Cheng Meili, the Antagonist

After a while of being on the road, Fan Ping finally told the driver to stop the carriage in front of a pawnshop.

"Da-ge, what are we doing here?" Fan Ling asked as she felt like wandering a jungle rather than walking into a store.

"To trade something," Fan Ping answered with a doting smile on his face.

Although Fan Ling was happy to hear his answer, she still spoke honestly, "Oh… Then, I'll wait for you in the carriage."

"Don't stay inside all day long or you'll mold," Fan Ping told her while his smile was still on his face. "You can just sit inside the pawnshop while I do my business here."

"Okay… If that's what you say," Fan Ling obediently followed him even though she internally felt like running away so that she would not have to face all the people that were inside the building.

Though, his smile soon disappeared after he helped Fan Ling down the stairs to get off the carriage as he heard the chatter going on around them.

"Look, is that the Fan daughter?" someone quietly whispered to their friend.

"Should be. She's always stood out," that person answered back.

"You really think she lost her memories?" that person tried to be quiet.

"Either that or she's pretending so that she doesn't lose face," that person stated.

These two people were not the only ones talking about Fan Ling. There were also many others who were trying to pit her.

"If I was Duke Fan, I would be embarrassed to have given birth to a daughter like her," someone spoke in a semi-quite voice.

However, Fan Ping had a very good hearing due to the fact that the court was always loud and picking apart every argument essential to understanding the political scene. As soon as he heard those words, he immediately dragged Fan Ling into the pawnshop to make sure she did not hear the chatter of the common people.

Although, Fan Ping was a bit too late because Fan Ling was different from the original soul. Fan Ling was not naive or stupid. Even without hearing those sentences, she could just tell what their attitude towards her was with their facial and physical expression alone.

Even though Fan Ling behaved naively, she was only acting and doing so because she was trying to fit in. If her personality changed too much, people would think that she was a witch or that someone cast black magic on her. She did not want to test the supernatural beliefs of the traditional people of the olden days as they were so extreme she could not even call them dumb.

However, Fan Ling would not let Fan Ping or the family know about these things because she did not trust that he or they would willingly pretend that she was still their daughter while knowing that she was already dead.

Letting that scene earlier pass, Fan Ling instead paid attention to the decoration of the pawnshop and the people who visited the pawnshop. Based on their clothes, she could separate normal people from upper-class people. Although Fan Ling had always known about the extreme differences between the rich and the poor, she did not expect the differences to be so big.

Although, she also knew that majority of these differences were contributed by the royal family. A few days ago, she managed to read a book about how the royal family always gave certain brocades to some noble families to gain their loyalty. At the same time, these brocades were banned from being circulated in the lower populace. Naturally, there would be a wide disparity between the clothes that the normal and the rich wore.

The rich were directly gifted by the royal family whereas the normal population could only afford the cheapest silk possible. When Fan Ling saw all of the people in the pawnshop, she felt that foreigners probably had even better silk than these poor people that were living an earnest life to make means come by despite the fact that they were netizens of this empire.

While she was looking around though, Fan Ping led her to the room for nobilities to rest and said, "Alright, stay here and don't move. If I lose you, Mother will kill me."

"Don't worry, Da-ge. I won't run around," Fan Ling promised with an innocent smile on her face.

"Really won't go messing around?" Fan Ping asked, just to make sure.

"Da-ge, you can always trust me when I've promised!" Fan Ling exclaimed to make her point while also pushing him out of the room. "Just hurry up!"

Fan Ling did not want to stay in the pawnshop any longer as she hated crowds. She did not really fear or feel anxiety, she just simply hated being in crowds because she disliked the noisiness and the constant sounds of movements as she liked being in the peace and quietness of nature; she only loved the sound that nature made.

With that, Fan Ping finally left Fan Ling alone on her own in the room reserved for nobles. At the same time, keeping up with her promise, she did not leave the room but only walked around inside to check out the things that were placed to furnish the room.

Although the outside was noisy with the constant motions of attendants talking to their customers, the inside of the reserved room was quiet and the sunlight coming from the windows made everything peaceful.

Sadly, peace never lasts.

"Oh, wow, look who we have here? Is it not the Young Miss Fan?" a feminine voice sarcastically called out.

Hearing her name, Fan Ling turned to look at the person. Standing in front of the door was a group of young girls just about the same age as her. At the forefront of the group was a beautiful but very obnoxious girl - the one who just spoke just now.

Despite her sarcasm, Fan Ling still remained respectful as per her position as the daughter of a duke, "Apologies, I have no memories at the moment, so if you would like to speak to me, please remind me of your identity."

Well, even though she said "at the moment," she knew that this was a permanent memory loss because the original soul would never come back even if she died. After all, logically, the original soul is probably already reincarnated or moved on to a new life as her body was definitely destroyed being smushed under a loaded truck.

"No way… Did she really lose her memories?" one of the girls that were standing on the right of the forefront girl asked.

"Don't you see that she doesn't even recognize me?" the forefront girl gave 'tch' as she spoke. "If she did, we'd be fighting like cats right now."

Even though Fan Ling was very patient in the matter of her research in the facility, when people came into question, she did not have much patience for them.

Thus, she said, "If you are not willing to introduce yourselves to me, please leave or make yourself quiet as your constant chatter is annoying me."

Hearing that, the forefront girl gave a scoff and stated, "Even after losing her memories, she's still a bitch."

"Miss Cheng is right," the girl on the left of her supported with a nod.

'Cheng?' Fan Ling carefully thought in her head.

At that moment, Fan Ling felt a lightbulb light up and said, "Oh, Miss Cheng, I remember you. You're the one who pushed me into the pond. Cheng Meili, am I right? Then, these three friends of yours must be the young misses of Duan, Xue, and Zheng."

Then, pointing to one of the three misses standing beside Cheng Meili, Fan Ling stated, "And one of you guys is probably the one that made sure I hit my head, hoping that I would die, right?"

When the four of them heard that Fan Ling had lost her memories, they were extremely conceited and arrogant. As long as she could not remember what they had done to her, they would not get punished by their families in the least. However…

'If she remembered what we've done to her, we're gonna die!' they all single-handedly thought synonymously.

Narrowing her eyes, Fan Ling pointed specifically to the girl with braids in her hair, "And you must have been the one that pushed me onto the rock."

Fan Ling did not know which of the three misses the girl with the braids was, but just by reading her aura, she could already tell the roles that each of them took in her accident at the pond.

Naturally, Fan Ling did not really know them too well. However, she made sure to imprint their names into her brain as her mother strongly emphasized her hatred for them even though she also stated that Fan Ling was too stupid - which was why she fell for such an idiotic plot that was made by a bunch of immature fools.

With her statement, the girl with the palest face between the four of them stepped up and asked, "I-I thought you couldn't remember… And everyone knows this…"

"That's true," Fan Ling nodded to show her agreement. "But, there's a saying, 'People always remember their final moments.'

If the original soul was the one to speak these words, the four of them would probably not care for her tone when speaking was one of an ignorant person. However, Fan Ling was different. Her tone showed real threat and hatred - not even a single bit of joking in her voice.

However, as if to assure them, Fan Ling gave them a fake smile and said, "Although, I'll pretend that I don't remember anything if you guys make sure to never cross paths with me."

With that, the three girls dragged Cheng Meili away even though she wanted to continue to engage with Fan Ling.

Even from the closed door, Fan Ling could hear Cheng Meili curse the three of them, "What are you guys?! Weaklings!?! Why be scared of a stupid rat?!"