Chapter 1
I’m so hungry…
Can a person still feel hungry after he dies?
This thought flashed through Sang Luo's mind while she was drowsy. She didn't know how long it had passed before the uncomfortable feeling of being so hungry that her stomach was sticking to her back finally woke her up.
The moonlight shone into the room like silver frost. She was a little confused. After a moment of confusion, she realized that she seemed to be dead? But, the underworld doesn't look like this, right?
Although it was night, I could still see clearly in the moonlight that I was in a completely unfamiliar house.
She moved her fingertips and felt the condition of her body between breaths. Although she felt a little weak, she did not feel the pain of illness. She gathered some strength and raised her hand to her heart. Her skin was warm and her heartbeat was not strong but it was there.
Is she still alive?
As this thought came to her mind, something inexplicably popped up in her head. With a burst of intense pain, Sang Luo arched her body and subconsciously hugged her head. The memories of another person and her own were fused and stirred. When she finally received those memories and realized that she had traveled through time, she was already sweating coldly from the pain.
Sang Luo supported herself on the bed and struggled to sit up. She looked at the thatched cottage in her "memory" in the moonlight. The scene before her was exactly the same as in her "memory".
She traveled through time and space to a dynasty called Daqian Dynasty. The original owner of this body was also called Sang Luo, 15 years old, born in a commoner family. Due to the flood in her hometown, her parents and brothers all died, and she was the only one who survived by chance and fled with her tribe.
By the time they fled to the territory of Qiyang County, most of the people in the tribe had already run out of food and money. They could only beg as they traveled south. When they came across mountain villages and wild fields, they would go into the mountains to pick wild fruits and vegetables to fill their stomachs.
But after fleeing famine for months, most people could no longer endure the physical strain, and selling children gradually became a common practice, to give their children a chance to survive, and also to give their family members a chance to survive.
The original body had no family, but when passing through Qingpu Township, he met Li who wanted to buy a wife for his nephew.
I heard that Li's nephew is named Chenlie, tall and strong, not a gambler and not disabled, but he is currently serving in the army and has not returned yet.
Although marrying a farmer meant serving in the military and there was a risk of not being able to return, it was better than selling herself as a slave. What's more, she really had nowhere to go. Her aunt who had taken good care of her along the way happened to be seriously ill and weak. She gritted her teeth and found Li, who was still asking for the price. She did not sell herself, and instead gave herself to the Shen family as a daughter-in-law in exchange for half a bag of rations.
He gave all the food rations to his uncle and aunt, and followed Li back to Shili Village.
Li was much more proactive than Sang Luo. Although this person was not bought and she did not have a deed in her hands, she spent little money, just half a bag of grain, and not a penny more.
When she returned to the village, she asked her man to find the head of the village and transfer her household registration to the Shen family. She also quickly got the marriage certificate for her and Shen Lie.
It was at that time that the original body found out that her so-called husband had been serving in the military for two years and three months and had not returned. She heard that he had died in a war.
In other words, the original person had just married and had become a widow.
Although the original body was terrified and confused, it had no other choice. It was better than continuing to beg in exile or being sold as a slave in the future or facing a worse situation. At least he had a "home".
As for why Li wanted to find a wife for Chen Lie even though he was already dead, the original person's doubts were resolved after he lived in the Shen family for half a month.
When the Shen family split up, she, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Shen family, and Shen Lie's two nine-year-old twin siblings were separated.
Only then did the original body understand the purpose of her return in exchange for half a bag of grain from Third Aunt Li.
Get rid of the burden openly and honestly.
The Dagan Dynasty had been at war for years, and in the past decade or so, floods, droughts, and other natural and man-made disasters had come one after another, making life difficult for the people. The Shen family fled here nine years ago to escape famine. More than half of the family members died on the way, either because they were trying to protect their family members or because they could not stand the illness and hunger.
Of the three branches of the Shen family, only nine-year-old Shen Lie and his mother Zhang, who gave birth to twins on the way, were left from the first branch. Zhang also died a few days after giving birth. No one from the second branch survived. The third branch's couple were newly married and had no children. They had to confine their food and water to themselves, but both husband and wife survived.
The three children of the eldest son lived with their uncle and aunt from then on.
At first, it was fine. Later, they settled in Shili Village. Li had two children in three years and four in seven years, three sons and one daughter. When she had her own children, she naturally gave birth to her own children first. After the birth of the first child of the third room, the three children of the eldest room had a hard time.
Fortunately, although Shen Lie was young, he was capable enough to take care of his younger brothers and sisters. Perhaps because his parents were both tall, Shen Lie grew older and resembled his father. He was much taller than his peers and could be used as a strong laborer at the age of twelve or thirteen. Uncle Shen and Li took advantage of this and continued to raise the two young nephews and nieces.
The twists and turns came two years ago when the imperial court recruited soldiers. The person who best met the requirements in the Shen family was actually Uncle Shen, the head of the family. But would Uncle Shen dare to go to the battlefield? He wouldn't dare to do that even if he was beaten to death!
Without much struggle, Shen San set his sights on his nephew Shen Lie, who was already sixteen years old. Without telling Shen Lie, he went to the village head to make arrangements, and the name he reported became Shen Lie's.
Who asked the eldest and third houses not to separate? As the head of the household, Uncle Shen San can certainly be the boss of the family.
When Chen Lie came back from the mountains, he was forcibly taken away by the conscription officers before he could figure out the situation.
After Chen Lie left, the twins had a hard time. At first, it was okay, because they were worried about Chen Lie and felt guilty. But a few months ago, some soldiers from the neighboring village returned from military service and brought back news that the front line was defeated, only three out of ten soldiers survived, and the battalion where Chen Lie was was said to have been completely wiped out.
After Shen Lie's death, Li was unwilling to continue raising the twins, and the court didn't even have a penny for compensation, which made Li even more angry. At first, she was worried that the news was inaccurate. After waiting for a long time, everyone who could come back came back, but there was no news from Shen Lie. Li became bolder and her mind became crooked.
The Shen family has only been rooted here for nine years. Although they have reclaimed a few acres of land, it is limited. Most of the land they cultivate now is still tenanted. Apart from the rent and various taxes to be paid, life is already difficult.
Li has four children of her own, a family of six, who are supported by Shen San alone. It is difficult for them to get enough food. Add the two children from the eldest wife, that makes eight mouths to feed.
With two more mouths to feed, how much less will her children have to eat?
Although Li was tempted, Chen Lie was only sixteen years old when he was conscripted. His sixteen-year-old nephew was pushed out by his own uncle to help serve in the army, and now he died on the battlefield...
Even if the couple wanted to leave the two younger ones in the eldest house behind, they didn't dare to do it. Not to mention that they would be criticized by the villagers, even Shen San himself was afraid that he would not dare to see his brother in the afterlife.
These two children can’t be left behind. If they are left behind, they will starve to death.
She was not happy to keep him, and she wanted to get rid of him, but she had no way to do so. She could only think about it every day. It was not until the refugees of the original body appeared in the village that Li saw the opportunity and exchanged half a bag of grain for a wife for Chen Lie.
Li felt that she was very clever. Without her eldest brother, why not get an eldest sister-in-law? Is it true that an eldest sister-in-law is like a mother?
There are only two small ones that cannot be divided up, so why not marry an older one and divide them up, isn't that enough?
Rushed home and told Shen Sanyi about this idea, and the couple hit it off immediately! They quickly got the matter done, and then let the new daughter-in-law of the eldest house live at home for half a month, and the separation of the family was put on the agenda.
The things distributed to the eldest family were also simple. When they first came to settle in Shili Village, they built a thatched house in the mountains, with a few benches they made themselves, a few bed boards, a quilt, some old clothes, a bag of grain, a clay pot, three sets of bowls and chopsticks, a few farm tools and some salt.
The most valuable piece of land is the uncultivated mountain where the thatched house is located.
Shen San felt that he was quite kind. Aren't mountain lands land? Half of the land he was cultivating was rented from a large household.
After raising three nephews for all these years and giving them a piece of the mountain when the family was divided, Shen San felt that he had done well enough.
As for this hill, it was one of the two hills given free by the government when the refugees settled there, for land reclamation and firewood collection, so Shen Lie should have had a share, but Shen San chose to forget about it.
And Shen Lie was pushed out by him to fight in the battlefield and lost his life, and before Shen Lie left, he promised to raise the two children... Shen San and his wife felt that if they spent half a bag of rations to find a wife for Shen Lie and let Shen Lie's wife raise the children, it would not be considered a breach of promise.
The two younger ones were powerless to resist, and the niece-in-law, who had just been exchanged for half a bag of grain and had become a widow as soon as she entered the house, dared not say a word.
The Shen family fled here to escape famine. They have no clan or relatives here, and no elders to suppress and control them. Even if the villagers think that what the Shen couple did was ugly, they have no right to say anything.
In the end, this division of the family was actually accepted.
The original body was a fifteen-year-old girl who could not carry anything on her shoulders or hands. She lived in the mountains with her nine-year-old brother-in-law and sister-in-law for three months, and the food they were allocated was almost gone.
The two little ones were so hungry that they went to the village to ask their uncle for food. Shen San would nod his head, but Li would give them limited food. If she threw a basket of food saying, "Life is difficult at home. Now that we have divided the money, it's not good for you to always come here to ask for food," she would only give them food two times out of five. Even those two times, it was only enough for the two little ones to have a bite, just to fill them up a little and not starve to death.
The two little ones were quite thoughtful. Although they were the eldest sister-in-law who appeared out of nowhere, they had been dependent on each other for more than three months. Whenever they got food, they would bring it back and eat together with the original one. They had two meals a day, and the two mouthfuls of rice they begged for plus some wild vegetables boiled in water constituted a meal.
Before Sang Luo traveled through time, the family had been half-out of food for more than ten days.
The original body had been fleeing from famine, and his body was already very weak. In addition, he was frightened every day, and he felt dizzy and light-headed for two days, and then he fell ill. Due to the combination of illness and hunger, he died in the middle of the night, and the next thing he woke up was Sang Luo with a changed core.
Sang Luo still couldn't believe it at this time. She moved her trembling hands to her chest, felt her own heartbeat, then moved her trembling hands to her thighs and pinched the tender flesh on the inside of her thighs with all her strength.
Yes, the heartbeat is real, the body temperature is real, the pain from pinching is real, and the uncomfortable feeling of heartburn and exhaustion from hunger is also real.
She... is really alive?!
The author has something to say:
A light-hearted farming novel, set in the last years of a fictional dynasty, describing the daily survival of the common people in troubled times.
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