Chapter 1

So hungry…

Can one still feel hunger after death?

Sang Luo, in her drowsy state, pondered this thought. After an indeterminate amount of time, the discomfort of extreme hunger finally roused her.

Moonlight, as silver as frost, shone into the room. She was somewhat confused, her mind foggy for a moment before recalling that she seemed to have died. But, this doesn’t look like the underworld, does it?

Even though it was nighttime, the moonlight was bright enough to reveal that she was in an entirely unfamiliar house.

She moved her fingertips slightly, assessing her body's condition with each breath. Although feeling weak, she was free from the agony of sickness. Gathering some strength, she placed her hand over her heart. Her skin was warm, and her heartbeat, though faint, was certainly present.

Was she still alive?

As this thought crossed her mind, something inexplicably surged within her brain, a sudden, intense pain. Sang Luo arched her back, instinctively clutching her head. The memories of another person merged and churned with her own. By the time she had assimilated these memories and understood that she had traveled through time, she was already drenched in cold sweat from the pain.

Sang Luo, propping herself up on the bed with effort, examined the thatched cottage in the moonlight, which perfectly matched the one in her “memories.”

She had traveled through time, to a dynasty known as the Great Qian. The original owner of this body was also named Sang Luo, a fifteen-year-old girl born into a common family. Her family perished in a flood, leaving her as the sole survivor. She had luckily lived, fleeing with her relatives from the disaster.

Upon reaching the boundaries of Qi Yang County, most of the people in her clan had already exhausted their food and money. They continued southward, begging along the way, and foraging for wild fruits and vegetables in the mountains and fields.

But after months of fleeing famine, most people couldn't endure the hardship. Selling children became a common practice, both to give the kids a chance at life and to provide for the family.

The original owner of this body, now without a family, encountered the Li family in Qing Pu Township, who wanted to buy a bride for their nephew.

She heard that the nephew, named Shen Lie, was a tall and strong man, not given to gambling or cruelty, but currently serving in the military and hadn't returned.

Marrying into a farmer’s family, despite the risk of her husband not returning from military service, was better than selling oneself into slavery. With nowhere else to go and her caring clan aunt falling ill, she bravely approached Mrs. Li, who was still negotiating, and traded herself for half a bag of food, not as a slave, but as a bride for the Shen family.

She gave all the food to her clan uncle and aunt, and then followed Mrs. Li to Shi Li Village.

Mrs. Li was much more proactive than Sang Luo. Although she didn’t buy her and had no deed of sale, she spent very little, just half a bag of grain, and not a penny more.

Upon returning to the village, Mrs. Li quickly arranged to transfer the original owner’s household registration to the Shen family and expedited the marriage certificate with Shen Lie.

It was only then that the original owner learned her so-called husband had been away on military service for two years and three months, and was rumored to have died in battle.

In other words, she was newly married and already a widow.

Although the original owner was fearful and confused, she had no other choice. It was better than continuing to wander and beg, or possibly being sold into slavery or worse. At least now, she had a “home.”

The reason why Mrs. Li still sought a wife for the deceased Shen Lie was a mystery to the original owner, but this was clarified half a month after moving into the Shen household.

In the division of the Shen family property, as the eldest daughter-in-law of the main house, she was separated along with Shen Lie's twin siblings, both only nine years old.

It was then that the original body realized the purpose of Mrs. Li's half bag of grain in exchanging for her.

A blatant way of offloading a burden.

The Great Qian Dynasty, plagued by years of continuous warfare and a decade of floods, droughts, and various disasters, made life difficult for the common people. The Shen family had fled to this place nine years ago, with more than half dying on the road from protecting their families or succumbing to illness and hunger.

Of the Shen family's three branches, the first branch, after the exodus, was left with only the then nine-year-old Shen Lie and his mother Mrs. Zhang, who gave birth to twins on the road but passed away shortly after. The second branch didn't survive; the third branch, a newly married couple without children, saved themselves with their food and water, both surviving.

Since then, the three children of the main house lived with their third uncle and aunt.

Initially, things were fine, but after settling in Shi Li Village, Mrs. Li bore two children in three years, four in seven, three sons and a daughter. With her own children, her focus naturally shifted, and the children of the main house started to have a harder life after the birth of the first child of the third branch.

Fortunately, Shen Lie, though young, was quite capable of looking after his siblings. Perhaps inheriting his parents' stature, he grew taller than his peers, and by the age of twelve or thirteen, he was strong enough to be considered a labor force in the household. Uncle Shen and Mrs. Li valued this fact and continued to grudgingly raise the two younger nephews and niece.

The complication arose two years ago when the imperial court started conscripting soldiers. The most suitable candidate in the Shen family was Uncle Shen, the head of the family. But would he dare to go to the battlefield? He wouldn’t, even if it cost him his life!

Without much struggle, Uncle Shen set his sights on his sixteen-year-old nephew, Shen Lie. He secretly arranged things with the local official, and the name submitted ended up being Shen Lie’s.

Since the main and third branches hadn’t separated, Uncle Shen, as the head of the household, naturally had the final say in family affairs.

Shen Lie returned from the mountains and was taken away by the military draft officers before he could understand the situation.

After Shen Lie left, life became harder for the twins. At first, they were treated decently, perhaps out of guilt and respect for Shen Lie. But a few months ago, several soldiers from a neighboring village returned, bringing news of a great defeat at the front lines. The vanguard troops had suffered heavy losses, with only three in ten surviving, and Shen Lie’s camp was rumored to have been entirely wiped out.

With Shen Lie's death, Mrs. Li was unwilling to continue supporting the twins, especially since the court provided no compensation. As time passed without any news of Shen Lie, Mrs. Li grew bolder and her thoughts became twisted.

The Shen family had settled here just nine years ago. Though they had cleared some land for farming, it was limited, and most of the land they cultivated was rented. After paying rent and various taxes, life was already tough.

Mrs. Li had four children of her own, and with six mouths to feed on Uncle Shen's lone income, even ensuring enough food was a struggle. Adding the two children from the main house meant eight mouths.

How much less would her own children have to eat with two additional mouths?

Although Mrs. Li had these thoughts, she was also aware that Shen Lie had been conscripted at only sixteen, sent to serve by his own uncle, and now was dead on the battlefield...

The couple, therefore, didn’t dare to simply abandon the two children from the main house. Aside from fearing the village's judgment, Uncle Shen himself was afraid of facing his brother in the afterlife.

They couldn't just abandon the two children; doing so would mean starving them.

Reluctant to support them, yet finding no immediate way to cast them off, Mrs. Li kept pondering over this issue until the appearance of the group of refugees, including the original owner, presented an opportunity – exchanging half a bag of grain for a wife for Shen Lie.

Mrs. Li thought herself very clever – with no elder brother, why not bring in an elder sister-in-law? Isn't it said that an elder sister-in-law is like a mother?

Unable to separate the two young children, they decided to bring in an older one, and then separate the household – that would work.

Rushing home with this idea, both Mrs. Li and Uncle Shen immediately agreed and swiftly arranged everything. After keeping the new daughter-in-law from the main house for half a month, the separation of the family was scheduled.

The division for the main house was simple: the thatched cottage they built upon first settling in Shi Li Village, a few homemade benches, bed planks, a blanket, old clothes, a bag of grain, a clay pot, three sets of bowls and chopsticks, some farming tools, and a bit of salt.

The most valuable item was the undeveloped mountain land where the thatched cottage stood.

Uncle Shen felt quite generous; after all, mountain land is still land, and he himself was still renting half of his farmland from a wealthy landowner.

Uncle Shen felt quite content with himself for having raised his three nephews over the years and even dividing a mountain top among them in the separation.

As for the fact that this mountain top was one of the two given for free by the government for refugees to cultivate and gather firewood – a share that should have rightfully included Shen Lie – Uncle Shen conveniently forgot.

And the fact that Shen Lie was pushed to the battlefield in his stead and lost his life, along with the promise he made before Shen Lie left to take care of the two younger ones... Uncle Shen and his wife felt that getting a wife for Shen Lie with half a bag of grain and having her raise the children didn’t break their promise.

The two younger children were powerless to resist, and the original owner, who had just been traded in with half a bag of grain and immediately became a widowed niece-in-law, dared not speak up.

The Shen family, having fled famine, had no relatives or elders in the area to exert control or influence. Even though the villagers disapproved of Uncle Shen and his wife’s actions, they had no standing to intervene.

In the end, the family division was indeed recognized.

The original owner, a fifteen-year-old girl unable to shoulder heavy burdens, lived in the mountains with her nine-year-old brother-in-law and sister-in-law for three months, by which time the allocated grain was almost depleted.

Unable to bear the hunger, the two younger ones sought food from Uncle Shen, who would agree, but Mrs. Li’s provisions were limited. She would occasionally give a bit of food, saying ‘times are hard, and since you’ve separated, you shouldn’t always come here for food.’ Even on those occasions, she provided just enough to keep them from starving.

The younger ones were good-hearted. Although the elder sister-in-law appeared out of nowhere, having depended on each other for over three months, they would share whatever food they got with the original owner. Twice a day, the little rice they begged for, boiled with wild vegetables, was their meal.

Before Sang Luo arrived through time travel, the family had been in a near-starvation state for over ten days.

The original owner, already weak from the long journey fleeing famine, was overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. She fell ill and passed away in the middle of the night, awakening as Sang Luo with a new soul.

Even then, Sang Luo couldn’t believe it, tremblingly moving her hand to her heart to feel her heartbeat, then shakily to her thigh, pinching the tender flesh inside her leg with all her might.

Yes, the heartbeat was real, the body temperature was real, the pain from the pinch was real, and the burning hunger and debilitating weakness were definitely real.

She... was truly alive?!

Author's Note:

A light-hearted farming story set in the final years of a fictional dynasty, depicting the everyday survival of common folk in troubled times.