CH 001 To Survive
Pure: We’re thrilled to share that The BL Muse has officially moved all of their translated novels to our site! It’s an absolute honor to host their work.
If you spot any mistakes, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you for your patience and support! 💖
Translated by The BL Muse (ko-fi)
Edited by Morph
CH 001 To Survive
"Young master." The round-nosed servant boy held up a chipped bowl, tears and snot covering his face, shirt ridden with dirt and fingers red with the cold. He said in hiccuping sobs, "couldn't, couldn't get any, hic, no one would give me, hic…"
Lin Yuan could see that the little guy was about to cry himself sick, so he quickly said, "Come sit, quickly."
As he spoke, Lin Yuan lifted up an edge of the ragged blanket that was wrapped around him to admit the boy into its folds. The abandoned temple did not protect against the wind and cold, so both master and servant could only rely on the single ragged blanket to keep warm.
It had been a week since he first arrived. He had hardly moved for the duration of the entire week, but not for a lack of trying.
The original owner of his new body was the son of a northern landowner who owned quite a lot of land and businesses. As a result, he was unable to leave easily and instead had his only son travel to the south in his place to start a business as well as buy a farmstead and some land. In the future, if the northern political situation worsened, the entire family would still have a place to retreat to and enough backup funds to start over.
However, the old landowner could not have expected to miscalculate so badly. His only son and heir was a naive idiot.
Truly a naive idiot, leaving with only a servant boy and a carriage driver. He even told his dad that taking more people would only create a larger target. Not only that, he convinced his dad that the north was not peaceful at the moment and thus required more people to stay and protect his family and their assets.
The original owner had read and studied quite a lot, a pile of books by sages. His dad was completely convinced when he heard that these were justifications spoken by sages. What was left to do but listen?
As a result, the original owner stepped onto a road of misfortune.
The servant boy was only twelve, and master and servant had also lived in a sheltered environment since they were young. Every step on the road to the south was accompanied by the emptying of their wallets.
The original owner could not refuse beggars on the side of the road but his actions only turned them into targets.
Their carriage driver had a strong physique and was willing to stay behind to hinder the hoodlums, but in the end no one knew what became of him.
When Lin Yuan arrived in this body and time, the original owner was already robbed of all his wealth. Because of guilt and regret, in addition to the cold weather and lack of proper shelter, he came down with a fever.
Cold and fever during ancient times were common causes of death, not to mention in combination with lack of healer service and medicine. Therefore, the original owner quickly passed away.
Lin Yuan couldn't help but sigh. The original owner was also just a boy of only fourteen. Since life expectancy during ancient times was short, a common boy of twelve was already considered a fully grown adult who was ready for marriage. Though a fourteen year old child with a kind heart was originally a good thing, it was a pity that the turbulent era did not allow for kindness and goodness.
The servant boy used the back of his hand to wipe away his tears and snot unsuccessfully, his small face looking dirtier than before the cleaning attempt. He sobbed: "Couldn't get any medicine."
This child was originally a stubborn one. Aside from the fact that he grew up in the Lin family, he was educated with loyalty pledged to the master and was completely brainwashed to be a loyal servant.
"Then there's no need." Lin Yuan ruffled the boy's hair, trying to make the best of the situation: "It's fine, look at me, I'm almost recovered anyway."
The silver lining was that the group of bandits were only desperate peasants who took wealth and not lives. Otherwise, it was very likely they wouldn't be alive now.
During the last few days, Lin Yuan searched through his belongings. He didn't believe that the Lin family only gave him silver ingots and banknotes. Back in the modern time of his previous life, he had a habit of hiding money in the inside layer of his shirts when traveling. Therefore, was it not possible that making backup plans would be the wise choice of action, especially in this time period fraught with danger and unrest?
However, he had searched everything multiple times and came up with nothing.
The servant boy's sobs had stopped, his emotions calming enough to realize he was sitting in his master's embrace. After misfortune hit them, the master and servant escaped in a hurry, only snatching a blanket. He had originally planned not to touch the blanket but ever since his young master awoke, they had been sharing it together.
This thought caused him to break out into sobs again. His young master was such a good person, why must he face such misfortune!
"It's my fault!" The servant boy started to blame himself, regretfully saying, "Master told me to be careful but I'm such a fool, even implicating the young master! Wu~, it's all my fault! I don't have any brains! A useless failure!"
Following the rant, the servant boy was about to give himself a slap.
Lin Yuan quickly grabbed his hand, patting his back in comfort: "It's alright, we're safe, aren't we?"
The servant boy spoke through a stuffy nose: "It's all my fault! Everything's my fault!"
"Let's look again." Lin Yuan once again prepared to search his clothes. Undressing down to his pants, he searched through the linings while shivering in the cold.
The servant boy helped in the search. This was something they did every day, as they always worried they weren't careful enough in their previous searches.
Money for meals came from pawning Lin Yuan's coat, the only valuable item left.
His shoes were made of cloth but the soles were very thick and warm. It had taken Lady Lin quite a lot of time and spools of thread to make.
The original owner's birth mother was a servant girl, not even a concubine. In this day and age, giving birth was a life threatening business, and in addition to his mother being a frail fifteen year old girl, it was nearly a given that she passed away during childbirth.
As a result, the original owner was given to the lady master who did not have children of her own to raise. She came from a literary family and had nothing in common with the land-owning class. Therefore, there was no love lost between the Master Lin and Lady Lin. However, she did treat the original owner well, teaching him to read and write from a young age.
And because the original owner could write and do maths, and was an educated person, his father assumed that he could carry a greater responsibility.
When Lin Yuan found this in his memory, he couldn't help but feel speechless at Father Lin's reasoning.
At that moment, a lightbulb switched on. He took his shoes off and pulled their soles out. Thankfully, the winter cold kept them from being smelly.
"Young master," The servant boy piped up uneasily, "Why are—"
He wanted to ask why his young master looked on the verge of tears.
But before he could finish, he saw Lin Yuan taking out a banknote.
It was a promissory banknote worth 200 taels.
Exchanged to copper coins, it was equivalent to 200,000 wen, or 200 guan*. This was no small amount. The original owner's father had given him 500 taels in total and that was the limit; any more and the Lin family businesses would not have enough funds to run on.
(TLN: 1 guan (贯) is a string of 1000 wen coins; 1 guan is the same amount as 1 tael of silver.)
He reckoned Lady Lin must have taken out all her savings, afraid that the original owner might happen upon unexpected situations.
The heart of a caring mother!
As an orphan in his own time, Lin Yuan could only sigh wistfully.
It looked like Father Lin's task wouldn’t be fulfilled in the near future. First things first was to find a proper shelter and fully recover his health.
As for doing business, Lin Yuan didn't dare to even think about it. Since he found out the current era was the Yuan dynasty, currently reigned by Emperor Shun of Yuan (aka Toghon Temür), he gave up on the whole idea. He knew the story of Chen Wansan, a prominent business man nearly richer than a country who also supported the right person, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of Ming.
But the result? When the Ming dynasty was established not long afterwards, his wealth was confiscated and he himself exiled. His wealth alone greatly richened the new dynasty.
It was the same with Heshen. How could Emperor Qianlong be blind to Heshen's accumulating wealth and greedy character?
All that he embezzled ultimately ended up in the Jiaqing Emperor's pockets[1].
Therefore, Lin Yuan prepared to honestly follow Father Lin's advice to buy some land——in a remote place away from the battlefield. He’d have a farmstead built so that once the Lin family came to the south, they would have a place to stay. And of course, he’d stock up on food supplies.
What was the most valuable commodity during turbulent times? Gold, silver, jewels? Wrong. It was food.
Once war broke out, civilians would be unable to farm and produce crops. Less and less food would be available, to the point that people were peeling tree bark and eating it to stave off hunger. Foodstuff was the source of life, cheap during prosperous times and expensive during turbulent times.
"Young master." The servant boy chuckled, rather foolishly. "Let's go exchange money."
Lin Yuan currently was too weak to get up and could only hand the banknote to the servant boy, reminding him: "Cash out only 50 taels, two of which into single guan tenders."
"Go tomorrow, early tomorrow." Lin Yuan looked at the darkening skies, "It's not safe now."
The servant boy nodded: "I’ll listen to the young master!"
In the servant boy's eyes, his young master was able to read and write, and so was smarter than him and understood everything.
Before drifting away into sleep, Lin Yuan happily thought, once he had land and property he'll be able to display his talents. Wasn't there a saying that turbulent times create heroes? He'll follow in the footsteps of his time travelling seniors and invent cannons, tanks, airplanes, etc, in addition to gathering some followers, maybe even…maybe even…heihei!*
(TLN: The laugh at the end is referring to the thought of getting laid xD)
At this point, Lin Yuan had yet to realize that he was a humanities major. From the beginning of his life until now, the closest he got to inventing technology was fixing his computer. And even that he had done unsuccessfully. He ended up buying a new computer instead, spending almost all of his scholarship money on it.
But as a person, one must have dreams and ambitions.
The next day at the crack of dawn, the servant boy poked a small head out of the warm blankets, unwilling to leave.
But the servant boy quickly pulled himself together as his young master couldn’t yet leave bedrest.
Before leaving, Lin Yuan reminded him, "If you are stopped by hoodlums, give them the paper money, you hear?"
The servant boy didn't understand: "No way! That's young master's money!"
Lin Yuan explained: "If you don't hand it over they will just take it by force. Can you win against them in a fight? Compared to the two guans, the 48 taels are worth more."
The servant boy looked down at his toes: "It's my fault I'm so useless, if Chen ge* were here, those people definitely won't be able to win against Chen ge..…"
(TLN: ge (哥) is an informal way one would use to address a (usually older) male. It means elder brother, but having blood ties is not necessary.)
The mention of Chen ge, the carriage driver willing to leave for the south with the original owner, caused Lin Yuan to feel downhearted.
Chen ge was the son of the original owner's nanny and they grew up together from a young age. He had a strong physique and was loyal to a fault. Their relationship was close enough to even sleep together and compare each other's 'assets' and who can pee the furthest.
Chen ge was older than the original owner by five years, but had no courtesy name, so people just called him Chen ge while his seniors called him Niu Dan[2]. He stayed behind to block the bandits and give them a chance to run.
It was unknown whether he was dead or alive.
Lin Yuan sighed. People from the ancient times were simple and honest. Lin Yuan put himself in Chen ge's shoes and honestly thought he could not do the same thing of sacrificing himself for another.
The Yuan dynasty supported trade and commerce, but agriculture not as much. However, merchants were taxed the highest and farmers were taxed the least in comparison to other dynasties.
But this did not mean that regional governments and officials accepted low taxes. An official's salary could not support a luxurious life, so their only other source of income came from oppressing the civilians under their regional government.
There were more and more exorbitant taxes, and oppression from the landlord class was also on the rise. As a result, the people had no means to make a living and support their livelihood, so their only option was to become refugees and criminals.
Those bandits that robbed them, perhaps had been honest farmers in the past and a full belly was enough to content and satisfy them.
In order to survive, they indirectly caused the death of a good person like the original owner.
When your state of survival was in question, virtue and justice could be abandoned at any time.
TL Note: Some of you may be confused by the mention of guan tenders, fear not, I’m here to explain! Guan tender, or otherwise known as guanzi (关子), was a Song dynasty era form of paper money that served as promissory notes that could be traded for goods and services where the seller that received these notes could go to an issuing agency and redeem the note for strings of coins at a small exchange fee. Since this is a webnovel and not a historical text, we’re just gonna say 1 guan tender=1 silver tael.
If you would like to know more, here ya go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanzi_(currency)
Footnotes:
[1] Heshen is known as both the most corrupt official in Chinese history and one of the richest men in history, having accumulated 1.1 billion taels of silver (~US$ 270 billion) during his career. After the death of the Qianlong Emperor, he was ordered into suicide by the Jiaqing Emperor and his wealth was confiscated.
For more on Heshen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heshen
[2] Niu Dan is not really a pet name per say, just a really crude name that means Bull Balls lmao, but that's how most folks do it in the past. Parents will give really crude names to their children believing this will help them grow up strong and healthy and then pick a really nice given/courtesy name once they come of age—if they can afford it of course.