With the jade pendant secured, Mo Guiyi leisurely stood up. “Auntie, I won’t disturb you any longer, I’ll head back first. Oh, right, Shujing, make sure you don’t just agree to attend whatever random gatherings pop up. Anyone who suddenly approaches you just because you have something valuable on you is harboring bad intentions—don’t let yourself get scammed by people like that. Auntie, you definitely need to keep a tight watch on Shujing too; there are far too many men these days whose sole purpose is to trick young girls.”
After dropping this parting bomb of provocation and discord, Mo Guiyi departed with the quiet grace of a master, leaving all the chaos behind.
The moment she stepped out of the door, absolute war broke out inside the Yao household. Yao’s mother grabbed Yao Shujing by her braids and started thrashing her in a chaotic frenzy, cursing her out as an ungrateful white-eyed wolf who was trying to scheme against her own family. Ducking and dodging every which way, Yao Shujing wept bitterly, yet still couldn’t escape taking quite a few heavy blows. Meanwhile, Yao’s father stood leisurely off to the side, treating the whole spectacle like a free neighborhood show.
Once the beating finally subsided, Yao’s mother tore through Yao Shujing’s room, rummaging frantically until she dug up a stash of hidden cash. Discovering that her daughter had been hoarding money behind their backs flew Yao’s mother into another towering rage, and she beat Yao Shujing all over again, only letting up once she had completely vented her fury.
Listening to the raucous uproar and flying feathers echoing from next door, Mo Guiyi smiled with deep, profound satisfaction.
Back inside her own room, Mo Guiyi immediately pulled out the jade pendant. She began by carefully inspecting it. It was identical to the state it had been in before she handed it over to Yao Shujing in her past life. Yao Shujing had only discovered the hidden dimensional space inside after Mo Guiyi’s death, accidentally binding the pendant to herself with a drop of her own blood. Having floated as a disembodied soul inside Yao Shujing’s room back then, Mo Guiyi had witnessed that entire process with her own eyes.
She already knew the exact procedure for claiming ownership.
Retrieving a small utility knife, she pricked her fingertip, squeezed out a droplet of fresh blood, and let it fall onto the jade pendant. The moment the blood touched the surface, it vanished into the jade like a drop of water sinking into a serene lake, sending faint ripples across the stone. A soft, ghostly glimmer flashed across the exterior, followed by a sudden burst of brilliant light.
Mo Guiyi’s vision blurred for a brief second, and when she raised her eyes to look around again, the scenery before her had completely transformed.
She was standing inside a mystical dimensional space measuring roughly one hundred square meters. It contained two plots of fertile farmland, a bubbling spring of crystal-clear water, and a solitary fruit tree.
Scooping up a handful of the spiritual spring water, Mo Guiyi took a sip. It was cool, sweet, and instantly refreshing—a crisp wave of vitality slid down through her entire body, leaving her feeling exceptionally energized, to the point where even her physical strength felt vastly improved compared to before.
Next, she scooped up a few more palms of the spring water and sprinkled it over the barren farmland. Right before her eyes, several tiny green shoots immediately sprouted and poked their way up through the previously empty soil. Only God knew what kind of crops those little sprouts would turn out to be.
After spending a long, thorough chunk of time exploring and researching the space, Mo Guiyi finally stepped back out into the real world.
Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law would be returning soon, so Mo Guiyi hurried to the kitchen to check the ingredients on hand and swiftly whipped up a simple meal consisting of three dishes and one soup. In the past, she wouldn’t have known how to handle any of these household chores; she had only ever known how to indulge herself. Later on, during that agonizing period when her wandering soul was trapped in the mortal realm with nothing to do out of sheer boredom, she had secretly picked up a wide variety of skills.
Just as she set the soup pot to simmer, a loud, urgent cry rang out from outside the front courtyard. “Is anyone home? Sister Ming, are you in?”
“What is it?” Mo Guiyi hurriedly turned off the stove and stepped out of the room.
The person standing outside was her neighbor, Auntie Liu, whose face was etched with acute anxiety. Catching sight of Mo Guiyi, Auntie Liu froze for a second before frantically craning her neck to peer past her into the house. “You’re the only one here? Where’s Sister Ming? Hasn’t she come back yet?”
Auntie Liu shared a very close friendship with her mother-in-law, Ming Fangqin. It was extremely rare to see her showing up at their doorstep looking this flustered. Quickly offering a few calming words to steady the older woman, Mo Guiyi asked, “Auntie Liu, you can tell me whatever’s going on. Sometimes my mother-in-law runs a bit late coming back—if it’s an urgent matter, I can handle it first.”
“You… you…” Auntie Liu looked at Mo Guiyi with naked skepticism written all over her face.
As neighbors living right next door to each other, everybody in the compound knew what kind of person Mo Guiyi typically was. She was completely oblivious to the world outside her window, caring only about poetry and romance; aside from reading books, she was so pampered that she couldn’t even lift anything heavier than a feather. What on earth could someone like her possibly manage?
Yet with no other members of the Ming family currently around, she had no other choice left.
“Hurry up and go down to the school to take a look, then—your sister-in-law got into a conflict with some people,” Auntie Liu blurted out.
Mo Guiyi’s expression instantly darkened. “Auntie Liu, lead the way right now.”
Pacing her steps toward Ming Siling’s school, Mo Guiyi raced against time by mentally sifting through her memories. In her previous life, her sister-in-law seemed to have gotten into some sort of violent school conflict around this exact time as well. Back then, however, her scandal with Painter Wen had just been exposed by Ming Xianbai, and she and Ming Xianbai were locked in a freezing cold war, leaving her zero emotional bandwidth to care about anyone else’s problems. She had only vaguely heard Ming Fangqin mention a few details about it later on. Following that incident, her sister-in-law—who had always been bright, bold, and fiercely outgoing—suddenly turned completely sullen and withdrawn, speaking less and less with each passing day.
Mo Guiyi suddenly remembered: in her past life, right around this period, Ming Siling had indeed locked herself away inside her room upon returning home and cried her eyes out.
What on earth had happened to her? She just prayed she could get there before it was too late.
Jogging the entire way, Mo Guiyi finally arrived panting at the gates of Ming Siling’s school. The journey of just a couple of kilometers left her body feeling completely drained of stamina, forcing her to plant both hands on her knees as she gasped heavily for air. This physical vessel of hers was simply too pathetic; having never exercised a day in its life, it became nothing more than dead weight the moment it was actually needed. Once she got this current crisis sorted out, whipping this body into proper shape was going straight to the top of her priority list.
Rushing onto the school grounds, she spotted a group of four or five students forming a tight circle, trapping Ming Siling right in the middle. Cornered like a trapped little beast, Ming Siling stood with both fists clenched tight, glaring furiously at the crowd with rage blazing in her eyes.
“What are you glaring at? Still think you’ve got room to be stubborn, huh?” one of the male students jeered as he gave Ming Siling a rough shove.
Provoked like a cornered wild animal, Ming Siling snapped and batted the boy’s arm away with a fierce swipe.
Instantly infuriated, the boy took a aggressive step forward, lunging to grab the front of Ming Siling’s clothes with his hand raised to deliver a hard slap across her face.
Bracing herself to take the blow, Ming Siling shut her eyes tight. A bunch of spineless cowards who only knew how to bully others by outnumbering them. If they had the guts, they should try fighting her one-on-one. Even a boy wouldn’t necessarily beat her in a fair fight. Instead, they only knew how to gang up on a single girl in a mob.
“Stop right there!”
Before the slap could land, a sharp, piercing voice cut through the air. That voice sounds familiar… Ming Siling’s eyelashes fluttered with a sudden sense of foreboding as she snapped her eyes open.
Sure enough, there stood Mo Guiyi’s slender figure, planted firmly right in front of her to block the way.
Glaring daggers at the boys, Mo Guiyi demanded, “What do you think you’re doing?”
Taken aback by the sudden appearance of such a soft, delicate woman standing in their path, the male student froze for a split second, his raised hand stalling mid-air.
Terrified that the blow might land on her sister-in-law’s face instead, Ming Siling quickly shoved Mo Guiyi back behind her. Guarding her protectively, she glared with furious hostility at the boy with the raised hand and shouted, “What are you scumbags trying to pull? Ganging up to bully people with numbers—you’re nothing but a bunch of cowards! If you’ve got the balls, come at me directly!”
“So you’re Ming Siling’s sister-in-law? That black-category element?” A flash of stubborn, malicious fury lit up the male student’s eyes as he sneered, “Ah, so it’s you! The daughter of a capitalist—people like you ought to be dragged out and publicly denounced. To think the Ming family actually took in trash like you; looks like their family background isn’t so clean either.”
Mo Guiyi’s expression turned chillingly cold. The pack of students still stood there with righteous, fanatical arrogance.
Without wasting another breath on useless talk with them, Mo Guiyi turned her head and instructed Auntie Liu, “Auntie Liu, go find a teacher right away.”