After her transformation and rebirth, she manipulates the innocent and ruthless to overthrow the wor

On the way down the mountain, Xiao Ran felt like someone was watching her the whole way.

But every time she went to look for the source, she never saw anyone.

"How strange," Xiao Ran murmured.

"Is Sister Xiao tired?" Chen Ruonan walked quickly to her side and asked.

"Not really—"

Before she could finish speaking, Chen Ruonan took her hand, pointed forward with her other hand, and said to the girls behind her, "You must be tired from this journey. Why don't you rest in the pavilion ahead?"

She looked in the direction Chen Ruonan was pointing, and there was a pavilion hanging halfway up the mountain, probably a place where the monks from the temple would take a break when they came up the mountain.

However, it seemed that Chen Ruonan already knew about the existence of the pavilion.

Chen Ruonan turned around and saw Xiao Ran's somewhat suspicious expression. Feeling a little anxious, she wiped the sweat from her forehead with an embroidered handkerchief to cover it up.

“Sister Xiao, it’s so hot today. I’m afraid the girls can’t be as strong and healthy as you are,” Chen Ruonan said, wiping her forehead with her embroidered handkerchief. After glancing at the sun, she pretended to be weak and said, “Let’s go and rest for a while.”

Xiao Ran didn't feel tired, after all, she had climbed up the mountain in one go, but she couldn't resist the endless complaints of the girls behind her.

Perhaps it's because I went up the mountain with curiosity and anticipation, but now that I'm coming down, I don't have the same motivation anymore, which is why I feel tired.

It's true that going up the mountain is easy, but coming down is hard.

"alright."

……

Upon reaching the low pavilion, the girls sat down one by one, completely exhausted, having lost all the propriety and shame they had displayed as daughters of noble families.

"Sister Ruonan, how much longer do we have to walk?"

"I'm so tired."

"Yeah, why does it feel like the path to the top of the mountain is even longer?"

The girls' constant complaints made Chen Ruonan feel a little guilty.

"It won't be long. The path we just took up the mountain was too... steep! I asked the young monks at the temple, and they pointed out a safer path for us."

The girls had no choice but to agree.

Xiao Ran sat on a large rock by the pavilion, playing with the newly grown grass. She didn't join in the conversation, since she didn't have much in common with the girls in the pavilion, and they didn't like her either.

Xiao Ran hadn't noticed before that there was actually a cliff next to the pavilion. Looking down, she saw clouds and mist swirling around it, and the bottom was nowhere in sight.

After watching for a while, she felt a chill and stopped watching. Just then, someone called her from behind.

"Miss Xiao."

Looking back, she saw the same little girl who had spoken up for her in the temple.

She seems to be Chen Ruonan's younger sister.

"I remember you." Xiao Ran looked at the person who came in and sized him up.

The little girl's clothes were old and simple, not the kind of style that was popular in the capital at the time, but rather the kind of clothes that her aunt, a woman, liked to wear.

Seeing Xiao Ran looking her over, the girl shyly tucked her sleeves in.

"My name is Chen Zijin," the little girl said timidly.

Chen Zijin?

If I remember correctly...

Xiao Ran only thought for a moment before seeing the girl's reserved attitude and found it somewhat amusing. "What are you doing? I'm not going to eat you."

Seeing that she didn't speak, and assuming the little girl was still scared, Xiao Ran took off her pomegranate hairpin and stepped forward:

"Don't be afraid. I think we're about the same age. Thank you for helping me just now."

After saying that, he inserted the pomegranate hairpin into Chen Zijin's hair bun.

"That's more like it, a young girl should be pretty."

Chen Zijing froze, touched the hairpin in her hair, and was momentarily speechless. "...Thank you."

Just then, someone called out from not far away, "Zijin? Zijin?"

Xiao Ran looked in the direction of the voice and saw the girl in green who had been talking back to Chen Ruonan.

She took the little girl's hand and said with a smile, "Someone is looking for you, go back quickly."

Chen Zijing glanced back, then lowered her head, biting her lip, and said, "...Okay."

But the little girl took a few steps and then came back.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Ran asked.

The timid girl suddenly spoke firmly: "Miss Xiao, you must be careful!"

After saying that, he really left without looking back.

Xiao Ran continued to squat down and tease the grass, but a strange feeling lingered in her heart.

If I remember correctly, two major events occurred at the Summer Palace.

One of these incidents involved the death of a concubine's daughter in the Chen family at the hands of rebel forces.

-

After resting, they set off.

Xiao Ran kept thinking about this on the way.

She then looked around and saw girls chatting and laughing in twos and threes, but she did not see the little girl from before.

Xiao Ran then approached the nearest girls and asked, "Have you seen Chen Zijin?"

The girls looked puzzled. "Chen Zijin?" "Who is she?"

Thinking that they might not know Chen Zijin's name, he said, "She is the little girl who was scolded and beaten by Chen Ruonan in the temple just now."

"Oh, you mean her? I think I just saw her with Miss Lü Yao," one of the girls replied.

"Lü Yao?" Xiao Ran asked in confusion.

The girl looked at her strangely and said, "It's that girl in green who's always by Chen Ruonan's side."

"Thank you." After saying that, she hurriedly left.

The girl scratched her head in confusion, but the girls behind her sneered, "Look at her, she's really strange. She's not related to anyone, you'd think she was her sister."

"Exactly! Mind your own business."

The girl recalled Xiao Ran's serious expression just now, "...I don't think she's that kind of person."

……

Xiao Ran searched for a long time but couldn't find the girl named Lü Yao, and even Chen Ruonan was nowhere to be found.

She simply went to the pavilion where she had just met the little girl.

I heard voices even before I got close.

"You better deal with this little girl properly, and you'll get your share of the rewards."

Xiao Ran hid behind a nearby tree to peek.

It's... Chen Ruonan!

Behind her was the girl in green named Lü Yao.

After handing a heavy purse to the man in black in front of her, Chen Ruonan added a sentence.

"And you haven't forgotten that one, have you?"

“Miss…no offense, but that’s really too difficult, and for that little bit…” The man in black weighed his purse in dissatisfaction.

Chen Ruonan seemed a little flustered, blushing as she pulled a box from Lvyao's arms beside her.

"This is...!? The luminous pearl of the Western Sea?" The man in black took it and couldn't put it down.

Chen Ruonan snatched it away, adding, "I remember you have a wife and children to support, and your elderly mother seems to be seriously ill in bed. If you do this well, this is yours."

“Alright…! We’ll do as you say, but after it’s done, please don’t forget your promise.”

"I always keep my word."

After hearing the promise, the man in black clasped his hands in a fist salute and left.

Fearing that the men in black would discover her, Xiao Ran quickly hid behind a tree to conceal herself.

After the man in black left, she breathed a sigh of relief and quickly considered the current situation.

The little girl I mentioned earlier must be Chen Zijin.

I never imagined that Chen Ruonan would even harm her own sister.

The one that's going to be difficult for her is probably herself.

Actually, she had never understood why, ever since she heard from Afu that her aunt wanted to get rid of her, she had been waiting for her aunt to make a move, but why was it Chen Ruonan who did it?

What connection does the aunt have with the Chen family?

She had no idea.

If it were like her previous life, she could indeed ignore it all, but in this life, she absolutely would not allow herself to die without knowing why.

She needed to know all of this in order to survive in this turbulent and perilous situation.

So she looked towards the depths of the pavilion, towards where the man in black had gone.