Chapter 1 Transmigration - Pre-order for the column "The Whole Family Transmigrates Together..."
"You ungrateful brat, you're already nineteen, and you've already found the wrong husband?"
"You're going to jump into the lake? Why don't you jump off a cliff and die a horrible death!"
"You have to marry into this family, whether you like it or not!"
Lin Chuntao slowly opened her eyes. Dappled sunlight filtered through the swaying willow leaves, and the scent of irises wafted in the breeze. She turned her head with difficulty and saw the blue-purple flowers swaying in the breeze.
She remembered that irises bloom in April and May.
Her grandmother passed away in the dead of winter. While sorting through her grandmother's belongings, she lost her balance and fell off the chair. Could it be that she fell and then experienced two seasons in one fall?
My vision was a little blurry, and I could feel several blurry faces moving above me.
Her head was throbbing terribly, as if countless things were bursting out.
Lin Chuntao rubbed her forehead vigorously as countless unfamiliar memories flooded her mind.
She tripped and fell into ancient times.
She transmigrated into the body of a peasant girl with the same name. Her mother had died early, her father had just remarried, and she had three younger sisters: the second sister was named Lin Chunxing, the third sister was named Lin Chunhe, and the youngest sister was named Lin Duoer.
The biological father and grandparents were extremely sexist, having given birth to four daughters before finally having a son. They went mad and married a widow who had given birth to three sons, at any cost.
The widow disliked having four children as burdens, and one of her conditions was that Lin Chuntao be married off so that she could be the head of the household.
The biological father readily agreed, and the stepmother and grandmother began arranging the original owner's marriage.
They found her an old widower who was about the same age as her biological father. He was willing to give her twenty taels of silver as a betrothal gift, but the original owner refused to marry him. She begged all the elders in her family, but no one said a word for her. The original owner was so angry that she jumped into the lake.
After it was pulled out, the core had already been replaced with Lin Chuntao's.
She pinched the bridge of her nose, slowly sat up, and a gust of wind blew by, making her shiver and fully awake.
Three younger sisters were squatting in front of her, looking at her with anxious expressions.
"Sister...you're awake? Do you have a headache?"
"A little."
"Go back inside and change your clothes first." Lin Chunxing said, reaching out to help her. The third brother, who was standing nearby, also hurriedly stepped forward, "That's right, don't get cold."
Lin Chuntao was helped into the house by her two younger sisters. She was soaking wet and uncomfortable, and didn't care about the Lin family members watching.
"I thought he was dead, but he's still alive! Let the Zhang family come to propose marriage tomorrow!"
Lin Chuntao slowly looked over towards the source of the voice. It was her stepmother, who had recently married into the family. She was rather thin, with a slightly protruding belly.
She was arm in arm with the old lady Tian next to her, looking smug and self-satisfied.
The old lady looked at Lin Chuntao's sinister eyes and scolded her sharply, "What are you glaring at me for? A man should marry when he comes of age, and a woman should marry when she comes of age. Your mother is doing this for you out of kindness, and you don't even know what's good for you!"
Lin Chuntao stared at the old lady and snorted coldly, then said in a low voice, "My mother is dead. I have no mother. Do you want her to be your mother?"
After she finished speaking, she followed her two younger sisters into the house, and behind them came the furious voice of Uncle Lin.
"Lin Chuntao, how dare you!"
Lin Chunxing slammed the door shut and bolted it. She could still faintly hear Uncle Lin cursing Lin Chuntao's father from outside: "Lin Changhe, look at the daughter you raised!"
“She always said what she meant, how was I supposed to know she would suddenly change like this?”
"That's right, that's right. Chun Tao never used to talk back, but suddenly she jumped into the lake and started cursing the old man."
The thatched hut has two floors inside, separated by a wooden board in the middle.
Lin Chuntao followed her two younger sisters up the wooden stairs. The upper floor was not tall enough and had no windows. Only a sliver of light shone through the cracks along the edge, making it dim, cramped, and suffocating.
Lin Chunhe quickly took off her clothes and handed them to her: "Sister, here you go."
Lin Chuntao was stunned. She saw Lin Chunhe, wearing only underwear and naked, crawl into the bed with such speed and dexterity that it seemed she had done it countless times before.
Seeing Lin Chuntao lost in thought, Lin Chunxing took the third brother's clothes and stuffed them into her hands.
"Hurry up and change. Take off your wet clothes and I'll wash them and hang them up to dry. The sun is shining now, they'll be dry in no time."
Lin Chuntao clutched the clothes that still held her sister's warmth, then looked down at her own clothes. The hem of her trousers only reached her calves, and the loose threads on the sides were faded from washing. The same was true for Lin Chunxing's clothes.
Thinking back to how her sisters were treated poorly in her memory, Lin Chuntao finally understood. Children without a mother and without money were always assigned to do all the work, but they never got to eat good food or have clothes made.
The sisters each had the same set of clothes, which they had worn for years without ever changing them.
She quickly changed out of her clothes and handed them to Lin Chunxing, then thanked her, saying, "Thank you, Second Sister."
Lin Chunxing hurriedly left with the clothes, leaving only her and her third sister Lin Chunhe inside the house.
"Sister, come in quickly."
Lin Chuntao did feel a bit cold, so she crawled into bed and squeezed together with Lin Chunhe. Their bed wasn't really a bed; it was just straw laid on the floorboards, with a cloth on top of the straw. The blankets on top were filled with something hard and didn't fit snugly against their skin.
She sorted through the original owner's memories.
This is Shuangzizhai, Daping Township, Xuanhe County, Yizhou Prefecture, located in the southwest.
Originally called Tianxing Kingdom, it was incorporated into the neighboring Yongsheng Kingdom a couple of years ago and renamed Yizhou.
After the name change, the emperor issued a decree ordering the people of the Central Plains to relocate to Yizhou.
The original owner was a native of Yizhou, the eldest daughter of the third branch of the Lin family in Shuangzizhai. She had four uncles and one aunt. Her aunt was two years younger than her and was the apple of the old lady's eye.
As for the granddaughters, they're all just blades of grass.
However, the other female cousins have their own mothers, so they don't lack even a change of clothes.
But the original owner and her three younger sisters were different. Their biological father was a good-for-nothing who only bullied his own family. The old lady stopped talking when she didn't give them money to make clothes. The original owner was afraid of the old lady and didn't dare to go to her. The sisters were like bitter gourds on a withered vine.
She couldn't live like this any longer; she had to find a way to make money.
But right now, the most urgent thing is how to avoid being 'sold'.
It's impossible to explain it away; this family hasn't separated yet, and her dowry would benefit everyone, so no one would help her.
She was outnumbered and outmatched in a fight, and if the other party offered a betrothal gift, she might be forced to take him away, which would be even worse.
If only there were a man around her age to act as a shield at this moment.
But time was of the essence, so where could she find this person?
Lin Chunhe glanced at her sister, who was lost in thought, and felt a pang of worry.
"Sis, what are you thinking about?"
"Still thinking about getting married?"
Hearing this, Lin Chuntao turned her head and looked at the thin girl beside her. She said softly, "She's thinking about how not to marry that old widower."
Lin Chunhe looked somewhat dejected, her dark eyes fixed on Lin Chuntao.
"Sister, please don't jump into the lake again! I was so scared today that I cried."
She concealed the fact that she and her second sister had also been frightened to tears; she never wanted to see her sister lying motionless on the ground again.
Lin Chuntao felt a pang of guilt and comforted her, saying, "I won't do it again. I won't do anything foolish again. I will take good care of you and your sisters from now on."
Hearing Lin Chuntao's assurance, Lin Chunhe breathed a sigh of relief. She bit her lip and whispered to Lin Chuntao, "Sister, do you know that Grandpa Village Chief and Grandpa said that every household has to send one person to marry an outsider. Grandpa doesn't like outsiders."
Lin Chuntao's eyes lit up, and she quickly asked in a low voice, "What else did you hear?"
"Grandma wanted to find an outsider for my aunt to marry into our family. After she told Grandpa, he was very conflicted."
In the original owner's memories, many people from the Central Plains have now migrated to Yizhou.
The locals in Yizhou all call them outsiders.
The imperial court ordered that those who migrated here should marry the locals. Lin Chuntao felt that this might be because of the large-scale migration. The court was afraid that too many people would come in and cause conflicts between the two groups, so it issued a policy to allow marriage alliances, making it easier for people with kinship to integrate into each other's lives.
Thinking about this, Lin Chuntao had an idea.
After Lin Chunxing returned from hanging up the clothes, Lin Chuntao asked her, "Are they still in the yard?"
Lin Chunxing said, "Grandma took my aunt and that black widow to the city, saying they wanted to buy cloth to make clothes. Second Uncle went to inform Old Zhang's family that they would come to propose marriage tomorrow afternoon. Grandpa took my eldest uncle and aunt to the fields. My eldest aunt just said that there wasn't enough pig feed for tomorrow, so she asked us to go and cut some."
"And collecting firewood."
"Don't do it yet. Come with me to Grandpa Village Chief's house."
Lin Chunxing was a little confused, "Go where?"
Lin Chuntao didn't say it explicitly, but just told Lin Chunxing to go with her. When they went out of the house, they saw two cousins from her fourth uncle's and youngest uncle's families carrying baskets and preparing to cut pig feed.
"Big sister, second sister, where are you planning to go to cut pig feed today?"
"I don't know where's a good place to get it done yet, I'll have to go out for a walk later." After answering, Lin Chunxing asked them, "What about you? Where are you going?"
"Let's go to the sandy area behind the mountain."
"Okay, you guys go ahead, we'll be there in a bit."
The two sisters then headed towards the village head's house.
It's early May now, and the crops in the fields need tending. Everyone is busy weeding and loosening the soil. There are relatively few people in the village. When Lin Chuntao and her family went to the village head's house, only the village head's wife, Old Lady Sun, was at home.
The two sisters greeted sweetly, "Grandma, isn't Grandpa home?"
Looking at the two sisters, Sun asked, "What's wrong? Your great-grandfather went to the county town with the village head; he should be back soon."
Lin Chuntao nodded, and then Sun asked, "Chuntao, the imperial court requires each household to send one person to marry one of the migrants. You are the oldest unmarried person in your family. Have your grandmothers told you about this?"
“I heard from Grandpa Muramasa that my grandfather was a little unhappy.”
As soon as Lin Chuntao finished speaking, Madam Sun's face darkened slightly. After seeing the change in her expression, Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "Madam, my mother is gone and there is no one to help me arrange a marriage. I have to do it myself, so I would like to trouble you to help me find someone suitable."
Sun raised an eyebrow at her, a hint of surprise in her eyes.
The locals don't like people moving in from elsewhere. They say that every household has to send someone out, but everyone is vague and drags their feet. If other villages have finished, but their village hasn't, the old man will lose face.
Now that Lin Chuntao had come to her door, Madam Sun quickly said, "Come on, I'll take you to the village head's house."
"Now?"
"Yes, now!"
As she spoke, Madam Sun deftly locked the door and led Lin Chuntao away.
Lin Chunxing was stunned. Lin Chuntao quickly said to her, "Go home and take care of your third sister first."
"Okay, sister, you can go without worry."
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