Chapter 10

Shu Yue had no idea what was happening at the Cheng household. By now, she had already followed Old Madam Cheng to the family’s ancestral home. The house itself was large, but because it was so old, it looked dilapidated. Inside, it was equally bare and rundown—several doors and windows were broken, and even the roof had holes.

“Conditions here are like this. If you can’t stand it, you can still go back to the main house,” Old Madam Cheng said as she watched Shu Yue stand at the doorway, staring blankly inside without entering.

When Shu Yue had first said she wanted to move in and live with her, Old Madam Cheng’s instinct was to refuse. No matter how hard life in the Cheng household was, at least that house sheltered you from wind and rain. Even she, an old woman, felt the ancestral home had a gloomy air. How could a young woman endure it? Still… no matter how tough things were in the main house, surely it had to be better than here.

“Grandmother, this place is fine. From now on, this will be my home. I’m truly grateful that you’re willing to take me in.”

Shu Yue smiled sincerely. The house might be falling apart, but the people inside it were kindhearted. Unlike in the Cheng household, where she lived in constant fear. The moment she realized she’d been reborn, her first thought was to escape that place and move here with Old Madam Cheng. It was the best refuge she could think of. Now that she had accomplished the first step, how could she possibly complain?

“Mother… what’s going on here?”

Cheng Xiaoying walked out of the house and froze when she saw Shu Yue. She knew who Shu Yue was—she just hadn’t expected to see her here, holding a baby in her arms.

“Let’s go inside first,” Old Madam Cheng said, carrying the baby into a small but tidy room. It was clearly a women’s space—one kang-bed, two wooden chests, and nothing else. Though it was simple, it was all that Cheng Xiaoying had.

After being driven out by her husband’s family, she had nowhere to go. Even though she had two older brothers, neither would spare her a single room.

Old Madam Cheng had two sons and one daughter. The eldest, Cheng Daliang—Shu Yue’s father-in-law—locked his doors the moment he heard his divorced sister was coming home. He claimed divorced women were unlucky, and if she stepped inside, she’d bring disaster to the household.

The second son, Cheng Youliang, was even worse—he said they should throw Cheng Xiaoying into a pond to drown. In his eyes, a woman cast out by her in-laws had no right to live, let alone burden her family.

Faced with such callousness, Old Madam Cheng couldn’t stand it. She cleaned up the ancestral house and moved here with her daughter. Though broken-down, at least it kept out the wind and rain. Thankfully, the village head was reasonable and helped transfer Cheng Xiaoying’s household registration back, so she could work in the fields for work points and wouldn’t starve.

Old Madam Cheng thought it would just be the two of them here. She hadn’t expected Shu Yue to come as well.

“Auntie, I’m Shu Yue. We’ll be living together from now on. Don’t worry—I won’t be a burden,” Shu Yue said warmly once inside.

In her previous life, Shu Yue had little contact with this aunt, but she had heard Old Madam Cheng mention that Cheng Xiaoying was a kind soul who’d simply had terrible luck—no good husband, no supportive family. Bullied by her in-laws and ignored by her brothers, Cheng Xiaoying had become timid and withdrawn. If not for her mother’s care, she probably wouldn’t have survived in the village at all.

As a divorced woman driven back home, she was the subject of endless gossip. Cheng Xiaoying never dared to argue or fight back, just endured it silently. Over time, she stopped speaking much to anyone except her mother.

Someone like that would be easy to get along with, Shu Yue thought—which was why she’d moved here without hesitation.

“Living together?” Cheng Xiaoying asked, puzzled, but she didn’t press for details. Instead, she quickly went to tidy up the neighboring room. Its windows and door were intact and it faced a good direction—just a bit small, which was why she and her mother hadn’t chosen it before. For Shu Yue and her baby, it was perfect.

“Get some rest first,” Cheng Xiaoying said briskly. “Especially you. You’ve just given birth—you need to recover.”

Old Madam Cheng helped lay out Shu Yue’s bedding and placed the baby on the warm kang-bed before taking her daughter back to their own room.

After such a long, exhausting day, Shu Yue finally felt some peace as she watched her son sleeping soundly. Thank goodness—this time around, she had kept her baby by her side and moved out of the Cheng household. It was a good beginning. She swore she would protect him no matter what, never letting him die young as he had in her past life.

Suddenly she remembered something. She reached inside her clothing and pulled out the jade pendant she’d hidden there. Murmuring the word “enter,” she was instantly transported somewhere else.

She stood before a small courtyard. Pushing open the gate, she saw tidy vegetable beds growing melons and greens—few in number, but thriving. Three rooms stood neatly labeled: Living Quarters, Storage, and Study. In the yard was a bubbling spring, with a sign that read Spirit Spring.

This was the strange space Shu Yue had accidentally bound with her own blood right after childbirth. At the time, she’d been half-conscious and barely noticed. She’d entered briefly once, thirsty and weak, and drunk some spring water. It had immediately eased her discomfort. Then she’d overheard Huang Fang and her mother whispering outside and hurriedly returned to her bed.

Everything had happened so suddenly that she wondered if she’d imagined it. Now, finally able to check, she saw it was all real.

Looking at the little courtyard, Shu Yue could only sigh with gratitude—Heaven hadn’t treated her so poorly after all. After such a miserable death in her last life, not only had she been reborn, but she’d even been given this miraculous gift. It filled her with hope and confidence for the future.