The World Does Not Wish for People to Live

"Where is your man?"

"Replying to your honor, he is still bedridden."

"When will you be paying your household's taxes?"

"Rest assured, sir, we will absolutely not miss the deadline."

In the darkness, Chen Sanshi heard a man and a woman conversing.

The man was aggressive, the woman yielding.

"Hiss..."

He strained to open his eyelids. What greeted his eyes was a completely unfamiliar environment.

Where is this?

Wasn't I working overtime?

"Hiss..."

Chen Sanshi's head suddenly throbbed with pain. A flood of memories, not his own, surged into his mind, forcing him to accept a fact.

I transmigrated?

This place was called Poyang County, a remote border county of the Great Sheng Dynasty.

The original host lived in Yanbian Village outside the County Town. He was a poor scholar who didn't need to work, and his family relied on his father's hunting for a living. Their lives were passable.

Until half a year ago, when his father went up the mountain overnight and never returned.

With the pillar of the family gone, and the original host failing his imperial examinations, the double blow caused him to fall gravely ill.

It was then that Chen Sanshi transmigrated.

"Ah, Shi Ge'er, you're awake!"

A woman entered the room carrying medicinal soup. Seeing the young man awaken, she was overjoyed.

She hurried to the bedside. Her ill-fitting clothes shook violently as she ran, as if two rabbits were tumbling inside.

This woman was Gu Xinlan.

She was the original host's father's child bride, bought when the original host was very young.

She had always taken care of the original host like an older sister. Even after his father's death and the original host's illness, she never left his side.

However...

The original host seemed to look down on this sister quite a bit.

This was because she was a descendant of criminals, exiled to the frontier, and had almost been sold to a brothel. She was of the lowest social status.

The original host, on the other hand, was arrogant. He felt that one day he would achieve fame and fortune, marry a woman from a prominent family, and become a son-in-law worthy of admiration. He felt she was beneath him and treated her like a servant in daily life.

"Shi Ge'er, how are you?"

Gu Xinlan sat by the bed and placed her hand on the young man's forehead. She exclaimed in surprise, "Eh? You're not burning anymore?"

Chen Sanshi sat up and tried to move his body. Apart from feeling a bit weak, there was nothing else wrong. The illness had completely disappeared with his transmigration.

"The Bodhisattvas truly blessed us."

Gu Xinlan was visibly happy. "Shi Ge'er, drink your medicine first. I'll go get you something to eat."

Watching her prominent chest jiggle as she walked, Chen Sanshi spent ten minutes digesting the current situation.

Since I'm here, I'll make the best of it.

He had always been able to adapt to his environment quickly. Since he had arrived in this world, he had to find a way to live well.

He picked up the bitter medicinal soup and drank it in one gulp. Chen Sanshi then went to the next room.

He saw Gu Xinlan almost entirely disappear into the rice bin, with only her chest stuck outside. She was struggling to scoop out grain from inside.

After all her efforts, she only managed to get a small handful of millet.

Ever since the original host's father died, the family had lost its source of income. Furthermore, the original host's recent illness had completely depleted the family's savings. They were now completely broke.

"Was that the tax official who came to collect the autumn tax just now?"

Chen Sanshi stood behind Lan Jie'er. "How much did they collect?"

"Three taels of silver," Gu Xinlan replied.

"Three taels?"

Chen Sanshi gasped. "Are they counting Father too?"

"Yes."

Gu Xinlan nodded gently. "The tax clerk said that if they couldn't find Father's body, he wouldn't be considered dead, and the household registration couldn't be closed. They still had to pay taxes as usual, and the hunting tax couldn't be waived either."

Chen Sanshi cursed inwardly.

The Great Sheng Dynasty's taxes and levies were also very severe. Coupled with the frequent wars in various regions in recent years, the tax burden was continuously increasing.

"Shi Ge'er, don't worry."

Gu Xinlan's eyes were filled with worry, but she said comfortingly, "I recently found some work at a tailor shop, and I also do laundry for people. I can scrape together a little bit."

Clearly, the original owner was completely unemployed in his daily life.

Even after his father died, he refused to find another way to make a living, preferring to let Lan Jie'er work herself to death.

"Does he even know if he's cut out for it..."

Chen Sanshi felt speechless. He couldn't even pass the Xiucai exam, yet he dreamed of becoming a Juren scholar in the future. Wasn't that just wishful thinking?

He couldn't continue like this. He had to find a way to make a living.

Otherwise, if they couldn't pay the taxes, the men would be conscripted for corvée labor, and the women would be sold to brothels. They would all end up wishing they were dead.

"I'll go cook."

Gu Xinlan busied herself.

Soon, the meal was ready.

Two bowls of millet mixed with chaff formed the staple food, and there wasn't even any pickled vegetables.

This was probably the last meal the family had.

Chen Sanshi noticed that the proportion of millet in his bowl was higher, while Gu Xinlan's bowl was mostly chaff.

Chaff, the husks of grains like rice, wheat, and soybeans, was rough, dry, and difficult to swallow.

In his previous life, it was basically used as feed for livestock.

"Eat, Shi Ge'er."

Gu Xinlan picked up her chopsticks and ate slowly and deliberately. Her fingers were visibly red, and there were small patches of ulceration around her joints.

That was from washing too many clothes for others.

As a woman, she did everything she could to support her family, except for the heavy labor that only men could do.

Chen Sanshi saw this and kept it in mind, burying his head in the difficult-to-swallow chaff.

"Shi Ge'er."

Halfway through the meal, Gu Xinlan put down her chopsticks and hesitantly said, "Besides the tax silver, we also owe Aunt Li two qian for medical expenses.

"Why don't you... I'm just suggesting, you recuperate for a few more days, and then also find some work? I heard they arrest people if you can't gather the tax silver by the end of the month..."

As she spoke, she secretly glanced at his expression, nervously picking at the corner of her clothes.

In the past, whenever this matter was brought up, Shi Ge'er would fly into a rage, saying that scholars shouldn't do manual labor.

"Eat your meal."

Chen Sanshi shoveled rice into his mouth, silently calculating the accounts in his mind.

Gu Xinlan didn't dare to bring it up again. She quietly finished her meal, then efficiently washed the pot and bowls before rushing off to do her needlework.

Chen Sanshi sat still, seriously considering in his mind.

Ancient times were not like modern society, where you could find work with just a bit of strength.

His family had no land, and he had no academic achievements. The only thing he could do was hunt.

The original owner had learned a few things from his father when he was young. Although most of it had been neglected over the years, at least the basic skills were still there, and it shouldn't be difficult to get started.

Besides, since he had to pay hunting taxes anyway, there was no harm in hunting.

The family also happened to have an old bow left.

Chen Sanshi went into the inner room and took down the long bow covered in dust from the wall.

"It should still be usable."

"But there are no arrows, and I'll have to find a way to get some money to buy them."

To survive, the family had sold almost everything, even their books. Currently, only the Four Treasures of the Study, which the original owner considered his lifeline, were worth anything.

Without any hesitation, Chen Sanshi packed up the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone and took them away.

Even though they were all inferior goods, they sold for a full two hundred copper coins, which was about two qian of silver.

This was enough to prove that the saying "poor scholars, rich warriors" was not absolute; studying was also a costly endeavor.

Chen Sanshi took the money and went to a stall in the market that catered to hunters.

"Little Stone, are you here to buy arrows?"

The stall owner, Old Xu, was from a military men and was an old acquaintance of the original owner's father. "Are you planning to go up the mountain to hunt and give up on studying?"

"Yes, I'm planning to buy some old arrows."

Chen Sanshi picked out five used willow leaf arrows from the stall. "How much?"

"Seventy wen."

Chen Sanshi bargained, "Old Uncle Xu, old arrows aren't worth that much. Fifty wen at most."

"Alright, fifty wen it is."

Old Xu was quite straightforward. "If you ask me, you should have gone up the mountain long ago. If you had learned most of your father's skills, at least you could make a living. Why insist on studying that useless book? Can a poor kid become an official?"

"What the old man says makes sense."

Chen Sanshi didn't argue. After confirming there were no quality issues with the arrows, he nocked one onto the bowstring and aimed at the ground.

Suddenly, a few lines of small text appeared before his eyes.

Skill: Archery (Uninitiated)
Progress: (20/100)