The Governor Is Acting Strange

Jia Mian, a young woman studying food science and the apple of her family's eye, wakes up to find she has transmigrated into the body of a lowly maid in a wealthy household in ancient times. Seeing how beautiful she is despite her young age, the old cook advises her earnestly: "With a face like yours, becoming a concubine in the household is a way out."

Jia Mian refuses to accept that.

While others paint their brows, apply makeup, and enjoy fine things, she feels no envy. She saves every last coin toward buying her freedom.

At seventeen, she finally has enough money. After tearfully bidding farewell to the old cook, she is free again. Her front foot has barely stepped out of the courtyard when her back foot runs into the commotion of her master's household being raided. Jia Mian pats her chest in relief: Thank goodness I have nothing to do with that household anymore.

But the next moment, the portrait in the soldiers' hands makes her freeze.

It is unmistakably her, with the soot disguise wiped from her face and her heavy bangs pulled back!

The former owner's grudges?

She had never even left the household. What grudges could she possibly have?

At this critical moment, only her "ugly face," kept hidden beneath years of soot, lets her slip through the net. The capital is a place that devours people without leaving a trace, so she packs up and flees in the dead of night.

*

Wei Yuanzhi is reborn, and his eyes hold nothing but overwhelming hatred.

In his previous life, the concubine his colleague had given him poisoned him. As he lay dying, he strangled her with his own hands.

Reborn, he immediately frames the entire household of the concubine's master, having them arrested and exiled. Then he draws her portrait from memory, swearing to find that "wretched servant who doesn't know her place" and grind her bones to dust.

But he searches every corner of the capital, and the woman seems to have vanished from the face of the earth. He cannot find the slightest trace of her.

*

Two years later, just before the emperor appoints Wei Yuanzhi Governor-General of Liangguang, he sets about reforming the salt and sugar industries and implementing new policies.

A famous sugar merchant from Liangguang takes the initiative to curry favor, offering him half the profits. Looking down at the shopkeeper below, dressed like a scholarly merchant and with no visible Adam's apple, he smiles meaningfully. "Shopkeeper Jia, you're young and accomplished. Why don't you... invite me to a hot spring?"

Jia Mian looks up and meets a pair of sinister, smiling eyes. Every hair on her body stands on end. She steels herself and makes up an excuse to turn him down: "This humble one is rather lacking below the waist. I'm afraid I'd offend Your Excellency's eyes."

In this game of cat and mouse, he presses closer at every turn while she retreats step by step.

*

Her chance comes when he returns to the capital to report on his duties. She sets a fire and fakes her death. From then on, the world is vast, and they will never meet again.

Bonus scene:

In her third year in Liaodong, Jia Mian opens a small eatery.

With the winter season approaching, she and the young attendant at the shop discuss drying the autumn green beans and eggplants in the back courtyard to make dried vegetables.

Just then, the general who often frequents the shop lifts the curtain and enters with a friend in a green robe. On his long, sinewy finger is that familiar jade thumb ring. It catches her smiling eyes out of nowhere, and Jia Mian's blood turns cold in an instant.

"Shopkeeper Jia, north and south, three years apart. I hope you've been well."

[Reborn, Mad Powerful Official VS Resilient Transmigrated Girl]

Reader's Guide:

1. Alternate history / 1v1 / Both leads are each other's first / Happy ending

2. A scandalous, coercive romance full of twists. The male lead abuses the female lead physically and emotionally.

3. Neither lead is perfect. To reiterate, one is a domineering power player, and the other is a timid weakling. (Physical and emotional abuse. Fans of either lead, don't curse the author. The author can't take the heat, so read at your own risk!)

Theme: Life is beautiful, so cherish the present!