Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I transmigrated into this world as a fetus, I took one look at my family’s drafty roof and low mud walls and knew exactly what kind of start I’d been given: the kind where you begin with nothing but a begging bowl.

As a tiny little bean of a child, there was nothing I could do except endure.

I finally managed to grow to seven, and then our family was hit by a flood.

When the waters receded, our family of six had been reduced to just my father and me.

My father wrapped my mother and my younger siblings’ bodies in straw mats, took me by the hand, and begged his way down the road.

More and more refugees gathered along the way. For a single mouthful of food, people were willing to fight to the death.

After three days without food, my father sold me for four coarse corn buns.

His sunken eyes had no tears left to shed.

“Girl, don’t hate your father. If you stay with me, you’ll only starve to death.

“Work hard. Listen to your masters. Maybe then you’ll have a way to live.”

When I left with the human trafficker’s cart, I turned my head away, not daring to look at my father. He truly had no other choice. The starving refugees’ eyes were already glowing green with hunger. If I did not leave, I would be stewed as two-legged sheep.

Now even my starting begging bowl had been smashed. The deed of sale had been signed.

From then on, I was a maidservant whose very life belonged to her masters.

That was what the human trafficker taught me.

The wheels of the cart rumbled on, day after day.

On the human trafficker’s cart, there were more and more little girls.

Two months later, he brought a cart packed full of neatly cleaned-up little girls and sold us to Xinyang Marquis Manor.

I admit that before I transmigrated, I may have cursed a little too loudly while working 996, but surely that did not warrant reducing me to some ancient version of a powerless drudge with no human rights.

The mama who came to buy people inspected our hands, feet, and teeth as if she were looking over livestock, and finally kept eight of us.

The girls who were sent back cried until they could barely breathe. A place like the Marquis Manor was already considered a good destination. What awaited the rest were places too filthy to speak of. They would not even get to be beasts of burden-they would be sold straight into brothels.

This evil feudal society! But there was nothing I could do. I had no golden finger. If I wanted to live, I had to accept the rules.

I was one of the eight who stayed.

Over those days, I had taken every word the human trafficker said to heart. I had to learn the rules properly and serve my masters well. Only then would I have a chance to survive.

On my eighth birthday, I became a rough-work maidservant of Lu Mansion.

That day, I very happily drank a bowl of rice porridge so thin I could see the bottom.

Mama Cui, who was in charge of training us, had made it especially for us.

The rice porridge grew thicker day by day. Only on the seventh day did each of us receive half a steamed bun.

Though Mama Cui was stern on the surface, she was a good person. I knew she was afraid we had been hungry for too long; if we suddenly ate rich, greasy food, our stomachs would not be able to bear it.

The Marquis Manor had risen through military merit, and its household discipline was extremely strict. If a servant made even the smallest mistake, they would first be given twenty strokes of the plank.

On our third day there, we were made to watch as two servants who had signed deeds of sale were beaten to death for committing some minor offense.

All eight of us girls were so frightened we had nightmares. Two of the more timid ones even wet the bed from fear, and Mama Cui punished them by making them wash clothes for two days.