Amidst the chirping of birds, Ji Huan slowly opened her eyes.
She felt nothing about her own death.
Her death was, in fact, quite mundane. Accidents were common at year's end. After working nonstop for nearly fifty hours, she suffered an acute myocardial infarction. Despite the desperate resuscitation efforts of her colleagues, she died on the very operating table she knew so well.
In the moment she collapsed, she felt no lingering attachments or reluctance to let go.
She simply let out a long sigh of relief, thinking, 'I can finally get some proper rest.'
Then her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and she finally fell into an endless darkness.
What she never expected was to open her eyes again as a fifteen-year-old girl from an ancient village. This girl was an orphan who had been sold three times by her grandmother—a woman who prized boys over girls. Coincidentally, this girl was also named Ji Huan.
The Ji Family was a standard large family with three generations living under one roof. The family head, Ji Qingshan, and his wife, Ms. Kang, had four sons and one daughter together.
The first branch: Ji Liansong, married to Mrs. Yang. They had one daughter, Ji Xuelan, and one son, Ji Mingfang.
The second branch: Ji Lianbai, married to Mrs. Wei. They had one daughter, Ji Huan, and one son, Ji Mu.
The third branch: Ji Lianhuai, married to Mrs. Zhu. They had two daughters, Ji Xuechan and Ji Xuejuan, and one son, Ji Mingmao.
The fourth son, Ji Liantang, was not yet married. He had passed the child student examination five years ago and was currently studying in town.
As for their eldest daughter, Ji Xiu'e, she had married into the neighboring Dahuang Village years ago and now had children of her own.
With its many members and a child student in its ranks, the Ji Family was considered one of the most prominent families in Dafeng Village, even if they weren't at the very top.
The only exception was the second branch, whose family had faced considerable hardship.
First, their only son went missing before his first birthday. Then, two years ago, Ji Lianbai died in an accident. Afterward, his wife, Mrs. Wei, fell ill and became bedridden. Granny Kang, suspecting she had consumption and fearing it would spread to the rest of the family, refused to get her any medical treatment. Instead, she drove the mother and daughter out to live in the cowshed.
The cowshed was drafty, and its foul smell and harsh conditions were unbearable even for a healthy person, let alone someone who was sick.
Ji Huan knelt and cried, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. A month later, in that very cowshed, Mrs. Wei clutched her daughter's hand and closed her eyes, unwilling to accept her fate.
Ji Huan was now a true orphan. Her life in the Ji Family was beyond miserable.
Granny Kang's favoritism was blatant, and she treated Ji Huan like livestock.
She had to wake before dawn to sweep the courtyard and cook for the whole family. Then, she had to wash clothes for everyone, young and old, at the river. After finishing her chores, without so much as a bowl of thin congee, she was sent up the mountain to cut pig feed. She was forbidden from returning before dark, and of course, they never gave her any rations to take along.
Ji Huan had dug up wild vegetable roots, eaten the pig feed she cut, and when she was truly starving, she even gnawed on tree bark.
Some kind-hearted villagers, seeing how pitiful she was, would occasionally sneak her a taro root or a steamed bun, but such moments were rare.
After toughing it out like this for two years, Ji Huan grew into a young woman. Just when it seemed she might finally be through the worst of it, a rumor suddenly spread through the village: she was cursed to bring misfortune upon her kin.
The rumor was chillingly convincing, and the deaths of Ji Lianbai and Mrs. Wei were offered as the best proof.
Overnight, the way the villagers looked at her changed.
No one snuck her steamed buns anymore. Wherever she went, people avoided her as if she were the plague, acting as if even speaking a single word to her would get them jinxed.
Inside the Ji Family, there were constant arguments about driving her out or selling her off. After all, she was cursed to harm her "kin"—who knew who would be next!
Terrified, Ji Huan could only try to be more obedient and work even harder, but she still couldn't escape the fate of being sold.
The first time, she was sold to a wealthy household in the county as a bride to ward off a groom's illness. To prevent her from taking her own life, she was tied up and forced into the bridal sedan. But just as the sedan reached the family's gate, the groom breathed his last. The groom's family blamed Ji Huan for his death and nearly dragged the Ji Family to court.
The Ji Family had to return the money and offer a profuse apology before the matter was dropped.
After Ji Huan was sent back, the Ji Family immediately found a second buyer. This time, she was to be a replacement wife for a butcher in his fifties from a neighboring town, a man who already had a whole brood of children.
Haunted by the first failure and afraid of being stuck with what they considered damaged goods, they didn't dare ask for much, settling for just one tael of silver.
Unfortunately, as the overjoyed butcher was on his way to collect his bride, he lost his footing, fell into a ravine, and died on the spot.
Failing to sell her off twice only cemented her reputation as a jinx. Now, no one wanted her, no matter how cheap she was.
Furious, Granny Kang stayed home, cursing the heavens and the earth. She slapped her thighs and wailed, "What sins did I commit in a past life that you can't even be sold for a single tael of silver!"
Unable to withstand the constant torment and crushing blows to her spirit, Ji Huan smashed her head against a pillar and fell unconscious.
At this point, Mrs. Zhu came up with another idea: send the severely injured Ji Huan back to the wealthy family for a ghost marriage. This way, not only would they save money on her medical treatment, but they could also earn a large sum.
The wealthy family had a Daoist perform a divination. He said that with a woman of a sufficiently strong fate to accompany him in the underworld, their young master's next life would surely be one of princely wealth.
And so, Ji Huan, who was barely breathing, was carried back to the family. They were just waiting for an auspicious day to bury her alongside the young master.
Having finally gotten rid of this hot potato, Granny Kang was at home burning incense and praying to Buddha, hoping that nothing would go wrong this time.
On the day of the burial, Granny Kang's eyelid wouldn't stop twitching. 'The groom is already dead,' she thought wishfully. 'Surely she can't jinx someone to death a second time.'
But who would have thought that this time, the groom's grave would be struck by lightning!
In the middle of the night, a thunderous pounding shook their door. The wealthy family's servants threw a half-dead Ji Huan into the main hall, declaring, "Our young master's fate is too weak to handle her."
With trembling hands, Granny Kang returned the silver. Inwardly, her heart was bleeding and she was cursing a blue streak.
Ji Huan's reputation for having a "hard fate" had already spread far and wide, and now she was truly an unshakeable burden. To the Ji Family, she was completely worthless.
There was no way Granny Kang would spend another cent on her treatment, so Ji Huan was carried to this dilapidated shack to fend for herself—or die.
What no one knew was that the little girl had already died when she smashed her head against the pillar.
In her place was another Ji Huan.
Ji Huan vaguely remembered her colleagues shouting in her ear as they administered first aid, telling her to hang on. They said they had called her parents, that tomorrow was New Year's Eve, a time for family reunions.
She thought for a moment. 'Since I was brought back to the provincial capital at thirteen, I've almost forgotten that such a thing as a reunion dinner even exists.'
Those two cold, robotic, successful people were her parents in a biological sense, but beyond that, there seemed to be no other connection.
'I don't even need to be there to know what will happen,' she thought. 'After rushing through my funeral arrangements, one of them will hurry back to the capital, and the other will fly abroad at the first opportunity. After all, everyone has a busy schedule.'
Her existence and her disappearance were like water flowing by, leaving no trace and having no impact whatsoever.
'If that's the case, what is there for me to miss? When it comes to being cold-hearted, I suppose I inherited it from them. Blood ties can be a strange thing sometimes.'
Having survived a great disaster, Ji Huan felt only gratitude. She decided to settle down and make a life for herself in this strange new time and place.
She would not only survive, but live well—for herself, and for the original owner of this body.
But right now, she faced a most pressing problem: How was she to survive?