YBTGX 01

Chapter 01

Lu Lin of Xiahe Village

Xiahe Village, Lu family residence.

“Why don’t you sell your own sons? You only know how to bully our second branch!”

A tearful female voice rang out in Lu Lin’s ears.

Lu Lin opened his eyes, feeling dazed. His mind was a mess, and a wave of memories suddenly flooded in, crashing against his brain. A sharp pain surged through his head, causing him to lose his balance. Subconsciously, he gripped onto something to steady himself.

Li Shi, having been pinched on the thigh by Lu Lin, winced in pain. She looked down and saw her son, Lu Lin, swaying unsteadily, his usually bright, ink-black eyes now filled with confusion.

Li Shi leaned down and pulled Lu Lin into an embrace, her eyes wet with tears, her heart aching for him.

“My poor son, your mother shouldn’t have brought you into this world to suffer.”

As she spoke, Li Shi used her rough, calloused hands to gently stroke Lu Lin’s head.

After a splitting headache subsided, Lu Lin finally absorbed the memories in his head and began to size up his surroundings. He was in a reasonably bright room where the Lu family was seated around a large table, with him shielded behind his mother, Li Shi.

“Have I transmigrated? I’m also named Lu Lin, a six-year-old child, the eldest son of the second branch of the Lu family. My mother is Li Shi, I have a three-year-old sister, and my father, Lu Hou, broke his leg some time ago…”

“The autumn harvest was poor, and the county is demanding a ‘bandit suppression tax.’ If we don’t pay a large sum, we have to provide able-bodied men for forced labor…”

“The Lu family has spent three generations clawing food from the soil; they have no spare money for such levies. The eldest uncle of the first branch claims exemption because he is a scholar, and the youngest uncle of the third branch is the baby of the family, coddled by the grandparents.”

“Only the second branch is stuck in the middle, unloved and unwanted. Combined with Father Lu Hou’s honest and quiet nature—and the fact that he cannot serve labor due to his broken leg—they are left with no choice but to sell their children to survive.”

“What kind of ‘hellish’ start is this?” Lu Lin felt dazed.

He woke up to find that he had gone from a master’s graduate in Chinese language and literature from Peking University to a child wearing open-crotch pants. And he was facing the fate of being sold as a servant?

A draft blew through, and Lu Lin felt a chill in his lower body. Looking down, he saw his “QQ” completely exposed to the air.

Open-crotch pants?

With the psychological age of a man in his twenties, Lu Lin instinctively clamped his legs together. Suddenly, a series of coughs reached his ears.

He looked up to see Grandfather Lu sitting at the head of the table. Over fifty, he looked relatively fit, holding a dry tobacco pipe with a furrowed brow. Grandfather Lu exhaled a long cloud of smoke and looked at Li Shi.

“Second daughter-in-law, there is really no other way. We have to keep living. You know the state of things this year—there are so many mouths to feed in this family; being able to eat and stay alive is the best we can hope for.”

“Besides, sending Lin-er to the Liu family to be a pageboy and study companion isn’t necessarily a dead end. You’ve always wanted him to start his schooling, haven’t you? The Liu family has their own private school, and Master Liu is a Juren (provincial graduate). We are signing a ‘living contract’—he can be redeemed after ten years, or sooner if he passes the county examination.”

Having said this, Grandfather Lu turned his gaze toward Lu Lin. Seeing his grandson, who was usually lively and mischievous, hiding behind Li Shi so timidly, he couldn’t help but sigh.

Even a tiger-headed, brave child like him has been scared into this state.

If the family wasn’t truly at their wits’ end, Grandfather Lu would never have had the heart to send his own grandson off to be a pageboy. But if they didn’t, the family couldn’t come up with the levy money. The second branch had a broken leg, the first branch needed to study to gain official rank, and the third branch was too reckless—sending them to do labor might cause even bigger trouble.

The only option was to send a grandson to the Liu family to exchange for the money to cross this hurdle. The eldest grandson of the first branch was already past the age for this, and the third branch was still too young. The only one suitable was Lu Lin of the second branch.

Alas, blame this era and these times for forcing people into such a plight.

His only hope was that the eldest branch would earn an official rank this year and waive the labor service, so that things could get better.

Upon hearing this, Li Shi wiped her tears silently and held Lu Lin even tighter. This was the flesh and blood she had brought into the world; having to be separated at only six years old was unbearable for any person.

Moreover, although it was called a “living contract” to be redeemed in ten years, no one knew what things would be like in ten years. Besides, the condition that he could be redeemed upon passing the county examination was even more harsh. Her brother-in-law had spent a lifetime studying and was still just a Tongsheng (entry-level student). Even though her son had been clever since he was small, he wasn’t a genius born from the heavens; the county examination was not that easy.

Li Shi wiped her tears and happened to see her husband, Lu Hou, sitting in silence. A surge of anger that had been simmering in her heart erupted.

“You goddamn useless man! I haven’t lived a single good day since I married you, and now you can’t even protect your own son!”

“How can you bear to watch Lin-er go off to be a servant? He’s only six! He can’t even take care of himself, let alone serve others!”

“It’s all your fault for breaking your leg. Why didn’t you just die?!” Li Shi vented her frustrations on Lu Hou through her tears.

After venting, Li Shi looked at her husband, Lu Hou. His eyes were wet, his face pale from blood loss, yet he took her outburst in silence. A wave of regret washed over her.

Grandfather Lu puffed on his pipe, waiting until the second branch’s daughter-in-law had finished her outburst before looking at them. “Second daughter-in-law, what do you say?”

Lu Hou looked up at Grandfather Lu, his throat feeling as if it were blocked. He turned to look at his son hiding behind his wife, and his wife, who was wiping her tears nearby. His heart felt as though it were being torn in two.

He reached out and touched his broken leg, wrapped haphazardly in cloth strips and wooden boards. The pain was piercing. Enduring the agony, Lu Hou forced out a few words.

“Father… all depends on your decision.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Lu Hou bowed his head, not daring to look at his son or wife again. The times were hard, and he had broken his leg; he couldn’t serve labor, and the family could not come up with the three taels of silver for the levy. In his heart, Lu Hou was filled with rage at himself—failing to protect his son meant he was unworthy of being a father, and he hadn’t let his wife live a good life, meaning he wasn’t a good husband either.

“Then it is decided.” Grandfather Lu glanced at his grandson, Lu Lin, and shook his head secretly.

Behind his mother’s protection, Lu Lin sighed silently.

This is the man-eating feudal society!

A few taels of silver were forcing people to sell their children to survive. His fate had been decided in just a few short sentences. In an era where feudal ethics reigned supreme, “father guides the son,” and the Great Xia Dynasty governed the realm through “filial piety.” Before the family separated, the head of the family was heaven itself. Even his father, Lu Hou, could not resist, let alone a six-year-old child.

Although Lu Lin possessed knowledge far beyond this era, he did not dare to show anything out of the ordinary. A few days ago, Old Wang at the village entrance was forced to drink a huge bowl of water mixed with ashes from burned talismans because he spoke a few words in his sleep. In the neighboring village, Zhang Er-mazi had mocked the local dialect in the county seat, and upon returning, the village elders deemed him “possessed by a ghost,” tying him to a pillar to roast in the sun for days until he was finished.

How can one person stand against the rules of an entire era?

Even though Lu Lin’s mind held volumes of knowledge and he understood his current plight, he dared not act rashly out of caution.

However, one thing made Lu Lin feel relieved.

As long as this was an era for scholars, an era governed by Confucianism, then everything else was a minor detail. With his vision, learning, and way of thinking that was so different from this era—combined with the wisdom accumulated over thousands of years—even if he couldn’t change the fate of being a pageboy, he could still carve out a path to the heavens.