The post-rain Qingquan Village emitted a slight chill of late autumn.
Gu Jiao, sweating profusely, chased after someone to the village entrance, "Young Master Xiaoqin — Young Master Xiaoqin —"
Splat!
She slipped, falling face-first onto the ground with a thud.
The horse-drawn carriage in front of her sped away, splattering her face with mud!
"Hahahaha!"
The surrounding crowd burst into laughter!
In their village, Gu Jiao was a laughingstock, for her husband was a cripple and yet she disregarded her dutiful husband and always chased after Young Master Xiaoqin from the town.
Who was Young Master Xiaoqin anyway? His father held an impressive rank, he himself was a scholar and undeniably handsome, would he even spare a glance at a woman used like an old shoe?
"A toad trying to eat a swan's flesh!"
"Exactly! She should look in the mirror. As if Young Master Xiaoqin would ever desire her!"
"Old, used shoe!"
"Ugly monster!"
"Fool!"
Gu Jiao fumed at the insults, with hands on her hips, she retorted fiercely, "You... none of you are allowed to insult me…"
A child jumped out, "What if we do? Fool, fool, fool! Ugly monster, ugly monster, ugly monster!"
With rage tinted with humiliation, Gu Jiao lunged at the child, but stumbled, falling into the water...
At the cold lake bed, a woman who had seemingly lost consciousness, suddenly opened her eyes.
What happened? Wasn't she in a plane crash on a mission, with everyone killed when the plane struck an iceberg? How did she end up falling into water?
Gu Jiao tried desperately to swim to shore.
Perhaps due to her fall, she felt like she was drained of all strength.
By the time she managed to drag herself ashore, she felt ready to pass out.
Obtaining no more entertainment seeing Gu Jiao sinking, the villagers initially planned to fish her out with poles, but she surfaced on her own. The crowd exchanged looks, before dispersing with a whoosh!
Gu Jiao, confused about the entire situation, saw a group of strangely dressed people scatter and flee.
She lay on the cold ground, wiping the water droplets from her face. Suddenly, she froze.
She looked incredulously at her own hands.
They were the hands of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl. She was twenty-eight, so why did she have such small hands?
Moreover, being a queen of grooming in the special agent world, she took good care of her skin. But these hands were covered in chilblains, and some parts were even cracked.
Soon, Gu Jiao realized that not only had her hands changed, her silhouette, and even her clothes differed greatly from before.
A bold speculation flashed through Gu Jiao's mind.
She leant over the water, wanting to see her current appearance, but almost fell back into the water from shock.
What was all this splash of colours?
Gu Jiao took some water and scrubbed away the cheap rouge from her face. But things took a turn for the worse, her face was yellow and skinny, and there was a large red blotch extending from her left cheek to the corner of her eyes.
In her past life, even getting a tiny pimple had Gu Jiao stressed for three days. Now, facing a face that could easily win the title of the era's most hideous, she felt like dying on the spot!
"Speaking of which, where am I? And what time period is this?"
As she spoke, her head throbbed with pain, and a wave of memories that didn't belong to her suddenly flooded her mind.
It turns out she had transmigrated to a dynasty that didn't exist in history. The village was called Qingquan Village, located at the foot of Qingquan Mountain.
The person she was supposed to be was also named Gu Jiao, the only child of the third family of the Gu clan.
Old Master Gu was a scholar when he was young, having passed the imperial examination as a child. He became the Lizheng of Qingquan Village and had been one for many years. Qingquan Village was poor, and being Lizheng wasn't lucrative, but at least they were not starving.
The old master had three sons and a married daughter. The eldest son, Gu Changhai, had a son and a daughter with the Zhou Family; the second son, Gu Changlu, had two sons with Liao Family.
The first two branches of the family were thriving, but when it came to the third branch, it was as if they were cursed and could not have children.
Finally, Gu Jiao was born, but she was a girl, ugly and naturally dimwitted.
In the words of the villagers, she was a loss-making product, no, she was so unwanted that they'd have to pay people to take her!
Since Gu Jiao's birth, there had been no more offspring in that branch of the family.
Gradually, rumors began to spread around the village, saying Gu Jiao was unlucky, thus driving out the fortune of having sons in the third family.
At first, the Gu family didn't take it seriously, until Gu Jiao's parents died one after the other and they were convinced that this child was indeed marked by misfortune.
The Gu family tried to marry Gu Jiao off, leveraging on their connections. But who would dare to marry her?
As luck would have it, one day, Gu Jiao found a man who had fainted from hunger at the entrance of the village and took him home.
As Gu Jiao processed the memories in her brain, she walked towards a dilapidated thatched cottage to the west of the village.
That was the home she lived in now.
Hiss—
Halfway through, a sharp pain emanated from the back of her head. Gu Jiao touched it and her hand came away bloody.
She must've hit a rock underwater earlier, causing a head wound. The bleeding was significant, she needed to stop it as soon as possible.
As she thought about it, Gu Jiao entered her home's courtyard.
Though calling it a courtyard was quite a stretch; it was just a small open space surrounded by a fence. The small thatched cottage, apart from the main part, only had two rooms. The slightly larger room on the east side was Gu Jiao's.
And this room was even smaller than the walk-in closet she had in her previous life.
Such a sorry state of transmigration...
Feeling a bit melancholic, Gu Jiao pushed open the door and walked in. The moment she crossed the threshold, however, she felt someone else's presence inside.
From the rhythm of their breath, it was a man.
The man hid behind the door, holding his breath.
A cold smile emerged on Gu Jiao's lips as she casually entered the house. In unison with the sound of the door closing, her hand reached out and grasped the man behind the door, throwing him onto the ground!
The man's body was larger than she had expected.
If she were in her previous life, no matter how big the man was, she would not be afraid. Unfortunately, with her current frail body, she had to use every ounce of strength, pressing her entire body weight on him, to hold him down.
With one hand, she took off her hair band and tied up the man's wrists, her other hand clenched around his neck, as she coldly asked, "Who are you? What are you doing in my house?"
The man was taken aback, and then a wave of indignation washed over him, "Gu Jiao, have you gone mad? It's me!"
Someone she knew?
So it was an inside job?
That made it even more despicable.
Instead of letting the man go, Gu Jiao applied more pressure, further restraining the man.
"You... get off me!" The man gritted his teeth, his tone cold.
"Hmph~" Gu Jiao sneered.
In her past life, everyone danced to her tune, and nobody ordered her around. This was her house and she hadn't even interrogated him about sneaking around!
Gu Jiao raised her fist, intending to teach him a lesson. But, her elbow accidentally bumped open the window behind her.
The bright light streamed in, falling on the man's refined and handsome face. Gu Jiao's eyes widened in shock.