Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"The actor is in position!"

With the confirmation call, the Lavia crew began to exert force. Shen Yuan had a fear of heights. Seeing the camera already aimed at him, he could only desperately suppress the panic rising in his heart.

His professional acting skills allowed him to smoothly deliver his lines even though his mind was blank.

This scene absolutely had to be done in one take!

If he had to do it again, he was afraid his excessive fear might cause his heart to stop, scaring him to death.

"Demon! This time next year will be the anniversary of your death!"

Shen Yuan, clad in ethereal, flowing robes, was suspended in mid-air. He lunged with a long sword held in one hand. As he recited his lines, he thought he heard a strange sound. By the time he reacted, he was already out of control and plummeting.

The moment he realized he was falling, Shen Yuan thought, *Please don't let me die! I haven't celebrated my younger siblings' tenth birthdays at the orphanage yet.*

...

The State of Wu, Shuiwan Town, Dashu Village.

Inside a yellow mud and thatch hut nestled at the foot of a mountain, there were three children who looked like little beggars. One of them held a small infant wrapped in rags.

The children huddled together tightly, like kittens without their mother cat in winter. The grime on their faces couldn't hide their worry and fear as they timidly looked at the frail young man lying on the dilapidated wooden door plank used as a bed.

A deathly stillness filled the room.

A boy with messy, bird's-nest hair trembled as he reached out to check for breath under the youth's nose. Then he pressed his small face against the youth's chest. After a moment of stunned disbelief, his mouth quivered, and he burst into panicked, frightened sobs. "Wuwuwu... Big Brother isn't breathing..."

Another child's eyes widened at the words, his lips losing all color. He hurriedly shook the lying youth, pleading, "Big Brother! Big Brother, don't die! Don't die, okay, Big Brother?"

The child holding the infant clutched the little sister in his arms tighter, weeping softly with choked sobs. "Big Brother... wuwuwu..."

All three children started crying. The infant in the swaddle, stirred by the crying, opened its mouth wide, gathered strength for a moment, and began to wail. "Wuwuwu... Wawawawa!"

The three big ones and the little one cried into a chaotic mess, utterly heartbroken. An aura of despair hung in the room.

Shen Yuan felt surrounded by darkness, unable to see or hear anything. His whole being seemed to be in a state of suspension.

He couldn't discern any direction and could only drift in place.

Suddenly, he heard a loud cry. The sound rose from low to high, then fell again. Faintly, there were other fragmented sobs.

These cries gave him direction. Shen Yuan moved closer toward the source of the sound. Gradually, a faint light appeared before his eyes.

Shen Yuan was incredibly excited and strained even harder toward the light.

A fierce white light suddenly flashed. Shen Yuan squeezed his eyes shut.

When he opened them again, he saw three skinny, filthy children holding a small infant, crying around him. The children wept with utter grief. Their faces, unwashed for a long time, had accumulated black grime now streaked with obvious white trails washed clean by tears.

Shen Yuan lifted his eyelids halfway, weakly surveying his surroundings. He looked at the unfamiliar children and the destitute, leaky-roofed, drafty thatched hut. Thinking of the concepts of transmigration and rebirth often seen in web novels, he realized exactly what had happened.

He inwardly wailed: *Heavens, where on earth have you sent me?!*

No matter how he looked at it, this was a disastrous starting point. He felt like crying too.

The children were immersed in the sorrow and despair of their big brother's death, crying uncontrollably. Their tears blurred their vision. Combined with Shen Yuan's extreme physical exhaustion and low mental energy—his eyes only half-open—the children hadn't noticed he was awake.

If they kept crying like this, these kitten-like kids were probably going to faint.

Shen Yuan raised his hand and patted the back of the hand of the little one closest to him. The weather was still cold, and the child's rags didn't even cover his forearms. His arms were thin and black, like dried twigs.

"Don't... cry."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Shen Yuan passed out again.

The little one whose hand was patted abruptly stopped crying. He looked down at the large hand covering the back of his own.

Surprised, he used the back of his hand to wipe the tears from his face, instantly turning his thin little face into that of a messy kitten.

Coming to his senses, his heart in his throat, he repeated the previous routine. He reached out to check for breath first, then pressed his small face against the chest, listening quietly.

After a moment, he exclaimed excitedly, a snot bubble popping out. "Third Brother, Fourth Brother! Big Brother is alive!"

The little messy-faced one called Third Brother widened his big, wet-lashed eyes, craned his neck, and stood on tiptoe to look at the person lying on the door plank. He asked cautiously, "Second Brother, is Big Brother... not dead anymore?"

Fourth Brother, holding the little baby in his arms, his eyes still red and tearful, continued to sob softly to the still-wailing infant. "Big Brother... wuwuwu..."

"Big Brother is alive! He's not dead! That's great!" The bird's-nest-haired boy was so happy he wanted to spin in place. But looking around the empty house and remembering that Big Brother had barely eaten anything for three days before 'dying' and would surely be hungry upon waking, he said to his two younger brothers, "Third Brother, Fourth Brother, you stay home and take good care of Big Brother and Fifth Sister. I'll go to the village to borrow some grain."

Having said that, the bird's-nest-haired boy stood up, feeling momentarily dizzy and lightheaded.

Shaking off the discomfort, he left the thatched hut without looking back. The two younger brothers left behind, holding their still-howling sister, looked at each other, their eyes filled with worry.

After Shen Yuan fainted, many memory images flooded his mind.

Based on the memory fragments, the dynasty he had transmigrated into had no record in history. If one had to find a similar period, it more closely resembled the Warring States period.

The various states were constantly at war with each other, and there were also many internal conflicts within each country.

The state he was in was called Wu. Five years ago, it was still at war with several neighboring countries. Before the external threats had settled, internal strife erupted.

The previous emperor suddenly fell gravely ill and passed away. Because no crown prince had been appointed, a bloody struggle for the throne began.

The result was that all potential heirs from the royal family died. Finally, a prince who had been living among the common people was found. Before Wu could descend into complete chaos, he was formally invested and ascended the throne in just three short days.

Fortunately, this new emperor was a decisive and ruthless character who quickly consolidated his position, stabilizing the turbulent state somewhat.

Otherwise, Shen Yuan could hardly imagine how one could survive here.

During the previous wars, all the able-bodied men from the village had been conscripted to fight. Not a single one had sent back any news.

The village was left with only the elderly, the weak, women, and children.

Later, taxes and grain were levied to support the army. The village ran out of food. It wasn't just the village; even the town and the county had none.

Due to internal and external troubles, the State of Wu levied taxes and grain everywhere to feed its soldiers. The able-bodied men were taken away, leaving only the vulnerable to farm the land.

But they weren't allowed to eat their fill. Without enough food, they had no strength to work. Over time, no one tended the crops, leading to a chronic grain shortage. It had even reached the point where people were exchanging children for food.

In such an environment, the original family of over ten people had died or scattered.

The elderly Shen couple had three sons and one daughter.

Of the three sons, only the eldest was married. The second son, the third daughter, and the youngest son were all unmarried.

Later, the eldest son—the original host's father—and the second son were conscripted. In this chaotic world, Grandma Shen, in order to spare the family one mouth to feed, ventured alone into the deep mountains, never to return.

The original host's mother was pregnant with another child. Driven mad by hunger, she grabbed dirt and stuffed it into her mouth. Seeing this, Grandpa Shen risked his life fishing in the river. Worn half to death, he finally managed to catch one, only to be apprehended by the landowner's guards.

Grandpa was exhausted, starving, and in poor health. After being struck twice by the guards, he didn't survive.

At the moment of his death, he was still clutching that hard-won fish tightly in his arms.

In the end, he failed to get it home and even lost his own life.

After Grandpa Shen's death, the Shen family was left with only the original host's pregnant mother, Third Aunt Shen, and Uncle Shen.

The family cupboard was bare. Coincidentally, a suitor came for Third Aunt Shen. She bargained for some silver and grain, and even left all the wedding attire provided by the groom's family for the house. She herself wore a set of tattered clothes and followed the wedding procession away.

Thanks to the bride-price from Third Aunt Shen's marriage, the family scraped by a while longer.

Later, the original host's mother went into labor and had a difficult birth. After the child was born, she suffered a massive hemorrhage and died in childbirth.

Uncle Shen looked at the five children, gritted his teeth, and stuck a piece of grass in his hair (a sign that he was for sale). He went to town and knelt with his sister-in-law's body.

He sold himself, buried his sister-in-law, and left the remaining silver—their final means of survival—to the five children.

The original host became the eldest in the family, shouldering the responsibility of the head of the household. To care for his younger siblings, he scrimped and saved, doing all kinds of dirty and exhausting work.

But in this world, manual labor was worth next to nothing. No matter how much he worked, he could never earn enough.

The newborn had no mother's milk to drink and had to be kept alive with rice soup. For the first two months, it was white rice soup; later, the baby had to make do with millet soup. Grain was prohibitively expensive, and no matter how frugal they were, the family soon ran out of money, and the grain jar was scraping bottom.

Today, the original host succumbed to overwork and chronic starvation.

It was unclear whether he died of hunger or exhaustion.

Shen Yuan, a soul from a later era, took over the body and came back to life.

The four children he saw when he opened his eyes were all the original host's own younger brothers and sister.

Shen Dong, Shen Xi, Shen Nan, and Shen Bei.

In his memories, the original host shared the same name as Shen Yuan.

The name had been given by a traveling Taoist priest. He said it was a fate marked by great wealth and nobility, and that the boy had a celestial affinity. The Shen family was delighted to hear this and even gave the priest a piece of flatbread.

However, the villagers didn't believe it, saying straight out that the Shens had been deceived by the priest's sweet talk.

But who doesn't like to hear good words? At that time, life was still relatively comfortable and there were no wars. They’d been cheated out of a pancake, but so what? It didn't matter much.

From these memories, Shen Yuan could easily see that the common folk here were largely illiterate.

Official schools were places only for the scions of noble houses. For commoners to become literate, they needed an itinerant scholar to be kind enough to teach them, a family tradition of learning, or to participate in the selection of low-level officials, where the government would provide basic training to help them recognize a few characters.

In a village full of names like Erdan, Daniu, and Huaya (common rustic names), even names like Dong, Xi, Nan, and Bei sounded quite pleasant and distinctive.

After fully accepting the original host's memories spanning just over a decade, Shen Yuan felt as if he had been unconscious for a long time, but in reality, it had only been half an hour.

Opening his eyes, Shen Yuan struggled with difficulty to sit up.

Shen Xi and Shen Nan, who were watching over him, immediately crowded around, looking up at Shen Yuan nervously.

Shen Xi tugged at Shen Yuan's worn-out hemp sleeve with his small hand, his voice still shaky from crying, "Big Brother, are you uncomfortable anywhere? Let Third Brother rub it for you."

Shen Nan, holding the infant Shen Bei in his arms, pressed his face close to little Shen Bei's, nodding timidly and agreeing softly, "Big Brother, what Third Brother says is right."

As for Shen Bei, he stared at Shen Yuan, sucking on his finger.

Looking at the three children before him, Shen Yuan heaved a soft sigh.

Even the original host was just a sixteen-year-old youth. Shen Dong was nine, Shen Xi was seven, Shen Nan was six, and Shen Bei was only six months old—not even a year old.

If he hadn't possessed Shen Yuan's body, in a house without a single grown-up, with only three children under ten and an infant in swaddling clothes, in a country that had just undergone a violent change of regime and where peace with surrounding nations had only lasted five years, they would have had no hope of survival.

Shen Yuan looked around at the dilapidated thatched hut and these turbulent times. Could he really survive in this world?

As a soul from another world, Shen Yuan couldn't help but feel some panic after understanding this reality.

No one knew when war would come again.

But when Shen Yuan looked down and saw the three children gazing up at him with round, bright eyes like black grapes, he inevitably thought of the younger brothers and sisters in the orphanage and his own past life there.

Shen Yuan had known since childhood that he was an unwanted blade of grass.

But what’s so bad about that? It is tenacious, able to survive even in the harshest conditions.

Shen Yuan wanted to live.

Having been granted a new life, what did it matter if the starting conditions were terrible?

No matter what this world was like, he would find a way to take root and survive.

Not only would he live well here himself, but he would also care for the younger siblings left behind. Since he was using this person's body and identity, taking care of them was his responsibility.

Having fully accepted the memories and determined to strive to survive, Shen Yuan eased the panic of crossing into another world.

His mind became much clearer, his spirit less tense, and he finally felt the burning pain in his stomach.

Hungry.

He was really too hungry.

Everything else could be thought about later. The first order of business was to get some food in him to stay alive.

He mustn't starve to death again.

***

Author's Note:

Let me explain this in advance:

Ancient times were different from modern times. Ancient society was primarily based on an agrarian economy, relying on pure manual labor. "More people make farming easier." Having many children was a means to increase manpower and wealth. Additionally, the child mortality rate among ordinary people in ancient times was extremely high. They didn't know if a child would ultimately survive for long. To ensure the family had sufficient manpower, they could only have many children. This was the only path ordinary people could take back then.

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Therefore, we cannot view ancient times with the modern mindset of "why have children if you're poor."

Readers who cannot accept this point can stop at this chapter. Although this point won't be heavily emphasized, the protagonist does indeed have four younger siblings [facepalm and laugh-cry emoji].