Chapter 1: Tyrannical Cruelty, Beaten to Death
After graduating from college, Liu Yangyang found herself a horticulture job at a park. She was now three years into her post, having won the favor of the leadership by keeping her head down and diligently doing her part.
Now that she was already 26 years old, she was quickly joining the ranks of leftover women destined for spinsterhood. Her family had grown anxious, and often arranged blind dates for her to attend. As a matter of fact, Yangyang was scheduled to meet one after work today—she was incredibly irritated at the mere thought of it.
She’d finished lunch and was taking advantage of her remaining break time to have a sip of water and read novels on her phone. She’d been reading this particular web novel for three days now. It was titled The Lord’s Escaped Concubine.
In the novel, the female lead often found herself in all sorts of inexplicable trouble, and the plot was quite trite and melodramatic as well. However, the writing was good and the plot fast paced, fully holding Liu Yangyang’s attention along the ride.
The plot was reaching its climax today. The male lead had finally recaptured his repeat runaway fiance, but she’d set an ultimatum that she had no intention of sharing her husband with a harem full of women. Therefore, the male lead had made a grand sweeping gesture and dismissed all of his wives and concubines.
However, these women had originally led a happy and carefree life. After this calamity that seemed to descend from nowhere, they were deeply shocked, some weeping bitterly after receiving the dismal tidings. In the end, they were allowed to stay after the old madame made an appearance. However, as a result, some of the women bitterly hated the female lead, and thus the road to revenge began.
All sorts of poisons flew through the air as all sorts of schemes and plots abounded. Although the female lead was an innocent, naïve girl, she managed to blaze a way through all the thorn filled obstacles by relying on her shield, a male lead with off-the-charts battle ability.
And today, one of the minor female characters, a small concubine who’d never even held hands with the male lead, had been exposed for her role in scheming against the female lead. The male lead had ordered her death by beating as an example to the rest.
The scene was exceedingly gory and utterly brutal. It was truly the highlight of the entire book.
Liu Yangyang was intently immersed in the prose and absentmindedly reached out for a cup of water to slake her thirst. However, her hand bumped into the cactus on the table instead, and the unforgiving cactus’ spikes immediately poked bloody holes in her hand.
She frowned as she watched beads of blood trickle down her finger.
For some inexplicable reason, the droplets of blood seemed to fall from her finger at a glacial pace. She could actually trace its entire trajectory before it landed on the table. This wasn’t how science worked! She wanted to blink, but couldn’t close her eyes at all.
A blood drop finally landed on the table, but the table had completely changed. It’d originally been a well worn office desk painted as a faux wood, but now, it had somehow turned into a rosewood table? It even looked like solid wood. This kind of a table was worth anywhere from a couple thousand to ten thousand yen!
Liu Yangyang blinked her eyes. When had she developed a habit of becoming lightheaded? The surroundings seemed to blur as her head spun. She even started hallucinating.
“Ah, Mistress Xiu, how did you prick your hand?” A voice suddenly sounded by Liu Yangyang’s ear. It so frightened her that she jerked up and fully came to her senses.
She opened her eyes wide in astonishment. How was this the break room that she’d spent three years in? This was a room decorated in an antique style—hold it, just who would decorate their house like this? How much money did all this cost?
But that was just the room, why was the young girl walking over also dressed in clothing from ancient times? What was going on here, was this the mythical transmigration that everyone talked about?
“Mistress Xiu, Mistress Xiu, what’s happened to you?” The girl in ancient clothing seemed to be very anxious. She lightly prodded Liu Yangyang twice before seeing the latter’s eyeballs move and stammer, “W-where, where am I?”
The young girl burst out in frightened sobs, kneeling on the floor as she responded, “Mistress Xiu, please... please don’t scare this servant! What’s happened to you?”
Mistress Xiu? Servant?
Was she in the olden times?
Liu Yangyang stood up hurriedly, she needed to confirm her theory. She hastily ran outside, coming across a small yard. This yard was brimming with an antique presence, a classical flair to its layout.
In the middle of the yard stood a pavilion, aptly furnished with stone tables and seats. No matter where she looked, she couldn’t find telephone cables, fluorescent paint, no electric lights, no modern things at all!
My gosh, she’d really transmigrated!
She was supposed to go on a blind date later this afternoon, this was simply too sudden! She’d landed in ancient times after being pricked by a cactus, could someone please tell her just what kind of bizarre transmigration method this was?
Deep breaths, stay calm, stay calm. Since I could come here, it means there’s a way to go back. I wasn’t in an accident or taken a fall down some stairs. My body over there is just peachy, I’m sure I can go back.
“Mistress Xiu, do you feel unwell? Do you want this servant to go find a doctor?” The girl in ancient dress ran over again, her expression still frantic.
“Mistress Xiu?” She seemed to have heard this name before. She said subconsciously, “Bai Xiangxiu?”
“What is the matter Mistress Xiu? Is there something the matter with your honored name?” The young girl asked, tears still fresh on her face.
“Xiao Shi?” Liu Yangyang was about to start sobbing. She stared at the young girl, hoping she’d deny the name. However, the other nodded, her face ashen with fright.
Liu Yangyang inwardly cursed at her bad luck. Of all people to transmigrate into, she’d transmigrated into the body of the minor character who’d been beaten to death, Mistress Xiu! This made her feel like weeping, but she had no tears in her.
Her entire being lost energy as she collapsed into a seated pile on the ground. Xiao Shi kept crying, irritating Yangyang. She nodded her head out of sheer resignation, “Eh, Xiao Shi, can you stop crying?”
“But this servant is afraid of how Mistress Xiu is acting.” Xiao Shi was only thirteen or fourteen years old. It was normal for her to be afraid.
“Alright alright, I’m fine... but help me up first.” Liu Yangyang lifted her hand. She too wanted to cry, but she couldn’t even find the ability to.
Xiao Shi hastily pulled her mistress up and led her to a seat on the bed. The bed was quite hard. Although there were a lot of blankets piled on top of it, it still wasn’t as good as a mattress.
“Have some water, Mistress.” Xiao Shi carried a cup of water to Liu Yangyang, taking out a handkerchief to dab away her own tears after her mistress had accepted the cup.
Liu Yangyang finally calmed herself after drinking some water. She felt that she needed to reorganize the plot of the novel so that she wouldn’t be beaten to death by staves. Any method of dying was fine, but this one was particularly tragic. She felt immensely depressed when she recalled what was written in the novel.
“Anything interesting in the estate today?” Time was ephemeral in the book, so she could only identify how much time had passed from the novel’s events.
“In response to Mistress Xiu, everyone has been busy organizing the new estate these days and readying it for the old madame’s birthday. Everyone has been quite busy, so nothing new has happened.”
Xiao Shi had been given quite a scare, but could finally breathe a sigh of relief now that her mistress was back to normal.
The old madame’s birthday had yet to arrive. That meant less than a month had passed since the male lead had been made a prince not of royal blood. He’d just returned from the battlefield.
Thank goodness, the female lead had yet to make her debut and Liu Yangyang was far from death. As long as she didn’t create trouble or kick up a fuss, she might be able to live out her days if she quietly kept her head down. There would always be ways to get herself back to her world as long as she was alive.
She waved her hand and spoke with the proper demeanor, “You are dismissed. I don’t need your services here.”
Liu Yangyang had been told to take care of herself since young. She truly didn’t like someone waiting on her hand and foot, handing her water and arranging her clothes. She wasn’t a child!