“Did you see that commotion just now? The Old Xie Family’s sole heir, Xie Jinzhu, is actually a girl! She was caught cross-dressing as a man at the academy and got kicked right out!”
“She’s even trying to kill herself. Who knows if she’ll make it…”
The villagers gathered before the Xie family’s thatched hut, their discussions ceaseless.
Inside, Old Mrs. Xie’s face was deathly pale. Her trembling hands had just confirmed the terrible suspicion, and she stared blankly, muttering, “Where is my grandson?”
“Where have you taken my precious grandson?!”
Why was the grandson she had raised for fifteen years a girl once his clothes were off!
Third Mistress Xie, her face streaked with tears, threw herself forward and knelt, hugging Old Mrs. Xie’s legs. “Mother.”
“Didn’t you just see for yourself? Jinzhu really is a girl. I gave birth to a daughter all those years ago…”
From behind the curtain, Third Master Xie called out, unable to bear it. “Mother…”
“You shut up!”
Old Mrs. Xie shrieked, then suddenly lost all her strength and collapsed to the floor. “It’s over…”
“It’s all over…”
The treasure the Old Xie Family had doted on for over a decade, their golden nugget, was actually a fake, a girl cross-dressing as a man!
It was all a lie, a sham!
As if the sky were falling, Old Mrs. Xie slapped her thighs and began to wail. “The heavens have collapsed!”
“What sins have I committed to deserve this? The Old Xie Family’s only line of descent is broken just like that. When I die, how can I face our ancestors? How can I explain this to my old man…”
Sobbing her heart out, Old Mrs. Xie rushed into the main hall, looking as if she wanted to smash her head against the ancestral tablets and join them.
Third Master Xie and his wife hurried to stop her, but no one noticed that the “fake” on the bed had already woken up.
Her eyes opened to the sight of rafters with thatch peeking through, a broken window that let in whistling drafts of wind, and walls blackened and yellowed by firewood smoke, and…
A soft bed, cobbled together by the entire Old Xie Family for their precious Golden Grandson.
The only new cotton quilt, once a symbol of their doting love for their sole heir, now felt so heavy it was hard for the person on the bed to breathe.
After repeatedly closing and opening her eyes, Xie Jinzhu came to an unbelievable conclusion: she had transmigrated.
There was no plane crash, no natural disaster.
She had simply taken a nap after finishing an experiment, and when she opened her eyes again, she had become the Xie family’s sole heir, whose shocking secret had just been exposed.
Hearing Old Mrs. Xie’s despairing cries of shame before her ancestors and deceased husband, Xie Jinzhu’s expression grew even stranger. There was no need to feel so ashamed before the late Old Master Xie.
Because this ridiculously huge secret had been orchestrated by Old Master Xie himself!
The previous generation of the Old Xie Family had three branches.
Unfortunately, all three brothers were fated to “only blossom but bear no fruit,” producing a total of seven “golden flowers” but not a single son.
The old couple sighed all day with worry, placing their final hopes in the belly of the third son’s wife, Madam Wang.
However, while Madam Wang was pregnant and awaiting labor, Third Master Xie accidentally fell into the water and went missing.
The old master worried that his third son would not return and refused to accept the fate of having no grandson, which would leave their family line to be “eaten” by others. Cradling the newborn eighth girl like a hot potato, he gritted his teeth and lied that the Old Xie Family had been blessed with a sole male heir.
Fortunately, the day after the child was born, Third Master Xie returned safe and sound.
Relieved, Old Master Xie hoped the young couple could have another child, a boy this time, to make the lie a reality. He pressured them to keep the secret.
Unexpectedly, in the years that followed, none of the three daughters-in-law became pregnant again!
Five years later, Old Master Xie fell gravely ill and could not hold on any longer.
Feeling guilty toward the granddaughter forced to live as a boy, his only dying wish was that they raise this sole heir well and never let her suffer any grievance.
As the only “line of descent” in the Xie family, and with the backing of Old Master Xie’s dying wish, the original owner naturally became the family’s little tyrant, on whom all hopes were pinned.
Old Mrs. Xie doted on her Golden Grandson as if he were her own heart.
The uncles from the first and second branches treated the original owner, this sole heir, as their own son, cherishing him like a precious treasure.
The seven daughters of the Xie family were also profoundly indulgent toward the original owner.
The entire family firmly believed that as long as this sole heir made something of himself, the Old Xie Family’s hard days would be over.
But the original owner’s plan was never to lead the whole family to prosperity.
She only wanted to find the best way out for herself in the Academy, a Gathering of Talents, before her secret was exposed. Ideally, she would become the wife of a scholar so she could continue to enjoy her wicked life!
And now, she was that wicked person!
Xie Jinzhu clutched her chest, feeling suffocated, not daring to think about how many sins the original owner had committed.
Just then, the door curtain, which failed to block Old Mrs. Xie’s wails, was flung open. A figure rushed in, bringing a cold wind, and swung a hand viciously at Xie Jinzhu’s face!
“Liar!”
Shocked, Xie Jinzhu dodged the slap on pure instinct.
But the person lunged at her relentlessly. “You’re just another money-losing good-for-nothing, yet you’ve lied to us for so many years!”
Recognizing who it was, Xie Jinzhu struggled to evade her. “Fifth Sister, I’m not…” she said, her voice weak and lacking confidence.
“Don’t you call me Fifth Sister!”
“I’m not your sister!”
Xie Wuni had been gathering firewood on the mountain. On her way down, she heard people gossiping about her family and rushed back. Seeing Old Mrs. Xie crying her eyes out, she instantly understood everything.
What the villagers were saying was true…
Their only brother was the fake!
Xie Jinzhu was stunned into silence by that resentful shout.
Xie Wuni pointed at her, ready to strike again, but when she opened her mouth, she burst into tears. “How could you be a girl?”
“Huh?”
“Aren’t you a boy? You’ve been pretending for so many years, why didn’t you just keep pretending!”
The hope the entire family had cherished for so many years was shattered. Now, there was nothing left to look forward to in life!
A lump formed in Xie Jinzhu’s throat. She said from the bottom of her heart, “I didn’t want this either, really.”
Although the original owner’s behavior—acting like a tyrant, deceiving and leeching off her entire family—was truly shameful, Xie Jinzhu was helpless.
She had already transmigrated; she couldn’t just go and die again!
Steeling herself, Xie Jinzhu said weakly, “I know I was wrong. From now on, I will…”
“How dare you say that!”
Xie Wuni’s eyes were red as she roared, “For more than ten years, every bite of food in this house has gone into your mouth, you fake son!”
“Every single copper coin was saved for you to go to the Academy, all for you to earn a Scholarly Honor!”
“You ate solid food at every meal while we didn’t even have rice bran! You had meat for three meals a day while we couldn’t even get a whiff of it!”
“You faked an illness to demand an Auspicious Wedding, forcing the whole family to sell our livestock and land to raise the money for you, but you took all the family’s silver and tried to elope with someone!”
“Now that you’ve been scammed out of your money and kicked to the curb by some scoundrel, and you can’t pretend to be a man anymore, you think a casual ‘I was wrong’ can erase everything?!”
“How will you ever repay what you owe us! What about us, who you’ve deceived for so many years!”
Crying and screaming, Xie Wuni completely lost control and lunged forward to strangle Xie Jinzhu.
A rush of hurried footsteps burst in, and the newcomer saw the scene and shouted, “Wuni, stop!”
“Don’t you dare hurt her!”