The Dingguo Marquis Estate.
Three years after the latest imperial spring examinations concluded, the cousin who had been staying at the Rose Pavilion vanished in a fire.
Everyone in the estate knew that Heir Lu held the cousin in high regard and intended to take her as his concubine. Now that his beloved had perished, he was so overcome with grief that he had actually tried to perform the wedding rites with her charred remains. Had the Marquis’s Lady not threatened to take her own life to stop him, the two would likely be wed in the afterlife by now.
The entire imperial court now knew that the Heir’s beloved concubine was dead. Consumed by sorrow, Commissioner Lu had not attended court for an entire month. He spent every day in the Rose Pavilion of the back courtyard like a walking corpse, waiting for his lady love to continue their romance in the next life.
It was during this time that Wu Weiwei transmigrated into the novel.
In her original world, a plague had ravaged her hometown, claiming her parents. The original owner of this body had fled to the Capital with her younger brother, intending to seek refuge with relatives. To her dismay, she found that her aunt’s family had already moved away, and her brother had fallen ill with the same plague. In order to afford his medical care, she sold herself into the Marquis Estate, which was the only way her brother survived.
Because she was honest, industrious, and possessed a breathtaking beauty, the Marquis’s Lady had taken notice of her and promoted her to be a personal maid in the Qingsong Courtyard, serving the Heir. The original owner knew full well what the Marquis’s Lady intended: she wanted her to replace the deceased cousin by the Heir’s side. But when she was sent to the Study one day to serve him, the Heir had nearly run her through with his sword. The very next day, she was demoted to the outer courtyard of the Qingsong Courtyard to work as a menial maid, instantly stripped of her status.
***
In the Qingsong Courtyard, Wu Weiwei was sweeping the floor listlessly, muttering something under her breath. Another maid leaned against the doorway, cracking melon seeds and deliberately spitting the shells onto the spot Wu Weiwei had just cleaned.
"Xiangju, pick that up!"
The maid slanted her eyes at her. "What are you acting so tough for, you little floozy? Do you think the Marquis’s Lady is still going to protect you? Let me tell you, you useless piece of trash—you have no value left!"
No sooner had the words left her lips than Wu Weiwei’s gaze turned sharp and fierce, piercing right through her.
"Are you going to pick it up, or not?" Wu Weiwei’s presence was imposing.
"You... what do you think you’re doing?"
Had a ghost possessed Wu Weiwei? She seemed like a completely different person, suddenly radiating such a heavy sense of oppression.
"Do you need me to say it again?" Wu Weiwei wore an evil smirk as she walked over, carrying her broom and dustpan.
"I... what can you do to me if I don't? In broad daylight, do you really think you dare hit me?"
Intimidated by Wu Weiwei’s aura, Xiangju’s face went pale, though she forced herself to keep eye contact. *Hmph! So what if she has a pretty face?* No matter how beautiful she was, she still couldn't capture the Heir’s heart. As a fellow menial maid, Wu Weiwei had been favored by the Marquis’s Lady because of her looks, but she hadn’t even lasted three days in the inner courtyard before being kicked out. Rumor had it that when she was driven out, she was pale, weak, and trembling—no one knew what had happened to her. To fall from a personal maid to a menial servant again... it was no wonder she had become so temperamental.
*Could she really not be temperamental?*
Xiangju was not entirely wrong in her assessment. Though she was not possessed by a ghost, the girl before her was indeed a beautiful flight attendant from a modern airline. Her life had consisted of being either high in the clouds or on her way back to them. She had thought that after this flight, she would return to the ground and play with her new puppy-like boyfriend. Unfortunately, an accident occurred mid-flight, and that was the glamorous end to her brilliant modern life.
She felt she hadn’t lived enough; her boyfriend was still waiting for her to come home and spoil him. But there was no helping it. Thankfully, fate had given her a chance to be reborn—transmigrating into this novel.
It was an unfinished web novel she had read in her spare time, titled *Heir, Your Pet Concubine Is Escaping Again*. That pet concubine was the heroine of the story, and she was merely a minor cannon-fodder character who hadn't even survived the first chapter.
She was currently in the residence of the male lead, Lu Hanting, the Heir of the Dingguo Marquis Estate. In the novel, the Heir appeared refined and elegant, but deep down, he was cold, insane, paranoid, and possessive. Because the heroine had provoked him and played games of "hard to get," he found her intriguing and eventually fell for her. However, the heroine was from a humble background and an orphan living in the estate, a status that doomed her from ever becoming the lady of the house. The Heir had initially intended to take her as a concubine, pamper her, and then marry a woman of equal status to manage the household—a decision he deemed both a gift to the heroine and the perfect compromise.
Little did he know, the heroine never loved him. She was a manipulative, hypocritical woman who acted submissive on the surface while secretly plotting to escape, even resorting to "faking her death."
*If you’re going to fake your death and elope with your true love, fine,* Wu Weiwei thought. *But why choose the hometown of the second male lead? You're just waiting for the male lead to realize the truth, tear the world apart to find you, and drag you back to the estate.*
According to the plot, the heroine would be found and brought back in half a month. Thinking of the original owner’s fate—dying before the first chapter even ended—Wu Weiwei couldn’t help but sigh.
As she walked toward Xiangju, she caught sight of a cold, handsome figure stepping out from the courtyard. She suddenly dropped to her knees, a move so unexpected it left Xiangju stunned.
Wu Weiwei began to cry, looking pitiful and moving. "Xiangju, we are both menial maids, and I know you have never liked me. But being promoted to the Heir's personal maid was not my intention. If I didn't have a young brother to support, I would never have gone to serve by the Heir’s side. The cleaning tasks today were assigned by Steward Li, yet you have repeatedly made things difficult for me. You... you have gone too far. My brother is sick, he is only five years old. If I cannot finish this work today, Aunt Mei will certainly not forgive me, let alone grant me leave to go see him. Please, for the sake of us both being maids, can you show some mercy and stop making this hard for me?"
Her plea for mercy was heard exactly as the Heir stepped out of the courtyard. She was weeping so pitifully, her expression of grievance looking uncannily like *her*.
Lu Hanting’s gaze instantly sharpened. He swept his eyes toward the maid standing frozen nearby, his voice deathly cold. "Is what she said true?"
The sudden shift left Xiangju trembling in fear on the ground, stuttering, "Heir... Heir, I... this isn't..."