Chapter 1: Transformation

  "Come on, Grandma, push!" The midwife's shrill cry pierced Lin Xiyue's eardrums.

  After a whole day of labor pains, Lin Xiyu was already exhausted. Everyone told her that this child must be a boy. As long as she gave birth to a son, she would no longer have to worry about the future of her mother and younger brother.

  She must give birth to her son safely, and her happy life has just begun.

  Lin Xiyu took a few sips of ginseng tea, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She then clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. With all her might, she propped herself up, but suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded, and her whole body went limp and fell back onto the bed.

  "Grandma, Grandma!"

  The urgent cries gradually moved away from her, and the pain in her lower body slowly disappeared. She vaguely heard the midwife say that she had severe bleeding and was afraid it wouldn't work out. She couldn't die like this. She still had a mother, she still had a son. She had finally married Shen Jinglun, she couldn't leave him like this.

  Lin Xiyu tried hard to open her eyes, but her eyelids were heavy and her whole body was weak. She struggled to breathe in fresh air, but something was constricting her neck, as if someone had grabbed her throat. She wanted to cry out for help, but not a sound could escape her lips. Suddenly, her body felt like it had fallen from a great height, and every part of her was in agony, as if she had been torn apart. Without thinking, she instinctively coughed violently, gasping for air.

  "Awake?" The man kicked her body lightly.

  A man's voice? How could there be a man in the delivery room? Lin Xiyu instinctively covered her belly, but found it was still flat as before. She felt an urge to scream, but only managed to let out a hoarse "heh heh" sound. Her neck was burning with pain, and everything around her was spinning.

  What happened?

  Lin Xiyu raised her head, and saw that the bright red sun was already half submerged in the blue sea. She looked around in horror. On the branches above her head, a white silk ribbon fluttered in the wind. The sunset dyed the white ribbon blood red.

  "Hey, where's your home? I saved you, at least go ask for some reward money." The man looked down at Lin Xiyuan.

  Due to the backlight, Lin Xiyuan couldn't see his expression clearly, only seeing that he was holding a dagger in his hand. The blade flashed with a cold light, causing her to swallow a mouthful of saliva unconsciously.

  Was I kidnapped?

  Lin Xiyu immediately denied this speculation. Throughout the entire Ji Zhou, no one didn't know about the Shen family, and even more so, no one dared to kidnap Old Lady Shen. But where did her child go? She bit down hard on her lower lip. The stinging pain in her lower lip told her that she wasn't dreaming.

  "What do you want?" Lin Xiyu spat out these few words with difficulty, shrinking her neck and slowly backing away, warily watching the sharp blade in the man's hand.

  The man looked down at Lin Xiyin with a condescending gaze, making a "tsk" sound with his mouth as he circled around her. Suddenly, he crouched down, the cold blade of his dagger pressed against her cheek, and he said with a fake smile: "What, don't want to give me silver? Look at your delicate skin, you'd definitely be worth a lot of money if sold to a brothel."

  "How dare you!"

  "What am I afraid of?" The man sneered, his mouth curled up at the corners, but there was no hint of a smile in his eyes.

  Lin Xiyu's heart was in a flurry, her intuition telling her that the man before her was not a good person. What to do? At this moment, she should be in the Shen family's birthing room instead. She lowered her head and saw that she was wearing a plain white undergarment, which made her even more puzzled.

  The skirt was made of the finest Hangzhou silk, but it had already become old and worn out. This wasn't her dress! What's going on here? Anyway, she had to hurry back to the Shen family.

  As Lin Xiyu's thoughts were turning a thousand times, the man had already put away his dagger. He pinched her chin with his thumb and index finger, examining her carefully. "Take a closer look, you're quite pretty. If you don't have any money, I'll take a loss and let you repay me with your body." After speaking, he reached out to tear off Lin Xiyu's clothes.

  "Stop!" Lin Xiyu grabbed his collar and rolled backwards in a frantic retreat.

  The man's palm grasped her occipital bone and said coldly: "You don't care about your life, why do you still care about your chastity?"

  Lin Xiyu was so frightened that her soul flew away, and she could only pretend to be calm, saying in a low voice: "This big brother, as long as you have money, what kind of girl can't you get? I can give you money, just let me go back to the city..."

  "Huh?" The man's face was full of suspicion, "So to speak, you're not a virgin anymore, so..." He looked up at the white ribbon on the tree.

  Lin Xiyu took a deep breath and forced out a flattering smile, saying pitifully: "Old man, my family isn't short of money, just let me go..."

  "How do I know you're not cheating me?" The man's gaze wandered over Lin Xiyu's face, their cheeks inches apart.

  Lin Xiyu was terrified, not daring to look into his eyes. She only knew he wore coarse linen clothes, covered in stains, and the smell of sweat mixed with mud made her very uncomfortable. She held her breath and said solemnly: "You should have heard of the Lin family of Jizhou... I... I am a maid of their household. Our young mistress is very fond of me..."

  "You were just a maid!" The man said so with his mouth, but his expression clearly told her that he didn't believe her nonsense.

  Lin Xiyu took a deep breath, raised her chin and said in a low voice: "Whether you believe it or not, if you want to humiliate me, I'll bite my tongue off, you won't get anything!"

  "Kill yourself by biting your tongue?" The man chuckled lightly, one hand pinching Lin Xiyuan's chin, the other shoving a dirty sweat towel into her mouth, saying with satisfaction: "Let's see you try to kill yourself by biting your tongue now!"

  Behind her was a cliff, Lin Xiyu didn't want to die, she couldn't die. She used her forehead to fiercely knock against the man's nose. Before the man came back to his senses, she desperately got up. This place was far from the city gate, she definitely wouldn't be able to outrun him. She rolled and crawled for two steps, then turned around again, and kicked the man with all her might.

  The man sensed her intention, covered his nose and slightly turned to the side, only to feel a sharp pain in his calf. "Damn it, if I get kicked by her, I'll be sterile!" He cursed and limped after Lin Xiyu as she ran away.

  Lin Xiyu heard the footsteps behind her and could only run desperately.

  "Miss, where are you? Miss!"

  Hearing the calls from near and far, Lin Xiyu just wanted to shout "Save me", but found that her shoulders were tightly held by a pair of arms. She didn't have time to struggle, and the two had already fallen to the ground, rolling on the grass for several rounds. Suddenly, she felt a severe pain in the back of her head, and lost consciousness in an instant.

  After an unknown period of time, Lin Xiyu slowly opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by darkness, with a blurry view of the starry sky. She struggled to prop herself up and looked around in all directions.

  "Miss, you've finally woken up." A sixteen or seventeen year old maid grasped Lin Xiyu's sleeve tightly with both hands, her eyes brimming with tears.

  Lin Xiyu recognized her, she was Bai Miao, the personal maid of her cousin. "Where's He Huan?" she asked casually. To be honest, she had never liked her cousin since childhood, who was always sickly and melancholic, often hiding in a corner to lament the passing of time.

  "So late, what is she doing here?" Lin Xiyu didn't hear the answer, raised her head to look at Bai Zhu, only to see her staring blankly at herself, as if she didn't recognize her. "What's wrong?" She frowned.

  Bai Mian stared blankly at Lin Xiyuan, then suddenly burst into loud wailing, shouting: "Miss, don't scare me!"

  Lin Xiyu couldn't bear to look at her, with one hand wiping away snot and the other tears. She turned her head around, but there was no one else nearby, and the memories from before slowly flooded into her mind. "Have you seen a man?" she asked.

  Bai Miao was only kneeling on the ground crying, and didn't hear Lin Xiyue's question at all. Lin Xiyue confirmed that there was no one around, and tentatively stood up, only to find that she not only had aches and pains all over her body, but also sprained her foot. She hurriedly covered her lower abdomen, which was flat and smooth. What on earth happened? The child was hers after all.

  "Alright, stop crying!" Lin Xiyue shouted loudly, and then started coughing violently. Her throat was in great pain, her entire neck felt scorching hot.

  Bai Mian was startled by Lin Xiyen's angry rebuke and forgot to react for a moment.

  Lin Xiyu finally stopped coughing and said discontentedly, "Don't stare at me blankly. I'm asking you, did you see a man just now?"

  Baizhou nodded slightly.

  "What about him?"

  "It's already...already gone." Bai Miao's voice was trembling.

  Lin Xiyu pursed her lips, looking at Bai Miao with impatience. As the saying goes, "the object is like its owner". He Huan's maid was just like her mistress, soft and sticky. She took a deep breath and said in a gentle tone, "Be more specific."

  She sniffled, took out a handkerchief to wipe away her tears and replied in a low voice: "He said it was he who saved the young lady. If I didn't give him some money for his trouble, he would sell both me and the young lady together. He looked so fierce that I gave him the pouch Miss had given me earlier, then he left."

  "Is that it?" Lin Xiyu felt strange, "What did you just call me?" she asked in surprise.

  "Miss, what's wrong?" Bai Miao's tears welled up in her eyes again.

  "Don't cry! I just bumped my head, tell me everything that happened today." She said while examining herself. Originally her fingers were white and slender, perfect and flawless, but now her palms had calluses. Her hands and feet were also shorter than before.

  He Huan was indeed thinner and smaller than her!

  This thought caused Lin Xiyin's face to lose all its blood. She tried to take two steps, and then fell back onto the grass again.

  How could she possibly turn into He Huan, this is absolutely impossible!

  In the mournful cry of Bai Mian, He Huan's memories surged into Lin Xiyue's mind like a spring. She was so shocked that she couldn't speak, and could only cover her mouth with force. She had taken over He Huan's body, while the real He Huan had already hanged himself to death.