A granary rat

"Auntie can take it!"

Pan Shi hardly looked as though her skull had been smashed flat. She was positively brimming with life.

Meng Yuan, however, had lost interest. Instead, he studied the inscriptions on the revolving stone disk.

[Hundred-Life Reincarnation]

[First life: lived eighteen years]

[Inscription: arrogance and folly clouded your heart; you coveted wealth and lusted after women. A brief spell of dalliance, and nothing gained.]

[Available talents: none]

"So this stone disk is called Hundred-Life Reincarnation. And that death just now counted as my first life. Doesn't that mean I have ninety-nine more?"

"And this 'inscription' seems like a verdict, but also like an epitaph."

"Why aren't there any talents to choose from? Did I live too short a life, or was my performance too poor?"

"If I make something more of myself, will the verdict improve too? And then I'll get a talent?"

Meng Yuan rubbed his brow and stopped moving.

"What's wrong, Hei Wa?" Pan Shi had quite an appetite.

What time was it already? Meng Yuan reckoned Master Cheng would come creeping over in another hour or so!

Meng Yuan pulled out and climbed off the bed. Wiping the sweat from his body, he put on his ragged clothes and said, "Auntie, I want to marry you! Let's go find Master Cheng right now. He'll definitely agree to bring us together!"

"...Huh?" Pan Shi was dumbfounded. As though being left hanging halfway through weren't enough, now he had to give her a fright too!

She wanted to say something else, but Meng grabbed her wrist. "I have to marry you! If you won't let me, I'll die right here!"

Sure enough, after a little more back-and-forth, Pan Shi obediently took the little wooden box from beneath her pillow.

Meng Yuan snatched the wooden box, tucked it inside his clothes, and strode away. At the door, he turned back and fished the date out of the chamber pot. "Stop soaking it in the piss pot. If you're in a trade, take pride in it, or you're bound to get a beating. Hurry up and tidy the room. If Master Cheng comes later, don't let him spot anything amiss. And remember, you're a widow. Don't forget to take the medicine tomorrow."

"As if I didn't know all that! Look how scared you are!" Pan Shi put on her clothes, her head finally working somewhat normally again.

Back at his lodgings, he had only just lain down when he heard a clamor outside. He went out to look, and sure enough, Master Cheng had returned.

"Walk by the river often enough, and your shoes are bound to get wet. From now on, I'll live respectably. No more sneaking around with widows!" A stumble had taught Meng Yuan a lesson.

After a peaceful night's sleep, Meng Yuan and Old Yang collected their wages the next day and left the Cheng estate.

Once home, he hid the money he had extorted and handed all his wheat-harvesting wages to his father.

After three days at home, Meng Yuan wove straw sandals and mats and carried them to the county town to sell, sparing himself the sound of his eldest sister-in-law scraping the bottom of the pot at every meal.

With the Hundred-Life Reincarnation stone disk in his possession, Meng Yuan planned to proceed cautiously.

Though he had transmigrated here, his predecessor had only been a poor farm boy who had scarcely visited the county town, with little experience of the world.

Thus, Meng Yuan intended to spend some time exploring the county town and prefectural city first, learning a little about this world so he could find a path upward.

This was Qingping County in Huai'an Prefecture, part of the Yu Kingdom.

Wearing a straw hat and carrying straw mats and sandals on a shoulder pole, Meng Yuan wandered around Qingping County for half a month, then spent another month exploring the prefectural city.

The profits from weaving mats and selling sandals were meager, and competition was fierce. After more than a month of work, Meng Yuan had barely made any money and had almost been duped and lured away by someone saying, "Auntie wants a word with you."

Still, he had at least made several circuits of the county town and prefectural city, witnessed the many faces of life at the bottom, and grasped how Huai'an Prefecture and Qingping County worked: powerful local families held sway above, dog officials picked the people's bones in the middle, and gangs sucked out their marrow below. The three colluded, driving commoners to sell their sons and daughters.

Judging the kingdom by one county and one prefecture, Meng Yuan reached a conclusion: in as little as two or three years, or as many as seven or eight, the realm might undergo a great upheaval.

And as a poor man at the very bottom, with neither land nor money, swept along by that surging tide, he would probably vanish beneath a single wave.

At a time like this, even if he earned money and built up a family fortune, most of it would likely be seized when the time came. Besides, without power or influence, making a little money was possible, but making a great deal would be difficult.

First, he needed the strength to protect himself. Everything else could be pursued gradually.

Whenever Meng Yuan recalled Master Cheng's ability to split a skull with one palm, he could not help yearning for it.

If he learned martial arts, he could retreat and preserve himself while waiting for the realm's course to become clear; or he could advance with the tide, attach himself to one powerful figure or another, and share in their broth and meat.

No sooner decided than done. Meng Yuan took his money from selling his body and, after comparing three schools, joined the Huo Family Martial Arts School. When word reached the village, everyone said Meng Yuan had saved up money by selling his backside in the prefectural city. Quite a few boys from his home village even came to ask him how to get into the business.

Meng Yuan paid no attention to anything else and devoted himself to martial arts.

Martial arts had no particular divisions into realms, only a distinction between internal and external arts.

The Huo Family Martial Arts School taught only external arts, mostly fist-and-foot techniques and the use of sabers and spears. It had nothing so advanced as breathing methods or internal cultivation manuals.

Though Meng Yuan had the revolving stone disk, he remained diligent and learned to read and write in his spare time between training.

A year hurried past, and wheat harvest came again.

Meng Yuan was darker than before now, with a body full of hard muscle, and he could handle a saber or sword with a fair semblance of skill.

But whenever he returned home, the villagers pointed and whispered, keeping their distance.

This was hardly surprising. During his year in town, besides practicing martial arts, Meng Yuan had learned to read and write and become quite well acquainted with an older lady.

After all, the money he had extorted before amounted to less than a hundred taels and could not withstand much spending. Reading and writing-and buying books in particular-cost a considerable sum. Seducing women was much simpler.

Meng Yuan could claim a little experience when it came to selling his body.

If a woman's family was poor, he would offer money; if yin flourished while yang waned, he would show the strength of his waist. If husband and wife were at odds, he would offer plenty of comfort. If they lived apart, he would slip into the opening.

Of course, if one's looks were passable and one had some skill in bed, this sort of thing came all the more easily.

Thus, after learning that Madam Cao, the proprietress of the Ping'an Bookshop, was a widow, Meng Yuan went there under the pretext of buying a brush and spent several days lavishing attention on her. He also charmed her son into a happy mood, and from there, the water naturally found its channel.

By giving his all in bed, Meng Yuan obtained a little financial support. He never had to pay for brushes, ink, paper, or inkstones, and food and drink were no concern either.

Yes, because of what happened with the Cheng Household's young mistress, Meng Yuan had sworn never to steal again. But this time didn't count as stealing. At most, he was working as a long-term hired hand.

Besides that, Meng Yuan deliberately cultivated acquaintances in the county town. He felt the realm might soon change, and he had heard that the people of a single county could govern an entire kingdom, so he hoped to pick out some capable men to befriend.

Yet after a year, he had met plenty of capable men who coveted money and women, bullied the weak, and feared the strong, but very few with loyalty or integrity. They were all rotten fish and spoiled shrimp.

Meng Yuan himself had no good reputation either. People in the county said the Meng family's second son dallied with loose women, seduced widows, and lived off women, never doing a single respectable thing.

Whenever his fellow villagers saw Meng Yuan, they whispered among themselves. Whether they were secretly stabbing fingers at his back or quietly envying him, he could not tell.

Had they not known Meng Yuan practiced martial arts, they probably would have mocked him to his face.

And in truth, after a year of martial training, Meng Yuan was still all show. He was a little stronger and could fool ordinary people, but an expert would see straight through him.

In the words of Master Huo, the school's proprietor, his comprehension was acceptable and his aptitude average, but he had started too late and lacked an internal cultivation method. Even if he trained diligently and bitterly his whole life, he would reach only the third or fourth rank at best.

Yet advanced martial arts such as internal cultivation manuals could neither be bought nor begged for.

"Other people go to town, work for a year, and buy a house and marry a wife! Look at you! You haven't accomplished a thing, and you've ruined every scrap of the Meng family's reputation! How's your eldest niece supposed to find a husband now?" His eldest sister-in-law was not afraid of Meng Yuan and repeatedly scolded him to his face.

One day, while Meng Yuan was out for a stroll, he saw a crowd gathered before the town gate.

He squeezed forward and discovered they were looking at a recruitment notice.

"Ah." After reading it briefly, Meng Yuan shook his head and said nothing.

Unexpectedly, a round-faced man with leopard-like eyes heard his sigh and immediately rebuked him. "A true man should serve his country, not stand here sighing! What sort of man are you? Oh, it's Second Son Meng! No wonder, then. You don't serve your country because you've spent all your strength on widows!"

"Butcher Zhou, I recall your son-in-law just left on a long trip?" Meng Yuan asked.

"You... what are you planning? I'm warning you, if you dare seduce my daughter, I'll geld you!" The round-faced man was horrified.

Meng Yuan ignored him and looked back at the recruitment notice, making plans for his future.

Since martial arts had not worked out, it was time to seek another way forward.

If he muddled along in Qingping County, or even took over Widow Cao's affairs, he could attain modest, comfortable prosperity in three to five years.

But news had already arrived of rebellions by the White Lotus Sect and the Yellow Turban Army, and river workers had dug up the One-Eyed Stone Man.

The realm was about to change. Never mind modest wealth-what good would even great wealth do?

Of course, if he focused solely on staying alive until the realm settled, learning who would be king and who would be branded a bandit, he could place his bet early in his next life and follow the winner from humble beginnings. Even without seeking a princely title or a chancellor's office, he could at least earn merit for helping the dragon rise!

But was he simply to wait? Wait until the realm's outcome became clear? Wait until he died of old age?

Besides, would he not still have to risk his life to earn merit for helping the dragon rise in his next life?

Then why not start fighting for it in this life? Selling himself could bring money, so why not first go and take the measure of the buyers!

The sky was high and the sea vast; there was much he could accomplish!

Here in Qingping County, he was merely a rat in a privy.

Meng Yuan decided to venture out and become a rat in a granary-a granary rat with the whole realm as his granary!