MLMD – Chapter 2 A Shocking Discovery

The old madam motioned for someone nearby to take the prescription. She let out a long sigh, her voice carrying an indescribable sense of desolation.

“At this point, as long as my grandson can survive, this old woman will already be content. As for the matters of the past—forgotten is forgotten. Someone, see Physician Sun out of the estate!”

“Yes!”

Very soon, a servant stepped forward and made a polite gesture of invitation to Physician Sun. Lifting his medicine chest, Physician Sun’s lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but when the words reached his mouth, he hesitated and stopped. In the end, he merely shook his head and left.

After Physician Sun departed, the old madam instructed Yue Yang to recuperate properly, then rose and left the room as well, leaving behind Yue Yang—his head full of questions—and two young maidservants…

More than ten days later, at dusk, beneath a grape arbor in a small courtyard, a young man of about twenty, with refined features and clear brows, sat quietly on a chair, gazing at the sunset on the horizon. Standing behind him were two maidservants around sixteen or seventeen years old, exceptionally pretty—and even more striking was the fact that the two girls looked exactly alike. It was obvious they were twin sisters.

This young man was naturally Yue Yang, who had inexplicably arrived in this world. Over the past ten-plus days, through conversations with those around him and the things he had come into contact with, Yue Yang had finally come to understand the environment he was in. Just like a term he often heard in modern society, he had transmigrated—transported to Wuli Village under Yingzhou Prefecture in Shanxi, into the body of the young master of a wealthy landlord family. By coincidence, this young master was also named Yue Yang.

Moreover, he was the only male in the family. In other words, Yue Yang was the unquestioned and sole legitimate heir of this landlord household.

By all logic, landing such an excellent background and becoming nearly ten years younger should have made Yue Yang very happy. After all, in modern society his parents had long since died in a car accident, leaving him nothing but a house in a remote suburban countryside. After graduating from university, Yue Yang had struggled just to make a living, drifting from place to place. Even at thirty, he was still single. Being able to become a rich second-generation heir like this should have been more than enough.

That reasoning was sound, and originally Yue Yang had thought so too. He had even imagined living honestly in this era as a landlord—guarding the vast fields at home, marrying a dozen or so beautiful wives, and living a comfortable, prosperous life to the end of his days.

But when Yue Yang finally figured out the dynasty and the exact time period he was in, he was stunned. One of his personal maidservants had told him that the current time was mid-June of the fifth year of the Chongzhen reign of the Great Ming Dynasty.

The moment Yue Yang heard this, he froze.

Because anyone with even a basic knowledge of history knew exactly what this time meant. It meant that the era Yue Yang was in would soon be swept by a storm of blood and chaos that would engulf the entire realm. Whether it was the advancing rebel armies or the iron cavalry of the Manchus, they would tear this Han-ruled empire to pieces—and everything Yue Yang now possessed would become nothing more than flowers reflected in water, the moon seen in a well.

A young girl whispered softly, “Sister, look—Young Master has been sitting there without moving for a full two hours now. In the past, he was always reading in the study. But ever since the accident, these days he hasn’t even touched those books. Could it be that Young Master really has become—”

“Shh—”

Before she could finish, the identical-looking girl beside her quickly covered her younger sister’s mouth and warned softly, “Yulong, you can’t speak recklessly like that. Young Master is our master, after all. Speaking ill of one’s master behind his back is not something we servants should do. If these words reached the old madam’s ears, we’d surely be punished again.”

“Got it, sis!” The younger girl stuck out her tongue playfully.

“Yuling, Yulong—what bad things are you two saying about me behind my back now?”

At that moment, a voice sounded from the front. Yue Yang had already stood up and was looking at the pair of lovely girls, a gentle smile on his face.

“Ah—no, no! We really weren’t saying anything!” Startled, the girl waved her hands repeatedly, putting on an expression of stubborn denial.

The other girl, frightened, hurried forward a couple of steps and was about to kneel down in apology. “Young Master, just now it was Long’er who spoke nonsense out of ignorance. If Young Master wishes to punish someone, please punish this servant instead!”

Yue Yang quickly supported her hands and said helplessly, “Yuling, there you go again. How many times have I told you—not to kneel at the drop of a hat? If you’re not annoyed, your Young Master here is already annoyed. Alright, go prepare things properly. I’m hungry.”

“Yes, Young Master!” The two girls quickly jogged off toward the small side kitchen.

Watching their slender figures disappear, a warm smile appeared on Yue Yang’s face. These beautiful twin sisters were named Yuling and Yulong, personal maidservants newly assigned to him by his so-called grandmother. Although they had only been serving him for a little over ten days, Yue Yang already had an excellent impression of them. The elder sister, Yuling, was gentle and sincere, while the younger, Yulong, was lively, adorable, pure, and kind—how could Yue Yang not like them?

After a while, Yulong’s voice came from afar. “Young Master, dinner is ready. Please come and eat!”

“Got it!” Yue Yang replied, heading toward the kitchen.

After finishing dinner, Yue Yang told the Linglong sisters—Yuling and Yulong—to return to their rooms in the west wing to rest after a long day. He himself went alone to the stone table beneath the grape arbor in the back courtyard, soaking his feet, enjoying the cool evening air, and pondering his worries.

At this moment, Yue Yang felt deeply frustrated. Look at the protagonists in novels—who among them transmigrated without a cheat ability? Some carried laptops with them, some possessed incredible strength or photographic memory, and some even brought entire bases along. But him? Aside from this useless body, he had nothing else. Oh, right—there was also this jade pendant!

Thinking of this, Yue Yang took off a white jade pendant from around his neck and examined it carefully in his hand. This pendant had been bought back when Yue Yang was in university, from a roadside stall. Because of its poor quality, it had only cost him eighty yuan. He had always worn it around his neck.

One rainy day, while collecting clothes in the courtyard of his suburban countryside home, he had been struck by a sudden bolt of purple lightning—and then he ended up here. What Yue Yang couldn’t understand was why this jade pendant had come with him into this spacetime as well.

Although it was already night, under the bright moonlight Yue Yang could still clearly see the texture and color of the jade pendant in his hand.

“Nothing special about you at all. So how did you manage to come along with me?”

Yue Yang turned the pendant over and over in his hands. Suddenly, his fingers slipped, and the jade pendant slid through them with a plop, falling into the wooden basin at his feet.

“What the hell—how did I even drop that?” Yue Yang shook his head and bent down to pick it up—but at that moment, something strange happened.

After the jade pendant fell into the basin, moonlight passed through the surface of the water and shone onto it. The pendant quickly began to emit waves of silvery-white light. These rays spread upward, intertwining in midair about three feet above the ground. The light grew more and more intense, soon forming a door-shaped structure roughly two meters wide and three meters tall.

Because he was soaking his feet, Yue Yang happened to be stuck right in the center of this “door.” Before he could understand what was happening, he felt wave after wave of numbness like electric shocks coursing through his body. His entire body began to lift into the air. Then his vision blurred—and suddenly, along with the wooden basin beneath his feet, he crashed down onto the ground.

Clang! Ouch!

That was the sound of the basin hitting the ground, followed by Yue Yang’s involuntary cry.

Yue Yang slowly climbed up from the ground. But when he looked around with the help of the moonlight, he felt as though he had been struck by lightning all over again. His entire body stiffened. His throat let out a hoarse “gurgling” sound like a duck being slaughtered, and his eyes went wide.

The scene before him was far too familiar. Having lived here for decades, he could recognize it even with his eyes closed.

Wasn’t this his countryside home in the modern era?

“This… what is going on? How did I come back again?” Yue Yang felt his heart pounding so violently it seemed ready to leap out of his chest. “Could it be… could it be that all these days I was living in some kind of illusion?”

Yue Yang lowered his head and looked at himself. Finally, judging from this body and the clothes he was wearing, he was able to confirm that what had just happened was no illusion—he had transmigrated once again, from the Ming Dynasty back to his modern-day home, and at the exact same spot where he had been struck by lightning last time.

Now that he had confirmed it wasn’t an illusion, Yue Yang’s mind finally began to function properly. He replayed what had just happened step by step.

“Just now, I was in the courtyard, cooling off and washing my feet. The jade pendant fell into the foot-washing water. Then moonlight shone on it, light appeared and formed a light gate… and after that, I came here. Could it be that returning to modern society has something to do with this jade pendant? Does this mean that I can also use it to return to the late Ming Dynasty?”

Thinking of this, Yue Yang quickly bent down to search for the jade pendant. Very soon, he found it lying on the ground beside the wooden basin.

Clutching the pendant tightly in his hand, Yue Yang felt dizzy with excitement. Even a fool would know how defiant of heaven it was for someone to freely travel between the Ming Dynasty and modern society. This meant he could do many things ordinary people could never accomplish—he might even be able to change an entire era!

“But before that,” Yue Yang said to himself, “let me see whether this world has changed at all.”

With that, he ran toward the nearby house…