It was hot.
So unbearably hot.
Lin Jingchu narrowed her eyes. Her limbs felt like they’d been borrowed from someone else, refusing to obey her, while an indescribable emptiness gnawed at her body.
Half-conscious, she stumbled into an embrace carrying a faint cool fragrance. The man’s arms were firm and strong, making her instinctively want to cling to him.
“Second Young Lady, this servant has been searching for you everywhere.”
“Many thanks to you, sir, for helping my lady. She drank too much wine. Please let go of her.”
“My apologies for the impropriety,” the man said, his voice as clear and bright as the moon.
Lin Jingchu still wanted to grab onto him, but the woman beside her forcefully pulled her away, leaving behind a strange sense of disappointment.
Zhang Zhaoming watched the two women leave and narrowed his eyes slightly. Turning to his servant, he instructed quietly, “Go find out which family that young lady belongs to.”
Lin Jingchu was laid down onto a bed, and for a brief moment her mind cleared.
Hadn’t she just been stabbed by a coworker? She should be in a hospital right now. Though… this hospital’s décor was certainly unique.
Everything was antique and elegant—even the hospital bed was draped in pink gauze curtains.
Then a flood of unfamiliar memories swept through her mind like a lantern show flashing past. Somehow, she seemed to have become the very person in those memories: the second daughter of the Pingyang Marquis Manor.
“Is Second Sister inside?”
A gentle female voice sounded from outside.
Then came the sharp crack of a slap, followed by the woman’s furious voice.
“You worthless servants! Get out of my way!”
“Someone, break the door down!”
In an instant, Lin Jingchu bit down on the tip of her tongue to force herself awake.
The voice belonged to Lin Shuyi, the legitimate eldest daughter of the household. The moment Lin Jingchu thought of her, a lingering resentment rose from deep within her heart.
Before she could think further, the door burst open.
Several burly women rushed in. One covered her mouth while the others tied her up tightly. Her vision went dark as they shoved a sack over her head.
Lin Jingchu: …
How was kidnapping still a thing in this day and age?
She tried to struggle, but her body was limp and weak. She could only let them carry her away.
After a while, they finally set her down.
It was cold outside. The chilly wind cleared her mind somewhat. The sack let through a bit of light, and when she lowered her head, she saw herself dressed in a crimson chest-high gown with a revealing neckline. Her chest was smooth—there were no stab wounds at all.
She had been an ordinary person.
She slacked off at work, binged dramas after work, and spent holidays indulging in good food with her meager salary. She wasn’t rich, but her life had been comfortable enough.
Then a coworker who had just given birth to her third child took offense at her refusal to marry. After failing to persuade her for the nth time, the woman had simply stabbed her.
Her final memory was the icy sensation of blood loss and endless emptiness.
A bizarre and absurd thought surfaced in her mind.
Had she transmigrated?
The space around her jolted violently. Some instinct told her she was currently inside a carriage.
Recalling what had just happened, combined with years of reading web novels, she suddenly realized—
Wasn’t this the classic “older sister framing the younger sister for an illicit affair” plotline?
She struggled to think through her hazy mind, but couldn’t come up with any solution.
Life had tried to chew her up, only to discover she dissolved instantly in its mouth.
However long the carriage traveled, she froze there for just as long. The earlier heat in her body had already faded. Her limbs were still weak, but at least her mind was now clear.
After another round of being hauled around, her vision returned. She found herself kneeling on an icy floor.
A celadon teacup shattered beside her knees, and the hot tea splashed across them, bringing a brief warmth.
She looked up.
The room was filled with wooden furnishings. At the very top sat a beautiful woman, while another younger beauty stood beside her.
The ruby hairpin adorning the older woman’s head sparkled brilliantly—it looked absurdly expensive.
Lin Jingchu’s heart sank.
She had probably truly transmigrated. After all, no one would spend this much money just to stage an elaborate trap for an ordinary person.
According to the original owner’s memories, the two women were her mother, Madam Xia, and her elder half-sister, Lin Shuyi.
“Mother, everything happened so suddenly. The people I brought managed to stop that scholar, and tying up Second Sister was truly unavoidable. Otherwise her reputation would have been ruined. Please forgive me.”
Lin Shuyi knelt and performed a respectful bow.
Madam Xia sighed and personally helped Lin Shuyi to her feet.
“Good child. It’s fortunate you arrived in time.”
Then she turned a harsh gaze toward Lin Jingchu.
“You disgraceful wretch! Have you no sense of shame? For the sake of that poor scholar, you’d do something this despicable? Must you force this entire family to death before you’re satisfied?”
Lin Jingchu: ………
Honestly, she felt rather calm.
But the moment this body heard Lin Shuyi’s voice, an instinctive sense of displeasure surged within her.
“Servants, carry out the family punishment.”
The same burly matrons stepped forward again. One restrained her hands while another held a red wooden ruler.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Each strike burned like fire.
Outside, the sound of beatings rang out as well.
Madam Xia said coldly, “Those servants who encouraged their mistress into such behavior—beat them all to death!”
Lin Jingchu’s hands quickly went numb from the pain. Combined with the exhaustion of the journey, she fainted outright.
Before losing consciousness, she thought:
Dying might not be so bad after all.
She hadn’t been prepared to transmigrate anyway.
She was already awake, lying in bed.
She opened her eyes briefly, then shut them again at once.
This world was too cruel. She didn’t want to face it.
Madam Xia was the original owner’s biological mother, but the original owner had been born from Madam Xia’s first marriage.
Her biological father had been a third-rank court official of humble origins. Back then, he married Xia Ning, daughter of a wealthy Jiangnan merchant family, and received considerable support from her family.
After Xia Ning divorced him, she remarried as the new wife of the Marquis of Pingyang. Lin Shuyi was the daughter born to the marquis’s first wife.
The original owner had always lived with her biological father. When she reached marriageable age, her father decided that the Marquis Manor’s status would benefit her prospects, so he sent her there and even changed her household registration and surname.
But the original owner had fallen for a distant cousin from her father’s clan.
The cousin came from a poor family and was merely a scholar preparing for the imperial exams, though he possessed a handsome appearance. He had traveled to the capital seeking help from Lin Jingchu’s father, who appreciated his talent and allowed him to stay in the household.
Young hearts were easily moved. Over time, the original owner fell in love with him.
Her father strongly opposed the relationship and immediately packed her off to the Marquis Manor overnight.
This recent meeting outside the manor had been arranged through a maidservant’s message, claiming that the cousin planned to return home to prepare for the exams and wished to see her one last time before leaving.
Lin Jingchu instantly pieced together the situation:
A would-be phoenix man wanted to marry up, but her shrewd, fully evolved “phoenix man” father had discovered his intentions and stopped him. So the scholar decided to trick an innocent girl into sleeping with him, hoping to force a marriage afterward.
Thinking about it that way, maybe the beating hadn’t been entirely undeserved.
As she drifted through these thoughts, someone picked up her hand and dabbed something cool against it.
“Hiss!”
“Second Young Lady, you’re awake?”
A kindly-looking older woman gazed at her. It was Nurse Zhou, the original owner’s wet nurse. She held a small celadon jar and was using a bamboo spatula to apply ointment to Lin Jingchu’s wounds.
Seeing that she was awake, Nurse Zhou gently blew on her injured hands before carefully wrapping them up.
She touched Lin Jingchu’s forehead. Feeling that the fever had subsided, she finally relaxed. Then, pretending to be angry, she smacked the blanket beside her.
“How could you treat yourself so carelessly? The physician said you were drugged with a large amount of filthy medicine. If the eldest young lady had arrived any later, your life would have been lost! Then all my years of caring for you would have been for nothing!”
Nurse Zhou slapped her thigh and cried bitterly.
Lin Jingchu thought the woman had every right to cry.
After all, the original owner truly was dead.
The soul inside this body had already become hers.
She stayed silent, afraid Nurse Zhou might notice something strange.
When Nurse Zhou finally cried herself tired, she looked at Lin Jingchu’s dazed expression with aching tenderness. She gently stroked her cheek and tucked the blanket around her.
“Good child, just focus on recovering these next few days. Stay quietly at home and don’t go anywhere, alright? I’m begging you.”
“Alright,” Lin Jingchu answered hoarsely, but with complete sincerity.