Jiangnan Gaiden

Capítulo 1

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"Mommy, you can't do this! Putting me in the past will confuse history. Not only will you be expelled from the Supernatural Society, but all your supernatural abilities will disappear!" A faint voice came from the Soul-Suppressing Ring with the Tai Chi symbol, urgently trying to persuade the mother to change this absurd idea.

The person wearing this ring was a beautiful woman around forty years old, with a captivating charm. She wore a divine black robe. As a top-tier witch in the supernatural world, she naturally possessed unique supernatural abilities. Her ability was to allow her soul to leave her body during meditation and travel freely through time and space. People with such abilities understand that they cannot leave any trace in any era for others to discover, nor can they change established facts; history must remain unchanged.

Zhu Lirong's abilities were quite strong, but she could only travel back in time, not into the future. She had witnessed the construction of the Great Wall and Qin Shi Huang's burning of books and burying of scholars alive; from the so-called prosperous Han and Tang dynasties to the eight-year War of Resistance against Japan and the Nanjing Massacre in modern history. In the grand scheme of history, tragedy outweighed fortune. In every turbulent dynasty, ordinary people, their lives as insignificant as grass, became victims of the struggles for power among monarchs. She never lingered in any era; powerless to change anything, she could only watch helplessly as tragedy after tragedy repeated itself. Qin, Han, the Warring States period, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing—which dynasty rose without bloodshed? The unchanging cycle of founding, prosperity, and decline, followed by rampant banditry, widespread thievery, rampant warfare, burning, killing, and looting… After a journey she took when she was twenty, she vowed to forever seal her power, never to step into history again, unwilling to witness such tragedy unfold before her eyes.

But now, for her daughter's sake, she must not only return to history but also commit a grave taboo in the supernatural world. After today, she will lose all her supernatural abilities and become an ordinary woman; being condemned by the supernatural world, even being banished, is nothing to her. As long as her daughter's soul doesn't perish, as long as her daughter can come back to life, she doesn't care even if she loses everything!

Three days ago, her daughter, Yang Yiliu, died in a car accident while trying to save an elderly woman. Zhu Lirong had calculated that her daughter's life shouldn't end there. A soul that dies unjustly can only drift in the universe, its spirit scattered, its essence in a state of chaos, becoming a wisp of unconsciousness. She couldn't let her daughter suffer such an end. But even if she kept the soul in the ring, it would only last seven days. After seven days, she still couldn't help her daughter, so she had to let her daughter possess a body to return to life. This wasn't easy. Finding a body was simple, of course. But not every body was suitable. She also needed to find a body with the same magnetic field reactivity and the same electrical wavelength.

Left with no other choice, she had to deduce her daughter's past lives. Yang Yiliu had four past lives: one in the early Republic of China, one in the mid-Song Dynasty, one in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and another was her original body, existing in some unexplored time and space. Once found, she had to choose a body that had died unexpectedly. Finding one who died of natural causes was useless; she couldn't cause someone's death, as that would be inhumane and incur divine retribution. Fortunately, the past life in the Song Dynasty was in the prime of youth when her lifespan ended! Her age was similar to Yiliu's. She told her daughter about her decision, but her daughter resolutely opposed it.

"Liu Liu, Mommy has made up my mind. It doesn't matter if I lose everything, as long as you can live." Zhu Lirong spoke firmly to the ring.

"But Mommy, is just being alive enough? Living in ancient times, leading a life without any sense of self, living in someone else's life. Everyone dies eventually, what's the point of living a few decades longer? Besides, in this era, my ancient self would have died long ago." Yang Yiliu certainly wanted to be alive again. But going back to ancient times—it was too absurd! How could she, a woman who had been immersed in the 20th century for twenty years, live such an unimaginable ancient life? No cars, no electricity, and even worse, in the Song Dynasty, a woman's value was almost like that of a piece of furniture, purely for display, not respected as an independent living being. She'd rather be dead!

"Don't blame me for being too stubborn, Liu Liu. If you were in ancient times, you would be dead by now! But in terms of time and space, we are still living in the same era! It's just that we are in different places." She would not change her mind, no matter what her daughter said.

“But we can’t change history!” Yang Yiliu continued to earnestly persuade her mother.

"Don't worry, history may change a little, that's true, but it will never change in history books. They're already full of anecdotes about emperors and generals. They don't have time to write about an insignificant little woman like you! Once you return to history, you'll find that the most fascinating part of history isn't the emperors and officials, but the lives of ordinary people. Take care of yourself, Liu Liu."

Zhu Lirong sat cross-legged, hands clasped together, and murmured, "Come with me, Liu Liu, the time has come! Remember, from now on you are Su Huan'er, eighteen years old... Your new life begins now..." As Zhu Lirong murmured the incantation, Yang Yiliu fell into a coma. Her soul transformed into a wisp of smoke and drifted out of the ring, then was absorbed into a seven-colored vortex by a beam of white light. Then, all her consciousness gradually blurred...

4126_2.txt

Chapter 1

In the solemn and magnificent council chamber, three men and one woman sat.

The man at the head of the table, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, appeared to be the oldest. Beneath his sharply defined eyebrows were a pair of clear, deep eyes, and his straight nose repeatedly revealed his strong and unyielding character. His beautifully curved lips were tightly pressed together. He remained silent, and the room was filled with solemnity. The other three were struggling to decide how to break the silence.

"Big brother." The only girl, a stunningly beautiful girl, spoke softly, breaking the solemn atmosphere.

The man at the head of the table raised an eyebrow, signaling for his sister to speak. He never allowed his only sister to suffer any injustice, nor did he show her any disrespect. But his sister, Wuxia, was afraid of him; perhaps it was his innate coldness, aloofness, and unsmiling demeanor that instilled her fear.

"Brother, none of us want you to marry Su Guangping's daughter. Can you change your mind?" Shi Wuxia looked at her elder brother Shi Wuji with hope.

Shi Wuji forced a smile that lacked any real mirth.

"You haven't forgotten that our trip south to Hangzhou was to welcome the bride, have you?"

“We came along hoping to persuade you to give up this idea,” said the usually gentle second son, Shi Wuhen. His typically refined and mild face also showed disapproval.

The second brother, Shi Wujie, was even more direct in calling him:

"Who would marry the daughter of their enemy? We're here to observe the situation and plan our revenge, not for a marriage alliance!"

After the three men finished speaking, they all reached the same conclusion: they all opposed the eldest brother, Shi Wuji, marrying Su Guangping's youngest daughter, Su Huan'er.