Famine, War, and Pestilence

When Zhou Ming was five years old.

Famine—a severe famine.

For six straight months, the heavens gave only a little rain. The land cracked open, the rivers dried up, the leaves yellowed and withered, and nearly all the crops in the fields died.

There was almost no harvest at all.

Zhou Ming did not know how he survived that year. Apart from a thin rice porridge in the morning, so watery he could see the bottom of the bowl, he spent most of his time lying motionless on a straw mat with his parents and younger sister, his mind blank, trying to conserve energy.

After only three months of such days, Zhou Ming, his whole body swollen, realized this would not do. At this rate, they would really die.

There were plenty of fish in the river near town and plenty of wild rabbits in the mountains. Since few people had ever caught them, those creatures did not even run when they saw people. They were terribly stupid...

Zhou Ming left his home.

By the small river in front of town, a crowd had gathered.

"Lord Baron, this damned commoner stole your fish! Without the merciful lord's permission, he shamelessly stole your private property!"

The short, fat steward Brunode sprayed spittle as he pointed at a frail boy kneeling on the ground.

Beside the frail boy lay two plump bass, their tails still twitching.

At the sight of the two fat fish, the pale-lipped men and women watching, their faces yellow with hunger, could not help moving their lips. Their feet unconsciously edged forward.

But when they saw the several tall, powerfully built knights in front draw the longswords from their waists, the blades gleaming like snow, they fearfully retreated two steps.

"Lord Baron, how should this commoner be dealt with?" the steward asked, bowing toward the middle-aged man beside him, who wore armor covered in various patterns.

This middle-aged man in magnificent armor was naturally Baron Connor, owner and supreme authority of Glan Territory.

"According to the Territory Law, how should he be punished?" Baron Connor asked.

"Under Article Fifteen of the Territory Law, theft of the lord's private property is punishable by the severing of one hand, Lord Baron," steward Brunode said.

"Then cut off one hand." After delivering his judgment, Baron Connor mounted his horse without expression and returned to the castle amid the clanking of armor plates.

A knight stepped forward and raised his sword high.

After a scream.

Standing among the crowd, Zhou Ming saw the small hand lying on the ground, covered in blood, and returned home with a pale face.

After lying at home for several more days, Zhou Ming awoke in agonizing pain.

His three-year-old sister Alice was clutching his arm, swollen like a radish, and gnawing down on it with all her strength.

"Get away! Stop it, stop biting me!" Zhou Ming shoved his sister away, clutching the arm from which a large chunk of flesh had been bitten off, howling in pain.

At that moment, his father and mother woke as well. When they saw the yellow fluid mixed with blood oozing from Zhou Ming's arm, they too could not help licking their lips.

"Ah!"

Zhou Ming cried out, hurriedly threw open the door, and rushed out of the house.

Hungry. Hungrier than ever before. If he did not find something to eat soon, he would surely starve to death.

Food, where was there food? Where could he find food?

Fish. There were fish in the river, but he could not catch them. Catching them meant losing a hand. Rabbits. There were many wild rabbits in the mountains, but he could not catch those either. They too were the lord's property.

Grass. There was grass on the ground. Though its leaves were tough and cut his mouth, its roots were tender, slightly sweet, and contained small amounts of protein and starch. It was edible. It definitely had to be edible.

Zhou Ming pulled up a large bundle of grass from the field ridge, then ran quickly to Tax Officer Dilak and told him he wanted to pay taxes.

Tax Officer Dilak, fat and drowsy, looked at the bundle of grass in Zhou Ming's hands. He told him to leave behind one-third, then took the remaining two-thirds amid Zhou Ming's profuse thanks.

"This commoner has been driven mad by hunger. How can grass that even cattle will not eat be edible?" Dilak disdainfully tossed the grass on the table aside. He did not care for such grass, but not a bit of the tax owed to the lord could be missing!

Even if someone took a single stone belonging to the lord, he had to pay tax.

That night, Zhou Ming felt that his life had been pulled back from the brink. His parents and sister seemed a little more alert too. Early the next morning, all four of them went to pull that grass.

They barely endured through autumn before the cold winter arrived. There was no more grass in the fields. At that time, Zhou Ming's family had no choice but to kneel with the farmers in town who had not yet starved to death before the lord's castle, begging for his mercy. After finally receiving a small sack of black flour, they managed to survive that year of famine.

After the disaster year, bandits sprang up everywhere.

The lord's knights had already driven away more than a dozen groups of bandits around the territory, yet they could not be driven off completely. These bandits abducted people, burned houses, slaughtered livestock, and even seriously disrupted Glan Territory's spring planting plans.

"Today, I will slaughter every last bandit causing trouble in my territory!"

The enraged Baron Connor gathered all his knights and servants, conscripted every farmer in the territory still capable of wielding a weapon, distributed some crude arms, and set out aggressively to settle scores with the bandits eyeing Glan Territory.

After a fierce campaign to suppress the bandits, Zhou Ming's father Derek did not appear among the victorious returning ranks.

"Sinier, where is my husband Derek? Did you see him? Why hasn't he come back?" Mother Julina anxiously asked, grabbing the hand of a man from a neighboring household.

"Derek? He accidentally fell into a trap the bandits had set. It was truly pitiful—three wooden stakes pierced right through him." A man who knew his father shook his head and clicked his tongue.

"Derek! My Derek!"

Mother sat on the ground and wept as though her heart had been torn apart. That day was unbearably cold and dark for Zhou Ming's family.

After the war, disease spread.

After the weather turned warm, several people in Rose Town of Glan Territory came down with colds and coughs.

Not long after, their coughing worsened, and more people caught colds. Some who fell seriously ill could not be saved even after drinking the Holy Water sold by the church.

Baron Connor panicked. Leaving only a few tax officers in town, he and his knights shut the castle gates tight and hid stubbornly inside the castle.

Mother Julina also fell ill, and her condition worsened by the day. Even though Zhou Ming boiled water every day, cleaned the house, gathered herbs in the mountains to brew medicine, and kept the room well ventilated, it was useless...

Father was gone. Mother was gone too. Many adults and childhood friends in town were gone as well...

In the ruined home, only Zhou Ming, not yet six years old, and his little sister Alice, just over three, remained.