"Where's your man?"
"To address the official, he's still sick in bed."
"When do you plan to pay your taxes?"
"Please be assured, we will not miss the final deadline."
...
In the darkness, Chen Sansi heard a conversation between a man and a woman.
The man was aggressive, while the woman was pleading for leniency.
"Hiss…"
He struggled to open his eyelids, and what came into view was an entirely unfamiliar environment.
'Where is this?'
'Wasn't I working overtime?'
"Hiss…"
Chen Sansi's head suddenly throbbed with pain, as a tide of memories that didn't belong to him flooded his mind, forcing him to accept a fact.
'Have I transmigrated?'
This place was Po Yang County, a remote small county in the Dasheng Dynasty.
The original inhabitant lived outside the county town in Yanbian Village. He was a full-time, impoverished scholar whose family survived on his father's hunting, leading a barely acceptable life.
Until half a year ago, after his father set off for the mountains at night, he never returned.
With the loss of the family's pillar and the failure of the original inhabitant's child exam, the double blow led to a serious illness.
That's when Chen Sansi transmigrated.
"Ah, Brother Shi, you're awake!"
A woman, carrying a bowl of medicinal soup, entered the house. She was overjoyed to see the young man waking up.
She hurried to the bedside, her already ill-fitting garment shaking violently as she ran, as if there were two rabbits tumbling inside.
This woman was named Gu Xinlan.
She was a child bride bought by the original inhabitant's father when he was very young.
She had always taken care of the original inhabitant like an elder sister, staying loyal even after his father's death and through his illness.
However…
The original inhabitant seemed to have looked down on this sister quite a bit.
Being the descendant of criminals, she was sent to the frontier and nearly sold to a brothel, making her the lowest of the low class.
Considering himself far superior, the original inhabitant had believed he would one day pass the exams and marry a well-to-do woman, becoming a successful man. He thought she wasn't good enough for him and treated her like a servant on a regular basis.
"Brother Shi, how are you feeling?"
Gu Xinlan sat down by the bed and placed her hand on the young man's forehead, exclaiming with surprise, "The fever's gone?"
Chen Sansi sat up and tried to move his body. Aside from some weakness, there was nothing seriously wrong with him, as the illness had disappeared with his transmigration.
"Truly the blessing of the gods."
Gu Xinlan was visibly relieved, "Brother Shi, you drink your medicine first, I'll go fix you some food."
Watching her walk away, her tortoise-like hips ready to burst from her clothing, Chen Sansi spent ten minutes digesting his current situation.
"Since I'm here, I might as well make the best of it."
He'd always been quick to adapt to his environment. Since he'd come to this world, he needed to figure out how to live well.
He picked up the bitter medicinal soup and drank it all at once, then went to the next room.
He saw Gu Xinlan almost entirely inside the rice bin, just her hips stuck out, as she struggled to scoop out some grain.
After much effort, she managed to gather a small handful of millet.
Since the death of the original inhabitant's father, the family had lost its source of income. Moreover, the original inhabitant's recent illness had completely depleted their savings, bringing them to the brink of utter destitution.
"Just now, was that the tax collector for the autumn taxes?"
Chen Sansi stood behind Sister Lan, "How much do they want?"
"Three taels of silver," Gu Xinlan replied.
"Three taels?"
Chen Sansi inhaled sharply, "Are they including father in the count?"
"Yes."
Gu Xinlan nodded gently, "The petty official said that since they hadn't found father's body, he couldn't be declared dead and his registration couldn't be canceled. We still have to pay the full tax, including the hunting tax too."
Chen Sansi cursed inwardly.
The oppressive taxes of the Dasheng Dynasty were severe, and with frequent wars in recent years, the taxes had only increased.
"Brother Shi, don't worry."
Worry was evident in Gu Xinlan's eyes, though she tried to reassure him, "I've recently got some work at a tailor's shop and, along with doing laundry for people, we should be able to scrape together something."
Clearly, the original inhabitant was completely financially dependent.
Even after his father's death, he was reluctant to seek another livelihood and preferred to have Sister Lan work herself to the bone.
"Not even considering whether he was cut out for it..."
Chen Sansi felt rather speechless, he couldn't even pass the exam to become a Scholar, yet he was still dreaming of one day passing the imperial examination—wasn't that the talk of a delusional person?
He could no longer continue this way; he needed to find a means of making a living.
Otherwise, if he couldn't pay the taxes, the men would be sent away for forced labor, and the women would be sold into brothels—a fate worse than death.
"I'll go cook rice."
Gu Xinlan busied herself with the task.
Before long, the meal was prepared.
Two bowls of a staple food made from a mixture of millet and chaff, not even pickled vegetables were served.
This was probably the last bit of grain in the house.
Chen Sansi noticed that his bowl had a higher proportion of millet compared to Gu Xinlan's, which was mostly chaff.
Chaff, which was the husk of grains such as rice, wheat, and soybeans, was rough and difficult to swallow.
In the modern age, it was essentially used as livestock fodder.
"Eat, Brother Shi."
Gu Xinlan picked up her chopsticks and ate with small, deliberate bites, her fingers visibly red and swollen, the joints showing small sores.
This was the result of washing too many clothes for others.
As a woman, she did everything she could to provide for the family, short of the backbreaking labor only men could do.
Chen Sansi saw this and remembered it, his head bent as he ate the hard-to-swallow chaff.
"Brother Shi,"
Midway through the meal, Gu Xinlan put down her chopsticks and hesitantly spoke, "Actually, aside from the tax silver, we still owe Aunt Li two coins for medical expenses.
"Otherwise... I'm just suggesting, if you could just recover a bit more, maybe you could also find some work to do? If we can't gather enough silver for the tax by the end of the month, I heard they'll take people away..."
As she spoke, she quietly watched his expression, her fingers anxiously picking at the corner of her clothes.
Each time this matter was brought up before, Brother Shi would fly into a rage, saying things like how a scholar shouldn't engage in menial labor.
"Eat your food,"
Chen Sansi shoveled the food into his mouth quietly pondering his finances.
Gu Xinlan didn't dare to bring it up again, she quietly finished her meal, swiftly washed the pots and pans, and hurried off to her work as a female laborer.
Chen Sansi remained seated, deeply considering his options.
Ancient times were not like modern society, where mere physical strength could find you work.
His family owned no land, and without any academic title from his studies, the only thing left to do was to hunt.
As a child, he had learned a few tricks from his father, and although he had let his skills atrophy over the years, he still had the basic foundations; it shouldn't be hard to get started again.
Moreover, since he had to pay hunting tax anyway, he might as well hunt.
The house still had an old bow left.
Chen Sansi went to the inner room and took down the longbow covered in dust from the wall.
"It should still be usable."
"But I have a bow with no arrows; I need to find a way to get some money to buy arrows."
In order to survive, the household had sold nearly all of its books, leaving only the "Four Treasures of the Study" which the original owner valued as his life, as possibly the last things of some value.
Without any hesitation, Chen Sansi packed up the writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone and took them away.
Even though they were all low-grade items, they sold for a total of two hundred copper coins, roughly equivalent to two silver coins.
Enough to show that "poor scholars and rich warriors" was not an absolute, studying was also an expensive endeavor.
With the money in hand, Chen Sansi went to the market stall that catered to hunters.
"Little Shi, you're here to buy arrows?"
The stall owner Uncle Xu was from a military household and an old acquaintance of Shi's father: "Are you preparing to hunt in the mountains instead of studying?"
"Yes, I'm looking to buy a few old arrows."
Chen Sansi picked out five second-hand willow leaf arrows from the stall: "How much?"
"Seventy coins."
Chen Sansi bargained, "Uncle Xu, old arrows aren't worth that much. Fifty coins at most."
"Alright, fifty coins it is."
Old Yu was straightforward: "I say, you should've gone to the mountains a long time ago, learned a fair amount of your father's skills, at least enough to make ends meet. But instead, you insisted on reading useless books. Do you think a kid from a poor family like yours could become an official?"
"Uncle speaks the truth."
Chen Sansi didn't argue, and after making sure the arrows had no quality issues, he strung them on the bowstring and aimed at the ground to check.
Suddenly, several lines of small characters appeared before his eyes.
[Skill: Archery (Entry-Level)]
[Progress: (20/100)]