Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
The moment the cauldron fused with her body, it felt like a small snake had bitten her palm.
By the time Ye Lingyue regained her senses, the cauldron had already disappeared from her sight.
Ye Lingyue glanced at her palm, only to find a small sketch of a cauldron etched on her skin.
It looked just like the cauldron she saw earlier on, only that it was the size of a nail.
After the cauldron entered Ye Lingyue’s body, the mark seemed as if someone had permanently etched it on her palm, just like a birthmark. No matter how hard she tried to wipe it away, it wouldn’t fade.
Her mind was buzzing with questions, but she knew she wouldn’t get an answer in a short period. Instead, she decided to return to her house first.
Using her body’s instincts after she had left the ancestral hall, she walked towards the courtyard behind it.
The Ye family’s northern estate was split into two portions, and this included the ancestral hall and the backyard.
Ye Lingyue, her mother and an old maid had been living in the backyard for years, staying alive with the minuscule allowance they had.
As she walked, several short houses appeared in front of her. The houses looked like they used to be wood sheds before.
Several chickens were roaming around and a large patch of vegetables was growing in front of the house. Apart from those, there was nothing else. It was where Ye Lingyue stayed.
“Little Miss, you’re back.” An old woman, with a completely wrinkled face, walked out. She kept coughing as she hurriedly welcomed Ye Lingyue.
This old woman was her mother’s loyal maid, Aunt Liu.
All these years, it was Aunt Liu who took care of her and her mom.
“Aunt Liu, your body hasn’t recovered yet. Why are you up?” Ye Lingyue suddenly remembered that Aunt Liu usually was the one in-charge of cleaning the ancestral hall.
Aunt Liu fell ill for the past few days. Wanting her to rest, the ‘foolish Ye Lingyue’ insisted on taking over to clean the ancestral hall for the meantime. It was because of that reason that she bumped into Wang Gui and his followers, which ultimately ended up with her death.
It was a very simple sentence, but Aunt Liu felt extremely shocked hearing it. Her eyes swelled with disbelief.
“Little Miss, is your head straight now?” Aunt Liu agitatedly grabbed Ye Lingyue’s hand and checked the younger girl out.
Ye Lingyue’s eyes were completely clear, the same as every other normal person.
Overwhelmed with her emotions, Aunt Liu cried as she hugged Ye Lingyue.
“Aunt Liu, stop crying. The wind is strong out here, let’s go back in first.” Ye Lingyue exclaimed in her mind that being a fool had its benefits. At least in that way, no one would suspect her even if she acted like she lost her memories.
Back in the room, seeing that Ye Lingyue looked like a mess, Aunt Liu hurriedly brought some lukewarm water for Ye Lingyue so she could wash up. After that, Aunt Liu hurriedly went to prepare some food.
Using the chance that Aunt Liu wasn’t around, Ye Lingyue looked around the room.
The place they lived at was a cramped one, with only a few ugly, simple-looking furniture inside; namely a dining table, several long benches, and a mirror beside the table.
She went forward and saw ‘Ye Lingyue’s’ reflection in the mirror.
She had child-like facial features, but she still looked exquisite and natural at the same time. Although her skin was yellowish, and she looked a little thin and frail, her eyes sparkled like the moon, and the eyelashes that surrounded it were long and curled.
Putting the mirror down, Ye Lingyue saw two books supporting one of the table’s legs. She picked them up and saw ‘Great Xia’s Ambitions’ and ‘Introduction to Martial Arts’ on them.
It had been a long time since anyone had flipped through those books, for a thick layer of dust had covered its surface.
She picked them up and started to flip through them, slowly getting a rough understanding of the world she was in.
She had been reborn into a country called the Great Xia Nation. There were many county governments in the Great Xia Nation, and the Autumn Maple town of the Ye family was in the most northern end of Great Xia.
The geography within Great Xia was extremely complicated. Feral wild beasts lurked in some mountains and deep valleys that no one visited.
In the Great Xia, no matter if it were commoners or descendants of well-known families, eight or nine out of ten would practice martial arts. There were different levels in a martial arts practitioner’s cultivation, namely the nine levels of body tempering, postnatal, and connate.
The difference between a martial arts practitioner and a normal person was that the dantian of a practitioner would collate an internal energy called elementary force.
Elementary force?
Ye Lingyue froze slightly. She could feel weak energy pulsing in her dantian.
Could it be that the fool was a martial arts practitioner and had elementary force in her dantian too? What she was feeling was very similar to the book’s description of the first level of body tempering!
“Little Miss, why are you holding the books used to hold up the table?” At this, Aunt Liu’s curious voice interrupted Ye Lingyue’s thoughts.
“Aunt Liu, did I learn martial arts before?” Ye Lingyue put down the books.
She was sure that although that energy was weak in her dantian, it was the elementary force that the book had described.
“When you were little, you learned a few moves from Young Miss.” Aunt Liu put down the utensils to set the table.
If she could gain elementary force just from learning a few moves, could it be that this body’s former self wasn’t exactly a fool and was instead a martial arts genius?
Ye Lingyue was still confused as she glanced up at the table to see a bowl of brown rice and a plate of dry-looking vegetables.
“Do we usually eat those?” It was no wonder Ye Lingyue’s body was thin and frail.
“Little Miss, we don’t have money anymore. Butler Wang and his son confiscated the northern estate’s allowance.” Aunt Liu sighed.
Butler Wang was Wang Gui’s father and the butler in-charge of the northern estate in the Ye family.
She and her mother’s status’ probably was so low that even the family’s servants bullied them and even confiscated their allowance.
“Does Mother not care about the allowance?” Ye Lingyue’s mother was the third daughter of the Ye family’s master and therefore was the Ye family’s Third Young Lady. How could anyone treat her like that?
Bang!
Somebody had kicked the door open and a teenager proudly walked in with a hoard of servants following behind.
“So what if she cares? Indeed, a fool is a fool. Do you think your Mother is still the Ye family genius that everyone pays attention to? She’s only a good-for-nothing now. Who cares about a good-for-nothing?” The teenager dressed to the nines had his nostrils pointing up. He looked like a calf and acted extremely arrogant.
This teenager, who had arrogantly trespassed their residence, was Ye Lingyue’s cousin, Ye Qing.
After Wang Gui and his followers ‘killed’ Ye Lingyue, they grew scared and quickly sought help from their master to clean the situation.
After Ye Qing had searched all over the ancestral hall and didn’t see Ye Lingyue’s body, he was quick to assume that she was still alive.
When he arrived at the backyard, Ye Qing caught on to Ye Lingyue and Aunt Liu’s conversation. But he didn’t expect that the fool would become clever instead of dying.
“Sixth Little Master, how can you speak of Third Young Lady like that? She’s still your aunt.” Seeing Ye Qing and his gang behind him, Aunt Liu knew that they didn’t come on good terms. She hurriedly pulled her Little Miss behind her.
“What aunt? How dare she deserve that title? She’s only a divorced good-for-nothing. Because of that, she humiliated the entire Ye family,” Ye Qing spat.
“What did you say? Say it again!” Ye Lingyue’s gaze was as cold as iron. Because anger had built up inside of her, the newly grown elementary force within her pulsed harder, too.
“I can even say it a hundred times more. Fool, let me tell you. Because of another woman, your father chased your mother out and even beat her! That alone humiliated the Ye family! Both of you are b*tches that nobody wants. You even shamelessly leach off from the Ye family.” Ye Qing and his servants laughed out loud.
Ye Qing and his people would say this every time they bullied ‘Ye Lingyue.’
Back then, every time ‘Ye Lingyue’ heard the same statement, she would only cry and beg for forgiveness. But now, everything was different.
The thirteen-year-long hidden hatred inside of Ye Lingyue’s heart exploded like a volcano!
Ye Lingyue pushed Aunt Liu away and instantly kicked Ye Qing with all her strength.