The Great Wei Dynasty, the twenty-first year of the Anhe era, Shu State.
It was a bright and cloudless spring day.
The crisp sound of someone counting drifted faintly from a residence in the rear courtyard of Duke Dingyuan's Xiao Mansion.
"...twenty, twenty-one..."
"Fifty-two."
"...fifty-three, fifty-four... one hundred."
"Young Master, you've finished copying the family rules a hundred times! And it only took you fifteen days."
Chen Yi looked at Xiaodie's admiring face. Realizing she hadn't noticed the count was off, he suppressed a laugh and suggested, "Why don't you count them again?"
"Okay! I'm the best at counting. The Eldest Miss has even praised me for it, and she said she'll let me help with the accounts in the future."
'I doubt those accounts will ever be balanced,'
Chen Yi thought. But seeing how earnestly she was counting, he didn't disturb her again and simply stood quietly to the side.
He was dressed in a long, blue robe. While not strikingly handsome, he had a refined and scholarly air.
Combined with the uninhibited and forthright nature he unconsciously exuded, he possessed a gentle and composed temperament.
Xiaodie, in contrast, wore a short jacket and a traditional pleated skirt. The twin buns at the back of her head made her oval face look absolutely adorable.
After watching for a moment, perhaps afraid he might laugh at how seriously she was counting, Chen Yi walked to the window and gazed at the character for "Joy" on a nearby red lantern.
「Fifteen days ago.」
He had transmigrated to this world, becoming a live-in son-in-law to the Xiao Family—one who had been caught trying to flee his own wedding.
When he awoke, he wasn't in the scenic Spring Lotus Garden, but in the Xiao Mansion's Punishment Hall.
In his dazed state, all he could remember were the many people surrounding him, staring with fierce, cold expressions.
He could faintly make out voices, the words a garbled mess.
Some said he should be beaten to death. Others wanted to send him back to the Chen Family in Jiangnan Prefecture. A few even suggested drowning him in a pig cage.
'Drowning me in a pig cage seemed a bit much. I'd only tried to skip out on my wedding, not run off with a lover.'
This continued until his wife—a fact he would only learn from Xiaodie after they became better acquainted—Xiao Jinghong, the Second Miss of the Xiao Family, spoke:
"Since he is now my husband, his fate is mine to decide."
Her voice, clear and crisp, cut through all the surrounding clamor.
Then, his wife sentenced him to copy the Xiao Family rules a thousand times and be confined to his quarters for a hundred days.
'A thousand times... easier said than done. The family rules are a hundred characters long. A thousand times is a hundred thousand characters! Even typing that on a computer would take a good ten days, let alone writing it all out with a brush!'
'But that was manageable; at least he knew he would finish someday.'
The real problem was what he discovered after becoming fully conscious: from the body's memories, he learned that he was supposed to be a famous prodigy from Jiangnan Prefecture. He was not only proficient in Music, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting, and skilled at Poetry, but his Calligraphy had even been praised by Mr. Ju Yi of Jinling Academy.
The bar for his persona was set incredibly high. So high, in fact, that when this average joe started copying the family rules, Xiaodie nearly discovered he wasn't the same person. In the end, he had no choice but to feign amnesia as a temporary excuse.
But Chen Yi knew this was only a stalling tactic.
Xiaodie was simple and naive, but the other people in the Xiao Mansion were no fools.
Especially his wife—the female general, Xiao Jinghong, who had joined the army in her father's place at fifteen and, by eighteen, was routing the Barbarian Race so thoroughly they fled in disarray.
If she saw his chicken-scratch handwriting, he figured she'd probably have him court-martialed on the spot.
Fortunately, after more than ten days of hard work, his Calligraphy had improved significantly—
Name: Chen Yi
Calligraphy Dao: Minor Success (5/100)
Script: Wei Qing (Proficient)
Opportunity: 0
[Daily Intelligence - Yellow-level Lower Grade: At noon, Duke Dingyuan's eldest daughter, Xiao Wan'er, while auditing the Marquis's Mansion's accounts, will discover that the steward in charge of purchasing has been lining his own pockets. She will subsequently banish him from the family. A minuscule amount of Opportunity can be obtained.]
Chen Yi glanced at the illusory screen, then clasped his hands behind his back, looked up at the sky, and began to count down:
"Ten, nine, eight..."
Xiaodie seemed to hear his voice.
"Forty-three... eleven, ten, nine, eight... Oh, Young Master, don't distract me! You made me lose count."
[Opportunity Points +1.]
[Assessment: To gain Opportunity without going to the location, hearing the voices, or witnessing the event—this is the mark of a truly lazy individual.]
Chen Yi ignored the "lazy" assessment. While deftly adding the Opportunity Points to his Calligraphy Dao, he turned to the pouting Xiaodie and said with a smile,
"My apologies. I was just thinking it's about time for lunch."
At the word "lunch," Xiaodie's eyes lit up, and a bashful expression appeared on her delicate, charming face.
"Young Master, for lunch, the mansion's chef made flaky butter cakes and stewed fish..."
"Fish sounds good," Chen Yi said. Knowing she was getting hungry again, he gave her a mischievous wink. "Why don't you go hurry them along? We can eat together."
"On it!"
As if afraid he'd change his mind, Xiaodie dropped the Yunsong Paper in her hands and dashed out, not forgetting to call a reminder to the Armored Warriors at the door.
"Keep a close watch on the Young Master, you hear?"
"Yes, Miss Xiaodie."
Chen Yi caught a glimpse of the Armored Warriors' brawny arms and sighed as he sat back down. Leaning back in his chair, he stared up at the wooden beams of the ceiling.
'My Calligraphy is more or less passable now, but I still need to work on Music, Chess, Painting, and Poetry.'
'Poetry would be easy enough. With the entire corpus of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing poetry in his head, he could take on anyone.'
'As for the others, however, he was completely clueless. To avoid exposing himself, he'd have to master each of them in turn.'
As he mulled it over, the memories of this body surfaced in his mind.
Chen Yi, courtesy name Qingzhou, was born in the first year of the Anhe era to the Chen Family of Jiangnan Prefecture. His father was the current Patriarch, Chen Xuanji.
Although he was merely the son of a concubine, his life had been relatively comfortable since birth.
He had studied in the family school since he was a child, immersing himself in the classics from a young age. Later, by drawing parallels, he became proficient in Music, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting.
At thirteen, when the Imperial Court dispatched troops to Guangyue Prefecture to eliminate the coastal bandits, he wrote "A Youth's Journey: Welcoming the Banners."
At fifteen, when his father was sent as an envoy to the Western Buddha Country, he wrote "Farewell at Jinling," earning him great praise throughout Jiangnan Prefecture for being "both loyal and filial, with a poetic talent beyond his peers."
But after that, his circumstances took a drastic downturn.
First, his mother passed away from illness. Then, his second uncle, Chen Xuandu, was appointed Governor of the Northern State and seldom returned home. With him gone, the First Madam, Cui Yu, seized control of all household affairs, large and small.
She made him suffer through two bitter years.
He was not only confined to the house and forbidden from going out, but he was also denied access to books. He wasn't even given a brush or paper to write, which caused him to miss the most important imperial examination.
Chen Yi refused to believe the original owner hadn't hated her for it.
But what good was hatred? Chen Xuanji was away, Chen Xuandu was gone, and his mother was dead. There was no one in the family to help him.
He could only grit his teeth, endure, and wait.
In the end, he didn't wait for his father's return. Instead, Cui Yu arranged for him to be married into the family of Duke Dingyuan, the Xiao Family.
In fact, on the road from Jiangnan Prefecture to Shu State, the original Chen Yi had considered taking his own life more than once.
But he chose to accept the arrangement and marry into the Xiao Family, holding on for a future chance to get his revenge and kill Cui Yu.
'It's a shame. In the end, he was murdered anyway.'
Chen Yi knew that on the wedding day, his predecessor had been manipulated into fleeing the marriage by some strange, insidious means. He was already dead before the Xiao family found him.
If Chen Yi hadn't arrived, the entire affair would never have proceeded as "peacefully" as it had.
The Chen and Xiao families might have become enemies. The Xiao Family might have been branded as wicked. Even Xiao Jinghong would have found it impossible to remain untarnished; she likely would have been labeled a "shrew."
Thinking of this, a sense of indignation welled up in Chen Yi's chest. "He really had a bitter fate."
He sat up a little straighter, picked up the Wolf Hair Brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote:
Shu State Ode: Marrying into the Xiao Sect
At Wu Mountain and Chishui, a desolate land; for twenty-odd years, my life was cast aside.
In nostalgia, I critique the Xiao Clan's script; entering Shu, I have become a man unbound.
A thousand sails pass by the sunken ship; before the ailing tree, a forest of new life springs.
Hearing your song today, for now I'll lift my spirits with a cup of wine.
After finishing, Chen Yi picked up the Yunsong Paper to blow the ink dry. He read it over once and nodded in satisfaction.
'As expected of me,' he thought. 'My talent is simply extraordinary.'
But at some point, Xiaodie had appeared behind him, holding a steaming bowl of beef.
She looked at the poem, then at him.
She looked at the poem, then at him again.
"Young Master..."
"Yes?" Chen Yi replied, turning his head.
Xiaodie stared at him blankly for a long moment. When she finally snapped out of it, she scrambled away, still carrying the bowl of beef.
As she ran, she shouted, "This is bad! Eldest Miss, this is bad! The Young Master is planning to escape again!"