Chapter 1: Penniless

“Stop… crying!”

The man lying on the bed croaked, his voice hoarse, a strained low cry, followed by a fit of incessant coughing, sometimes high-pitched, sometimes low, that he couldn’t stop.

The young girl, who had been crying non-stop, her face streaked with tears she hadn’t bothered to wipe away, suddenly threw herself onto the man, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Father! Don’t die, please don’t die, wuwuwuwu…”

Hearing the commotion inside, the little girl immediately came over. She decisively kicked the door open. The old, warped wooden door let out a grating creak as it swung open for her.

She glanced at her sniffling Eldest Sister, and their uncle, who looked like he was about to be suffocated by her and might pass away at any moment. She sighed deeply in her heart, then rushed to the only table in the room, quickly poured some water, and steadily carried it to the bed.

“Eldest Sister, if you don’t get up, you’ll smother Uncle to death.”

The four- or five-year-old girl’s tender voice was a little hoarse, lacking the innocence of her age, and instead carrying a rare maturity.

The young girl immediately panicked and scrambled to her feet. “I… I didn’t mean to… Father…” Tears welled up in her eyes again.

At least she knew to take the cup, and while still crying, fed her father some water to soothe him.

Alright, Eldest Sister, stop making things worse…

The little girl couldn’t help but grumble inwardly, though she couldn’t voice it. Goodness knows, this Eldest Sister from Uncle’s family seemed to have been raised in a pool of tears, crying day and night. If Uncle hadn’t been beaten so badly that he couldn’t get out of bed and needed constant care, she probably would have already found a place to end her own life in despair.

It wasn’t that her imagination was particularly wild, but in this era that oppressed women, having attracted a scoundrel and almost caused her father’s death because of it, there seemed to be no other way out than to die to prove her innocence.

“Er Ya! Er Ya! Get your dad some water, my throat’s bone dry!” Her own Dad’s raspy voice came from outside the door, and it was clear he was terribly thirsty.

{T/N: Er Ya (二丫) = Second Girl ,likely just a casual family nickname based on her being the second generation from her grandfather’s line (second son’s daughter)}

The little girl, called Er Ya, resignedly accepted this terribly rustic name.

She nimbly poured water for her hardworking Dad and carried it out. She watched as her Dad guzzled it down heartily. After drinking, he pursed his lips, clearly not having had enough, but he sensibly didn’t ask for more.

The weather was abnormally hot. The small stream by the village had dried up, and the water levels in the village wells had dropped significantly. The elders said this was a sign of impending disaster. Every household was hoarding water day and night, reluctant to drink it themselves, pouring it all into the fields. The spring wheat was almost ready for harvest, and they couldn’t afford to fail at the last hurdle now.

“Why isn’t Mom back yet?” the little girl whispered.

“Still in the fields, sigh! What a mess this is. Who did our family offend to suddenly have to live such a hard life? Your mother’s a city person, she’s never worked the land in her life. Now she’s out there harvesting wheat under the scorching sun, and that sickle isn’t even good, it took us half the morning just to sharpen it. We left this morning and haven’t even finished harvesting one mu of land yet…”

The family of three had been sleeping quietly at their home. When they opened their eyes next morning, they were in a different place. Their daughter said it was like they had transmigrated…

So they transmigrated, so be it. At least they were all together, safe and sound. What good would it do to complain? There was nowhere to protest anyway.

After their daughter, who loved reading web novels, enlightened them, the three of them tried hard to recall, racking their brains until they were ‘bald,’ but couldn’t remember a single shred of the original owner’s memories…

Then came all sorts of experiments. They cut their fingers several times, smeared blood everywhere, but no treasure appeared to recognize them through a drop of blood.

Later, their daughter taught them to shout all sorts of things: System, Great System, Little System Sweetheart…

It was, quite embarrassing.

But still, they got nothing.

They gave up. This was just how it was going to be.

In this ancient era they’d never even heard of, they would just try their best to survive.

Perhaps the only comfort they had was their age.

They were suddenly twenty years younger. Aside from Er Ya’s various discomforts, he and his wife were—alright.

Ah! That youth that was gone forever!

It’s back!

The living conditions, however, were rather bleak. The family they transmigrated into was incredibly poor, lacking everything. And there was an injured elder brother at home. These past few days, they’d been busy getting him medical attention and medicine. They had managed to glean quite a bit of information from their constantly weeping Eldest Niece.

It turned out this elder brother was a Xiucai. One must know, in these times, for a farming family to produce a scholar was incredibly difficult, and for one to achieve official status was truly one in ten thousand.

{T/N: Xiucai (秀才) = Licentiate or Scholar (a person who passed the lowest imperial exam)}

The Xiucai elder brother’s wife had died in childbirth years ago, leaving behind a son and a daughter. Eldest Nephew was studying in town. Eldest Niece was fourteen this year, still clearly a child, but she had caught the eye of a scoundrel. Not only did he constantly harass and corner her, but he also went around spreading rumors that they were involved, ruining Eldest Niece’s reputation.

The Xiucai elder brother, unable to tolerate it, went to confront the scoundrel. No one knew what exactly was said, but in any case, he was carried back home.

With both anger and injury compounding his condition, and his already frail constitution, he had been running a fever for several days. Though the fever finally broke, his cough wasn’t so easily cured. The doctor said it was a miracle he survived, and that he still needed rest and recuperation, with the prescription changed to focus on gentle nourishment.

As for him, the younger brother, he heard he was quite a scoundrel too. He didn’t want to farm, didn’t want to work, and just idled away his days.

He had tried to study like his elder brother, but his knowledge was even worse than Eldest Nephew’s. He spent his days calling friends to attend ‘literary gatherings,’ which were really just excuses to freeload on food and drink, shamelessly living off his elder brother.

The two brothers hadn’t split the family. They ate from the same pot. And since the elder sister-in-law had passed away early, his wife managed the household, overseeing everyone’s food and drink. The elder brother even gave them some silver for household expenses every month.

Unfortunately, they had no memories of the original owners, and had no idea where the money was kept. The money for the doctor’s visits was all on credit.

They could only hope the Xiucai elder brother had money and could settle the bills himself.

Today, he learned another extremely depressing piece of news. He didn’t dare tell his wife, so he found an excuse to rush back and discuss a strategy with his daughter first.

“Daughter, well, I just found out, there are still debts outside…”

Yan—who didn’t know her full name—Er Ya: …

“What debts? To whom? How much?”

“Sigh! Gambling debts! He owes the gambling house twenty taels of silver. I saw the IOU, the fingerprints are clearly there. What do you think we should do about this? Good thing they saw me as soon as I entered the village. If they really came looking for us, your uncle would surely cough up blood from anger! If he died from anger, we’d be in big trouble!”

“Twenty taels?!” Yan Er Ya gritted her teeth. “Dad, do you know how much twenty taels is worth in ancient times? One egg is one wen, a steamed bun is two wen, and one thousand wen makes one tael. Twenty taels could buy twenty thousand eggs, or ten thousand steamed buns!”

Listening to his daughter rattle off the calculations, Dad Yan felt helpless. He didn’t want this either, he was wronged too. Who knew that the younger brother, whom the villagers called a scoundrel, would turn out to be such a good-for-nothing?

Living off his elder brother, not working, and even daring to gamble!
(End of Chapter)