Chapter 1: Melodramatic Transmigration

July 6, 2013. At a middle school graduation ceremony in City A.

On the playground, rows of students dressed in white school uniforms stood in neat formation; looking out, one saw nothing but a vast, dark sea of heads.

"Next, we invite the principal to present the national 'Three-Good Student' awards. Students who hear their names, please come up to the stage to receive your awards," a slightly stout man in a suit said into the microphone from the flag platform. He then turned to glance at the woman beside him.

"The recipient of the national 'Three-Good Student' award is Ji Ruoling. Please come up to the stage to receive your award." The woman beside the man held an award certificate in her hand. A girl in a white school uniform walked up from below the stage and took the certificate from the woman. "Thank you, Principal."

After receiving the certificate and taking a photo with the principal, the girl prepared to step down, when suddenly someone in the crowd screamed, "Ah! Look, what is that!?"

"It's a meteor! Quick, make a wish!"

"No, wait, why is the meteor colored?"

"The meteor is flying right toward us!"

"Ah!" This time, the scream didn't come from the students below, but from Ji Ruoling, who had just been about to descend. That colored meteor struck her right on the forehead. Ji Ruoling was momentarily stunned; she reached up to touch her forehead, only to feel a liquid. Looking at it, it was actually bright red blood.

Pain! That was the only feeling in Ji Ruoling's heart at that moment.

"Xiao Ling!" A female voice rang out from below, and on the stage, Ji Ruoling collapsed to the ground. Chaos erupted in the crowd.

Seeing this, the principal panicked and pulled out his phone to call 120.

Meanwhile, the culprit responsible for the chaos lay quietly beside Ji Ruoling, shimmering with colorful light.

*A City Daily News — "National 'Three-Good Student' Struck by Extraterrestrial Colored Stone, Dies on the Spot"*

Pain. Her whole body ached, as if her bones had been struck by something. Why did it hurt so much?

Her eyelids were so heavy; she couldn't open them.

Who? Who is speaking? Who is talking?

"I'm telling you, you are not allowed to tell Daddy that I killed her, do you understand?" An overbearing female voice rang out.

Who was she talking to?

"Yes... but if the Master asks, how should Dong'er answer?" another person asked timidly.

"Are you stupid? No wonder you can only be a lowly servant. Just say she ran out of the house herself and was beaten to death by some thugs. The person is dead; do you think she can come back to life? Besides, a waste like her isn't worth mourning." That female voice spoke again, her self-righteous arrogance truly obnoxious.

Afterward, a girl seemed to leave, and another girl walked up to her side, saying anxiously, "Sixth Young Lady, this isn't Dong'er's fault. It was all the Third Young Lady's doing. Please don't come looking for Dong'er." Then, she also hurried away.

After a long while, Ji Ruoling's consciousness finally cleared a bit.

"Ugh, it hurts so much..." Ji Ruoling opened her eyes. She tried to lift her hand, but she had no strength.

"It hurts so much... who were those two people just now? Why did they talk so strangely?" Ji Ruoling managed to sit up, rubbing her legs before lifting her head. Suddenly, she let out a cry of surprise: "Eh! Has the house been robbed? Why is everything gone?"

It was practically a house of bare walls. No, wait—at least there was a bed beneath her. She looked at the rest of her bed and then touched her head. "Is this thief poor? Why did they even steal the bedsheets?" Bedsheets shouldn't be worth much.

And why had even her clothes... been changed into rags?! And they had a bit of an ancient feel to them.

Wait, wasn't she at her graduation ceremony? She thought she had been hit in the head by a meteorite!

Ji Ruoling glanced at the clothes on her body again. Could it be—she had transmigrated?!

As she was thinking, that familiar, timid female voice drifted into her ears again.

"Waaaah, Master, it's all my fault for not watching the Young Lady closely, letting her be... be killed by those thugs... waaaah." Dong'er wiped her tears with a filthy sleeve, lowering her head to steal a glance at Ji Yi.

Seeing that he was expressionless and seemed unconcerned, she felt a slight sense of relief and continued to keep her head down.

"Enough! What's the use of saying so much? The person is dead; is she going to come back to life?" A heavily made-up woman walked behind Ji Yi, her tone extremely disdainful.

A woman in a blue dress beside her chimed in, "Indeed. Rather than letting such a waste stay in the Ji family and tarnish our reputation, it would be better if she had just died."

The voices of the group were gradually approaching. Ji Ruoling's face darkened.

Having recognized that first female voice, she roughly knew who these people were discussing and mocking. It was the original owner of this body.

Even though they were discussing the original owner and not her, she had already replaced the original owner and would have to live under her identity from now on. Hearing these words made it impossible not to be displeased.

When Dong'er opened the dilapidated wooden door and stepped into the room, she suddenly let out a terrified scream: "Ah!"

Ji Ruoling felt goosebumps rise all over her body. She couldn't help but cover her ears; only then could she mitigate the discomfort caused by the screaming.

After the scream, Dong'er looked at Ji Ruoling with eyes full of terror, stammering, "A ghost! A ghost!" Then her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.

"What?" The woman in blue frowned in displeasure. She stepped over the fallen Dong'er and entered the room. Seeing Ji Ruoling sitting on the bed, she also let out a startled cry: "You... aren't you dead?"

Soon, the whole group entered the room.

Seeing this, Ji Ruoling frowned. With the group entering, the already cramped room became even more crowded.

"You're not dead yet? You're quite lucky!" The first to speak was the heavily made-up woman. Upon seeing that Ji Ruoling was still alive, she immediately began her verbal onslaught.

Once the woman in blue regained her composure and suppressed her surprise, her gaze toward Ji Ruoling turned to disdain. "It would have been better if you had just died. Staying in the Ji family is just a waste of food."

"That's right. The eldest young master of the Hou family is actually betrothed to you in a childhood marriage. If you had truly died, he would probably be hosting several banquets to celebrate right about now."

Ji Ruoling stared at them with wide eyes, muttering something under her breath.

Seeing that she had no reaction, the woman in blue took two steps forward and said sarcastically, "A fool is a fool. Even after dying once, she's still a fool. Not a bit of progress."

"Letting you live in the Ji family, eating and drinking for free, is already the height of benevolence. If it weren't for the fact that you are a legitimate daughter and have an engagement with the Hou family's eldest young master, you would have been kicked out of the Ji family long ago."

Ji Ruoling stared unblinkingly at the woman in blue, thinking to herself: *She really... transmigrated!*

"Look at your foolish expression..."

"Shut up. I'm not arguing with you to give you face; don't push your luck!" Having accepted the reality of her transmigration, Ji Ruoling looked at the group that had barged into the room, specifically at the woman in blue standing at the front.

Since she had already transmigrated into this person and taken over her body, regardless of whether the original owner was truly dead, she had to lend her a hand.

And for the sake of her future life, she had to give these provocateurs a warning.