Lu Ying was both brave and resourceful... and had breasts. She was actually a girl.
Lu Ying cleverly exploited the rules of the three-round, best-of-three arena match by deliberately placing staff technique and saber technique in the first two rounds, because the final round was close combat.
Given Wang Daxia's decent physical condition and his cunning, tenacious fighting style, if the two were to grapple closely, they would inevitably end up wrestling in close quarters.
Lu Ying was eighty percent confident of winning the final round.
However, no matter how tightly she bound her chest, in close combat, there was a high chance Wang Daxia would detect (feel) it.
Moreover, based on Lu Ying's understanding of Wang Daxia's lazy nature, even if he had a chance to defeat her in the third round of close combat after losing the first two, he would be too lazy to do so—at least to win one round and save face.
Because Wang Daxia had no shame at all.
Most martial artists had strong self-esteem; after losing two out of three rounds, they would fight with all their might in the third to salvage some dignity, striving to lose with honor if not victory.
But Wang Daxia was no ordinary man. For a lazybones like him, comfort trumped face. He would rather sit than stand, lie down than sit. After losing two rounds in a row and knowing the outcome in advance, he didn't even consider fighting the third round to reclaim his pride.
As it turned out, Lu Ying's plan was flawless, perfectly targeting Wang Daxia's weaknesses.
After losing two rounds consecutively, Wang Daxia indeed immediately gave up and conceded defeat without fighting the final close combat round, thus avoiding exposing her female identity!
However, despite all her calculations, Lu Ying overlooked one thing—though she was tough, she was still flesh and blood. Her chest bound tightly with white cloth was already uncomfortably hot, compounded by her high-collared robe, the scorching summer sun, and the exhaustion from two consecutive fights. Even an iron body would struggle to endure.
So, Lu Ying suffered heatstroke and collapsed right after her victory.
Lu Ying was carried to Wei Caiwei's room. Using the excuse of crowded, stuffy air, Wei Caiwei waved her crutch and shooed the Embroidered Uniform Guards out.
Only Wang Daxia clung on stubbornly like a piece of sticky plaster, refusing to leave.
Wei Caiwei brandished her crutch to drive him away. The other guards scattered, afraid of being hit, but he stood firm like a rock in water.
"Didn't you hear? Get out, don't delay my treatment of Commander Lu," Wei Caiwei said.
Wang Daxia's vows were as worthless as fart. Just last night he had sworn not to speak to her again, yet he immediately broke it, saying, "If I leave, you two alone in a room—a man and a woman—how improper would that be? I'll stay and help undress and wipe her down."
Seeing Lu Ying's lips pale as paper, Wei Caiwei grew frantic. She pushed open the window and called to the guards, "Quick, drag him away. Don't delay Commander Lu's treatment."
"You..." Wang Daxia, having suffered two defeats today and now being driven out by Wei Caiwei, faced a third heavy blow.
She only wanted to be alone with Lu Ying, making Wang Daxia feel like a pot of pickled fish: sour, pathetic, and utterly superfluous.
Wang Daxia's heart turned to ashes. Four guards entered, each lifting one of his limbs, and like tearing off a stubborn plaster from all sides, they finally pried him loose.
The room had a water vat piled high with ice, instantly cooling the air.
Wei Caiwei undid Lu Ying's clothes and chest bindings, covering her with only a thin cotton sheet. She dissolved a Huoxiang Zhengqi pill for heatstroke and fed it to Lu Ying.
Even in her unconscious state, Lu Ying's will to survive was strong; she swallowed instinctively, only leaking a tiny bit from the corner of her mouth.Wei Caiwei wiped her body to relieve heatstroke, mixing salt and sugar in water before continuing to feed her. After finishing one bowl, someone knocked at the door, "Doctor Wei, open up."
It was actually Lu Bing's voice!
How could he get up to check on his daughter so soon? His recovery was remarkably fast!
While others didn't know Lu Ying was female, her father Lu Bing certainly did.
Wei Caiwei opened the door to find Lu Bing sitting in a wheelchair pushed by his personal guard. The noisy Embroidered Uniform Guard members in the courtyard, including Wang Daxia, had all been driven away, leaving the area unusually quiet.
After learning that Lu Ying had fallen unconscious and Wei Caiwei had taken her alone to a room for treatment, Lu Bing realized Wei Caiwei had discovered his daughter's secret.
He immediately ordered his guards to clear out all unnecessary personnel - his condition was confidential, and he absolutely couldn't let anyone see his weakened state in a wheelchair.
Lu Bing asked: "How is she?"
Though genuinely concerned about his daughter, Lu Bing's facial expressions hadn't recovered since his stroke, leaving him appearing emotionless like a wooden figure.
Wei Caiwei said: "Let me push Lord Lu inside to see Commander Lu."
The personal guard was male, and the unconscious Lu Ying was barely clothed from the waist up, covered only by a cotton sheet.
Lu Bing nodded, allowing Wei Caiwei to push the wheelchair.
Wei Caiwei prepared another bowl of salt-sugar water and continued feeding Lu Ying, "She's sweating profusely, her clothes completely soaked. If treatment were delayed, the consequences would be unthinkable."
Lu Bing quietly watched Wei Caiwei feed Lu Ying until the bowl was empty before speaking: "I have seven children in total. She's the most similar to me in temperament - once she decides to do something, she never looks back, enduring all hardships without complaint."
By the fourth bowl, Lu Ying regained consciousness. She first touched her chest, then saw Wei Caiwei and her father in the wheelchair, immediately realizing her female identity had been exposed.
Wei Caiwei said: "Don't worry, I'm the only one who knows."
Wei Caiwei now understood why Lu Ying had shifted from the formal "three-hall interrogation" to forgiving her for pretending to be a widow to make a living.
It turned out Lu Ying was also pretending - a woman disguised as a man, feeling mutual understanding toward Wei Caiwei's situation. Both being women, they understood each other's unavoidable circumstances.
No longer wishing to hide the truth from Wei Caiwei, Lu Ying said: "My name is Lu Ying, as in tassel, not hero... I'm the fourth young lady of the Lu family."
Lu Bing had tough luck with wives, having married four times - one original wife and three subsequent wives - all of whom died without exception.
His wives bore him four sons, with the eldest and second sons dying young, leaving only the third son Lu Yi and fourth son Lu Cai surviving.
After outliving four wives, Lu Bing's only concubine Li Shi remained alive and well, bearing him five daughters who all survived. Lu Ying was the most favored fourth young lady.
Therefore, after his last wife Zhao Shi died, Lu Bing decided not to bring misfortune to any more noble young ladies. He simply had concubine Li Shi manage household affairs and stopped considering remarriage.
Lu Ying most resembled her father with her long legs and slender waist, moving with crane-like grace. Since childhood, she preferred martial attire over feminine dresses. Deeply favored by her father Lu Bing, she was permitted to practice virginity practice from a young age. As she grew older, Lu Ying became dissatisfied with practicing martial arts only at home behind closed doors. She hoped to follow in her father's footsteps and make achievements in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.Originally, certain special duties in the Embroidered Uniform Guard could also be undertaken by women, such as informants, spies, and scouts deployed in foreign lands.
However, due to societal norms, no female Embroidered Uniform Guard members appeared in public. Even with the protection of her father Lu Bing, Lu Ying had to present herself as a man in accordance with societal expectations.
Fortunately, her father was Lu Bing, who could use his power to fulfill his beloved daughter's wishes. After notifying and reporting the matter to the Jiajing Emperor, he changed Lu Ying's name from Lu Ying and arranged for her to serve in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
The Jiajing Emperor himself had not held court for over thirty years and was not one to stick strictly to rules. Naturally, he accommodated his milk brother's doting request for his daughter, treating it as indulging a junior.
Lu Bing believed that having his daughter serve under his direct supervision would make it easier to guide and protect her, assuming nothing would go wrong.
But an accident still occurred. Lu Ying, being strong-willed, was eager to tame Wang Daxia and challenge him openly.
Wang Daxia: "So it's my fault?"
As Lu Ying recounted her background, Wei Caiwei listened and silently felt pity for her.
Because in her previous life, the fourth young lady of the Lu family had the worst outcome among the five Lu daughters.
Lu Bing was a loving father who meticulously arranged his children's marriages, protecting the future of the Lu family members as securely as an iron barrel.
He married his eldest daughter to Zhu Shitai, the heir of the veteran noble Cheng Guo Gong. The eldest daughter later became the Duchess of Cheng Guo, and her son smoothly inherited the title, with descendants remaining dukes for generations.
The second daughter married Yan Shaoting, grandson of Grand Secretariat Chief Minister Yan Song and son of Yan Shifan.
The third daughter married Xu Ying, son of Grand Secretariat Minister Xu Jie.
As everyone knew, Xu Jie and Yan Song held conflicting political views and frequently clashed, leading the two major factions in the officialdom that constantly undermined each other. By marrying two daughters to political opponents, Lu Bing ensured that whichever side prevailed in the future, at least one daughter could protect her maternal family.
Later events proved that Lu Bing's strategy of balancing through his daughters' marriages was truly brilliant. This move helped the Lu family survive a great catastrophe during turbulent times, using his daughters' marital connections to protect the family through its darkest hours until its recovery.
The first three daughters were political marriages meant to stabilize the Lu family. For his most beloved fourth daughter, Lu Bing painstakingly selected Sun Xiang, the youngest son of Nanjing Minister of Rites Sun Sheng.
The Sun family was a prestigious clan from Yuyao, renowned for their purity and nobility with excellent family traditions. Sun Sheng was the second-ranked candidate in the imperial examinations, and his brother was the top military exam graduate. Sun Sheng had five sons, all exceptional scholars—four later became imperial scholars, with three eventually rising to ministerial positions.
Such a family had deep roots and would never fall. Lu Bing's choice for Lu Ying could be said to be the most secure home.
However, the one thing Lu Bing failed to anticipate was that his chosen Sun Xiang would die too young, succumbing to illness before taking the imperial examinations—making him the only Sun son who didn't become an imperial scholar. Lu Ying became a widow in the very year she married!
Lu Ying later retreated from the world, spending the rest of her life with Buddhist scriptures and an ancient Buddha statue.
Fate plays cruel tricks—Lu Bing's most beloved daughter ended up with the most tragic outcome. This was widely discussed within the palace, which is why Wei Caiwei knew about the fourth Lu daughter's troubled fate and remembered it vividly.In this life, Wei Caiwei came to know the legendary fourth daughter of the Lu family. She found it hard to imagine that such an independent, strong, courageous, resourceful, and stunningly beautiful woman—like a rose in full bloom—would eventually marry, become a widow, wither away swiftly, see through the vanity of life, retreat into monastic life, and end up as a subject of others' pity, leaving no trace in that world.
Reborn into this life, it wasn't just about preventing Wang Daxia from self-castration. Could I do more to stop as many people as possible from heading toward tragedy? To reverse their fates?
Author's Note: Good morning! Early readers get red envelopes—100 red envelopes for this chapter, first come, first served! Lu Bing's political acumen is absolutely unmatched; he had long planned everything for his children and descendants, breaking the curse that families of Embroidered Uniform Guard commanders never meet a good end. Especially his move of marrying his two daughters into the Yan and Xu families—such a bold risk-hedging strategy, and he won.
Caiwei: Rebirth is all about living freely! If the first draft of the script isn't satisfying, I'll tear it up and write my own. Repay kindness with kindness, settle scores with vengeance—no holding back. Whoever dares provoke me, I'll take them down. Protect "Wang Xiaoxia," and along the way, change the tragic fate of a brave, resourceful, and well-endowed girl. Just enjoy it to the fullest! If you can't even live freely with the script in hand, what's the point of being reborn?
In this life, Lu Ying will have a new love interest, and that person has already appeared. Wei Caiwei, like a butterfly flapping its wings, has started to create ripple effects. Here's a hint for everyone—Romeo and Juliet.
Seeing the comments, new readers have misunderstood that there might be a plot where the second female lead competes with the female lead for the same man. Rest assured, in the ten books I've written, I've never used such a trope. My second female leads are usually career-driven, have their own separate romantic storylines, and often dote on the female lead even more than the male lead does. Longtime readers can help share stories about the lovely second female leads in my works.
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