Rebirth: Traveling To Ancient Times As A Companion Reading Chapter 10

Life Origins

When he woke up again, he found himself locked in a small room.

The sky outside the window was already dim, and the limited light filtering in left the small room shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to discern its original appearance.

Qiao Yi struggled to stand up from the floor, but his limbs were so weak that he quickly collapsed again. After several fruitless attempts, Qiao Yi simply gave up and lay flat on the ground. He stared blankly into the darkness, where nothing could be seen.

I thought that as soon as I closed my eyes and regained consciousness, I would be in the underworld, Qiao Yi thought to himself. To wake up and find myself still here is truly unpleasant. I still have to endure hunger and exhaustion; it would really be better to just be a ghost in the underworld.

With a helpless sigh, Qiao Yi shook his head, trying to clear his groggy mind.

He didn’t know if Heipa had managed to escape. If the cat had succeeded, then his efforts wouldn’t have been in vain.

The surroundings were pitch black and silent.

In this stillness, Qiao Yi couldn’t help but feel drowsy again. His head began to nod, and he was just about to drift off.

Right then, a sudden noise from somewhere nearby chased his sleepiness away instantly.

Qiao Yi pulled himself together, his ears perking up like a rabbit’s as he tried to catch every sound, refusing to miss a single detail.

Thud!

In the darkness, it sounded as if something had been knocked over and hit the floor with a loud bang.

Qiao Yi’s nerves were pulled taut. Hearing the sudden movement nearby, a burst of strength surged from nowhere. He sprang up from the floor and scrambled back several steps.

There was almost no light here, and the room was so dark that he couldn’t see what it was at all. Qiao Yi stared cautiously at the source of the noise, not daring to move recklessly.

Meow-ow.

Following a familiar cat’s cry, a soft ball of fur pounced into Qiao Yi’s arms. He caught it instinctively. As if to comfort Qiao Yi, the furball licked his face and rubbed its furry head against his chin.

Feeling the familiar texture and scent in his hands, the tension in Qiao Yi’s heart finally snapped and relaxed. It was Heipa.

In the darkness, Qiao Yi could only see Heipa’s two green eyes. He felt a mix of pleasant surprise and shock as he rubbed Heipa’s head. “How did you get in here?”

Meow.

“Did you secretly follow them here?” Qiao Yi felt that Heipa was far too intelligent. “You really aren’t an ordinary cat. Have you secretly become a spirit behind my back?” Otherwise, how could a cat be this smart?

Meow. As if in response, Heipa gently nipped Qiao Yi’s finger and tugged him toward the direction where the cat had first appeared.

Qiao Yi looked deeper into the room, but it was so dark he couldn’t see a thing. “You came from over there? Is there a way out that way?”

Meow.

This time, it wasn’t just the mouth; Heipa was even using its claws to pull Qiao Yi in that direction.

Qiao Yi slowly followed Heipa’s lead, carefully avoiding all obstacles. Finally, behind a large pile of firewood, he found a hole covered by a wooden board.

Heipa jumped out of Qiao Yi’s arms, dragged the board aside to reveal the opening, and then stepped out first, looking back to signal Qiao Yi to follow.

After finally squeezing through the hole, Qiao Yi stood up straight and brushed the dust off his hands. “This opening is really small. But since I’m not that big either, I barely managed.”

Meow.

Hearing the cry from beside him, Qiao Yi looked down, knelt, and gave Heipa’s head a vigorous rub. “Thank you. It’s all thanks to you that I could get out. It seems my effort to save you from that carriage today wasn’t wasted. However, I don’t have much strength left and can’t carry you, so you’ll have to walk on your own for now.”

Meow-wu. Heipa bit Qiao Yi’s trouser leg and pulled him forward, seemingly wanting to take him somewhere else.

“What is it?” Qiao Yi followed Heipa’s lead for a few steps. After passing through a small gate, he realized this was a neglected garden overgrown with weeds.

Looking at the grass that was nearly as tall as a person, Qiao Yi tilted his head toward Heipa. “You found your way here from this place?”

Wu. Heipa took a few quick, graceful leaps into the thicket of weeds.

Left with no choice, Qiao Yi followed.

He didn’t know exactly where this garden was located within the Qin Manor. When Qiao Yi poked his head out from the weeds behind Heipa, he happened to see several maidservants carrying lanterns walking toward him along a secluded path under the faint moonlight.

The grass was taller than a person and hid Qiao Yi’s figure, so the maids didn’t notice someone was hiding in the brush as they walked past.

They were all dressed in pale primrose-yellow robes with narrow sleeves and round collars. They walked hurriedly with anxious expressions, looking as if they were rushing to complete a task, as if a moment’s delay would bring about a great disaster.

Despite their haste, one of them seemed extremely frustrated by something and couldn’t help but complain. “Those little sluts are truly shameless. Knowing that the young heir of the Lou family is visiting at this time, they all shamelessly flocked over. With so many people suddenly appearing, how could we possibly prepare everything in time? Now we not only have to serve the young heir but also deal with those thick-skinned pests. What a nuisance!”

Another chimed in, “Exactly. If our Madam hadn’t damaged her health years ago and turned to Buddhism to ignore worldly affairs, how could those women ever have the chance to act so wildly in the Qin Manor?”

A third maid added, “Hmph! A lowly status, nothing more than a concubine brought into the house, yet she really thinks she’s flown up the branch to become a phoenix. Bah! What a piece of trash!”

“Hmph! She can’t even tolerate a motherless ten-year-old child. Her grace isn’t even a tenth of our Madam’s. Did you really think she was raised by some prestigious family?” It was as if they were finally letting out their pent-up frustration, and everyone wanted to add a word. “In the end, she’s just a willow-branch woman from the pleasure quarters. The son she raised has the same character as her! Only the Master could be twisted around her finger by that face and that mouth of hers.”

The first maid, seeing the others agreeing with her, couldn’t hide her emotions any longer and cursed, “You didn’t see the look on that Fang woman’s face just now, acting as if the young heir of the Lou family came specifically for her son. She doesn’t even consider whether she or her son are worthy.”

“She probably heard some rumors from the Master and eagerly brought her son over. She doesn’t think—a profligate who wanders the pleasure alleys all day, without a shred of real talent, and with a jealousy so strong he can’t even tolerate his own younger half-brother. How could the Lou family ever choose him to be the young heir’s study companion?”

“They must be out of their minds. Porridge has been distributed on Qingyang Street for seven days straight, yet they don’t even think about why. Besides, consider the reason why the young heir of the Lou family returned to Jiangzhou from the Capital City. If the Lou family ever investigates the things Qin Zhao has done, forget being a study companion—it’s hard to say if he could even keep his head.”

“…”

The group walked further and further away, and their voices became intermittent. However, this didn’t stop Qiao Yi, who was fully focused on eavesdropping, from piecing together about seventy or eighty percent of what they were saying.

The original owner of this body shared the same name as Qiao Yi: Qin Yi. He was the seventh concubine-born son of the Qin family in Jiangzhou, and his biological father was the Governor of Jiangzhou, Qin Zhao. Logically, being born into such a prominent family, Qin Yi shouldn’t have ended up as a beggar on the streets starving to death. But unfortunately, his biological mother was a domestic servant of the Qin family with no status and no favor, which meant Qin Yi was also neglected.

If it were just a matter of being unfavored, that would be one thing, but the Qin household was far from peaceful. The primary wife didn’t manage affairs, and the various concubines and mistresses below her were not law-abiding people; they used every means possible to compete for favor.

Although Qin Yi was an unfavored concubine-born son, he was still male. Eventually, he would still be entitled to a share of the Qin family’s assets. No one in the Qin family wanted their interests to be diminished, even if those assets didn’t belong to them in the first place. So, even though the mother and son kept to themselves and stayed far away from the center of the Qin Manor’s power struggles, they were still targeted by the others.

Though she was unfavored, a mother must be strong. Even though Qin Yi’s mother’s own situation was difficult, she did her best to protect him, allowing him to survive until he was old enough to remember things. Unfortunately, her health grew weaker after giving birth, and she passed away two months ago, leaving the ten-year-old Qin Yi all alone.

No matter how maturely Qin Yi had been raised, he was still just a ten-year-old child. Without his mother’s protection, staying alone in the Qin Manor was no different from lying in a wolf’s den or a tiger’s lair.

A child without a mother is someone anyone can trample on, let alone those who had already been watching him closely.

However, if someone died right inside the manor, it would inevitably cause a stir. But if the child was lured outside the Qin Manor and then killed, people would just assume Qin Yi had lost his life due to his own playfulness. An unfavored, motherless concubine-born son—if he died, he died. It wasn’t a big deal. No one in the Qin Manor would investigate, and no one would want to.

Hearing this, Qiao Yi actually laughed, though it was a laugh of pure anger. Those people actually went to such lengths just to bully a ten-year-old child; they really worked hard for it.

Qin Yi was only ten years old when he was beaten to death, his entire body covered in bruises and wounds. Qiao Yi raised his hand to look at the injuries that were already starting to turn black. He thought to himself: although I originally planned to just accept this transmigration and live out my days as an ancient person, it seems that won’t work now.

Qiao Yi was not Qin Yi, nor was he a ten-year-old child, and he certainly wasn’t some good-tempered pushover who could be kneaded like dough. In his past life, his family had pampered him; he had never suffered any hardships, let alone such a massive grievance.

His previous life was a society ruled by law, and because he was raised under strict family supervision, he had never used power or wealth to oppress or bully anyone. But that didn’t mean Qiao Yi was ignorant.

Even if he hadn’t eaten pork, he had seen pigs run. Setting aside the decisive way his parents and brother handled matters, he had seen plenty of the methods used by his “fair-weather friends.” He had learned a thing or two.

Those eyes hidden in the darkness grew increasingly cold and heavy.

Qiao Yi understood very clearly now: if those people didn’t die, the one who would die in the end would be himself.

Meow.

Heipa didn’t know what Qiao Yi was thinking. The cat simply bit Qiao Yi’s trouser leg again.

Qiao Yi looked down. He didn’t have time to adjust his emotions, and his voice was very cold. “What is it?”

Heipa jumped out of the grass and ran forward a few steps.

Qiao Yi temporarily set aside his emotions and followed Heipa.