Third Uncle Yan stepped forward to stop Yan Chuxue, but she swung her stick and knocked him to the ground. Giving him a scornful look, she said, “Useless!”
The word made Third Uncle Yan’s eyes turn red. He glared at Yan Chuxue, then turned to his wife and snapped, “Why are you just standing there? Get some rope and tie her up! I refuse to believe all of us can’t catch one little girl.”
The moment Third Uncle Yan finished speaking, Yan Chuxue knocked him unconscious. She gave a derisive laugh. “Not only are you useless, you’re dreaming in broad daylight!”
After dealing with Third Uncle Yan, Yan Chuxue turned her attention to Madam Zhou. Screaming, “Murder! Murder!” Madam Zhou ran into the house and locked the door.
Yan Chuxue had only just woken up and was already weak. After all that exertion, she could no longer hold on. Her eyes rolled back, and she passed out.
When she woke again, it was already the middle of the night. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a haggard middle-aged woman sitting by the kang[1]A kang is a raised sleeping platform, traditionally made of brick or earth and often heated from below, particularly in northern Chinese homes. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717449_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717449_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, silently shedding tears. Yan Chuxue struggled to sit up, and the woman hurried to support her.
“Xiaoxue, you’re still weak. Don’t move around. I’ll go bring you something to eat and your medicine.”
With that, she hurried out.
While she was gone, Yan Chuxue took the opportunity to sort through her thoughts. She really had died—and then come back to life. She had transmigrated[2]In Chinese web novels, transmigration is the movement of a character into another body, time, or world. This story describes her awakening in another person’s body. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717449_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717449_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); into the body of a fourteen-year-old girl in ancient times who had the same name as her.
The girl had been terribly unlucky. She’d put her own life on the line to save someone. The original owner had jumped into a river to rescue a scholar[3]“Scholar” describes an educated man here; it does not by itself establish that he has earned a particular examination degree or official rank. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717449_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717449_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); who was drowning, but someone saw them and the story spread, ruining her reputation[4]In some traditional communities, an unmarried woman’s contact with a man could give rise to gossip about her propriety and future marriage prospects. Norms differed by place and period. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717449_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717449_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Her Third Uncle and grandmother had not only failed to comfort her; they’d cruelly tried to sell her. Her grandmother had even cursed her outside her room every day, driving her to take her own life.
What was worse, these people wouldn’t even leave the original owner’s corpse alone. If Yan Chuxue hadn’t transmigrated here today, they would probably have sold her body.
Yan Chuxue sighed. Since she was here, she would make the best of it. She refused to believe that someone who had managed to survive the apocalypse couldn’t get by in ancient times. After a round of self-reassurance, she felt a little better.
Then she started feeling gloomy again. Her superpower[5]Apocalypse-themed Chinese fantasy often features extraordinary personal abilities called superpowers; their operation is governed by each story’s fictional rules. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717449_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717449_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); hadn’t disappeared, but it worked only now and then. Worse, whenever she used it, she had to eat a lot to replenish her strength. She wondered what she’d done to deserve such a useless superpower.
Yan Chuxue was ravenous now, and she missed her space[6]Here “space” refers to a supernatural storage area, a convention in fantasy and apocalypse-themed web fiction; its specific properties depend on the story. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717449_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717449_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); more than ever. She had no idea whether it had come with her. If it hadn’t, she’d have lost out big time.
Yan Chuxue tried to sense her space. When she discovered it was still there, she was overcome with joy. As long as her space had come with her, that was all that mattered. Hearing movement outside the door, she quickly lay back down properly.
Madam Zhao came in carrying a bowl of corn gruel and another bowl of dark, murky medicine. In a gentle voice, she said, “Eat the gruel, then drink your medicine. Third Master Fang has already examined you. There’s nothing seriously wrong; you just need one more dose of medicine to make sure you recover fully.”
Yan Chuxue had come from the apocalypse and had even eaten grass roots and tree bark. To her, corn gruel was already a rare delicacy. She gulped it down in a few quick mouthfuls, then grimaced as she drank the medicine.
Madam Zhao let out a relieved breath and comforted her. “Xiaoxue, go to sleep. It’ll be all right. Mother won’t let anyone sell you. You’re my daughter; no one can go over my head.”
Yan Chuxue answered, “Mother, you should go to bed early too.”
Yan Chuxue knew that Madam Zhao had always been good to her daughter. Even after the original owner’s reputation was ruined, she hadn’t said anything against her; instead, she had kept trying to comfort her. If it hadn’t been for Madam Zhou’s daily abuse, the original owner wouldn’t have chosen to take her own life.
Yan Chuxue lay with her eyes open, staring at the ceiling as she went through the original owner’s memories. Her father was Madam Zhou’s second son, fifth in birth order. Madam Zhou had six children in all. The first two were daughters, and only the third was a son—the man who had tried to sell Yan Chuxue earlier.
Other families usually doted on their youngest son, but the Yan family was different. Madam Zhou and Yan Qingshan favored their eldest son’s family. Yan Dajun’s family were treated almost like slaves in the Yan household. Yan Dajun had to work the family’s ten-odd mu[7]Mu is a Chinese unit of land area. Under the modern standard, one mu is about 667 square meters; the size could differ in historical periods. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717449_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717449_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); of land, while Madam Zhao had to do almost all the housework and tend to the family’s livestock. Even Yan Dajun’s two children had to work. And the worst part was, they still didn’t get enough to eat. The whole family was as thin and sallow as refugees.
Third Uncle Yan’s family, on the other hand, ran a general store in town. They all lived there and only came back once a month to collect grain.
Yan Chuxue felt that the main reason Yan Dajun’s family lived such miserable lives was that they were all too honest and timid. You could beat them with a stick and not get half a peep out of them. They never spoke up when they were bullied or cheated, so who wouldn’t take advantage of them?
It was late at night. Yan Chuxue waited until she was sure Madam Zhao and her husband were fast asleep, then carefully took food from her space and stuffed it into her mouth. She was starving to death. Only after eating half a box of bread did she feel a little better. Then she fell into a deep sleep.
References[+]