Chapter 2: Escape
Seeing the old matchmaker look at her face doubtfully, Ling JinSui quickly tightened the cloth on her face and said:
“That dead girl has a lot of strength, she scratched my face.”
The old matchmaker, somewhat suspicious, took out a bag of silver and looked towards Jiang Youzhi in the main hall. Ling JinSui snatched the money bag and pushed her, saying:
“You go and see too, don’t let that person be rough and hurt the dead girl’s face.”
After all, the most valuable thing about that girl was her pretty face. The old matchmaker hurried into the room to look.
Ling JinSui knew she didn’t have much time left. She reacted extremely quickly and went into the kitchen first, pouring the little lamp oil left in the oil lamp onto the pile of firewood.
She took out the fire starter by the stove and lit it. Instantly, flames surged and thick smoke billowed. She put the fire starter into her sleeve and rushed out with a cleaver.
She quickly said to Jiang Youzhi, who was coming towards her, “Quick, there’s a fire, put it out first.”
Jiang Youzhi no longer blocked her for the silver and hurriedly went to the kitchen in a panic. She herself rushed outside the courtyard and used the cleaver to cut the hemp rope on the big green donkey.
At this moment, the matchmaker inside the house let out a startled cry: “That girl ran away!”
Just as the matchmaker and the strong men rushed out of the room, and Jiang Youzhi ran out of the kitchen, engulfed in flames, covered in soot.
Ling JinSui successfully climbed onto the big green donkey, clutching fifteen taels of silver. She let out a loud laugh, slapped the donkey’s hindquarters, and galloped out of the village.
She was certain that Jiang Youzhi wouldn’t dare to openly call for people to chase her, and the matchmaker wouldn’t dare to report it to the government. By the time they found horses and pursued her, it would be tomorrow.
By then, she would have already disappeared into the vast ocean or a deep forest, and they wouldn’t be able to catch her.
Of course, merely poisoning Madam Zheng, burning Jiang Youzhi’s kitchen, and taking the matchmaker’s fifteen taels of silver and a big green donkey was too easy for them.
The real Ling JinSui had died in that house!
It’s just that she currently doesn’t have the ability to retaliate. But one day, she will definitely avenge the original owner.
Since she had taken over someone else’s body, if she didn’t do anything for the little girl, her conscience wouldn’t be at peace!
After rushing out of the village, she realized she didn’t know the way, and the original owner’s memories didn’t include the roads outside the village.
The matchmaker’s sharp screams could be faintly heard in the wind. She didn’t dare to delay, identified the north, and urged the donkey to gallop.
This green donkey ran quite fast. By the time the moon rose above the mountain, she had completely left the village behind, not even seeing the thick smoke from Jiang Family’s kitchen.
The wilderness was vast, the moon was bright and the stars were few. A sense of having survived a disaster washed over her. As her tension eased, she realized how weak this body was.
Her chest and lungs burned, she felt dizzy, and her limbs were weak.
But now was not the time to rest. She lay on the big green donkey, and the only sound in the wilderness was the donkey’s ‘hee-haw’ calls.
The midnight wind carried frost, assailing her body from all directions.
She tightened the cloth wrapped around her head, feeling that if she continued running like this, her body would collapse from exhaustion.
She dared not go towards the village. Not to mention Jiang Youzhi and the matchmaker would look for her, her identity as the daughter of a convicted official would easily bring disaster.
Looking at the overlapping dark shadows of the mountains in the distance, she made a decision.
Entering the mountain forest, she couldn’t find a cave for a while, so she tied the green donkey to a large tree. She felt her sleeve and found the fire starter. It was good that she brought this, otherwise she would freeze to death in these deep mountains.
She found some dry branches and lit a bonfire. The coldness on her body dissipated, making her laugh. The green donkey wasn’t afraid of fire at all and also moved closer to the warm bonfire.
This donkey didn’t sleep standing up like a horse; it actually lay down like a cow. Ling JinSui didn’t care if it was dirty or had lice; it was just too cold.
Leaning against the donkey’s belly, her back also warmed up. Only then did she have the energy to think about her current situation.
At this moment, she was certain that she wasn’t dreaming, nor was it a medical hallucination. She had truly transmigrated.
And this beginning was comparable to hell mode, with Jiang Youzhi and the matchmaker chasing her from behind, government soldiers investigating ahead, and her close relatives exiled to Yandi a thousand miles away.
Not to mention whether her small frame could even reach Yandi, she also worried about being discovered by the original owner’s mother or grandfather, that she was a wandering soul possessing the body.
Just calling someone else’s mother ‘Mom’ was something she couldn’t bring herself to do.
Touching the silver in her embrace, and then looking at the big green donkey, she decided to find a Great State City and live anonymously by herself.
With her medical skills, supporting herself wouldn’t be a problem. Once her body recovered, she would slowly inquire about the original owner’s relatives and see what she could do for the original owner.
She couldn’t just take someone else’s body for nothing…
Thinking this way, the cold and hungry Ling JinSui gradually fell asleep. Sleeping in the wilderness was never truly restful.
Half-asleep and half-awake, in the wilderness and mountains, the crying of a young woman, like a ghost or a fox spirit, could be heard.
The sound, carried by the wind, came and went, sometimes like an echo from beyond the mountain, sometimes as if it were right beside her ear.
The suppressed sobs were intermittent, and she kept calling out, “Grandpa, Grandpa…”
Each cry, from her ears to her heart, at one moment, she even felt as if her soul were crying out.
One cry after another, like an invisible net, enveloped her.
The continuous crying made Ling JinSui’s heart crawl with fear, her hair stood on end, and cold sweat streamed down her face. It was like a nightmare, her body seemed to be controlled by something, unable to move.
It was as if unless she broke free from this net of sound, and complied with the obsession of the sound’s owner, she would be forever entangled.
She was a staunch materialist, but now that she had encountered something like transmigration, how could she not believe in ghosts and gods?
She concentrated her mind and suddenly opened her eyes, saying to the mountain wilderness filled with chilling wind:
“Grandpa, Grandpa, are you a Calabash Brother!”
“I’ll go find your Grandpa, stop crying!”
Weak and easily bullied in life, bullied to death by Jiang Youzhi and Madam Zheng, and only knowing how to cry after death.
Ling JinSui felt both pity for the original owner’s misfortune and anger at her lack of spirit.
Instantly, the sound seemed to be blown away by the wind, and even the bone-deep fear she felt disappeared. Her body, instead of becoming cold, felt a trace of warmth.
She was, after all, a soft-hearted and kind little girl, who couldn’t bear to scare even others.
Ling JinSui stroked the big green donkey, whose eyes were wide with fright but dared not make a sound, and gave a self-deprecating smile:
“It seems that living in seclusion in the city won’t work. If I don’t go find her Grandpa, she won’t rest in peace.”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch in the world. She had taken over someone else’s body to live another life, which was far more precious than lunch, so the price she had to pay would naturally be more.
She closed her eyes and tried her best to find the part related to Grandpa Ling in the original owner’s memories.
The original owner had been in poor health since childhood. Before Mother Ling gave birth to her younger brother, she accompanied Father Ling on an official trip to another place and left the original owner in their hometown.
From then on, the grandfather and granddaughter lived together in the town. Grandpa Ling was a playful elder, not strict at all, and treated the original owner very well.
Her memories were filled with warm moments of the grandfather and granddaughter together, eating roasted glutinous rice cakes in winter, and chilling fruits and vegetables in the well in summer.
When she was younger, Grandpa braided her pigtails crookedly. Every time Grandpa went to the market, he would bring back small gifts.
A silk flower, a piece of brightly colored cloth, maltose candy, and rice cakes…
Ling JinSui gradually sank into these warm memories. At one moment, she truly felt that Grandpa Ling was her own grandfather.
Even without the original owner’s obsession, she wanted to see this old man again.
In her previous life, she was an orphan and had never experienced family affection.
The last time the original owner saw Grandpa Ling was in Jiang Family Village. Grandpa Ling walked her to the doorstep of Jiang Youzhi’s house, his eyes full of affection as he instructed:
“When Grandpa picks up your mother and younger brother, I’ll pick you up home.
You stay at your maternal uncle’s house with peace of mind, don’t worry. You’re not in good health, don’t overthink, and don’t catch a cold…”
