Selling Himself into Slavery

Early morning; the sky was just beginning to brighten.

Chen Mo had been awakened by hunger long ago. He was somewhat thankful that he could still wake up.

He no longer remembered when he had last eaten, nor did he have the strength to spare for thinking.

After waking his companion, the two said little and silently pressed onward.

They did not know how far they had traveled. The world remained a desolate wasteland, but the yellow earth beneath their feet bore the tracks of carts and horses.

At the sight of those marks, Chen Mo's spirits rose. It meant there had to be people ahead. The livestock had not been eaten, which meant that place did not lack food—it offered a way to live!

Chen Mo used every ounce of strength to quicken his pace. Yet with this body already on the verge of burning out like a lamp running dry of oil, no matter how hard he tried, he could not move much faster.

More and more famine refugees began appearing around them, no longer like before, when they could walk an entire day without seeing another soul.

Clearly, they too had spotted the nearby wheel tracks and knew there was a way to survive here. All of them were converging in this direction.

From time to time, refugees collapsed along the road. No one paid them any mind; everyone merely kept their heads lowered and hurried on.

Chen Mo found a large tree facing the sun and leaned against it to rest. He did not dare sit, much less lie down, afraid that once he did, he would never get back up.

Chen Mo took a blackened flatbread from his clothes, broke it in two, and handed one half to his companion.

Even the crumbs that fell when he broke the bread apart were gathered into his palm and carefully licked clean.

This was the only food the two of them had left. If they still could not reach somewhere with a way to live after finishing it, then they would meet the same end as the other refugees who had fallen by the roadside.

After eating the bread, Chen Mo did not dare linger. He continued onward along the road beneath his feet.

Perhaps it was because they had eaten, or perhaps because they had seen hope, but their steps noticeably quickened.

By the time the sun had shifted across the sky, the outline of a town slowly emerged.

Chen Mo's brain, numb and sluggish for so many days, finally felt some emotions that belonged to a human being.

Though they were still far from the town, he seemed to smell the fragrance of food.

The closer they got to town, the fewer refugees there seemed to be within it. This suggested that the town truly might offer a way to survive.

Even selling himself into slavery was better than starving to death alive.

Chen Mo rummaged through layer after layer of clothing. He remembered that he had money.

Once, when stripping clothes from a corpse, he had been lucky enough to find seventeen copper coins. Compared with the other refugees who had not a coin to their names, he was doing fairly well.

Seventeen coins were not much, but they should be enough to buy some food.

When they entered the town, its residents showed no surprise at the sight of the two of them. It seemed they had long grown accustomed to famine refugees.

At first, they had helped the refugees, but as their numbers grew ever greater, they could only turn a blind eye.

After all, in times like these, no family had an easy life.

"How much for a bowl of noodles?" Chen Mo asked as he approached an open-air noodle stall.

"Soup noodles are seven coins a bowl, and flatbread is three coins each." Though Chen Mo was a famine refugee, the owner showed no contempt and still greeted him with a smile.

"Two bowls of soup noodles and one flatbread," Chen Mo said with a smile.

Being able to eat had put him in a very good mood.

"Pay first," the owner said. Apparently, quite a few refugees had eaten without paying before.

Chen Mo took out the copper coins, and the owner immediately became much warmer.

"Right away, sir. Have a seat first."

Chen Mo chose a spot some distance from the other customers and sat down.

He had been fleeing famine for months. He himself had gotten used to his own smell, but others might not have.

Chen Mo beckoned to his companion. Until he had eaten something, he still did not want to talk much.

"I don't have any money." His companion shuffled over beside Chen Mo and spoke in a hoarse voice.

The two had traveled together before, even entrusting their lives to one another.

That had been an act born of helplessness while fleeing disaster.

Now that they had found a way to live, the alliance they had formed out of necessity should naturally dissolve.

Though the town offered a way to survive, they had yet to truly see it.

And food was precious. Every extra bite meant one more chance to stay alive.

"It's fine. Eat first; we'll talk later." Chen Mo forced a smile.

Both of them were already on the verge of collapse. They had reached the town purely by clinging on with willpower. If they did not eat something soon, neither would last long enough to find a way to survive.

Even if he and his companion sold themselves into slavery next, if they could enter the same household, they would surely remain in contact afterward.

And even if they could not, they had traveled together for so long and saved each other's lives.

Now that they had finally found a chance to live, Chen Mo could not possibly stand by and watch him die.

"Thank you." His companion smiled as he thanked him, then finally dared to sit across from Chen Mo.

Two bowls of steaming soup noodles were quickly brought over.

The noodles were the simplest kind, boiled plain, with no seasoning but salt.

Chen Mo could not describe their taste. To him, they were the most delicious thing in the world.

After a bowl of steaming noodle soup went down his stomach, Chen Mo finally felt like a living person again.

He asked the owner for another bowl of noodle broth, took a freshly baked flatbread, and broke off a piece for his companion, but she refused it.

Chen Mo did not stand on ceremony with her. He ate half the flatbread with the noodle broth and tucked the remaining half away on his person.

"Brother, is there any work to be had in this town? So long as it earns me a mouthful of food." Chen Mo handed the bowl back to the owner and asked with a genial smile.

"On the eastern side of town, several wealthy households from Beihe County are taking in servants. You can try there. Sixty li east from here is Qingmu Gathering, where the imperial court is recruiting soldiers. If all else fails, you can go there." After a moment's thought, the owner replied.

Chen Mo and the others had arrived too late. Any decent work or means of making a living had long been snatched up by the refugees who came before them.

Only selling oneself into servitude or joining the army remained—two paths one would choose only when driven to the wall.

"Thank you, brother!" Chen Mo said earnestly.

Great Qian divided the people under its rule into countless household registrations according to their occupations and status, with scholars standing at the very top.

Slavery was the lowliest of all household registrations. As for military households, while their registration was not the lowest—

The treatment they suffered was likely even worse than that of slaves.

Not only did they receive not a single coin of pay, they also had to farm their officers' land, endure beatings and curses from veteran soldiers, and when war came, they would be used as cannon fodder.

There was a saying in Great Qian: better a slave than a soldier.

At least if one became another person's slave, one would not be forcibly drafted onto the battlefield.

Besides, joining the army meant walking another sixty li. He might not even survive the journey.

"There are wealthy households at the east end of town taking servants. Let's go have a look." Chen Mo spoke quietly to his companion, never mentioning enlistment at all.

"Alright." His companion gave a bitter smile. Having eaten something, she finally carried a little of the air of the living.

If there had been any choice, no one would be willing to become another person's slave. But they had no choice. So what if they became slaves or maidservants? At least they could stay alive.

The two dragged their feet and slowly made their way to the eastern side of town.

Several thatched shacks had been put up here, and more than a dozen refugees were squatting inside them to rest.

"Are you here to sell yourselves?" A short, fat middle-aged man came over, looking the two of them over as though inspecting merchandise.

"Yes." Chen Mo answered in a deep voice, doing his best to make it sound strong and clear.

"Male or female?" the short, fat man asked coldly.

The refugees who had managed to flee here, men and women alike, were filthy and disheveled, gaunt and skeletal, their voices faint and hoarse.

Without a close look, one could not tell them apart. Even with a close look, it was hard to distinguish them.

"Male." Chen Mo spat out a single word.

"No males." The short, fat man waved a hand with faint disgust.

Seeing this, his companion hurriedly stepped forward and called softly, "I'm female."

"Granny Sun, come inspect the goods!" At her words, the short, fat man shouted toward a carriage beside the shacks.

A lean, tall middle-aged woman with dark skin, dressed in a gray floral cloth robe, jumped down from the carriage.

"Which one is the woman?" Granny Sun strode briskly up to them and asked in a somewhat shrill voice.

"Me." His companion slowly shuffled forward.

Granny Sun sized her up from head to toe, a trace of disdain in her eyes. She reached out and carefully felt over her body before finally nodding. "Fine. Come with me."

Looking at his companion beside him, Chen Mo did not know what to say. He wanted to congratulate her, yet he had no idea how to put it.

What kind of world was this? Selling oneself into slavery had become a good thing!

"I'm not selling myself. He's selling me," his companion said weakly.

"You're selling her?" Granny Sun shot Chen Mo a glance.

Chen Mo fell silent. He had been in this world for so long; there might be things he did not understand, but he knew perfectly well the difference between selling oneself and being sold by another.

Selling oneself meant selling oneself personally. There was no chance of redemption; one would remain another's slave for life, and even one's children and descendants would be fated to slavery.

Being sold by him was not much different from selling oneself, save for one point: she could be redeemed and still had a chance to escape slave status.

He knew this because he had sold himself before.

At the beginning of his transmigration, in order to survive, he had followed several refugees and sold himself to a landlord.

Later, as more and more refugees arrived, the landlord was robbed clean, and only then did he resume fleeing from the disaster.

"Come with me." His companion reached out and tugged at his sleeve. Chen Mo followed close behind.

They shuffled over to a withered tree not far away, where his companion finally stopped.

"I don't want to sell myself into slavery. You sell me, and you can keep the money. How about it?" she asked softly.

Chen Mo did not answer at once. Though the two had shared life-and-death trials, that had been forced upon them by circumstance.

He did not believe she would give him the money from selling herself for no reason at all.

As long as one was alive, one needed money. Even if one sold oneself into servitude, it was the same. Having money on hand was always better than having nothing at all.

"But if you take the silver, you have to promise me something. In the future, you have to find a way to redeem me." She did not want to spend her entire life as someone else's slave.

In truth, if they had a choice, no one would be willing to bow their head and become a slave.

She knew that even if she gave all the silver to Chen Mo, he would likely find it difficult to redeem her in the future.

It was not that she did not trust Chen Mo. It was that she knew disaster victims struggled just to survive, let alone save up enough money to redeem her.

Yet she was still willing to do this. Having something to hope for was better than having nothing at all.

After saying that, she spoke no more, merely looking quietly at Chen Mo.

Even if Chen Mo did not agree, she had still decided to give him some of the money afterward. He had been willing to treat her to a meal and let her live on, so she would lend him a hand as well.

"Alright. I promise you. As long as I don't die in the future, I'll definitely find a way to redeem you!" After considering it for a long time, Chen Mo finally made his promise.

He rarely made promises, but whenever he did, he would certainly do his utmost to fulfill them.

Seeing Chen Mo agree, his companion forced out a smile that was not particularly pleasant to look at.

The fact that he had thought for so long showed that he had truly considered the matter carefully, rather than agreeing without a second thought for the sake of the silver.

Perhaps redemption was no longer a vague, illusory hope.

"My name is Zhao Yu. What about you?" his companion asked.

"Chen Mo."

Though the two had known each other for quite some time, only now did they exchange names.

The two quietly discussed matters for a while longer before going to Granny Sun to sell Zhao Yu into servitude.

Before long, Chen Mo received a deed of sale. With Granny Sun as the broker, he sold Zhao Yu to the Liu Family of Beihe County as a slave under the identity of Zhao Yu's husband, receiving five mace of silver.

This was something the two had discussed beforehand. If he had no connection to Zhao Yu whatsoever, he would not have been able to sell her.

"Take it." Granny Sun counted out five hundred copper coins and flung them to Chen Mo.

He took the money and counted it, coin by coin.

A living person could only be sold for five mace of silver in a year of disaster.

"Don't worry, I won't short you even a single coin." Granny Sun smiled brightly. Selling someone on behalf of another paid far less than selling oneself, and she could skim quite a bit from the deal.

As for redemption?

If Chen Mo did not redeem her, she would profit. If he did, she would profit even more!

"Keep this deed safe. If you really manage to gather twenty taels for redemption, come find me at East Market in Beihe County." With that, Granny Sun grabbed Zhao Yu and prepared to leave.

"Please wait a moment, ma'am. Let the two of us talk a little longer," Chen Mo asked with an ingratiating smile.

"Fine, but I'll be watching right here. Don't you two try to run." Granny Sun was fairly easy to speak to.

Though she was not worried that two disaster victims who could barely walk would be able to outrun her, she still threatened them out of habit.

"Take some of this money." Chen Mo separated three strings of coins from the five and stuffed them into Zhao Yu's hands. He had sold himself before, and knew that even after selling oneself, it was best to have some money on hand.

"I can't use that much. You should take more." Zhao Yu only took one string of coins.

Though she had sold herself into slavery, at least she would not starve to death from here on out. Without money, she would suffer a little at most.

But if Chen Mo had no money, he might truly starve to death.

"Alright." Chen Mo did not continue to refuse, dividing the remaining money into three portions and hiding them close to his body.

"I don't have any use for this anymore. You take it." Zhao Yu took the waterskin she carried with her and handed it to Chen Mo. It was the only valuable thing she had on her.

"Alright." Chen Mo did not refuse.

After taking the waterskin, the two looked at each other in silence.

"Let's go." Zhao Yu bared her teeth in a smile at him, then slowly turned and walked toward Granny Sun.

Chen Mo also squeezed out a smile, Whether he wanted to survive or find a way to redeem Zhao Yu, he now had only one path left.

Enlist in the army!