…
Fortunately, the heavens gave her a second chance!
With a single thought, she entered her space.
Looking at the warehouse inside the space that was packed to the brim with supplies, she felt a bit more grounded.
This space had appeared after she dreamt of her daughter facing danger in ancient times for the very first time.
Now she was even more certain that her little girl was currently suffering in that war-torn ancient era riddled with endless disasters.
She was going to save her daughter!
This space and the billions in supplies she had hoarded were her strength!
Thinking about leaving, she couldn’t help but think of her husband, Lu Jingyang.
Lu Jingyang was a soldier. The last time their family of three had met was a year and a half ago.
After her daughter’s accident, she had made countless phone calls to Lu Jingyang, but he remained completely unreachable even now.
While she worried, a bit of resentment inevitably surfaced in her heart.
As a husband and father, she could understand that he couldn’t be someone she and her daughter could rely on, but why couldn’t he even return to see his daughter one last time…
Now, she was leaving.
And this farewell would be forever…
Her heart felt as if it were pierced by something, causing her to suffocate from the pain…
Yun Zhu’s vision suddenly went dark, and she collapsed onto the ground.
…
“Grandma, you can’t sell me! Mother~~ Mother, save me…”
Her daughter Yiyi’s cries echoed in her ears.
Dreaming again…
“Yiyi—”
No!
This wasn’t a dream!
Realizing this, Yun Zhu snapped her eyes open, jumped out of the bed, and prepared to rush outside.
Unexpectedly, a wave of dizziness hit her, and she fell back onto the bed.
A mountain of memories belonging to the original host flooded into her mind, and Yun Zhu absorbed all the information a moment later.
This was a fictional dynasty—the Kingdom of Tianqi.
The place she was currently in was a small village in the western part of Tianqi Kingdom—Houtu Village.
She was the daughter-in-law of the second branch of the Lu family in the village, also named Yun Zhu, twenty-three years old, with a daughter under her care, and her husband was likewise named Lu Jingyang.
Five years ago, when the imperial court conscripted soldiers, her husband Lu Jingyang joined the army in place of his half-brother, the third Lu son.
Half a year ago, bad news arrived that Lu Jingyang had died on the battlefield. The original host fell gravely ill and had been bedridden ever since.
When the second branch fell on hard times, the step-mother-in-law Lady Zhao and the third branch not only offered no help, but instead kicked them while they were down, even aiming their malicious intentions at her daughter Lu Yiyi!
Taking advantage of the original host being unconscious, Lady Zhao had forced her thumbprint onto her daughter’s deed of sale!
“Mother, save me—”
Her daughter’s cries rang out once more, filling Yun Zhu with anxiety and rage.
Yun Zhu knew that the reason the original host was so gravely ill, besides extreme grief, was mostly due to starvation.
She hurriedly fetched a hot pickled vegetable bun from her space and swallowed it in a few bites, then drew a cup of water from her space and drank it down.
Although the tap water inside the wooden house in her space didn’t possess miraculous powers to bring back the dead, it could clear away small illnesses and pains, leaving a person feeling refreshed and energized.
Soon, she felt a portion of her strength return, and she strode briskly toward the outside.
Just as she reached the door, Yun Zhu saw an old woman raising her palm toward Lu Yiyi, who was kneeling on the ground and sobbing in plea.
This old woman was none other than the original host’s step-mother-in-law, Lady Zhao.
Yun Zhu’s heart tightened. She rushed forward and kicked Lady Zhao to the ground.
“Yiyi!” Yun Zhu firmly caught her daughter, nervously checking her over repeatedly from top to bottom, her voice trembling: “Yiyi, where are you hurt? Where does it hurt?”
“Mother, you’re awake?” Seeing her mother, little tears still hung on Lu Yiyi’s small face, but the delight in her eyes was unmistakable.
However, soon after, she began to cry out in terror again: “Mother, please don’t abandon Yiyi… Yiyi will be good. Yiyi can help around the house, I can do lots and lots of work…”
Yun Zhu’s heart ached. She held her daughter tightly, choking back tears as she said, “Don’t be afraid, Yiyi. Mother promises you that I will never abandon you.”
Her Yiyi…
Her living, breathing Yiyi…
Suddenly, Yun Zhu noticed scars peeking out from beneath her daughter’s back collar, and she pulled the child’s collar down.
In the next instant, her pupils shrank.
Her daughter’s back was covered in scars of varying depth; some looked like they were whipped by sticks or lashes, some were burns, some bruises had already faded, and several wounds were beginning to scab over after bleeding.
Yun Zhu’s hand trembled slightly as she pinched her daughter’s collar.
Damn Lady Zhao!
Damn the third branch!
“Mother, Yiyi doesn’t hurt.” Seeing her mother’s eyes turn red, Lu Yiyi hurriedly wiped her tears and spoke crisp voice to comfort her.
Her daughter’s sensible nature made Yun Zhu’s nose tingle with sorrow once more.
She squeezed out a smile for her daughter: “Be a good girl, Yiyi. Go back inside the room first. Mother will come to keep you company in a moment.”
After watching her daughter enter the room, Yun Zhu finally turned around.
Her face covered in frost, she walked toward Lady Zhao step by step.
The murderous intent radiating from her entire body made Lady Zhao, who had been dazed from the fall, shudder and snap back to her senses.
Was this woman before her—who walked like the wind and had just sent her flying with a single kick—really that sickly Lady Yun who had been bedridden for half a year and unconscious for two days?
Could it be… the last radiance of the setting sun before death?
Doubt and fear swirled in Lady Zhao’s heart. Just as she opened her mouth to put on a scene of crying, throwing a tantrum, and threatening suicide, Yun Zhu shoved a handful of dirt straight into her mouth the moment her jaws parted.
Yun Zhu struck her soft chest tissue with a single punch: “Where is my daughter’s deed of sale?!”
Lady Zhao spat out the dirt from her mouth, enduring the pain as she said with deep hatred, “The deed of sale was given to Madam Xu of Yingchun Brothel long ago!”