Synopsis
Nan Chongjin's daily KPI: Have I roasted my enemies until their faces are twisted and their noses crooked?
On the first night after Nan Chongjin was reborn, her stepmother, Zhou Peiyin, set a fire to leave her hands and feet disabled.
She endured it.
Then one bright afternoon, she smiled as sweetly and harmlessly as could be--
"Mother said this hibiscus cake was to help me recover. But why does it smell so much like the poison 'Bone-Eroding Fragrance' that you gave my mother back then?"
Zhou Peiyin: (clutching her handkerchief, gripping it hard) "You wretched girl, how dare you slander me!"
Nan Chongjin: (smiling) "Oh, right. That pearl-inlaid hairpin hidden in your camphorwood chest was my mother's dowry, wasn't it? There are even ashes from the fire you set in the west courtyard the other day still stuck to the pearls."
Nan Chongyao leaned over from beside them. "Sister..."
"I almost forgot about you."
Nan Chongjin exposed her without missing a beat:
"You said this poem was your own new work? You want to impress His Highness the Crown Prince at the palace banquet, but yesterday I found an identical rare poetry collection in my mother's study. It even has the same typos."
Nan Chongjin, reborn with a disabled body but an iron will, had a simple, direct KPI for life:
[Did I roast an enemy today?]
--Younger half-sister: roasted (go cry yourself to sleep)
--Stepmother: roasted (go to prison)
--Minister Wen: roasted (off with your head)
--The Third Prince's faction: roasted (there are too many of you, line up to be beheaded)
Today's KPI: exceeded!
And so every day, the people of the capital waited for the next juicy scandal:
- During an audit of the household accounts, Zhou Peiyin had just claimed the books were clean when Nan Chongjin produced evidence that she'd been secretly moving family assets. She even knew every maid's monthly pay by heart.
- At the family ancestral rites banquet, her stepmother Zhou Peiyin gossiped that she was a "jinxed star" who had killed her mother. Nan Chongjin held up a mud-stained talisman to ward off evil and shot back, "You wrote this talisman with the cinnabar you always use. It was buried under the old locust tree outside your courtyard. If I'm a jinx, I'll start by bringing you bad luck."
- Even when her wicked father, Nan Bingqian, tried to force her to marry the wastrel from the Wen family, she exposed him in front of everyone: "Father, have you forgotten? I had someone get Wen Zi'ang's record of beating a maid to death from the Shuntian Prefecture."
[Nan Chongjin's Daily Routine]
Wake up -> dig up dirt on her enemies -> go out and intercept their schemes with pinpoint accuracy -> roast them until they snap their jade hairpins -> finish work and head to Huizhen Hall to teach and guide others.
As for revenge?
Nan Chongjin leaned on her lame leg and smiled. "I'm disabled, after all. Revenge can take its time, but roasting people is an everyday thing..."
[Short Scenes]
(About love at first sight)
In the snow, after meeting at Faji Temple
Guard Fubao: My lord, I think Miss Nan likes you.
Yun Zhao: ? The aloof, arrogant Miss Nan who looks down on everyone and keeps her nose in the air?
Fubao: (nodding) Yes, that aloof, arrogant, high-and-mighty Miss Nan Chongjin, the eldest legitimate daughter of the Duke of Jingguo's household... She likes you.
Yun Zhao: ? Why?
Fubao: (firmly) Because I saw her smile after you left.
Yun Zhao: She only smiled after I left... Besides, she smiled when she saw the plum tree by her window too.
Fubao: (even more firmly) Because she likes that plum tree...
(About the palace banquet)
In a side hall off the main palace hall, Nan Chongjin subtly signaled Fubao to offer Yun Zhao a drink.
Fubao: My lord, Miss Nan had this cup of wine specially warmed for you.
Yun Zhao: (seriously) Just a coincidence. Perhaps she picked up a cup that had already been warmed by mistake.
Fubao: (firmly) I was watching! That's the only warm cup on the tray. She touched the rim three times to check the temperature before choosing it.
Yun Zhao: (his heart beating faster, but still serious) Perhaps she didn't want the cup to be cold and warmed it at random. It wasn't specially for me.
Fubao: (even more firmly) General Li reached for that cup just now, but Miss Nan moved the tray half a foot closer to you and said, "This cup is for His Highness Zhao."
(About the jade pendant)
In Nan Chongjin's room, Yun Zhao deliberately dropped the jade pendant he had given her.
Nan Chongshu: (innocently) Sister, this is His Highness Zhao's jade pendant, isn't it? You've been holding it for ages.
Nan Chongjin: (nervous, trying to act nonchalant) I picked it up and set it aside. It hasn't been ages.
Suxin: (seriously) Miss, you could just put something you picked up on the table. You've warmed it in your hand. If someone sees, they'll think you care about it a lot.
Nan Chongshu: (smiling) But Sister, you've already wiped the dust off it three times. Keep rubbing it and you'll wear through that handkerchief.
[Reader's Guide:]
1. The heroine is disabled (burns on both hands and a limp in her left foot), and she will not recover in this life. It won't stop her from pursuing her ambitions, but readers who mind an "imperfect heroine" should take note.
2. Updates are steady, daily at 8 or 9 p.m. If the author gets stuck, they will announce a break in advance.
Theme: Be self-reliant and persevere; good people get good things