The deafening sound of the explosion still echoed in her mind.
The modern world’s top assassin, Night Shadow, hadn’t even frowned when the raging flames swallowed her whole.
“Hiss…”
She tried to take a deep breath, but instead inhaled stale air mixed with cheap tobacco, sour sweat, and mold.
Then, a stream of sharp, vicious curses pierced her ears like needles.
“Stop playing dead! Get up right now!”
“Ten taels of silver! Master Qian brought real silver with him. If you make him miss the agreed time, can you afford to pay for it?”
Night Shadow’s eyelashes trembled slightly. Her assassin instincts told her not to open her eyes immediately. Instead, she slowed her breathing.
Silently, she lowered her heartbeat to its absolute minimum, lying motionless on the cold dirt like a real corpse.
The memories belonging to this body flooded into her mind like a broken dam.
The original owner was named Lin Wan, who had just turned sixteen. She was an unnoticed farm girl from Xinghua Village in the Great Xia Dynasty.
Her birth mother had died long ago.
Her father, Old Lin, was a spineless coward who never dared speak up.
Her stepmother, Madam Zhang, looked kind on the surface but was vicious at heart, while her biased grandmother, Old Madam Lin, treated her as nothing more than free livestock.
Just moments ago, the entire family had conspired together.
To gather enough bride price for her lazy cousin Lin Daqiang to get married, they had sold sixteen-year-old Lin Wan to the town’s notorious fifty-year-old widower, a man famous for abusing women.
The original Lin Wan had resisted desperately, clinging tightly to the doorframe and refusing to leave.
Madam Zhang, enraged, shoved her with all her strength.
Lin Wan’s head slammed into the stone mill in the courtyard, killing her instantly.
That was how the modern assassin Night Shadow had taken over her body.
Night Shadow…
No.
She was Lin Wan now.
She sneered inwardly.
What a ridiculous joke.
In her previous life, the bounty on the Dark Web for her capture had reached tens of millions of dollars.
In this life…
She was worth only ten taels of silver.
Madam Zhang spat on the ground and kicked Lin Wan twice in the waist without mercy.
Suppressing the dull pain shooting through her body, Lin Wan tensed every muscle without making a sound.
“Oh my, Sister-in-law Lin, this is fraud!”
An oily, aged voice rang out, accompanied by the unpleasant sound of someone rubbing his hands together.
“I paid ten taels of silver for a healthy young virgin who could bear me a fat son!”
“Look at her! She’s covered in blood! If she dies after I take her home, won’t I lose both my money and my wife?”
The speaker was none other than the old widower, Master Qian.
His narrow, cloudy eyes greedily wandered over Lin Wan’s slender figure.
Hearing that Master Qian wanted to back out, Madam Zhang immediately panicked.
“Master Qian, what are you saying? Every daughter of the Lin family is known throughout the nearby villages for being pretty!”
“It’s only a small injury! Just smear some incense ash on it, and she’ll be working in the fields tomorrow.”
“You’re getting the bargain of a lifetime for ten taels! Even a rough servant girl from Cuihong Brothel in town would cost more than that!”
Master Qian snorted coldly.
“I’m not buying that.”
“Eight taels! That’s my final offer!”
“She’s half dead. If I take her home, I’ll have to buy medicine for her. Who’s paying for that?”
When Madam Zhang heard he wanted to reduce the price, her heart ached.
She slapped her thigh and turned toward Old Lin, who was sitting on the doorstep smoking his pipe.
“Old man, say something! Daqiang is waiting for this bride price money!”
Old Lin shrank his neck, took a few slow puffs, and blew out a cloud of murky smoke.
He glanced at his daughter lying in a pool of blood, his eyes avoiding hers.
“Then… then let’s go with what Master Qian says. Eight taels is fine. Consider it making a good relationship…”
Lying on the ground, Lin Wan felt the final trace of the original owner’s lingering resentment disappear completely after hearing those words.
So this…
was her father.
Compared to the interests of his son and nephew, his own daughter’s life wasn’t even worth two taels of silver.
“Bullshit! Not one coin less!”
Old Madam Lin, who had remained silent until now, suddenly slammed her cane into the ground with such force that the earth shook.
Her triangular eyes narrowed, the flesh on her face trembling as she glared at Master Qian.
“You old dog! Don’t think I don’t know your filthy secrets!”
“You know perfectly well how your first three wives died!”
“We’re sending a perfectly good young virgin into your living hell. Is ten taels too much to ask?”
Her words tore away all pretense.
Master Qian’s face twitched with anger.
“Old hag, watch your mouth!”
“You were the ones who wanted to sell your granddaughter to me. Now you’re pretending to be the good people?”
“If it weren’t for the fact that the girl’s body hasn’t fully matured yet and has a bit of wild charm, you think I’d want her?”
Nearby, Lin Daqiang stomped his feet anxiously.
He couldn’t care less whether Lin Wan lived or died.
All he cared about was getting his wife.
“Grandma, stop arguing! The Li family said today’s the day to deliver the bride price. If we wait any longer, Cuihua will marry someone else!”
He tugged desperately at Old Madam Lin’s sleeve.
“It’s only two taels! At worst, I’ll eat meat two fewer times. Just hurry up and get rid of this jinx!”
Madam Zhang quickly chimed in.
“That’s right, Mother! Daqiang is the only heir of the Lin family. Carrying on the family line is what really matters!”
Old Madam Lin glared at him with disappointment.
Then she shot Lin Wan a vicious look, as though staring at a worthless pile of trash.
“Fine! Eight taels it is!”
“Hand over the money!”
“Take her away immediately. Don’t let her die in my courtyard and bring bad luck.”
Master Qian’s pockmarked face instantly broke into a lewd grin.
He untied a dusty money pouch from his waist, poured out several pieces of silver, and weighed them in his hand.
“Now that’s more like it. Old Madam Lin is a sensible woman.”
Madam Zhang’s eyes lit up at the sight of the silver.
Like a starving dog pouncing on food, she rushed forward and snatched the silver from his hand.
Ignoring the dirt, she bit one of the pieces hard with her yellow teeth.
Seeing the bite mark left behind, her face bloomed with joy.
Every wrinkle around her eyes bunched together.
“Old man! Daqiang! Look! It’s real silver!”
“Our Daqiang can finally get married!”
Lin Daqiang crowded over, staring at the silver as he swallowed repeatedly, already imagining the lavish wedding feast.
Old Lin continued puffing on his pipe, though his tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly.
No one spared another glance at Lin Wan lying on the ground.
The deal was complete.
Inside this run-down farmhouse courtyard, a living person’s life had been casually assigned a price.
“All right. Money paid, goods delivered.”
“The girl belongs to me now.”
Master Qian tucked the empty money pouch back into his belt.
Rubbing his calloused, dirt-covered hands eagerly, he walked toward Lin Wan.
As he approached, he smacked his yellow teeth together while his eyes roamed shamelessly over her body.
“Tsk, she’s skinny, but her face is much prettier than those rough village girls.”
“Once we get home, I’ll give you a nice bath.”
“Then we’ll slowly settle the account for those eight taels.”
His footsteps came closer and closer.
The stench of foul breath and sweat drifted toward her.
Lying on the dirt, Lin Wan listened to his disgusting words with remarkable calm.
As an assassin, the more desperate the situation, the calmer one had to be.
She rapidly assessed her condition.
This body was severely malnourished.
Her limbs were weak.
Blood was still seeping from the back of her head, accompanied by dizziness from a mild concussion.
Take on four people head-on?
Too risky.
Her body couldn’t sustain a prolonged fight.
But if her only target was this lust-driven fifty-year-old man…
She was one hundred percent certain she could kill him in a single strike.
Lin Wan’s breathing remained so faint it seemed she was truly dead.
Yet her hands quietly tightened at her sides.
Her fingertips rubbed against the rough dirt, searching for the perfect point to launch herself.
Master Qian had already reached her.
Standing over her, he bent down and reached out with his filthy hand—rough as sandpaper, black dirt packed beneath every fingernail—to grab the back of her collar.
“You little brat, stop pretending to be dead.”
“Come home with your master and enjoy the good life.”
Behind him, Madam Zhang laughed cheerfully.
“Master Qian, you’ve worked hard. Just make her drink a couple bowls of ginger soup after you get home. She’ll be lively again in no time.”
The instant his rough fingers were about to touch Lin Wan’s neck—
The motionless Lin Wan suddenly opened her eyes.
What kind of eyes were they?
There was no timidity of a country girl.
No despair of someone on the verge of death.
Only the absolute, emotionless coldness forged through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Her gaze was as sharp as a blade, piercing straight into the soul.
Anyone who looked into those eyes felt as though they would be cut apart.
The moment Master Qian met her gaze, it felt as if an invisible hand had seized his heart.
His outstretched hand froze in midair.
Cold sweat instantly drenched his back.
Th-This…
How could those be the eyes of a sixteen-year-old girl?
They looked like the eyes of a vengeful ghost come to claim his life.
The air in the courtyard seemed to freeze.
Madam Zhang stopped counting the silver.
The smile on Lin Daqiang’s face stiffened.
Old Lin’s pipe slipped from his mouth.
Everyone stood rooted to the spot, shocked by Lin Wan’s sudden resurrection-like awakening and her terrifying gaze.
Lin Wan slowly turned her head.
A faint cracking sound came from her neck.
Her icy eyes swept across every person in the courtyard.
Finally, they settled on Master Qian standing right in front of her.
A cruel smile curved across her lips.
“You bought my life…”
“…for eight taels of silver?”
Her voice was hoarse from dehydration, yet every word carried the chilling coldness of hell itself.
“I’m afraid…”
“…your coffin isn’t big enough to hold you.”