He Wanqing had no idea that her unconscious actions had hurt the sensitive-hearted A-Ming.
At that moment, she was sizing up the other three boys that belonged to the original owner of the body.
The tallest and strongest was the eldest, Ye Jianshan, seventeen years old this year. He looked honest and straightforward—probably easy to handle.
The second and third sons were twins, fourteen years old. From the memories she inherited, one had gone to school while the other stayed home to work.
The one on the left carried a scholarly air between his brows. That must be Ye Jianwen, the one who had studied for two years. He probably had a sharp mind.
As for Ye Jianwu on the right, his great strength certainly lived up to his name. At only fourteen, his build was already catching up to his older brother’s. Usually, people with well-developed limbs had simpler minds, so he should be manageable too.
Being examined so carefully by He Wanqing, the three brothers reacted differently.
Ye Jianshan looked back at her seriously, concern written on his face.
Ye Jianwen frowned slightly. Why was Mother looking at him as though he were a stranger?
Ye Jianwu gave He Wanqing a goofy grin, looking somewhat silly.
Taking in their reactions, He Wanqing began trying hard to settle into her role.
“Ahem, Jianshan—”
The moment she spoke, she startled herself. Her voice sounded like sandpaper scraping across the ground—harsh and unpleasant.
The boys were startled too.
“Mother, don’t talk yet. I’ll get you some water.”
Ye Jianshan immediately realized his mother’s throat was dry. He grabbed the empty water pouch hanging from the handcart and hurried off.
Watching him go borrow some boiled water from another family, He Wanqing secretly nodded. The eldest really was thoughtful.
Gulp—gulp—
After drinking an entire pouch of water, He Wanqing finally felt refreshed all over.
“All right, stop crowding around me. Go prepare dinner. My head’s still a little dizzy, so I’m going to sleep a bit longer.”
She shifted into a comfortable position on the handcart and lay down.
Ye Jianshan took a large coarse hemp coat from nearby and covered her with it. Then he lowered his voice and said to his brothers, “Second Brother, go gather firewood. Third Brother, fetch water. Little Brother, dig up some wild vegetables. Don’t wander too far.”
The younger brothers had no objections. Before their mother got sick, this had always been the arrangement.
With her eyes closed, He Wanqing listened to the eldest son organizing everyone. Memories of the original owner’s past also began surfacing in her mind.
The original owner was named He Wan. She was beautiful and had been spoiled since childhood, which gave her a rather bad temper.
At sixteen, she married the Ye family’s second son and bore him three pregnancies, producing four sons in total.
When she was eighteen, Ye Lao’er went to serve as a soldier at the border.
Because he had made a name for himself there, no one in the village dared provoke her. Her temper only grew worse over time—if anything displeased her, she could stand outside someone’s house cursing them for three straight days.
Ye Lao’er served in the army for fourteen years and rose to the rank of centurion. During that time, he only came home a few times, but he regularly sent his pay back to He Wan. As a result, she had money and free time, often visiting the county town to shop and spending lavishly without restraint. Her mother-in-law was deeply dissatisfied, but He Wan never cared.
She also paid little attention to her four sons, living entirely for herself.
Ye Lao’er only served as a centurion for four years before returning home because of a leg injury.
As soon as he came back, He Wan persuaded him to split from the main family so she could run her own household.
Life had been peaceful enough—until one day, four or five bandits entered the village. Having been a soldier, Ye Lao’er immediately stepped forward to shield the villagers.
After a fierce fight, he managed to knock the bandits down, but he himself suffered severe saber wounds. Despite spending a great deal of silver on treatment, they could not save him.
When Ye Lao’er died, He Wan’s world collapsed.
She began resenting the villagers, and her temper became even sharper and more irritable.
Because the villagers were grateful for Ye Lao’er’s sacrifice and understood He Wan’s grief, they tolerated her behavior.
Without the head of the household and burdened with four sons, He Wan finally realized how difficult the future would be. She stopped her second son, Ye Jianwen, from attending school and began obsessively saving money.
Ye Jianwen still wanted to study. Believing the family truly lacked money, he hinted to his mother that the whole village should help fund his education.
He Wan felt that was only right, so she caused a huge commotion in the village.
In the end, under the village chief’s mediation, the villagers agreed to contribute three taels of silver each year to support Ye Jianwen’s studies until he turned sixteen.
Although Ye Lao’er’s death changed He Wan in many ways, one thing remained the same—she still disliked working.
Of course, that was also because she had many sons who could work for her.
Under He Wan’s arrangements, the four boys had clearly divided responsibilities. Ye Jianshan and Ye Jianwu handled the farm work, Ye Jianwen copied books to earn money, and Ye Jianming took care of household chores and learned cooking.
Half-grown boys could eat a family into poverty. Since all four were at the age where they ate enormous amounts, He Wan exchanged much of the household grain for coarse grains to save food.
At every meal, she had A-Ming prepare two kinds of food: white rice for herself and coarse grain porridge for everyone else.
The villagers were once again shocked by He Wan’s behavior.
How could there be a mother who ate well herself while making her children eat poorly?
But those days lasted only half a year, because their region was struck by a rare earthquake.
Fortunately, since the county lay in the southwestern borderlands, where forests were abundant and most houses were wooden structures, casualties were low. However, the resulting mudslides destroyed more than half of the county’s fertile farmland.
With the land they depended on for survival ruined, the blow to the common people was devastating. Combined with the increasingly unstable border situation in recent years, many villages began considering migration—put bluntly, fleeing famine. Shuangmu Village, where He Wan lived, was one of them.
After gathering information, the villagers decided to head toward Changning Prefecture in Xuannan Province.
But migration required travel permits from the county office. So the village chief of Shuangmu Village gathered several leaders planning to guide their villagers in fleeing and went together to the county yamen.
The newly appointed county magistrate, already troubled by disaster relief grain and this year’s taxes, demanded payment for the permits after hearing their request.
Regardless of age, each permit cost two taels of silver.
To people fleeing famine, it was like a bolt from the blue.
Still, it only strengthened Shuangmu Village’s determination to leave. With such a magistrate in charge, their future would only worsen. Gritting their teeth, they paid the silver for the permits.
Everyone except He Wan.
The moment she heard they had to pay—two taels per person, no less—she absolutely refused. She insisted the family didn’t have that much money and claimed that paying it would leave them drinking nothing but the northwest wind.
In reality, they still had quite a bit saved, most of it being Ye Lao’er’s military compensation.
But after becoming addicted to hoarding money, He Wan hadn’t spent more than one tael at a time in a very long while—let alone ten taels.
In the end, the Ye family’s eldest uncle scraped together three taels for them, while the village covered the remaining seven. In exchange, they declared that the previous agreement to fund Ye Jianwen’s education would be canceled.
He Wan agreed immediately.
And so, in the fifth month of the tenth year of Yongjia, the entire Shuangmu Village began their journey of fleeing famine.
The hardships on the road far exceeded He Wan’s imagination.
Every day they marched endlessly under the blazing sun, and the food was almost impossible to swallow.
Under such harsh conditions, coupled with getting drenched in the rain the previous day, He Wan developed a fever.
Old Woman Chen tried every possible method but failed to bring the fever down.
In the end, He Wan burned to death from the illness.
And that was when she transmigrated into the body.
After sorting through the memories for nearly an hour, He Wanqing finally managed to organize everything in her mind.
Looking back on the woman’s life, He Wanqing felt conflicted. She didn’t know whether to sigh over how fortunate He Wan had been—or how unfortunate.
But all of that belonged to the past now.
She had entered this body, and from now on, she, He Wanqing, would live in this world in He Wan’s place.
Of course, there were many ways to live.
He Wanqing certainly didn’t want to exhaust herself. Living freely and following her heart sounded much better.
After all, the image she had always built for herself was that of a laid-back Buddhist type.
Being an elegant, detached, middle-aged woman with a calm Buddhist mindset sounded pretty nice.