Chapter 1: The Fallen Nobleman

  "My green onion head made kimchi is the best under heaven, it's really delicious!"

  Lu Jinping sat on a low stool with a crack in the old house kitchen, holding an earthen bowl and chopsticks, exaggeratedly chewing and smiling. Although the bowl was filled with moldy old coarse rice, which made his mouth feel like it was running sand, his expression seemed to be enjoying a delicacy.

  "It's delicious, have some more!" Little maid Ye Qingqing happily picked up a piece of kimchi with her chopsticks and put it in Lu Jinping's bowl. Her goose-egg face had a pair of eyes that narrowed into two cute crescent moons due to joy. "By the way, Master, yesterday the matchmaker came to propose a marriage for you, why did you chase her away without even listening?"

  "Take a wife?" Lu Jinping tapped the earthenware bowl with chopsticks, "The money we master and servant earn every day is just enough to eat old coarse rice with pickled vegetables. Do you think we can still afford to support a lady?"

  "But... the matchmaker said that girl doesn't care about enjoying life with you, she's after your title as a county gentleman and this old mansion that's over a hundred years old. She's marrying into our family to suffer together."

  Lu Jinping looked up at the dim old house roof, it was early morning, the deep autumn sun shone through the window lattice, passing through the crisscrossing beams, the carvings on top had become dull and blurred after experiencing hundreds of years of erosion, but still showed the grandeur of this mansion in its heyday. Unfortunately, now it's empty with nothing left to sell, all the furniture and belongings that could be sold had been sold out long ago.

  He sighed and said, "Forget it! I don't want to drag the girl's family down. Either I won't get married or if I do, I have to let my wife live a good life. - Marry a man, wear clothes and eat food! If I can't even provide decent clothes and white rice for someone, what face do I have to marry into their family?"

  Lu Jinping is a forensic doctor who has accidentally crossed over from modern society to the Tang Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Zhongzong, half a year ago. He possessed the body of a declining nobleman who owed a large amount of debt. This nobleman's ancestor was Lu Deming, one of the eighteen scholars who served under Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, when he was still the Prince of Qin. Due to his descendants' poor financial management, over the past century, by the time of Lu Jinping's generation, the family business had almost gone bankrupt.

  Lu Jinping's parents died early, and he only had an older sister who was married to a distant land. Lu Jinping inherited the title of Duke of Guo from his great-grandfather, and he had the heart to take the imperial examination to revive his family's business, but unfortunately, he failed repeatedly. He was instigated by someone to sell his property and use his old house as collateral to borrow money at high interest to bribe officials, hoping to get a government position, but unexpectedly, the official who received the bribe was beheaded by the imperial court for corruption and other crimes. Lu Jinping was both angry and anxious, vomiting blood and dying. The forensic doctor who had traveled through time was bending over his body. By his side was only a personal maid, Ye Qingqing, who relied on him for survival.

  Ye Qingqing is an orphan who was taken in by Lu Jinping's parents as Lu Jinping's personal maid and study companion. After the Lu family fell on hard times, all the servants left, but she vowed to follow young master to the death.

  Yeqing saw that he looked somewhat downcast, and with a twinkle in her eye, she said with a smile: "There's a bird's nest on the big tree in our backyard, I reckon it's laid eggs. Why don't we go pick some eggs to bring back and cook? You haven't had any meat for a long time."

  Strictly speaking, bird eggs don't count as meat, but for this poor master and servant, that's already a good thing to celebrate. Lu Jinping heard this and couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. Immediately put down the remaining half bowl of rice with a clatter and said: "Great, let's go now!"

  This old house is a three-entry courtyard, with a front hall in the front, an inner house in the middle, and a backyard in the back. The backyard has a bay of water, and by the pond there is a towering tree. At this moment it's already deep autumn, and most of the leaves on the tree have fallen off. The morning sun shines through the bare branches, making a bird's nest near the top of the tree particularly bright.

  Lu Jinping spat on his hands, rubbed them together, and was about to climb the tree. But unexpectedly, Ye Qingqing rushed ahead of him, took off her embroidered shoes, revealing two small white feet, hugged the trunk with both hands, and climbed up like a nimble cat.

  Lu Jinping smiled and said, "You little girl are quite quick. --- You must hold on tight, your feet must be firmly planted, grab the tree trunk with your hands, right, just like that..."

  Ye Qingqing quickly climbed to the bird's nest. After a moment, she carefully stretched her hand into the nest and grabbed something, took it out, looked at it in her palm, and then held it out for Lu Jinping to see below the tree. It was actually a newly hatched chirping chick.

  Ye Qingqing said: "They've all hatched, there are three of them. Master, they're so pitiful. How about we don't eat them?"

  Lu Jinping wasn't interested in eating live chicks. She said loudly: "No more! Come down quickly, be careful!"

  Ye Qingqing put the young bird back in its nest. Using her hands and feet, she quickly climbed down to the bottom of the tree.

  The bird's nest wasn't dug out, so I could only go back. Walking past that bay of the pond, Ye Qingqing exclaimed with surprise: "Master, there are fish in the pond! A small fish swam by and hid under a lotus leaf."

  Lu Jinping immediately thought of the braised carp and her mouth began to water, she quickly turned around excitedly and asked: "Where? Where is the fish?"

  "Hiding under the lotus leaf, it will come out after a while."

  Lu Jinping crouched by the pond, staring intently at the withered yellow lotus leaves on the water's surface. Ye Qingqing also crouched beside him, eyes wide with excitement. After a while, the fish finally swam out, but they were only as big as chopsticks.

  Lu Jinping was greatly disappointed and sighed, saying: "Forget it, let's go set up the stall!"

  The two of them packed up and left, arriving at a street stall selling words in front of the Tongzhou Prefecture government office.

  When Lu Jinping came over, he was about to go to the crime scene, carrying a forensic investigation box with him. Although there were advanced instruments and medicines inside, they were all used for forensic investigation, but because there was no way to enter the government office, they couldn't be used. He studied Western medicine, not traditional Chinese medicine, and had no Western medicine or equipment, nor could he treat people's illnesses. To make a living, Lu Jinping set up a small stall on the street next to the government office, writing judgments for people, writing letters, copying books and scriptures, earning a few coins every day.

  Business was as bad as usual for the letter writer. It was almost noon and he had only earned two cents.

  Lu Jinping was listlessly watching the people coming and going on the street, while Ye Qingqing sat beside him on the long bench, as obedient as a tame kitten.

  Suddenly, there was a loud slap on his desk, and someone heavily slapped the table, causing the pens, ink, paper, and inkstone to jump up.

  Lu Jinping was startled and turned around to see two big men, followed by several thugs standing in front of the table, staring at her with a fierce and sinister gaze.

  These two men, one named Zhang the Bald and the other Yao the Fatty, were the ones who had instigated Lu Jinping to possess that scholar. The latter used his old mansion as collateral to borrow usury from them, adding to it by selling off the remaining family property and land to scrape together money for bribery in order to obtain an official position. In the end, it was all a waste of effort.

  Lai Tou Zhang and Yao Pangzi had originally hoped that after helping Lu Jinping bribe his way into office, they could use his power to intimidate others. If this didn't work out, they would at least be able to collect a high-interest loan, since Lu's old mansion was used as collateral. When they saw that Lu Jinping wasn't going to make it into office after all, they went to his house and demanded that he sell the old mansion to pay off his debts. Lu Jinping refused, because apart from this empty old mansion, the Lu family didn't have anything else of value that could be sold to pay off their debts. As a result, Lai Tou Zhang and the others went to the yamen to file a lawsuit against Lu Jinping, demanding that he be ordered to sell his old mansion to pay off his debts.

  After learning the details, the governor ruled that this was the only ancestral property left by Lu Deming, one of the eighteen scholars of Emperor Taizong, and a reward from the emperor. Unless Lu Jinping, the current holder of the title, agreed, it could not be forcibly sold. Moreover, the governor severely reprimanded Zhang and others for their disrespect towards Lu, saying that disrespecting Lu was equivalent to disrespecting the emperor, and ordered them to be beaten out of the hall with sticks.

  Lai Tou Zhang and his men, seeing that the government was still supporting this decadent nobleman, immediately lost their spirit and could only secretly find Lu Jinping to discuss the debt with him. But Lu Jinping just said he had no money.

  Lai Tou Zhang and Yao Baozi brought people to Lu Jinping's stall again, Lai Tou Zhang put his hands on his waist, with a cold face staring at Lu Jinping: "Lu Jun, when are you going to pay back the money you owe us?"