Chapter 1: Star of Misfortune (Please add to library.)

The twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month, in the Western City of the Love Shenjing, at the Rongguo Prefecture in Juede Lane.

The sky was gloomy, and snow had been falling all day outside; the window lattice of the west-facing partition was covered in snowflakes.

The dry, hard window paper could not block the cold, and the room was icy.

In the room, there was only one desk with a missing corner and an old wooden bed.

In front of the wooden bed was an elm wood sleeping couch, and on the empty wall opposite hung an ancient zither.

The furniture was all old and damaged, and there was nothing else in the room; it was like a snow cave, revealing a sense of poverty and simplicity.

At the desk by the window, a thin, gaunt youth was writing with a brush, occasionally raising his hand to his mouth to blow warm air on it.

In the charcoal brazier on the floor, a few pieces of dry, withered firewood were burning; the dark red firelight was mixed with wisps of grey-white smoke, making one feel dizzy.

The youth stood up, held onto the table, and opened a crack in the window; a wisp of cold wind drilled into the room, making him shiver.

But he still kept the window cracked; inhaling charcoal fumes was no laughing matter.

That Wang Shanbao's wife was accustomed to watching her masters' expressions and dared not refuse to provide charcoal for Jia Cong's room; if Jia Cong froze to death, she would not be able to cover it up.

Zhao Mama was speechless after hearing this; although she was somewhat sharp-tongued, she also knew that Zhi Shao was a thoughtful girl, and these words were originally for her own good.

After the East Road Courtyard was completed, this small courtyard was slightly renovated and became the granary and warehouse for storing miscellaneous items for the East Road Courtyard.

She wore a thin, onion-green damask padded jacket, with a washed-out blue satin vest over it, and a grey-pine-green sweat towel tied around her slender waist.

Beside her, the wet nurse Zhao Mama gritted her teeth and said, "That Wang Shanbao's wife has a pair of dog eyes; our Cong Sanye is a legitimate master."

"Zhi Shao, is there any bamboo charcoal left from the past few days? This firewood smoke is suffocating."

"We finished it yesterday. I went to find Wang Shanbao's wife to collect more, but she pushed it off, saying the weather has been cold these past few days and all the good charcoal has been collected, leaving only firewood.

Zhi Shao pouted and said, "Mama, just grumble in the courtyard; don't go outside and talk about it, lest you bring disaster upon the Cong Sanye."

Fortunately, the people living here knew how to tidy up, and both the inside and outside were clean and simple.

The maid Zhi Shao hurriedly stepped forward to help the youth sit down; she was a few years older than the youth, and the slender, youthful beauty of a young girl was already beginning to take shape.

We can't use silver frost charcoal, and she won't even let us use the secondary bamboo charcoal, only using the firewood from the kitchen stove to fool us; what a black-hearted woman."

He had grown up in this narrow, cramped courtyard since he was a child; there were only three side rooms in the courtyard, two of which were piled full of miscellaneous items that hadn't been used for years.

But earlier, I heard that the West Prefecture had just received a thousand catties of silver frost charcoal and two thousand catties of bamboo charcoal, and Second Grandmother Lian had also sent a lot to the Great Master. How could there be none left after just a day or two?"

The Love Shenjing was located in the north, where winter was cold; charcoal fire in the room was just as important as the food in the bowl, both being essential items for surviving the winter.

Jia Cong knew that Wang Shanbao's wife was originally Lady Xing's personal maid, and her personality was just as sharp and mean as her master's.

Seeing Jia Cong's somewhat stiff body, Zhi Shao frowned and took a soft cloth cushion to place on the chair.

In the wealthy and graceful Rongguo Prefecture, one simply couldn't find a place more dilapidated than this.

The East Road Courtyard, where First-Rank General Jia She lived, was built by partitioning off a piece of the Rongguo Prefecture's back garden.

But as for the firewood for the lower-class servants, smoking this wild child born of a prostitute to death didn't matter; as long as it followed the Great Mistress's wishes, she would naturally be pleased with herself.

It was also a place for the laborers who moved earth and built walls to rest and cook.

And this small courtyard was the first to be built when the East Road Courtyard was constructed, used for storing bricks, tiles, and tools for building the courtyard.

He had clearly nursed a young master, but he never expected to live so miserably; there was nowhere to seek justice for the affairs in this prefecture.

Zhi Shao complained in a low voice, "Cong Sanye, your injuries haven't healed properly yet; you shouldn't be writing at this time instead of resting on the kang. If you develop a chronic illness, it's no laughing matter."

Jia Cong smiled bitterly in his heart; twenty-some days ago, he was still a researcher at a provincial museum, working overtime until midnight, when he was hit and sent flying by a car running a red light on his way home.

After waking up, he became Jia Cong, the illegitimate son of Jia She of the Rongguo Prefecture.

According to the maid Zhi Shao, that day was Jia She's birthday, and he went to Jia She's courtyard to kowtow, but somehow, he knocked over and broke one of Jia She's purple jade ruyi inlaid with seven treasures.

That purple jade ruyi was something Jia She had just obtained from outside, and it was said to be of great value; the couple was treasuring it dearly, and Jia Cong had actually broken it.

Lady Xing, who loved wealth, was so heartbroken that she trembled, repeatedly shouting that she wanted to beat this star of misfortune to death to settle the account.

Jia She had looked down on this son since the moment he was born.

Now that his treasure was destroyed, and with his wife crying and shouting, it stirred up even more malice in him.

He called the servants from outside the second gate, pressed Jia Cong down, and gave him a beating according to family law.

Jia Cong was already disliked by everyone in the prefecture, and none of the servants in the prefecture took him seriously.

Jia She was also cursing non-stop, clamoring to beat him to death, saying it would be clean if he were dead.

Although the servants who carried out the family law held back their strength, they didn't dare to be too ruthless; he was still a legitimate master, and they would have to pay with their lives if they beat him to death.

In the end, Jia She was still furious, snatched the board, and delivered a few ruthless blows himself.

He beat Jia Cong until his skin was torn and flesh was mangled, with blood splashing everywhere.

By the time Zhao Mama heard the news and rushed to Jia Cong's room, she found that Jia Cong had stopped breathing, so she carried him back to the room and busied herself.

He was indeed a tough one, as he was actually brought back to life, but no one knew that this Jia Cong was no longer that Jia Cong.

In his previous life, because of his major and hobbies, he had carefully read "Dream of the Red Chamber."

This person, Jia Cong, only appeared a few times in "Dream of the Red Chamber," with only a few brief mentions; he was nothing more than a background character.

But after all, he was a legitimate grandson of the Rongguo Prefecture; although Jia She was no good, since ancient times, even a tiger wouldn't eat its own cubs. He hadn't expected him to be so ruthless to his own son.

He had been recuperating in the room for half a month, and the many memories of the previous body were also coming back bit by bit.

Only after learning many old stories from Zhi Shao and Zhao Mama did he understand the reason behind it.

Jia Cong's biological mother was a famous courtesan from the Jinyun Pavilion in the Love Shenjing; because she was outstanding in appearance, she was forcibly bought by Jia She before she had even received any guests.

The concubines in the Ning and Rong Prefectures were either from small families or were house-born servants promoted because they were good-looking.

Someone with a background like Jia Cong's biological mother was extremely lowly; if it weren't for Jia She's lust and absurdity, such a woman would never have appeared in the Jia Prefecture.

Later, that woman gave birth to Jia Cong, but she didn't expect this child to be a tough one.

His concubine mother was fine when she gave birth to him, but she suddenly stopped breathing the next day. The doctor said she had a congenital deficiency and had lost her vitality and suffered a hemorrhage, so she didn't pull through; she was also a person of little fortune.

But the strange things were yet to come; the maid who accompanied the midwife to assist in the birth suddenly slipped and fell in the garden, happened to hit a mountain stone, cracked her head open, and lost her life.

Finally, the midwife who was invited, after taking the happy money given by the Jia Prefecture, was happily rushing home when she was kicked to death by a startled horse on the way.

There were actually such strange things in the world; several people who had received Jia Cong at birth had lost their lives one after another, scaring the people in the prefecture quite a bit. Who didn't know that Cong Sanye Cong was a person of bad luck and a tough fate?

In the end, the Old Mistress in the West Prefecture gave a harsh order: any maid or servant who dared to spread the word would be tied up and beaten to death.

The most coincidental thing was that less than a week after Jia Cong was born, Duke Rongguo Jia Daishan passed away due to illness; although it had nothing to do with Jia Cong, it couldn't help but make people suspicious, as if Jia Cong had even hindered his grandfather.

Originally, the Old Mistress didn't like her eldest son for being lustful and absurd, only doting on her second son who was strict and loved to study.

This time, the eldest son brought a prostitute into the house and even sired such a baleful, ill-omened seed that he cursed a whole crowd of people to death, becoming a laughingstock among the noble and powerful clans of the Love Shenjing and causing the Jia family to lose a great deal of face.

The Old Mistress, who loved face all her life, was furious, and coupled with the great pain of losing her husband, her eldest son was so lewd and despicable; if it weren't for the iron rule of the legitimate eldest son inheriting the title and Jia Daishan's last memorial before his death,

she might have even let her second son inherit the title, which would have been more to her liking.

In the end, she could only pinch her nose and let Jia She inherit the title of First-Rank General, sending him to live alone in the East Road Courtyard, so she wouldn't have to see him and be annoyed.

That Jia She was a lecher; he wanted to take into his room anyone in the prefecture who had some beauty, whether they were fragrant or smelly. What kind of affection could such a person have?

At first, he only took a fancy to that courtesan's beauty, and once the novelty wore off, he grew indifferent.

He didn't expect that woman to give birth to such a fierce and ominous son for him, not only making him lose face but also making his own mother despise him, and he was effectively driven out of the Rongguo Prefecture.

He didn't feel that he had done anything wrong, feeling that this son was a star of misfortune who hindered him, and he wished he would die early.

The Great Mistress, Lady Xing, came from a small family, was always fawning over her husband, and was greedy for wealth, spending her days thinking about money, racking her brains to deduct and intercept whatever she could.

She didn't care about other human relationships, and she viewed this illegitimate son born of a prostitute like discarded shoes, despising him to the bone, even less than the dirt on the ground outside the second gate.

The Old Mistress did like young juniors who looked good, but Jia Cong was so fierce and ominous from birth, and his biological mother was so lowly, so she felt disgusted in her heart.

Moreover, she was wealthy and long-lived, the pillar of the East and West Prefectures, and no one dared to push this ominous person in front of her, lest it clash with her longevity.

Therefore, Jia Cong had never shown his face much in front of the Old Mistress from childhood to adulthood, and the Old Mistress couldn't even remember what this grandson looked like.

What the superior likes, the inferior will like even more; the maids and servants in the prefecture were best at watching the wind's direction, and behind his back, they spoke coldly to this motherless child. A legitimate master lived even less luxuriously than the maids by the Mistress's side.

Jia She and his wife cursed and beat this lowly star of misfortune every three to five days, and everyone in the East Road Courtyard knew it, but they all kept their mouths shut, trying their best not to let it spread to the West Prefecture.

Students who click into the book, please click on the latest updated chapter and browse when reading the previous chapters to help this book accumulate follow-up readings. New authors and new books are struggling, so please give your support. Thank you very much!

(End of chapter)