Volume One Chapter One Back to Before Acknowledging My Kin
Jiang Rui lay slumped over her desk, drifting in a haze of sleep.
Suddenly, she felt warmth at her back, like a man’s gentle breath drawing near, sending a shiver through her. She snapped awake.
The searing pain in her abdomen seemed to linger still—had the wine done nothing? Was she not dead?
Her heart pounded with uncontrollable fear. If that man was still alive as well, what new cruelty would he devise to torment her this time?
Cuiliu, her maid, draped a warmed cloak over her shoulders. Seeing Jiang Rui awake, she worriedly urged, “Miss, how could you fall asleep at your desk? The spring chill is biting—be careful not to catch cold!”
Jiang Rui moved her numb arm and forced herself upright. As her blurred vision cleared, she met Cuiliu’s youthful face.
“Cuiliu? You…” Are you still alive?
As soon as the words left her lips, Jiang Rui realized something was amiss.
Half a year ago, Cuiliu had aided her escape, only to be struck down by an arrow from the prince’s guards as they fled.
Yet now, before her stood Cuiliu, about fourteen or fifteen, with a round face, bright eyes, and twin buns in her hair, dressed in the green gown of a first-class maid from the Marquis of Anle’s household.
This was Cuiliu from years ago, in the Anle Marquisate!
Pulling the warm cloak close, Jiang Rui’s thoughts raced. She asked urgently, “Cuiliu, what year is it now?”
“It’s the tenth day of the third month, in the seventh year of Yongning,” Cuiliu replied truthfully, puzzled.
“We always come to Caiyun Pavilion to check the accounts on this day of the month, miss. What’s the matter?”
Jiang Rui looked around in excitement—she had been reborn six years into the past!
The familiar tables and chairs confirmed it: this was indeed the back room of Caiyun Pavilion.
Caiyun Pavilion was a silk shop belonging to the Marquisate, with a storefront in front and two back rooms in the courtyard. As the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Anle, Jiang Rui had managed the family’s properties for two years—Caiyun Pavilion among them. She had been here countless times.
Thanks to her careful management, the profits from Caiyun Pavilion and the other shops steadily grew, gradually covering the household’s deficits.
Suddenly, urgent knocking sounded at the door, accompanied by a shop assistant’s anxious report.
“Ma’am, an official young lady is outside with a pack of fierce-looking guards. They’ve scared away all the customers and are demanding to see you.”
Jiang Rui’s heart skipped a beat—she remembered now!
It was today that Princess Qingcheng, with her retinue of guards, came to stir up trouble. A single word led to the smashing of Caiyun Pavilion and a lashing from the princess’s whip.
Princess Qingcheng was the doted sister of the all-powerful Prince of Zhenbei—every bit as lawless, arrogant, and ruthless as her infamous brother.
Jiang Rui had tried to seek justice, but at the mere mention of Princess Qingcheng, no officials dared intervene.
When she returned, battered, to the Marquisate, her father offered no comfort—only a severe scolding, terrified of offending the Prince of Zhenbei’s household. Instead, he dragged Jiang Rui to apologize to the princess.
The Marquisate had long fallen into decline. The current Marquis was neither accomplished in civil nor military affairs, holding a sinecure thanks to his ancestors’ merit. Yet, he clung desperately to his pride.
After scolding her, he demanded silver from Jiang Rui to redeem a courtesan, but all her earnings were handed to the Marquise for household expenses—she had nothing spare for him.
He refused to believe her, cursed her as unfilial, and made her kneel in the ancestral hall all night.
The hall was cold, and her injuries still fresh. By dawn, she was feverish and fell into a three-day coma.
It was during this illness that Jiang Yao, the true daughter, returned, exposing Jiang Rui as a counterfeit.
While Jiang Rui lay insensible, Jiang Yao not only reclaimed her place as the Marquis’s real daughter but branded Jiang Rui as the niece of Nanny Liu—the woman who had orchestrated the switch.
Nanny Liu was the villain who exchanged the marquis’s child, and Jiang Rui, the impostor who had usurped the rightful heiress’s place.
When Jiang Rui finally awoke, she found everything had changed.
From the Marquis’s beloved daughter, she had fallen to the lowest of slaves, despised and abused—sent to serve Jiang Yao, enduring her beatings and humiliation.
Her respected father said, “You stole my daughter’s identity for sixteen years. This is no more than you deserve.”
The mother she had defended said, “Our Yao’er suffered for your sake—a few beatings are nothing for you to bear.”
Even her cherished younger brother sided with Jiang Yao, helping her torment Jiang Rui.
The pain of her wounds was endurable, but the despair in her heart was not.
Later, the Marquis, seeing her beauty blossom, resolved to sell his former daughter as a concubine to some powerful lord…
The thought of that monstrous, ruthless man sent a tremor through Jiang Rui.
She would never allow herself to fall into that inescapable abyss again!
Family? They were nothing but fiends who used and hurt her.
Given this second chance at life, she owed nothing to the Marquisate’s reputation or prosperity—nor did she wish to manage their businesses.
All Jiang Rui wanted was to protect herself and Cuiliu, and sever every tie with the Marquisate of Anle.
If Princess Qingcheng wished to smash Caiyun Pavilion, so be it—Jiang Rui would not intervene.
If the princess wanted to destroy the Marquisate itself, Jiang Rui would only applaud.
“Tell the manager to serve the lady good tea and say I’ll be there soon,” Jiang Rui instructed the attendant outside as she, relying on memory, opened the hidden compartment beneath her desk.
The attendant left, and Jiang Rui found in the secret compartment a blue pouch. Inside were two bank drafts of one thousand taels each.
This was money she had set aside for next month’s inventory—now, it would serve a better purpose.
Cuiliu’s worry deepened. “Miss, those people mean harm. Shouldn’t you avoid them?”
“Of course we won’t go,” Jiang Rui replied with a sly smile. “We’re leaving by the back door right now.”
Sending the attendant was merely to buy them time, lest the mad princess storm the back rooms in search of her.
Cuiliu nodded eagerly and began to gather their things.
Jiang Rui stopped her. “There’s no time—leave everything else. We must go now!”
Mistress and maid slipped out of the room and quietly exited through the back door of Caiyun Pavilion.
Rather than flee far, they circled the street and entered a teahouse opposite the shop, where they rented a private room on the second floor.
From their vantage, they could see the main entrance of Caiyun Pavilion.
Soon, they watched as burly guards hurled bolts of silk into the street, causing a commotion as passersby scrambled for the spoils.
The manager and two clerks fled the shop, clutching their heads, pursued by a woman in brilliant red, brandishing a whip and striking out at them.
“It’s the manager and the others!” Cuiliu gasped.
Jiang Rui pressed her shoulder to keep her calm, carefully narrowing the window to avoid being seen.
The woman in red was none other than Princess Qingcheng.
In her past life, just like this, the princess had led her men to destroy Caiyun Pavilion.
Back then, Jiang Rui had tried to reason with her in hopes of saving the shop, invoking her status as the Marquis’s daughter. But the declining house of Anle was beneath the princess’s notice—she had simply lashed Jiang Rui with her whip, pain so intense she nearly fainted.
“Miss, Caiyun Pavilion is being destroyed. Are we just going to watch?” Cuiliu asked anxiously.
Jiang Rui sighed. “That’s Princess Qingcheng. If we go, we’ll only be beaten too.”
In her previous life, Cuiliu had suffered several lashes trying to protect her.
“That’s the infamous Princess Qingcheng?!” Cuiliu drew a sharp breath, both shocked and afraid.
“But why would Princess Qingcheng target our shop? We have no quarrel with her, nor she with the Marquisate…”