Ruan Yu felt a cacophony of noise in her ears, so loud it made her head throb with a splitting pain.
“It is your family’s blessing that my Liu family has taken an interest in your daughter! Men, carry her away!”
“You can’t take my Yu’er! Don’t take her!”
“Father, Mother, An’an is scared!”
“Big Sister, Big Sister, waah…”
…
So noisy!
Ruan Yu snapped her eyes open. Everything was pitch black, and she seemed to be lying in a square, rigid box.
Is this… a coffin?
In the next second, countless memories flooded into Ruan Yu’s mind.
This was the Great Shang Dynasty. War was rampant, and the people were destitute.
Binzhou had suffered a three-year drought, and the Ruan family of Qinghe Village was fleeing the famine along with the rest of their neighbors.
Ruan Yu had been the Commander-in-Chief of a global apocalyptic base in the modern era. She had died in a worldwide bombing, and her soul had transmigrated into the body of Ruan Yu’er, who was currently fleeing the famine in ancient Great Shang.
Upon opening her eyes, she discovered that the Ruan family was selling her to a gentry’s dead son for a Ghost Marriage. She had already been sealed inside a coffin, ready to be hauled away.
Ye Shi, her body nothing but skin and bones, knelt on the ground and clung to the coffin with all her might, resisting a group of burly thugs.
“Even if we starve to death, we won’t sell our daughter!” Ye Shi screamed hysterically, pleading anxiously, “Father of my children, say something!”
Countless kicks and punches rained down on Ye Shi, yet her hands remained deathly gripped to the coffin, refusing to let go.
Nearby, a peasant man crouched on the ground, his expression panicked and cowardly. He instinctively looked toward a cursing old woman. “Mother…”
“Pah! You don’t get a say in this family! I’m not dead yet! A foolish, wretched girl being able to trade for a bit of grain is a godsend!”
The old woman, with high cheekbones, crossed eyes, and clothes covered in patches, stood with her hands on her hips, shouting abuse.
This person was Ruan Yu’er’s grandmother, Old Mrs. Ruan.
“Ye Shi, get out of the way this instant!”
They had been fleeing for over two months, and the Ruan family’s food supplies had long since run dry. These past few days, they had survived entirely on tree bark and wild grass.
They hadn’t eaten proper food in a long time. So, when the Liu family decided to offer three bags of brown rice for Ruan Yu’er, Old Mrs. Ruan had agreed without a moment’s hesitation.
Ruan Yu’er was a simpleton; keeping her was a waste of food. Selling her for some brown rice was a lifeline for the whole family!
Consequently, Ruan Yu’er had been forcibly stuffed into the coffin. Not only had she hit her head, but she had also fainted from sheer terror. Then, Ruan Yu from the modern apocalypse had transmigrated into her.
“What do I pay you people for? You can’t even deal with one woman? Drag her away, now!”
Not far away, a pot-bellied man pointed at Ye Shi with an impatient look. He was the culprit behind the Ghost Marriage—Gentry Liu.
With Gentry Liu’s command, the thugs stopped being polite and brutally pried Ye Shi off the coffin.
Just then, a loud bang echoed as the coffin lid was sent flying. Ruan Yu climbed out from within.
The scene instantly fell silent.
Returning to the light of day, Ruan Yu saw a frail woman being dragged by a group of thugs, with two dark, scrawny little runts clinging to her feet.
Ruan Yu’s memories told her that this woman was the original host’s mother, Ye Shi, and the two children at her feet were her younger siblings, the twins Ruan Changsheng and Ruan Changan.
“Yu’er! Run!”
Ye Shi was the first to react. She struggled violently; seeing her daughter escape, her only thought was for her daughter to run as far away as possible.
“You still want to run? Bitch!” A thug raised his hand toward the struggling Ye Shi without mercy.
Slap!
Ye Shi was struck down to the ground, bringing the two little runts down with her.
Ruan Yu watched as the thugs surrounded Ye Shi, their fists about to rain down on her…
She snatched up a stone and smashed it directly onto the lead thug’s head.
In an instant, blood flowed freely.
The thugs’ eyes widened. “You little wench, you dare fight back? Everyone, get her!”
A dozen or so thugs surrounded her at once. With a cold face and a stone in hand, Ruan Yu met them head-on.
As the Commander-in-Chief of a global apocalyptic base, if she couldn’t handle a small scene like this, her years of survival would have been for nothing!
Accompanied by screams and wails, the scene instantly descended into chaos.
Before long, a large group lay sprawled on the ground. Only three thugs remained standing, their legs quivering as they watched the girl who had crushed a skull with a stone and broken a leg with a single kick. They retreated in terror.
It was said this foolish girl possessed monstrous strength; it seemed the rumors were true.
She was a total female fiend!
The chaos intensified, but the remaining three thugs didn’t last long.
Ruan Yu hooked her arm around a thug’s neck and, with a sharp twist, snapped the last man’s neck with clean efficiency.
Total annihilation. Not a single one left.
“You actually killed Lord Liu’s men? Ruan Yu’er, are you trying to get us all killed?” Old Mrs. Ruan’s shriek rang out, her face full of resentment. “You wretch, why don’t you just die?”
Old Mrs. Ruan wasn’t intimidated by Ruan Yu’s ferocity in the slightest. To her, Ruan Yu was nothing more than a little quail who didn’t dare breathe loudly in her presence.
Filled with venomous spite, she lunged toward Ruan Yu.
However, before Old Mrs. Ruan could reach her, Ruan Yu sent a flying kick that launched the old woman backward.
“Get lost.”
Ruan Yu’s gaze was indifferent, the look of someone who had lost themselves in a killing frenzy.
At this, the rest of the Ruan family finally realized the danger Ruan Yu posed and dared not step forward.
She’s crazy, she’s crazy! This dead girl has gone completely mad!
Ruan Yu’s gaze landed on the pale-faced Gentry Liu, and she began walking toward him step by step.
“You… what do you want? Insolence! Men, seize her!”
Only two men remained by Gentry Liu’s side. They rushed forward with blades drawn, but in the blink of an eye, these two were also sent flying!
Thud!
The two men crashed into another coffin nearby. The coffin toppled over, and a bluish-black corpse rolled out!
“Huai’er—!”
The one who had rolled out of the coffin was Gentry Liu’s deceased son.
Gentry Liu let out a howl and rushed over, clutching his son’s corpse while glaring at Ruan Yu with hatred. “You dare treat my son like this? I’ll kill you! You wretched girl, letting you go down to accompany my son was your blessing. Since you refuse to do this the easy way, don’t blame me for being ruthless!”
Saying this, Gentry Liu looked at the refugees watching the commotion. He raised his voice, his tone laced with murderous intent.
“Whoever can kill her, this old master will reward you handsomely! Grain, gold, silver—take your pick!”
As soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of the surrounding refugees instantly turned blood-red.
They stared fixedly at the carriages behind Gentry Liu, their gazes as greedy as a pack of hungry wolves.
Some, unable to wait, lunged toward Ruan Yu.
Ruan Yu almost laughed out loud. She had assumed that for Gentry Liu to maintain such a family estate in these chaotic times of famine, he must have at least some brains. Who would have thought that he would go out of his way to seek death without her even having to lift a finger?
Ruan Yu glanced at the first few refugees to charge, lifting her foot to kick them away without holding back.
Everyone heard a series of muffled thuds as the leaders crashed to the ground and lay motionless, their fates unknown.