Tang Yi sat on a crudely built earthen bed, his hair resembling a bird's nest, a filthy, threadbare quilt draped over him. He looked utterly bewildered.
His eyes were blank, almost vacant. Anyone seeing him might have thought that three days in bed had left him witless. In reality, he was trying to process the stream of information delivered by a voice going beep, beep, beep inside his head, while ten thousand imaginary beasts stampeded through his mind in a cloud of dust.
Then his memories came rushing back—not only his own, but those of the body's previous owner.
The sheer volume of information left his head throbbing, as though waves filled with razor blades were surging through his brain, cutting into it again and again.
Tang Yi regretted everything.
He never should have sneaked into his eldest brother's laboratory to fool around while his brother was in a meeting. If he had behaved himself, he would not have activated that unfinished Rich Second Generation Rehabilitation System. He would not have been transported to an unfamiliar world, in an unknown dynasty, and taken over the body of a drunken wastrel to become a penniless villager.
Because the System was unfinished, it could not yet send people freely between worlds. In other words, even his brother, the inventor, could not simply summon him home.
And so the notorious young playboy of the Tang family in City A had suffered a complete reversal of fortune. Now he was a destitute country bumpkin—and a drunkard, to boot.
Heavens above! Tang Yi pressed a hand to his forehead. What had he done to deserve this? He used to worry about what to eat every day; now he would have to worry about whether there was anything to eat at all.
Oh, cruel fate! Tang Yi sighed toward the heavens. He was just about to give the sky the middle finger when the mischievous voice of the System sounded in his head again.
“Hello, Rehabilitation Subject Number One! This is hardly the time for sighing and complaining. To help the subject survive successfully in the new world, the System will provide three extraordinary benefits!”
“Complete the corresponding missions to earn those benefits. Once all three missions are finished, the System will disappear, leaving the subject to survive in this other world by his own abilities until he can be recalled.”
“Since the System is still incomplete, the recall procedure is unlikely to be activated any time soon. Please put your mind at ease and settle down to life in this world.”
Tang Yi: “…”
So I really can't go home, is that it?!
The System continued as though talking to itself. “The first mission is now being issued. The subject must work hard to survive and ensure that both he and his husband eat their fill every day for one consecutive month. The countdown begins tomorrow.”
With that, the System fell silent.
Tang Yi immediately picked up on two important points: first, he was now in a situation where even getting enough food was a problem. Second, he had a husband.
That strange word, husband, prompted a piece of local knowledge to surface in his mind. Apart from men and women, this world had a third gender: males who could conceive and bear children. They had male bodies, but pregnancy and childbirth were extremely difficult for them. Most families were unwilling to marry one into the household. Better-off families might take two as concubines for the novelty, while only poor, down-at-heel men who could not afford a wife would settle for marrying one. As a result, members of this third gender had very little standing.
So I'm one of those impoverished losers, Tang Yi thought grimly.
He climbed down from the earthen bed and wandered through the house, but found no sign of the young man who had become his husband. Perhaps he had gone out to work. Or perhaps, unable to endure any more beatings, he had seized his chance to escape.
The house was so poor there was hardly anything in it. Tang Yi could not be bothered to take stock of his possessions. Instead, he found a little stool, sat down in the courtyard, and began sorting through the former owner's memories.
Those memories were incomplete. No matter how many times Tang Yi went through them, aside from a handful of names, he learned only that the former owner had been a complete bastard. He had loafed about all day without proper work and lived entirely off his elder brother. After that brother married, he could no longer keep supporting him, so he sent him to live in the old family house. Still, they were brothers, and the elder had been afraid he might starve. He therefore found him a spouse. The wastrel could not afford to marry a woman, had no means of earning a living, and had no takers. In the end, a family from the neighboring village accepted two hundred copper coins from his brother and married their young third-gender relative off to him.
They called it marriage, but it was really a sale. The young man's name was Wen Yan. His father had died when he was little, and he and his mother had gone to seek shelter with his maternal uncle. His aunt despised the pair of them. Mother and son had to keep their heads down and tread carefully, year after year, leaving Wen Yan gentle and timid. In his aunt's eyes, a young man like him was a burden who ate food without bringing anything in. The moment someone offered money, she sold him off without a second thought.
Poor Wen Yan had imagined that getting married might finally give him some breathing room. Instead, his husband turned out to be a drunken brute who spent his days intoxicated, beating and cursing him. A month after the wedding, Wen Yan had not even been allowed near the sleeping platform. He had spent every night curled up on a pile of straw in the kitchen.
The former owner had treated Wen Yan this way partly because of his vile nature, but also because he had set his heart on Lin Xiuxiu, the only daughter of the wealthy Lin family in the village. He had hounded her relentlessly until she could bear it no longer, and the Lin family had sent men to beat him into leaving her alone. Before that incident he had not been a drinker; afterward, he began drinking heavily every day and taking out his anger on Wen Yan.
Tang Yi shook his head, trying to fling away that sordid history. He looked down at his hands and cursed silently.
Damn it. The man was only twenty, yet he had ruined his body until it was thin and weak. Tang Yi himself was twenty-six, stood one meter eighty-seven tall, had eight-pack abs, and owned a gym—and he was still considered the least successful member of his generation in the Tang family.
As he was cursing, the courtyard fence creaked. The shabby little gate opened from outside, interrupting his thoughts. When he looked up, he saw a slight young man coming through with a large basin in his arms. The moment the newcomer noticed Tang Yi sitting in the courtyard, he instinctively retreated several steps in fear.
Tang Yi recognized him at once. This was his husband, Wen Yan, sixteen years old.
The previous owner had spent so much time drunk that he could scarcely remember Wen Yan's face. But the slight, frail figure in his hazy memories was unmistakable.
Tang Yi looked at the young man standing barefoot on cold, muddy ground at the turn of winter and spring. His clothes were ragged, his hair unkempt, and his body painfully thin. The large basin in his arms was full of freshly washed clothes. Tang Yi felt a pang of discomfort. He beckoned to him. “Wen Yan, come here.”
A thick curtain of hair concealed the young man's face, but his eyes were like a fawn's—clear and terrified.
Wen Yan hesitated, then obediently approached. He dared not disobey Tang Yi's orders. Disobedience would earn him a savage beating.
Tang Yi stood up. Compared with Wen Yan, this body was quite tall, perhaps a meter eighty, but years of drinking had left it frail and depleted. There was none of the vigor one expected of a young man.
There was a water jar in the courtyard, still half full. Tang Yi drew Wen Yan closer, wet his hand, and wiped the young man's face. Wen Yan recoiled in terror. Tang Yi paused in surprise. The boy was beautiful. Once Tang Yi's large hand had wiped away most of the grime, it revealed a delicate, fair face, much prettier than he had expected. Why on earth had Wen Yan made himself so dirty?
Looking at the slender arm trembling beneath his palm, Tang Yi understood. Wen Yan was no fool. He probably disliked the former owner and did not want him coming near, so he had deliberately made himself filthy to keep the man from taking an interest in him.
