When Shen Mingshu opened her eyes, she was holding a whip and beating the heir of the Marquis of Zhenbei.
Worse still, she had transmigrated into a book as the wicked matriarch everyone hated. The moment she stopped that lash, she learned when she was going to die: in three days, in the marquis's storeroom; three months later, her stepson Xie Yan would poison her with his own hands; after that, the entire Marquis of Zhenbei's household would be executed, with no one escaping.
Other people transmigrated into books and rushed to clear their names. She had no interest in clearing hers. She just wanted to survive.
But in this household, her mother-in-law was on guard against her, the children hated her, the servants schemed against her, her maiden family leeched off her, and the clan was secretly draining the marquis's coffers bit by bit. An audit led her to the medicinal herbs, and the herbs led to poison. A search of the storeroom turned up the keys, and the keys led to the third branch's old accounts. Everyone wanted to pin the blame on her, and every muddled account was eventually meant to land at her door.
Shen Mingshu sneered. Fine. If they were determined to see her dead, then they could hardly blame her for turning this rotten mess inside out first.
Starting with sealing off the courtyards, calling roll, and seizing the account books, she first saved herself, then rescued her stepsons and stepdaughters, and took back control of a marquis's household that was on the verge of collapse. But the deeper she dug, the more she realized that Xie Yan wasn't the only one who would try to kill her in the future.
This is the story of a wicked matriarch escaping death, investigating the accounts, seizing power, and changing her fate.
