Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was early autumn, and there was already a chill in the air at dawn.

But Jiang Chun, with a strap around his neck and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, was sweating profusely as he loaded pork onto a wheelbarrow.

His father, Jiang He, had taken on a job slaughtering pigs and left at the crack of dawn.

Jiang Chun had slaughtered a pig alone, letting the blood out, removing the hair, skinning it, and cutting the bones, all while cleaning the internal organs. He had been busy for a full hour.

It was now the hour of Mao (5 AM), and he feared he would miss the morning market, so he hurriedly pushed the wheelbarrow toward town.

Daliushu Village was not far from Hongye Town; it took him only a quarter of an hour to walk there.

However, Daliushu Village was to the north of the town, while the morning market was to the south. He had to cross the entire town to reach their meat stall.

But this also conveniently allowed him to check in along the way.

Ironically, as a struggling author, he had finally achieved fame by writing about a handsome, powerful, and tragic male supporting character, but died before receiving his royalties.

Then he found himself transported into his own book, becoming the deceased wife of that tragic male supporting character, Song Shian.

The cause of her death in the original story was adultery, followed by being drowned in a pig cage by Song Shian.

Of course, that was the original plot. Jiang Chun wasn't insane; he wouldn't abandon the future Grand Secretary who would wield immense power to run off with a butcher.

Divorce was out of the question. He had written a character who possessed both beauty and intelligence, and naturally, he intended to benefit from it.

So every day, he diligently slaughtered pigs, checked in, and hoped to soon become wealthy, allowing Song Shian to live a life of luxury.

Before slaughtering a pig, he always fed it well. The same went for Song Shian; if he didn't take good care of him, how could he face him when they eventually moved to the capital as a nobleman's wife?

[Ding! Check-in successful at "Hongye Town Money House," received 15 copper coins.]

[Ding! Check-in successful at "Hongye Town Apothecary," received 2 ounces of honeysuckle.]

Jiang Chun: "..."

His check-in system was now level 2, automatically adding 2 check-in points at midnight each day. He could check in at two shops marked with a yellow exclamation mark to receive rewards.

He prioritized the money house and the apothecary.

The money house contained not only copper coins but also silver and gold, even banknotes.

The apothecary, besides herbs, also had spices. In ancient times, valuable spices could only be bought at an apothecary.

Yet these two shops gave him 15 copper coins and 2 ounces of honeysuckle. With his rotten luck, relying on the check-in system to get rich seemed unrealistic. He still needed to focus on slaughtering pigs.

Jiang Chun pushed the wheelbarrow to the stall and was about to untie the ropes securing the baskets when Liu Pozi berated him harshly.

"It's already past mid-morning, and you're just getting here. Are you intentionally trying to ruin your business?"

"Don't think that living in a brick house and having a son-in-law means you can slack off."

"Those three brick rooms, one for your father, one for you and your wife, and the middle one for the kitchen. It's enough for now, but what about when you have children? Where will they live?"

"And your son-in-law, he's nothing but a sickly man. Forget about earning money; the daily medicine costs are no small amount."

"Look, everything requires money. How do you sleep at night? Even the donkey grinding grain in town doesn't rest like you!"

Jiang Chun: "..."

Speechless, he said, "Auntie, please be reasonable. I haven't been lazy. My father went to Maocun Village to slaughter pigs for Mr. Mao today. I handled a whole pig myself, from the early hours until now, without even drinking a sip of water."

Liu Pozi sized up Jiang Chun with her sunken yet shrewd eyes, assessing the truth of his words.

After a moment, she huffed lightly, picked up the basket at her feet, and went to the morning market to look for bargains.

Jiang Chun shook his head and smiled, then opened the door to Liu Pozi's house and carried out the table, chairs, chopping board, and knife for their meat stall from the west wing.

Liu Pozi was the daughter of Jiang He's mother Li's aunt, making her Jiang He's cousin and Jiang Chun's aunt.

Her house was conveniently located on the street where the morning market was held.

Jiang He rented a spot in front of her house to set up a meat stall.

Liu Pozi, though pitiful, had lost her husband early and raised a son and a daughter by working as a wet nurse for wealthy families.

Tragically, her son, a sailor, drowned in a maritime disaster, and her daughter eloped and disappeared.

To ensure someone would take care of her in old age, she adopted an abandoned boy, but he returned to his biological parents at sixteen.

Realizing that relying on others was unreliable, Liu Pozi now focused solely on accumulating wealth. She worked tirelessly and couldn't stand seeing anyone else idle.

She often nagged Jiang Chun, and his ears were almost calloused from her constant complaints.

Despite her harshness towards others, Jiang Chun was particularly tolerant of his widowed aunt, though he would occasionally retort, he never took it to heart.

Just as Jiang Chun hung up the meat, a customer arrived.

Wang the matchmaker, with poorly applied makeup that made her face look like a monkey's bottom, waved her handkerchief and swayed over.

*

Stopping in front of the stall, she looked around dramatically and said in a high-pitched voice, "Chun, why are you here alone? Where is your father?"

"Clang!" Jiang Chun threw the cleaver onto the chopping block and coldly replied, "Are you buying meat or not? If not, move aside and don't hinder my business."

Both fond of making money, Liu Pozi took the righteous path, earning her wealth through hard work with her own hands, while this Wang Matchmaker always resorted to underhanded means.

In this ten-mile radius around Hongye Town, any man with a few coins in his pocket was inevitably her devoted follower.

Jiang He, who had a few coins, lost his wife, and only had an only daughter at home, naturally caught the eye of Wang Matchmaker, who wanted to marry him as a second wife.

Unfortunately, Jiang He was an upright man and remained unmoved by Wang Matchmaker's seductions.

This only fueled Wang Matchmaker's competitive spirit, and she would frequently loiter near his meat stall, looking for an opportunity to win him over.

Wang Matchmaker flicked her handkerchief and said in a mocking tone, "Oh my, you little miss, it’s one thing to do such violent work, but to speak so rudely, I fear you might never find a husband..."

Halfway through her sentence, her eyes caught sight of the neatly coiled hair bun on Jiang Chun's head, and her tongue twisted, "Poor dear, if your father were willing to take me, a capable woman, as his second wife, you wouldn’t have to end up with a sickly good-for-nothing as a son-in-law."

There were too many points to criticize, and Jiang Chun didn't know where to start.

She snorted disdainfully, "Your calculations are so loud, I can hear them all the way from Daliushu Village."

Marrying her as a second wife, so she could sell her stepdaughter for money, strip the Jiang family of their assets, and conveniently give Jiang He a few green hats?

Jiang He might be honest, but he wasn’t stupid.

Even if she hadn’t come into the story, according to the original plot, Jiang He wouldn’t fall for Wang Matchmaker’s schemes.

Wang Matchmaker glared at Jiang Chun, unwilling to argue with this cunning stepdaughter, and walked away with a twist of her hips.

This sickly son-in-law of hers clearly wouldn’t live long. Once she married into the Jiang family and the sickly son-in-law passed away, she would sell her to a wealthy lord in the county as a concubine.

Though this stepdaughter had a venomous tongue and a cruel nature, her appearance was top-notch, and people in town secretly called her the "Pork Beauty."

With such beauty, even after having a son-in-law, she would still fetch a good price.

Jiang Chun was unaware of Wang Matchmaker’s secret plans to sell her, as the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, and local custom dictated visiting married daughters before the festival, so customers came to buy meat one after another. She had no time to deal with that dirty woman.

After a busy morning, she closed the stall at 8 AM.

Jiang Chun put the table and chairs back in the west wing, then picked up two clean bones and said to Liu Pozi, who was washing clothes in the yard, "Do you want these bones? As you get older, drinking bone soup will strengthen your bones."

Liu Pozi didn’t look up, pursing her lips, "Boiling bone soup uses a lot of firewood. Do you think firewood is free?"

Jiang Chun huffed lightly, "Do you want them or not? If not, I’ll take them home and boil the soup myself."

Liu Pozi fell silent for a moment, then nodded toward the main room, "Put them in the porcelain bowl on the stove."

Jiang Chun smiled, knowing exactly what would happen.

Leaving Liu Pozi’s house, she went to the bun shop and bought a basket of meat buns, two vegetable and tofu buns, and two bowls of tofu pudding.

Then she hurried home.

First, she helped Song Shian to the kitchen table, then fetched two bowls and poured the tofu pudding from the small clay jar into them.

She placed a bowl of tofu pudding in front of him and handed him the oil paper-wrapped vegetable buns.

Smiling, she said, "I walked fast on the way, so the tofu pudding and buns are still warm. Husband, please eat while they’re hot."

Song Shian looked down at the tofu pudding and buns in front of him, then glanced up at the smiling Jiang Chun, his brows slowly furrowing.

He had just attended the Emperor’s brother’s eightieth birthday banquet and woke up to find himself back in the time when he was a son-in-law in the Jiang family.

As the powerful Prime Minister, second only to the emperor and above all others, Song Shian didn’t feel the need to relive his life.

However, if heaven offered an opportunity, it should not be refused. Since heaven gave him a chance to live again, he would accept it.

If there was any regret in his previous life as Prime Minister, it was that he had been cuckolded by Jiang Chun, becoming a laughingstock in the Imperial City.

Although his status as the emperor’s brother-in-law rose with the new emperor’s ascension, no one dared to mention it anymore.

But that didn’t mean it was forgotten.

If there were a pillar of shame, his name would be the largest on it.

So, after accepting the fact of his rebirth, the first thing he planned to do was eliminate Jiang Chun, the adulteress, to avoid disgracing himself again.

But the Jiang Chun in front of him, smiling and pouring tofu pudding and offering buns, seemed off.

This was clearly not Jiang Chun.

To be precise, it wasn’t the Jiang Chun at this point in time.

At this point, the real Jiang Chun despised the sickly son-in-law her father had brought home and rarely spoke to him.

Could it be that she, like him, had also been reborn?

And had somehow learned that he would rise to the highest ranks, so she was now trying to ingratiate herself?

Song Shian clenched his back teeth. What right did such a shameless adulteress have to be reborn?

But it didn’t matter whether she had been reborn or not; he wouldn’t let her live until the day he returned to the Imperial City.