“Have you heard? The old Yan family’s daughter, the one who’s been an idiot for fifteen years, isn’t an idiot anymore.”
“Really, really, she’s better? Who did you hear it from!”
“Who else would I hear it from? The day before yesterday that idiot fought with the Wu family’s youngest son over a few wild fruits and got pushed into the river. She wasn’t moving at all, and then after a little while she actually climbed out by herself and went home. It scared the old Yan family half to death. I hear they called in an old doctor from town.”
“Yes, yes, I hear it was terrifying. You tell me, just this one idiot, is there something wrong with the old Yan family that they still dote on her? Who knows how many girl babies have been thrown into that ditch before, and yet the old Yan family treats her like a treasure.”
These past few days the village had been especially lively. Everywhere there was talk of the news that the Yan family’s idiot wasn’t an idiot anymore. Who exactly had said it, nobody knew either, and as it was passed along the thing came to be taken as true.
The Yan house.
Yan Xi was lying on the bed, still not quite come to herself. She had been here two days, and in these two days she had absorbed the original owner’s memories.
She had originally been a university student studying art. On the weekend she had arranged to go shopping with her roommate, and who knew that just as they left the school gate a car lost control and came at the two of them. There was only time to push her roommate aside, and she herself was sent flying. At the time ten thousand alpacas went galloping through her mind, this girl hadn’t even properly enjoyed life yet and it was already over…
Yan Xi had thought that dead was dead, but who knew that when she opened her eyes she was at the bottom of a river. Fortunately she had learned to swim back home, or she would have had to die a second time. She didn’t know what this situation was, but she would climb out first and talk about it after. Yan Xi stood up and found that where she stood wasn’t even a meter deep, not high at all. If anyone knew she had died in water this shallow, they would probably laugh themselves to death.
Once on the bank, Yan Xi noticed something was wrong. These clothes, this body, clearly they weren’t her own.
Suddenly some things welled up in her head. Yan Xi knew this was Yanjia Village, that the river in front of her was called the Chun River, and that she was the old Yan family’s daughter. Any more than that she didn’t know for now. Her head was muddled, so she would go home first and talk about it after.
Turning left and right the whole way, she finally reached the Yan house. Seeing the mud-brick house in front of her, Yan Xi was stunned. Were the conditions this bad? It was already 2025, where would you still find a house like this?
Just then a child squatting in the yard playing with mud saw Yan Xi and suddenly called out, “Grandma, Grandma, Auntie’s back.”
Then a woman rushed out of the house. She looked to be only about fifty. She caught hold of Yan Xi’s hand. “You wretched girl, you go out to play and don’t even look at what hour it is. A whole houseful of people is waiting on you to eat.” As she spoke she didn’t wait for Yan Xi to answer but pulled her into the house, and finding Yan Xi soaked through, she touched her forehead, which was a bit hot, and gave a cry of fright.
“What is it, what is it?” A whole crowd of people came swarming around, all asking at once.
“Your little sister fell into the river, and she’s running a fever, and she isn’t responding. Go borrow the village head’s ox cart and make a trip into town, bring back an old doctor to have a look at your little sister,” said old Mrs. Yan.
The Yan family’s eldest, Yan Lin, heard this and knew it would not do. He rushed off to the village head’s house in a panic, with no time even to eat.
Yan Xi, watching all this, still hadn’t quite come to herself. This whole household really was quick, they hadn’t given her the least time to react. She hurriedly said, “Mom, there’s nothing much wrong with me. You all eat first, you don’t all need to crowd around me. The doctor will be here soon.” When the words fell, everyone looked at her.
“Sweetheart, you’re not an idiot anymore, you even know to call me Mom, boo hoo hoo,” old Mrs. Yan wept.
Now it was really something. The whole household crowded around. This one said, Little Sister, I’m your second brother, that one said, daughter, I’m your dad. And there was a bunch of small fry chattering away without stopping. Listening to it Yan Xi’s head swelled, and she didn’t know what to say.
Two hours later Yan Lin brought the old doctor home. “Quick, quick, doctor, my little sister fell into the river, hurry and look at her.”
The old doctor hurried over beside Yan Xi, took her pulse, looked at her eyelids, and said, “Wind-cold has entered the body. Fortunately she was brought back in time. There’s nothing much wrong. Two doses of medicine and she’ll be fine.”
“Thank you, doctor, thank you, doctor. I’ll fetch the fee for you right now,” said Yan Xi’s mother.
“Three hundred and twenty wen altogether will do. As for the medicine, have someone come along with me later to collect it,” said the old doctor.
By the time all this was done it was already the hai hour. The family settled Yan Xi in, and then each of them left.
Only now did it feel real to Yan Xi. She really had transmigrated, into the old Yan family’s idiot daughter. Fortunately the whole household treated the original owner well, or she really wouldn’t know how to get through these days. Never mind, since she was here, she would settle in. There was no use thinking so much, she would take it one step at a time.
“Daughter, get up and eat some brown sugar eggs. Mom made these specially for you, nobody else has any.” A creak of the door broke into Yan Xi’s recollections. The door was opened by Yan Xi’s mother, who carried a bowl in carefully and came to the side of Yan Xi’s bed to feed her.
“I’ll do it myself, Mom.” Yan Xi wasn’t used to this at all. As she spoke she reached out and took the bowl. In the bowl were two eggs, and the brown sugar had made the color very dark, you didn’t have to think to know a lot of it had gone in. Seeing this, Yan Xi couldn’t help a pang in her nose.
Back in the modern world Yan Xi’s family had been very rich, otherwise she couldn’t have studied art, which was a money-burning business. But just because her parents were busy with work, Yan Xi was basically at home alone. There was a housekeeper, but it still wasn’t the same as a child with parents around. On the phone they could never say more than a few words before they had to go. Three hundred days of the year they were away, and for Yan Xi there was only money, given endlessly, as though that could make up for the childhood Yan Xi had missed.
Now she had come to this Tianqi dynasty and become the present Yan Xi, and she had gained so many family members. It actually wasn’t bad. Wasn’t this exactly what she had wanted in her past life and couldn’t get? She couldn’t bear to part with her family and friends in the modern world either, but there was no going back now, and no use thinking so much. Better to live well in the present.