Gu Xiaomai had never imagined that she would actually transmigrate.
She had thought for sure that she was about to die.
She was a food blogger. SheShe wasn’t one of the biggest names in the industry, but she did well enough for herself and lived comfortably.
A few days earlier, her uncle had called her and said that the holiday was approaching, business was too busy, and he was short-staffed. He hoped she could come help watch over one of his seasoning warehouses in the suburbs for a few days. The work was not tiring; normally, all she had to do was keep the accounts in order for the trucks that came to collect goods.
Gu Xiaomai had agreed without a second thought.
In any case, she could film her videos anywhere. All she needed was a kitchen.
Besides, her uncle was the only family she had left. When she was little, her parents had died in a car accident, leaving her all alone.
It was her uncle and aunt who had taken her in and raised her as their own. They brought her into their home, raised her to adulthood, and supported her through university.
Although she had moved out on her own by then, her uncle needed her now, so of course she could not refuse.
Her uncle ran a chain of supermarkets, so he had countless warehouses for all kinds of goods. Most of them, however, were located in remote suburbs, where land was plentiful and rent was cheap.
She had never expected to be so unlucky. Only a few days after she started working, the area was hit by days of unprecedented torrential rain.
Afraid that rainwater would get into the warehouse and ruin the seasonings, Gu Xiaomai was miserably hauling sandbags over to block the entrance. Before she could finish, a landslide came roaring down the mountain and came crashing down!
When Gu Xiaomai opened her eyes again, she heard people talking outside.
“She’ll have it good once she marries Butcher Zhang. He may be a little older and already has a son, but once she marries him, she’ll be able to eat meat at every meal! We found her a good family.”
“That’s right. These days, being able to afford meat at every meal is an enormous blessing. I think she still hasn’t given up. She’s still dreaming of becoming the wife of a juren, isn’t she?”
“Zhou Yushan is a heartless ingrate, too. Our third brother treated him so well while he was alive, and the moment Zhou Yushan passed the juren examination, he wanted to sever all ties with Little Mai. He’s clearly afraid we’ll cling to him.”
“He’s gotten involved with the county’s wealthy merchant’s daughter. His whole family moved away yesterday. Why would he take any notice of a country girl like Xiaomai?”
“Our third brother spent plenty of the family’s money on his studies, but in the end, he could only stay in the village and work as a teacher. We never enjoyed any benefits from him, and now we’re expected to raise his daughter, too? Mother, this isn’t fair.”
…
Old Madam Gu listened to her sons and daughters-in-law talking over one another, and irritation churned in her heart.
When her third son had died, none of them had been willing to raise the girl. They had all said that she only ate and never worked.
Her father had spoiled her rotten. She had never done farm work since she was little. As a farm girl, all she knew was how to read and write. What use was that?
Women could not take the imperial examinations and become the top scholar!
She was so frail that a gust of wind could knock her over, and she did not lift a finger to help with the household chores.
It was as if they had raised a young lady in their home. It was only natural for the eldest and second branches to harbor resentment.
The old couple had raised her until she was fifteen. They had done everything they could for her, and they had repaid what they owed their third son.
Since she could not become the wife of a juren, they had to at least get back some of the betrothal money. She was already such a grown girl; they could not have raised her for all these years for nothing!
Butcher Zhang from town was willing to pay ten taels of silver to marry her as his second wife. For a village girl, that was an enormous blessing. Some women wanted to marry Butcher Zhang, and he would not even have them!
The man was only interested in her because she was young and pretty.
Who could have known that this girl would be so ungrateful as to try to kill herself by jumping into the river?
Was she trying to embarrass the whole family?
The more Old Madam Gu thought about it, the angrier she became. Finally, she snapped:
“That settles it. I am determined to get those ten taels of betrothal money.
Keep a close eye on her. Don’t let her cause any more trouble.”
Inside the house, Gu Xiaomai had only just regained consciousness when she heard this. She could not help sighing inwardly. Just what kind of mess had she transmigrated into?
She instinctively touched her forehead, and a memories of the other girl’s life flooded her mind—a girl who shared her exact name.
It turned out that this Gu Xiaomai really had suffered a miserable fate.
Her mother had died in childbirth, while her father had been a poor xiucai who made a living teaching people in the village to read. They were far from wealthy, but he had at least earned enough to keep food on the table.
Because she had a xiucai for a father, Gu Xiaomai had grown up very differently from the other village girls since childhood. Unlike them, she had not spent her days either working in the fields or managing household chores.
Her father had taught her to read and write, compose poetry, and paint.
He had even chosen a promising young man from among his disciples to be her fiancé.
The original Gu Xiaomai had believed her peaceful life would continue.
But unexpectedly, when she was thirteen, her father suddenly contracted a serious illness and died without treatment, leaving her alone and helpless. She had no choice but to go live with her paternal grandparents.
Her grandparents did not like her. They thought she was self-important, affected, and impractical.
But whenever they thought that she might truly become the wife of a juren one day, and that the entire Gu family would then benefit from her marriage, they continued raising her all the same.
Finally, when she was fifteen, nineteen-year-old Zhou Yushan passed the juren examination.
Gu Xiaomai had thought that her days of suffering were finally over. She had never expected Zhou Yushan to suddenly break off their engagement, turning her into a laughingstock for the entire village.
The Zhou family had packed their belongings and moved to the county overnight, apparently afraid that she would cling to them.
Gu Xiaomai was unwilling to accept it. The Zhou family had once lived in poverty, so her father had waived their tuition. Because Zhou Yushan was his future son-in-law, her father had often given him individual guidance in his studies.
Without her father, Zhou Yushan could never have passed the juren examination!
But what could she do? She could not even find a trace of the Zhou family anymore.
What chilled her heart even more was that her grandparents had sold her for ten taels of betrothal money.
They had sold her to a butcher old enough to be her father, to become his second wife!
They were humiliating both her and her father.
Already miserable because her engagement had been broken, Gu Xiaomai had lost hope for a moment and thrown herself straight into the river.
That was how the modern Gu Xiaomai had transmigrated here.
After sorting out the cause and effect, Gu Xiaomai could only shake her head.
What a tragedy. What an absolute tragedy!
Although she, too, had been left without parents, she had at least had an uncle and aunt who sincerely loved her. Not one of the original Gu Xiaomai’s relatives truly cared about her.
No wonder she had become so desperate. Her grandparents arranging for her to marry Butcher Zhang had been the final straw that broke her.
No, she absolutely could not resign herself to this fate. She refused to marry a butcher who was both old and ferocious.
Thus, disregarding her weakness, Gu Xiaomai forced herself out of bed. She had to fight for herself. She had only just reached the doorway when a commotion came from outside the main gate.
A handsome youth of fifteen or sixteen stood at the entrance and asked,
“Excuse me, is Gu Xiaomai here?”
Old Madam Gu was the first to react. She looked at him suspiciously and demanded,
“Who are you? What do you want with our Xiaomai?”
“Teacher Gu was once my mentor. I heard about what happened and came to pay my respects to my teacher’s daughter. I’m Xie Yan from neighboring Lihua Village.”
Xie Yan stood there neither servile nor overbearing. His clothes had been washed until they were faded, and patches covered them as well, but he met Old Madam Gu’s gaze with a steady look as he waited for her answer.
When Old Madam Gu heard that he had once been her third son’s student, then looked him over and saw how poor he was, she intended to refuse him outright.
Unexpectedly, a clear voice suddenly rang out from inside the house:
“I’m Gu Xiaomai. I’m here.”