A Tale of Golden Heiress: Lady Wanjin - Chapter 3

The rat spirit was gone, but the matter was far from settled.

Wen Wan stood at the top of the stone steps, her cold gaze sweeping over the people in the hall below.

“I said… starting today, the Wen family is closing its doors to guests. Every household must guard their gates and not let anyone in. Who allowed Eldest Uncle in?”

The crowd in the hall turned their heads, and a young, short-bearded man in coarse clothing at the entrance timidly raised his hand.

“Young Miss, Eldest Uncle is an elder of the Wen family. He insisted on barging in, and this lowly one… couldn’t stop him…”

His eyes darted around, his movements exaggerated, his body leaning back, his face stiff—

Anyone could tell he was lying.

Wen Wan looked at him and asked calmly, “Was it that you couldn’t stop him, or that you didn’t want to?”

The man was shocked, as if he had suffered a grave injustice, “What kind of talk is that, Young Miss?”

“My father isn’t even dead yet. Isn’t it a bit too early to be pledging loyalty to the Wen clan elders?”

The man tried to argue further, but Wen Wan raised her hand to stop him, “No need to play the victim. Since I gave the order yesterday to close the doors, your failure to carry it out is reason enough for you to leave the Wen residence. Auntie Liu, settle his wages for this month and kick him out immediately.”

The man cried injustice, but Auntie Liu planted her hands on her hips and spat fiercely, “You backstabbing dog! No wonder the Wen elders knew exactly where the latrine was the other day when they came in! Turns out we had a traitor in our midst! If it were me, Liu Yiyi, I’d stab you seventy or eighty times, then stab your parents too, and hang all of you upside down to bleed out—”

The people in the hall exchanged uneasy glances.

No one dared to breathe loudly.

Not a single person raised their head.

Even Wen Wan’s eyebrow twitched.

Damn it.

Someone actually stole her line?

Her domineering young-mistress persona… was being outshined?

In the original host’s memories, Auntie Liu was a fiery woman, but Wen Wan didn’t expect… her to be this fierce.

Especially with that slender waist, curvy hips, and long legs—even ten years of Pamelia Rief workouts wouldn’t give her such a toned, powerful figure.

“No need.”

Wen Wan’s words made everyone look up.

“Everyone in this hall today—not a single one stays.”

The servants below were stunned, breaking into desperate pleas, but the woman’s icy voice cut them off,

“My Wen family does not keep servants who stand idle while their masters are being humiliated.”

After dealing with all this, Wen Wan retrieved the ancestral tablets of her grandparents and instructed Nanny Chen to return them to the ancestral hall later.

However, the fact that the rat spirit had gotten hold of these tablets meant the Wen clan elders must have played a significant role.

These overbearing old bastards—they were probably counting on the brainless rat spirit to charge in first.

Wen Wan had no time to deal with these old fools. She was in a hurry to review the stack of legal documents waiting for her.

In her previous life, she had followed the most ordinary path: taking college entrance exams, attending a top-tier university, and pursuing a corporate job. She joined a real estate company as a management trainee and broke the million-yuan annual salary mark before turning thirty.

Then came a routine company medical checkup—stage two stomach cancer.

Shortly after, she was fired.

She fought a legal battle for compensation.

Her fiancé left her with a single “I’m not good enough for you” note before vanishing.

Her parents couldn’t accept the diagnosis and dragged her from one top-tier hospital to another, desperate to prove the “stage two stomach cancer” report was a misdiagnosis.

What followed was five years of fighting the disease.

Surgeries, chemotherapy, medication, hair loss—her weight plummeted from over a hundred pounds to barely seventy or eighty, until she was little more than a skeletal figure.

Life slipped through her fingers like sand.

In the end, the cancer returned, devouring what was left of her.

She died on the eve of Lunar New Year’s Eve.

A night meant for family reunions, lit by a thousand glowing windows.

Her parents and younger sister gathered around her bed, clutching her hands, their tear-streaked faces pressed against hers as they sobbed uncontrollably.

She wanted to wipe their tears away.

But she was too weak to even open her eyes.

She wanted to tell them: It’s better this way… I won’t drag you down anymore.

Her parents wouldn’t have to revolve their lives around her.

Her sister wouldn’t have to give up her high-paying job in the city—or break up with her long-distance boyfriend—just to hold their shattered family together.

Without Wen Wan, they could live better lives.

Mom, I’m sorry. I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t even pick a better time to go.

New Year’s Eve, a day of celebration, would forever be her death anniversary.

They would never enjoy the holiday again—

Mom… Dad… little sister… We’ll meet again in the next life.

Then came the darkness.

When she woke again, she had become Wen Wan of Ping County in the Great Chen dynasty.

The daughter of a winemaking family.

A single cup of Bifang wine, one brewery, and five taverns supported hundreds of workers under the Wen family’s name.

Wen Weiming, now in his fifties, had a sparse lineage—given that despite having one wife and two concubines, he’d only fathered two daughters, it was possible that Old Master Wen had… certain unspeakable difficulties in unspeakable areas.

Six months ago, Wen Weiming fell gravely ill with a severe cold, and now he was on the brink of death.

Creditors, debt collectors, and well-wishers swarmed the household, along with a pack of clansmen eyeing the family’s wealth—

Wen Wan was completely in the dark.

On her first day in this world, the Wen residence was besieged by the clan elders. Auntie Liu had rallied her brothers, beating the eldest elder until he howled in pain.

Nearly knocked the sh!t out of him—or so Nanny Chen had put it.

Wen Wan was completely overwhelmed.

On the second day, debt collectors armed with weapons smashed a hole in the Wen family’s front gate.

This time, it was Uncle Tu who almost beat the sh!t out of those trying to extort repayment without any loan documents.

Again, Nanny Chen’s phrasing.

In short, whenever someone came knocking, someone else ended up getting the sh!t beaten out of them.

This was Nanny Chen’s Law of Sh!t and Violence.

On the third day—today—came the matter of the adoption.

Wen Wan had only gotten halfway through the Great Chen legal texts, with lines like “Those without heirs shall have their households dissolved,” “If a brother dies, his son inherits; if all brothers die, the property is divided equally among their sons,” and “Unmarried men shall be given separate dowries.” She was still trying to make sense of this dynasty’s inheritance laws when the rat spirit barged in and ruined her focus.

Damn that rat spirit!

She really wanted to yank out the few pathetic strands of hair still clinging to the sides of his bald head.

After settling the commotion in the front hall, Auntie Liu hurried to catch up with Wen Wan.

This girl used to pant after just a few delicate steps, but today she was stomping around like a general marching into battle.

“Young Miss—”

Wen Wan paused, waiting for Auntie Liu to reach her. “What is it, Auntie?”

Auntie Liu hesitated, choosing her words carefully, “Dismissing so many servants today… might not be wise. What if they resent you for being ruthless and spread malicious rumours after leaving—”

Good.

Auntie Liu hadn’t questioned her decision publicly but waited to voice her concerns privately.

She knew her place—this one had potential.

“These people are cowards with divided loyalties. Keeping them would only invite trouble. Besides, times are hard, and this gives us a reason to cut costs without paying severance. As for rumors… the Wen family has already weathered worse.”