The city walls of the capital stood tall and majestic, like giants.
Yuxi looked at the city walls with a face full of excitement. She had been on foot for half a month since fleeing the village, enduring cold, hunger and other hardships. At last, she was about to reach home.
The guards on the city walls watched Yuxi as she pounded on the city gate and shouted, "Hurry up and leave! If you don't leave, don't blame me for being rude." The capital gate had been closed a month ago, and no one was allowed in or out without proper documentation.
Yuxi raised her head and shouted, "I'm not a refugee! I am a young miss from the Han Residence. Please open the city gate and let me in!"
The soldier guarding the gate found this amusing. These days, people would tell any kind of lie to save their lives. "Why don't you just say you're the Empress's younger sister?" the soldier said sarcastically. In fact, the current Empress did come from the Han family. So when this woman claimed to be a young miss from the Han Residence, she essentially claimed to be the Empress's younger sister.
Yuxi immediately exclaimed, "Her Majesty the Empress is indeed my Jiejie1!" She and the Empress were half-sisters, sharing the same father but different mothers.
Laughter erupted at the city gate. The soldiers guarding the gate, tired of further nonsense, decided that intimidation with force would be the most effective way to deal with someone like Yuxi. One soldier raised his bow and arrow, preparing to shoot the woman below the city wall. However, he was stopped by another soldier standing beside him, a bearded man who coldly said, "Put down your bow and arrow. Aren't you ashamed to attack a young woman without an inch of steel2 on her?" They couldn't even kill bandits and robbers, so they took advantage of women and children. What kind of heroes did that make them?
The young soldier lowered his bow and arrow, no longer daring to shoot.
The bearded man called out to Yuxi, "There's a refugee camp to the west. If you want to stay alive, go there." He had indeed pointed out a way for this woman to survive.
As the sky gradually darkened and the wind blew against her body, Yuxi shivered from the cold. She had no choice but to lean on the wooden stick in her hand and slowly make her way towards the western refugee camp.
There were too many refugees, and the Imperial Court feared that there would be unrest if they were not properly resettled. So, they set aside a piece of land to the west for them and provided them with two meals of porridge each day to ensure their survival and prevent them from causing trouble.
There were several wooden houses in the refugee camp, but for Yuxi, these sturdy, wind and waterproof houses were irrelevant. A woman in the camp led her to a thatched hut made of branches and leaves and said, "The person who lived in this hut died this morning, so it's empty now. You can stay here."
Yuxi's already pale complexion turned even whiter. Her lips trembled for a while before she could utter, "Thank you."
The woman glanced at Yuxi, observing her behaviour and manners, which resembled those of a refined lady. She couldn't understand how this woman ended up in such a situation. However, she didn't have time to care for the woman before her. She said emotionlessly, "Don't go out at night, or you will be in danger."
Yuxi had experienced many scares in the past six months. Fortunately, to avoid danger, she not only smeared dirt on her face but also applied a pungent and foul-smelling herb to her body. This allowed her to reach the city gate safely.
Yuxi crawled into a thatched hut, and a strong odour assaulted her senses. Combined with the stench emanating from her body, the mixture of smells was nauseating. Yuxi gritted her teeth and endured it. Having such a thatched hut for the night was already quite good; at least it could provide her some shelter from the wind.
After a day of walking, Yuxi was exceptionally exhausted. She quickly fell asleep inside the thatched hut. She woke up hungry in the middle of the night but didn't dare to go out. She held her stomach and waited until dawn.
A noob translator, きつね, translated this noob translation. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.site. If you read this in another location other than the site stated, it has been taken without the translator's permission. Please don't support this kind of act.
The refugee camp served two meals daily, and Yuxi waited until almost noon. She was dizzy from hunger when the camp finally served porridge. She found a wooden bowl with a hole from the thatched hut. It was more accurate to call it a hollow piece of wood than a bowl.
Order was relatively good in the refugee camp, and there were no incidents of fighting over food. After finishing a bowl of porridge, Yuxi's stomach felt much better. Instead of returning to the thatched hut, she approached the person in charge of the porridge and asked, "Big Brother, is the food we're eating sent from the capital?"
After learning that the food had indeed been sent from the capital, Yuxi planned to find the delivery men and ask them to deliver a message to the Duke's residence. She was fortunate enough to spot them that evening.
Most people who were delivering the food covered their noses with the smell of Yuxi's body. One of them, a man with a square face, stepped forward and asked, "Why did you stop us?"
Yuxi quickly replied, "I am a young miss from the Duke of Han's residence. I would like to ask you to help me deliver a message to the Duke Residence, requesting them to send someone to pick me up."
The man's expression was one of surprise and suspicion. It was strange for a young miss from the Duke of Han's residence to be in a refugee camp. "Which young miss from the Duke of Han's residence are you?"
Yuxi's face stiffened, and she answered with difficulty, "I am the Fourth Miss Han." She was not only the Fourth Miss Han but also the wife of Jiang Hongjin, the son of the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. However, she hated Jiang Hongjin and everyone in the Jiang family, so she was unwilling to reveal her connection to the Jiang family.
As soon as these words were spoken, one of the people dressed in pea-green clothing sneered. "Why did you pretend to be a dead person? Da Nainai3 Jiang was killed by bandits on the estate half a month ago. The obituary has been issued, and her coffin was buried a few days ago." He knew about this because Jiang Hongjin was very famous for being the youngest zhuangyuan4 of the Zhou Dynasty.
Upon hearing this, Yuxi trembled all over. She hadn't expected the Jiang family to be so ruthless, declaring her dead without even finding her corpse. "I'm not dead. I escaped from the estate," she said.
The man scoffed, "Those bandits were extremely ruthless and left no survivors. Even a strong man couldn't have escaped."
Through gritted teeth, Yuxi said, "When the bandits attacked the estate, I happened to be picking flowers on the back mountain. That's how I managed to survive." When she saw fire raging in the estate, she didn't dare to return. Instead, she ran straight down the back mountain.
The square-faced man looked at Yuxi and asked, "What about the maids and servants at your side? A prominent household like yours should have plenty of them."
Yuxi clenched her fists tightly and spoke slowly, "I had only one old woman servant looking after me. Her husband and children were all on the estate. When she saw what was happening at the estate, she left me and ran back there. I'm not lying to you. I really am the Fourth Miss of the Duke Residence." During her escape, she had exchanged all her valuables for food, leaving her with no proof of her identity. All she could do was beg the square-faced man: "I beg you to deliver a message to Duke's wife. If she knows I'm alive, she'll definitely send someone to fetch me."
The square-faced man looked at Yuxi with sympathy. "Even if I were willing to help you deliver a message, no one would come for you."
Yuxi shook her head. "Impossible. My Eldest Aunt will definitely send someone to pick me up if she knows I'm alive. As long as you help me deliver the message, I will reward you handsomely when I return."
The square-faced man felt that Yuxi's intelligence was questionable. He pointed out directly, "Even if you really are the Fourth Miss Han, you wouldn't have a chance of survival after disappearing for half a month. A woman who has been missing for half a month would have no reputation left. That's why the Jiang family announced to the public that you were killed by bandits. Similarly, Duke Han's residence wouldn't be able to bear the shame. So if you return, you'll only find a dead end."
Footnotes Full List
- elder sister
- Chinese idiom: unarmed and defenceless
- da=eldest, nainai=young mistress of a family
- Number One Scholar (a title conferred on the one who came first in the highest imperial examination)
きつね's Musing
I've received a comment saying that the first six chapters of The Rebirth of Han Yuxi, translated by Vinn. were not accessible. So, I've retranslated them and put them on this site. You will notice the difference in style between Chapters 6 and 7. Because Chapter 7 was the first chapter I translated, the sentences in Chapter 7 would be more like a newbie had translated them. 😅
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The Rebirth of Han Yuxi