Arc 3 – Chapter 175, The Vicious Princess Wants to Reverse Fate (69)

Zhou Min winced through her aching body and a throbbing headache, just managing to sit up when she saw an elderly woman walk in. The woman, about 70, with white hair and a smile, was dressed in coarse linen and held a medicine bowl.

Seeing Zhou Min sitting up, the old woman first expressed surprise at Zhou Min's awakening, then quickly expressed concern for her current actions, urging, "Young girl, you can't get up yet! Lie down quickly."

The elderly woman hurried to Zhou Min's bedside with the medicine, and after placing it on the bed, she gently pushed Zhou Min back down.

"Where am I?" Zhou Min's voice was raspy, having not spoken in a while.

"This is Wancheng. My husband found you by the river when he was out fishing. We thought you wouldn't survive, but miraculously, you did. Even Doctor Li said it's a miracle you're alive!" 

As the old woman spoke, she fed Zhou Min some herbs her husband had picked. Zhou Min gratefully accepted the nourishment. 

"Thank you for saving my life. How long have I been unconscious?" Zhou Min asked with gratitude. She had gathered from her surroundings that the family wasn't affluent, but they had saved her life. As she drifted in and out of consciousness, she had faintly heard their conversations. 

Despite having no obligation, they had spent most of their savings to save her. This kindness filled Zhou Min with gratitude.

"You've been unconscious for half a month! We thought we couldn't save you!" The old woman exaggeratedly replied. After feeding Zhou Min all the medicine, she got up, tucked Zhou Min in, and advised, "You're still very weak; you need to rest. I'll make some porridge for you. It's easier to digest."

"Thank you," Zhou Min said, then closed her eyes to rest.

The old woman left the room quickly. Once she was out, Zhou Min opened her eyes. She knew her body well; the weakness was likely due to the forced activation of her hidden potential, coupled with drifting in the river for a long time. It seemed she needed to rest for a while longer.

However, when Zhou Min thought about the black flame tattoo on the collarbone of the masked man, her heart sank. According to the timeline in her previous world, now would be when Shangguan Qi and Yin Mei left the valley and started plotting against the Zhou Dynasty.

Because of her appearance, Shangguan Qi should have no reason to retaliate against the Zhou Dynasty so his brother wouldn't besiege the Zhou Dynasty either. 

But for some reason, if she hadn't seen that tattoo, Zhou Min might not have thought anything was strange. But she had seen the tattoo that represented the biggest secret of the Zhou royal family, the mark of the Dragon Shadow.

There were two secret guard forces in the Zhou Kingdom, one exclusively for the emperor, called "Dragon Shadow," and the other for the royal family, called "Owl." This was a secret passed down from emperor to emperor. The Dragon Shadow only obeyed the current emperor, and no one in the royal family knew about them except the emperor.

The day before Zhou Min died in her previous life, her father called her into his study and handed her the authority badge for the Dragon Shadow. The black flame tattoo on the white jade was on every Dragon Shadow member's collarbone, symbolising their allegiance.

"Survive. I hope he understands everything you've done for him. I hope you find happiness."

Because of this sentence, Zhou Min decided to jump off the city wall in her princess attire when the palace was breached the next day. She couldn't bear the guilt towards the Zhou Kingdom, her family, and the so-called Dragon Shadow guards, and she lived alone.

But at this moment, Zhou Min didn't dare to make wild guesses, and she didn't dare to think back to when she asked Shangguan Qi halfway through, "Do you know something?" The complexity in his eyes when he looked at her caused turmoil in her heart.

Had her past self truly understood the situation?

Drowning in a sea of thoughts, Zhou Min fell asleep again due to her body's weakness. The old woman came out of the kitchen with freshly cooked porridge and saw Zhou Min sleeping again. She put the porridge on the table and removed two jade pendants from Zhou Min's discarded clothes. One was a blood clam, and the other was the jade pendant Shangguan Qi had given her.

The old woman took only the jade pendant Shangguan Qi gave Zhou Min, sat alone on a stool, and rubbed the white jade in her hands. In addition to the warmth and kindness Zhou Min had seen earlier, her eyes now held deep thought and confusion.

When the other elderly man with an aged but sturdy body and a grey beard returned to the room, he saw his wife sitting there. The table held a bowl of hot porridge, and the unconsciously rubbed white jade was in her hand. Her gaze rested on the sleeping girl with a look of reminiscence and bewilderment.

"Thinking about the past again?" The man put the newly picked herbs and vegetables from his basket in the corner of the room, then went to the other side of the table and poured himself a bowl of boiled water.

"Old man, what do you think is the relationship between this girl and the young master?" Her husband's sudden words awakened the old woman, turned her head to look at her husband and asked.

"No matter what their relationship is, if the young master can entrust such an important jade pendant to her, she must be extraordinary," the old man said with a worried expression after finishing his water. "What I'm worried about now is why the jade pendant that the old master once had someone deliver to him is on this girl."

"What do you mean?" The old woman looked back at the sleeping Zhou Min, then at her husband, "Are you saying she stole the young master's jade pendant or that something has happened to the young master?!"

"When we rescued her, she clutched this jade pendant tightly and mumbled the surname Shangguan. Don't forget that Shangguan is the surname of the old master. The strength with which she held the jade pendant, which I had to use quite a method to get out, shows how precious it is to her. So it's certain that this jade pendant is special to her, and her murmuring Shangguan should be referring to the young master. From this, it can be inferred that she knows the young master, who is very close."