The Chen family and the Li family lived only a dozen or so meters apart. It was the new bride’s first time back to the village since marrying into the Chen family, and Chen Xuan’s house was bustling, the whole village was hurrying over to see what a real young lady from a wealthy family looked like.
Li Lianzhong, the village head and local official of Xunshui Village, was acting as the Chen family’s host at the moment, greeting the villagers to eat.
Chen Xuan’s father, Chen Yongsheng, was beaming as he toasted a table of young men in blue robes. Chen Xuan’s mother, Liu shi, was warmly urging two maidservants in brown clothing to eat.
Hu shi walked in front, glancing back at Li Jiaojiao now and then.
Wang shi tugged at Li Jiaojiao’s sleeve. “Jiaojiao, what are we going there for? Let’s not go. Listen to your mother, all right?”
Li Jiaojiao looked at Wang shi beside her. The worry in Wang shi’s eyes, her nervousness, all of it burned into her sight. She shook her head. “Mother, can I really not go now?”
Hu shi was like a mad dog, itching to push Li Jiaojiao onto a road to her death. Since that was how things were, how could she let their scheme fall through?
Everyone wanted her dead. But the original Li Jiaojiao was already dead, she was no longer that weak, fragile Li Jiaojiao!
Standing in front of the Chen family’s courtyard, Li Jiaojiao stopped walking.
Wang shi’s eyes hurriedly searched for Li Chengcai’s figure. Li Chengcai was her husband, Li Jiaojiao’s father.
The Chen family was holding a feast today, and almost every villager in Xunshui Village was here. The Chen family’s courtyard was packed with people, all kinds of noise ringing in her ears. Li Jiaojiao’s head throbbed until it felt like it would split, memories that weren’t hers were now playing through her mind like a film.
Hu shi pulled at Li Jiaojiao. “Why are you just standing there? The Chen family specially said today that they must invite Jiaojiao to come see the new bride. You’re an honored guest of the Chen family now!”
Li Jiaojiao’s mood was on the verge of a furious breakdown, and Hu shi’s face full of ill intent kept leaping right at the edge of her rage.
“Auntie, what benefit did the Chen family promise you?”
Hearing this, Hu shi froze, her face changing color in an instant. She forced out a smile. “What, what benefit?”
Li Jiaojiao ignored Hu shi. Carrying her basket, under the watching eyes of the crowd waiting for a show, she walked straight into the Chen family’s courtyard. “Oh my, it’s so lively here today!”
Li Jiaojiao’s sudden appearance made the once-bustling courtyard go silent in an instant. Everyone turned to look at her.
“Why is everyone looking at me like that? Wasn’t it you who called me here? You told me I absolutely had to come see the new bride! Right, where’s Chen Xuan’s new bride? He’s found another one now, shouldn’t she greet me, his ex-fiancée? I’m just a village girl born in the countryside, I’ve never seen what the county registrar’s precious daughter looks like! Where is he, Chen Xuan, where are you? Quick, bring your new wife out. At the very least, pour me a cup of tea, don’t you think?”
The moment Li Jiaojiao finished speaking, the whole village’s jaws dropped. Wang shi most of all, she stared blankly at her delicate, weak daughter beside her. In her memory, her daughter was someone who never even raised her voice. How had she become like this after reading one letter?
Inside the house, Chen Xuan and his new bride, Wan Yuxiu, daughter of the Liyang County registrar, walked out.
Chen Xuan wore a long blue robe, a blue hairpin holding up his hair, looking refined and handsome. The young woman beside him was a head shorter than him, slightly plump, with a round face, looking very well-off. She wore a peach-pink ankle-length skirt patterned with flowers, her hanging ornaments jingling, giving off a strong fragrance!
Seeing Chen Xuan, Li Jiaojiao felt an inexplicable pain shoot through her chest. She held back the urge to clutch her chest, cursing silently in her heart: What a spineless man, no wonder she’d been so angry she died from it!
“Chen Xuan, ten years of hard study by the cold window, congratulations, you’ve passed the exam with flying colors! Oh, no, wait, it’s a double blessing!” Li Jiaojiao turned her head to glance at Wang shi, giving her a reassuring look, then walked up to him basket in hand. In front of everyone’s eyes, she pulled a stack of letters from the basket and slammed them hard against Chen Xuan’s chest. “So, you don’t need to write any more of these from now on! Just looking at them sets my teeth on edge!”
Chen Xuan panicked and hurriedly glanced at Wan Yuxiu.
To his surprise, Wan Yuxiu wasn’t angry at all. She stared intently at the letters in the basket, then suddenly looked up and smiled. “Husband, why can’t you ever break this habit of writing letters? Didn’t my father already tell you not to go around writing letters to people?”
With that, she hurriedly snatched the basket away. Chen Xuan panicked and wanted to grab it back, but he didn’t dare, and could only watch helplessly as Wan Yuxiu took the basket from him.
As Wan Yuxiu moved, Li Jiaojiao caught another faint whiff of that fragrance again, and it irritated her headache badly. She was desperate to vent her temper, and stared at Wan Yuxiu with a face full of mockery. “Young mistress, you’d better keep a close eye on your husband from now on. This habit of writing letters to people isn’t a good thing. I think the county registrar was quite right!”
Wan Yuxiu’s hand stiffened slightly. She handed the basket to the maid beside her. “Take this and get rid of it!”
Wan Yuxiu might look plump and soft, but when it came to talking and acting, she was extremely crisp and decisive. The maid took the basket and left at once, not daring to delay at all.
“Chen Xuan, I’m your ex-fiancée, shouldn’t you at least treat me to a cup of tea before I go today?” Li Jiaojiao looked at Chen Xuan with ill intent. “You know how it is, you have your grand ambitions, and I’m just a village girl from the countryside. How could I dare hold back your future? You said it yourself, right? If the engagement’s called off, it’s called off. From now on, we each marry whoever we marry, and it has nothing to do with the other, right? You don’t need to write these letters anymore, I won’t accept them either. Oh, and my mother told me I’ll soon be looking at other prospects!”
Chen Xuan abruptly raised his head. Li Jiaojiao was beautiful, hundreds of times more beautiful than Wan Yuxiu. All these years he had studied hard just so he could place first and marry her into his house, he never expected the county registrar would take a liking to him instead.
On one side lay a bright future, on the other a beauty like jade. He couldn’t bear to give up either.
“Here and now, I, Li Jiaojiao, wish the two newlyweds a hundred years of happiness together and an early son!” Li Jiaojiao looked delicate and charming, yet she deliberately cupped her hands together the way men did. After saying this, she turned and left without the slightest hesitation.
Having vented, Li Jiaojiao felt much more at ease inside, but her head still ached. She wanted to go back and sort through the memories crowding her mind, so she said a word to Wang shi and turned to run quickly home.
Her chest burned, so hot she almost couldn’t hold it in. Li Jiaojiao shut the door, grabbed the burning object, and flung it hard onto the floor. To her surprise, the thing didn’t fall to the ground, instead, it slowly floated up.
Only then did Li Jiaojiao get a clear look, before her eyes was a round coin with a square hole, defying the law of gravity. The golden-orange coin floated quietly in front of her.
“What is this?”
Unable to resist her curiosity, Li Jiaojiao gently touched it with her fingertip.
“Eh? A trash host?”
Li Jiaojiao jumped in fright. She immediately looked all around and shouted, “Who’s there? Who’s talking?”
“Weakling, such a weakling!”
Li Jiaojiao nearly jumped up. Who was speaking right by her ear, was it a ghost? She grabbed a rag off the table and waved it around wildly for a while, until she was gasping for breath, and had to lean on the table to steady herself.
“So stupid!”
She saw the coin fly right in front of her face. Li Jiaojiao, startled, waved the rag around to defend herself. “What are you? You can move… it’s you, and you can talk too?”
“You’re the ‘what’! I’m a vessel spirit, I’m a vessel spirit!”
The little thing seemed to be angry, circling around Li Jiaojiao. “Why did they pick me a host like this, oh heavens!”
Li Jiaojiao got fierce and grabbed the coin flying in front of her, gripping it tightly. “Playing tricks and pretending to be a spirit, I don’t care what vessel spirit you are, I don’t accept it!”
With that, Li Jiaojiao was about to throw the thing away, but the coin struggled hard in her palm. “Let go of me, I am the great vessel spirit, an ancient being that has existed since primordial times, how dare you throw me away! Being able to become this one’s host is your honor, don’t be ungrateful!”
Li Jiaojiao’s hand paused. Could this really be a treasure, just like in the novels?
“What gives you the right to pick me as your host?”
“It’s fate, all of this is heaven’s will!”
“Don’t quote me fancy words, I don’t understand any of that!”
“The blood from your Spirit Hall acupoint just now happened to wake me from my slumber! Now, you are the host I’m bound to!”
After that, Li Jiaojiao learned from the vessel spirit’s own mouth where the coin had come from. According to it, it was the Eight Treasures Imperial Coin, the longest-existing treasure on the continent where it came from, with many functions. It had somehow drifted into this world of hers, and had just been awakened by her.
“By what you’re saying, aren’t you incredibly powerful, then?”
“Of course! On the continent I’m from, I’m the top treasure, no contest!” The coin floated up proudly. “But this continent doesn’t have a shred of spiritual energy, so this one’s power has shrunk!”
“So you’re saying that other than storing things, you’re useless for anything else?”
“What do you mean useless, this one is far stronger than those low-grade mustard-seed spaces, don’t be ungrateful!”
Li Jiaojiao didn’t want to listen to it anymore and put it straight into her pouch.
Outside the window, the sky had already gone dark. The room, dim to begin with, was now completely unreadable except for a tiny patch of light coming through the roof.
Li Jiaojiao got off the bed in the dark and slowly opened the door.
Outside, Li Chengcai was pointing at Wang shi’s nose, scolding her: “Shameless thing, listen to what the whole village is saying about us! This matter should have blown over quietly after a while with no one remembering it, but now, good job, the whole village is waiting to watch our family become a joke!”
“As long as he’s a normal man, who wouldn’t want to marry a capable wife? Besides, hasn’t the Chen family already apologized? That boy Chen Xuan even sent five taels of silver! Still not satisfied, still had to run over there and make a scene, are you happy now? Walk outside, who isn’t pointing fingers at us?”
“Mother said, seeing how full of spirit Jiaojiao is, no one eats today!” Li Chengcai flung his sleeve and, furious, turned his back.