Ling Chengyan did not leave.
She was bewildered and ignorant of the circumstances before her, not daring to wander around aimlessly.
Little Xing was clutching her coat and had somehow curled up and fallen asleep, while the little one in the corner of the kang (heated brick bed) cried a few times and seemed to have fallen asleep too, with no more sound.
Ling Chengyan sat on the edge of the kang, contemplating the situation before her.
After much deliberation, she confirmed that she had indeed died in battle, and now she had become someone else. She didn't know whether this should be called 'returning to life by borrowing a corpse' or something else.
But what was certain was that she was alive, in the identity of a peasant woman, with a pair of children.
Those three people entered the main house, and before long, the eldest sister-in-law squeezed out through a crack in the door and hurried into the west wing.
Ling Chengyan, feeling unsettled, paid no attention.
When the window turned white and noises gradually arose outside, Ling Chengyan snapped out of her thoughts and exhaled softly.
In the dim morning light, she could already make out the features of the two children.
Even in sleep, both children had slightly furrowed brows, and they were so thin. Not to mention little Xing's dry, yellow, and coarse hair, even the little Shi Tou in swaddling clothes lacked the usual baby plumpness, as scrawny as a kitten, curled up in the dusty swaddle, breathing so weakly it was barely audible.
No wonder, when she barely awoke last night, she didn't notice his presence.
The women she met last night, though their clothes were patched and clearly not wealthy, were still robust, clearly unlike those who suffered from chronic hunger, and not at all like a family with the mother and children in this room.
Reflecting on those people's attitudes, it wasn't that they seemed unlike a family, it was that they simply didn't regard this mother and her children as family.
Ling Chengyan didn't know if her current state was a case of returning to life by borrowing a corpse or what, but she knew in this situation, she could only adapt without trying to change, and temporarily live here as 'Ling Chengyan'.
Taking a breath, Ling Chengyan slightly loosened her stiff body, got down from the kang, and began to examine the things in the house.
A wobbly table propped up with bricks, an old clothing chest containing a sparse few garments, the kang covered with a reed mat, a thin bedding mat, a cotton quilt...
In less than a quarter-hour, Ling Chengyan had rummaged through everything, and to her surprise, in the two rooms inside and out, not only did she not see a single coin, but she didn't even see a grain of rice; they were truly in dire poverty.
Given this, before leaving with the two children, she had to think of a way to get some money and food.
Deciding to live here, she never considered abandoning the two children. Since she had taken over this body, she naturally had to assume 'her' duties.
Before she could devise a plan of action, there was movement outside; the door of the main house where the old woman lived opened. Ling Chengyan hid by the window, pushed open a slight crack to peer out, just in time to see a young woman with twin braids peeking towards their side, then tiptoeing out the gate.
Ling Chengyan turned her gaze, and a few seconds later, she silently leaped through the nesting hole in the rear wall, into the alley behind the house, and quickly followed after the young woman.
The young woman sneaked around a few elderly men who had risen early to collect manure, and made her way to the edge of the woods by the village's western reservoir, whispering, "Big Sister, Big Sister..."
A woman in her thirties with a sallow face emerged from the woods and muttered a few words with the young woman.
Ling Chengyan tracked the young woman back, standing beneath the nesting hole against the gable of the main house. With her hearing, just standing under the nesting hole, she could make out the voices inside the house.
"Mom, my sister said, they need to send the little one over today; if it's any later, the buyers might want a child from another family. Missing this family, there might not be another that will generously offer two hundred yuan... Here, this is the deposit that the family gave to me..."
"How much?"
"Fifty..."
Bang, the door was kicked open, the old woman instinctively tried to hide the money, but her wrist was already grabbed.
Ling Chengyan seized the few banknotes, glanced at them, and sneered at the mother and daughter. "With lowly pigs and dogs like you, how dare you consider yourselves human?!"
"You second-family scum, you..." The old woman was about to scream, but Ling Chengyan grabbed her collar with one swift move, choking her into silence.
"You're engaged in child trafficking, and I will take you to see the authorities!" With a forceful grip, Ling Chengyan lifted the old woman directly, scaring her into a deathly pale face.
The young woman sensed things were going south and tried to flee, but Ling Chengyan kicked her to the ground and stepped on her chest.
A series of crashes and thuds broke out, sounds that clearly weren't good, and Wang Guizhang, recuperating on the kang with a broken leg, shouted angrily, "You, second-family scum, are you rebelling? How dare you hit your mother-in-law?"
The word 'rebelling' echoed in Ling Chengyan's ears like a stabbing knife through the heart and a blade carving the bone. Her Ling Family protected Great Chu for nearly a century, sacrificing dozens of lives, yet in the end, they were suspected by the imperial house of colluding with foreign enemies. Her father and brothers died in succession, forcing her, the legitimate eldest daughter, to take up the Ling Family Army banner, serving guards at the border... Only to end up, after fighting off the enemy, with an arrow sent through the back by 'allies'!
Rebelling?
The once Great Chu General understood little, only faith and loyalty.
But the once-dead Ling Chengyan understood now, facing rulers so foolishly corrupt they were beyond saving; rebelling was the only way to survive!
"Mother-in-law?" Ling Chengyan sneered, unknowingly increasing the pressure of her hands and feet, making the old woman and the young woman simultaneously roll their eyes back.
"When the king acts not as a king, subjects fail to be subjects; when fathers fail to be fathers, sons fail to be sons." Ling Chengyan pronounced each word clearly, her gaze shifting from sharp and cold to a calm, unruffled surface, lightly landing on the young woman on the ground.
"What are you planning to do to the child? Who came up with the idea? Who are you selling to?" Ling Chengyan fired off a dozen questions in succession. The young woman on the ground, seizing the opportunity to breathe, greedily gasped for air. For a moment, she had truly thought she was going to die.
Having turned back from the ghost gates, she was truly scared to death; Ling Chengyan asked, and she answered everything, even vying to answer, fearing any answer that didn't align with this madwoman's moods might lead to her death.
Before long, Ling Chengyan obtained a statement in self-written form. Glancing at the page filled with incomplete, crooked handwriting, a flash of disgust and disdain appeared in Ling Chengyan's eyes, tossing it back to the woman... Wang Lianxiang, asking her to read it aloud.
Ling Chengyan watched from the side, comparing it word for word. She found that the script here was somewhat different from that of Great Chu, with many characters simplified. Going through this once, she roughly understood seventy to eighty percent, confirming Wang Lianxiang hadn't tampered with the confession. Ling Chengyan made Wang Lianxiang sign her own and her parents' names, and had all three press their fingerprints together.
Taking the confession, Ling Chengyan habitually flicked it to dry it, folded it once, and tucked it into her bosom.
Releasing her hand, allowing the old woman to slump limply to the ground, Ling Chengyan didn't spare a glance at her and kicked Wang Lianxiang. She casually commanded, "Go make breakfast. Wash your hands clean."
Wang Lianxiang swiftly cast an incredulous glance at Ling Chengyan, then turned her pleading gaze to her mother. The old woman, her breath still caught, didn't spare her youngest daughter's dilemma nor whether she cooked, not even looking at her.
Afraid of Ling Chengyan's tyranny, Wang Lianxiang dared not disobey, reluctantly but obediently stepping out the door to make breakfast in the kitchen.