"My head hurts..." A fierce headache surged through Rong Zheng. He barely managed to open his eyes and saw a boy of sixteen or seventeen with a youthful face but delicate features. His eyes, in particular, were so beautiful they could steal one's soul. Even his sallow complexion and the smudges of dirt could not dim their brilliance.
Most striking of all was the bright red cinnabar mole at the tip of the boy's eyebrow, a finishing touch that added considerably to his beauty.
"Brother Yun, he's awake." A timid voice sounded, and only then did Rong Zheng notice another, even thinner boy on his other side. His face was even more sallow, showing obvious signs of severe malnutrition, and he looked only six or seven.
Why am I lying on the ground? Where is this?
Hiss, why does my forehead hurt so much? Rong Zheng reached up to touch the painful spot on his forehead and found blood on his hand.
How did my forehead get cut? Who had the nerve to break into an ancient martial arts family's villa and hit me?
Utterly puzzled, he struggled into a sitting position, only to become even more bewildered once he saw what was in front of him.
There were two gravestones before him. One read, "Late father, Rong Man," and the other, "Beloved mother, Lin Qiao." He had clearly been sleeping, so how had he woken up in a graveyard?
Rong Zheng looked completely lost. Before he could recover, another piercing headache struck, as though someone had suddenly poured something into his brain. His head spun so badly that he could not help bracing his forehead with his hand.
Memories flooded into his mind, each vying to get in first. He had actually transmigrated in his sleep. The original owner of this body was also named Rong Zheng, nineteen years old this year and the only son of Rong Man, a hunter from Anhe Village.
His mother's name was Lin Qiao. Rong Man was an excellent hunter who regularly went into the mountains and sold his game in town to support his family.
Though hunting was dangerous, it paid somewhat better than simply working the fields.
Unafraid of danger, Rong Man dared to venture deep into the mountain forests and usually brought back a good haul. With those earnings, he had built a small brick house with a tiled roof in the village early on, causing quite a stir throughout the village at the time.
After all, the households that could afford gray-brick houses with tiled roofs could be counted on one hand, including the village chief's family and the landlord's.
Once life improved, Rong Man sent his only son, Rong Zheng, to school in town, hoping his studies would one day bring honor to the family.
After the original owner took and failed the preliminary examinations for aspiring scholars, known as the tongshi, twice, the hunter Rong and his wife were disappointed, but they did not give up.
After all, the tongshi was not easy to pass. Some people with poor aptitude or bad luck remained stuck at this stage indefinitely, so even white-haired old men could be seen taking it.
The tongshi was far harder than the modern college entrance examination, perhaps comparable to gaining admission as an undergraduate to a Project 985 or Project 211 university.
Misfortune struck when Rong Zheng was sixteen. He had just finished taking the preliminary examinations when tragedy befell his family.
To hunt valuable game, Rong Man ventured deep into remote mountain forests. The game in the outer areas had already been largely hunted out, so he could only grit his teeth and try his luck. Then disaster struck: a tiger mauled him, and by the time he was carried down the mountain, he was no longer breathing.
Lin Qiao wept in anguish and fell gravely ill. To save his mother, the original owner spent all the family's savings, but unfortunately, she still could not be saved and passed away one night.
Both his parents died within less than a month, leaving the original owner devastated.
An even more fatal blow came after he finished arranging his mother's funeral: the tongshi results were released, and he had failed again. This was already his third attempt, and it was the final straw that broke him.
The tongshi was merely the qualifying examination for the imperial examinations. In other words, only after passing it could one qualify to sit the formal imperial examinations.
With his parents gone and no hope of succeeding in the imperial examinations, the original owner never recovered.
From then on, he drifted through his days in a daze and stopped attending school. Occasionally, he went to the fields to learn farmwork, but his efforts were sporadic. He had never been good at working the land to begin with, and now most of the rice he planted died every year.
He needed to eat, had no income, and still had to pay land tax at the end of the year, so he sold his fields. The family had only eight mu of farmland altogether, and he sold five.
Village Chief Ye had come to persuade him otherwise, saying that farmland was a farming household's foundation and urging him to reconsider, but the original owner insisted on selling.
Living off the fifty taels from selling the land, the original owner spent three years in a stupor, always hiding at home drinking. He scarcely tended even the remaining three mu, leaving the rice seedlings alone after planting them.
Just last night, seeing how little money he had left and looking around his empty home, the original owner felt he had nothing left to live for. He ran to his parents' graves and smashed his head against a gravestone, killing himself.
That was when Rong Zheng transmigrated. After absorbing the original owner's memories, he felt bitter, half for the original owner and half for himself.
His sudden arrival in this unfamiliar place had caught him completely off guard.
He was the thirty-first-generation successor of the Rong Clan, an ancient martial arts family in the modern world. His martial talent was astonishing, and he ranked among the best in combat, saber techniques, and archery. How could he not be frustrated at ending up here after a night's sleep?
I hope my younger brother can take good care of Mom and Dad. Since things have already come to this, I can only accept it.
The brothers Ye Yun and Ye Chen watched Rong Zheng sit on the ground with his head supported by his hand, silent for a long time, unsure how to comfort him.
Ye Yun knew a little about what had happened to the hunter Rong's family, since they all lived in the same village. Supposedly, this man drank at home every day and had sunk into utter despondency. From the looks of it, had he spent the night lying in the graveyard?
He had come to his parents' graves late at night, and judging by the large bloody mark on his forehead, he had clearly rammed his head into a gravestone.
Did he miss his parents? Had he come here to kill himself? Sighing, Ye Yun felt some sympathy for Rong Zheng in this state.
Rong Zheng looked up at the youth and child beside him. Their clothes were covered in patches and washed white with wear. He spoke hoarsely:
"Could you give me something to eat?"
He had eaten nothing since last night and was terribly hungry. He recognized the two before him: the older one was Ye Yun, and the younger one was Ye Chen. They were brothers.
As for the cinnabar mole between Ye Yun's brows, that was the mark of a ger.
According to the original owner's memories, this world had three sexes: men, also called fellows; women; and gers.
Gers had bodies much like men's, only slightly thinner and weaker, with a cinnabar mole between their brows as their distinguishing mark. They could bear children like women, though having offspring was more difficult for them.
In this dynasty, women and gers held low status, especially gers. Because they struggled to conceive, they could not match women in childbearing, nor could they match men in strength, so their status was the lowest.
Only poor families were willing to marry them as spouses, since gers could serve as laborers. Wealthy families usually took them as concubines, and they were not even allowed to attend school to learn to read and write.
Ye Yun rummaged through his back basket, took out a steamed bun, and handed it to Rong Zheng.
"Cough, cough, cough..." Rong Zheng ate a little too quickly. Good heavens, is this bun made of stone? How can it be this hard?
Choking, Rong Zheng began coughing in distress until his face flushed red. It nearly cost him his life, making his already weakened condition even worse...
Ye Chen timidly handed him a small water flask. The child was clearly somewhat afraid of people.
Only after drinking several mouthfuls of water did Rong Zheng feel much better, and he murmured his thanks.
"There doesn't seem to be anything seriously wrong with you, but I've only learned the basics of taking a pulse, so I might not be accurate. You'd better have Doctor Ye examine you after you go down the mountain."
Ye Yun spoke, looking visibly embarrassed, then rummaged through his back basket again and handed Rong Zheng some medicinal herbs. "You can crush these when you get home and dress the wound on your forehead."
He pointed at his own forehead to indicate the spot. He was worried that Rong Zheng had no money and would be reluctant to see a doctor. Word around the village was that Rong Zheng had sold his fields for money and spent it all drinking at home every day over the past few years.
Rong Zheng accepted them and thanked him for his kindness.
"You'd better keep the wound dry until it heals. We'll be going now." Ye Yun gave the gentle reminder, then took his younger brother's hand to leave.
After only a few steps, he thought for a moment and took some wild fruit from his back basket for Rong Zheng. He hesitated, then gave him half the wild greens as well before turning and walking away.
Watching the youth hesitate before giving him the fruit and wild greens, Rong Zheng thought, This ger is good-looking and quite kindhearted, too.
He vaguely recalled that these brothers had a difficult life. The original owner had spent the past few years in a daze and no longer knew much about village affairs, leaving only a few hazy memories.
Still, judging by their unnaturally sallow faces and heavily patched clothes just now, their lives certainly could not be good.
Anhe Village was very small, and everyone generally knew about one another's family affairs.
Rong Zheng searched the original owner's memories for information about the brothers. Four years ago, their parents had unexpectedly encountered bandits and been killed. Since then, the brothers had been taken in by their eldest paternal uncle's family.
Ye Yun was actually adopted, and everyone in the village knew it.
His adoptive parents had been childless for years. On their way back to the village, they had vaguely spotted a child lying in the grass, concealed by branches.
When they approached, the child's breathing was extremely faint, and he was on the verge of death. It looked as though someone had thought he could not be saved and casually abandoned him, covering him up.
The child was five or six years old. Though his clothes were tattered, the fabric was excellent; he had to be from a wealthy or noble family. Alas, he might have been abducted, and the traffickers had probably abandoned him there when they thought he would not survive.
Having had no children for years, the couple decided to take the child home. If he could be saved, they would adopt him.
They brought him back to the village to see Doctor Ye. Doctor Ye did essentially everything he could, but the child still showed no sign of waking. He sighed and shook his head, saying they could only do their best and leave the rest to fate.
The child was a survivor and actually woke after three days unconscious. Overjoyed, the couple felt that he was blessed with great fortune and a tenacious life, so they adopted him, renamed him Ye Yun, and registered him at the government office as six years old.
Three years later, Ye Yun's parents welcomed their son, Ye Chen. They became even fonder of Ye Yun, believing that he had brought them good fortune, and treated him all the more as their own.
The original owner had heard all this from his parents' idle conversations. Thinking back to the Ye Yun he had just met, Rong Zheng found that the youth had left quite an impression.
He was the first person Rong Zheng had seen upon waking after transmigrating, had offered help in his hour of need by giving him something to eat, and was so pleasing to look at, too.
In the modern world, Rong Zheng had seen plenty of popular idols on the big screen, and thanks to his family background, he had also met several stunningly beautiful celebrities in person.
He was certain that once Ye Yun grew into his looks and his complexion became rosy, his exceptionally fine features and exquisite appearance would outshine even those idols and celebrities.
With all these factors combined, it was inevitable that his feelings toward this youth would be so special.