My Young Mistress Is Very Handsome

The countryside in the early morning carried a very special fragrance.

The cloudy air of the night was gone, and fresh air slowly spread as the morning sun rose. The moist air was filled with the faint smell of grass and flowers. A deep breath of that smell was both refreshing and relaxing.

The wind blew through her hair and in between her fingers. It was a little cold.

The brilliant sun shone on her face. It was a little warm.

There was wind in her ears. Fragrance in her nose.

Blood slowly circulating through her body.

Song Caitang couldn’t help but close her eyes and stretch her arms out.

This was life. The feeling of being alive.

Those criminals had bombed the coroner’s office out of revenge, and she should have died in the explosion. Instead, she had arrived in a different world, an unknown space. She had been given a new lease on life, yet with the same name as before…

Qingqiao walked next to her and looked at her curiously with her large round eyes, “Young Mistress, what are you doing?”

Song Caitang’s voice was almost inaudible, “Am I…am I really alive right now?”

Until now, she was still in a state of disbelief. Had she…really been given a new lease on this extremely precious gift called life?

“Of course! You can touch my hand! It’s warm!”

Qingqiao held her hand out to Song Caitang.

Never mind Song Caitang – Qingqiao herself could hardly believe all of this was happening.

Song Caitang touched her maid’s hand. Qingqiao’s hand was warm. So was hers.

She bent her head slightly and smiled.

Qingqiao’s eyes widened. Her Young Mistress was so pretty! The sun shining on her, the wind in her hair making the strands next to her ear fly gently, like a painting…

“Young Mistress, what are we going to do now?”

Song Caitang smiled faintly and opened her eyes again as she spoke with charisma, “Of course…we’re going to live well.”

She was going to live a happy, exciting, and free life!

She wasn’t going to waste this new lease of life she had been given.

But the maid froze for a moment, “Um…I mean, where are we going now?”

Song Caitang froze too. Oops.

“Let’s go home. I think you said before that I live in my maternal grandmother’s house now.”

Qingqiao nodded vigorously, “It’s a little far, but I know how to walk there! We just need to keep walking in this direction, then turn north later. Whenever you feel tired, just let me know, and we can rest before continuing.”

She skipped in front of Song Caitang as though she wished she could fly into the sky and go as far away from the coffin home as possible.

Song Caitang could read her mind. She smiled and shook her head.

After they had gone a good distance away, Qingqiao patted her chest and looked back toward the coffin home with a fearful expression, “That First Madam Wu was so scary. She looked like she was going to eat you alive.”

“Don’t worry, she can’t do anything to me,” Song Caitang consoled the maid flippantly as she looked at the scenery around her with great curiosity.

“But you wanted money from her…” Qingqiao bit her lip and leaned over with a worried look on her face. She whispered, “I heard that people secretly call her an iron rooster. I’m sure she’s very unhappy with the demands you made, and she’s not going to give it to you. What are we going to do if she decides to get nasty and tries to ruin your reputation?”

Song Caitang looked at her maid. This little girl was a very loyal person indeed.

“Don’t worry, she wouldn’t dare. If I didn’t ask for money, she’d be happy now, but she would be very suspicious of everything I do in the future. But by asking her for money, it will make her feel more secure about the situation.”

If the problem looked easy to settle with just money, if First Madam Wu could shut her mouth with some money, then she would leave things at that. But if Song Caitang hadn’t wanted anything, then First Madam Wu might think she was gunning for something bigger or was scheming some grand plan. That would bring her more unnecessary trouble.

“But you wanted so much…”

Just thinking about the amount made Qingqiao gasp. The range was between 300 pieces of silver all the way to 5,000 pieces…

Good heavens – that was more than enough money for the rest of her life!

The maid blinked her large eyes several times. Her face was so round and supple, and she still had some baby fats in her cheek. Song Caitang couldn’t resist pinching them, “If I asked for too little, that wouldn’t match her status, right?”

“Young Mistress!” Qingqiao jumped back in embarrassment. She clutched her cheeks and complained, “You’re pinching me again!”

Song Caitang burst out laughing.

This little girl was like a little bunny. She was so cute.

Qingqiao was 13 or 14, so she would have been an adorable middle school student in modern times. But here, she had become a maid with no rights at all. A maid who had to watch her step carefully and think about how she could make her employers’ life better all the time.

At that moment, Qingqiao seemed to understand the logic behind what Song Caitang was saying. She stomped her feet boldly and said with a regretful sigh, “Why didn’t you ask for more then!”

“Asking for more than that is just being greedy.”

Song Caitang lowered her gaze slightly. An intelligent gleam filled her eyes.

This coffin home and the corpses that had been dealt with illegally were probably only part of First Madam Wu’s illicit dealings. There were probably other things hidden away that she didn’t know about and couldn’t tell at the moment.

“It will make her suspicious.”

The amount ought to match the severity of the matter. If she asked for too much, First Madam Wu would think that she knew a lot and would be extremely wary of her. That would bring her a lot of trouble in the future. The current situation was just nice.

Qingqiao just nodded along but didn’t really understand. Then again, Song Caitang was so clever, so everything she said had to be correct.

She just felt a little upset, “It isn’t a big crime for employers to hit or kill their servants. They won’t be physically punished and not even brought to court. At worst, the authorities will fine them a small amount. First Madam Wu is so awful, yet you are only able to squeeze a little money out of her, and you can’t do anything else about her.”

Song Caitang sighed quietly as she basked in the sunshine.

“Yeah…”

That was the part she hated most about living in this era.

This was a time when people were badly oppressed by the upper class and the people in government, as well as suffocating social norms. But if she wanted to live a normal life here, she would have to get used to life in such times.

Once she had gotten used to it, she would understand it. Once she understood it well, she would be able to find out where and how she could help others. For now, she had to live well first.

As Qingqiao spoke, she was reminded of how Song Caitang had uncovered those bodies and confronted First Madam Wu. She was filled with admiration for her Young Mistress.

“Young Mistress, just now you were really…handsome!”

Song Caitang burst out laughing again, “Handsome? What?”

Qingqiao’s face reddened, “I didn’t really get to go to school…”

She saw that Song Caitang was just laughing at her, and it was fine to embarrass herself in front of her Young Mistress anyway, so she stomped her feet and said, “You…you were just really amazing! Really handsome! More amazing than a man!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you,” There was nothing else to do on this long walk home besides chatting with this little girl anyway, “And then?”

“The way you were able to analyze those dead bodies was so scary but so amazing too! Did you really get pointers from the lord of Hades when you went there?” Qingqiao blinked rapidly and stared at Song Caitang admiringly, “You even knew about that decree from 15 years ago!”

Initially, she had been so frightened. Her Young Mistress had suddenly snapped out of her daze and couldn’t remember anything. Yet she wasn’t afraid when confronted with so many dead bodies and even uncovered the bodies and lifted their clothes to take a better look…

She had been terrified and thought that her Young Mistress had been possessed by a ghost. Out of her loyal heart, she wanted to protect her Young Mistress and keep her away from the bodies, but she failed to do so!

But then, she realized that her Young Mistress was studying the bodies really very seriously.

She didn’t expect her Young Mistress to be so cool. She had only checked the dead bodies as they were and knew exactly what had happened, as though she had been there when it happened. First Madam Wu had been so scared that she didn’t dare to be snobbish anymore and didn’t even protest when Song Caitang named such conditions!

Qingqiao’s eyes were bright as she stared at Song Caitang like she was looking at her idol.

“Yeah…” Song Caitang sighed, “How could I have known…”

She had been a coroner for many years now. Dissecting cadavers was second nature to her. But when she first awoke in this body, she didn’t know anything about the previous owner of this body. She even had to rely on Qingqiao for her own name. She shouldn’t have known about that decree from 15 years ago.

Why?

Could this body have already known this? She couldn’t remember anything else, but because of the urgency of the situation, the body felt that this information was useful and retrieved it from her brain?

Qingqiao saw the fallen expression on Song Caitang’s face and thought her Young Mistress was recalling the unhappy things that happened in the past. She consoled her, “Young Mistress, don’t be sad. The back of your head was really badly injured, so the doctor already said that you will take time to get well and it would take you a long time to stop behaving like an idiot. And when you first snap out of it, you might not remember certain things. You have to take it slow.”

Song Caitang continued walking on the soft grass and nodded, “Qingqiao, tell me about myself then.”

“Okay.” Qingqiao nodded and started, “Your surname is Song, and your name is Caitang. Your mother died young, and your father also died, from an illness last year. Then, you ran into an accident as well and knocked your head very hard. The elderly butler of your home, Uncle Song, had no choice but to send you to the Guan family in Luanze and beg your maternal grandmother to take care of you.”

“My name’s Qingqiao, and my family suffered from a disaster that killed everyone except myself. The back of your head was badly injured, and you were unconscious for a long time initially. It was difficult for Uncle Song to take care of you by himself, so when he saw how pitiful but hardworking I was, he bought me and instructed me to take care of all your needs.”

“The journey to Luanze was very tough, and Uncle Song grew thinner by the day. Your maternal grandmother knows Uncle Song and cried when she saw him and got her own servants to take care of you. But Uncle Song was really too old and in poor health, so he passed on some days after we arrived. Then when you finally woke, you were in a daze and could only eat a little porridge. Later on, you became more alert and could walk around and sit on your own. But there was no life in your eyes. You couldn’t speak and didn’t smile. And now, you’re finally all recovered!”

“As for the Guan family, there’s your maternal grandmother, then there’s Eldest Young Mistress, Third Young Mistress…”

Song Caitang continued walking at a leisurely pace toward the Guan family home as she listened to Qingqiao talk. Her brows were slightly furrowed as though she was deep in thought.

The journey was quite long, and the two ladies had to rely on their own two feet to keep walking, so they stopped several times to rest.

Meanwhile, the Guan family had already heard about what had happened.

In the back of the Guan family home was the Quingyi Courtyard; this was where Madam Zhang, the mistress of the house, lived. Inside, Madam Zhang held small silver scissors in her hands and trimmed the leaves off the stalk of an almond blossom.

She wore a thin woven grape purple top and a matching long skirt. The fabric was covered in purple vines, which made her look casual enough for the home without losing any of her elegance. Her gaze was cast downward, and she was focused as she trimmed the flower stalk. It was impossible to see any signs of aging on her face that had been extremely well taken care of.

“How’s this stalk? Isn’t it pretty?” Once she was done trimming the stalks and filling the vase, she turned to ask her daughter, who stood by the side.

Guan Rongrong’s face was tense from bottling her anger in, “Mother! How could you continue with your flower arrangement nonsense? That cousin of mine has turned the whole place upside down immediately after she recovered! She argued with First Madam Wu so badly that First Madam Wu came marching out from the coffin home so furiously and said that they don’t dare to continue with this arranged marriage!”

“This arranged marriage! The one YOU agreed to!!”