The Grand Secretary’s Pampered Wife

Chapter 1

A trace of the late autumn’s chilliness passed through the Qingquan Village after the rain.

Sweat trickled down Gu Jiao’s forehead as she run to the entrance of the village, ”Young Gentleman Qin— Young Gentleman Qin— ”

Squelch!

She slipped and fell flat on her face.

The carriage in front of her drove away, splashing mud all over her face!

”Hahahahaha!”

The people around her burst into laughter!

Gu Jiao was the village’s fool and the husband in her family was a cripple. Leaving aside the honest man at home, she would always chase after the town’s Young Gentleman Qin.

But who was Young Gentleman Qin? His father was a landlord and he himself was a Xiucai[1]. Coupled with his good looks, how could he take a fancy to a broken shoe[2]?

”A toad wishing to eat swan meat!”

”Exactly! Why donʼt you try looking at yourself in a mirror too? As if Young Gentleman Qin will look at you!”

”Broken shoe!”

”Ugly woman!”

”Little fool!”

Gu Jiao got angry. She fisted her hands on her hips and said fiercely, ”You... You’re not allowed to call me names...”

One of the children jumped out and said, ”Bleh, bleh! Whatʼs wrong with calling you names? Little fool, little fool, little fool! Ugly, ugly, ugly!”

Gu Jiao flared up from shame and pounced on that child, only to stumble and fall into the water.

At the bottom of the cold lake, the unconscious woman suddenly opened her eyes.

What was going on? Didn’t her plane crash into an iceberg during her mission and she died? How did she fall into the water?

Gu Jiao tried her best to swim to the surface. However, she didn’t know whether because she had a tragic fall or not, but she struggled quite a bit. When she managed to swim ashore, she felt she was about to collapse.

The villagers on land had seen Gu Jiao sink and were planning to fish her up with a pole, but she unexpectedly came up by herself. They all looked at each other in astonishment before scattering away with a whoosh!

Gu Jiao didn’t understand what was going on, and only saw a group of people in strange outfits running away.

She lay down on the cold grass, wiped the water from her face, and then she was stunned.

She looked at her hands in bewilderment.

These were the hands of a fourteen or fifteen years old, but she clearly was already twenty-eight. How could such small hands belong to her?

Moreover, as the beautiful and delicate queen of the secret service, she was very adept at keeping her hands in good condition. And yet, these hands were full of frostbite and some parts were even cracked.

Pretty soon, Gu Jiao found that it wasn’t just her hands that had changed. Her clothes as well as her figure were also vastly different.

A bold guess flashed through the bottom of Gu Jiaoʼs heart.

She walked to the lake and looked over the water surface to see what she looked like now, but the image reflected made her almost fall down.

Just what was this gaudy thing?

Gu Jiao scooped up some water from the lake to wash off the low-quality rouge on her face. But who knew that washing her face clean would reveal an even uglier image. Not to mention the somewhat emaciated face and pallid complexion, there was a big red mark on the left side of her face that extended till the outer corner of her eyes.

Gu Jiao, a company commander in her previous life, would fly into a rage for three days for having one tiny acne. Now, she was suddenly given such an ugly face. She wished she could just drop dead right here and now!

”Anyway, where is this? And what dynasty is it?”

As soon as she said that, there was a sharp pain in her head, and memories that did not belong to her came flooding in.

It turned out that she transmigrated into a dynasty that didn’t exist in history, and this village that she was currently at was called Qingquan Village, which was located at the foot of Qingquan Mountain.

The original soul was also named Gu Jiao. She was the only child in the third branch of the Gu Family.

Old Mister Gu was a scholar when he was young. He had attended an academy as a Tongsheng[3], and then later became the Village Chief of Qingquan Village, staying in this position for many years. Qingquan Village was poor, and as the Village Chief, there wasn’t really much ill gains he could get here. Even so, it was still impossible to starve to death.

Old Mister Gu had three sons and a daughter who had already married out of the family. His eldest son, Gu Changhai, had a son and a daughter with his wife Zhou shi[4]. The second son, Gu Changlu, had two sons with his wife Liu shi.

The first two branches could be said to be thriving. On the other hand, the third branch seemed to have been under a curse as they were unable to conceive a child at all.

Then, with great difficulty, they finally had Gu Jiao. However, aside from being a girl, she also had an ugly appearance and was born a fool.

In the villagers words—— this was a money-losing commodity. No, you couldn’t even sell it!

Since Gu Jiao was born, the third branch no longer had another child.

A gossip gradually spread out from the village, saying that Gu Jiao was ominous, bringing about the extreme bad luck of the son in the third branch.

At first, the Gu Family merely listened to it without taking it to heart. It was not until Gu Jiaoʼs parents died that the Gu family thoroughly felt that the child was indeed an ominous presence.

The Gu Family, using their connections, tried to marry off Gu Jiao. But the question was, who would dare to marry her?

Coincidentally, when Gu Jiao was walking at the entrance of the village one day, she happened to see a man who had fainted in hunger and picked him up.

While digesting the memories in her head, Gu Jiao walked towards a small shabby house on the west side of the village.

That was her current home.

Hiss——

Halfway through, Gu Jiao felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She raised her hand and touched it, and her fingers were instantly covered with blood.

She must have knocked her head on a rock under the water just now and got injured. More blood continued to flow out. She needed to stop the bleeding as soon as possible. Gu Jiao thought as she entered her courtyard.

But calling it courtyard might be a stretch since it was really just a small open space enclosed by a fence. Apart from the main room, the small shabby house had two other rooms. The larger room on the east side belonged to Gu Jiao.

And this larger room was in reality no bigger than her cloakroom in her previous life.

What a depressing transmigration ah...

Gu Jiao sighed with emotion and pushed the door to her room open, but as soon as she crossed the threshold, she acutely sensed someone else inside.

Judging by the breath, it was a man.

The man hid behind the door as he tried to hold his breath.

The corner of Gu Jiao’s lips hooked up into a sneer. She continued to walk into the room and then seemed to inadvertently close the door with a bang. Almost at the same moment, she grabbed the man hiding behind the door and pressed him to the ground.

The man was taller than she expected.

If it was the her in previous life, Gu Jiao had nothing to fear no matter how big the other person was. However, how could she cope having this current thin and weak little body? She needed to use her strength cunningly, putting pressure using her whole person to lock the other party in place.

Then she pulled off her headband with one hand and tied the man’s wrists together while her other hand grabbed his neck. She asked coldly, “Who are you? What are you doing in my room?”

The man was stunned at first, then a burst of shame and anger quickly rushed to his head, ”Gu Jiao, you’re crazy! Itʼs me!”

Someone she knew?

An acquaintance committing a crime?

That was even more hateful.

Instead of letting him go, Gu Jiao sat down again, putting even more pressure to the manʼs waist and abdomen.

”You... Get off me!” The man gnashed his teeth and shouted in a cold voice.

Scoff! Gu Jiao sneered.

She had always been the one to give people orders, not a single one could boss her around. Besides, this was her room, and she was yet to ask him what he was doing sneaking around inside!

Gu Jiao raised her fist, wanting to teach him a lesson, but her elbow accidentally knocked open the window behind her.

Bright light shone in and landed on the man’s clear and handsome face. Gu Jiao’s eyes suddenly widened in shock.

1. ↑ — A scholar who has passed the entry-level imperial exams in ancient times; rank/degree obtained after passing the entry-level imperial exam(county exam, prefectural exam, college exam) 2. ↑ — A loose woman. 3. ↑ — Scholars without a Xiucai title; scholars that havenʼt passed the entry-level imperial exam. 4. ↑ — An honorific for married women added after their clan names.
I really like this story. I love how their family grew bigger, and despite most of them arenʼt blood related, but they are really like one big family. I also like the progress of the romance between the two leads, and the banter between the characters, especially the adopted little broʼs antics. Also, the fact that sheʼs ʼcollectingʼ people not knowing theyʼre from opposing camps makes me wonder how things will unfold in the future since all of them cherish her dearly. Anyway, I hope youʼll have fun reading this as much as I did!