Chapter 1: Pear Blossom Village

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Under cover of night, a woman carried a burlap sack on her back, while a young man holding a shovel followed behind her. The two of them hurried furtively toward the rear mountain.

Jiang Lihua was jolted awake. Her mind was groggy, and pain coursed through her entire body, leaving her utterly powerless.

Dimly, she heard a man and a woman talking.

“Mother, are we really going to throw her into the rear mountain?”

“Bin’er, you must not be softhearted. She cannot die in our house.”

With a heavy thud, another wave of pain swept through her body. Jiang Lihua realized that someone had thrown her forcefully onto the ground.

A cold wind blew past, making the woman and the young man shiver.

The young man said, “Mother, just leave her here. There’s no need to dig a hole. Let’s go home. I keep feeling that this place is haunted.”

Suddenly, he felt something seize his foot. His entire body went rigid, and he did not dare move.

Trembling, he said, “Mother, Mother, look at my foot. Is there something underneath it?”

The woman looked down at her son’s feet and shrieked in terror. Grabbing him, she tried to run.

“A ghost! Bin’er, run! Run!”

“Mother, I can’t run! I…”

Only then did she realize that the young man had been frightened into wetting himself. His legs were shaking uncontrollably.

“My poor Bin’er!”

With a loud cry, the woman gritted her teeth, crouched down, hoisted her son onto her back, and began to flee.

Jiang Lihua finally crawled out of the sack and slowly opened her eyes. All she could see was their retreating backs.

She had no idea what was happening. Lying flat on the ground, she tried to process the memories that had appeared in her mind.

The Moon Departure Kingdom. Pear Blossom Village. The Yang family’s child bride…

Jiang Lihua had never imagined that being crushed by a fallen shelf would actually send her through time and space. She had entered the body of a girl who was nearly twenty years younger than herself, yet shared the same name.

Through her own hard work, combining her savings with a loan, she had finally opened a department store of her own.

She had never expected that, on the eve of its opening, while inspecting the merchandise on the warehouse shelves, one of the shelves—several meters high—would suddenly topple over. Laden with goods, it had come crashing down on her.

At that instant, she had thought she might be severely injured, or even die.

But she had never imagined that she would travel to another world.

Before she could think any further, she looked around and saw trees growing thickly in every direction, with lush undergrowth everywhere. Clearly, she was deep in the mountains.

From time to time, the cries of wild beasts echoed through the forest.

“Awooo… Awooo…”

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She had to leave this place immediately. Jiang Lihua struggled to her feet and headed in the direction in which the two people had fled.

Those two were the mother and son of the Yang family, Madam Yang and Yang Wenbin. Jiang Lihua had been sold to the Yang family at the age of four or five to serve as a child bride, where she had endured endless beatings and abuse from the mother and son.

At last, their torment had left her covered in wounds and hovering on the brink of death.

Fearing that she would die in their home and that the villagers would discover she had been beaten to death, the Yang family had taken advantage of the night to throw her into the rear mountain.

Jiang Lihua was hungry and exhausted. The torn padded jacket she wore offered no protection from the cold, and she shivered violently.

Dazed and stumbling, she had not gone far before she could no longer hold on and collapsed unconscious.

“What is going on?”

Jiang Lihua discovered that she had returned to the department store she had opened. Yet her body was still that of ten-year-old Jiang Lihua from Pear Blossom Village.

It was all too strange, but she had no energy to dwell on it. If she did not eat soon, she would starve to death. She hurried to the food section and grabbed some milk and bread to fill her stomach.

After she had eaten her fill, Jiang Lihua noticed that the shelves where she had taken the milk and bread had automatically been restocked.

She was just about to go over and examine them when she heard someone calling her name.

“Lihua… Lihua…”

Jiang Lihua’s body jolted. She opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was the handsome, refined face of a young man.

Looking around, she found herself once again in the mountains.

Jiang Lihua was completely bewildered. Could that whole experience have merely been a dream caused by hunger?

And yet it had not felt like a dream. It had been far too real. She could distinctly feel that she had truly eaten her fill.

Seeing her staring blankly, the young man waved a hand in front of her face.

“Lihua, Lihua… what’s wrong?”

Jiang Lihua came back to herself. From her memories, she learned that this was Nie Wenyu, the only person in Pear Blossom Village to have recently passed the scholar examination.

At that moment, Nie Wenyu was looking at her with concern.

“Um… could you take me down the mountain?”

She felt a little embarrassed troubling him when they had only just met.

“All right.”

Nie Wenyu helped her to her feet, and together they began making their way down the mountain.

Along the way, Nie Wenyu looked hesitant, stammering as though he wanted to say something.

“Li… Lihua, you… you…”

“If you have something to say, just say it.”

“If… after we get down the mountain, you have nowhere to go, you can stay at my house for now.”

Hearing this, Jiang Lihua guessed that he must have witnessed what had happened earlier.

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That arrangement suited her perfectly. Ten-year-old Jiang Lihua had always lived with the Yang family, but she could not return there for the time being. She had been worrying about where she would stay once she reached the foot of the mountain.

“All right. Thank you, Nie Wenyu.”

At her thanks, Nie Wenyu’s face reddened.

“Y-you’re welcome.”

“Ah!”

Suddenly, Jiang Lihua slipped. She was about to tumble down the mountain when—

“Lihua!”

Without hesitation, Nie Wenyu reached out and caught her, and the two of them rolled down the slope together.

When they finally came to a stop, he held Jiang Lihua tightly, his voice tense with worry.

“Lihua, Lihua, are you all right?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

A faint blush coloring her cheeks, Jiang Lihua climbed out of Nie Wenyu’s arms and got to her feet.

Only after seeing that she was unharmed did Nie Wenyu realize what had happened. His face flushed all the way to the roots of his neck.

“Lihua, just… just now…”

“I… I know. You were only trying to save me.”

Hearing her say that, Nie Wenyu felt a little disappointed.

“Lihua, I’ll carry you down the mountain.”

Without waiting for her reply, he bent down, hoisted her onto his back, and continued toward the foot of the mountain.

Lying across the slender young man’s back, Jiang Lihua felt a trace of warmth in her heart.

In the twenty-first century, she had been an orphan. She had endured countless hardships, and after entering society, she had struggled and fought her way forward. Human hearts were complicated, and she rarely allowed anyone to come this close to her.

They walked in silence. About fifteen minutes later, they reached Nie Wenyu’s home at the foot of the mountain.

It was an old house with a small courtyard. The main hall stood in the center, with a side room on either side.

Nie Wenyu led her into the room on the left.

“You… you sleep in my room for now. I’ll sleep in the other one.”

With that, he hurriedly withdrew.

Jiang Lihua sat on the bed and surveyed the humble little room. Apart from the bed, there was only a bookshelf and a chair.

Nie Wenyu’s parents had died when he was young, and he had grown up eating meals provided by the villagers. An old scholar in the village had taken pity on him and taught him to read and write. No one had expected him to possess such remarkable talent for learning.

At twelve, he had passed the preliminary examination and become a student of the district school. A year later, he took the academy examination and successfully earned the title of scholar.

Jiang Lihua sighed and lay down on the bed. The more she thought about the department store, the stranger everything seemed. She had clearly returned to the store and eaten milk and bread.

As she continued thinking, her surroundings suddenly shifted.

She rubbed her eyes vigorously and discovered that she had once again returned to the department store.

“What… what exactly is going on? Could this place be some kind of alternate space?”

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