Yes.

Qin Jiu did not leave.

The novel mentioned that when the Qin family entrusted the original owner to Zhao Aman and her husband, they had also given them a sum of silver. She pretended she was going to the county office to file a complaint in order to lure them away.

She hurried across the small courtyard and headed straight for the main house where Li Jinzhu and his wife lived.

This was a simple single-courtyard residence. Back when the original owner had just begun to remember things, the whole family had moved here.

Using the money given by the Qin family, the Li couple had opened a tavern in the county. Business was fairly good, and compared to ordinary folks, this family lived quite comfortably.

However, the original owner had been a pitiful little thing in this household. She not only had to wash clothes and cook, but also had to sweep and do all the menial chores. Whenever Zhao Aman was in a bad mood, she would beat and kick her, hurling insults without restraint. This time, just because she had stubbornly refused to marry a fool, she had been beaten until she was barely recognizable as a human.

Zhao Aman had just called the original owner an ungrateful white-eyed wolf. But in truth, she was the real one!

Qin Jiu had heard clearly just now: the Qin family had given a full two thousand taels of silver back then—enough for a family to live comfortably for a lifetime. Despite that, Zhao Aman and her husband were still not satisfied and even switched their own daughter with the Qin family’s child.

Qin Jiu showed no politeness. She rummaged through the main house from top to bottom, and finally smashed open a locked camphorwood chest in the corner with an axe. Inside, she found eight hundred taels’ worth of banknotes and a few pieces of loose silver.

This could be considered “returning things to their rightful owner,” right?

She carefully tucked the banknotes into her clothes, smiling until her eyes curved into crescents.

With this money on her, she felt much more at ease.

Qin Jiu didn’t linger. While the couple hadn’t returned yet, she hurried out of the house.

She had threatened the Li couple by reporting them to the authorities, but in truth, she never planned to do so.

In the original novel, the heroine Qin Xin was unstoppable from start to finish, blessed with cheat-like luck, surrounded by powerful figures who acted as her protectors. Everyone who opposed her met a miserable end.

Transmigrating was already unlucky enough. Qin Jiu didn’t want to end up like the original owner, dying with an arrow through her heart. That would be far too tragic.

So she planned to stay as far away from the heroine as possible, open a small shop, and live a quiet, steady life.

Qin Jiu figured that when the Li couple failed to find her at the county office, they would at most wait a short while before heading back. She needed to leave this place quickly.

The county office was located to the west of Jiangyu County, so Qin Jiu deliberately made her way east, relying on her memories.

She planned to first go to Yaoqing County, twenty li away. In her memories, the original owner often went there to purchase cheap liquor for the Li couple’s tavern. The round trip was forty li, all done on foot while dragging a handcart. If she returned even a bit late, she would even be beaten.

Relying on her own two feet, Qin Jiu hurried along the road and reached Yaoqing County before dusk.

Along the way, her mind never rested, busy reviewing the plot of the novel.

To be honest, although she had finished reading not long ago, she hadn’t really paid close attention at the time. By now, she had already forgotten about half of it.

All she remembered was that the Great Qi dynasty was plagued by internal strife and external threats: constant border wars, frequent natural disasters at home, and refugees and bandits everywhere.

In the novel, all this chaos existed merely to showcase the heroine’s omnipotence. However, for Qin Jiu now as a lone young woman, it was not safe to wander around freely in such troubled times.

Both the male and female leads were in the capital, and most of the plot revolved around them. The capital was definitely not somewhere she should go.

After much thought, Qin Jiu decided to head for Longzhou.

In the original storyline, Longzhou was the best-governed of the Nine Prefectures of the Great Qi. Later on, it was still through the female lead’s wisdom and charm that the governor of Longzhou was persuaded to side with the Second Prince.

After making up her mind, Qin Jiu quickly found out where the escort agency was located.

This was an escort bureau officially registered with the authorities. The head escort said that recently, along the road to Longzhou, several groups of bandits had been appearing. If she wanted to hire escorts, the fee would have to be several times the usual rate.

In the end, Qin Jiu spent one hundred taels of silver.

After paying the deposit, she asked where she could obtain a travel permit.

The Great Qi dynasty enforced strict household registration controls: anyone traveling more than a hundred li away from their place of residence needed a travel permit.

Qin Jiu had “run away” from home and had no permit. Without one, she definitely wouldn’t be able to enter Longzhou.

As the saying goes, “cats have their cat paths while mice have their mouse paths.” Escort agencies belonged to the lower strata of society and naturally had their own connections.

The bearded head escort wore a subtle expression, asked no questions, and merely made a gesture.

Another banknote was passed over. They agreed that she would come back the next day to collect the travel permit, set out in three days’ time, and then Qin Jiu took her leave.

She didn’t plan to idle away these three days. First, she went to a clothing shop and bought two outfits suitable for movement. After eating a hearty meal, Qin Jiu found an inn to stay at, deliberately choosing a superior room.

Too much had happened in one day. Only now could she finally settle down, and she was already too exhausted to move.

While washing up, she took a careful look at this small body of hers. Every inch of her skin bore injuries both old and new, almost as if old wounds had yet to heal before new ones were added. She was so thin there wasn’t even two taels of flesh on her bones, just skin stretched over bone. She should have been fourteen by now, yet she was so scrawny she looked like a twelve or thirteen-year-old child.

In her memories, the original owner of this body was beaten almost every day. All the household chores fell on her shoulders, yet each day she was only given a bowl of thin porridge and half a steamed bun to eat.

From childhood to now, she had truly suffered relentlessly!

Qin Jiu sighed. In the original text, great lengths were taken to describe how wronged and innocent the female lead Qin Xin had been in her previous life. Pitiful? Then what about the original owner? A noble daughter of a marquis’ household, lost outside and abused as she grew up—what had she done wrong?

After changing into clean underclothes, Qin Jiu sat before the bronze mirror.

Reflected in the mirror was a little girl with loose black hair. Her face was small, and once the grime had been washed away, her features were flawless: willow-leaf brows gently curved, almond-shaped eyes dark and bright, full, delicate cherry lips slightly upturned, and two faint dimples appearing on her cheeks.

Unfortunately, because of malnutrition, her skin was rough and her complexion sallow, dulling her beauty by a good half.

She really needed to nourish herself properly!

Qin Jiu let out a lazy yawn. Not bothering to wait for her hair to dry, she flopped onto the bed.

The night grew deeper. Inside and outside the room, everything was silent, save for the occasional sound of wind brushing through the branches outside the window…

Rustle, rustle, rustle…

Swirling snow, the sound of wind, ragged breathing, and hurried footsteps all blended together.

She ran desperately. She didn’t know where she was running to, but she was terrified and dared not stop.

Whoosh—

A long arrow tore through the air from behind, the sharp tip piercing through her chest with unstoppable force.

She clutched her chest as blood seeped between her fingers, dazzlingly bright.

She knew she was about to die.

Slowly, she fell to the ground, her blood staining the snow like blooming plum blossoms.

“AH!”

Qin Jiu screamed and jolted upright, her breathing rapid, chest heaving.

Cold sweat drenched her forehead. Her undergarment clung wetly to her back, as though she had just been hauled out of water.

A dull pain throbbed in her chest, as if being pierced by an arrow had not been a dream at all, but something that had truly happened.

This was the first time she had such a vivid dream.

An arrow through the heart…

Right!

In the novel, the original owner of this body died from an arrow piercing her heart!

A chill seeped through Qin Jiu’s entire body, and the air itself seemed to carry a faint scent of blood.

“It must be because I’ve been thinking about it all day, so I dreamed about it at night!”

“It must be!”

She muttered to herself incessantly, clutching her head and roughly ruffling her hair in agitation.

After sitting there blankly for a while, she climbed down from the divan, lit a candle, and poured herself a cup of cold water. Afterwards, she drank it down in one gulp. Only then did her mind clear a little.

Just as she was about to go back to sleep, her nose suddenly twitched.

Strange!

Why did the air still seem to carry a trace of blood?

Qin Jiu set down the teacup in her hand and, by the light of the candle, swiftly swept her gaze around the room, her eyes coming to rest on the cabinet in the corner.

The cabinet was tall enough to reach a person’s height. Since she had no luggage, she hadn’t used it, leaving it empty.

Her gaze froze for a moment, and she murmured to herself, “I’m so hungry… I wonder if there’s anything to eat.”

She draped a piece of clothing over herself and casually moved to leave the room. But just as she took a single step, a cold sneer suddenly rang out in the silent room.

Without turning her head, she hurried toward the door in two quick strides. Before she could open it, a hand shot out from behind her and pressed against the door.

Boom!

A bolt of lightning suddenly split the night sky outside the window, lighting up the room as bright as day for an instant, illuminating the right hand braced against the door.

It was a man’s hand: long fingers, distinct knuckles, elegant like carved jade bamboo.

Qin Jiu’s nose twitched again. From behind her came a strong, heavy scent of blood that lingered in the air.

The fine hairs at the back of her neck stood on end. Slowly, she turned around.

Outside the window, thunder rumbled again and again, overlapping as a torrential rain began to pour down.

Behind her stood a tall, strikingly handsome young man. His raven-black hair was tied high at the back of his head. His skin was fair, his features exquisitely flawless—especially those long, narrow phoenix eyes, bright and deep, framed by thick, long lashes. The corners of his eyes lifted slightly, beautiful yet carrying a sharpness like an arrow’s edge.

He wore a plain black coarse-cloth robe, but even this ordinary attire could not conceal the air of nobility that surrounded him.

This young man was definitely no ordinary person.