The life swap begins with Consort Hua becoming Lady Qin.

Back then, when the imperial court was chasing after debts, neither the Gu nor Qin families could fill the hole. Both were stripped of their titles and their homes were confiscated. From noble families, they were reduced to commoners in the blink of an eye.

However, Qin Yanyun's dowry was still there.

As far as she knew, Qin Yanyun owned at least two estates, several shops, two houses, and nearly ten thousand taels of silver.

And these aren't just empty gestures put on by some people to save face, a show of wealth they've gained by putting on a show of being rich.

Those estates were all good estates that could generate real money, and the shops were mostly located in valuable areas of Bianjing City. As for those two residences, although they were not as grand and spacious as the Marquis's mansion, the courtyards were open and the houses were neat and tidy, and they were by no means cramped or shabby places.

It was all bought by his parents at a real high price, with the intention of ensuring that Qin Yanyun could live a comfortable life even without relying on the Gu family for the rest of his life.

Thinking of this, Qin Yanwan lowered her eyes.

Her parents truly loved this older sister.

Even when the Qin family was on its last legs, even when the title was gone, the family business was scattered, and even when she was forced into a corner, she still refused to touch a single penny of Qin Yanyun's dowry.

She would rather both of them take poison and never see her and Qin Zhengyang, these two unwanted children, than lose their eldest daughter's last bit of wealth.

It's such a pity...

Qin Yanwan never took the initiative to inquire about how Qin Yanyun was doing; she considered it bad luck.

But Bianjing City is only so big. Especially back then, the turmoil caused by the court's debt collection was so big that people were demoted and fined a lot of money. Other families either had someone to support them, or had some relatives to help them, or ultimately retained some wealth. Only the Qin and Gu families truly fell from the clouds into the mud.

Such a lively scene naturally attracted countless eyes.

Qin Yanwan herself was alright; although her family had fallen from grace, it hadn't shaken her position as the heir's wife at all.

Since marrying Zhao Xu, she had been intentionally scheming to make him more ambitious. In the eyes of others, the once notorious playboy had not only stopped spending his days fighting cocks and riding horses, but had also learned to ask for jobs and make progress, so naturally everyone thought it was all thanks to her.

The Prince of Yan and his wife thought the same thing.

Not to mention that Zhao Xu is now going his own way, ignoring all advice, and has volunteered to go to the front lines.

He was the only legitimate son of the Prince of Yan and his wife. If anything were to happen to him, Zhao Yu would be their only grandson, the apple of their eye and the apple of their eye.

Therefore, over the years, the Prince of Yan and his wife not only did not make things difficult for her because of the Qin family's downfall, but also took the initiative to support her in public, fearing that if she was wronged, Yu-ge'er would also feel uneasy.

As for Qin Zhengyang...

Since he went to the border, it was as if he had been completely cut off from all contact. He never returned, nor did he send any letters. The only way to know that he was still alive was through undelivered obituaries.

Even if people wanted to talk about him, they couldn't bring themselves to talk about him.

So all the remaining attention naturally fell on the Gu family.

Coincidentally, the Gu family also has its share of excitement.

Back then, Old Madam Gu knew that the hole of 800,000 taels in her family was too big, and without the help of the Bai family, it would be impossible to fill it.

I might as well give up and stop trying.

On the day her home was raided, she watched calmly as the plaque fell and the mansion was sealed off, and she left peacefully with only her dowry.

She came from a respectable family and had a generous dowry. In addition, after years of managing the household, she had more private savings than Qin Yanyun.

The first thing she did after setting up her own household was to kick out her four sons, who were the laziest and most gluttonous, as well as Gu Yankai, leaving only her eldest grandson, Gu Tingyu, to live with her.

Gu Yankai was alright; he still had some sense of shame. He would only come to pay his respects during holidays, and even if the old lady refused to open the door, he would still do as he pleased.

The fourth and fifth brothers, however, refused.

At first, the two went to the door almost every day, crying, pleading for help, and throwing tantrums. Later, seeing that the old lady was heartless, they began to force their way in.

They even resorted to using ladders to climb walls in the middle of the night.

Grandma Gu wasn't one to be trifled with either.

She immediately spent a fortune hiring notorious guards to watch the gate day and night, and also had thorns planted on the courtyard wall. She even kept several vicious dogs, treating her two biological sons as if they were thieves.

When the fourth and fifth sons saw that their mother had gone to such lengths, they became enraged and actually went to the authorities to file a lawsuit.

For a son to accuse his mother is a grave act of filial impiety.

The case had barely begun when, before the two men had even finished speaking, they were both pushed down and beaten with a board. They cried out in pain, tumbling and crawling on the ground.

The most ridiculous thing was that the two were seriously injured but couldn't even afford to hire a doctor. In the end, Gu Yankai blushed and paid for them.

Even after they recovered from their injuries, they still couldn't escape a beating from Gu Yankai.

Despite this, the fourth and fifth sons still didn't wake up. Instead, they gave up and continued to frequent brothels, drink, gamble, and even tried to pin the debts on Old Madam Gu, asking the gambling dens and restaurants to ask her for money.

Little did they know that Old Mrs. Gu was even more ruthless than they had imagined.

On the day the gambling den people came to collect debts, she actually ordered someone to bring out a machete, pointed it at Gu Si and Gu Wu kneeling on the ground, and said to the debt collectors, "However much they owe you, you can cut off that much flesh from them."

"I gave birth to them, but since they owe you a debt, their lives belong to you. Whether they live or die, it is up to you."

Everyone present was startled.

Gu Si and Gu Wu finally understood that their mother truly wanted to sever all ties with them.

They were resentful, but there was nothing they could do.

Just as the gambling den's thugs were about to kill Gu Si and Gu Wu, Gu Yankai appeared, paid off their old debts, and saved their lives.

Unexpectedly, this act of rescue dragged him into an abyss.

Gu Si and Gu Wu became dependent on him from then on.

If Gu Yankai didn't give them money, they would still use the same tactics to pester the old lady: throwing a tantrum, rolling on the ground, kneeling and crying, and swearing to the heavens that this would only happen once and would never happen again.

And then they never repent.

But Gu Yankai was no longer the heir of the Ningyuan Marquis's mansion.

They lost their titles and their stipends.

In the end, the money he had was given to him by Qin Yanyun.

Qin Yanyun wasn't even willing to use her dowry to keep her brother's title, so how could she possibly be willing to spend money to clean up the mess for Gu Si and Gu Wu?

Everyone soon heard that Gu Yankai had been kicked out of Qin Yanyun's house. That day, Qin Yanyun's head maid even stood at the door, coldly conveying the message: "The lady said that if the young master still wants to be her husband, he should first settle things with those two gentlemen. If not, then the young master should marry someone else."

These words were originally passed down by Gu Si and Gu Wu.

They were only ashamed to hear that Gu Yankai had been kicked out of the house because he couldn't let go of the two of them. Instead, they stormed over and cursed him.

Qin Yanyun naturally dared not open the door for the two of them.

The two grown men then stood on the street and, in front of passersby, recounted in detail all the things Qin Yanyun had done back then: how she broke ties with her family for Gu Yankai, how the Ningyuan Marquis's mansion was in debt, how Qin's parents both took poison, and how she refused to give a single penny of her dowry.

One pile, one piece.

They talked even more excitedly than a storyteller.

It made everyone laugh out loud.

Looking back now, it seems that Gu Yankai was driven to desperation and ended up teaching martial arts at the training ground.

After Qin Yanwan figured it out, she felt an indescribable sense of relief.

Qin Yanyun and Gu Yankai were a couple who claimed to be deeply in love and inseparable. However, the only unmarried daughter of the Gu and Qin families, not counting the side branches, was Qin Yanwan.

In other words, she bore almost all the consequences of their dramatic outburst back then.

If it weren't for Langhua's reminder, which made her realize the situation in time and decisively choose Zhao Xu as her husband, she doesn't know how badly she would be dragged down by the two of them now!

Now things are much better.

With the Gu family losing their noble title, Qin Yanyun no longer had to face pressure from her in-laws or arrange for Gu Yankai to take a concubine.

All the hardships and obstacles that had previously stood in their way of loving each other were gone.

How did they end up living their lives like this?