It was probably about a half month later that Cui Xi decided to go back to the river to search for her suitcase. She had finally recovered well enough that trekking up and down the mountain no longer made her lungs hurt. 

Master Yang had explained that he and A’Yu, whom she now called Xiao Yu, had hidden the suitcase under a bush. As the mountain was quite remote, the suitcase was very likely still where they had left it.

Although she tried not to show her anxiety, Cui Xi desperately wanted her suitcase. The idea that the comforts of the modern world were just a walk away made her insane. While Yang Ming Xi and Xiao Yu treated her very well, Cui Xi wasn’t sure how long she wanted to stay with them on the mountain. She hadn’t given up the idea that she was just in some remote place with no telephone, but she couldn’t deny that everything about the situation was very weird.

When Xiao Yu shook her awake that morning, Cui Xi had already decided that it was time to find the suitcase.

Seeing the expression on her face, Xiao Yu very correctly guessed what was on her mind.

“We can go today if you want, A’Xi,” said Xiao Yu. “Da’s gone down the mountain to see some patients so he won’t be back before evening. Let’s go together today.”

Cui Xi bit her lip, nodding. She really did want to go.

“Alright then,” Xiao Yu agreed, drawing a comb through Cui Xi’s hair. She carefully avoided the cartilage piercing at the top of the right ear, still marvelling that such a thing could be put there. She knew that wealthy woman in the capital pierced their ears, but only in the lower lobe. Cui Xi had six hooped earrings through her ears, including the cartilage piercing, each with its own cat-eyed bead. It made her look exotic like a foreigner.

Xiao Yu sighed with pleasure as she drew her fingers through the heavy dark silk. “So pretty!” she smiled.

Cui Xi still wasn’t used to it, but Xiao Yu had taken the scissors away with fright when she had tried to cut it.

“Our body and hair are given by our parents! You can’t do that!” Xiao Yu had cried, snatching the scissors away.

“But it’s too long! I can’t do anything with it,” Cui Xi had protested. 

“I promise to help you. I’ve never had a sister. This is fun for me. Just let me do it,” Xiao Yu had laughed.

And so, every morning she would help Cui Xi comb it and twist part of it up into a chignon secured with a plain wooden pin.

Xiao Yu had of course reported everything to her father. It was evident to her that Cui Xi was used to being cared for. The girl could barely do her hair herself and didn’t know how to dress herself either, so both father and daughter could only conclude that she had previously had servants to do this for her.

“There!” Xiao Yu smiled, turning her in front of the small bronze mirror.

Although the image wasn’t the clearest, Cui Xi stared at the face in the mirror and her seventeen-year old face stared back at her. Somehow, that night when she had entered the water, the thirty-eight-year old body that had borne two children had gone back to its seventeen-year-old form. 

It was like she had been dumped into a refining cauldron and the best version of herself had come out of it. Her hair had grown black and luxuriously long instead of streaked with grey, her light gold skin had become unblemished and smooth, even her scars had disappeared, and the slenderness of her youth had returned. She actually looked shockingly beautiful. 

And yet, curiously…and much to her chagrin…one thing…had unexpectedly shrunk….

Why in the name of the Isekai Gods do I have B-cups? I had D-cups before, you assholes!!

Though the seventeen year old frame was probably still growing and maybe there would be some improvement…it still irked her. 

According to the rules of isekai, I’m supposed to be a super hot special agent/martial artist/cultivator/doctor who can conquer the world with one hand while seducing a gorgeously handsome tsundere lover with the other! What the hell! Of all the things to have shrunk…why my boobs?

“Ehh…A’Xi..?” Xiao Yu frowned. “A’Xi! What are you thinking about??”

“Ahh? Oh nothing…” Cui Xi blushed, slamming back to the present.

“Do you have someone you like…at home?” Xiao Yu asked, completely misunderstanding. She laughed as Cui Xi continued to look flustered.

“I don’t remember very much before I came here,” Cui Xi responded. While that was partially true as she still didn’t quite recall how she had ended up in the river, there was no way she could explain to Xiao Yu that she was a thirty-eight year-old mother of two that had travelled to modern day China and through some magical water worm hole had ended up in Tiansheng.

Xiao Yu expertly inserted another hair pin and put her chin down on Cui Xi’s shoulder, grinning at her image in the mirror.

“All done! Let’s go!” Xiao Yu chirped happily.

The girls snatched up their baskets as well as a few cloth sacks to take with them.

Cui Xi smiled. 

Xiao Yu had the most charming, quiet personality. No matter what happened, she was never really fazed by anything, but then Cui Xi wondered if it was simply because she had been so sheltered and had not yet encountered something that could faze her.

Putting this aside, she allowed Xiao Yu to grab her hand and they ran outside together.

Although she had lived for thirty-eight years already, she allowed herself the exuberance of a seventeen-year old self. Perhaps more than just her physical body had changed, she mused as they ran with cheeks flushed with laughter. After all it was as if she had been completely remolded into something different.

Although her last life could not be forgotten entirely, perhaps like Xiao Yu she could start from the premise that nothing should faze her until she encountered an obstacle that she could not surmount by using her head.

The only thing she bitterly regretted was being away from her children, but since there did not seem to be a way back to her own world she could only hope that they would, in time, not miss her too much and grow up as well as possible. Yet she could not keep the bitterness from welling up…in the end, did this happen because I could not love their father?

“A’Xi?” Xiao Yu asked softly, her brow creasing again.

Cui Xi smiled brightly at her. Xiao Yu was far too sensitive, and Cui Xi would have to learn to better control her emotions. What little she knew of Tiansheng, she had learned on this mountain and she was already wary of what kind of surprises a feudal kingdom would bring. This place was more dangerous than what she currently knew, and it was only a matter of time before she encountered something life-threatening. I can only brazen it out…as foolish as that is. First rule of isekai: stay alive.

Sighing, she turned her mind back to the suitcase. 

Reaching the river was relatively easy. The weather was good today and getting better. With such a clear sky, fluffy with clouds being chased by the wind, they would have no issues retrieving the items in the suitcase.

“It’s down here,” Xiao Yu said, shading her eyes against the brightness. She pointed to a narrow skid of dirt next to the river.

Scrambling down the bank, through the brush, they found the place. Luckily there was enough brush to have concealed the large suitcase.

Yes! Cui Xi thought triumphantly, dragging it out.

Xiao Yu was astonished when she unzipped the thing and shoved it open. 

“Look, Xiao Yu!” Cui Xi grinned.

Cui Xi sighed in relief. Although the contents had shifted, everything was still there!

Underwear!!! she squealed in silent delight, holding up a delicate lacy thing.

Xiao Yu gave her an odd look.

Although ancient Chinese clothes were comfortable, it was a little weird, at least to a modern woman, not to have something over her private parts under the white underclothes. 

As she suspected, the bras were hopeless…with her change in size she certainly couldn’t wear them, but she stuffed them into her sack anyway. Perhaps the elastic straps and material could be reused for something else. 

In the end, she took almost everything…even her makeup and jewellery was intact, which meant that she now had something that could be used to repay Xiao Yu and her father for helping her these past few months.

Carrying their baskets and bags, they returned to the little wooden house and Cui Xi carefully began to unpack.

Xiao Yu was not surprised by the collection of earrings and hairpins, but she was confounded by the aerosol cans and first aid kit.

As Cui Xi worked, sorting things into piles, and she was so absorbed that she did not notice the frozen, almost panicked expression Xiao Yu had when she withdrew a small satin pouch from a larger jewellery bag and pulled out two strings of cultured pearls. 

One set was a strand of a lustrous pink colour and the other was moon silver. 

“They’re beautiful!” Xiao Yu whispered. Her eyes had become round like saucers. 

Pearls! Xiao Yu had never seen pearls before, but her father had told her about them. Staring, she saw that each pearl was just about the size of the tip of her little finger. 

Carefully taking a pair of scissors, Cui Xi snipped the necklace apart and the pearls rolled off the broken string that had been holding them together and into her hand. Although they were not whole and perhaps could only be used for clothing or as part of a necklace, she imagined that they would still be worth something and handed a few of the pink ones to Xiao Yu.

“For you,” she smiled.

At that moment, Yang Ming Xi stepped into the room and stopped short. His gaze took in the pearls spilled onto the plate. His heart racing, he recognized the glowing milky spheres immediately. In fact, the only piece of jewellery of his wife’s that he had saved was a pearl hair pin meant for A’Yu.

He stared at the pearls his daughter held on the flat of her palm.

“A’Xi…” he said softly. “I won’t ask where you got them, but you must not show them to anyone or tell anyone that you have them. In a few days, I will take a few to the next city and have it exchanged for some gold and broken silver, but you must never speak of this.”

Cui Xi nodded, still quietly absorbing the complicated look on Yang Ming Xi’s face. She had known that the pearls would be valuable, but she hadn’t realized exactly how valuable. From the expression on his face, she would have to be far more careful in the future.

Yang Ming Xi quietly went into his own room and shut the door. Rubbing his forehead, he wiped the sweat away from his face and sighed 

Gods! That girl!

Pearls were only worn by royalty or the highest of nobility in Tiansheng. Their trade was regulated and controlled solely by the emperor. Such a strand of pearls that A’Xi had spilled onto the plate was enough to buy a manor. Certainly, it was enough to buy the entire village below the mountain. Yang Ming Xi was sure now that the girl casually sprawled in the sitting room was not an ordinary person.

It troubled him that they would not be able to conceal her existence from the outside world for too much longer…and yet another letter had arrived from the capital that required that he write in response. What am I going to say to that person?

He groaned, putting his face in his hand.