Chapter 1 Something Big Has Happened: Shen Wanqing had placed a recliner in her office, with low bases on all four corners, behind her desk...

Shen Wanqing had a recliner in her office. The base was low at all four corners, so it was hard for anyone to notice it when it was placed behind her desk.

For this recliner, she even brought her cat-shaped pillow from home and some merchandise she bought when she was following a celebrity a couple of years ago—one of which can be folded up and zipped up to be used as a pillow, and unfolded into a small blanket—to the office.

On this ordinary morning, Shen Wanqing held three meetings in a row, and the third summary meeting ended at 1:30 pm.

The lunch her colleague bought for her had gone cold, and in the break room where the microwave was kept, two women from the finance office were talking. To avoid overhearing things she shouldn't, Shen Wanqing decided to take a nap before reheating her lunch.

The small area enclosed by the walls and desk was dim and quiet, and I fell asleep soon after lying down.

There was a construction team working outside the office. Three months ago they were repairing the road, two months ago they were digging pipes, and now they were poking at something with a whirring sound. Shen Wanqing didn't even open her eyes, turned over and went back to sleep.

Office naps are usually short and disorienting. Sometimes you sleep so long you lose track of time and wake up to find only fifteen minutes have passed. Other times you feel like you've just taken a nap, only to realize you've missed your alarm when you pick up your phone.

That's how it is when you take a nap. When Shen Wanqing was woken up by the choking smell of smoke, her first thought was, "Who the hell is burning paper money in the office?!" If the smoke detector had reacted, she didn't want to have to climb down fifteen flights of stairs again!

Shen Wanqing wasn't very lucky. When she went to university, she listened to her family and chose civil engineering. At the time, her father patted his chest loudly, saying that he could arrange a job for his daughter as soon as she graduated.

Later, before finishing her first year of college, Shen's father passed away from a heart attack, leaving Shen Wanqing, who had just turned eighteen, and her mother, who had been playing mahjong at home for ten years and had never worked, staring at each other in bewilderment.

People come and go. Shen Wanqing never saw the uncles and elders who used to come to her house for meals or invite her father out to eat again. After graduation, the so-called job arrangement naturally became a complete joke.

Fortunately, it wasn't difficult to find a job in the civil engineering industry a few years ago. Shen Wanqing, a girl who had studied and was willing to work on construction sites, was recruited by the company before graduation and then dispatched to a project.

One year, two years, three years, five years later, Shen Wanqing rose from intern to on-site supervisor and then to project manager. Last year, she was officially transferred back to headquarters to oversee a regional project and became the regional manager. The only downside is that the industry itself is declining and on the verge of collapse.

Right after the New Year, Shen Wanqing, as the district leader, led the entire office to Mount Wutai to worship Buddha. They brought back a Buddha statue, consulted a master about its feng shui location, and set up a Buddhist shrine and offering table with three kinds of sacrificial animals and three kinds of fruit in the office. Whoever arrives first in the morning will light an incense stick. This has been going on for more than half a year without missing a single day.

Whether it will be useful or not is hard to say, but Shen Wanqing acquired two new plots of land in this region in the middle of this year. Whether it's good or bad, these two plots can at least sustain her for two or three years. Maybe the market will take another turn for the better in two or three years, and she'll get through it.

With this intention, even if people gossiped behind Shen Wanqing's back, saying how could a young, unmarried girl believe in such things, Shen Wanqing pretended not to hear. More Buddhas mean more paths; as long as the Buddha knows her sincerity, that's enough. Who knows, it might work.

Still half asleep, Shen Wanqing had time to think about all sorts of random things. She didn't even know which idiot had burned the paper money, and the pungent, acrid smell of smoke and fire got even stronger.

Neither the smoke detectors nor the temperature sensors in the office were activated; instead, a deafening sound of firecrackers rang in her ears. "Which fast food restaurant downstairs has opened again?" Shen Wanqing was just thinking about whether to try the new restaurant tomorrow when she was suddenly burned by a red paper that flew out of nowhere and exploded on the back of her hand, finally snapping her out of her reverie.

When I woke up, I found myself not lying in my own cozy little bed, but sitting in a sedan chair that was shaking so badly it made me want to vomit.

She was wearing a veil over her head and holding a big, round, red apple in her hands. She looked just like the horror movie about weddings and funerals that Shen Wanqing watched when she was a child. It could really scare people into screaming.

Perhaps it was because it was too noisy outside the sedan chair, or perhaps it was because the original owner was inexplicably possessed by Shen Wanqing, which meant that the girl's health was definitely not very good. In any case, the howl that should have been comparable to a lion's roar was reduced to a hoarse low cry when it reached the outside of the sedan chair.

"Girl, are you alright?"

"ah?"

"Oh dear, how did the firecrackers end up inside the sedan chair? I told them to put the firecrackers further away. These good-for-nothings only know how to steal wedding money and don't know how to do any work. I'll deal with them later."

The speaker was a woman who looked to be in her thirties but dressed very maturely. Her hair was neatly combed and was jet black and shiny, probably from hair oil.

I don't know what this hair oil is made of. It looks shiny and smooth but not sticky. It's even better than the hair oil I buy. In the midst of this pungent firecracker smell, I can still smell a faint jasmine fragrance.

"Granny?"

"Hey, nanny's here. Don't be afraid, young lady, we'll be there soon."

"Um."

The word "nanny" just slipped out of her mouth. Only after she finished calling out did Shen Wanqing realize that her voice had become younger. It was no longer the tigress who had spent many years on construction projects and whose shouts made most of the company tremble with fear. Instead, it had a clear and crisp voice.

The commotion alone terrified Shen Wanqing, who dared not utter another word. The curtain on the side of the bridal sedan chair was lowered again, leaving only her breathing and heartbeat inside.

Shen Wanqing could roughly guess that something bad had happened to her, and it was a big one. This situation could only be either time travel or possession. She didn't know whether her body, which had been overworked and in poor health for many years, was completely dead or had been taken over by someone else.

However, the most important thing right now is not those things. Shen Wanqing pressed her fingers hard against her temples, fighting against the pain that felt like her head was about to split open. This body had too many memories, too complicated, and she wanted to access them but didn't know where to start.

Memories surged like a tidal wave, the noise outside the bridal sedan chair becoming the background music, and for a moment Shen Wanqing even felt her mind was boiling.

Fortunately, the wedding procession couldn't take the bride directly from the Shen family to the groom's house. It circled around Dongzhimen and Andingmen, going back and forth for more than an hour, before the bridal sedan chair finally stopped. Inside the sedan chair, Shen Wanqing had caught her breath, only her fingers, tightly gripping the apple, were still trembling slightly.

Her name was still Shen Wanqing, but she was no longer the self-employed office worker of later generations, but a girl from the Shen family of the Plain Yellow Banner Han Army.

The Shen family's ancestral home was in Liaodong. After entering the pass, they were incorporated into the Han Army Banner. The grandfather, Shen Tieshan, was a educated military general who first served as a cavalry captain in the Han Army Banner's firearms battalion after entering the pass, and later rose to the position of director in the Imperial Household Department's workshop.

My uncle, Shen Hongji, served as a banner commander in the Han army, in charge of a trade route from Liaodong to the capital. Besides ginseng, the most common goods he transported were various furs and mountain products. He was stationed in Liaodong year-round.

My father, Shen Hongshi, served as the prefect of Fujian a few years ago. Because he did a good job in logistics when Kangxi took over the three islands, and handled resettlement and other matters well after the war, he was transferred back to the capital not long after and served as the director of the Fujian Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue.

The official rank of the fifth grade was not high, but the person was practical and capable. He was registered with Emperor Kangxi, and from then on, the Shen family was able to establish a firm foothold in the Han Banner Army.

His mother, Xu, also came from the Han Banner Army, but her family wasn't in the capital; instead, they were all stationed in Fuzhou. The Xu family played a crucial role in Shen Hongshi's appointment as prefect of Fujian.

The Shen family is under the Han Banner Army, and the whole family follows the path of literature. Shen Wanqing also has an uncle, Shen Hong'an, who passed the imperial examination a few years ago and is now a county magistrate in the south. It is hard to say when he will be able to return.

Such a family background was considered one of the better ones in the Han Chinese Banner of the Plain Yellow Banner, living a better life than most families in the banner. Otherwise, Shen Wanqing, with her Han Chinese Banner background, would not have been able to marry into the Hesheli family.

Yes, that's right, it's the famous Hesheli clan who became Empress Yuan. Shen Wanqing is going to marry Yulang, whose great-grandfather was named Xifu, and who was the brother of Hesheli Soni's father. Before entering the Central Plains, Xifu was proficient in Manchu, Han and Mongolian languages. He was a minister of state during the Shunzhi reign, was granted the title of third-class viscount, and was posthumously awarded the title of Grand Tutor and the posthumous name Wenjian.

This posthumous title reveals that the old man was a scholar. After his death, he left behind a third-class viscount title and a hereditary military command. The viscount title was inherited by his eldest son, Qitat, and the military command was inherited by his second son, Shuaiyanbao.

Shuai Yanbao was Yulang's grandfather, and during his lifetime he served as Minister of Works and Minister of Rites. Seven years ago, Shuai Yanbao passed away, leaving behind his eldest son Erhe, his second son Heyi, and two daughters, Zhenjie and Fujie.

Shuai Yanbao died at the age of forty-three, which is considered the prime of life by later generations, and not considered old by today's wealthy Manchu clan.

After his death, his eldest son, Erhe, took over the family's hereditary Zuo Ling (military commander), while his second son, Heyi, as a son of a noble family from the Upper Three Banners, entered the Imperial Guard as a third-class bodyguard. It is said that wealth does not last beyond three generations, but the family fortune left by Shuaiyan was indeed enough to sustain the family.

What should have been a good time turned into a nightmare when, before the son could even finish observing the three-year mourning period for his father, Erhe suddenly fell ill and passed away. With his passing, the Hesheli branch of the family collapsed by the last half.

Aunt Zhen was better off. She had arranged a marriage for her daughter before Shuai Yanbao passed away. A year later, after the mourning period for Shuai Yanbao was over, she married into Shengjing with sixty-four loads of dowry prepared by her family and a thousand taels of silver as a dowry.

When Shuai Yanbao passed away, his youngest daughter, Fu Jie'er, was thirteen years old. Before she could even arrange a marriage, she had to observe mourning for her father.

He had planned to participate in the talent show after the mourning period, and if he failed, he could find a wife later. But then his eldest brother, Erhe, who was in charge of the household, also passed away. He had been living at home for the past few years after failing to find a wife, and now he's twenty and still unmarried.

After Erhe left, the Zuo Ling (military command) was given to Shen Wanqing's husband, Yu Lang, whom she was about to marry. But Yu Lang was only twelve years old that year. He also had a nine-year-old sister and an unborn child in his mother's womb. This family of orphans and widows was a pipe dream.

After a clan meeting of the entire Hesheli clan, it was decided that He Yi, who had already separated from the family, could move back home, and the two branches of the family would live separately but not in isolation. Firstly, the old lady, Tongjia, still had a son to serve her, and secondly, the widow and her son from the eldest branch of the family would have someone to rely on.

This family, whose interpersonal relationships alone are a tangled mess, has seen countless people come to congratulate them or whisper behind their backs that the Shen family has had a stroke of good fortune by marrying their daughter into the Hesheli family, simply because they share the same lineage as Suo'etu and Empress Yuan.

Within the Eight Banners, marriages were arranged by parents and matchmakers. Once the two families had agreed, they would go home and inform their sons and daughters, and the matter would be settled.

The original owner simply hummed in agreement regarding her marriage and never said anything about whether it was good or bad. Now that Shen Wanqing was sitting in the bridal sedan chair being carried to the Hesheli family, she naturally couldn't say whether she was willing or not. She didn't want to die or be locked up as a madwoman, so she had to endure this charade even if it meant her death.

As for the male lead in this drama, Shen Wanqing didn't care at all. After all, she didn't even know what the groom, who was currently outside the bridal sedan chair and had shot three arrows at the sedan chair door with "dudududu" sounds, actually looked like.