Yujia discovered that she accepted things far too easily.
It shocked her how little she considered so many things in the past— how much she ignored them— and how obviously they stood out now.
First, how did she transmigrate? She dismissed it under the fact that she had been exposed to ideas like transmigration in the past from all those television dramas and novels which constantly reused this trope, but all of this wasn't a novel or a TV show. It was real life. In reality, how was it possible for an individual to transmigrate, to cross times, and to cross worlds?
She already knew that the Xiang Empire wasn't an actual empire in history. Everything she had experienced so far, from the laughter to the conversations to the touch of death, was all too real to be just a dream or a hallucination of her mind. Science couldn't explain the scenario she was in now. Could it be that fantastical elements like transmigration could truly occur in real life, then? That some sort of magic or god of higher power truly existed in this world?
Yujia began to piece together the limited facts she did know. In her past life, she had transmigrated after getting drunk and drinking paint— which thinking back to it made her feel very foolish at her actions. In this current life and body she resided in, the previous owner had gotten drunk as well, yet there was no sign that she took any life risking actions. The previous Fourth Miss had the same name as her, but not the same body or mind.
Now that Yujia began to think carefully about these things, she discovered more and more things that simply couldn't be possible. How was it that she transmigrated into this body, but didn't share the same brain as this individual? If she was able to, then why didn't she have all the memories of the old Fourth Miss? Yujia wasn't a scientist, but she could definitely see that there was something conflicting in the current situation she was in.
Through the rest of the night, Yujia could only keep these thoughts looping in her head, trying to make some sense out of this pile of illogical logic. There was only one conclusion she could come up with.
There was no science to this all. It was pure otherworldly, incomprehensible force that brought her here. She would never be able to truly find out the reason behind it all in this lifetime.
Her acceptance of the idea that she would never be able to truly understand calmed her a little. Yet still, Yujia wanted to smooth out some of the mysteries in her life, and one of them still remained as the unresolved past of the Fourth Miss. She wanted to be able to know the exact background of the old owner of her body. It seemed like the first step to smooth out some of the problems she knew of.
The only real issue was that Yujia had no idea how she was going to find out about more of the past. She couldn't just waltz up to the Old Master, Madam Zhang, Madam Liu, or anyone else and demand for them to tell her anything when there was no reason for her to logically ask about them.
When early morning came, Yujia felt worse than normal. She didn't feel extremely down emotionally— though perhaps a little tired— but she felt sick. Very sick.
Falling into ice cold water was definitely not a good thing to do.
With tomorrow being the deadline for her payment, as well as the day of her marriage, if things didn't work out, Yujia could only feel more nervous. She felt extremely dizzy, and her legs were weak underneath her, but she still managed to get up with the aid of Hui'er. Since tomorrow was the deadline, she needed to check on the profits of Three Inks to see how things were going. Based on the progress she saw over the course of the past few days, she expected that she would have just enough taels to pay her father back.
One of her hands gripped onto Hui'er's arm to steady herself as she got ready for going outside and left her room. She usually liked to head out on her own when it came to matters like her business, but she wouldn't be able to take many steps outside if it weren't for Hui'er's support. Huie'r even suggested to go for her, but Yujia really wanted to see the money for herself.
Slowly, the two of them walked out the villa and made their way to the shop. Yujia brought Hui'er to the shop once and discussed some of the matters with the other girl, so Hui'er knew the way there. While they walked, Yujia gripped the fabric cloak she put on this morning closer to herself. She felt oddly chilly outside, though Hui'er said that it was overly humid and hot for typical morning temperatures.
When they arrived at the shop, Yujia greeted Gao Yi, the clerk, briefly, then immediately went to look at profits. As expected, she ended up with a little more than five hundred taels. Her plan was to withdraw the taels and take them to a bank to convert them to gold taels— it would be safer to carry around five gold taels than a heavy box of five hundred silver ones— so after leaving a brief note with Gao Yi to inform Bo Zhizhong of her actions, she took the large box of taels and left for the bank.
At this point, Yujia could swear that the world was spinning more and more. Her vision was also blurry, her eyes threatening to close at any moment. It was likely a mistake to go out when her physical condition was at this point, except since she was already out and near the bank, which was a few turns away from Three Inks, Yujia didn't want to walk all the way back home.
Hui'er carried the taels for her and led her to the bank while Yujia attempted to maintain a blank expression on her face, as if the world around her wasn't tipping back and forth.
To her disappointment, the moment they arrived at the bank in a street with very little people due to the early time, Hui'er informed her, "The bank isn't open yet, Miss."
Yujia internally groaned. She glanced over at the box of taels, then at the closed doors of the bank. "We have no choice but to return home now, do we?'
Hui'er nodded, then added, "There's a medicine shop right next to the bank, though. Miss, do you want to buy some medicine with your extra taels, or should I escort you back home and go buy the medicine myself?"
The world was becoming a little more still now that she wasn't walking, and had a chance to stand and rest for a moment to discuss with Hui'er. Yujia blinked twice, then nodded slowly back at Hui'er. "I think… it would be better to buy medicine right now. No need for you to run an extra length just to send me home right now. Plus, it will be easier to diagnose my symptoms here."
As they began to walk to the medicine shop next door, Yujia instantly regretted her decision of moving any part of herself. All of a sudden, the world began to spin even more than before, completely throwing her off balance. Her eyelids began to droop down as well.
She was tired. So tired.
Yujia couldn't even stop herself as she felt her eyes completely closing shut and her balance toppling over. The last thing she saw before pure darkness was a flash of light blue.
i can already anticipate a lot of negativity for yujia's' actions in this chapter... but hope you all can look at it from a logical standpoint-- 1) yujia has a fever, and when your body's burning up, you don't particularly think straight, and 2) I promise that nothing in this chapter will harm the taels so don't panic...
on another note, if you have any questions, ask me in the link below! you can ask anonymous questions there w/out an account/anything-- just click the link and ask your questions!! <3
https://curiouscat.me/yueyi