Sishui Beggar

Southern Heavenly Origin Region.

Chen Kingdom, under the rule of the Corpse Sha Sect, Sishui Town.

Dark clouds churned as goose-feather snowflakes drifted down.

The Pei Estate was brightly lit, with the sounds of debauchery echoing endlessly; the aroma of wine and meat drew a crowd of beggars to gather outside.

"This damn world, it doesn't give a man a way to live!"

Fang Huai shivered from the cold, his matted hair crusted with frost, yet his chest burned like a furnace, the pressure making it hard to breathe.

He shook the snow from his tattered rags with cracked hands and bit the tip of his tongue, forcing his will to remain clear.

He could not pass out; if he passed out, he would never wake up again.

This world would not let him live, but he was determined to survive!

"Sizzle—"

A crack opened in the gate of the Pei Estate, and a servant dumped steaming swill onto the snow. Seeing this, the beggars lunged forward like madmen, scrambling for the scraps.

"Look at this lot!"

The servant clutched his stomach and laughed, "What difference is there between them and the pigs in the pen? They go crazy for a bit of slop!"

The smell of wine mixed with the gamey scent of mutton and the pungent odor of unknown medicinal tonics was incredibly stinging, yet to the beggars, it was a delicacy of the world.

Fang Huai's left leg was lame, yet his movements were a fraction faster than the other able-bodied beggars. Just as he neared the food, however, someone tripped him to the ground.

By the time he scrambled back to his feet, everything edible had been snatched away; even the stone bricks on the ground had been licked clean and shiny by the beggars.

This year was a year of famine; crops had failed entirely, and the impoverished commoners had reached the point of trading children to eat, let alone the beggars on the street.

The twelfth lunar month was not even half over, and dozens had already starved to death.

But the Pei Family was different. As the de facto rulers of Sishui Town, the swill they tossed out was far better than the meals of ordinary households.

"Get lost, all of you! A bunch of stinking beggars, who gave you the nerve to touch the Pei Family's things?"

Fang Huai looked up to see a young man in silk robes emerging from the gate, surrounded by servants. It was the second young master of the Pei Family, Pei Hu.

The beggars scrambled away in a panic at the sound, and Fang Huai hurriedly tried to retreat.

Memories flooded his mind: this Pei Hu was cruel by nature and took pleasure in tormenting others. Over a dozen concubines had died by his hand, not to mention the beggars he had tortured to death.

The original owner of this body had been frozen to death in the cold night after Pei Hu broke his leg.

Now that he was in such a state of weakness, he could not afford to provoke this god of plague.

Yet, as fate would have it, the servants noticed he was a cripple and, seeing the other beggars were too nimble, dragged him before Pei Hu.

Pei Hu looked down at him, his tone mocking, "Call me Master Pei and kowtow three times, and I'll reward you with a full meal. Otherwise, I'll break your other leg!"

In this freezing weather, if both legs were broken, it would be a certain death sentence.

Endure the humiliation for now, and in the future, I will make Pei Hu pay a hundredfold!

Fang Huai suppressed his rage, but before he could speak, Pei Hu's wooden staff struck toward his face.

"Stinking beggar, you actually believed me? Master Pei will spell it out for you: today, I'm going to beat you to death, you idiot!"

Son of a bitch...

Fang Huai's head roared, his vision blurred, and in his daze, a white light screen flickered before his eyes:

[Fang Huai]
[Mortal Body]
[Starving and Freezing (Gray)] [Imminent Death]
[Remaining Points: 1]
[Points can be used to swap or refresh tags, increases by 1 daily]

A hallucination?

Or perhaps...

He focused his mind on the tags, and to his surprise, there were corresponding annotations:

[Starving and Freezing: Hunger and cold in the physiological sense] [Imminent Death: Today, tomorrow, or the day after... you will surely die]

He looked up at Pei Hu, and the vicious man before him also had tags hovering above his head:

[Well-fed and Warmly Clad (Gray)] [Physically Flabby (Gray)] [Well-fed and Warmly Clad: Satiety and warmth in the physiological sense] [Physically Flabby: A common ailment of wealthy offspring]

A flash of inspiration struck, and Fang Huai focused his thoughts on his own [Starving and Freezing] and Pei Hu's [Well-fed and Warmly Clad].

Could his tags really be swapped with Pei Hu's?

With a shift of his thoughts, the light screen blurred for a moment before sharpening again, Fang Huai's tag changing from [Starving and Freezing] to [Well-fed and Warmly Clad].

Meanwhile, Pei Hu's tag changed from [Well-fed and Warmly Clad] to [Starving and Freezing].

[Remaining tag duration: six hours]

A long-lost sense of fullness spread through his stomach, and his body was enveloped in warmth.

Fang Huai felt a surge of joy; he had actually succeeded in swapping the tags, and he could clearly sense that as long as he shifted his thoughts again, he could return the swapped tag to its original owner.

Pei Hu suddenly shivered, his stomach growling loudly, and he irritably muttered, "Bad luck, why did it suddenly get so cold? And my stomach is aching with hunger."

Having lost the mood for amusement, he stopped paying attention to Fang Huai and beckoned his servants to hurry back to the estate.

Fang Huai stood frozen in place; although he was still draped in rags and hadn't eaten a single grain of rice, the sensations of fullness and warmth were real, and his physical state had clearly improved.

Limping back to the ruined temple where the beggars gathered, he had barely stepped inside when mocking voices drifted toward him.

"Little Huai, why are you back so late? Did someone break your leg again?"

"Hey, don't tease him. To beg for food, one must look miserable. This pathetic state of Fang Huai's is a gift from the heavens!"

"Hahaha, if you want to look this miserable, I can help you with that!"

"..."

Fang Huai couldn't be bothered to respond, lying down comfortably on his straw mat and covering himself with a thick layer of hay.

"Hiccup~"

A loud sound rang out, and the surroundings fell into a dead silence; his burp had drawn the attention of all the beggars.

"You brat, did you actually manage to eat something good?" The old beggar who had just mocked him crawled over, pried open his mouth, and leaned in.

"You haven't even eaten a single rat hair or chicken feather, yet you're pretending? You'll never starve to death!"

Waves of mockery surged forth, and the beggars breathed a sigh of relief; if Fang Huai had truly eaten his fill, they would have been too miserable to sleep.

The old beggar had a mouth full of black teeth, and the sour stench made Fang Huai feel like he was suffocating.

He hurriedly pushed the man away. "Old brother, I still have a while before I starve to death, but if you don't get up, I'm going to be choked to death by your foul breath first!"

Before he could finish, the old beggar forcibly shoved something into his mouth and whispered in his ear, "Keep quiet. I have a little stash left. It's a bit moldy, but it'll keep you alive."

After saying this, he deliberately laughed out loud, "My teeth are foul because I eat too much; don't be jealous, hahahaha!"

Fang Huai chewed; it was half a piece of moldy corn bun.

It was delicious...

Checking the old beggar's information, the tag displayed [Starving(Gray)].

"Thank you!"

Fang Huai was genuinely grateful; he hadn't expected that even in this cold, heartless world, there would be a side that warmed the heart.

Pei Estate.

Pei Hu leaned against a soft couch, surrounded by four naked, dainty beauties.

They pressed against Pei Hu's body, trying their best to warm him, but not only did they fail to heat him up, they ended up shivering with chattering teeth themselves.

"Get another batch! These wenches are as cold as corpses!"

Bearing the [Starving and Freezing] tag, Pei Hu trembled all over. Although his stomach was filled with food, he was still suffering from spasms caused by hunger.

Having been pampered with fine clothes and food since childhood, he had never suffered such torment.

"Get out! All of you, get out!"

Pei Hu's eyes were bloodshot; the newly replaced women were still as cold as ice blocks!

He rose from the bed and, still naked, lunged at the table full of food. Since he couldn't solve the problem of the cold, he would solve the problem of hunger first.

He stuffed the delicacies on the table into his mouth, not caring if the food suited his taste, gorging himself frantically.

"Young Master, you cannot eat any more..." The butler tried to dissuade Pei Hu, only to be met with a hideous, demonic glare.

The butler was certain that if he tried to stop him again, he would be torn apart and swallowed by Pei Hu.

Pei Hu was already unable to eat any more, yet his speed of consumption did not slow down.

Hungry! So hungry!

He had been eating for a long time, but the effect was like eating only half a corn bun; it couldn't alleviate the hunger at all!

Why couldn't this stomach be filled!

Suddenly, he clutched his stomach, which had swollen into a ball, and collapsed to the ground, wailing, "It hurts! Help... save me!"

Food mixed with blood surged from his throat, and Pei Hu rolled on the ground in agony, falling silent after a short while.

The butler walked up tremblingly, then collapsed to the floor. "Young Master?"

Pei Hu was bleeding from his seven orifices; he had actually eaten himself to death.

Meanwhile, in the ruined temple, Fang Huai was not having an easy time either; having been sleeping comfortably, he was suddenly jolted awake by a sense of extreme fullness and a scorching heat.

Despite having done nothing at all, the [Well-fed and Warmly Clad] he had swapped for had transformed into [Stuffed to the Gills].

"What is Pei Hu doing? Even if the food is good, he shouldn't be eating himself to death."

Feeling uncomfortably full but unwilling to swap the label back, Fang Huai could only pace back and forth, attempting to digest his meal.

Suddenly, his entire body shuddered as hunger and cold returned, and when he looked at the label on his body again:

[Ravenous Hunger]?