Chapter 1
Cheap Transmigration
Drip! Drop!
Du Xiao Li felt there was something dripping on her own face. She reached out and lightly touched her face, a wet feeling.
Could it be the roof was leaking? In a bit, I’ll go tell management. Du Xiao Li thought, then hazily was about to fall asleep again.
Wrong! She clearly was sent up to heaven by a bomb. How could she still be sleeping on a bed?!
Du Xiao Li opened her eyes and sat up, but then felt dizzy and disoriented, feeling stuffy and nauseous inside. A stream of memories went through her mind. She quickly closed her eyes, waiting for the dizziness to pa.s.s, before slowly opening her eyes again.
‘The heavens didn’t abandon me!’ This was Du Xiao Li’s first thought.
The heavens opened the windows for you, then immediately shut your door! This was Du Xiao Li’s second thought.
The past life’s her was indeed already dead. She’d reincarnated by possessing a seven year old girl’s body that had the same name and surname. This can be considered the second life given to her by the heavens.
But—-
The original host was starved to death!
Looking at the scene before her, the corner of Du Xiao Li’s mouth couldn’t help twitching. With only four bare walls for a home? Washed in poverty? These all weren’t enough to describe the current situation she was in!
Where did the door of this house go?
Where did the holes on the mud wall come from?
This pile of straw underneath was the so called bed?
Aside from the ceiling, the dark skies can be directly seen in all the other areas. This is to have the sky as the hut?
The rainwater directly fell into the house, soaking the straw pile below. Just what is this!?
Du Xiao Li rubbed her temples. She’d always believed that her ability to adapt was exceedingly strong, but facing this kind of situation, she still needed some time to take it all in.
She lied down once more and had the memories in her head properly sorted through once. She discovered that she already couldn’t use speechlessness to describe her current mood.
Her current whereabouts was a small mountain village, one among the numerous small mountain villages under Zhou county. And what was above Zhou county, she didn’t know, because this body’s original owner has never left this small mountain village before. But she knew that the country they belonged to was called Feng Ming[1].
“Feng Ming? Was there such a country in history? Could it be that the force of the blast from the bomb blew me into a s.p.a.ce-time vortex, and I arrived at a completely nonexistent dynasty?” Du Xiao Li sighed and continued to sort through the memories in her head.
This original host had the same name as her, and had just turned seven a month ago. She has a ten year old older brother, Du Xiu Heng, and they mutually depended on one another for survival. Their father Du Hai, in that year when Du Xiao Li was three, while cutting wood in the backside of the mountain, fell off a cliff to his death. And a month ago, their mother Su Su Xin also pa.s.sed away due to illness.
When Du Hai was younger, he’d once gone to the city to work before, but he didn’t earn much money. After returning to the countryside, he relied on planting crops to survive. The family’s financial situation wasn’t well at all. After Du Hai died, the family practically lost their source of income, completely relying on selling some of their mother’s needlework in the city, and get some copper coins in exchange to get by the days. Afterwards, their mother became ill, and all the money in the family was spent. Things that could be sold were all sold. Then, left with no other option, Du Xiu Heng went and borrowed money from the villagers for their mother to see a doctor. Because of this, they owed quite a lot of people money.
Du Hai ranked number two, and had an elder brother, Du Fu, and two younger brothers, Du Xiang, and Du Ping. Eldest uncle Du Fu was the richest person in the village. In the beginning, when they were treating their mother’s illness, they borrowed quite a bit of money from eldest uncle’s family. Afterwards, their mother died from illness. Right after she was buried, eldest uncle kicked Du Xiao Li and her brother out of their home, saying that the house was used to pay off their debt. Their fertile land was also forcibly sold, and he even used that money to pay back the villagers without their permission.
Fortunately, halfway up the mountain, there was a worn out house that n.o.body was interested in for the siblings to temporarily stay in.
The two who were swept out of the door didn’t have a cent on them. Aside from this house that probably even beggars would look down on, the two of them didn’t have anything else. Luckily, their former neighbors took pity on them, and gave them a chipped pot and a pouch of food. Using rocks, Du Xiu Heng set up a small kitchen stove outside, normally using that pot to cook some porridge or wild vegetables. This was how the two was able to survive for this many days.
In the past, Du Xiu Heng didn’t concern himself with the family’s living expenses, only burying his head in his studies. But now, for the sake of survival, he could only put down the books and chop firewood from the mountains to sell in the marketplace to support his younger sister.
But lately, there’s been heavy rain in succession for the last few days, and Du Xiu Heng wasn’t able to go to the mountain to chop wood. The two gradually ran out of food. And in addition to the gloomy rainy weather, without any warm winter clothes for the cold, Du Xiao Li fell ill. Moreover, she was unwilling to eat the wild vegetables that Du Xiu Heng prepared for her. Just like that after falling ill for three days, she breathed her last breath.
Du Xiao Li thought back to the former host’s short life, and couldn’t help but sigh. This really was to have the personality of a n.o.ble miss but didn’t have the life of one!
“You’re better off than me. At least you still have an older brother you can rely on!” Du Xiao Li sighed in lament.
She raised her own little hands before her eyes, looking at her fingers like withered branches, and patted her face. Finally was she convinced that she’d really transmigrated, and moreover even transmigrated onto a body of a little girl.
“This is wanting me to relive another childhood? Whatever, a little girl it is then. In the future, I am you.” Du Xiao Li quietly thought to herself. Unable to resist the body’s weak condition, she fell into deep sleep again.
Since it has come to this, we should make peace with it. In her past incarnation, although her life wasn’t considered long, it was very rough. Perhaps this is the heavens seeing that she hated her past life, thus once again arranged another life for her.
This time, she didn’t know how long she slept. Just as someone stepped into the room, Du Xiao Li woke up. Judging by the sound of the footsteps, the age wasn’t very big, should be the former host’s older brother, Du Xiu Heng.
“Younger sister, get up to drink medicine.” Du Xiu Heng carried over a worn out bowl to the straw pile, and shouted to the pretending to sleep Du Xiao Li.
“Younger sister, although this medicine is a bit bitter, it’s good for your body. You’re currently sick, you can’t get better if you don’t eat medicine.” Du Xiu Heng, seeing that Du Xiao Li was unwilling to get up, thought that she was still disdaining the taste of this medicine, thus he urged.
Du Xiao Li thought for moment. It seems the former host previously really hated this bitter medicine taste, having slapped away the medicine that Du Xiu Heng had obtained with great difficulty, innocently wasting the money.
Du Xiao Li opened her eyes, but she didn’t have the strength to get up. Du Xiu Heng instead thought that she was still unwilling and thus said, “Be good and drink this. In a while big brother will make rice porridge for you alright?”
Du Xiao Li gazed up to Du Xiu Heng and said in a weak voice, “Big brother, I don’t have the strength.”
Finally did Du Xiu Heng realize and placed the bowl to the side, not letting the rain drip in as much as possible. Afterwards, he leaned down and helped Du Xiao Li up, leaning her against himself. With his spare hand, he lifted the medicine bowl and placed it against her mouth, letting her drink it down from his hands.
As soon as Du Xiao Li smelled the medicine, she just knew it wasn’t made from any good medicinal ingredients. But taking the current situation into considerations, it was still better than nothing. Furthermore, for a doctor who’s frequently soaked in medicinal concoction, the smell of traditional herbal medicine is very pleasant smelling.
Seeing that Du Xiao Li drank all of the medicine, Du Xiu Heng laid her back down, saying, “Rest for a bit first, I’ll go make porridge for you.”
“Big brother, aren’t we out of rice? How are you going to make porridge?” Du Xiao Li asked.
Di Xiu Heng’s figure paused, then said with a smile, “Big brother went and borrowed a bit of rice from them.”
“You went to eldest uncle’s family to borrow right? Did eldest aunt make it difficult for you again?” Du Xiao Li said. Right now it was precisely when ‘yellow didn’t reach green'[2], aside from eldest uncle’s family, who else would have stocks of rice?
Du Xiu Heng didn’t expect that Du Xiao Li would guess correctly, “She didn’t make it difficult for me that much, just said a few words. Besides, we have rice now. I’ll go put away the medicine remains first, then cook porridge for you afterwards.”
Du Xiao Li remembered that there essentially weren’t any places to shelter from the rain outside. Originally, their so called kitchen also had a temporarily built shelter to block the rain, but last time when eldest aunt came, she ‘accidentally’ broke that shelter. If someone were to crouch under there to cook porridge, then they couldn’t even straightened their body.
“Big brother, go move some rocks in. Afterwards, set up a temporary stove in the house and just cook the porridge here. It’s currently raining outside after all.” Du Xiao Li suggested.
“But weren’t you unable to get used to the smell of the firewood?” Du Xiu Heng asked.
“But isn’t it cold now, if you cook it inside, then the room can still warm up a bit.” Du Xiao Li closed her eyes as she finished saying this. Whether or not he will come in, she already couldn’t bother with, because she once again sank into a half-dreaming half-conscious state.
Perhaps it was because of that medicine, or perhaps because the body was too weak, Du Xiao Li didn’t wake up in between. By the time she opened her eyes once again, the sky was already bright.
The rain was still falling nonstop. She pulled the thin worn out quilt on her, sighing at the rotten weather and this leaking on all sides house.
Perhaps because of that bowl of medicine from last night, her body improved quite a bit. At least, she was able to sit up on her own. Just as she sat up, she saw Du Xiu Heng come in from the outside, holding a broken umbrella, and his clothes drenched in some areas.
“Younger sister, you’re awake.” Seeing that Du Xiao Li was already awake, Du Xiu Heng closed the umbrella and placed it by the door. Afterwards, he placed a bag in a clean spot in the room and said, “I’ll go warm up the medicine for you first, then afterwards warm the porridge for you.”
After saying this, Du Xiu Heng began busily working in the room, placing the pot on the stove, and starting the fire. Looks like he was already quite familiar with it.
Du Xiao Li finally noticed that Du Xiu Heng really did set up a small temporary stove in the room. The medicine had already been cook, and was just simply warmed up. He carried the medicine to Du Xiao Li, and afterwards, took the pot out to wash it, then he poured a bowl of porridge in to cook.
Du Xiao Li drank the medicine and felt that this body really was very weak. Even something as simple as drinking medicine made the body sweat in exhaustion.
“Last night, after I’d made the porridge, I saw that you were sleeping really deeply and thought the medicine was taking effect, so I didn’t wake you. You should be hungry now right? This porridge will be done in a bit. Once you finish drinking you’re medicine, you’ll be able to drink it.” Du Xiu Heng said.
Very soon, the so called porridge was also placed into Du Xiao Li’s hands. She looked at this ‘clear to the point that it could be used to raise goldfish’ porridge. Sighing inside, just how poor were they!?
Because it was cooked in the same pot, the porridge carried a medicine taste. She rubbed her stomach, indeed she was hungry. In a few mouthfuls, she cleanly finished this bowl of porridge. By the time she finished, she finally remembered to ask Du Xiu Heng, “Big brother, did you eat yet?”
Du Xiu Heng somewhat averted his gaze, smiling as he said, “I already ate. When I’d gone out just now, I looked at the sky. This rain should be stopping in a few days. Wait until the skies clear up, I’ll go chop some more wood in the mountains and exchange it for some money to buy meat to make meat porridge for you.”
Du Xiao Li looked to the wild vegetables placed by the pot and went silent for a bit, “Big brother, what were you doing eariler?”
“Oh, I went to Doctor Niu’s place earlier. Your medicine ran out, so I went to go find him to see if he can replenish your medicine. You just drank your medicine, so sleep some more.” Du Xiu Heng answered her question as he took care of the two bowls Du Xiao Li had just used. His voice was rather cheerful, probably because Doctor Niu had replenished the medicine for him.
Du Xiao Li nodded, and lied down, closing her eyes to sleep. Seeing her falling asleep, Du Xiu Heng went out again to draw in some water, and had the wild vegetables placed to the side cooked and eaten. Following which, he went out with the pot and bowls, should be going to wash them.
After Du Xiu Heng went out, Du Xiao Li opened her eyes, looked to the wild vegetables that have been reduced by half, and absentmindedly stared for a moment, before finally closing her eyes again and falling asleep.
[1] Feng Ming – The name translates to ‘cry of a phoenix’
[2] The idiom is short for ‘the yellow autumn crop does not last until the green spring crop’; meaning temporarily short on resources
T/N: I keep forgetting her brother is only 10; his character reads more like a 15yo than a 10yo.