A little donkey trudged forward with a braying hee-haw, hee-haw, pulling a battered wooden cart that creaked and groaned along the road.
Sitting on the cart was Lu Yan, dried blood still staining the corner of her mouth. She stared blankly at the middle-aged man driving the donkey.
Oh no…
I’ve stolen the heroine’s opportunity!
In her previous life, Lu Yan had been a food blogger. Her family owned an entire hillside, and she regularly filmed videos of her rural lifestyle. Her channel had been quite popular.
One day after a rainstorm, she went up the mountain to gather mushrooms. She slipped, fell down a slope, triggered a heart attack on the spot, and died suddenly.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself inside a novel.
It was a Mary Sue novel disguised as a female-protagonist empowerment story, one she had been reading before her death.
The heroine, Jian Hongling, was the legitimate daughter born to the current Left Chancellor and his first wife. Her birth mother died early, and her stepmother always viewed her as a thorn in her side.
When Jian Hongling was young, her stepmother arranged for her to be kidnapped while she was out playing and sold into the impoverished Dayao Mountains. There, a kind man named Old Lu bought her and raised her as his own daughter.
Not long afterward, while washing clothes by the river, Jian Hongling discovered the injured and fugitive Crown Prince. After recovering, he returned to the capital with her.
The entire novel revolved around the romantic entanglements that followed.
Unfortunately, Lu Yan had not transmigrated into the heroine.
She had become a nameless extra who was sold alongside the heroine.
An extra so insignificant that she didn’t even have a name in the original story.
When Lu Yan first woke up, she found herself locked in a rundown room with several young girls.
Among them was the heroine.
And the heroine truly lived up to her role.
Jian Hongling possessed the most beautiful face in the entire novel.
She was so beautiful that she hardly seemed real.
Lu Yan herself had been considered a pretty girl with delicate features, but standing beside Jian Hongling, she appeared skinny, small, and completely unremarkable.
The girls were lined up by the slave trader.
But the person inspecting them was not Old Lu.
Instead, it was a heavily made-up middle-aged woman dressed in bright red and green.
After hearing the slave trader address her respectfully, Lu Yan learned that she was the madam of Mingyue House, the most famous brothel in the provincial city.
Immediately, Lu Yan’s alarm bells went off.
Without hesitation, she bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood.
Then she began coughing.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
The heroine jumped in fright.
“Sister Yan’er, what’s wrong?”
Lu Yan dared not speak.
She simply patted the girl’s head and desperately winked, trying to warn her.
She nearly gave herself an eye twitch.
The heroine understood absolutely nothing.
When the madam noticed Lu Yan coughing up blood, she frowned.
“I don’t want that one.”
She pointed at Lu Yan impatiently before turning to the slave trader.
“I’ll take the others.”
The madam had fallen for Jian Hongling at first sight.
The other girls barely registered in comparison.
Unfortunately for her, the slave trader wanted ten taels of silver for Jian Hongling alone.
For another five taels, he would throw in the remaining four girls.
The madam was considering the offer when Lu Yan conveniently started coughing blood.
In this era, tuberculosis was essentially incurable.
The madam immediately worried that Lu Yan might be infected and spread the disease to the other girls.
She wouldn’t take her even if she were free.
After lengthy bargaining, the madam paid twelve taels of silver and took away four girls.
Only Lu Yan remained behind.
The slave trader was furious.
Just as he was about to hit her, Lu Yan began coughing even more violently.
She looked like a fragile white flower trembling in the wind, as though her petals might fall off at any moment.
Seeing that she seemed ready to cough out her lungs, the slave trader’s expression changed.
Afraid of catching the disease himself, he immediately stepped back.
By the time the heroine had been gone for nearly fifteen minutes, Old Lu finally arrived in his donkey cart.
The moment their eyes met, Lu Yan nearly burst into tears.
“Uncle—no, Father! Father!”
She practically threw herself forward.
“Please buy me! I can earn money and repay you! I’m really good at cooking! I absolutely won’t be a burden!”
Old Lu looked at the skinny, pitiful girl.
His heart softened.
Turning to the slave trader, he asked,
“How much?”
The trader originally intended to quote a high price.
Unfortunately, Lu Yan launched into another dramatic coughing fit.
She looked ready to collapse on the spot.
Grinding his teeth, the slave trader finally snapped,
“One tael. Take her.”
Without argument, Old Lu carefully counted out one tael of silver and purchased her.
The instant the transaction was complete, Lu Yan stopped coughing.
The slave trader stared at her.
“…”
Damn it.
Why did it feel like he’d just been tricked by a little girl?
Old Lu had originally come to town to buy medicine for his wife, who had broken her leg.
In the novel, purchasing the heroine had cost him eight taels of silver, nearly draining the family’s savings. As a result, he could only afford a few doses of medicine afterward.
This time, however, Lu Yan had cost only one tael.
So Old Lu happily bought enough medicine to last half a month.
Then he drove the donkey cart home.
Though naturally quiet, he still tried to make conversation.
“Girl, do you have a name?”
“I do. My name is Lu Yan.”
Old Lu’s eyes lit up.
“Our family is also surnamed Lu. We live in Lu Village.”
Lu Yan immediately seized the opportunity.
“Then it’s fate!”
“We were destined to become family.”
“From now on, you’re my father.”
Old Lu burst out laughing.
Then he asked,
“You were coughing pretty badly. Should we find a doctor to take a look?”
“That was all an act for the slave trader.”
Lu Yan grinned.
“I’m perfectly healthy.”
“If I hadn’t pretended to be sick, I would’ve been sold to the brothel. I didn’t have a choice.”
Old Lu looked at her in surprise.
Then delight.
He had never expected a twelve- or thirteen-year-old girl to be so clever.
Not only had she saved herself, she had saved him a considerable amount of money.
Perhaps buying this girl really had been the right decision.
Maybe this impulsive act of kindness would truly change his family’s fortunes.
Lu Yan understood her situation perfectly well.
Being bought by Old Lu was already the best possible outcome.
It was infinitely better than being sold to a brothel or purchased as a servant.
The sooner she accepted reality and integrated into her new life, the sooner she could build the future she wanted.
Lu Village was not far from town.
Before long, they arrived.
Lu Yan had also grown up in a rural area in her previous life and knew exactly what northern village life looked like.
While Old Lu drove the donkey cart around to the back yard, she stood in the front courtyard and looked around.
The place was neat and tidy.
A well stood in the center.
Several patches of vegetables grew nearby.
Chickens and ducks wandered around noisily.
Three north-facing rooms sat opposite the courtyard, with a kitchen off to the side.
Smoke drifted lazily from the kitchen chimney.
Just then, a boy around ten or eleven years old emerged from the kitchen.
His features were handsome and refined.
He looked somewhat young for his age.
When he saw Lu Yan, he froze.
At that moment, Old Lu returned from the back yard.
“This is my son, Lu Sheng.”
He pointed toward the boy.
Then he gestured toward Lu Yan.
“This is Lu Yan. From now on, we’re all family.”
This time it was Lu Yan’s turn to freeze.
She knew the Lu family had a sickly son.
In the novel, he was weak and frequently ill.
Part of the reason Old Lu had spent so much money buying the heroine was to find a child bride and bring some good fortune to his son.
But she hadn’t expected Lu Sheng to look this young.
“How old are you?” she asked.
“Thirteen.”
In this era, people counted age differently.
That meant he was actually twelve years old.
And because of his poor health, he looked even younger.
Though, to be fair, Lu Yan wasn’t much older herself.
She knew perfectly well why Old Lu had bought her.
A normal bride price cost over ten taels of silver.
She had cost only one.
The intention couldn’t have been more obvious.
But looking at what was basically an elementary school student, she simply couldn’t think of him that way.
Sinful. Absolutely sinful.
“I’m thirteen too.”
She immediately began making things up.
“But I was born earlier in the year.”
“That means I’m older.”
“From now on, I’m your big sister.”
Lu Sheng: ???
He stared at her as though she’d lost her mind.
Aware of how filthy and ragged she currently looked, Lu Yan quickly changed the subject.
“Father, I’d like to take a bath and change clothes.”
Old Lu nodded.
“That’s a good idea.”
“I’ll heat some water.”
“Though we don’t have any girls’ clothes. You’ll have to wear your mother’s for now.”
“That’s fine.”
Just as Old Lu turned toward the kitchen, Lu Sheng suddenly looked as though he wanted to say something.
Lu Yan noticed immediately.
“What’s wrong?”
Lu Sheng’s face turned red.
“The steamed buns…”
He hesitated.
“…Something seems to have gone wrong with them.”