Chapter 1

I had been asleep for a very long time when light suddenly flooded in and someone smacked me hard on the bottom.

I opened my mouth to curse, but what came out was an infant’s earth-shattering wail.

An elderly-sounding woman cried, “Madam, I’m afraid it’s a girl!”

A woman’s weak voice came from above my head.

“I’ve already borne three daughters. Every concubine in this household is waiting for her chance. If word gets out that this baby is another girl, Nanny Lin, where will that leave us in the Jiang family?”

The old woman’s voice trembled with tears. “You’re quite right. Master spends all his time away and never concerns himself with the household. All he does is bring home one concubine after another. You and the three young misses have suffered so much.”

“…”

After a silence, the woman suddenly picked me up, thrust me into the nanny’s arms, and steeled herself.

“Then do as I told you!”

Nanny Lin stared in horror for a moment, then gave a deep sigh.

Next, she pinched my bottom again.

Once she had coaxed another lusty howl out of me, she forced a beaming smile onto her face and went outside, calling:

“Congratulations! Madam has given birth to a young master, a full seven jin and six liang! Mother and son are both well!”

The entire household burst into celebration, with congratulations ringing out from every side.

Once her month of confinement was over, Mother took me to Grandfather and begged him to name me.

Father cared very little for her.

He had visited her only twice during her confinement.

But Grandfather ruled this household. By asking him to choose my name, Mother hoped to make him fonder of this “legitimate grandson” of his eldest son.

Grandfather took me from the nanny’s arms.

Seeing my rosy lips, white teeth, and bright little face, he smiled.

“This child looks blessed with good fortune. Let us call him Jiang Yu—precious as pearls and jade.”

I was drinking milk at the time. I couldn’t help it: I gagged.

The name Jiang Yu kept echoing through my head.

I thought back over the scraps of conversation I had heard from this mother of mine in the past few days.

As everything clicked into place, I felt like a dying invalid jolting upright in bed. The eyes I had barely been able to open these past few days went wide.

Shit. This wasn’t an ordinary trip through time.

I’d caught the latest trend. I was inside a novel!

I had gone from a modern woman with a doctorate to a doomed female side character in a romance novel!

The male lead was Jiang Mian. Until the age of eight, he was the illegitimate son of the Jiang family’s eldest master—my father.

Bright from childhood, he passed the entry-level examinations at eight and became quite a sensation.

The Jiangs had been merchants for three generations. Reeking of money as they did, which of them didn’t envy a scholar?

So Father brought Jiang Mian home, intending to make his mistress a wife of equal standing and enter Jiang Mian in the family genealogy to bring honor to the clan.

Naturally, Mother objected.

But Jiang Mian was so accomplished, and so good at delighting Father, that the mistress was made an equal wife in the end.

Mother sank into misery after that and died when I was two.

She left the original Jiang Yu and her three sisters to suffer under their stepmother.

Still, although I was a girl disguised as a boy, I was at least the “legitimate son.”

If the secret stayed hidden, life needn’t have been too terrible.

But the original Jiang Yu was a fool. She actually fell in love with Jiang Mian and willingly revealed that she was a girl.

The outcome was predictable.

Everyone in the Jiang family turned against her, and she was drowned in a pond.

The thought made me shiver. I looked at Grandfather again, this time with a certain eagerness.

Here was a powerful protector. I had to hang on tight.

However outrageous the original girl’s father might be, the old man still had the final say in this family.

With that in mind, I wriggled closer to him.

Mother looked delighted. “This is the first time little Yu has ever been so affectionate! He must love the name you chose, Father.”

Seated in the place of honor, Grandfather deigned to look our way.

For three generations, the Jiangs had been illiterate. He alone had earned the lowest scholarly degree, so of course he would choose a good name.

If little Yu had such good judgment, perhaps he had the makings of a scholar?

The look Grandfather gave me grew considerably warmer.