“Daughter, wake up quickly — don’t scare your mother like that!”
“If anything happens to you, I won’t want to live either.”
Suddenly a grief-stricken wail reached her ears.
Chen Qingqing slowly opened her eyes and found herself being held by a woman who was crying and gently pressing her hand to Qingqing’s forehead.
“Daughter, it’s all my fault, I’m useless. If you leave me, how will I live…”
“Born a loser, and you even know how to cry — shut that stinking mouth of yours.” A sharp, grating voice snapped.
“Mother, Qing girl — she’s bleeding so much from the head and fainted. I beg you, please call a healer first!”
“Call a healer? I don’t have that kind of spare money. Let her die for all I care. Look at the useless thing you had — when I try to find a husband for her you’re picky. Listen to me: I already took the betrothal money. Even if she dies, she’ll die into the Li family.”
“Mother, Li the butcher is infamous — he’s a monster. If you marry Qing girl to him, aren’t you pushing her into a furnace?”
“Nonsense. Though Li the butcher’s temperament is rough and he’s coarse in appearance, his household eats meat every day and has money to spend. If Qing girl can marry into his house, it’s the blessing of eight generations. How is that a furnace? Besides, your third brother is about to sit for the county exam. How can he succeed without money? No matter what, that dead girl must be married off to him.”
Chen Qingqing’s breath hitched; it felt like she had been in a nightmare.
She looked around and found herself lying in a shabby courtyard with a dilapidated thatch hut in the middle.
Not far away stood an old woman with a face like a slab of meat, hands on her hips, spitting curses at full volume.
Next to her a woman wept softly; her thin face streaked with tears, dressed in coarse patched cloth.
Chen Qingqing frowned.
She really had been reborn.
But this didn’t look like the household of nobles or generals — did those two ghostly brothers make a mistake?
Can even a possession or reincarnation be faked?
Forget it — she wouldn’t believe the liar’s stories.
Abruptly many memories that did not belong to her surfaced in her mind.
This was an alternate ancient dynasty called the Great Ning court, and the place she lived was called Nanshan Village.
The original person had also been named Chen Qingqing, just turned sixteen. The woman crying was the original’s mother, Madam Lin; the one shouting in the street was the original’s grandmother, Old Madam Chen.
The original grandfather was Chen the old man — full name Chen Zhonghou.
The crying old woman’s original name was Li Fang.
The couple had three sons and a daughter.
The eldest, Chen Zhanshan — the original’s father — had married Madam Lin (the woman who was crying), and they had two sons and a daughter.
The eldest son, Chen Feng, was already eighteen and apprenticing in a restaurant kitchen in Qingshui Town without pay, only room and board.
Because the family was poor he had not married.
The daughter, Chen Qingqing, was sixteen, honest and taciturn. To pay for her third uncle’s schooling she was about to be sold to Li the butcher.
The second son, Chen Han, was eight.
The second brother(Son of Old Chen and Old Madam Chen), Chen Zhanliang, whose wife was Mrs. Sun, had two sons: the eldest Chen Dabao and the second Chen Erbao.
The third brother, Chen Zhancai — still a boy — had married Miss Liu and was currently sitting for the xiucai exam, the family’s hope; he had a son and daughter: Chen Ruolan and Chen Jiye.
Another daughter had long been married and rarely visited.
There weren’t many people in the household; Chen Qingqing more or less understood and remembered the family lineup.
Old Madam Chen had sold the original owner to Li the butcher in Qingshui Town as a concubine for fifty taels of silver.
Li the butcher was in his forties, violent and brutal.
His first three wives had been beaten to death by him — a notorious wife-abuser and psychopath.
The original had been terrified at the thought of being tortured to death and refused to marry.
Old Madam Chen frenziedly raised a stick and struck her on the forehead; the original instantly died.
As Qingqing was recalling this, Madam Lin sobbed and begged Old Madam Chen, “Mother, don’t marry Qing girl to Li the butcher. If you must force her to marry, at least find a family of equal standing!”
Old Madam Chen spat, “You talk so nicely — where are all these matched families? Even if there were, who can come up with fifty taels of silver? In a month the third boy will sit for the prefectural exam. Without this money how can he take the exam? The whole family is counting on Zhancai to bring honor to our clan. Even if heaven itself were falling, Qing girl must be given away today.”
Chen Qingqing knew that Zhancai was her third uncle; he had passed the child student exam at twelve. Old Madam Chen and her husband told everyone the third son had been clever since childhood and would surely become an official, and so the whole family had devoted themselves to supporting his studies.
But since Zhancai passed the child exam, many years had gone by — he had sat the exams year after year and never even made xiucai.
The Chens were not discouraged.
To fund Zhancai’s schooling they spent every last cent on him.
Whenever the eldest Chen Zhanshan and second brother Chen Zhanliang got upset, Old Madam Chen and her husband would calm them, saying that once the third son passed the xiucai exam and became a big official, he would bring honor to the family.
The two brothers dared not speak up and had to continue supporting the third brother.
This year a severe drought had left the family without surplus grain.
To ensure everyone could eat and still support Zhancai’s studies, they decided to sell their eldest granddaughter Chen Qingqing to the cruel Li the butcher as a concubine.
Rage flared up inside Chen Qingqing — this was monstrous.
To push such a heartless plan onto one’s own granddaughter — what a bizarre grandmother.
She, a young woman from the twenty-first century who had never even had a proper relationship, could not let someone else arrange her marriage.
Suddenly she sat up.
Madam Lin saw her daughter awake and broke into relieved laughter, gently stroking her forehead with a face full of pain, “Daughter, does your head still hurt? You scared your mother to death.”
Chen Qingqing felt warmth in her chest.
In her previous life her parents had divorced and each remarried; she had been bounced around like a ball and had never known a mother’s love.
Now, seeing concern in Madam Lin’s eyes, a wave of warmth rose within her.
“Mother, I’m fine, don’t worry.”
Madam Lin gently brushed the stray hair from her forehead. “That’s good. Let me see your wound.”
Old Madam Chen sneered and curled her lip. “All right, quit this mother-daughter scene. Speak plainly — will you marry or not?”
Madam Lin helped Chen Qingqing to her feet and, shielding her, begged, “Mother, I beg you on my knees. Just don’t marry Qing girl to that Li the butcher. Let me do anything for you — I’ll work like an ox or a horse to serve you.”
Old Madam Chen snorted, “Enough with the nonsense. When your third son succeeds, we’ll have maidservants and household staff — you’ll finally enjoy life!”
“Mother, Qing girl is my only daughter. I cannot stand by and watch you sell her. If you insist on selling her, then kill me first!”
“Don’t be melodramatic. If you say another word of refusal, I’ll have your husband divorce you. Go back to your natal house.”
Hearing this, Madam Lin felt as if a knife were twisting in her heart.
She was the sort who never fought back or raised her voice, who always endured and never dared contradict her mother-in-law.
If not for her daughter she wouldn’t have dared oppose Old Madam Chen — but she had not expected such callousness.
Her face went pale. “Mother, do you want my daughter’s life?”