Kim Hora was pushed down the stairs.
She could not claim she had no clue about who pushed her, nor that she had no idea why someone wanted to kill her. But as for exactly who it was and what specific matter prompted them to push her down the stairs, she truly could not determine.
She, Kim Hora… no, Rela, was the publicly acknowledged most beautiful goddess in her club, the most popular campus beauty at Seoul High School, and the trainee the agency YRC favored the most for their girl group. Next year, after she graduated high school, she would officially debut with the company’s support.
Many people envied her, and even more were jealous. She did not care about them—in fact, she hoped the more ugly women who envied and hated her, the better. Envy, jealousy, and hate were the highest praise for a woman. Only the most beautiful woman, the most successful woman, the woman who got the best man, could attract the most envy, jealousy, and hate.
And she, Rela, was destined to be that queen reigning supreme over millions of ugly women. Being envied, jealous, and hated by those ugly women was the duty she should bear as a goddess, and also proof of her success.
Rela never imagined that she would die just one step away from becoming a massive star.
—She was not content with that! How could she be content?
To go from “Kim Hora” to “Rela,” what enormous price had she paid? She underwent plastic surgery, liposuction, endured countless inhuman pains to grind down her ugly jawbone, shrink her huge nose tip, and sharpen her fat chin. Compared to that, the pain of eye corner surgery and double eyelid cuts was nothing.
Her dream of reaching the top had not yet been realized—how could she just die like this?
She did not want to die! She did not want to die! She absolutely, absolutely had to become that winner in life whom others envied, jealoused, and hated, not a loser doomed to spend her whole life envying and hating others!!
She, Rela, absolutely had to live that life on top—
When Rela opened her eyes again, she discovered she had not died. Not only had she not died, she wore an extremely dowdy and strange skirt and stood in a room surrounded by wooden walls on all sides.
In front of her was a little sapling with half of it exposed, and a cage of birds emitting a foul stench.
Rela, who disliked animals, frowned uncomfortably. She began to feel like sneezing.
Memories that did not belong to Rela surged into her mind as she pondered where this place was.
It turned out she had transmigrated to another world and possessed the body of a thirteen-year-old girl.
The original owner had lost her mother and was in utter grief. Following her mother’s hometown customs, she had asked her father—the person closest to her mother—to bring back a branch that touched his hat. She then planted that branch on her mother’s grave, treating it as if her mother carefully nurtured and watered it every day.
Once the little branch took root, her mother would reside within it. In the future, when the little branch grew into a big tree, her mother’s soul could follow the branch up to the heavens.
The original owner’s biological father had indeed brought back the branch, but not long after, he told her he had found her a stepmother. He said he would take her to live with the stepmother and the baggage sisters she brought along.
Though the original owner was reluctant to part with the pigeons her mother left behind and still wanted to personally water the little tree planted on her mother’s grave, she could not resist her only remaining family member. She used her mother’s private savings to entrust a neighbor to care for the pigeons and occasionally water the little tree on the grave. She herself followed her biological father to the capital.
Heaven only knew that the original owner would see the little tree she had personally planted on her mother’s grave, along with the pigeons her mother treasured so much, appear right in front of her—the roots of the little tree had been snapped off for the most part, and dozens of pigeons were crammed into a tiny pigeon cage, with countless dead or injured, unknown if any still lived.
In the original owner’s mother’s hometown culture, a tree growing on a grave—whether it withered, died of illness, or was removed from the grave—meant the soul in that grave had no chance to go to heaven. It could only remain unrested forever or enter hell to be burned to ashes by hellfire.
The little tree symbolizing her mother had its roots snapped by her own father, and the pigeons—like her final link to her mother—were about to all die off. Thinking of her mother unable to ascend to heaven and instead suffering endless torment, the original owner could not bear the blow. Her consciousness vanished in an instant, and Rela transmigrated into her body.
Rela had a strange sense of déjà vu about the original owner’s life. It was just that she, who usually did not study much or read books, could not recall where this sense of déjà vu came from for the moment.
Pondering further would only waste brainpower in vain. Rela first threw the dirty little sapling out the door, then tossed out the cage of nearly dead pigeons as well.
Unsure of where she was now or if it was safe, Rela barricaded the door with furniture.
Over an hour later, Rela heard voices. A man outside the door—presumably the original owner’s biological father—shouted, ‘Cinderella! Open the door! Open the door right now!’
The name “Cinderella” reminded Rela where her sense of déjà vu came from—the kind little beauty suddenly gained a terrifying stepmother and two vicious, insidious evil sisters overnight. Was not this the plot of Cinderella!?
Cinderella? She was Cinderella? She was the Cinderella who would ultimately become the prince’s consort?
…Haha! It seemed heaven had not forsaken her after all! She still had a chance to reach the top!
—No, compared to her previous life, in this life as Cinderella, she was no longer a man-made fake flower! She was a genuine beauty! Her target was even the real deal royalty! A noble bloodline of the royal family!
But a stepmother and vicious sisters were just too annoying, were they not?
Why, even after transmigrating to another world, did she still have to be bullied and humiliated again?
She had enough of bullying! She did not want to obediently take beatings and scoldings, or do the work of a servant!
Heh… She was no longer the ignorant girl from before.
Just watch how she wielded her schemes to firmly grasp her original owner’s father’s doting fatherly heart and turn the father into her greatest backer!
…
Ye Tang lifted the black cloth covering the pigeon cage, and Claudia and Gloria standing beside her both could not help but gasp.
‘So tragic…’
‘This is too tragic…’
The pigeon cage was already dyed red with blood, and the blood was speckled with scattered pigeon feathers.
The pigeons’ corpses were crammed together in a mess, unknown if any among them still lived.
Ye Tang silently opened the pigeon cage. She gently took out the pigeons one by one. She placed the ones beyond saving on the left and those that seemed to have a faint breath on the right.
Gloria’s tears were about to fall. Claudia was not as emotional as her little sister, but she still felt so distressed that she clasped her hands together and rubbed them nonstop.
In the end, Ye Tang found three pigeons still alive out of thirty-nine. These three were probably alive because they were particularly small and had not been crushed by the others. The deaths of the other thirty-six were too gruesome to describe.
‘We’ll bury these children later.’
Ye Tang said as she tore the black cloth covering the pigeon cage into thin strips.
These three little survivors each had different degrees of fractures. One had a broken wing, another had two broken toes, and the last had a damaged beak and a broken wing.
Ye Tang was not a veterinarian, and Anna Rochel’s memories contained nothing related to veterinarians. Moreover, this was not a world where veterinarians were common; most only treated economic animals like cows and sheep.
Court veterinarians did handle all sorts of pets, but Anna Rochel’s status could not reach that level of people.
Thus, all Ye Tang could do was her best and leave the rest to fate.
After bandaging the fluffy little ones, Ye Tang took Claudia and Gloria to dig a pit in the yard.
Gardening had been Anna Rochel’s hobby even before marriage, and Hedelin House’s yard was planted with many flowers, shrubs, and trees.
Based on Anna Rochel’s memories, Ye Tang dug the soil with practiced ease. After digging, she first had Claudia and Gloria place the dead pigeons into the pit, then sprinkled a layer of soil over them, and finally brought over the little beech tree to fill the pit.
She buried the soil, watered it, all in one go. Ye Tang finished everything swiftly before going with her daughters to bathe and change clothes.
Hedelin House had many trees and flowers, so the birds nesting in the trees outnumbered those in other homes.
Migratory birds left with seasonal changes, vacating their nests. When Anna Rochel tended the garden, she collected these empty nests to place back on the trees in spring for the new arrivals. It was only early winter now, so the empty nests remained in the small shed for gardening tools.
The two little pigeons Ye Tang placed in an empty nest watched through the small shed’s window as Ye Tang finished all this.
Compared to their brother with the injured beak, the two of them were in much better spirits. But they were very worried about Cinderella…
That said, they currently lacked not only the ability to shapeshift into humans and speak human language, but even the ability to fly. They had no way to return to Cinderella’s side and help the only one who cared for them after Ivy’s death—Cinderella.
‘Goo…’
‘Goo goo goo.’
Pigeon talk that humans could not understand quietly echoed in the small shed. After bathing, Ye Tang took out the hairdryer she had bought that afternoon.
Anna Rochel never blow-dried her hair. Like most middle-class noblewomen who were neither too rich nor poor, she was always a bit afraid of electrical appliances. With no servants at home, she simply towel-dried her hair roughly after washing and went to bed.
She had no idea that damp scalps bred bacteria and caused hair loss. Even after going bald, Anna Rochel only bought wigs to cover her bald spots.
Ye Tang did not need to go bald to be strong, so she planned to give herself a head of thick, lustrous real hair.