chapter 1

The young miss had died three years ago, in the depths of winter, and her grave had been thrown together carelessly.

I thought for a moment, then raised my embroidered shoe and gave her tombstone a light kick.

The System’s voice rang out in my mind at once.

“Congratulations, Host. Mission complete. Reward: one bottle of beauty pills.”

I let out a breath of relief, gathered my skirt, and sat down beside the young miss’s grave.

Her grave stood all alone, and it was only thanks to my constant tending that it didn’t look completely desolate.

I propped my chin on my hand and asked her with a smile:

“Hongxue, did you ever imagine you’d end up like this?”

Her grave said nothing.

But I knew she must not have.

I was the daughter of a “slim horse” girl of Yangzhou, and my name was Wu Shan.

My mother had gone to great lengths to find a good household to take me in as a maidservant.

Being a maidservant was good — staying with a great family meant food and clothes to spare, and when I grew older, perhaps I could even be matched with a servant boy.

Whole families, generation after generation, all bound to base servitude, never able to turn their fortunes around.

When I transmigrated here, I was only five years old.

Children’s memories are the easiest to wash away, and soon I could no longer remember where I came from.

Being sold into the Lin estate was perhaps the best ending I could have hoped for.

The Grand Chancellor Lin’s legitimate daughter was named Lin Hongxue. She had just turned seven, but her fame had already spread far and wide.

I often overheard people singing Lin Hongxue’s praises.

They would say: “That girl of the Lin family is sharp as a whip! Such a clever little thing — wonder which scoundrel will get lucky with her someday.”

Then they’d burst into loud laughter.

I’d serve their tea with trembling hands, my face wearing the same perfectly appropriate smile.

From their chatter, I learned that Lin Hongxue was clever and beautiful. She had a bit of a temper, it was true, but that only made her all the more charming.

Flawless, one might say.

Later, I was assigned as Lin Hongxue’s maidservant — and that was when I began to think those guests were wrong about her.

The moment we met, Lin Hongxue looked at me with undisguised disgust.

She tossed a handful of gold beads carelessly at my feet and gestured for me to pick them up.

“Any stray cat or dog can waltz into my Lin family’s gates these days,” she said. “Take these gold beads and go. Don’t ever show your face to the Lin family again!”

That wasn’t charming temper — that was a flower that bit.

But I had long since grown used to servile flattery.

So I smiled ingratiatingly, picked up the gold beads with care, and wiped the dust off them.

Then I bowed to her in gratitude.

“Thank you, Miss Lin.”

Lin Hongxue was taken aback. She turned her head away and didn’t look at me again.

I was put up in the Lin estate’s guest quarters, and I never once set foot into the inner courtyard again.

Coincidentally, a little over ten days after I arrived, I heard a piece of news.

The Lin family’s eldest young master had toyed with a maidservant to death.

So I took the gold beads out from under my pillow, polished them again and again, and tucked them carefully into my pocket.