Because of Eldest Brother Gu’s outburst, the villagers began gossiping again. Once more, everyone in Gu Family Village marveled at just how favored Gu Yuan was. For the sake of his younger sister, Gu Laoda had even been willing to beat his own daughter half to death.
Meanwhile, the center of all that gossip lay unconscious on the bed in the room next door.
It was a tiny room built of packed earth bricks. It was so small that, aside from a single bed, there was barely enough space for a table. The room faced south. Beside the window stood an old, worn table and chair, and a few steps farther in was a wooden bed. At the foot of the bed sat a solid wooden cabinet.
Beneath a light blue floral quilt lay a little girl with a strip of white cloth wrapped around her forehead. Her face was as pale as paper.
She was Gu Yuan.
Her room was incredibly shabby. In modern times, countless people would scoff at living in such a place. But in Gu Family Village, most families crowded several generations into a single room. As a young girl, Gu Yuan not only had a room of her own but also her own table, chair, and cabinet. It was enough to show just how cherished she was.
Gu Family Village was poor. Everywhere one looked, there were skinny boys and girls with sallow faces. In an era when simply having enough to eat was considered a luxury, Gu Yuan stood in stark contrast to everyone else.
She was twelve years old. Her cheeks were still plump with baby fat, something rarely seen among children in the village. Before her injury, her rosy complexion had been the envy of everyone. Now she lay motionless on the bed like a porcelain doll, her life hanging in the balance.
One could only sigh at the unpredictability of fate.
The soundproofing of an earthen house was practically nonexistent, and the argument outside was taking place right in front of Gu Yuan’s room. The noise only made the pounding headache of the unconscious girl worse, causing her brows to knit together in irritation.
Ugh… it hurts…
Her eyelashes trembled.
Before even opening her eyes, she instinctively reached up to touch her forehead.
That’s strange. I didn’t even drink last night. Why do I have such a terrible headache?
Planning to sit up, she pushed herself halfway upright before suddenly freezing.
Something felt wrong.
She had always loved comfort. While she wasn’t obsessed with luxury, she enjoyed good food and comfortable clothing. Most importantly, her bedding was always soft and plush.
But now…
The texture beneath her palm was unmistakably rough. It felt like coarse homespun cloth. Even elderly villagers in remote areas wouldn’t willingly sleep on something this abrasive anymore.
At last, Gu Yuan opened her eyes.
At first only a slit.
Then they flew wide open.
The first thing she saw was a small, fair child’s hand.
Beneath it lay the old coarse bedsheet that had felt so uncomfortable.
Just how old was it?
Even people from the 1950s or 60s would probably find it outdated.
Its only redeeming quality was that it had been washed spotlessly clean, without a single patch sewn onto it.
This is bizarre…
No… I need a moment to process this.
Carefully sitting up, Gu Yuan surveyed the room.
Finding herself alone, she finally let out a long breath before raising both hands in front of her face.
These were undeniably a child’s hands.
They were fair and soft, without a trace of calluses, proof that their owner had lived a pampered life.
Which only confused her more.
If this child had been well cared for, why was everything else so shabby?
She bit her lip hard.
The sharp sting told her this wasn’t a dream.
She turned her hands over repeatedly, confirming that they were indeed attached to her body.
A single word suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Transmigration.
The corner of Gu Yuan’s lips curled into a self-mocking smile.
“So I ended up chasing the latest trend too.”
Thinking it over, she let out another sigh.
It didn’t really matter.
She hadn’t had many family members left in her previous life anyway. There wasn’t much worth clinging to.
The only thing she regretted was the three-story villa she had finally finished building. She had lived there for only six months.
Who knew who would end up enjoying it now?
Shaking her head, she pushed those thoughts aside.
She had always been a practical person.
If she really had transmigrated, dwelling on the past was pointless.
The priority now was figuring out her current situation.
There wasn’t much to inspect in the room, and she couldn’t find anything resembling a mirror to see what she looked like.
The commotion outside continued unabated, and whether from the noise or from sitting up too suddenly, her headache worsened.
Left with no choice, Gu Yuan hugged her head with both hands, hoping the pressure would ease the pain.
Unfortunately, the more she focused on it, the worse it became.
Unable to bear it any longer, she let out a miserable scream before collapsing back onto the bed.
Just before losing consciousness, countless fragments of memory flashed through her mind like scenes from a movie.
…
When Gu Yuan slowly opened her eyes again, her head was still throbbing painfully.
She instinctively reached for it, only to have a pair of rough, weathered hands stop her.
An elderly woman’s choked voice sounded beside her.
“My precious girl… you’ve finally woken up.”
Without giving Gu Yuan a chance to speak, the old woman continued hoarsely,
“I’ve already taught that little jinx Er Ya’s mother a lesson. And your eldest sister-in-law too—bah! Don’t think I don’t know she was the one who egged Er Ya on. Just wait. This matter isn’t over yet. You’ll see how I deal with her.”
The old woman rambled on about her plans, completely oblivious to the complicated emotions filling Gu Yuan’s lowered eyes.
Having already accepted the fact that she had transmigrated, discovering that she’d transmigrated into a novel somehow wasn’t that difficult to accept.
The moment she had fainted earlier, she had received part of the original owner’s memories.
And then she realized…
Everything matched the novel she had stayed up late reading the previous night.
Not merely similar.
It was practically identical.
Like countless transmigration novels, the heroine of that story was also a transmigrator. Her family occupied the lowest position in a large extended household and suffered constant oppression.
And since it was a farming-life transmigration novel, there was, unsurprisingly, an overindulged, troublesome young aunt around the heroine’s age.
The body Gu Yuan had inherited belonged to exactly such a character.
Gu Yuan had been born after her father’s death.
Because her husband had died before their daughter was born, Madam Gu had always felt guilty toward her youngest child and spoiled her from infancy.
Not only did she dote on Gu Yuan herself, she demanded that all four of her sons do the same.
Perhaps because the age gap between them was so large, despite their mother’s unreasonable demands, they all obediently complied.
Whenever there was something delicious at home, it was always served first to Old Madam Gu and Gu Yuan.
Whenever anyone went into town or up the mountains, they always brought something back for Gu Yuan.
Sometimes it was a meat bun.
Sometimes wild berries.
Sometimes bird eggs.
In short, no one ever returned empty-handed.
Compared to her, the other girls in the Gu family received no such treatment.
Not only were they fed the poorest food, but they also had to work alongside the adults. If they slacked off even a little, they were beaten and scolded.
Living under such unequal treatment, resentment was inevitable.
A few days earlier, Gu Yuan had secretly been enjoying the osmanthus cakes her youngest brother had brought her.
Whether from extreme hunger or overwhelming jealousy, Eldest Brother’s second daughter, Er Ya, suddenly rushed over, snatched the cakes from Gu Yuan’s hands, and shoved her to the ground.
Gu Yuan had always been delicate and was Old Madam Gu’s treasured darling.
How could the old woman possibly let someone who had dared steal from—and even push—her precious granddaughter get away with it?
That very night, she gave Er Ya a severe beating.
No one could have imagined that it was this beating that caused the girl to be replaced by another soul.
The peasant girl Gu Er Ya of Gu Family Village, Qingshan Town, Great Xia Dynasty, was gone.
In her place came Gu Liu—a modern female special agent who always repaid grievances tenfold.
In Gu Liu’s eyes, Er Ya had died because of Gu Yuan and Old Madam Gu.
If Gu Yuan had been willing to share her food, Er Ya would never have tried to steal it.
If she hadn’t stolen it, she wouldn’t have been beaten to death.
Now that Gu Liu occupied Er Ya’s body, she believed it was her duty to avenge her.
As for the fact that stealing was wrong in the first place…
She conveniently ignored it.
She stubbornly believed that Gu Yuan and Old Madam Gu had wronged Er Ya first.
Just look at Er Ya—so malnourished she looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Then look at Gu Yuan—healthy, rosy-cheeked, and well-fed.
If Old Madam Gu hadn’t been so biased, how could there be such a stark difference between them?
Already blaming everything on Gu Yuan and the old matriarch, Gu Liu exploded with rage the next time she saw Gu Yuan eating alone while she herself worked herself to exhaustion.
She snatched Gu Yuan’s watermelon and shoved her hard, sending her crashing headfirst into a stone bench.
In the novel, Gu Yuan survived.
But the wound left a permanent scar across her forehead.
No young girl wanted to be disfigured.
Naturally, Gu Yuan refused to let the matter go.
What followed was exactly what one would expect.
She and Old Madam Gu repeatedly tried to make life difficult for the transmigrated heroine, only to be thoroughly humiliated each time before ultimately becoming disposable cannon fodder.
Now, however, something had changed.
The Gu Yuan of the modern world had transmigrated into this body.
Thinking of everything that was about to happen, she grabbed Old Madam Gu’s hand and asked in a trembling voice,
“Mother… where’s Er Ya?”
Her trembling wasn’t born of fear.
A special agent?
So what?
They were both transmigrators starting from scratch.
Who would emerge victorious was far from certain.
The reason her voice shook was because her head hurt so badly.
Nor was she asking about Er Ya—the future heroine—out of concern or because she intended to forgive her.
Gu Yuan clearly remembered that Gu Liu possessed a cheat ability.
Unfortunately…
That cheat had been stolen from Gu Yuan herself.
Yes.
Stolen.
That was precisely why Gu Yuan had never been able to like the novel’s heroine.
When Gu Liu shoved Gu Yuan into the stone bench, Gu Yuan instinctively reached out to steady herself.
In doing so, the bracelet on her wrist became exposed.
The bracelet had originally been Old Madam Gu’s dowry.
It had been purchased by one of the Zhao family’s ancestors long ago.
Its material was strange—neither quite wood nor quite metal.
Pawnshops refused to accept it, so the Zhao family eventually included it in Old Madam Gu’s wedding dowry.
Gu Yuan loved pretty things and often dreamed of wearing gold and silver jewelry.
The Gu family couldn’t afford such luxuries, so Old Madam Gu gave her the bracelet instead.
Though it wasn’t made of precious metals, its intricate carvings were exquisite.
Since all the other girls in the village wore nothing at all, Gu Yuan happily wore it every day.
Everyone else merely envied it.
Gu Liu was different.
The moment she saw the bracelet, she sensed there was something unusual about it.
The instant she pushed Gu Yuan over, she secretly slipped the bracelet off her wrist and hid it inside her clothes.
As it turned out…
Her intuition had been right.
The bracelet contained a Trading System.
Relying on that system, Gu Liu rose rapidly through Great Xia, overcoming every obstacle and climbing to the pinnacle of power.
Now that Gu Yuan had transmigrated into the story—and knew the entire plot as well as the depth of Gu Liu’s hatred toward the Gu family—she naturally had no intention of allowing her enemy to grow stronger.
If the bracelet had originally belonged to Gu Liu, she would have had nothing to say.
But it didn’t.
It had belonged to the original Gu Yuan—to the Zhao family.
Gu Liu had simply stolen it.
According to the novel, Gu Yuan remained unconscious while Old Madam Gu beat Gu Liu a second time that very night.
This time, the beating was especially brutal.
Gu Liu’s body was covered in wounds, soaked in blood.
The blood stained the hidden bracelet…
And it immediately recognized her as its master, activating the Trading System.
Right now, Gu Yuan wanted to know one thing above all else—
Had Gu Liu already activated the system after being beaten and injured?