Zhou Qing quickly figured out her predicament. She now found herself in a strange country called the Great Yuan Dynasty. This "Yuan" wasn't the Yuan Dynasty from the historical timeline of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing that she knew, but another Yuan Dynasty she was unfamiliar with. The Emperor wasn't Mongolian but a Han person, and his surname was Yuan. The country was named directly after the imperial surname, and as for the history prior to that, she couldn't get any clear explanation.
Through people around her, she learned that she had transposed into a daughter born of a concubine named Yuehuan. This girl belonged to an official's family, a lady of a wealthy family purportedly from a scholarly lineage of significant renown. Although she was born out of wedlock, the furnishings in her room were not too shabby. She was the fourth in the family, with three elder sisters and three elder brothers above her.
Zhou Qing felt she was incredibly unlucky, extremely so. Although characters in novels who traveled through time lived dramatic, highly adored lives, she wasn't so naive as to think that simply arriving in ancient times made her omnipotent. Despite being an orphan in the modern world, she studied hard and made it through university on scholarships and part-time work. She was extremely fortunate, landing a civil servant job right after graduating, sparing her the job-hunting woes of other students. Even though she worked in a somewhat obscure department, her job was stable and came with great benefits. She received overtime pay, holidays off, and additional leave for home visits and vacations. With such a stable job, finding a husband would have been easier too.
Ahem, Zhou Qing sighed once again. Knowing that she had become a daughter born of a concubine, she already lost count of how many times she had sighed. Being transported into a life as a concubine's daughter, was she expected to fight for survival in a story of a concubine's child striving for success, perhaps with a dramatic plot twist of taking the place of another bride in a marriage to a wealthy and handsome husband?
She wasn't that naive. The status of a concubine's daughter in ancient times was extremely low; sticking your head out too much could lead to your legal mother eradicating you. Although she passed the civil servant exam in the modern world, she was still a greenhorn in the field, meticulously and honestly doing all the grunt work without getting involved in any backstabbing. If she were to get embroiled in household scheming, she felt it would be very stressful.
Ahem, Zhou Qing let out another deep sigh. They say your birth year brings bad luck, but hers was just terrible. All she did was go to the bank to withdraw money, and she ran into a robbery, ending up as a hostage. What a lousy marksman; the bullet didn't hit the robber but killed her instead.
Zhou Qing thought to herself that when the robber was being shot, someone should have put a couple more bullets in him for good measure. Because of him, she was now suffering in ancient times. Though she had no close kin, her college roommates were as dear to her as sisters.
Well, complaints aside, arriving in this world meant she was given another chance to live. She needed to learn to cherish it.
Zhou Qing listened as the woman beside her—who was said to be her birth mother and was exceedingly beautiful as if descended from heaven—patiently explained the members of the household.
It might have been the body's instinct or perhaps because she was an orphan in her past life and hadn't experienced familial love, but she quickly accepted this body's biological mother.
Zhou Qing solemnly memorized everyone in Lian Mansion and aimed to assimilate into this large family as soon as possible. Everything else was fine, but upon hearing that there were five or six children born of concubines and mistresses in the house, Zhou Qing couldn't help but mockingly think about how much her cheap father enjoyed his blessings of beauty. But when she heard that her Second Uncle had been sent out as a Salt Censor and that her Second Aunt was a lady from a Marquis' household, and moreover, a household with five generations of nobility, where both parents had now passed away leaving only a legitimate daughter named Yueyao,
Zhou Qing was nearly floored upon hearing this. A father who was a Tanhua and later became a Salt Censor, with a mother who was the only legitimate daughter from a Marquis' household—combining all these elements, wasn't that the quintessential Younger Sister Lin? Yuehuan reflexively asked, "Is my Third Younger Sister exceptionally talented?" If that was the case, then she might as well be the spitting image of Younger Sister Lin.
Maternal Auntie Su didn't understand why her daughter was particularly interested in the Third Young Lady but nodded and said, "The Third Young Lady has been enlightened by the Second Old Master since she was young. It's said that her literary talent is extraordinary, especially reputed to have a gift for painting, to the point where the Second Old Master even hired scholars from Jiangnan to teach her. At a very young age, she has already been dubbed a talented lady," a fact known by everyone in the household.
Zhou Qing's heart skipped a beat; could it be she had arrived at a knockoff version of the Red Mansion? Yuebing couldn't help but ask, "Yue... Er, how is the disposition of this Third Younger Sister of mine?" Younger Sister Lin from Dream of the Red Chamber was pitiable and endearing, but such a sensitive lady was honestly hard to get along with. Faced with such a girl, Yuebing felt incredibly pressured!