Chapter 1: Song Daya

The Divine Continent, central Great Xia Dynasty.

A small village called Songjiatai.

Everyone said that the Song family’s eldest girl, Song Daya^[1], had been different from other children since she was small.

When the village head’s youngest son was one year old, he was still nursing, but Song Daya had already refused the breast at eight months, demanding steamed egg custard instead.

When the lizheng^[2]‘s little grandson was a year and a half old, he was still nursing, but Song Daya was already holding chopsticks and feeding herself at ten months.

When the town squire’s young master was two years old, he was still nursing, but Song Daya was only one and could already fight chickens for food.

When the county magistrate’s young son was three years old, he was still nuzzling into his wet nurse’s bosom, while Song Daya was a year and a half, chasing the chickens her mother raised all over the yard with a stick.

Unfortunately, Song Dalang had only traveled as far as the county seat; otherwise, the amusing comparisons about his eldest daughter could have gone up another notch.

“Look at our Da’ya, so nimble!” Returning from work, Song Dalang pushed open his brushwood gate and saw his daughter chasing cats and dogs all over the place, feeling immensely proud.

“Daddy!” Hearing her father’s voice, Song Daya looked back, overjoyed. She scrambled up nimbly from the dirt and threw herself at his legs, covered in dust and mud. “Hold me!”

Song Dalang’s wife, Mei-shi^[3], came out, took one look, and immediately snapped in exasperation. Pointing at Song Daya, she shouted, “Get down! You little mud monkey, don’t climb all over your father!”

Song Daya couldn’t care less.

Clinging to her father’s leg, she scrambled upward using both hands and feet, clamoring at the top of her lungs, “Fly! Fly!”

Catching his daughter’s meaning, Song Dalang set down the things in his hands, caught her up, and hoisted her high above his head. “Up we fly!”

Song Daya giggled and crowed, like a happy little bird.

“Just keep spoiling her, spoil her to the heavens!” Mei-shi grumbled, but took what her husband had brought home inside to prepare supper.

“What did you eat for lunch?” Song Dalang asked as he played with his daughter.

“Rice balls!” Song Daya answered loudly.

Hearing her from inside the house, Mei-shi grumbled again, “Two meals a day^[4] plus a bowl of egg custard isn’t enough for her; she even has to have lunch. Who could ever afford to feed her in the future…”

No one knew where the girl had picked up such a quirk, but around noon she absolutely had to have a meal, and it had to be steamed rice.

If there really was nothing else, she would insist on downing a bowl of watery porridge.

Otherwise, she would throw a nonstop fit.

Fortunately, Song Dalang^[5] had learned carpentry from his father. He farmed during the busy agricultural season and went out to do odd jobs during the slack season, which allowed him to save a couple of copper coins.

On top of that, Mei-shi was hardworking as well, keeping both house and fields from lying neglected and tucking bean seeds into any spare patch of earth, which was the only reason Song Daya hadn’t starved.

That being said, truth be told, Song Daya only managed to get steamed rice to eat on days when Song Dalang went out for work.

Just like today.

“Horsey!” Song Daya called out again.

“Alright!” Song Dalang hoisted his daughter onto his shoulders with practiced ease, readily playing the big horse. “Daddy’s taking you for a horsey ride!”

Song Daya giggled so hard she turned into a limp, squishy lump, and had her father not been steadying her, she would have smacked right onto the ground.

A villager passed by Song Dalang’s gate, took one look, and found it an eyesore.

“A wretched girl child!”

Even the boys in his family had never ridden on someone’s shoulders!

Catching the man’s look of disgust, Song Daya grabbed her father’s face and gave him a loud, resounding smack of a kiss.

After all, her father was not even eighteen yet, barely catching the tail end of his youth. Fresh-faced and handsome, he looked mighty fine!

If she didn’t shower him with kisses now, when would she ever?

Clueless about his daughter’s scheming, Song Dalang beamed, his face flushing red.

The villager found it thoroughly disgraceful. Clasping his hands behind his back with a sullen face, he stood there glaring at Song Dalang, hoping the man would come to his senses and reclaim some fatherly dignity.

Unfortunately, Song Dalang was already hopelessly wrapped around her finger.

Reaching into his tunic, he pulled out a bamboo dragonfly^[6] he had made in his spare time today, gently showing his daughter how to play with it.

A bamboo dragonfly with the green outer skin shaved off, had you ever played with one?

When the bamboo dragonfly flew up into the sky, Song Daya cooperatively froze in awe before crying out in delight, “Whoa!”

The villager’s face instantly turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.

A mere girl child, did she deserve to play with such a fine toy?

Taking in the villager’s expression, Song Daya decided to fan the flames and treat her father to another pleasant surprise.

Gripping the bamboo dragonfly, she planted more slobber on her father’s face. “Love you!”

Song Dalang froze for a moment, and once it registered, he was overjoyed.

“Da’ya, you know how to say new words?”

“Oh, Da’ya, you know how to say new words!”

Then he called out to his wife.

“Oh, Sanniang^[7], our Da’ya can say new words!”

Mei-shi was the third child in her family before marriage, so Song Dalang was used to calling her Sanniang.

Mei-shi just chuckled softly to herself.

Then Song Dalang called out to his mother.

“Oh, Mother, your eldest granddaughter can say new words!”

Song Dalang’s mother, Lady Wu, chuckled warmly.

Finding the whole thing terribly dull, the villager walked off with his hands behind his back.

Yet he didn’t leave quite satisfied.

No, he had to go home and test his own boy!

The boy was almost four, yet all he knew how to say was “eat” and “want to eat.”

He couldn’t even measure up to a slip of a girl.

Eat, eat, eat! If he couldn’t say anything else today, he could forget about eating!

Just then, Mei-shi finished cooking and called out to father and daughter, “Dinner’s ready!”

Dinner was set out in the courtyard so they could eat by the daylight and save on lamp oil.

Song Dalang’s mother, Lady Wu, was a soft, mild-mannered woman who spoke little. As usual, she took her bowl, scooped up a few bites of vegetables, and prepared to go eat off to the side.

Mei-shi stopped her.

“Mother, there are only a few of us in this family. Just eat at the table.”

“Grandma^[8], eat!” Song Daya chimed in.

The word she used was the local dialect for grandmother. Everyone in the village addressed their grandmothers that way, and Song Daya had grown used to saying it too.

Ever since Mei-shi married into the family, Old Mother Wu had never once mistreated her daughter-in-law.

Naturally, Mei-shi had no intention of mistreating her mother-in-law either.

As for Old Man Song, he had passed away the previous year.

His illness, however, had started several years earlier.

At the time, Old Man Song had been helping someone build a house when he fell from the roof, injuring his lungs.

To treat his condition, the family had drained what little money they had and fallen deeply into debt.

The Mei family had known nothing of this at first. It was only three months after Mei-shi married in that Old Man Song finally came clean. Furious, Mei-shi burst into tears and went straight back to her maiden home that very day.

Yet she returned the next day.

Because she was pregnant.

Perhaps driven by the desire to see his grandchild, Old Man Song, whom the doctor had predicted would not survive past that year’s New Year, stubbornly held on until Song Daya was six months old.

So, there were now only four people in Song Dalang’s household.

Very simple.

For Song Daya, this start was decent enough.

After all, she had transmigrated blindly and gained an extra lifetime for free. With both a mother and a father, food to eat, and a roof over her head, she could hardly complain.

In her past life, she had been born into a family that pushed their daughter to become a dragon^[9], even giving her the name Shengnan, meaning “surpassing men.”

After more than a decade of bitter schooling, she finally landed a job at a company in the city. Clawing her way through the ranks, she climbed all the way to… assistant to an overbearing CEO^[10], adopting the workplace alias Jenny Song.

At the tender age of twenty-eight, in the prime of her youth, she was already losing her hair from work exhaustion.

On the day it happened, she had been working overtime at the office until three in the morning. Stepping out of the elevator, she suffered sudden chest pain, failed to pull through, and died.

And then she ended up here.

To think she had spent over twenty years in her past life striving to be a career woman, only to meet an untimely death without even collecting her year-end bonus.

In this life, she just wanted to take things at an easy pace; whether she surpassed men or not did not matter in the slightest.

What was the rush?

Life was only so long. What was the hurry to race toward the finish line?

Anyway, with her credentials as an overbearing CEO-

…assistant, as long as she was given enough time, she was bound to become a rising star in Songjiatai.