Two days before the wedding, Shen Yiren was kidnapped.
The kidnapper was her own fiancé.
“Lord Cen, why?” Shen Yiren gazed at the familiar face, her nose stinging fiercely.
“Shen Yiren, as long as you obediently stay in the mountains for a few days, wait until I marry Qing Rui and the deed is done, I will naturally release you,” said the young man, his hair tied with a jade crown, handsome and elegant. As the heir of Duke Anguo’s estate, he was the object of admiration for many noble ladies in Yujing City.
However, he had long been betrothed to the legitimate daughter of the General’s estate. Who would have thought that Shen Qingrui, who grew up in the General’s estate, was an imposter? The true bloodline was in a village less than a hundred miles from Yujing.
The Duke Anguo’s estate, being a prestigious family, naturally insisted on marrying the legitimate daughter—the real one.
But Lord Cen, the groom-to-be, was unwilling. He and Qing Rui had grown up together—how could he marry someone else?
What if Shen Yiren was the real one? Raised among commoners, timid and submissive.
When she first saw him, her cheeks flushed red—how was she any different from those ordinary women in Yujing who admired him?
Qing Rui was a special woman who could say, “I would rather be the wife of a humble family than the concubine of a noble one.”
“But I am your fiancée, I am the real one,” Shen Yiren’s eyes reddened at the corners, tears blurring her vision.
“I don’t like you!” Lord Cen’s disdain was evident in his eyes. “Shen Yiren, how long are you going to pretend to be ignorant? No one in the Shen family welcomes you. You shouldn’t have come back to steal everything Qing Rui has.”
Shen Yiren’s tears fell to the ground. Seeing Lord Cen about to leave, she tried to chase after him even with her hands bound.
Don’t leave her alone in the mountains!
She wasn’t trying to compete with Shen Qingrui. She just wanted to return to her birth parents to find familial love and secure a good marriage for a stable life!
“Don’t touch me!” Lord Cen turned around, pushing her away with a flick of his sleeve. The delicate Shen Yiren stumbled backward and fell.
The back of her head struck a large rock, and she immediately lost consciousness.
Lord Cen froze, quickly ordering his servant to check on her.
The servant crouched down to examine her, his voice trembling as he said, “Lord, she’s not breathing…”
Panic flashed clearly in Lord Cen’s eyes.
Since she was already dead, what could he do?
He had to destroy the evidence.
“Quick, push her off the cliff.”
Thud!
The young girl fell to the bottom of the cliff, her body shattered, blood splattering onto a Ginseng Spirit nearby, trembling as it basked in the sunlight.
The Ginseng Spirit suddenly felt a wave of intense heat, as if it had overeaten.
Everything went dark, and it lost consciousness.
When it opened its eyes again.
A pain like its entire body had been shattered spread through every inch of its being.
The Ginseng Spirit stared in disbelief. This wasn’t shape-shifting—it had consumed the blood of a human girl, and the two had merged into one!
“Xiao Ba!” The Ginseng Spirit, now Shen Yiren, was unable to move and could only call out to its kin.
“Sister, you’ve finally shape-shifted!” A six- or seven-year-old Ginseng Child wobbled over. Seeing her twisted, bloodied body, it immediately burst into tears. “How did you get struck like this?”
It stretched out its chubby little arms to help her up.
Shen Yiren had no time to explain what had happened. She only asked it to dig up some soil to cover her body.
Since ancient times, there had been tales of ginseng saving lives. As ginseng spirits, no matter how severe their injuries, as long as they had a breath left, they could slowly recover.
Moreover, with the Buxian Mountain Soil located on a Dragon Vein, healing would be even faster.
Shen Yiren resigned herself to closing her eyes and recuperating, while the memories of the original host flooded her mind.
The original body was the legitimate daughter of the General’s Mansion in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Because her mother’s water broke on the way back to the capital, they stayed at a farm woman’s home.
The farm woman was also pregnant, and both gave birth to a daughter. The attending maid accidentally switched the babies.
Two years ago, General Shen returned from the border and discovered the truth. He exhausted all efforts to find the real daughter, treating both equally regardless of authenticity.
Having received affection from her biological father, the original host thought everyone in the family would treat her well, finally ending her days of enduring wind and sun, cutting firewood and grass to support the family.
Her grandmother warned her: “Qing Rui remains the legitimate eldest daughter, you are the second. This is to prevent the world from laughing at our General’s Mansion for having an illegitimate daughter who lacks propriety.”
Her mother scolded her: “It was just a mix-up. Qing Rui yields to you in every way, what is there for you to fight over?”
Her younger brother complained: “If you hadn’t returned, Elder Sister could have married Lord Cen, instead of crying herself to sleep every night!”
Everyone favored an impostor.
How outrageous!
Shen Yiren was so angry she wanted to crawl out of the ground.
No, better stay buried a while longer.
Once her body recovered, she would descend the mountain.
“Shen Yiren, you helped me achieve a breakthrough in shape-shifting, and I will help you take revenge.”
…
In the capital, inside an alley.
Lord Cen held Shen Qingrui’s hand, looking nervous: “Shen Yiren is dead, she’s dead! No one will ever stand in the way of our marriage again!”
“How could that be? My lord, did you kill her?”
“I merely gave her a push. She fell on a rock and died—it was her own bad luck!” Switched at birth, despised upon return, and dead from a simple fall.
Shen Qingrui was shocked and also fearful: “My lord, are you certain she is truly dead?”
Lord Cen’s gaze darkened: “A thousand-foot cliff—there is absolutely no chance of survival.”
Shen Qingrui breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that she died cleanly; she only feared an incomplete death that might lead to her return, bringing trouble upon them.
“Qing Rui, after you return, gather Shen Yiren’s valuables and hide them well, creating the illusion that she eloped to escape the marriage. Then you can marry me under the pretext of taking her place. No one will dare say anything about you; they will only praise your righteousness.”
“Alright.” Shen Qingrui immediately rushed back to the mansion and went to the small, narrow side courtyard where Shen Yiren lived. There weren’t many valuable things inside, and the two maids serving her were also busy preparing the wedding banquet in the front hall.
After burying the items in the soil behind the rockery and changing into clean clothes, Shen Qingrui headed to the ancestral hall to inform her grandmother and mother.
“Little Sister is missing.”
“Missing?” Both the elderly lady and Lady Shen frowned.
Shen Qingrui added: “The portable valuables in her room are also gone. Could she have fled the marriage? Daughter remembers that Little Sister had a sweetheart back in the countryside.”
This wasn’t fleeing a marriage—it was clearly eloping!
Lady Shen immediately flared up: “She stole your good marriage, and now she has the nerve to flee and elope with someone! Is she trying to plunge our General’s Mansion into disgrace?”
The elderly lady thumped her cane on the ground: “Even after two years back, she still can’t shake off the bad habits from that remote, impoverished place. If word gets out, where will our General’s Mansion’s face be? Send people to search for her immediately!”
After searching secretly all night, there was not a single clue.
At daybreak, Duke Anguo’s wedding procession would arrive. Lady Shen was so anxious she felt her eyebrows burning.
“Why keep searching?” Shen Zhi’ang, who had just woken up and heard about the matter, came over. He smiled and called Shen Qingrui “Elder Sister,” then put on a stern face and said: “It’s just as well she’s missing. This way, Elder Sister can still marry Lord Cen.”
Shen Qingrui thought to herself that she hadn’t doted on this younger brother in vain, and immediately stepped forward with righteous determination: “Mother, let your daughter marry in place of my sister!”
Lady Shen was taken aback for a moment and did not immediately object.
Clearly, she was hesitating.
Shen Qingrui pressed her advantage: “My sister has been missing for so long. If we cannot produce a bride, wouldn’t it harm the harmony between our two families?”
Lady Shen instinctively looked toward the Elderly Lady.
With the Family Head unable to return in time, the household was still under the Elderly Lady’s authority.
“Qing Rui speaks wisely,” said the Elderly Lady, who had also stayed up all night, her expression weary as she gently turned her prayer beads. “Dawn is approaching. Qing Rui, go and put on the wedding dress.”
“Yes, Grandmother.” Shen Qingrui bowed and turned to change into the wedding dress. What did it matter if the dress didn’t fit perfectly? As long as she could wear it, it was hers.
Half of the dowry from the general’s estate would still be hers, and the position of the heir’s wife would also remain hers.