After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

The windows were bright and clean, and a gentle autumn breeze blew. Through the high courtyard wall, the voices of nearby villagers could be heard. After sending her son, daughter-in-law, and her newborn granddaughter to the next room and repeatedly instructing them not to come out without being summoned, Li Meiniang personally brewed a pot of tea and brought it to Xie Yubai.

“I know the purpose of your visit, sir. What happened back then was all done by Meiniang alone. It was Meiniang who used the child in her womb to coerce him into committing the same crime as her. Meiniang knows that the crime she committed is very serious and hopes that you will punish him severely. I only beg you to spare him and my son’s family. They are innocent and should not be implicated by Meiniang.”

As Li Meiniang spoke, she turned to Cheng Xiaoan and said, "It is Meiniang who has wronged you and caused you to become like this today. Meiniang deserves to die. I only beg you not to blame the child for your resentment towards Meiniang. He is different from Meiniang. He is an extremely filial and sensible child."

After saying that, Meiniang stretched out her hand to Xie Yubai: "Meiniang is willing to surrender and let you decide my fate."

Cheng Xiaoan rushed over, "It's my fault, it's all my fault, please, sir, spare Meiniang."

Xie Yubai leaned back in his chair. "In what capacity did you say that? As the abbot of Huguo Temple or as Cheng Xiao'an, the jade carving merchant from Tingzhou?"

Cheng Xiaoan looked at Xie Yubai, the light in his eyes gradually fading, like a person on the verge of death.

Lu Zhiyuan walked up to Li Meiniang and asked, "You met him in Tingzhou. He was a jade carving merchant. What are you?"

Li Meiniang pursed her lips. "Miss, my mother was a servant who followed Lord Zhang to Tingzhou. Later, she married a wine merchant as a concubine. After my mother died, I, as the stepdaughter, was not tolerated by the wine merchant's wives and concubines and was sold to another man at the age of thirteen."

"Thirteen years old?" Lu Zhiyuan looked at Liu Ying: "Isn't that the same age as my Liu Ying? That wine merchant is no good, and his wives and concubines are no better."

Li Meiniang curled her lips into a charming smile, adding a touch of allure to her otherwise unremarkable features.

"That wine merchant was indeed no good. He took my mother as a concubine without regard for the wishes of his wives and concubines, simply because my mother was beautiful. On the day my mother entered the mansion, his concubine was giving birth, but he ignored her and only thought about spending the wedding night with my mother. When the concubine had a difficult labor and her maid came to call for her, he actually shouted that she should hold it in and not give birth to the child on this night, so as not to spoil his happy occasion. It was only after my mother begged him that he impatiently sent someone to fetch a midwife."

"Your child?"

“It was a girl, she died as soon as she was born.” Li Meiniang sighed deeply. “My concubine resented my mother, believing that my mother was responsible for her daughter’s death. Little did she know that the one who truly killed her daughter was not my mother, but the master she regarded as heaven and earth, the one who could make decisions for her. If it weren’t for my mother, she and her daughter would both be dead.”

Li Meiniang smiled, but her smile was full of self-mockery and helplessness.

"After my mother married the wine merchant, she was greatly favored, and I even enjoyed a few days of being a young lady. Less than two months after entering the manor, my mother became pregnant. The doctor said her pulse was strong, and the baby in her womb was definitely a boy. The wine merchant had few children; only his wife had given birth to two sons. The elder son died of illness, and the younger son was lame in the eyes of others because of his leg injury. He was withdrawn and never communicated with anyone. When he learned that my mother was carrying a boy, he vented all his resentment on his younger son. The younger son couldn't bear it, and under the cover of night, he tied his belt to the bed and hanged himself."

Li Meiniang closed her eyes, as if she had returned to that night.

As the stepdaughter of a wine merchant, she lived across from the youngest son. She overheard the wife's insults directed at him. The wife was using veiled criticism, and she and her mother were the veiled criticism. The wife's youngest son understood that his suicide stemmed from both his mother's insults and his own physical disability, which made him feel unworthy and unfit to live.

His death was of his own choosing, and was caused by multiple people and multiple reasons, yet Madam blamed it all on her and her daughter.

Before his youngest son hanged himself, he forcefully pushed open the window and peered out. At that time, she, living under someone else's roof, was also having trouble sleeping at night, and her window was open, her eyes meeting his. He was startled at first, then looked at her with disgust, and then a particularly radiant smile, like the morning glow, bloomed on his face—a smile she had never seen on his face before.

He opened the window, limped to the bedside, untied his belt, and tied it to the headboard.

The moonlight wasn't bright that night, but she could see everything clearly. He hanged himself in front of her. She wanted to rush to his aid, but the door, though opened, slowly closed again. She remembered his smile; perhaps death was a true release for him.

She leaned against the door, unaware of when she fell asleep, until she heard the lady's cries and realized that it was the most peaceful sleep she had had since arriving at the wine shop.

The lady hated the mother and daughter. The mother was wronged, but she was not, because she had indeed failed to save them.

Because of her wife's accusations, the concubine's targeting, and the fact that the wine merchant took a new lover after she became pregnant, she lost both her child and her unborn child due to the immense pressure and her overwhelming guilt.

They enter with great fanfare, but leave with only a rolled-up straw mat.

The lady was delighted, and so were the concubines. They said that their mother had received her just deserts, and that she and the child in her womb were paying for their child's death. As her child, she also deserved retribution. Therefore, they sold her without any remorse.

Li Meiniang tidied her hair: "I don't hate the wife who sold me, nor do I hate the concubine who yelled at me and laughed like a madwoman. They were all pitiful people, just like my mother. I hate the wine merchant, and I hate the man who still wanted to buy me even with one foot in the grave. I killed them all."

Cheng Xiaoan suddenly looked up at Li Meiniang. Clearly, he was unaware of her past.

Li Meiniang looked at Cheng Xiaoan: "Tingzhou isn't a big city, but it's not small either. You must have heard about those two things. That's right, I am the ghost bride that everyone in Tingzhou fears. When I killed the wine merchant, I wasn't wearing a wedding dress, but mourning clothes. I used the scissors my mother left me to stab him into a sieve. There was so much blood that it stained my mourning clothes red. The night watchman saw this and mistook me for wearing a red wedding dress, and the legend of the ghost bride spread like wildfire. I used this legend to my advantage and killed the old man who wanted to buy me."

"Manager Zhu?"

“That’s right, it was that old man.” Li Meiniang smiled faintly. “He specialized in buying young girls, so his death wasn’t unjust.”

Cheng Xiaoan's voice trembled: "You approached me also to kill me?"

Li Meiniang reached out and stroked his face, whispering, "Fool, although you are a merchant, you are not such a villain, and you have no personal grudge against Meiniang. Why would Meiniang kill you?"

As he finished speaking, his expression gradually turned serious: "Mei Niang did approach you on purpose, but not to kill you. Instead, she did it to help the Empress Dowager eliminate the entire Wen family. Mei Niang is the Empress Dowager's pawn, and you are the pawn that Mei Niang chose."

"What did you say?" Cheng Xiaoan's pupils gradually dilated: "You are the Empress Dowager's... honey trap... Brother Wen is right, I, Cheng Xiaoan, am a complete fool, being sold out and still helping the seller count the money."