Chapter 467

The original owner was indeed very spoiled at home; who else could it be, as she was the only daughter of the third branch of the Zhenguo Duke Mansion, and also the youngest legitimate daughter in the entire household.

The Zhenguo Duke Mansion was the foundation earned by the late Laoguogong when he fought on the battlefield and supported the New Emperor's ascension to the throne.

Although it was hereditary, the descendants were unfortunately unaspiring, each generation worse than the last.

The current Zhenguo Duke Mansion is quite like the Jia Mansion in Dream of the Red Chamber; it has the empty name and facade, but the inside has long been far inferior to what it once was.

After the Laoguogong passed away from illness, the Zhenguo Duke Mansion was managed by the matriarch, the Old Duchess.

She drove away all the concubines and illegitimate sons she had fought with for a lifetime to the Farm in the countryside, keeping only the three legitimate sons by her side.

Unfortunately, these three sons were all unaspiring; despite having plenty of offspring, they had no achievements in their official careers, relying entirely on the foundation earned by their ancestors to shelter the whole family.

It wasn't until last year that good news came from the eldest legitimate daughter of the first branch, who had entered the palace through the selection; she had been promoted from a marginal Small Promise to a Noble Lady, and it was heard that she was even carrying a Dragon Fetus this spring, which caused the name of the Zhenguo Duke Mansion to circulate among the noble families of Jingcheng once again.

The first branch of the Xie family stood out among the three branches and was in the limelight for a time; the hereditary title of the Duke Mansion naturally fell upon the head of the eldest master.

So what if the legitimate son of the first branch was not outstanding? They had a daughter who was highly favored by the Emperor; if she gave birth to an imperial prince, wouldn't glory and wealth be just around the corner?

The second branch was unwilling to accept this and pinned their hopes on their two legitimate sons, hoping wholeheartedly that they would earn a scholarly honor, so all kinds of nourishing soups and medicines were sent to the rooms of the two legitimate sons without interruption.

As a result, it was unclear whether it was because they were too weak to handle the nourishment or if they had over-nourished, leading to excessive sexual indulgence; in any case, the two young masters had been weak and sickly since childhood, falling ill every time the seasons changed.

They participated in two imperial examinations one after another, both walking in and being carried out, and their results were not ideal.

However, the second branch not only did not restrain themselves but became even more determined, pinning all their hopes on the two boys, with a posture of not giving up until they were sent into the officialdom to bring honor to the family.

By comparison, the third branch was much more "Buddhist."

But this might have something to do with the temperament of the Third Master Xie; to put it nicely, it was being "Buddhist" and open-minded, but to put it bluntly, it was just laziness.

If he could lie down, he would never sit; if he could sit, he would never stand.

Secondly, he was vain, especially vain.

When his talent was insufficient, he made up for it with vanity, often gathering with a bunch of pedantic scholars who played with words and pieced together sour poems to pretend to be cultured, occasionally buying calligraphy, paintings, and antiques, but the items he bought were often mostly fakes, only Third Master Xie did not know it.

The wife he married was the same kind of person as him; not only lazy and vain, but also greedy and cunning.

If there was any happy event in the mansion, she would be the first to run there; if there was any bad event, she would be the first to hide.

She was also particularly good at eating; whenever the mansion obtained any good things, she would feel restless and unable to sleep if she didn't have a bite.

This couple was truly a pair who had taken a fancy to each other at the Spring Banquet; if they hadn't, they would have been a disaster for two families.

But there was one advantage to them taking a fancy to each other—don't look at the third branch as being messy from top to bottom, with the master not acting like a master and the wife not acting like a wife, and the maids and nannies being slack and lazy without any rules, but the back courtyard was uniquely clean, with no messy women; there were no concubines or bed-warmers at all.

Of course, it might also be that Third Master Xie was too lazy; squeezing into a pile of scholars to pretend to be cultured during the day was also very draining and tiring, and once he got home, he would want to take off his shoes and sleep on the heated brick bed.

Dealing with one woman was already enough; he couldn't handle having more.

Fortunately, the third branch had many offspring; sixteen years after marriage, the Third Mistress Xie had given birth to three legitimate sons and one legitimate daughter for the third branch.

This record was not a bit worse than the first and second branches; if the first and second branches did not count illegitimate sons and daughters, but only counted legitimate offspring, the third branch was even better.

Having said that, since there were both legitimate sons and daughters, what was the use of illegitimate sons and daughters?

Look at the matriarch, the Old Duchess; after she outlived the old Duke, didn't she still send the illegitimate sons to the Farm in the countryside? The illegitimate daughters were also sent off with a bridal sedan chair and a few dowries; how had they ever won any glory for the Xie family?

On the contrary, without these illegitimate sons and daughters, there was no need to waste the Farm and dowries!

Third Master Xie thought so, and he did so.

Thus, the third branch of the Xie family became the... no, became the talk of the town for all the noble families in Jingcheng after tea and dinner.

There was not a man who did not mock Third Master Xie, yet the women in the back courtyards all envied the Third Mistress Xie.

And Xie Yang was the one who had transmigrated into the legitimate daughter of the third branch of the Zhenguo Duke Mansion.

Perhaps inheriting the laziness of Third Master Xie and the greed of the Third Mistress, even after the original owner learned to walk, she rarely walked, and she had maids and nannies carry her wherever she went.

Her three older brothers above her all doted on her, especially the eldest brother, who was the Fourth Young Master of the mansion, Xie Jing; perhaps because of the large age gap, he could be said to be responsive to every request of his three-year-old legitimate younger sister, and whenever he had time, he would carry her out of the mansion to play.

The little girl was greedy, and after following her brother out of the mansion a few times, she loved to jump out every day to buy sugar balls, sugar cakes, roasted chestnuts... and would return to the mansion to sleep after eating and drinking her fill.

So the memories left to Xie Yang were really just the five-piece set of eating, drinking, excreting, and sleeping.

It was bad enough to transmigrate into a three-year-old cub, but the Sub-system that needed to be recovered this time had not only been bound to someone before she arrived, but it was also in the palace.

The one it was bound to was none other than the eldest legitimate daughter of the first branch, Xie Ping.

But once in the palace, one belonged to the royal family. Once you enter the noble gate, it is as deep as the sea, let alone the inner palace.

Not to mention her, a cousin from the third branch, even Xie Ping's own mother, the Eldest Mistress, would not find it easy to see her daughter.

This undoubtedly increased the difficulty of the recovery Task.

Xie Yang raised her chubby little hands to pillow her head and sighed at such a young age.

Then she thought about it again and felt relieved; it was nothing more than waiting a few more years.

In the previous few planes, didn't she often continue to live in the task plane after completing the task?

For this plane, she would just treat it as having swapped the order—experience life first, then complete the task.

However, thinking about the Xie family she was about to return to, Xie Yang felt it was necessary to make some arrangements first.

"Screech," the cover of the cellar entrance was lifted again.

However, this time it wasn't throwing steamed buns down, but someone lowered a wooden ladder, and a burly man climbed down the ladder.

He held a wet cloth and covered the mouths and noses of the little cubs one by one.

Xie Yang held her breath in time and did not inhale the anesthetic, but she also pretended to pass out.

In her sea of consciousness, she logged into the System Mall, selected a simulation Robot Bodyguard that was very popular in the Interstellar Era, adjusted the skin to the appearance and voice of an ancient swordswoman, set the combat power to the maximum, and after inputting the commands, temporarily stored it in the Warehouse that came with the Main System.

After thinking about it, she also redeemed a retro long sword, a set of twelve steel throwing darts, and a stack of yellow paper that was extremely similar to the rice paper of this era, and used a universal printer to print a few lines of cursive script on the paper.

Finally, she also redeemed a bottle of potent sleeping pills that could make people fall asleep in one second and could only be woken up by splashing water on them.

After finishing these, she felt herself being carried into a carriage.

The Main System was broadcasting the situation outside the carriage for her in real-time:

Five burly men and one mean-looking woman were currently planning to take the nine cubs in the carriage out of the city in the manner of "escorting goods south" and resell them to other places.