At the Hour of Hai (around nine in the evening), the medicine finally seemed to take effect, and Qianhua slowly opened her eyes.
Her father’s leg injury had not yet healed, and Mrs. Liu had long since persuaded him to rest in the adjoining room.
The three of them had been squeezed into one room, separated only by a wooden partition and a cloth curtain in the middle.
Now, only Mrs. Liu remained at Qianhua’s bedside.
Exhausted, she had fallen asleep with her head resting against the bed.
Qianhua turned her head and looked at Mrs. Liu’s weary sleeping face, choosing not to wake her.
She gently sat up. In the dim glow of the oil lamp, she stared at her hands—small, thin, and dark.
Then she turned and carefully looked around the room: gray earthen walls, uneven dirt floor, a blackened, chipped old square table, and beneath it, two long wooden benches with mismatched legs.
The room was shabby. It was clearly a setting from an earlier era, and she had to admit the truth—she had truly transmigrated.
She went over the situation in her mind: the original girl had probably already drowned after being pushed into the river by her cousin Cuihua. After she herself fell into the sea, by some twist of fate, she had transmigrated into the original girl’s body.
From the original girl’s memories, she learned this place was called the Great Yuan Kingdom, and the year was the twenty-fourth year of Jingxi—a dynasty that had never appeared in history.
The village was called Yunfeng Village, under Qingxi County of Lingzhou City, in the southwestern part of the Great Yuan Kingdom.
The original girl’s grandfather, Old Liang, was the head of the household.
Her great-grandfather had named him Liang Dongcai, a homophone for “pillar of the nation.”
Her great-grandfather had hoped Old Liang would study diligently, pass the imperial exams, and become a pillar of the Great Yuan Kingdom.
Unfortunately, Old Liang was not cut out for studying. After several years of schooling and failing multiple county exams, he had never even become a xiucai, and in the end, he gave up and returned home to farm.
Carrying on his father’s wishes, Old Liang pinned his hopes on the next generation to succeed in exams and bring honor to the family—but none of his three sons were studious.
The only one in the family who studied was Liang Wenzhi, the son of the eldest branch’s second son, and he was the one Old Liang valued most.
Old Liang doted on this second grandson so much that anything good in the household would first be given to Wenzhi. In his eyes, nothing in the household mattered more than Wenzhi’s studies.
The original girl’s grandmother, Old Madam Liang, was rigidly traditional, with a strong preference for sons over daughters.
It was said that the original girl had once had an aunt; because the family was poor and could not support many children, the aunt had been drowned in a water vat by Old Madam Liang shortly after birth.
Old Madam Liang fundamentally believed daughters were a burden, a waste of the family’s grain. She had never liked Qianhua or Cuihua.
She openly favored her grandsons. While Old Liang tried to maintain surface-level fairness, Old Madam Liang’s bias was obvious and shameless.
In this household, aside from Qianhua and Cuihua, the person Old Madam Liang disliked most was Qianhua’s mother, Mrs. Liu.
Mrs. Liu had given birth to only one daughter and no son, cutting off Liang the Second’s line.
Old Madam Liang never showed Mrs. Liu a pleasant look, and at the slightest displeasure, she would scold or hit her. Mrs. Liu, knowing she had not borne a son, endured all of this silently.
Old Madam Liang constantly urged Liang the Second to divorce Mrs. Liu and remarry to continue the family line.
However, Qianhua’s father was devoted; he refused to divorce Mrs. Liu and always protected her.
Several times, Old Madam Liang had been ready to drive Mrs. Liu out of the house, but Liang the Second threatened his own life each time, forcing her to stop.
Old Madam Liang believed she was acting for her son’s benefit, yet he was completely bewitched by that “vixen” of a wife.
She felt Liang the Second’s defiance for Mrs. Liu was a classic case of “married a wife and forgot his mother,” and gradually, she developed resentment toward her second son.
Old Madam Liang had three sons:
Eldest: Liang Shifu
Second: Liang Shijun
Third: Liang Shigui
The eldest married Zhu and had two sons and one daughter.
The eldest son, Liang Wenyong, was eighteen and worked on the farm; the family was poor, so he had not married.
The second son, Liang Wenzhi, was fourteen and studied at a private academy in town.
The daughter, Liang Cuihua, was fifteen.
She resembled her mother, Zhu—round face, small eyes, short stature, naturally dark skin, and not particularly attractive.
Like her mother, Cuihua was lazy. Whenever Old Madam Liang assigned chores to the granddaughters, Cuihua always found excuses to shirk work and often picked on Qianhua secretly.
Qianhua’s father was the second son. After three years of marriage, Mrs. Liu finally gave birth to Qianhua.
It was said that when Old Liang had fallen ill years ago, Qianhua’s parents went to the capital to seek medicine. Mrs. Liu discovered she was already a few months pregnant, and only after a difficult journey home did she give birth to Qianhua.
Qianhua was born in the third lunar month, during a bitterly cold period. The couple’s busy journey caused the infant to develop a cold condition in her body.
Over the next decade, Liang the Second and Mrs. Liu had only this one daughter. Mrs. Liu never conceived again.
They had tried countless folk remedies and bitter medicines over the years, all in vain. Therefore, they treasured their only daughter.
Liang Shigui married Chen and joined the army several years later. Originally, Old Madam Liang had planned to send Liang the Second to the army so she could expel Mrs. Liu and Qianhua, but Shigui insisted his brother could hunt and earn more for the family, so he went instead.
When he left, his son Liang Wenjie was only six; now he was ten.
In recent years, the border had been relatively peaceful. Ordinary soldiers served five years before returning home; during wartime, they could be recalled.
By the end of next year, Liang Shigui would return home.
The three brothers had once been very close and united, but everything changed after the eldest married Zhu.
Zhu was selfish and petty, always scheming to grab good things for the east wing of the house.
Although Liang Shifu cared about his brothers, he was weak-willed and feared his wife, obedient to everything she said—a classic henpecked husband.
Liang Shigui’s wife, Chen, was only fifteen when she married, now in her early twenties. She was gentle and kind, never competing or causing trouble, neither offending Zhu nor bullying Mrs. Liu.
With her husband away, Chen lived quietly with her son in the extended family.
After analyzing all this, Qianhua quickly concluded: life in a large household would not be easy.
As the saying goes, even teeth and tongue clash—long-term cohabitation inevitably leads to conflict.
With Old Madam Liang’s extreme favoritism and dislike for Qianhua and Mrs. Liu, living together meant they would constantly endure the old woman’s temper.
In this era, filial piety was paramount. Elders ruled the household, and younger members could not disobey.
If she wanted to do anything for herself, she would be tightly controlled by Old Madam Liang. Just the thought was suffocating.
Her personality would never be as submissive as the original girl’s. Defying the elders would brand her unfilial, and village gossip alone could drown her. Her father would be caught in the middle.
With people like Zhu and Cuihua around, life would be even more difficult.
If she wanted to live freely and happily here, separating the household was essential. Only then could her mother escape her mother-in-law’s tyranny.
However, her father’s leg injury prevented him from earning money, and her knowledge of this era was limited to the original girl’s memories. The furthest she had ever gone was the village market town, following her father when he sold game.
If they split the household now, life would be extremely difficult.
She needed to first understand the village and the era, then figure out a way to earn money. Once she could support herself, she would find a way to live independently.
Since fate had brought her here and placed her in the original girl’s body, she would live on and make the most of it.
The first person she needed to deal with was Cuihua.
Cuihua had pushed the original girl into the river, causing her needless death. Now that she occupied this body, she would avenge herself—no matter what.
With that thought, Qianhua’s mind began to formulate a plan.