Bones and Rats

Chen Nan was locked in a dark little room. His eyes were filled with darkness, so dark that he could see nothing at all. He shuffled his feet along the ground to avoid tripping over debris, but this place seemed remarkably flat.

So Chen Nan cautiously widened his stride, wanting to familiarize himself with the surroundings.

Who knew that, in a moment of carelessness, he would step on a round stick and tumble over.

He fell onto a pile of something with a crisp clatter, his face pressed directly against it.

From so close, Chen Nan finally made out what it was.

Snow-white ghostly light flashed green under the friction. It was clearly a skeleton!

And what Chen Nan's face had landed on was the skeleton's skull!

He did not scream, but fear seeped into every inch of Chen Nan's skin like grease.

He felt weak all over, yet he still struggled to his feet.

Once his eyes adapted to the darkness, the rough outline of the room gradually emerged before Chen Nan.

There was more than one skeleton. In the four corners, sitting, half-reclining, or stretched out flat, there were at least five or six of them.

Having transmigrated here from an Earth with such advanced technological civilization, Chen Nan was not so frightened by a few bones. His fear came from what those bones represented.

At first, he had thought his punishment would merely be for show. Could they really lock him up here for a week without food? People would die that way. How could that be possible?

But these skeletons told him clearly that it was entirely possible!

The fear of death began to make Chen Nan's stomach feel sick. His poor stomach had been unlucky enough already. It had to endure hunger, and now it had to endure its owner's physical reaction to fear.

"No. I can't die in here no matter what," Chen Nan muttered. "That would be too damned stifling. I'm at least..."

He had almost said that he was at least a transmigrator, but decided it was better to be cautious.

Yet his desire to live only grew stronger.

"Grrrlll~"

His stomach and intestines were rebelling. Chen Nan could only force them down and try to think calmly about how to escape.

He began inspecting the whole room. It seemed quite possible to escape, except that only applied to a well-fed, strong adult.

And he was merely a child of around ten, the kind who had suffered long-term malnutrition. Hungry as he was now, how could he possibly get out?

Helplessness, fear, and the anger born of them muddled Chen Nan's mind. He suddenly shouted, then threw his whole body against the door.

He hoped a miracle might happen, without considering what he could do even if he got out this way.

Reality gave him a bloody lesson.

"Ow!"

A piercing pain shot through him. Several nails, their sharp ends facing inward, had stabbed into his shoulder from the door.

Chen Nan clutched his wounds, tears nearly falling. He hated the people here for being so vicious as to hammer nails into the door, and he hated himself for failing to notice them when he had inspected it earlier.

A moment later, something even more terrifying occurred to him: tetanus.

In such a terrible environment, who knew how filthy those iron nails were? Such narrow, deep wounds...

Chen Nan slumped to the floor. The ground was so damp it seemed as if it had been soaked in water, but after all that struggling, he did not want to get back up.

The merciless cold was like Black and White Impermanence, hooking the warm soul out of his body bit by bit. At this moment, Chen Nan was like a cold-blooded animal, his body nearly as cold as the surroundings.

Only his chest retained a trace of warmth, because he was complaining—complaining as if grinding his teeth and sucking blood:

Damn it, is this what transmigration is supposed to be!?

They were both transmigrations, so why was the gap so huge?

At least give me the cliché of a useless young master whose engagement gets broken off, or a drunken father or something. Why did I transmigrate into an orphan? Does this mean sacrificing one's parents to Heaven grants boundless power?

But I haven't seen any old grandpa, any system, or any random junk in my brain either.

In truth, Chen Nan had never believed those transmigration novels. Yet now, he could not help letting his thoughts run wild. But no matter how much he tried to coax something out, nothing strange happened.

In the end, he could only helplessly admit that he was nothing more than an ordinary child. So ordinary that all he could do was wait here for death.

This shabby room would be his final grave.

Perhaps this was some kind of reward? He could have died instantly and painlessly, yet he had insisted on transmigrating here, only to slowly experience death creeping closer.

Fine. It could only count as punishment.

But he had never done anything bad, had he? Ha ha, then who told you not to do bad things? That girl had made it painfully obvious that she was willing to get a room and sleep with him, but he had insisted on playing the proper gentleman. In the end, she married someone else.

On the day of her wedding, her explanation to him had been: You're a good person, but we simply weren't meant to be.

A good person!

Ha ha!

A good person!

Chen Nan muttered the words, though he did not know what he was thinking. Then, in a muddle, he actually fell asleep.

Bang! Bang!

A faint knock sounded at the door. Chen Nan thought he was dreaming, but immediately got up and asked, "Who is it?"

"Shh, keep it down!" It was Little Black Ox's voice. "Chen Nan, I saved some dinner for you. Hurry and take it in to eat."

Chen Nan did not know what kind of feeling it was. There was bitterness, excitement, and seemingly a bit of warmth as well.

He came to the door. Through the gap beneath it, barely two fingers wide, he could see the cold moonlight outside.

A small hand passed half a thin pancake through the gap. It got dirt on it as he took it, but Chen Nan could not care about that now. He wolfed it down in two bites.

His stomach was like a tranquil pool into which metallic sodium had been tossed—it exploded at once. Wave after wave of agonizing pain, as if red-hot knives were carving him apart, bent Chen Nan over like a shrimp.

After enduring it for a long while, his stomach finally recognized that it was food and stopped making trouble. Yet like a miser, having gained this tiny bit only stirred up immense greed. Chen Nan suddenly felt even hungrier.

But he knew that eating even this little was better than eating nothing.

"What's wrong?" Little Black Ox asked when he heard Chen Nan groan.

"I'm fine now. I feel much better. Thank you, Little Black Ox," Chen Nan said earnestly.

"We're friends. Why say that?" Little Black Ox said with a smile. "I'll bring you something to eat every day. I hope you can hold on these next few days, and that you can—you can come out alive."

A silence followed. Chen Nan wanted to ask some things. For instance, in this orphanage, was a child's life worth less than a tree?

But he did not ask. There was no point anymore.

Staying alive was what he should care about most. So he said to Little Black Ox, "Food is manageable. Can you get me water? Without water, I won't survive."

Little Black Ox said, "I'll think of a way tomorrow. I have to hurry back. If they catch me leaving the dorm in the middle of the night, it'll be bad."

With that, he quickly left.

From his own experience, Chen Nan could imagine just how severe the consequences would be if Little Black Ox were caught.

What was more, Little Black Ox was not very smart. His forehead was short and flat; one look was enough to tell he was a child with abnormal brain development. Sigh, that really proved it—good people were all fools.

Having just received a little warmth, Chen Nan lay on the ground, unable to sleep. His thoughts were as still as the night itself.

The summer insects chirping, the distant sound of running water, and the occasional breath of fresh air blowing in from outside made the transmigrated Chen Nan truly unwilling to die here.

But what could he do?

There were no transmigration benefits, and this body did not seem to possess any special power. Getting out of here was impossible.

Because even if he got out, the outside world would still be extremely dangerous.

He had to persevere and stay alive in here. That meant solving the problem of food and drink, especially water.

He hoped Little Black Ox could keep bringing him these things, yet he also hoped he would not come again. It would implicate him.

But without Little Black Ox, who else could he rely on?

Who can help me?

"Squeak, squeak~"

It was the sound of rats, but that was only how it registered in Chen Nan's ears. In his heart, it meant something else.

It was a vague concept, but the instant Chen Nan grew excited, it slipped away like a loach.

He knew there were many rats in this dark room, and not just rats. Some unpleasant insects had crawled over his body as well. But when he could barely save his own life, how could he care about such things?

For a moment, Chen Nan had considered eating those insects, but ultimately abandoned the idea.

What had just happened? It seemed as though the rats had been communicating with him?

Chen Nan grew a little excited, but the more excited he became, the harder it was to recover that feeling. So he took several deep breaths and returned his thoughts to calmness.

Those natural rhythms once again became one with his heart. Chen Nan did not speak, lest words disturb his state of mind.

Then, as if it were only natural, certain sensations appeared in his heart. He felt that his consciousness could somehow connect with those weak little creatures, such as insects and rats.

Very soon, several rats scurried over to him and nestled beneath his body.

Chen Nan had not expected rats' bodies to be so warm. They made him feel very warm and comfortable. But he still wanted food, and so the rats suddenly hurried away.

They crawled out through the gap under the door. About a quarter of an hour later, the rats returned, dragging pancakes and smoked meat behind them.

Two pancakes and four pieces of smoked meat were laid before him. The little rats stood upright, their front paws pressed together, squeaking as they watched Chen Nan.