Chapter 1: The Pinnacle of Transmigration

Chapter 1: The Pinnacle of Transmigration

Tang Shuyi had transmigrated.

At this moment, she was languidly reclining on a golden-threaded nanmu embroidered couch, surrounded by four or five maidservants. Some massaged her shoulders, fanned her, rubbed her legs, and one was even dedicated to peeling grapes for her…

She took a grape handed to her by a maidservant, bit it gently and then sucked it in. The soft, tender flesh of the grape burst in her mouth, its sweetness tinged with a hint of sourness, delighting her spirits.

Tang Shuyi’s mood was far beyond mere pleasure; she was so happy she could jump for joy.

Who wouldn’t be overjoyed? A person who had been worked to death in her previous life now had the chance to transmigrate and lie down in luxury right after arriving.

In her previous life, Tang Shuyi was a true overachiever, a real grinder.

She graduated from an ordinary university and, by sheer fluke, got a job at a foreign corporation. She started as a sales assistant, and after eight years of relentless work, day and night, she became the CEO of the Greater China region of this multinational company.

But just as she was settling into her new role, she… died from overwork.

Thinking back, Tang Shuyi felt it was utterly unfair. She had worked tirelessly, getting up early and staying up late, to earn her luxury cars and mansions, but she hadn’t enjoyed them for long before she kicked the bucket.

It was years of hard work and struggle, and then suddenly, back to…

No, she hadn’t gone back to the 'dark ages'; she was now the Marchioness of the Yongning Marquis Estate in the great Qian Dynasty. She had wealth, status, children, no father-in-law or mother-in-law to deal with, and crucially, her husband was dead, making her the supreme ruler of the Marquis Estate.

Ha ha!

At this thought, Tang Shuyi pressed down on her curling lips; she was afraid she’d burst out laughing. The feeling of gaining without toiling was truly blissful, immensely blissful.

This must be the pinnacle of transmigration, right?

As she placed another grape to her lips, Tang Shuyi heard her maidservant Cuicui say, "Madam, I heard that Miss Wu Er fell into the water yesterday and has been unconscious ever since."

Tang Shuyi pulled her thoughts back from her excitement over her unearned gains and rummaged through her brain to remember who Miss Wu Er was. This person must be related to her; otherwise, Cuicui wouldn’t have mentioned her for no reason.

She had received the memories of her body’s original owner, but there was a lot of information, and she hadn’t fully sorted it all out yet.

After finishing a grape, she finally remembered who this Miss Wu Er was: her eldest son’s fiancée.

“How did she fall into the water?” Tang Shuyi shifted her body to the side, adopting the posture of someone ready to hear gossip.

"The word from the Wu family is that Miss Wu Er was playing by the lakeside and accidentally fell into the water," Cuicui said, pinching a grape and offering it to Tang Shuyi.

Tang Shuyi's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Wow, this is like a real-life mansion intrigue," she thought. In novels, young ladies being pushed into the water or drugged was a common trope.

Wait, before she transmigrated, she was listening to a novel to help her sleep, in which the heroine was also surnamed Wu and was reborn after drowning.

Could it really be such a coincidence?

"What is Miss Wu Er's given name?" Tang Shuyi asked Cuicui as if it were an offhand question.

Cuicui looked slightly startled, wondering why her lady would forget Miss Wu Er's personal name, but she respectfully answered, "Miss Wu Er's given name is Wu Jingyun."

Tang Shuyi's hand clenched the handkerchief she was holding; the heroine in the novel she had been listening to was named Wu Jingyun.

Silently exhaling, she asked further, "What is the name of the eldest son?"

This time, not only Cuicui but all the maids in the room were shocked. How could the lady forget the name of the eldest son?

Tang Shuyi didn't get an answer; she turned her head and saw astonishment on the faces of the maids. She knew her behavior must seem strange to them, but she had to confirm whether she had really transmigrated into a novel.

"You don’t know?" Tang Shuyi looked at Cuicui with a light gaze, as if engaging in casual talk, but Cuicui felt a surge of tension and quickly said, "This servant knows, the eldest son's name is Xiao Yuchen."

The madam's aura today was overwhelming!

Tang Shuyi's mind went blank for a moment; in the novel she had been listening to, the main male supporting character was named Xiao Yuchen.

"Has the eldest son gone to Meihua Alley again?" Tang Shuyi inquired further. In that book, Xiao Yuchen had secretly settled his childhood sweetheart in a house in Meihua Alley.

The room fell silent, as quiet as if enveloped in the chill of winter, the maids' breathing barely audible.

"You don’t know?" Tang Shuyi looked at Cuicui again.

Cuicui grew even more nervous, stammering, "This servant… this servant doesn't know."

Tang Shuyi silently exhaled. It seemed that Meihua Alley did exist, and Xiao Yuchen likely visited often; Cuicui was just too afraid to say so.

Wu Jingyun, Xiao Yuchen, Yongning Marquis Estate, Meihua Alley...

She had indeed transmigrated into a novel!

"All of you, leave," Tang Shuyi gestured. Although Cuicui was puzzled by the madam's behavior today, she still bowed and quietly left. Following her departure, the remaining maids also left in silence.

Left alone in the room, Tang Shuyi collapsed onto the brocaded couch and cursed bluntly, "Damn it!"

Thinking of just lying low?

Lying low my foot!

She had not only transmigrated into a book but also became a villain, and not just any villain—she and her entire family were the main antagonists.

Running through the plot in her head, Tang Shuyi felt like swearing again. As the wife of a marquis, she indeed had wealth, status, and children, but each one of her children was a source of endless headaches!

Her eldest son, as the heir to the marquisate, was lovestruck to the point of almost severing ties with his family for a childhood sweetheart. Her second son was known throughout the capital as a notorious wastrel, uneducated and only interested in fooling around. Even her youngest daughter, only eight, had already developed a domineering attitude.

As for herself, she was destined to fall ill and die soon. Afterward, the marquisate would be stripped of its title, and her three children would meet fates more tragic than the last.

Damn it, she couldn't have been dealt a worse hand.

Lying listlessly on the brocaded couch for a while, Tang Shuyi turned her head to take in the luxury of her room: furniture made of golden Phoebe nanmu wood, a cloisonné screen inlaid with jade, famous calligraphy and paintings hanging on the walls, and even her drinking cup was made of fine green jade. Truly, it was a life of golden splendor!

But this life of extreme wealth wasn't all that easy to live!

Tang Shuyi wasn't one to get discouraged. If she could rise from a mere sales assistant to the president of Greater China, what was this little challenge?

Taking a deep breath, Tang Shuyi sat up straight, her fighting spirit rekindled! There were no gains without pains in life. If she wanted to enjoy the lavish life of an ancient noblewoman, she had to roll up her sleeves and get to work!

It's not about having a bad hand, but how you play it. The kids are a handful, are they? Then she'll have to discipline them strictly. She had managed a company of thousands; how could she not handle three unruly kids?

And as for the soon-to-be reborn heroine, if she was going to target the marquisate right after her rebirth, just as she did in the book, then Tang Shuyi wouldn't be soft-hearted either. Sometimes being the villain could be quite exhilarating.

Leaning lazily on the brocaded couch again, Tang Shuyi began to sort through the content of the book. The heroine, Wu Jingyun, would soon be reborn, and her first order of business would be to break off her engagement with Tang Shuyi's nominal eldest son, Xiao Yuchen.

Wu Jingyun's previous life had been stifling; naturally, she wouldn't simply break off the engagement. She planned to deal a heavy blow to the Yongning Marquisate in the process. Her leverage was that Xiao Yuchen was harboring the daughter of a convicted traitor, Liu Biqin.

Harboring the family of a convicted traitor was no minor crime. Even with the Yongning Marquisate's roots in the capital, they would suffer a significant blow. In the book, this incident marked the beginning of the marquisate's downfall.

Narrowing her eyes, Tang Shuyi realized that she had to deal with this matter sooner rather than later to prevent catastrophe.

Thinking of the plot in the book, Tang Shuyi sighed again. It was understandable for the heroine, Wu Jingyun, who had a miserable previous life, ignored by Xiao Yuchen and framed by Liu Biqin, to seek revenge after her rebirth.

But the crux of the matter was that in the book, her revenge wasn't just against Xiao Yuchen alone but against the entire marquisate. If Tang Shuyi didn’t intervene, she might not just be unable to lie low—she could die prematurely.