The daughter of a noble family is reborn, and she is doted on by her godmother.

In the eighteenth year of the hegemony, inside the Temple of Sacrificial Rites.

Today is a significant day, with the Imperial Preceptor Fan presiding over the sacrificial ceremony.

A woman dressed in white was being escorted to the lit blast furnace.

The ceremony for the Imperial Preceptor was a major national event, and many people attended.

"I heard that the woman who was sacrificed today is the wife of General Gu Tinghui, the General Who Protects the Nation? She must be the daughter of the Xie family, the Marquis of Changxing, who was recently found a few years ago."

"It's her! The Xie family!"

"Didn't she get married? Isn't she already in her twenties? Doesn't that meet the Grand Preceptor's criteria? Didn't the Grand Preceptor specifically say he wanted... an unmarried woman?"

"Oh, you don't know this. Not long after the Marquis of Changxing's true daughter was found, General Gu, the General Who Protects the Nation, married her. On their wedding day, as soon as the veil was lifted, for some reason, the true daughter refused to consummate the marriage. Then the General Who Protects the Nation went off to fight a war."

"This... the war fought by the General Who Protects the Nation has lasted for seven years?"

"So what if it's been seven years? He's still a handsome and promising young general, and he's just made another great achievement."

"What's wrong with this girl?"

"We don't know about that, but according to my sister's guess, it's very likely that the General Zhenguo actually likes the fake daughter in the mansion. Before the real daughter came, the two of them had a very good relationship. I guess if the real daughter hadn't been found, the General Zhenguo would have married the fake one."

"What a cruel twist of fate! They've finally won a victory, couldn't they have spent some time cultivating their relationship? How could the General of the Nation have..."

"The Grand Preceptor has been inventing and researching for the past few years, such as flying high-speed vehicles and new agricultural tools. All of these are great things that benefit the country and the people. The Grand Preceptor now says that the new technology is successful and requires a sacrifice. This is an unparalleled honor. However, the conditions required by the Grand Preceptor are quite demanding. This daughter of his is just right to meet the requirements. This is a matter that benefits the country and the people. Marquis Changxing has always supported the Grand Preceptor. Since his own daughter meets the requirements, he sent her there."

The voices around them quieted down, and everyone looked toward the altar.

The woman on the stage was ashen-faced, seemingly having given up the struggle.

"...On this auspicious day, at this auspicious time, we offer our sincere prayers before Heaven and Earth, to the gods. With this humble offering, we pray for favorable weather, abundant harvests, and national peace and prosperity. May the gods witness our sincerity and bestow blessings upon us..."

Before the blessing could be finished, the woman in white struggled a few times and jumped straight into the stove next to her.

The sudden action splashed a pot of molten gold, causing a group of people nearby to gasp in surprise.

Meanwhile, the most nearby Grand Preceptor Fan remained calm, directing those around him to continue with the next steps.

After waiting for a while, the Imperial Advisor straightened up from his busy work and announced loudly:

"The refined iron is complete!"

The crowd watching the ceremony rose to their feet and cheered.

No one remembered the woman in white from before.

……

Mingjin was awakened by the cold.

Before waking up, my body could still feel the intense heat from the moment I jumped into the furnace.

It took Mingjin some time to figure out the current situation.

I must have been reborn now, judging by my thin clothes, the howling mountain wind, and my body that's several sizes smaller...

Looking around, this must be the mountain next to the village where I lived as a child. It was around the time I was five years old.

The adoptive father's surname was Jin. He and his adoptive mother were idle and did not engage in agriculture or business. Their main business was... kidnapping people and doing some shady things.

They don't usually make any business, but when they do, they can live off it for half a year.

This time, they set their sights on a wealthy woman and had Mingjin pretend to be a beggar to lure her to a certain place.

Mingjin refused, so the two abandoned her on a mountain next to their village to fend for herself.

A gust of wind howled past, and Mingjin couldn't help but hug her five-year-old body tightly.

A sneeze!

This won't do. Mingjin decisively got up and decided to go to the small cave where she had once lived to take shelter from the rain.

Although this mountain is named Pingshan (meaning "flat mountain"), it is infested with wild animals, and I haven't worn any warm clothes. Finding a place to warm up is the most important thing.

With her memories still intact, Mingjin quickly found the cave where she had stayed years ago, hid there, and recovered her strength.

Mingjin clearly remembers that at that time, he was all alone on the mountain and survived by picking fruits from the mountains and catching some small birds.

About two days later, Mingjin was found by Jin Yongji, the biological son of her adoptive parents.

This person was fifteen years older than him. He had been an apprentice in business since childhood. This time, he was officially completing his apprenticeship and bringing his parents and younger sister to the county town.

Unlike her adoptive parents, this nominal older brother did not force Mingjin to cooperate in kidnapping others, and temporarily appeased himself with a stable and wealthy life.

Mingjin originally thought she had met someone who truly cared for her, but she never expected that the other person had the intention of "hoarding a rare commodity".

Jin Yongji knew that Mingjin had a special background, and that girls were inherently more valuable, so he could sell her for a good price based on her appearance in the future. Therefore, he kept this younger sister in his hands and waited until she grew up before making a decision.

Sure enough, when he turned fifteen, Jin Yongji prepared to sell Mingjin to Jinzhuyuan, a famous building in Jiangnan.

However, before Mingjin could even prepare to receive guests, someone came to the door.

It was said that the servants of the Marquis's mansion discovered the problem when they contacted the county government to check the population. At the same time, when the madam of Jinzhu Garden examined Mingjin, she found a birthmark on her body. When the two groups of people came together to check, they found that she was indeed the missing daughter.

The Marquis's mansion was powerful, and this "good" elder brother took advantage of the situation to demand an exorbitant price, swindling the Marquis's mansion out of a large sum of money.

Although it was nothing for the Marquis's mansion to punish ordinary people, from then on, the Marquis of Changxing and his wife couldn't stand their daughter no matter what.

The fake heiress even used the excuse of "having an ambiguous relationship with a man outside the family" to spread rumors about Mingjin in front of outsiders.

Past events, and all sorts of grievances.

Nothing else matters: parents don't love me, brothers don't respect me, husband doesn't like me—it doesn't matter.

Imperial Preceptor's Sacrifice...

Before being sacrificed, Mingjin overheard people talking, saying that the Imperial Advisor wanted an unmarried woman.

However, the news brought back by his own father, Marquis Changxing, who was the assistant to the Imperial Advisor, was that, according to the calculation of his birth date and time, Mingjin's destiny was the most suitable.

Completely ignoring Mingjin's resistance, they locked her up in the general's mansion's secret prison.

Mingjin had figured it out before jumping into the furnace.

This is the biological parents clearing obstacles for their good younger sister.

She had been married into the Gu family for seven years... Although Gu Tinghui's parents had passed away, the Gu clan's relatives kept coming to their house every day to freeload.

What second uncle's whole family, what cousins ​​and cousins...

Of course, the most powerful was Gu Tinghui's grandmother, who invited all the relatives to her home...

She served Gu Tinghui's entire family for seven years, and the reward she received was... being locked up by Gu Tinghui and forced to fawn over the Imperial Preceptor.

Mingjin felt nauseous just thinking about the faces of his entire family. Especially those relatives who had once laid hands on her…

If Mingjin hadn't been strong enough to pick up a stick and beat up a few of them, and if the grandmother hadn't witnessed the whole thing, she wouldn't have been able to prevent others from slandering her.

After all, Gu Tinghui's grandmother also valued her grandson's reputation.

Now that I've been reborn... if I don't do anything, I'll definitely end up going down the same old path once my older brother finds me.

Now, it's even more impossible for me to return to the Marquis's residence.

"Since we're in Pingshan now, we'll definitely run into Jin Yongji again in a few days. Since we've been given a second chance, we should seize the opportunity to at least hide for a while and make sure no one finds us."

The entire Jin family is a menace.

My adoptive parents live in the southeast of Pingshan, while the western part of Pingshan is a relatively prosperous town called Xin'an City, where there are more opportunities.

"Even if it means begging on the streets, I will never go back."

Having figured this out, Mingjin didn't delay any longer.

Mingjin had never actually walked along the western hillside, but even if she was covered in scratches from the branches and thorns, it was still better than living under her foster parents' care.

Fortunately, there is a small river on the west slope, so walking along the river shouldn't be a problem.

Mingjin groped his way down the mountain path. His small five-year-old body couldn't muster any strength, so he could only slowly make his way down the mountain, occasionally hearing the calls of birds in the distance, which accompanied him silently.

"Ugh..."

In quiet moments, a sudden sound is amplified.

As they passed through a slightly flatter area, Mingjin suddenly heard a woman moaning.

Mingjin quietly went over and found a woman in plain clothes lying by a small river in the mountains, half of her body stained with blood.

The woman in front of me seemed to be seriously injured; the sounds she made just now were probably unconscious groans from someone who was in a coma.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared that she had several knife wounds, which had been simply bandaged.

His lips were cracked and his face was deathly pale.

Rationally speaking, Mingjin felt that he shouldn't meddle in other people's business, since he himself was on the run.

But upon closer inspection, Mingjin noticed something strange.

The woman was wearing clothes made of luxurious fabric.

That's not the main point. The main point is the style of her clothes, which seems to be a type of casual women's clothing that was popular in the capital the year she was brought back to the Marquis's mansion.

The upper body has narrow sleeves, while the lower body is not wearing a skirt, but a type of bottom called culottes.

When it was first launched, it was a pre-order item, and women all over Beijing were vying to buy it.

At that time, there were several girls in the Marquis's mansion. Besides the fake heiress Xie Mingli, there were several other relatives of the Marquis's mansion.

When Mingjin was found, the reservations had already ended, so naturally she didn't get a share of the new clothes.

This is a style that will be popular ten years from now. Why is this person wearing it now? Could this person be the shop owner?

Something was amiss… Given this, Mingjin's thinking habits, honed through seven years of wits and battles with the Gu family, reminded him to be wary of anything unusual. This person could not be ignored.

Even if this person has no relation to the shopkeeper in later generations, it is still a life at hand.

Mingjin remembered hearing a doctor say in her previous life that after bleeding, one should pay attention to keeping warm and cleaning the wound.

I had no medicine for my injuries, nor the strength to drag this person away; I was just looking for something to keep warm...

There are some banana trees on this mountain with large leaves; they should be useful.

Mingjin picked some banana leaves from nearby and spread them evenly over the person.

This tiny frame is really inconvenient.

After finishing these tasks, Mingjin sat down next to the man, panting heavily.

I've thought about it myself. It's not that I'm being overly kind or want to meddle in other people's business.

Rather, this person was dressed in extraordinary clothes and must be someone of status. Regardless of whether she woke up on her own or someone came looking for her, saving this person now would surely bring some benefits.

It was getting dark, and we didn't know if there were any more traps on the way down the mountain. We should wait and see.

I don’t know how long it has been...

"Mmm...water..."

The woman woke up.