Chapter 4: A Poverty Alleviation Program Arrives Like a Gift from Heaven

“Well… it’s not entirely out of the question.” Father Yan steeled himself. If it really didn’t work out, then he’d just have to be honest with them. If he didn’t say anything himself, they’d still find out in three days when the debt collectors came knocking.

It was always better for family to know first than to hear it from outsiders. He thought the elder brother of the family seemed quite good – not one for many words, not much trouble, and seemingly good-tempered.

Li Xuemei disagreed: “I’ve been asking around these past few days when I had nothing to do. Your elder brother is not only a scholar but also a teacher at the town’s academy. He even lives and eats at the academy with our nephew, and his monthly tuition fees are sent back without fail. And our family doesn’t earn a single qian, just living off others for free… It makes me blush just hearing about it. How could we possibly ask?”

“I haven’t worked the fields in years. And this Yan Lao’er too, look at this body – young, yes, and soft-skinned, but not meant for hard labor. The strength is just too little.” Father Yan had quite a few complaints.

Yan Lao’er was truly weak, a disgrace to his fellow men.

“This Yan Lao’er is good for nothing. He’s lazy and shifty, loves good food and drink. He can’t study well, doesn’t do any work, he’s just a loafer,” Li Xuemei sighed with emotion. “Your elder brother has it tough. Since we’ve come, self-reliance is a must. We can’t keep depending on him to live.”

Father Yan nodded. That was for sure. No matter what, they couldn’t keep freeloading off the elder brother.

“Let’s eat first.” He took out the food from the basket, one item at a time.

Multigrain flatbread, pickled vegetables, and wild vegetable egg drop soup.

Li Xuemei sighed and said, “It’s hard on the child.”

Indeed. The old hen at home laid only a limited number of eggs, and after giving some to the elder brother for his health, there weren’t many left. The family’s silver and qian were likely managed by Madam Li (Yan Lao’er Wife). They couldn’t find any qian, so naturally, they couldn’t buy anything new.

They ate whatever they had. Fortunately, the family still had some old grain from last year and Madam Li’s pickled vegetables. These past few days, they had been eating multigrain flatbread and pickled vegetables every day.

The young girl knew how tiring harvesting wheat was. Not only did they need an extra meal at noon, but she also wanted to make it as good as possible. So she racked her brains and added this bowl of soup. With eggs, water, and greens, all of which were rare commodities now.

The couple, with the egg soup, found the choking multigrain flatbread much easier to swallow.

…

The two of them didn’t return home until the sun set in the west. Although they worked slowly, they worked continuously without stopping. The bundled wheat piled up quite a bit. Yan Lao’er went to the neighbors, borrowed a cart, and made two trips to transport all the wheat back to their own yard.

The couple was exhausted. Their whole bodies ached, and they were both tired and thirsty.

Er Ya’s heart ached terribly for them. She brought water and food, serving her parents until they had eaten and drunk their fill. Then, carrying the dirty clothes, she went into the kitchen.

Yan Lao’er quickly went to the east room to take a look around, to see if the elder brother needed anything. Seeing that everything was fine and the elder brother didn’t need him for the moment, he picked up the carrying pole and water buckets and left the house. Each household could only draw four buckets of water per day. They hadn’t drawn their share for today yet.

Li Xuemei endured the pain while rubbing and kneading various parts of her body. If these aching spots weren’t massaged, they would only hurt more tomorrow. Feeling a bit better, she once again rallied her spirits and began a new round of searching.

Er Ya held her breath. She only dared to take a breath when she absolutely couldn’t hold it any longer. Mom and Dad’s clothes were too—stinky—!

With the drought, water was precious. They couldn’t bear to use it for washing clothes, but the wisdom of the ancients was boundless. While she was wandering around the village today, she happened to see an auntie in the village rubbing dirty clothes with plant ash. After rubbing, she gave it a vigorous shake, and the ash flew off in a powdery cloud.

It wasn’t clean, but at least it didn’t stink anymore!

Er Ya was greatly inspired and decided to follow suit. There wasn’t much plant ash in the stove. She scraped out a pile and was just wondering what to put it in.

Suddenly, a gentle female voice sounded out of thin air beside her ear.

[Dear Citizen of Xia Nation, ID Number: 371312XXXXXXXXXXXX, Hello! This is the Xia Nation Support Trading Platform.]

[It has been detected that you and your family have departed from this dimension. Your current environment has low technological productivity, is impoverished, and survival is difficult. This meets the platform’s support criteria. Would you like to bind and activate?]

Er Ya stared blankly at the dialogue box that had suddenly appeared before her.

[Would you like to bind and activate?]

It was displayed neatly on a light screen. She moved left and right, and the light screen shifted with her movements.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Er Ya exclaimed excitedly. Isn’t this the system she’d been waiting for! I mean, how can a transmigration not come with a system! These days, if you don’t have a system, can a transmigrator even show their face outside!

[Binding initiated…]

[Binding successful!]

[Xia Nation Support Trading Platform: Aims to assist compatriots who have left the embrace of their homeland due to unforeseeable events (including but not limited to transmigration, rebirth, transmigration into a book, apocalyptic natural disasters, spiritual energy resurgence, etc.), to overcome difficulties and tide over crises together.]

[This platform adheres to the Cosmic Law of Equivalent Exchange and performs exchange rate conversions for transactions across various planes.]

[This platform is activated under unusual circumstances. Due to energy limitations, it will open irregularly. Please prepare in advance according to the prompts.]

[The Xia Nation Support Trading Platform promises you: Though delayed, we will arrive. Xia Nation will never be absent!]

[Hello, Platform User 0037258258! Your archive: Transmigration into a Book. Would you like to claim your new user benefit to retrieve the dimension’s world setting?]

Of course! Yan Er Ya urgently said, “Yes! Claim it!”

[Zzzzt… Zzzzt…]

[Book Title: ‘The Rise of a Humble Family…’]

[Protagonist Name: Yan Huaiwen.]

[Story Synopsis:
Yan Huaiwen’s first half of life was utterly miserable: his parents died, and he lost his wife, son, and daughter.
His latter half was like having a cheat code activated. He entered officialdom and rose steadily through the ranks with an iron fist. A princess married him, bringing concubines with her, allowing him to enjoy the blessings of many wives. He helped the princess’s full brother ascend to power, working tirelessly and resorting to any means to clear obstacles, eventually reaching the rank of First-Grade Official.
Upon learning that the person he had loyally assisted had merely used him, and was corrupt beneath a facade of integrity, he resolutely helped Prince Ying ascend to power, still dominating the imperial court.]

[Zzzzt…]

Oh my god! This familiar synopsis – she had read this book before!

It was a very old, fictional historical novel about officialdom. The male lead could be said to have gone through countless trials. His early misery was truly miserable. Even as his official position grew higher in the later stages, he was often helpless, facing various difficulties, weighing pros and cons…

From a frustrated scholar, he grew into an iron-blooded powerful minister. The process was incredibly arduous. The author certainly didn’t skimp on the melodrama, nor on tormenting the characters.

The male lead’s ultimate success – the most classic ‘deposing the monarch’ plot in the entire book. She had read the book after looking at the comment section first, and was deeply impressed by one particular comment. It said that historically, only emperors dismissed ministers, but the author had a huge imagination, doing the opposite and kicking the monarch off the dragon throne…

Below it, a pile of people commented: Well deposed! If the emperor isn’t good enough, replace him! If you’re not convinced, fight him!

She had only read the beginning. It described Old Yan gravely injured in bed, a gambling house coming to collect debts, and him in a fit of pique separating from his second brother’s family.

As luck would have it, Old Yan’s brother was named Yan Huaian. Her dad’s name was Yan An. His wife was Madam Li. Her family’s ‘leader,’ Li Xuemei. And they had a daughter named Er Ya… Her name was—Yan Yu.

That’s right, she was Er Ya now!

Author Note:

That’s right, the positioning of this trading platform is—poverty alleviation!

An alliance of unfortunates struggling across various planes, helping each other to escape poverty and achieve prosperity.

So, some items that don’t fit the ancient setting might appear; a bit of creative liberty was taken.

The unfortunates connected to the platform are mostly struggling on the brink of survival, their plight inspired by the various apocalyptic and natural disaster novels I’ve read… For a while, I was really hooked on these kinds of survival stories.

(End of this chapter)