Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I first transmigrated here, I fell seriously ill because my body couldn’t adjust to the new climate.

Everyone who came to visit would quietly ask me the same thing:

“You were tormented into this illness by your mother-in-law, weren’t you?”

I said no.

None of them believed me. They even praised me for being virtuous.

Because according to them, my mother-in-law, Madam Qin, was a ruthless woman with a heart of stone and a vicious hand.

She was calculating, cold-blooded, and utterly without mercy.

The year the head of the Qin family passed away,

she was still dressed in mourning when she began settling accounts with all those uncles, aunts, and elder relatives.

Whoever owed money had to pay it back. Whoever had taken shops had to return them.

She declared that from then on, her branch would split from the rest of the Qin family and cut off all contact completely.

According to those who had been present,

Madam Qin’s gaze had been sharp, her tongue even sharper. She scolded several elders so viciously that they fainted on the spot.

She showed none of the grief a widow ought to have.

And later, she became even more formidable.

Fifth Uncle Qin, the Qin family’s gambling addict, took a second wife and had a child.

Then he dragged his whole family to the gates of Qin Manor, crying poverty and misery.

He said they had no food left at home, that even the baby’s milk was about to run dry, and begged Madam Qin to take pity on them. Since they were all members of the Qin family, surely she could spare a few dozen taels of silver.

After all, while Lord Qin was alive, he had always been known as generous and kind.

Even if a relative was somewhat distant, he would still give them some silver as a gesture of goodwill.

But Madam Qin refused to give him a single coin.

In front of all the neighbors who had gathered to watch, she hired five wet nurses on the spot.

She said, “An infant without teeth can still beg for food. If the child is ever hungry in the future, just bring him to Qin Manor for some milk.”

Those words shamed Fifth Uncle Qin so badly

that he moved out of the city overnight.

After that, no one ever saw that family again.

Such merciless treatment of her own kin was simply appalling.

As for me,

I was merely the bride whose marriage had been arranged while Lord Qin was still alive.

My husband, moreover, had left on a long journey right after we bowed to Heaven and Earth and had never returned.

With my footing in the family so unstable,

she would never stop until she had flayed several layers of skin off me.

These people took turns telling me stories,

as if they could go on forever,

all of them about Madam Qin’s “many evil deeds.”

I was so sick my head spun, and their words frightened me half to death.

So every day, I prayed my illness would get a little worse.

Ideally, I would just die from it!

Then transmigrate back!

But before long,

I recovered anyway.

Madam Qin seemed to have eyes that could see through heaven itself.

The very day my health began to improve, she sent someone over with a message.

Rigid and severe,

just like a dean of discipline.

“Come serve tea and pay your respects tomorrow at the Hour of the Tiger. If you are late by even a quarter of an hour, you will be dealt with according to family law.”