A towering inferno blazed into the sky, crackling and snapping as it painted half the heavens crimson. Wave after wave of scorching heat surged forward, and all around were people running and shouting: “Fire! Fire!”

Yu Tang’s legs went weak. If her maid Shuang Tao hadn’t been supporting her, she would have collapsed to the ground.

“Eldest Miss, Eldest Miss!” Shuang Tao was so frightened by the scene before them that her words came out garbled. “How could this happen? Didn’t they say that the Pei family’s guards would wake up in the middle of the night to patrol their shops together with people from the yamen? Third Master Pei said this summer was particularly scorching, with dry weather prone to fires, so just a few days ago he specifically had people set up thirty-eight large water vats along both sides of Changxing Street, and every day he had the shopkeepers from each establishment fill the vats with water. How could there be a fire on Changxing Street? Then, then what about our family’s shop?”

Yes!

What about their family’s shop?

Yu Tang’s eyes moistened, the images before her growing somewhat blurred.

She had actually been reborn!

And she had been reborn on the very evening when their family’s shop was burned down.

Her family had been harmonious and happy, siblings close and affectionate, and she had grown up smoothly and carefree until she reached the age of maturity. Before this, life’s disappointments amounted to nothing more than her parents not letting her climb trees or wade in rivers, restricting her to learn needlework and not allowing her to go out. Her memories were therefore peaceful and warm, though not particularly deep. Only this summer—a sudden, devastating fire that burned down all the shops on Changxing Street. Her family’s and her uncle’s lacquerware shops also failed to escape disaster. Not only were the materials in the shops burned, but the storehouses and workshops in the rear courtyards were also burned to cinders. The goods that were about to be delivered were gone, and the precious templates left by their ancestors were also lost. The Yu family fell into decline because of this and began their downfall from that point on.

Not far away, someone tried to rush into a shop to fight the fire but was buried in the flames when a beam suddenly collapsed.

“Head of the household! Head of the household!” A woman ran over to rescue him but stood helpless, not knowing what to do, and was held back by others.

There was also a man who collapsed to the ground, slapping his thighs and wailing: “How are we supposed to live now?”

Yu Tang and Shuang Tao were jostled by people who had heard the news and were rushing over one after another. Shuang Tao came to her senses.

She quickly pulled Yu Tang aside and said urgently: “Eldest Miss, Madam is still ill, and Master isn’t home. You ran out without saying a word…”

Yu Tang also came to her senses.

For Shuang Tao at this moment, she had merely failed to stand steady on the swing and fallen from the air, unconscious for half a day. But for her, she had already experienced her family’s decline, the death of both parents, her fiancé’s early death, widowhood while maintaining chastity only to be coveted by her uncle’s son, and finally escaping her husband’s family only to be killed in the nunnery that had sheltered her.

While this fire was certainly important, what was more important was her mother’s illness.

Her father, Yu Wen, and her mother, Chen Shi, were deeply devoted to each other. Even though her mother had injured her health giving birth to her and could have no more children, her father treasured both her mother and her like precious jewels, never once showing a crack in their relationship. However, her mother had been bedridden with illness since her birth, spending seven out of every ten days taking medicine. A few days ago, her father had learned from a friend that the imperial physician Yang Douxing had retired and returned to his hometown, so he had rushed to Suzhou City to seek medical consultation for her mother.

In her previous life, her father had returned empty-handed. Her mother’s condition worsened after being frightened by her fall from the swing, and she became bedridden. Her father resolved to take her mother to seek treatment from another retired imperial physician, Wang Bai, who was living in seclusion on Mount Putuo. But on the return journey, they encountered a storm at sea, their boat capsized, and they died tragically.

“Let’s go, hurry back home!” Yu Tang’s heart immediately filled with anxiety, and she pulled Shuang Tao toward home.

“Wait, wait!” Shuang Tao ran after her panting while saying, “Where are you going? Home is that way!”

Yu Tang stopped in her tracks, silent for a moment.

It had been ten years since she’d returned to that home located in Green Bamboo Alley, and she couldn’t even remember that there was such a small path between Changxing Street and Green Bamboo Alley.

Perhaps because of the fire on Changxing Street, this usually quiet and deserted alley also had people passing through, though everyone was hurrying along. They would glance up at her once with heavy expressions before brushing past her.

The rear courtyard of the Yu family home was quiet. Several clusters of tall Hunan bamboo stood gracefully under the moonlight, their branches and leaves swaying gently. The clamor and chaos of Changxing Street seemed like something from another world.

Her mother’s coughing could be heard clearly, with a hint of hoarseness: “How is A’Tang? Has she woken up yet?”

The one answering her mother was Chen Pozi, who served her personally: “She woke up early this morning, saying she needed candied chestnuts to feel better. Tell me, at this time of year, where am I supposed to find candied chestnuts for her? I tricked her into drinking a bowl of osmanthus sugar water and eating three pieces of peach pastry before she settled down.”

Yu Tang’s tears immediately welled up.

In her previous life, she had been thoughtless and carefree. With her mother chronically ill, she hadn’t considered it a serious matter. Instead, she had used her fall from the swing as an excuse to wheedle food and drinks, doing everything her mother normally forbade her from doing. When her father was taking her mother to seek medicine and was about to leave, she had even pestered him to bring back two packets of poria powder, threatening she wouldn’t study her books otherwise.

“Mother!” Yu Tang stood at her mother’s door and called out, unable to control her emotions.

The door creaked open.

Chen Pozi stuck her head out, making eyes at her while saying: “What does Eldest Miss want to eat now? At this hour, the kitchen fires are all out. At most I can make you a bowl of parched rice to fill your stomach—anything more than that just isn’t available.”

Yu Tang was stunned.

She was no longer that little girl held in her father’s palm, carefree and knowing nothing.

Chen Pozi’s expression was unusual, and her mind raced.

Could it be that in her previous life, at this very time, her mother’s condition was already quite poor?

Yu Tang’s expression darkened. The look she gave Chen Pozi involuntarily carried a hint of gravity. She made a gesture for Chen Pozi to follow her and spoke with a touch of girlish petulance: “Is my mother’s illness any better? I’m not hungry—I just want to say a few words to my mother.”

This version of Yu Tang was very unfamiliar to Chen Pozi and quite unexpected. But she had no time to think much about it. She nodded to Yu Tang, though her words were meant to stop her: “Madam has just taken her medicine and has already washed up and retired for the night. If Eldest Miss has something to say, please come back tomorrow!”

Yu Tang craned her neck to peer into the side room.

Her mother, who had just been talking with Chen Pozi, made not a sound.

Clearly, she didn’t want to see her.

Yu Tang’s heart sank. She tried her best to imitate the way she spoke when she was fifteen: “Alright then! I’ll go back to sleep first. But remember to tell my mother that I came to see her.”

“I will! I will!” Chen Pozi smiled and said pointedly: “The wind is cool and the dew is heavy. Let me escort Eldest Miss back to her room!”

In this season, what wind and dew could there be? It was just an excuse to find an opportunity to speak with her privately.

Yu Tang agreed and went with Chen Pozi to her own side room nearby.

Because she had left in such a hurry, the quilt was still messily thrown on the bed, and her soft shoes were scattered everywhere—one by the bed, another in the middle of the room. Chen Pozi scolded Shuang Tao in a low voice: “How are you serving Eldest Miss? The room is in such disarray. If Madam saw this, she’d scold you again.”

Shuang Tao’s face reddened, and she turned to tidy up the room.

Yu Tang pulled Chen Pozi aside to talk: “What’s really wrong with Mother? Don’t try to deceive me with words. I know the one who regularly comes to our house to treat Mother is Liu Santie from Jimin Hall. I’ll go to Jimin Hall to find him myself.”

Chen Pozi looked at Yu Tang with surprise.

Yu Tang had been doted upon and raised by her family. Though she hadn’t been spoiled rotten, she wasn’t a forceful girl either. This aggressive manner was a first.

Chen Pozi couldn’t help but hesitate.

Yu Tang knew her own situation. To put it nicely, she was guileless; to put it bluntly, she was brainless. When something happened at home, she naturally wasn’t someone to rely on, so people wouldn’t tell her about it.

She simply said to Chen Pozi: “Look at me—disheveled and unkempt. I just ran out. There’s a fire on Changxing Street, and our family’s shop has been burned too.”

By the dim lamplight, Chen Pozi finally noticed Yu Tang’s disheveled state. She said in alarm: “What did you say? There’s a fire on Changxing Street?”

Yu Tang nodded: “All the goods in the shop are gone. The fields won’t yield any profit until after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and we still need to pay for Mother’s medical treatment. The family has no money left.”

These words weren’t meant to deceive Chen Pozi.

That’s how it had been in her previous life.

The Yu family had modest means—it wouldn’t have fallen into ruin just because two shops were burned. But this fire also destroyed a batch of goods ordered by others in the storehouse, and the Yu family had to compensate a large sum of money. Her father had previously bought a painting from a friend—Li Tang’s “Fishing in Seclusion by Pine Stream” from the previous dynasty—and when it came time to pay, her mother, unwilling to disappoint her father, decided to sell thirty mu of prime farmland. Later, when her father took her mother to Mount Putuo, he secretly sold another twenty mu of farmland… After her parents died, in order to give them a decent funeral, she sold the remaining fifty mu of farmland.

All the property her grandfather had divided to her father was gone, and her uncle’s side had also encountered troubles and couldn’t help support her.

That was why she had agreed to the marriage with the Li family.

As these thoughts flashed through her mind, Yu Tang’s expression grew even more somber.

She said coldly: “If something happens to Mother, Father will definitely not spare you when he returns!”

Chen Pozi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

She was Chen Shi’s dowry servant and also Chen Shi’s wet nurse. If Chen Shi wasn’t well, she was more anxious and heartbroken than anyone—yet Eldest Miss was threatening her.

But seeing Eldest Miss like this, she felt strangely gratified.

After thinking for a moment, she told Yu Tang: “The weather is too hot, and Madam suffers from summer sickness. She can’t eat anything, worries about your injury, and worries about Master toiling away from home. She can’t eat or sleep well, and she’s visibly lost a circle of weight. She didn’t dare let you know.”

Yu Tang felt both guilty and self-reproachful.

In her previous life, she had always made her parents worry and had never been their caring little cotton-padded jacket, let alone someone they could rely on.

At this thought, Yu Tang involuntarily pressed her palms together and recited toward the west: “Amitabha.”

In her previous life, she hadn’t been a devout believer, yet the Bodhisattva had taken pity on her and allowed her to return to the present, to return to when her parents were still alive. She would definitely cherish this time and not let the tragedies of her previous life repeat themselves, not let this family fall apart and relatives scatter.

Yu Tang’s tears fell like rain.