Chapter Two: Beautiful

Sensing his younger sister had fallen asleep where she sat, Jia Pingan slowly opened his eyes. He scanned his surroundings quickly, even peeking out through a gap in the carriage curtain. Seeing that no one had noticed him, he focused his mind, attempting to connect with the space deep within his consciousness.

He had not dared to try this earlier, as he was unsure where his physical body would remain once he entered that space. Now that his sister was asleep and he was alone in the carriage, it was the perfect time to experiment.

To his relief, as soon as the thought crossed his mind, his body was transported to the side of the thatched cottage, before the spiritual spring. Standing there, Jia Pingan felt the same physical weakness as before. In particular, he could clearly perceive the sensation of the parasitic worm writhing within his body.

He had found the cause of his frailty, but Jia Pingan did not intend to purge the worm just yet. There was no other reason than this: if he did so and Aunt Yu discovered it, she might resort to other methods or, worse, become suspicious of him. Until he had a foolproof way to resolve the situation, he would let it remain in his body; after all, with the spiritual spring at his disposal, he had no reason to fear it causing trouble.

While he couldn't completely remove the parasite, he had to suppress it; otherwise, he would be unable to do anything if he became winded after taking only a few steps. With this in mind, Jia Pingan reached into the spring once more, cupping a drop of its water. Instead of swallowing it immediately, he took his waterskin, poured the drop in, shook it thoroughly, and took a small sip.

As the water entered his body, he felt a clear surge of strength. It was not as instant a recovery as before, but his limbs felt noticeably more capable. The diluted spring water was effective, just less potent—enough to allow him to move freely without forcing the worm out of his system. This was exactly the outcome Jia Pingan wanted.

Having solved his immediate physical problem, Jia Pingan let out a sigh of relief. Heaven had granted him a second chance at life, and he had no intention of spending it as a sickly invalid.

With one matter settled, Jia Pingan needed to verify another: he wanted to see if, while in the space, he could observe the outside world, or even move about freely without being detected.

Steadying his nerves, Jia Pingan looked outward. To his surprise, he could indeed see the world outside. The sight of Jia Rongrong, currently sleeping with her eyes closed, appeared before him as clearly as if it were happening right in front of his face. Driven by curiosity, he reached out, and his hand successfully touched her delicate cheek.

"Brother, stop it... Rongrong is so sleepy, let me sleep," Jia Rongrong murmured, feeling the touch, before drifting back into her dream.

"It works." Jia Pingan was overjoyed. He hadn't blinked, and when his hand touched his sister, he had felt the sensation, yet he could not see his own hand. This meant that while in the space, he possessed sensory awareness of the outside world and could even influence it, yet he remained invisible.

It was a strange, almost incredible phenomenon, but it was undeniably real.

"Amazing stuff," Jia Pingan marveled. He was thrilled, yet he did not lose his head; he needed further confirmation. He decided to step out of the carriage to see what would happen.

He nudged the curtain open from the inside and hopped out of the slow-moving carriage. As his feet touched the ground, his first instinct was to check for footprints. To his delight, the snow remained pristine and crystalline, not a single mark left behind.

"Beautiful!" he exclaimed inwardly. He began to look around; the white, snow-covered landscape remained undisturbed. Emboldened, he broke into a light jog toward the moving caravan.

Perhaps because he was moving too quickly, Ren, the commander of the hundred-man guard, seemed to sense something and turned his gaze toward where Jia Pingan stood. Noticing Ren's movement, Jia Pingan froze in place, holding his breath and calming his mind.

Ren's gaze swept past him, and finding nothing, he continued to ride forward. Jia Pingan let out a breath of relief. It seemed that while he was hidden in the space, others could not see him, but sudden movements might still alert them. He would have to be more careful in the future.

Knowing he was safe from discovery, he abandoned his plan to check on his father and Aunt Yu; the space inside their carriage was cramped, and he might accidentally cause a disturbance. Moreover, he didn't know when Jia Rongrong would wake; if she found him gone, it would cause trouble.

Adjusting his breathing, he hurried back to his own carriage, climbed inside, and sat back in his original position before exiting the space and reappearing beside his sister.

Jia Rongrong was still asleep, but Jia Pingan was wide awake. The fact that he should have died, only to wake up here in a fifteen-year-old body, was surreal, and he needed time to process it. Unless he chose to die, he had to learn to adapt to this era and its society.

Jia Pingan, sitting with his eyes closed, had no desire to die. He began to consider his future—first, he needed to know where he was, where they were going, and how he could live a better life.

The original Jia Pingan's memories were intact, and his intellect was perfectly sound, aside from his weak health. The problem was that the original boy had been too pampered, living such a sheltered life that he couldn't handle the slightest external pressure. When he learned his father had committed a mistake and they were to be exiled to the bitter cold of Ningguta, his mind had simply snapped, allowing the forty-something Jia Pingan from the future to take his place.

By contrast, having weathered many storms in his previous life, Jia Pingan possessed immense mental fortitude. Knowing from his memories that his family was being exiled to Ningguta not because of his father's actual guilt, but because he was a scapegoat, he felt much more confident.

Historically, the profession of a palace physician had always been high-risk. While there were benefits to serving the nobility and royalty, a single mistake could lead to total ruin. His father was merely an ordinary physician, and this time, he had been pushed forward as a scapegoat because a treatment for a noble in the palace had not yielded perfect results.

Fortunately, his colleagues at the Imperial Academy of Medicine knew the truth and had done their best to help. By custom, when a father was exiled, his daughter would be sent to the Ministry of Rites or enslaved, but here, they were allowed to accompany their father to Ningguta and retain their status as commoners rather than slaves—a small mercy in a dire situation. Even Commander Ren, who was in charge of their transport, had been well-compensated by the Academy to treat them with relative care, allowing four people to share two carriages.

Having figured out their destination, Jia Pingan began to study this era through his memories. It was completely different from the history he knew. While it shared the same ancient origins—the Three Sovereigns, Five Emperors, and the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties—it diverged during the Warring States period. There was no Qin unification, and consequently, no Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, or Ming dynasties.

The world was now divided into six kingdoms, categorized as the "Upper Two" and "Lower Four." The Xuan Kingdom, where Jia Pingan was, was one of the Lower Four. He had arrived in a completely unfamiliar dynasty, an alien environment where even the people around him were strangers.

Take Aunt Yu, for instance, who was supposedly very kind to him in his memories—she was the one poisoning him with that parasite. Who could he trust? His father?

In his memories, they rarely communicated, and his father was only serious when teaching him medicine. His father was the only male heir for nine generations—a prestigious status, but one that had led to him being too pampered. To Jia Pingan, his father lacked decisiveness, making him someone he could not entrust with his secrets. Especially since it involved the woman sharing his father's bed, Jia Pingan would not take such a risk.

His previous life had taught him the consequences of blind trust. As for his sister, Jia Rongrong, she was too young, and he couldn't be sure she wouldn't accidentally reveal things to her mother.

He smiled bitterly; he truly had no one he could fully trust. But he wouldn't dwell on the past. A new beginning was not so bad, especially with this mysterious space.

Jia Pingan's heart gradually calmed. Naturally optimistic yet cautious, he began to ponder how to survive and thrive in this unknown dynasty. After all, survival of the fittest held true in any era.