Chapter 1 The Fairy in the Painting Travels Through Time
Shao Yanzhe opened his eyes, and what he saw was a huge spider web between the dark rafters.
"Am I working overtime right now?"
He was somewhat bewildered.
The next moment, a black spider the size of an infant's fist suddenly fell to the ground, its tail silk connected to the web above. The spider bounced back and forth in mid-air, only one meter away from him.
He could clearly see the fine hairs on the black spider's eight legs, the red patterns on its body, and its eight constantly rotating black eyes. In a daze, it seemed as if a flash of red light disappeared.
Their eyes met, and the air seemed to freeze, leaving only the sound of their hearts pounding like drumbeats.
Shao Yanzhe's modern rationality collapsed instantly. His body moved faster than his brain, and he tumbled off the bed. In the process, he seemed to have knocked over something. His bare feet stepped on the cold ground, and as he walked, he stepped on some sticky liquid, but he didn't care to check. He staggered and ran away from the spider.
His eyes swept around, and when he saw the door, his eyes lit up. Without thinking, he almost instinctively ran to the door, opened it, and ran out without even looking back.
He only collapsed to the ground when he reached the gate of the courtyard. He clutched his pounding heart with both hands and gasped for breath, his face blank.
It was at this moment that his vision blurred, his temples throbbed, and a flood of memories that were not his own flashed through his mind.
Unfamiliar faces, fragmented words, increasingly bleak images, despairing emotions, and finally, the dark blue teeth marks on his pale wrist—countless images filled his mind, making him feel as if he had been split in two, one half a modern-day corporate slave, the other an ancient scholar.
Shao Yanzhe gasped for breath, forcibly suppressing those unfamiliar memories, with the modern memories ultimately taking the lead.
His mind cleared instantly, and his eyes widened in shock—he had actually traveled through time!
He even transmigrated into the body of a poor scholar!
"Shao boy! Shao boy! What's wrong with you?"
A somewhat rough male voice rang out, and the owner of the voice strode out from the courtyard next door with an anxious look on his face. He immediately spotted Shao Yanzhe sitting on the ground.
"Oh dear, why are you sitting on the ground? Get up quickly!" The man quickly reached out and helped the person up from the ground.
Shao Yanzhe looked at the man with lingering shock, and quickly found out from the original owner's memories that this person was the original owner's cousin, Shao Heng.
Shao Heng lost both his parents at a young age. Later, the original owner's parents took pity on him and raised him for several years until he was able to support himself before leaving the original owner's family. Therefore, after the original owner's parents passed away, they took good care of the original owner.
"Thank you, Uncle!" He imitated the original owner of the body, clasping his hands together and bowing to Shao Heng to express his gratitude.
"No need, no need!" Shao Heng was a little flustered and quickly changed the subject, "By the way, what happened to you just now? Why are you in such a disheveled state?"
Shao Yanzhe, recalling how terrified he had been by a spider, blushed and looked away, saying somewhat embarrassedly, "It's nothing. I just opened my eyes and saw a spider fall from the roof beam. I didn't react in time and got scared."
Shao Heng was taken aback, and couldn't help but think to himself, "This Shao boy is indeed a scholar who can't even kill a chicken. He's even afraid of a tiny spider."
However, he knew he couldn't say it directly. Shao was always shy, and it wouldn't be good if he got angry.
"It's alright. Spiders are quite scary. Where is that spider? I'll go get it for you and throw it up the mountain."
Upon hearing this, Shao Yanzhe couldn't wait to speak: "On the roof beams of the dormitory!"
Upon hearing this, Shao Heng walked into the courtyard, then through the open door of the house into his bedroom, where he immediately saw the spider hanging above the bed.
He hadn't expected the spider to be so big; even he, let alone Shao Yanzhe, felt a chill run down his spine just looking at it.
But he had already offered to help, so even though he was uneasy, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and find a bamboo basket.
He tiptoed over, quickly put the large spider into the bamboo basket, glanced around to make sure there were no other spiders, swept the spider web down from the roof beam, and then walked out with the bamboo basket.
"How is it, Uncle? Did you catch him?" Shao Yanzhe asked anxiously when he saw Shao Heng come out.
Shaoheng held up the bamboo basket in his hand, saying with no small amount of pride, "Of course I caught it!"
Shao Yanzhe glanced quickly at the bamboo basket, not daring to look at it for long, and repeatedly thanked him, "Thank you, Uncle!"
However, he was a little puzzled. If the spider was gone, why put it in a bamboo basket?
However, in the original owner's memories, the villagers always treated these small animals this way, and he just assumed it was a local custom, so he didn't think much of it.
"No need to thank me. Go inside and rest for a bit. You look really unwell. I'll take this little thing up the mountain, and I've cleaned up the spider webs for you. Don't worry about it coming back."
"Okay, thank you for your trouble, Uncle."
Shao Heng took a few steps and then came back, looking somewhat conflicted, and said, "By the way, I recently heard that several scholars have died at the county academy. If you don't need to, you shouldn't go back to the academy. Anyway, the provincial examination is coming up soon, so you don't need to go to the academy to study. Just stay home and study hard."
"Okay, I understand, Uncle."
Shao Yanzhe could probably understand Shao Heng's thoughts. After all, several people had died in the academy, so it was normal for him to worry about himself.
He watched Shao Heng leave, stood there for a while, and then went into the house. But because he had just been frightened, he really didn't dare to go into the bedroom right now, so he simply sat in the main room.
Suddenly, he looked down at his wrist and noticed two red wounds on it. His arm was also slightly bluish. He then remembered that in the original owner's memory, his wrist was bitten by a spider, and then he came here.
So, the original body was poisoned to death by a spider?
Shao Yanzhe couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy. Some people were bitten by spiders and became Spider-Man, while others were bitten but died.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough; otherwise, he would have died from a spider bite.
Wait! His arm is still bruised. Is there still spider venom in his body?
Thinking of this, he followed the original owner's memories, took out the last five taels of silver and some copper coins from the money box, locked the door and went to the village entrance, where an oxcart was parked under a big tree.
The oxcart is the only way for the village to get to the county town quickly. He doesn't know what's wrong with his body right now, and it would be bad if walking accelerated the invasion of toxins into his body.
Shao Yanzhe quickly stepped forward and asked, "Uncle Li, can you take me to the county clinic now? Here's twenty coins."
He handed the counted copper coins to Uncle Li, who was feeding the oxen. The oxcart could seat ten people, and it cost two coins per person. He planned to charter the oxcart directly, since he couldn't wait any longer in his current situation.
"Great! Let's set off now!" Uncle Li's eyes lit up. His oxcart was rarely full of people, and now he had earned money from ten people at once, which made him very happy.
Shao Yanzhe rode in an oxcart along a fairly wide dirt road. This dirt road led to the county town, about twenty miles from the original owner's village, Qingshan. Shao Yanzhe knew from the original owner's memories that the doctors in the county town's clinic were very skilled, and he wanted the doctors to check if there were any toxins left in his body.
Uncle Li sat on the oxcart, occasionally urging the oxen along while talking to Shao Yanzhe.
"Young man, do you know that several scholars from Wenyuan Academy in the county have died?"
The Wenyuan Academy that Uncle Li mentioned was the academy where the original owner of this body studied.
Shao Yanzhe said, "I know, I just heard it from my uncle."
Uncle Li turned to look at him, a hint of fear still lingering in his eyes: "I heard it was a female ghost causing trouble. Those scholars were fine during the day, but after one night, they died. I heard their deaths were quite gruesome!"
All the flesh and blood were gone, leaving only bare white bones. It was truly a gruesome sight!
After he finished speaking, he looked around, leaned towards Shao Yanzhe, and lowered his voice to say, "Some people also say that the one who did this was a cat demon, and someone saw a black cat on the academy wall."
Seeing Uncle Li's serious expression, Shao Yanzhe couldn't help but chuckle: "These are all rumors, Uncle Li, don't scare yourself. Maybe the murderer spread this news to cover up his crime. There are no ghosts or monsters in this world!"
Uncle Li gave him a strange look, sat up straight, and muttered something under his breath.
Shao Yanzhe didn't hear clearly, and figured it wasn't anything important, so he didn't ask.
With Uncle Li no longer talking to him, he was able to focus his energy on himself.
He was just working overtime, how did he end up time-traveling?
If he had known he would be transported to another world because of working overtime, he would have worked less overtime.
However, it's too late to say anything now; we can only live here in the original body for the time being.
Shao Yanzhe learned from the original owner's memories that the original owner's surname was Shao, given name was Yi, courtesy name Yanzhe, and was preparing for the imperial examination. Because he was worried about whether he could pass the examination and that his family was short of money, and because he was exposed to a cold wind, he fell ill and eventually died from a spider.
Although the original owner was eager to take the imperial examination, he did not intend to continue.
In his past life, Shao Yanzhe, an orphan who grew up in a rural area relying on the kindness of many families, was admitted to a top-tier university and became an elite with an annual salary of 300,000 yuan, all thanks to his academic prowess.
But in the end, he died from overwork and lost everything, so he changed his mind and decided to just let things take their course, since he still had the original owner's five taels of silver left.
Based on the exchange rate between ancient and modern currencies, one wen (a unit of currency) is equivalent to 15 cents in modern currency. A ride would only cost two wen, so the five taels of silver he had should be enough for him to live on for a while.
We'll figure it out later.
Thinking of this, Shao Yanzhe sneered. Taking the imperial examination? Even a dog wouldn't take it!
The dog won't take the exam, but I will!
Let him take the test! Fine, he can take it!
Shao Yanzhe stood at the entrance of the clinic, like a small white flower battered by wind and rain, exuding a desolate air.
He glanced down at the seven packets of herbs he was carrying in his left hand, his pupils trembled, and a hint of heartache was revealed as his eyelashes fluttered slightly.
These seven packets of herbs cost him five taels of silver!
Oh, no, that's not right either. At least he was left with five coins.
He! A dignified transmigrator, turned into a penniless pauper with only five coins on his very first day!
With only five coins left in his pocket, Shao Yanzhe began to ponder. Given the original owner's current physical condition, he certainly couldn't do strenuous work to earn money in the short term.
The original owner of this body is already a student of the lowest level, and the next step is to take the imperial examination to become a scholar.
The provincial examination is in August, and it's mid-July now. If he can pass the provincial examination and become a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the lowest level of the imperial examinations), he can receive one tael of silver and four dou of rice every month, which is more than enough for him to eat and drink.
Shao Yanzhe was instantly intrigued. It was just taking the imperial examination to become a scholar, wasn't it?
He took the exam!
Having solved his survival problem, he instantly perked up and finally had the energy to look around.
The street he was on was lined with stalls selling food and various trinkets. These stalls looked very novel to him, something he had never seen in modern times.
Passing by a stall selling fried small fish, Shao Yanzhe couldn't resist and spent his last five coins to buy a bag of fried small fish.
"It's alright, it's alright. We still have some food at home, enough to last for more than half a month. We won't starve even if we don't have money."
He comforted himself, took the small fried fish with a satisfied look on his face. The domineering aroma kept wafting into his nose, making him want to take a bite immediately, but he was too embarrassed to do so in front of others, so he held back.
Shao Yanzhe couldn't help but feel a little glad that he had told Uncle Li not to wait for him before going to the clinic, otherwise it would have been awkward.
Suddenly, he stopped moving; he seemed to have just seen something.
He looked back and met a pair of wary cat eyes. The colors of the cat eyes were very special; the left pupil was gold and the right one was black, making them look quite unique.
Especially noteworthy is the cat's black fur, with only a small tuft of golden hair at the tip of its tail. Its overall fur looks glossy and shiny, like a fine piece of black silk, making one want to reach out and touch it.
Shao Yanzhe's eyes lit up instantly, and he looked at the black cat with a desire to pet it.
He looked around but didn't see anyone who resembled the black cat's owner.
However, he noticed that pedestrians on the street would subconsciously keep their distance from the black cat when they passed by, and occasionally even showed a slight look of fear.
Shao Yanzhe was a little surprised. He remembered that in ancient times, black cats were called "mysterious cats" and were said to be "a talisman against evil spirits, easy to place in the south, and suitable for all descendants." This was completely different from the ominous image they were associated with in modern times.
So why are those people so afraid of this black cat?
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