Chapter 2

[sleepy eiycee: I’ll start referring to Raine as Xuiying from this point.]

As days pass by, Raine at least knows that she has indeed transmigrated and is now a young lady named Qi Xiuying. She is now the second lady of a well-known family of merchants in the capital of the Feng empire. Today, her mother Xi Hui is accompanying her while embroidering. She felt loved as she heard her mother talk of their past, although those belong to the original owner of her current body. 

She started to feel nervous as she heard a series of hurried but steady steps and felt another person enter her room. Hearing no movements from her mother, she realized that it is someone whom their family trusted it was then she felt at ease. 

“Mother…” a voice of a confident young man reached her ears. Based on how he calls her mother, then he is the brother she hears from her mother’s stories. She cannot relate the young man to someone who is full of mischiefs as his voice sounded confident and mature.

“Ming’er, where’s your father?” since the incident Xi Hui started to get anxious whenever she doesn't know the location of any of their family members. 

“Father is currently dealing with something important. How is she doing?”

“Physician Li said that she was recovering well and might wake up one of these days.” a faint smile and joy evident in her eyes. She is excited to see her child’s doe-like eyes and the smile that never failed to melt their hearts.

“Ming’er… You and your father are hiding something from me.”

“Mother…” Qi Ming helpless sighed, in his mind was all the warnings his father gave him before going home.

“I know you two so well, please do not deny it, especially if it is related to our family. I have every right to know the truth.” Xi Hui sternly stated while looking at her son's handsome face.

“…” Qi Ming was speechless; he has seen the changes in her mother's disposition from being soft spoken to being a strong woman after what happened to his sister.

“You do not have any plan to tell me? Fine, I will move out of the house and will bring your sister with me. We won’t return until both of you tell…” 

She heard Qi Ming sighing with defeat before telling Xi Hui that all evidence led them to the first branch of their clan.

Xi Hui’s expression changed from disbelief, to disappointment and lastly anger while hearing the contents of the letters they have recovered and some testimonies they have gathered. They have a good relationship with the first branch of the clan. Her daughter has a sisterly bond to her cousin, Qi Fan. That was why she never suspected that they were involved in the same incident because Qi Fan was also injured. The investigation done by the clan resulted in showing that few of the ruffians who escaped from prison have targeted everyone who has gone to the temple that day.

Unfortunately, the first group of people that passed by are with royal dark guards whom the ruffians did not dare attack resulting for them to move their target to the second group which was where her daughter is.

Now knowing some gist of what happened, she started to fear how deep the first branch had hidden their claws. According to what they have heard, most of the elite guards assigned that day concentrated protecting their own young miss, Qi Fan. Leaving the newly trained and two elite guards to protect Xiuying. She thought the guards did that since their loyalty is to their master. The patriarch has given the surviving guards whipped for a hundred before releasing them from serving the clan as a punishment for failing to protect their second young miss, Qi Xiuying.

With the evidence her husband and son found, she doubts whether those loyal guards are still alive. She closed her eyes to calm her emotion before opening them again and looking at her son’s expression, she knows that Qi Chen has reprimanded Qi Ming to avenge his sister. Xi Hui knows how her husband thinks, and she agrees with him. Their daughter is still recovering so all plans to get back at them and bring justice to their family will have to wait. They just need to prepare everything and secretly make troubles so that the clan and first branch will be busy and won’t suspect anything.

Xiuying still has her eyes closed; she keeps on trying to open it but fails. She wants at least to see what her new family looks like. Her father, despite being busy, always visits and stays with her at night. Hearing what her mother and brother discussed, she knows they are waiting for her to recover fully before getting back what the first branch owes their family. Qi Chen tells her all the plans he has for their family, he is already executing his plan to separate their family from the clan.

She wants to wake up to lessen the worries of her family, fearing that if she does not wake up soon, she can’t help them if something bad happened. Having a new family, she does not realize that she is slowly letting go of her past. 

As always, Xiuying starts her day hearing the greeting of her maid, Xue; she remembers that her voice was the first one she heard when she regained her consciousness. The young maid always tells her gossip like how one of the trusted maids of the First Madam has climbed the bed of her master’s husband and is now the newly favored concubine of the first branch’s master. How the same person has requested for new furnishing in her courtyard after receiving the old ones while crying to the First Master how the First Madam made them suffer. She knows that it is one of the moves her father made to the clan for them to have troubles and be busy while their family is preparing what was needed to separate. 

Based on what she has heard, most of the money in the clan is from the businesses of her father. It looks like her father is the cash-cow of the clan. Despite this fact the first branch still plotted against her, which puzzled her knowing that they should keep the good relationship between their families.

While she was listening to her maid’s endless gossip, she heard the door open and two pairs of footsteps slowly approaching her bed. Her maid Xue suddenly stops talking but continues combing her long hair. She can feel fear and anger from the body beside her thus she can assume that the newcomers are someone from the first branch.