After ensuring she still was proficient at her martial arts Chou Lian decided to take a nap on the open ground of the courtyard without caring about the etiquette of this era. As she knew no one would even bother about her, and the only who would pick up on Shi Lian were her sisters that are already married, and the wives of the prime minister who doesn't even care to bother about the suicidal Shi Lian (who is already dead).
Enjoying her freedom she rolled on the soft grasses enjoying the warmth of the sun on her skin and the fresh air. She felt so alive and content at this moment. But she would be happier if she could get out of this place. To be honest, as Shi Lian no longer existed in this world and she was not Shi Lian so she had no connection with this family of hers. If it was in the past life she would have looked for ways to seek revenge on behalf of Shi Lian. But already facing death once she had no wish to get entwined with someone else's problems.
She crossed her arms under head and looked up at the blue sky but it was too bright so she closed her eyes. She turned her body to the side lazily and found a servant coming with a tray on her hand.
It was not the same servant but another young girl with lots of white powder spread on her face who frowned at the view of Chou Lian. After she came near Chou Lian she kept the tray beside her and gave her disgusted look before striding away as if Chou Lian was contagious.
Watching that servant behave like that Chou Lian actually break into a hearty laugh. What kind of idiots do Prine minister's mansion fosters?? She didn't care about that and opened the lid of the small pot that was on the tray. It was some fried rice and again two buns. She ate with gusto. As long as there is food she doesn't care how others acted around her.
Again with a full stomach she finally decided to sit down on her bed and think about how she can elope from the prime minster's mansion. The things that she needed to survive in this world was money. So if anything she would take with her from here was money, and to be honest Shi Lian's mother brought a lot of dowry with her which Shi Lian never had the fortune to use. From Shi Lian's memories what she could gather is the money, expensive clothes and all kinds of treasures are kept on a big storeroom which is situated at the middle of the household.
Thus, Chou Lian decided to sneak out at night to see if she can enter in the storeroom successfully and take some rightful money which belonged to Shi Lian and then leave the mansion. Honestly, she doesn't know where she will be going and she has no particular destination. Shi Lian has never been outside the walls of the mansion, unless she went for shopping with her mother, for which her memory about the outside world was really limited.
Yet Chou Lian was sure the world is vast and somewhere outside there she would find a place to settle down. A place where she will feel truly feel she belonged. She mostly wants to travel to the border of of the kingdom so that she can be farthest away from the capital and the relatives of Shi Lian. Though living near the border is kind of risky, even with the kingdom being in peace with the other nations no one can guarantee when a war might break; but being reborn she is more than willing to take risks so that she can spend the rest of her life in retirement. She can't wait to have a small hut to herself where she will spend her time in leisure. Just thinking about it made her feel so light in happiness.
At night, when everyone went to sleep and the only ones awake was the guard of the mansion; a figure was darting in the dark which could not be detected with the naked eyes. It was none other then our Chou Lian who was dressed in black from head to toe with her face covered by a veil. She was really excited to try this kind of outfit to sneak out as she read in the history records that back in old times assassinators used to dress up like this so that people won't even able to identify them if they got seen by someone. Though she was not going to assassinate anyone she wanted to try wearing one for the thrill of it as it made it her feel as if she was on some secret mission. Well, she was truly on a mission. If she could steal some money by tonight she would set out to travel around by tomorrow night.
She stood on some roof of one of the houses in the household, who knows who it belong to, and tried to look around the vicinity. Though the whole place was covered in darkness and there were few lights from the lanterns used by the guards to patrol the area, and the light from the moon. If Chou Lian's night vision was lacking then sneaking out at night would have been really difficult. Her Earth and this world differs so much. This place though dark at night feels quite serene unlike her world where the place would be lightened up all the time still it felt so lonely and eerie.
From where she was standing she could see a place, at the middle of all houses, being lightened up the most as it was concentrated with most guards guarding the place. This made Chou Lian sure that it was the storeroom in which every valuable thing of the prime minister's household was held. The storeroom seemed about 100 steps away from where she was standing. She took a deep breath and was about to jump to next roof and reach her destination when she smelled something so delicious in the air that she felt being drawn by the smell. She looked startled to smell such a nice smell at the middle of night. Though she knew she should be on her way to sneak into the storeroom, but she unconsciously moved towards the sorce of the smell. She darted so fast as if she was being chased by dogs.
She soon reached the place from where such a aromatic smell was coming from and found it to be the kitchen, that was situated nearby. She found the chefs and some servants busy preparing for the next day's meal in big cauldrons. She heard the chief chef shouting, "When will the preparations be done for tomorrow's meal! You know tomorrow morning the four young ladies will be coming with their husbands! We don't want to lose face for the prime minister's mansion now! Quick work hands!"
The food was being prepared in the open ground near the kitchen on wood fire in big cauldrons. She could smell one to be some bone soup being boiled which smelled so rich in flavor that it made Chou Lian mouth water. There were some pork and chicken being marinated, and some sweet beans porridge and other scrumptious meals being prepared.
Chou Lian never imagined she would be hiding on a rooftop for the kitchen to be cleared that is, she never thought she would be hiding to steal food! Look what food is making her do! If her grandfather would see this he would vomit blood to death out of anger and maybe finally throw her out of the 'Mo' family registry.
Once the preparations were finally completed everyone keeping the food in low burning wood and coal and then left. Suddenly a figure could be seen darting to the now empty place except the foods. Chou Lian helped herself to a bowl of soup, sweet bean porridge, and barbecued some meat to eat along with meat buns and others that were present there. Never in her life had she eaten such delicacies which made her feel she was dreaming as she ate. She thought to herself, "So this is the type of food that people in this household eats! Then how dare they give me such plain foods! Tsk, tsk, Shi Lian your fate is so bad. She can't even eat decent food! Agh! Why did I have to be transmigrated into her soul?!"
She ate till she felt her stomach to be bloated and then kept the bowl and chopsticks down; though she didn't know how to use chopsticks herself but Shi Lian has been eating with it for more than a decade so it was not hard for the body to remember the use. She then made sure nothing could felt out of place and that there was no trace of her to found here so that those nasty people will not come to pick up on her, and then left. Now that she full she didn't feel like going to the storeroom and instead opt for going to her room to take a bath before going to sleep. She would steal money tomorrow along with some male servant clothes that they use to wear when they do not work so that she could leave tomorrow directly. As this world prioritized men over women, the female folks traveling alone were illegal and can even be beaten to death if found. So Chou Lian did not want to risk her life and thought about traveling in the the disguise of a male to be in the safe side and so that she could have her freedom. Though it made her sad to be hiding her true sex but what could she do against such beliefs and mind set of this kingdom.