In the third month of spring, green willows sprout new buds, and the streets become more crowded.
Young men in student attire walk to school in small groups. Along the way, laborers pulling rickshaws are often seen, with a gentleman in a long gown seated in each.
Occasionally, cars polished to a shine like piano lids would pass by. When the drivers saw people blocking the way, they would inevitably honk their spherical horn devices, making a “baa baa” sound.
Seeing that it was a car, others would hastily move aside.
At this moment, a crisp ringing of a bicycle bell sounded.
The doorman of the Qin family immediately unbolted the door from the inside and stepped out to glance at the street.
A young man in a postal uniform rode a black-painted bicycle towards the doorman.
Upon reaching the entrance of the Qin family mansion, the young man skillfully dismounted and, with a smile, took a stack of bundled newspapers and reading materials from the back seat, handing them to the doorman.
“The new publications your esteemed household subscribed to. This is the latest issue. Thank you for your trouble.”
The postman remounted his bicycle and headed to the next house. The doorman, holding the latest newspapers and magazines, turned and went back inside the mansion.
Before long, several brand-new newspapers appeared on Mr. Qin’s dining table.
Madam Qin and Miss Qin, the two female members of the household, were also sitting at the table eating breakfast.
Madam Qin picked up a pan-fried bun, glanced at the empty seat, and turned to the maid serving behind her, asking, “Wenzhu, has the young mistress’s illness not yet recovered?”
“Replying to Madam, Zhegui, who serves the young mistress, came earlier and said the young mistress has been coughing all night for the past few days. She finally fell asleep last night, so they didn’t dare to wake her.”
Madam Qin sighed, put down her chopsticks, and said, “It’s truly a fated misfortune. I originally thought there would be one more person at the table, but now it’s even fewer than before!”
Miss Qin, peeling a hard-boiled egg with a handkerchief, said without looking up, “In the end, isn’t it all Brother’s fault? Eldest sister-in-law was a lady who never left her home. My brother embarrassed her on their wedding night, stayed at a hotel in the middle of the night, and the next day was seen out and about with that movie star. Now the whole of Shanghai is abuzz with it. Anyone in this situation would be upset, wouldn’t they? Besides, eldest sister-in-law was always sickly even before marriage. In my opinion, it’s not just out of spite!”
At this moment, Mr. Qin suddenly lowered the hand holding the newspaper. Madam Qin saw this and quickly signaled to her daughter, “Eat your meal! What does a child know?”
However, it was not Miss Qin who displeased Mr. Qin, but the words in the newspaper.
Mr. Qin put on a single-sided pince-nez on his nose, leaned closer to read the newspaper for a while, and then slammed it onto the table with a bang.
Madam Qin was startled and dared not speak for a moment.
It was Miss Qin, who was bolder, who leaned over to look at the newspaper’s content.
On a page next to the front page, there was a prominent headline: “Esteemed Young Lady Left Alone on Wedding Night, Young Master Qin Resists Arranged Marriage.”
Looking at the photo below, it was indeed her brother, the eldest young master of the Qin family, Qin Huai’an, dancing with the movie star Liang Manyin in a ballroom.
Judging by the surrounding decorations, Miss Qin recognized it as the ballroom of the Huazhong Hotel at a glance.
The Huazhong Hotel was the largest hotel in Shanghai, offering both accommodation and entertainment, with complete facilities including restaurants, billiard rooms, smoking rooms, and ballrooms.
Madam Qin was also curious about what had happened and kept signaling to her daughter.
However, before Miss Qin could speak, Mr. Qin snorted coldly and said, “Your good son! He’s disgraced himself to the point of being in the newspapers!”
Saying this, he stood up and said to his personal attendant, “Do not allow the accountant to give him any money! Let’s see how many days he can stay away from this home!”
With that, he left without eating, his hands behind his back, puffing with anger.
After he left, Madam Qin muttered, “What do you mean ‘my son’? As if I could have given birth to him alone! He just takes his anger out on me…”
The breakfast ended on an unhappy note.
Meanwhile, the other protagonist of the conversation was leaning against the bed, eating breakfast while looking at the dowry list!
“Miss, please try this! I bought it from outside. It’s a freshly baked curry puff!”
Zhegui placed a golden, crispy curry puff into Jiang Ci’s bowl.
“You eat too.”
Jiang Ci temporarily set aside the dowry list and took a bite of the curry puff.
The savory and rich flavor immediately made her eyes squint.
Jiang Ci had transmigrated a few days ago.
Before that, she was a struggling low-level ability user in the apocalypse. Her base was overrun by a zombie horde, and she unfortunately died in a pile of zombies.
Unexpectedly, when she opened her eyes, she had become the only daughter of a wealthy merchant family in the Republic of China.
When she transmigrated, it was precisely the original host’s wedding night.
The original host’s parents had just passed away. An orphaned girl holding a large fortune was like a child carrying gold through a bustling market, facing severe dangers in this era.
So, she gritted her teeth and, using the engagement token from before, went to the Qin family’s door.
However, this Miss Qin was sickly from birth, prone to worry and overthinking. On the day she married in, she received many cold words from Qin Huai’an. While waiting in the bridal chamber for her veil to be lifted, she overheard some servants gossiping. Overcome with anger, she passed away.
As Jiang Ci recalled this, she glanced at Zhegui, the maid who was still foolishly eating, and sighed in her heart.
Silly girl, she doesn’t know that her young lady’s soul has changed.
This thought flashed by, and Jiang Ci quickly refocused her attention on the food.
When she died, five years had passed since the outbreak of the apocalypse.
She hadn’t eaten such exquisite food for a long time, so she cherished it even more.
However, she didn’t go to the dining hall not because she was sulking or greedy, but because this body was indeed too frail. Even walking a few steps felt tiring.
She had been using her abilities to nurture it for the past few days, and it had only just improved a little.
But this place was not like the apocalypse. The energy in the air was thin, and her own abilities had only recovered a tiny bit, not enough to be of much use.
When Jiang Ci first transmigrated, she could barely sense the presence of her abilities, otherwise she wouldn’t have let Qin Huai’an talk to himself in front of her.
“My heart already belongs to someone else. You’d best behave yourself and don’t harbor foolish fantasies.”
Thinking of this sentence, Jiang Ci couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
This eldest young master Qin was unaware of the hardships of the world, but the Qin family’s servants knew much better.
At that time, the original host was overcome with anger because she overheard the servants discussing the Qin family’s situation.
What did those servants say then?
“The eldest young master doesn’t manage the household and doesn’t know the cost of firewood and rice. In my opinion, this marriage is excellent! They’ve married a golden goose, with a dowry of sixty-four chests! If he had married that shameless woman from outside, who would have filled the family’s deficit?”
“You’re just stating the obvious! When Madam married in, her dowry was twice as much! But what good did it do? Didn’t it all go into filling the gaps? The other day, when I was delivering something, I happened to see Wenzhu, Madam’s attendant, sending a large bag of things out through the doorman. I suppose the young mistress’s betrothal gifts must have been supplemented by Madam parting with some of her hidden savings!”
“Alas! Outsiders see the Qin family’s eldest branch as glorious, but they don’t know it’s already an empty shell inside! Just you wait, in a few days, Madam will definitely let the young mistress manage the household!”
“This young mistress is also a pitiable person, with the body of Lin Daiyu and the fate of Wang Xifeng, yet our eldest young master is even less caring than Jia Lian!”
“Say less! Even a starved camel is bigger than a horse! When will it be our turn to be pitiful, with our lives held in their hands by contracts?”
As Jiang Ci pondered, she finished a curry puff and her gaze returned to the dowry list.
Her father, Jiang, had been in business his whole life and was not a fool. Naturally, he wouldn’t put all his life’s savings into those sixty-four chests of dowry.
Jiang Ci had privately checked the dowry list these past few days and found that one item was not recorded.
That was the bank note for her father’s silver deposits.
A “bank note” was a deposit slip.
However, unlike a bank passbook, bank notes were bearer instruments.
In other words, whoever held the note would receive the silver.
The drawback of this was that if it was lost, it couldn’t be recovered. The advantage was that unlike a bank account, one’s savings couldn’t be easily traced.
The silver her father deposited was exactly three hundred thousand silver dollars, no more, no less.
As for the items on the dowry list, they were the lesser part.
However, to avoid suspicion, her father had indeed left Jiang Ci some land and a poorly managed shop.
The Qin family’s eldest branch came from a scholarly background, priding themselves on being a family of literature and art. They naturally wouldn’t immediately withhold the new bride’s dowry, so they hadn’t yet figured out Jiang Ci’s true wealth. They only knew she must have a considerable amount of money.
After all, the Jiang family had only one daughter; who else would the money go to if not her?
As an orphaned girl with no one to rely on, Jiang Ci was destined to be exploited after marrying in. Why should they be so crude about it?
Thinking of the Qin family’s calculations, Jiang Ci let out a cold laugh, handed the dowry list to Zhegui, and said, “Lock this at the bottom of the chest.”
Then, she glanced at the small table on the bed and said somewhat reluctantly, “Put these away too. Wenzhu will be here soon.”
It seemed she had to find a way to get divorced as soon as possible. Otherwise, being confined here, she couldn’t even eat something without hiding it.
“Wenzhu? What is she coming for? I already told her that Miss just got a little better last night and is sleeping!”
“Silly Zhegui, ‘just got a little better’ means she’s recovering. Do you think outsiders care about me as much as you do?”
Zhegui had no choice but to put away the small table.
Not long after the small table was put away, people indeed entered the courtyard.
The newcomer had a glossy black braid tied with a red string, wore a silk jacket with a bamboo leaf collar and black-trimmed trousers. Zhegui ran out to see, and it was Wenzhu.
“Sister Wenzhu, why are you here?”
“Madam sent me to see if the young mistress’s complexion has improved.”
Wenzhu spoke politely, but her actions were anything but.
As soon as she entered the room and saw Jiang Ci, she immediately said with a smile, “No wonder Zhegui said this morning that the young mistress was better. The young mistress’s complexion is indeed good! Madam happens to have something to say to the young mistress in person. If the young mistress can get up, please come over!”
Saying this, she turned to Zhegui, who had just rushed in, and said, “I’m leaving. I won’t delay you in helping the young mistress get ready!”
Then she lifted the curtain and went out.
Zhegui was so angry she stamped her foot.
“Who does she think she is? Acting important!”
Jiang Ci threw off the quilt, put on her silk slippers, and got out of bed. “It’s something that has to be faced sooner or later. It’s a good opportunity for me to meet my cheap mother-in-law.”
Speaking of which, Jiang Ci’s eyes flickered, and she whispered in Zhegui’s ear, “Hide all my books and lock them up. We’ll be able to go out in a few days.”
Isn’t this Qin family after her dowry?
Then she would have to play along.