Chapter 1: The Daily Intelligence System!

"Where is Shen Dalang?"

"Reporting to the sir, Dalang is bedridden with illness..."

"Cut the crap! When will he pay back what's owed to Master Bai for rent?"

"Please calm your anger, sir. I beg you, just two more days..."

"Mama, I'm hungry..."

Faint sounds of shouting and quiet sobbing drifted to his ears.

Shen Xiuhan slowly opened his eyes.

Before him lay the familiar broken-down thatched hut, the old kang table, and a lingering smell of medicinal broth that refused to dissipate.

He let out a slow breath, his cracked lips twitching faintly:

"Three days now..."

This was Changyun County, under the jurisdiction of Nanxiang Commandery, Cangzhou, in the State of Qi.

The county seat was built along the shore of a lake, its people living off fishing for generations.

The original owner of this body, Shen Dalang, was the son of a tenant farmer under the Bai family, one of the inner city's wealthy households.

His father, Shen Sanhuai, had scraped by renting a small sampan from the Bai family, rowing out onto the lake day after day to catch fish and put food on the table.

The family was destitute, squatting in a slum called Xiaojing Bay on the outskirts of the city.

Xiaojing Bay — a den of every sort of lowlife.

Petty theft, robbery, murder, and arson were as common as meals here.

To give his wife and children a peaceful life, Shen Sanhuai had scrimped and saved every coin, dreaming that one day he could move into the inner city and rent a room with a proper roof over their heads.

But half a month ago, during a routine outing on the lake, he'd run into a water monster.

He never came back.

The fishing net and sampan were swept away with him.

The original soul had collapsed from grief and hunger, bedridden ever since.

When his eyes opened again, it was Shen Xiuhan — a man who'd been heading home after a restaurant shift and stumbled into a stroke of cosmic luck...

"Cough, cough..."

Shen Xiuhan hacked twice, struggling to prop himself upright. From outside the hut came a pitiful little voice:

"Mama, I'm hungry..."

"Momo, be good. We're not hungry."

"Mama, Momo wants porridge..."

"Momo, be a good girl. The porridge is to help your big brother sweat out his fever. Once he's better, he'll catch fish for Momo to eat..."

Memories surged.

The woman was his mother, Madam Zheng. The little girl was his blood sister, Shen Momo.

Since he'd fallen ill, what little savings the family had were spent by Madam Zheng on medicinal broth and millet to nurse him back to health.

The household, already teetering on the edge, had completely run dry.

Creak, creak...

Footsteps crunching through snow drew closer.

The straw curtain lifted, and Madam Zheng walked in carrying a bowl, head bowed as she blew on the steaming medicinal broth inside:

"Dalang, time for your medicine..."

But when she raised her head and saw Shen Xiuhan awake, propped up against the headboard, her bloodshot, exhausted eyes erupted with undisguised joy!

"Oh! Dalang's awake!"

Madam Zheng hurried to the bedside, set the medicine bowl on the kang table, and pressed her hand to Shen Xiuhan's forehead.

Feeling the heat that had clearly subsided, tears instantly rolled down her cheeks like beads spilling off a broken string.

"Thank the heavens, the gods have blessed us — my boy finally pulled through..."

"Dalang, drink the medicine quickly. I'll go get you some food!"

Madam Zheng wiped her tears in delight and rushed out past the straw curtain.

The curtain fell, then was lifted again.

A small head poked through — a girl of about five or six, wearing a tattered little padded jacket, sallow-skinned and thin, her hair a tangled mess. Her round, dark eyes held a trace of timidity as she stared at Shen Xiuhan on the bed.

"Gege..."

...

"Eat up, Dalang."

Moments later, Madam Zheng placed a bowl of thin porridge made from millet on the kang table.

Shen Xiuhan picked up the bowl and took a sip.

Bland. Tasteless.

But his hollow stomach did feel a fair bit better.

He took only a single sip before setting it down.

For no other reason than...

A small head beside him was staring straight at the bowl in his hands.

Her little mouth hung slightly open.

The sound of her swallowing was clearly audible.

When she noticed Shen Xiuhan's gaze sweep her way, the little girl hastily turned her head aside, not daring to look anymore.

Shen Xiuhan smiled faintly and nudged the bowl toward the edge of the table:

"Momo, have some too."

The thin porridge in the bowl might as well have been the finest delicacy in the world.

The little girl's nostrils flared. Her small head, turned stubbornly to one side, seemed pulled by an invisible thread — turning back, bit by bit, beyond her own control.

Her big eyes locked onto the porridge, and her little belly let out a thoroughly undignified gurgle.

"Th-that's Gege's food for getting better... Momo's not hungry at all!"

Shen Momo gulped, buried her small face in Madam Zheng's arms, and forced herself not to look.

Madam Zheng's eyes reddened. She gently patted her daughter's back, then looked at Shen Xiuhan:

"Dalang, just eat. Don't mind this little glutton."

"Once you're well... this family will have something to hope for."

Shen Xiuhan's breath hitched. A knot formed in his chest. After a pause, he raised the bowl, tipped his head back, and drained the porridge in one go.

Now was no time for sentimentality.

He had to restore strength to this frail body at all costs.

Just as Madam Zheng said — only when Shen Xiuhan could stand on his own two feet would this family have a chance at survival.

After the porridge was finished, Madam Zheng swiftly rinsed the bowl and chopsticks.

When she returned to the thatched hut, her face carried a deeper shade of worry. She pinched the hem of her clothes, hesitated again and again, and finally forced the words out:

"Dalang..."

"Besides the fishing rent we owe Master Bai and the money for the lost sampan..."

"A few days ago, when I went into the city to buy medicine, I also borrowed two hundred wen from Uncle Chen..."

"Uncle Chen hasn't pressed us for it, but yesterday I heard from Auntie Li that Chen An wants to study martial arts, so their family must need the money urgently too."

"All together... our family owes two taels of silver!"

She paused, and her thin frame began to tremble uncontrollably.

"This morning... the Bai family's steward came to collect the rent again."

"They said... if we don't pay up soon, not only will they drag me off to the Bai family's weaving workshop to work off the debt... they'll also sell Momo into the city and brand her with the lowborn registry!"

The lowborn registry — slavery.

The laws of Great Qi were iron. Once cast into the lowborn registry, one ranked even lower than a tenant farmer.

No sitting for the imperial examinations. No owning property. No marrying into a freeborn family.

Men would be slaves for generations. Women would be prostitutes for life.

Passed down through the bloodline, never to be overturned!

Shen Xiuhan would never allow such a thing to happen. His voice was hoarse but resolute:

"I'll figure something out."

He was only a boy of seventeen or eighteen, barely recovered from a grave illness, yet when Madam Zheng heard those words, the tension visibly drained from her face.

She wiped her tears, stood, patted Shen Momo's small head, and gave her instructions:

"Momo, be good. Listen to your big brother at home. Mama has to go to work..."

When she'd carried the bowl earlier, Shen Xiuhan had noticed — Madam Zheng's hands were covered in chilblains and cracked skin.

Those were the marks left by her rising before dawn and toiling past dark, taking in laundry and mending for others, all to pay for his treatment.

Madam Zheng hurried out the door.

Shen Xiuhan threw off the blanket, pulled on some clothes, climbed out of bed, and headed straight for the thatched hut next door.

The Shen household had three thatched huts in total.

The large one was for living.

The two smaller ones served as a kitchen and a storage shed.

In Shen Xiuhan's inherited memories, Shen Sanhuai had handcrafted a fishing rod for him earlier that spring, intending to teach him to fish for a living.

Sure enough.

The moment he stepped into the storage shed, he spotted a dusty bamboo rod tucked in the corner.

A yellowed hemp line was wound around its tip, ending in a small iron hook.

Crude. Rough.

But it was the only tool he had to secure any means of survival.

"Gege, are you gonna go catch fishy-wishies for Momo to eat?"

A timid little voice piped up behind him.

The little girl had trailed after him at some point, shadowing him like a tiny tail.

When she saw Shen Xiuhan pick up the fishing rod, those big eyes of hers lit up in an instant, her face tilting upward, brimming with expectation.

"That's right, going to fish—"

Shen Xiuhan turned to ruffle her hair, but his pupils suddenly contracted, his expression froze, and his words cut off mid-sentence.

【Daily Intelligence System loading complete!】

【Today's intelligence has been refreshed!】