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Ye Jia, a modern engineering office worker, woke up to find she had transmigrated into a Mary Sue novel disguised as a strong female lead story, titled The Empress is On Top.
It was a chilly, early spring day in February.
She was lying on a straw pallet in a dilapidated, drafty mud hut, wearing ragged clothes. She had become the rustic shrewish first wife of the major villain, Zhou Jinchen.
Ye Jia, “…”
The family consisted of a three-year-old, gap-toothed bean sprout of a child, a sallow and thin pitiful widow, and the young, physically frail villain himself, who was undergoing forced labour reform.
The Princess of Jing, holding a bowl of coarse cornbread, spoke softly, “Jia Niang, don’t worry, we’ll get our wages tomorrow.”
The little bean sprout offered a crushed piece of malt candy, whispering, “You can have this, Auntie, please don’t be angry anymore.”
Ye Jia, “…”
————
Zhou Jinchen, the heir to the Prince of Jing’s household, was renowned for his exceptional talent and brilliance, a young hero with the bearing of a wise ruler. The current Emperor exceptionally named him as one of the candidates for the throne. However, because his father was accused of rebellion, the entire family was exiled to the Northwest.
After a three-thousand-li journey of exile, the Prince of Jing’s three sons and four daughters were either dead or crippled. By the time they reached the Northwest, only one widowed mother and one niece remained.
To continue the family line, the widowed mother spent all their savings to secure a wife for him—
This wife was Ye Jia, the beauty of ten villages.
She was literate and educated, but she bullied the weak and feared the strong, was lazy and gluttonous, vulgar and shallow. Only her appearance was somewhat deceiving.
If Ye Jia remembered correctly, this wretched woman was driven out of the house with a letter of divorce by Zhou Jinchen just three days after the Princess of Jing died. The very next day after returning to her natal family, her greedy father sold her into a low-class brothel, where she was beaten to death by a customer within a year.
Ye Jia, “…” Alright, let’s just take it one day at a time for now.
Lesson one for an engineering office worker: let’s fix that leaky roof first.
————
In his previous life, Zhou Jinchen killed all his enemies, slaughtered the entire Yan royal family, and avenged his great wrongs. Yet, he ended up utterly alone, solitary and isolated.
At thirty-eight, his oil spent and lamp dry, he died of illness on the imperial dragon throne.
He woke up, opened his eyes, and found himself back at nineteen years old. His mother was alive and well, his niece had not died young. The village girl he had married in his previous life out of filial duty was standing at the door, holding a stick and glaring at him fiercely.
The Heir, “…”
