Lu Tián Qǔ sat at the vanity in the bedroom of the boudoir of her courtyard. She had been sitting there for two days now. Her mind was blank. Lu Tián Qu tried to force her mind to work so she could figure out what to do with her life.
She was just too undecided. The day before yesterday, Lu Tián Qu decided to sleep until she died. Yesterday she wanted a life of adventure. Today she wants a life of leisure. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Sighing, she continued to sit there undecided. Lu Tián Qǔ was always a very fickle and indecisive person. That was why it took her eleven years to graduate from college in her past life. Not counting the time in between, she took off. She did finally graduate with four majors, though. When she bothered to apply herself, her brilliance showed itself. However, now she needed to decide what to do with her life all over again.
The first time it took her eleven years. As she sat there, she wondered how long it would take her to find her path this time. Should she even bother? She could just peacefully sleep and relax here until she died. No one in the Lu Family would bother her or even cared. Most of them never knew of her predecessors' existence anyway. She was in a quandary. To do or not to do. To bother or not to bother.
Lu Tian Qu was from the 21 century. She went to sleep at night like she did every other night. However, she woke up, reincarnated into the body of a person who had already reincarnated. Lu Tián Qǔ was quite annoyed she couldn't even get an ordinary reincarnation. But weird things have always happened to her all her life.
Not only that, but it also seemed that the place she reincarnated to was not earth. She reincarnated to a place called The Northern Lands. The Northern Lands seemed to be a continent of six countries. From the memories of the original body owner, the country she reincarnated into was called The Tolling Lands. It's was smacked right in the center of the continent surrounded by five countries.
Lu Tián Qǔ had a secret weakness. That was her love for reincarnation webnovels and webnovels about scheming concubines and wars of the harems. Many mornings she woke up late for work because she stayed up all night reading webnovels. Many times she was too tired or too lazy to bother going to work after marathoning a riveting story until the break of dawn. Her father owned the company, so it was not like she would lose her job anyway.
"Damn it! I'm going to miss my webnovels. Plus, I just started a new webnovel that was pretty intense and so good. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm never going to know how it ends," Lu Tian Qu muttered to herself. It really grieved her heart. To her, there was almost nothing worse than not knowing how a story ends. That was why she only read complete webnovels. Otherwise, she would go crazy, wondering how it ended. Lu Tián Qǔ was born with a chronic illness. It was called curiosity. There were many times she caused trouble and got into deep trouble trying to satisfy her curiosity.
Sighing again, she thought of the poor sorry woman into whose body she reincarnated. Or should she call her a girl since the original body owner reincarnated back into a 13-year-old girl before she died? They had the same name, but that is where the similarities end. The original Lu Tian Qu was born as the first legal daughter in a generals household. Her mothers' marriage to her father was an arranged marriage.
According to what the original body owner learned from the momo that raised her, for some reason that her father never said. He despised Lu Tián Qǔ's mother with a passion. Lu Tián Qǔ's mother died giving birth to her. Upon the death of her mother, Lu Tián Qǔ was banished to a hidden courtyard in the rear of the family compound with one of her mothers' old maids and left there to die.
Her father never bothered to name Lu Tián Qǔ. Neither did he bother to see what she looked like or verify her gender before he placed her in the care of her mothers' old maid. It was the old maid who remembered the name that the mother of the original owner wanted the original owner to have and named her.
General Lu confined the old maid and Lu Tián Qu to the courtyard. They were not allowed to wander into any other parts of the compound. To him, the original body owner didn't exist.
Over the years, the original body owner became utterly forgotten. When General Lu married again, his wife never knew of her existence. Neither did his concubines that came later on. He told them she died with her mother at birth.
All the servants her mother brought along with her when she married into the Lu family, were sold or forced from the Lu Family compound. All of the Lu family servants were told that Lu Tián Qǔ died at birth with her mother.
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The Lu family compound was enormous. The courtyard Lu Tián Qǔ was banished to was very far away from the rest of the family. None of the servants bothered traveling all the way to the rear of the Lu Family compound. There was no reason to.
Her mother was named Lei Xiān Huā. She was from the Lei family. The Lei Family was a family of Scholars. Lei Xiān Huā lost her mother, Liu Huan Le, at the age of nine. Four months after her mother's death, her father remarried. His new wife had him wrapped around her finger. She used that to turn Lei Xiān Huā's life into hell. She also played a significant role in forcing Lei Xiān Huā into an arraigned marriage to General Lu.
So there was no chance of Lu Tián Qǔ's maternal grandparents coming to her rescue. They were informed that Lu Tián Qǔ died with her mother. They never bothered to verify it.
The original body owner's maternal grandmother, Liu Huan Le, was from the Liu family. The Liu family was a very prestigious family of officials and generals. When they heard of the treatment of their granddaughter Lei Xiān Huā they came for her. However, Lei Xiān Huā's father refused to let her go. This cause a big commotion that ended up making its way before the previous emperor. However, in the end, Lei Xiān Huā was of the Lei bloodline, so there she had to stay in the Lei household. She suffered so much there until she married into the Lu family. However, she was not treated well there either.
The original body owner stayed quietly in her courtyard under the counsel of her mother's old maid. She silently watched the lives of all who lived in the Lu compound from the shadows. She would sneak to watch and eavesdrop on them in an attempt to alleviate her loneliness and to learn of the outside world.
The old maid taught her everything she could on how to live independently. All of the gardens in her small courtyard and the courtyard next to her courtyard were converted into vegetable gardens.
In the year, Lu Tián Qǔ's father exiled her to the furthest reach of the Lu compound. Her father had a kitchen built into the courtyard where he banished her. He wanted there to be no reason for Lu Tián Qǔ or the old maid to wander into any other parts of the compound. He gave the old maid 7,000 gold for their daily necessities. He also built a hidden moon gate near Lu Tián Qǔ's courtyard for the old maid to enter and exit the family compound to shop for whatever they may need. However, he told the old maid to use the funds given to her wisely because she wouldn't receive any more money if she allowed it to run out.
The old maid died when the original body owner had just turned 13. Lu Tián Qǔ quietly buried the old maid two courtyards away from hers as per the instructions that the old maid left behind. Then she obediently lived silently all alone in her courtyard watching the passing of time. And there she quietly died alone and full of regret at the age of 29.
Lu Tián Qǔ was entirely forgotten by all the other inhabitants of the Lu compound. Very few in the family even knew Lu Tián Qǔ existed, but they had all too soon also forgotten Lu Tián Qǔ existence.
In all the years, Lu Tián Qǔ lived quietly and lonely in her courtyard, never one day even until the day she died did her father come to see her. Not to see how she looked, nor did he even bother to inquire about what her name was.
However, after she died, she reincarnated back to the age of 13. Lu Tián Qǔ was terrified of living the same life of silence and loneliness all over again. She tried to escape and was almost caught by a patrolling family guard. So that night, she attempted to climb over the walls of the compound and escape. Unfortunately, Lu Tián Qǔ fell to her death and broke her neck.
What a miserable life, Lu Tian Qu shuddered in horror. There was nothing wrong with choosing to live a lazy and relaxing life doing nothing at all and enjoying your own company alone. However, to live in forced confinement, miserable and lonely, in a situation not of your choosing. Longing for friendship, family, companionship. Longing to escape but too afraid and fearful of the outside world. Now that was different, then choosing to be a hermit in Liu Tián Qǔ's opinion.
In her past life, Lu Tina Qu was very athletic and active, so living a life like that was a complete horror to her. She even participated in fencing tournaments. When the bug of fickleness bit her, she changed over to archery which she was also good at. Of course, it was expensive, but so what. Her family was wealthy. Or else how else could she afford to waste all that money switching majors in college for eleven years.
However, being as fickle as she was. Lu Tián Qǔ also took a year off from college and locked herself in her family's country estate. For that whole year, she cut off all connections with the outside world. She wanted to do nothing at all and just live in the moment.
She lived the life of a complete layabout eating, sleeping, and drinking. She marathoned her favorite movies, dramas, webnovels, shows, and played online games. Sometimes she spent days just sleeping. Sometimes she spent days fishing or meditating and thinking about nothing at all. Sometimes she spent days hiking in the mountains that were nearby or bonding with her horse through days of riding. Sometimes she spent days practicing old qigong moves taught to her when she was a child or boot camping through the many martial art disciplines she picked up over the years. Sometimes she spent days just reading of things of bygone eras and seeking the knowledge and wisdom of wise men and women of the past. But that was a choice and not forced confinement.
There was one thing the Lu Tian Qu found downright perplexing. Why did the original body owner climb the wall to try to leave? Did she panic that much over reincarnating that she lost her mind? Did she really forget she had the key to the hidden moon gate that the old maid passed along to her before she died?