Chapter 1: Reborn in a Novel: The Appraisal System Awakens

A splitting headache tore through her senses, and Lin Qian snapped her eyes open. Instead of her familiar, cluttered old workbench, she found herself in the sprawling hall of the Lin Family estate, its rich mahogany floors gleaming beneath the heavy, antique palace lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

Consciousness flooded into this unfamiliar body in a overwhelming wave, fragments of memory violently colliding in her mind: she had transmigrated into a web novel, becoming the cannon-fodder character Lin Qian who was destined to be cast out in disgrace by her wealthy family. Right now, the original owner was standing before a scene of utter wreckage, trembling under the accusation of shattering the Lin Family’s ultimate heirloom, the "Shattered Jade Cup."

A vein throbbed violently at Lin's Father’s temple, his glare like poison-tipped arrows pinning her to the spot.

"Qian'er, care to explain just what happened to this cup?" Lin's Father asked, his voice harsh and weighted with unquestionable authority. The folding fan in his hand came down hard against his palm with a sharp, teeth-gritting smack. The surrounding relatives murmured amongst themselves, their eyes filled with thinly veiled mockery and the gleeful schadenfreude of spectators watching a grand public trial.

Lin Qian didn't panic. A swift sweep of the room caught Su Wan standing off to the side, looking at her with wide, innocent doe eyes while the corners of her lips curved into a subtle, unperceived smirk.

Su Wan stepped forward, her posture so fragile she looked like she’d blow away in a light breeze. She gently tugged at Lin's Father’s sleeve, her voice soft and sweet yet venomous in every syllable: "Father, Younger Sister must just be too nervous. After all, this cup is our family's treasured heirloom, and making a mistake in a moment of clumsiness is only human. Please don't be too hard on her."

It sounded like a plea for mercy, but it expertly shoved Lin Qian straight into a dead-end trap where she was both guilty of destroying a priceless antique and unapologetically arrogant about it. Lin Qian sneered inwardly. The classic playbook of the original novel's female lead was as predictable as ever—using a facade of concern to mask a malicious frame-up.

Lin's Father was placated for a fraction of a second, his fury subsiding just a notch, though the disgust in his eyes only deepened. He turned back to Lin Qian with the absolute, chilling finality of someone washing their hands of a lost cause: "Qian'er, if you had any respect for family property, you’d clean up this mess yourself and spare me the sight of you. From today on, you are no longer fit to remain in the Lin Family."

This wasn't just a reprimand; it was an eviction order. Lin Qian didn't argue. She knew that any defense right now would be as pale and weak as tissue paper in the face of stacked evidence, unless she could unearth the crucial detail everyone else was willfully ignoring.

Right at that moment, Gu Chengze pushed open the doors. A meticulously tailored black suit accentuated his tall, imposing frame, and his brow carried the haughty indifference characteristic of a top-tier corporate heir. He swept a cold glance over the shattered pieces on the floor before turning his gaze to the rigid figure of Lin Qian, the corner of his mouth curving in a contemptuous smirk.

As the male lead of the novel, he had long grown sick of this worthless engagement partner. Right now, he was more than happy to watch the Lin Family tear itself apart from the inside, letting him make a clean break and free up his options.

"Young Master Gu." Lin's Father instantly plastered a ingratiating smile on his face, stepping forward obsequiously to salvage whatever dignity he could in front of Gu Chengze. Gu Chengze didn't even spare Lin's Father a glance; his eyes settled entirely on Lin Qian, speaking in a flat tone: "Miss Lin, if you can't even handle your own affairs, don't expect me to clean up your mess for you."

The words were grating, but they didn't make Lin Qian shrink back. Instead, they revealed a sliver of hope for turning the tables—Gu Chengze hadn't completely written her off yet, which meant the situation wasn't entirely a dead loss.

Seeing Gu Chengze press the issue, a flash of triumph crossed Su Wan’s eyes. She turned and took a pristine white cleaning cloth from a servant, handing it straight to Lin Qian with a gentle smile: "Younger Sister, since you're the one who dirtied the floor with your own hands, you might as well clean it up yourself. It'll be a proper account to Father. We're sisters, after all—why be so distant?"

That cloth was a veiled knife. The moment Lin Qian took it, she would be admitting full liability and permanently demoted to the status of a menial servant.

Lin Qian’s hand hovering over the cloth paused, her fingertips cool. She didn't take it. Instead, she gently placed the cloth down on a nearby side table, her composure so unruffled that Su Wan blinked in surprise. Inside, her heart was completely undisturbed—she almost wanted to laugh. The original owner's weakness had been the root of her defeat, but she was a transmigrator armed with a golden cheat code.

She raised her head, her gaze sweeping past Su Wan to lock directly onto the pile of debris swept together by the butler in the corner of the hall, where a single, discarded sherd lay forgotten.

"Dad, that piece isn't trash." Lin Qian’s voice wasn't loud, but it cut cleanly through the surrounding noise. Su Wan's expression flickered, and she immediately chimed in: "Younger Sister, what on earth are you babbling about? That's just a pile of broken shards. Father told you to clean it up, so just do as you're told instead of being so ungrateful."

The sharp edge in her voice could no longer be contained; the white-lotus mask was cracking. Lin's Father frowned and barked, "Quiet! Let her speak!"

In that exact fraction of a second, ignoring the murmurs of the crowd, Lin Qian hurried over to the pile of rubble, dropped to one knee, and lightly touched the most unassuming grayish-blue sherd. Instantly, her field of vision rippled as if a stone had been dropped into water, and semi-transparent light and shadow burst across her mind. The [Wisdom Eye: Cultural Relic Tracing Mirror] activated, flooding her brain with an immense torrent of information.

As the light shifted, the outline of the sherd grew sharp and clear, transforming from a broken scrap into part of a complete artifact. A system notification chimed in her mind: [Detected artifact: Northern Song Ru Kiln Sky-Blue Glaze Washer sherd. Crafting characteristics: Spur-fired, thick glaze layer, distinct orange-peel texture.

Internal state: Fine crazing at the base, zero restoration marks, pristine original damage. Estimated market valuation: 8 million to 12 million RMB.]

Lin Qian’s pupils contracted, her heart hammering against her ribs. A Ru kiln piece from the Song Dynasty! This wasn't some worthless pile of broken porcelain; it was a sky-high treasure on the auction market. Forcing herself to stay calm, her fingertips brushed the fractured edge. The Tracing Mirror magnified the flaws, revealing that the glaze and the body clay at the break were an exact match—definitely not some modern fake pieced together later.

A restoration plan rapidly built itself in her mind: using a sherd from the same kiln to perform a seamless, invisible repair would send its value skyrocketing.

"This isn't trash," Lin Qian stood up, her voice steady and laden with an unshakeable certainty. "This is a sherd from a Northern Song Ru Kiln sky-blue glaze washer. The fracture is natural, the glaze warm and lustrous like celadon jade, and the spur marks on the foot are distinct. This is by no means some ordinary folk kiln piece."

The moment those words dropped, a dead silence fell over the hall. The folding fan slipped from Lin's Father’s hand, slapping against the floor. He stared at his daughter in sheer disbelief, his eyes wide.

"Y-what did you just say?" Lin's Father's voice shook as he jolted out of his shock, instantly overtaken by the fury of feeling played for a fool. He strode right up to Lin Qian, pointing a finger at the bridge of her nose and demanding harshly, "Lin Qian! To cover up your own clumsiness, you dare slander the family’s treasured collection? This pile of junk was thrown out on my orders, and you're calling it a Ru kiln? I think you've lost your mind!" His authority challenged, his roar practically made the air freeze solid.

Gu Chengze, who had been on the verge of leaving, halted. He turned slightly, his dark eyes locked onto Lin Qian. The infamously dim-witted and cowardly Lin daughter currently possessed a gaze so sharp and clear she looked like a completely different person. He arched a brow, a strange flicker of curiosity stirring within him—what kind of soul was hiding inside that body?

He didn't speak, simply standing back to watch how this farce would play out.

Seizing the opening, Su Wan’s eyes reddened and her voice choked up: "Father, Younger Sister not only caused a disaster, she even tried to steal our family treasures, and now she's turning it around to frame you, slandering your collection! I see now that her heart isn't filled with family affection, but bottomless greed for wealth!" Her tearful display was devastatingly convincing, and the surrounding relatives immediately chimed in, their chatter washing over the hall like a rising tide.

Lin Qian ignored Su Wan’s sobbing entirely, nor did she spare a glance for Gu Chengze. Her gaze burned straight into Lin's Father as she stated coldly, "Dad, if you don't trust my word, feel free to bring in Master Zhao to appraise it. If I'm wrong, I accept defeat and will crawl out of the Lin Family today. But if I'm right, this sherd belongs to me, to use however I see fit to win back my dignity in this house." Short, punchy, and hitting straight at the jugular, she raised the stakes to the absolute maximum.

"Fine!" Furious though he was, Lin's Father had spent enough years sloshing around the antique trade to know the legendary status of Ru kiln porcelain, and a ripple of doubt had already formed in his chest. He took a deep breath, forcefully swallowing his anger, and snapped at the butler: "Go invite Master Zhao here. If this really is a Ru kiln piece, I, Lin, will swallow my loss!"

He looked at Lin Qian with complex eyes—suspicion warring with a suppressed, trembling shock. Gu Chengze gave a low chuckle, stepping further back into the shadows to observe the shifting tide.

Lin Qian didn't waste another word. Pointing to the details of the sherd, she laid out her restoration logic with professional precision: "The firing temperature at the foot was controlled around a twelve-degree taper, and the bubbles in the glaze are scattered like 'sparse as morning stars'—that's a trait exclusive to the Ru kiln. Once restored, factoring in its integrity, its market value starts at eight figures."

Every single professional term hit with absolute precision, acting like a sharp sword that pierced right through the common sense of everyone present. Lin's Father's face cycled from red to white, and finally to ash; the connoisseur's eye he was always so proud of suddenly looked like a bitter joke.

The hall grew so quiet you could hear a pin drop, broken only by the sound of Lin's Father’s ragged breathing. Staring at that single sherd, he felt as though he were looking at both a mountain of wealth and a potential catastrophic scandal, his reason and authority locked in violent combat.

At last, he raised a hand, pointing a trembling finger at Lin Qian. His voice was hoarse, loaded with deep skepticism and raw reluctance: "You're just a novice restorer. On the basis of a single word from you, you dare slap a ten-million-dollar price tag on it? Lin Qian, just who do you think you are?"