“A Buddhist saying: May the reader be blessed.”
The rear hall of Jianan Temple was far less bustling than the front. Nestled deep in a mountain valley, a desolate courtyard lay overgrown with waist-high weeds. The beams and plaque of the hall were worm-eaten and decayed, and the dilapidated door creaked as it swayed back and forth in the cold night wind.
With a creak like fingernails scraping glass, a tall, thin figure carrying a stack of fifty sheets of yellow paper in one hand and a coil of rope in the other entered the temple. He found the altar with practiced ease.
On the dirty altar, a tattered Buddhist banner fluttered in the wind. Cobwebs, strung across the Buddha's palms, reflected the moonlight. A faded half-sheet of paper fluttered like a ghost.
Deep in the night, all was silent. Beneath the Buddha who gazed down with kind and gentle eyes, the figure sighed softly.
Shi Shu put down the stack of yellow paper and picked up the rope. The dim moonlight illuminated a pair of deep, handsome eyes. The pupils were dull, and his white fingers were stained with mud. A deep darkness lingered in his gaze.
"It's already midnight." Shi Shu closed his eyes. "I heard that when people hang themselves, their necks break, their eyeballs bulge and their tongues hang out of their mouths...they have quite the ugly death.”
"So to live or to die, that is the question."
"......"
Shi Shu, an 18-year-old college student, lay down to sleep in his bed in his dormitory about three months ago. He thought he would wake to the familiar sound of his alarm clock and rush to his classroom, but instead, he found himself wearing a coarse linen shirt, his feet planted in a paddy field. The cool morning water caressed his skin and small fish nibbled at his toes.
Startled, Shi Shu shivered and woke up completely. In front of him was an old yellow ox chewing on fodder, its mouth moving stupidly as it looked curiously at the visitor standing in the paddy field for no reason.
……Shi Shu had traveled to a strange dynasty he had never heard of. In the three months since he had traveled here, Shi Shu had tried jumping into a river — but he could swim, so he swam and cried.
He had also planned out a series of suicide methods — but only planned.
His scalp itched, and the water was too cold.
For the past month, Shi Shu had been coming to this temple every night, torn between two options.
The first was suicide. Perhaps it could take him home. He had imagined the scene countless times — the rope tightening around his neck, his eyeballs bulging, his tongue lolling out... The gruesome descriptions from horror novels filled his mind, sending chills down his spine.
The second was praying to the gods. This was his last hope.
Shi Shu tightened the rope in his hand, then loosened it. He knelt on a meditation cushion and looked up at the Bodhisattva statue, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
"Please, Bodhisattva, please..."
Shi Shu's voice choked up. "I really didn't want to time travel! Please, Great Compassionate Guanyin Bodhisattva, let me go home, please! I'll kowtow to you!"
The Bodhisattva statue was silent.
"Fuck!" Shi Shu finally broke down. "Can't you just let me go back? Can't you? Why? Why did I have to time travel!"
Why?!
And not only that, but he had to be reborn as a nobody in a beginner village?! If he had to be reborn as an emperor, regent, or general, he would have accepted it (and enjoyed it), but to be reborn as a defenseless peasant!
"Do you know how I've spent the past three months? What I’ve done to be accepted by the local villagers and have enough to eat?!" Shi Shu's accusations echoed in the temple hall. "I could only work as a laborer on a young master's estate, cutting grass, feeding cows, herding cattle, collecting eggs, grazing with the sheep, and even cleaning up chicken droppings!"
"Did I do anything bad in my past life? I've been reflecting for three months! I was cooperative with my classmates, helpful to others and a good citizen. I had just gotten into university and thought I could enjoy myself. Why the hell do I have to suffer like this here—"
"I’ve gone from a college student to a barbarian!"
"Blackheart, talk!"
"Why won't you speak?"
"You know you've wronged me, don't you?!" Shi Shu raged.
But he was met with nothing but silence.
He time traveled, but there were no ghosts and no system. He had been coming to this temple for half a month and hadn't even seen a living soul. Shi Shu had long known this would be the result.
"...I'm tired, I'm going home to sleep." Shi Shu stood up and patted the dust off his knees. When he turned his head, he was startled to see two shadowy figures peeking in from the doorway, looking at him with a horrified expression, having clearly watched his entire prayer session.
Shi Shu: ?
Shi Shu: "………"
"Dazhu-ge...I told you that Xiao-Shu is really good-looking, a light that shines out from among all the handsome young men in ten miles of us, but just I don't know why, after coming to our village, he runs to the abandoned temple where people have hanged themselves every midnight, mumbling to himself. It’s so strange..."
"Look at him mumbling to himself, it's like he's possessed by a ghost!"
"Don't talk nonsense, there's no such thing as ghosts. He's probably just a young master from some family who went mad and got lost."
Seeing Shi Shu turn around, the two quickly covered their mouths and backed away. "…It's so late, Xiao-Shu. We saw you come home and then rush back to the back mountain. We were worried, so we came to take a look. We didn't delay your business, did we?"
"No, you didn't."
Shi Shu: "But I'm not crazy."
Who were you calling crazy?
...Wait a minute. Shi Shu suddenly sniffed out a turning point. A young master from some family who went mad and got lost?
Could it be that I've transmigrated into a novel about a genuine young master and a fake one?
—I’ve become the fake young master of a wealthy family!
Maybe if I persevere a little longer, my rich and noble birth parents will come to take me home to enjoy a luxurious life?
It must be like that hahahahaha…
“……”
Shi Shu, who had started daydreaming before even getting into bed, was pulled down the mountain by the arm.
“It’s cold at night. The dampness seeps into your bones, and you’ll get sick if you stay too long. Xiao-Shu, let’s go back early if you’re done. Er-Niang, the tofu seller, got rheumatism when she was young because she got wet in the rain.” Erniu-ge advised him kindly.
“We need to hurry. Tomorrow, the front yard of the temple will be closed because the Crown Prince of Liang will be visiting. Those monks will be eager to chase people away, and if we’re seen, there’ll be an argument.”
“The Crown Prince of Liang?” Shi Shu paused.
“The one in the Eastern Capital who calls himself a Qingyi cultivator, you know? He’s always liked to seek immortality, visit Taoist temples and worship at Buddhist shrines. Whenever he comes, we can’t farm our land and we have to clear the area. I still have two acres of corn to harvest, and it’s about to rain. If it gets moldy and ruined, I don’t know what I’ll eat next year.”
Shi Shu’s mind, which had just returned from the subject of hanging, turned to understanding this world.
This was a truly wicked ancient society.
When the royal family traveled, the common people had to avoid them.
After transmigrating, Shi Shu tried to analyze this world using his middle school history knowledge.
Currently, he could only deduce basic information. His current location was a village named Zhoujia, under the jurisdiction of Baihe County, in the Eastern Capital region of the Dajing Empire. This was a traditional agrarian society. Some local people owned land, while others, like him, lived as hired hands in the homes of local landlords, being arbitrarily ordered around, selling their labor, earning only one or two buns and a few bowls of porridge for a living.
There had been recent battles along the northern border, causing many refugees to move south. Otherwise, with Great Jing's household registration system, Shi Shu, with his nameless identity, would have faced a more complicated situation.
In the first few days after transmigrating, Shi Shu had considered the common tropes of transmigration novels, such as engaging in political intrigue, increasing his power and even becoming the emperor.
—Then he was ordered around by the third young master of the Zhou family, a plain-looking and unpleasant middle-aged man, until he was like a spinning top. Shi Shu finally received a cold splash of water.
Such an ordinary person, just because he could provide him with food, could make him stand silently against the wall. It was hard to imagine how much power could alienate people.
“We’re here, Xiao-Shu.”
Erniu comforted him. “Go back to sleep. There’s a lot of farm work waiting for us tomorrow.”
At the end of the trampled meadow covered with dew, the outline of a mountain village appeared in the moonlight. It had blue bricks, white tiles, bamboo fences and thatched cottages. White egrets skimmed over the green paddy fields, and occasionally a dog barked, giving it an idyllic feel.
Zhoujia Village, as the name suggested, was where the Zhou clan had gathered after branching out from their ancestral home. They were a well-known wealthy family in Baihe County. Here, people lived in close proximity.
It was already midnight, and all was quiet. Every household had their doors closed and everyone was resting. The sound of a watchman's clapper could be heard from afar, indicating the time.
The night air was filled with the scent of dew, with a slight hint of mustiness, like a fog that soaked into Shi Shu’s dry lungs.
"Actually..."
Just as Shi Shu was about to close the door, Erniu hesitated and said, "The third young master couldn't let it go, so he sent us to check on you. He said you often went to the temple in the middle of the night and wondered if you had something on your mind, like you were missing home or something. If you can't move on, just tell me, brother. I'll help you figure it out."
"My problem is not something ordinary people can solve."
Then Shi Shu caught the key point: "The third young master?"
"That's right. The third young master may seem unfriendly, but he's actually quite worried about you. Usually, when you carry water and feed the sheep and chickens, he often comes to see you. He even praised you for being handsome and said he'd let you follow him and live a luxurious life."
"....."
The third young master's face appeared in Shi Shu's mind. A sickly man with a pale complexion, he reeked of powder and seemed like he was about to die when he spoke. He was sharp-tongued and liked to scold people. Shi Shu didn't have a good impression of him.
That young master wants me to follow him?
A thought flashed through his mind like lightning: He was gay?
Damn it!
Leave me alone!
Shi Shu said, "Sorry, I decline."
With that, he immediately threw the topic out of his mind, said goodbye and went to the backyard of the Zhou manor. He pushed open a flimsy door.
A broken old table, a leaky wooden bed, a cotton quilt that smelled of the sun, and a small, bare room were all that connected him, Shi Shu, to this ancient world. They were all the assets he had left from falling from a carefree young master to a hired hand.
Although the village was nice, without any relatives or friends, it wasn't a place to stay for long.
Who wouldn't go crazy?
Shi Shu was just begging the gods for emotional stability, okay?
He had even tried to hang himself. Even ghosts would get a slap from him!
Shi Shu grumbled to himself and fell asleep. Early the next morning, a thunderous roar suddenly came from outside the door: "Still sleeping, you bunch of pigs? Get up and work!"
"The rooster has crowed three times already, and you still haven’t harvested the corn while the weather is cool! If you wait until it gets hot, you won't be able to work, and you'll get sunburned!"
Hearing the sound, Shi Shu jumped up. Standing outside the door was the short third young master, dressed in silk, impatiently crossing his arms, as round as a compass. "Still sleeping? Do you think I'm feeding you for nothing, my esteemed lords? You, you, and you, get up!"
"Don't you even look at what time it is? Why did I attract a bunch of lazy ghosts who only think about eating and not working?! If it weren't for us taking you in, you would have died of starvation like countless hungry people in this great land!" He tsked.
The tenants and servants of Zhoujia Village, big and small, were as anxious as ants on a hot pan. They climbed out of bed, buttoned their clothes and pulled up their pants, and were swept out of the door by the constant scolding.
Half asleep and half awake, Shi Shu scooped up a handful of cold water and rubbed his flushed face. He noticed a gaze on his back. Unexpectedly, the third young master slowed his voice and stared at him: "What are you wearing? Trying to seduce someone? Hurry up and fasten your pants, don't let me see you like this again!"
Shi Shu: "…………"
He glanced at him and didn’t speak.
No, there’s something wrong with your mind!
***
cela’s notes:
A total of 1 hour and 2 minutes for this novel.
If you like this translation, please consider encouraging me on Ko-fi! Extra chapter for every ko-fi 💛
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