"Shanhu, that wench… She actually stole her slave contract when I went downhill to buy resources! She actually fled! And you had been so kind to her in the past, Milady!"
Hupo, a maid, was so angry that her face turned red. Her eyes shone with clear anger.
Their lady was already struck with tragedy, and Shanhu actually kicked her while she was down! Not only did she steal her slave contract, she even stole most of the lady's money!
Hupo was absolutely miffed, but the lady was currently in a daze on her bed.
Chu Yue did not expect this to happen either. She had actually transmigrated? Wasn't transmigration something that was only popular ten years ago? It was already 2019, so why was she caught up in the trend now?
The original person shared the same name as her. She was also known as Chu Yue.
She was Prince Qin's imperial consort, the wife he recently married. However, she was just a substitute for another person.
The person Prince Qin fancied was actually the second legitimate daughter of the imperial chancellor, who had always been known as the greatest beauty in the capital. He did not fancy Chu Yue, who was of the imperial chancellor's first wife and the eldest legitimate daughter who had always remained an unknown presence.
The original's mother passed away when she was two years old. Soon after, her father said that he had a lot of things to do in the mansion, and he needed a helping hand. With that excuse, a few months later, he married someone new.
Once the stepmother came into the picture, the original naturally became Cinderella. However, since she still had her mother's family, the stepmother did not dare to go overboard when tormenting her.
But while she did not dare to skimp out on the original's food, clothes, and other necessities, she occasionally put pressure on the original's mind, causing her to turn into a person so quiet she was practically invisible.
But misfortune never came alone. When the girl was sixteen, her grandfather passed away. She had to mourn him for three years. And what did that mean? That meant that three years later, she was nineteen years old.
It was basically a crime to not be married when she was already nineteen years old.
Her sisters, both legitimate and illegitimate, laughed at her, and it made her even more quiet. She wanted to run away from the imperial chancellor's mansion. Hence, when Prince Qin asked for the hand of the imperial chancellor's legitimate daughter, she did not have any opinions when her stepmother decided to marry her off.
After all, she thought that Prince Qin wanted to marry her and would be her savior.
But she was wrong!
Many people thought that the imperial chancellor had one legitimate daughter called Chu Jia, who was beautiful and a really good dancer. Only a few were aware of the existence of the eldest legitimate daughter, and of those most pretended that they did not know about her.
Prince Qin did not state his request clearly, and the wife of the grand chancellor used her as a substitute. After all, her daughter was destined to be the wife of the emperor and enter the palace. How could she marry an idle prince who only had the position of a duke?
Prince Qin could forget about marrying her daughter!
Prince Qin did not manage to marry the woman he wanted. Instead, he got a woman he did not want as his wife. He was livid, and because of it, the original was forced to endure his wrath.
'What a jerk. He actually threw his temper at a helpless woman? What a good for nothing.' Chu Yue organized the information she obtained and chuckled coldly.
As a modern woman, she was absolutely unaffected by being demoted to the position of a common consort, even though this was absolutely disastrous to people in the past.
The divorce rate in the modern world was extremely high. Being demoted to a common consort was nothing.
Besides, even though she was demoted, she did not have to worry about her basic needs, so there was not much for her to fret over.
Just when she thought about it, she heard her maid, Hupo, screech.
"What's wrong?" Chu Yue snapped out of her daze and looked at her.
"Milady, it's that wench, Shanhu! Not only did she take away a lot of our jewelry, she even stole all of the silver notes you hid in your secret compartment! That's five thousand taels worth of silver notes!" Shanhu was so angry that she started crying.
Chu Yue was speechless.
'Well, looks like I'm really a miserable, demoted lady now.'
"This won't do! I have to go to the government office to file a complaint against her. She's a wretched cur who betrayed her master and even stole from her! I can't let her escape from the law!" Hupo wiped off her tears and prepared to go down the mountain to make a report to the government.
"Don't do something so useless. She has clearly come prepared. If we run into her in the future, we'll take care of her. Let's see how much money we have left," Chu Yue said feebly.
Her new body's constitution was really terrible. But if it were not for the fact that the body was weak, the original person would not have died because of a few days of rain in the autumn.
Hupo quickly went off to calculate what remained of their money.
They only had a few dozens of taels of silver left. Hupo wiped off her tears and said, "Milady, we only have this bit of money left. How are we going to survive?"
"It's enough to live," Chu Yue said.
One tael of silver was one string of coins, and one string of coins was one thousand cash coins. One huge meat bun was only worth two or three cash coins in this period of time, so they could survive for a while.
"It's not enough. This is the last dose of herbal medicine we have, and I just gave it to you today. Tomorrow, I have to get more medicine. Besides, this winter might be especially cold, so we need to prepare some pure hardwood charcoal and mink cloaks." Hupo was very familiar with the subject.
Chu Yue found herself confused by all this talk. "Stop! Lass, don't you understand our current situation?"
Forget about pure hardwood charcoal, what was this mink cloak and silk? How could they use that sort of stuff?
But her current blanket was indeed a silk blanket, which weighed about four to five catties. It was suitable for this weather, but it would not be enough for the cold that was about to come.
But when it came to keeping out the cold, cotton blankets and cotton clothes were the best. They were also cheap.
"Milady, your body is precious. How could you use things that commoners use?" As Hupo spoke, she started crying again.
When Chu Yue saw how she was behaving, she said, "Then, why don't you go to the prince's mansion and ask him for my dowry?"
Hupo hiccuped.
Even though her lady's dowry was still in the prince's mansion, they could not go there anymore.
"Lass, even though we should enjoy life when we can, you should be practical, considering our current situation. We only have this little money left, and if we finish using it, we'll starve to death during winter." As Chu Yue spoke, she got up.
Hupo was a little puzzled. She felt that her lady had changed quite a bit.
But when she saw that her lady was about to get up, she quickly said, "Milady, you're still sick. You can't get up."
Chu Yue exercised her body and stretched while she said, "I'm pretty much fine now. If I continue lying around, I'm going to end up sick."
Chu Yue did not need to hide when she faced this girl, who was bought by her family when she was young. The more she tried to hide her real self, the more mistakes she would make, so it would be better if she just behaved as she usually would while remaining completely at ease.
When Hupo saw how she acted, she said dumbly, "Milady, what are you doing?"
"While I was sick, I saw Death's door. Now, I'm back, and I've thought things through. I'm going to live for myself from now on. To hell with all these shackles placed on me by the world," Chu Yue said offhandedly.
Hupo was stunned. Then, she started crying. Hardships always forced people to grow up. In the end, her innocent and naive mistress was forced to mature.