In the freezing, snow-covered pine forest.
Princess Anle's eyes darkened with a crimson hue.
With one foot resting on Yang An's chest and the other stepping firmly on his neck, she pinned half of his body into the snowdrift beneath him.
Watching him struggle for breath, she giggled sweetly, "What a bold and reckless little hunter. I'm almost reluctant to kill you~"
She said so, yet her exquisite, delicate foot showed no mercy. Yang An's cervical vertebrae creaked under the pressure; his throat was on the verge of being crushed by her!
Just as he was about to cross the river to see his great-grandfather in the afterlife...
Gripping Princess Anle's ankle, which was whiter than the snow itself, Yang An felt a surge of grief and indignation in his heart. I just wanted to go into the mountains to gather some herbs! Why is this happening?! Why did I have to run into this wicked woman!!!
Why?
The story had to start from this morning.
...
...
...
"Bang, bang, bang!"
In the dead of winter, snowflakes swirled wildly in the gloomy sky.
A few local ruffians had gotten up early. Wrapping their coats tightly around themselves and exhaling white mist, they trotted all the way to the Li family's door in Wanshou Ward. They swung their fists and pounded on the door furiously, "Is anyone still breathing in there?! Hurry up, open the door and pay back the money! If you keep playing dead, your grandpa here is going to break the door down!"
Inside the courtyard's inner room.
Yang An, his head wrapped in bandages, felt dizzy and heavy.
The ruffians' violent knocking mixed with their shouting made his head feel like it was about to explode. Moreover, the room had an unpleasant, musty smell that made him very uncomfortable.
Unable to bear the disturbance, he opened his eyes.
Yang An was dumbfounded. He found himself in an old, dilapidated room. The wooden table and chairs were arranged neatly, but their edges had turned black due to age, emitting that faint, musty smell.
On the table lay books as thick as bricks, along with half a used inkstick.
"Where is this?"
"Wasn't I singing karaoke with my roommates to celebrate our college graduation?"
"Which KTV has such a retro-themed private room? Look at this table and these stools, and those yellowing books—they must be older than I am!?"
Holding his head, Yang An sat up in bewilderment.
Soon, more voices drifted in from outside. "Greetings, gentlemen. Why have you come so early? When we signed the contract, didn't we agree that the silver would be paid back at the end of next month? But this month isn't even over yet."
This time, it was a woman's voice.
Her tone was very anxious.
Yang An heard a man outside reply, "Cut the crap! It is perfectly justified to pay back debts; there's no such thing as too early or too late!"
"But it's nowhere near the date to pay back the money, we still have two months left! If you gentlemen come to ask for it this early, where is a mere woman like me supposed to find the silver?"
The woman's voice sounded incredibly familiar.
Yang An couldn't help but subconsciously try to recall.
Suddenly, a severe pain shot through his head, as if a steel needle had been inserted and was stirring vigorously, about to scramble his brains!
Sweat poured down from his forehead.
Cradling his head, Yang An collapsed onto the bed, twitching in agony as a flood of memories surged into his mind.
Yang An, courtesy name Yunshen.
Age: Eighteen.
Native of Yunzhou City, Great Xia Dynasty.
Profession: Small-town exam crammer, also known as a scholar. Orphaned since childhood, with an older brother who died young.
However, Yang An was not entirely alone.
He had a sister, Yang Ning, who was five years older, and a brother-in-law, Li Yan, who was ten years older.
The voice from just now belonged to his sister, Yang Ning.
After digesting this portion of the memories, Yang An arrived at an obvious conclusion.
He had transmigrated...
"After waiting for so long, has the good fortune of transmigration finally fallen upon me?"
It was truly thrilling yet unnerving!
What thrilled Yang An was that, as everyone knew, transmigrators never fared badly, and those with the "orphaned" script were the cream of the crop.
The most badass ones could conquer the heavens, the earth, and the air in between.
At the very least, he could become a prominent big shot.
The unnerving part was that Yang An had never transmigrated before and lacked experience. As a fresh rookie in the industry, it was inevitable to be a bit like Lord Ye who claimed to love dragons but was terrified when he saw a real one.
Just like those hormone-fueled, constantly lustful high school boys. Even though they thought about women 25 hours a day out of 24, when it actually came time to share a bed with a girl, they would still feel awkward and anxious, worrying about size, duration, techniques, and all sorts of messy issues.
There was nothing much to say; it was human nature.
Yang An quickly calmed down and continued reading his memories. In this realm called the Great Xia Dynasty, spiritual energy existed between heaven and earth.
There were spiritual herbs, martial arts, and ferocious beasts.
His brother-in-law, Li Yan, was an eighth-grade martial artist with a thousand catties of strength in his arms. In his early years, he had earned merits defending against northern barbarians and, through rewards, secured a position as a bad-帅 (Buliangshuai - local law enforcement captain) in Yunzhou City.
Although it was just a tiny official post—a petty clerk without even a proper rank—meat on a mosquito's leg is still meat. It was an official title nonetheless. With him as the pillar of the family, the Li household could barely get by.
After all, how could one study without some financial backing?
Not to mention anything else, the paper used for writing essays every day could bankrupt ordinary commoners!
His sister, Yang Ning, was the perfect woman raised under feudal etiquette.
Beautiful, virtuous, and fiercely hoping for her brother's success.
To let Yang An concentrate on his studies, she never let him do minor chores like washing pots, sweeping the floor, or wiping tables. She only hoped that one day he would pass the imperial examinations and bring glory to their ancestors.
Yang An also worked very hard.
He had some talent for studying, passing the county-level exams to become a TongSheng at the age of ten.
And then... there was no "then".
He failed the biennial provincial exams three times in a row.
His confidence suffered a devastating blow. Disheartened by the imperial examinations recently, he chose to take the entrance exam for an academy run by prominent aristocratic families, planning to enter officialdom through that route.
As a result, he failed that too.
Repeatedly failing his exams, his life hit rock bottom.
Yang An originally thought he would bounce back from the bottom, but it turned out there was an even bigger pit beneath it. The fiancée he had been infatuated with for years had thrown herself into another man's embrace a few days ago!
Under these successive blows, Yang An, drinking alcohol for the first time, got himself dead drunk and completely blacked out.
Misfortunes never come singly.
When Yang An failed to return home late at night due to his drunkenness, his brother-in-law Li Yan went to the city to find him. On the way, he encountered a few noble young masters from official families who were amusing themselves by unleashing ferocious beasts to chase and bite people.
A normal person encountering this would pretend not to see it.
But Li Yan was particularly worthy of the official uniform he wore.
He rushed forward immediately to save the victims, but ended up severely injured.
His life was saved, but his waist and hips were ruined.
Without spiritual herbs to cure him, he would never be able to stand up again for the rest of his life.
Logically speaking, when something like this happened, Li Yan should have been rewarded for saving people and compensated for his injuries.
Unfortunately, the one who injured people was the son of an official.
Let alone a reward, Li Yan had killed the beast and had to pay the young master money for it!
Yang An had spent a lot of money on his studies over the years.
The family had no surplus grain. Where would they get the money to compensate the young master? To save Li Yan, the Yang siblings had no choice but to mortgage their old family home to a pawnshop.
After getting the life-saving money and paying off the noble young master, Yang An immediately ran to Huichun Hall, the largest pharmacy in Yunzhou, to buy medicinal pills.
The hemp rope always breaks at the thinnest part, and bad luck always seeks out the wretched!
The medicine from Huichun Hall turned out to be fake!
After Li Yan took it, not only did his condition not improve at all, but it actually worsened! Not only did he lose all sensation in his legs, but he fell into a direct coma!
Furious, Yang An went to Huichun Hall to argue.
The result was obvious: what kind of result could a frail scholar get? Instead, the shopkeeper of Huichun Hall accused him of extortion and called some ruffians to give him a severe beating!
The money was gone.
The person was almost gone too.
Seeing his family on the verge of ruin, Yang An felt he had failed his sister and brother-in-law. In despair, he smashed his head against a stone wall...
When he woke up again, it was now.
Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi.
Having fused all the memories and clearly feeling the desperate anger in his heart, the two Yang Ans could no longer be distinguished from one another.
No.
There was only ever one Yang An.
Right now, he was simply breaking the mystery of the womb after his rebirth! He had recovered his memories from before reincarnation!
"What are you doing?! Stay away!"
"Hehe, what else can we do? Of course, we're showing Madam Li a clear path. If you can't come up with the money, pay it back with another method—like your body."
"Let me go! Don't come any closer!"
"Why struggle? Madam Li is so beautiful. If you work a bit harder in bed for half a year or so, you might even make quite a profit after paying off the silver! Haha!"
"Ah! Get lost!!!"
Hearing the woman's terrified screams echoing from the courtyard, Yang An knew whose voice it was!
It was Yang Ning!
It was his sister!!
He threw off the blanket, jumped out of bed, and pushed open the door, only to see the snow-covered courtyard.
Several ruffians were forcefully dragging Yang Ning out the door!
Those ruffians looked very familiar! The moment he saw them, Yang An's eyes widened. Aren't these the same guys who beat me up outside Huichun Hall?!
Especially the ruffian pulling Yang Ning!
Yang An remembered clearly.
His name was Chen San, the leader of these thugs. Outside Huichun Hall, he was the one who had hit him the hardest!
Why would the people from Huichun Hall help a moneyhouse collect debts?!
Moreover, the money was just borrowed the day before yesterday, and it was agreed to be returned in two and a half months. They were coming to force the collection after only a few days!
Could it be that Huichun Hall and Wang Family Moneyhouse were in cahoots!?
Could this be a chained trap!
The moneyhouse first lends them money, then has the pharmacy use fake medicine to swindle the money out of their hands, and finally comes to the door to force the debt, sucking their marrow dry!?
I was so full of regret I almost killed myself.
But it turns out, it was you animals deliberately setting us up!
Breathing in the dry, cold air.
Even though he was only wearing thin clothes, Yang An couldn't feel the cold. Instead, his blood boiled with nowhere to vent his violent rage. He clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white!
"Don't touch me!!!"
Yang Ning's exclamation rang out again.
Seeing that Yang Ning's sleeves had been torn by the ruffians' pulling, and several mottled claw marks were left on her snow-white, smooth forearms, Yang An roared:
"LET GO OF MY SISTER!!!"
Hearing the roar, the ruffians whipped their heads around. Unnoticed, a young man had barged into the flying snow. With bandages wrapped around his head, he looked handsome, even prettier than the gigolos in the brothels.
But his eyes were far too ferocious!
Bloodshot! Looking like he wanted to eat someone alive!!
The scoundrels weren't very brave. Meeting Yang An's gaze, they actually felt a bit scared and couldn't help but take a few steps back.
"Look at you useless cowards."
"A scholar scared you this much."
Chen San lifted his foot and kicked a few of them in the *ss. Unfazed, he continued to grip Yang Ning's wrist, shook it at Yang An twice, and said, "Yo, isn't this Yang Erlang (Second Brother Yang)? Are your injuries fully healed? Ready for another beating? Hahaha!"
With Chen San taking the lead, the ruffians and scoundrels no longer felt afraid.
They all joined in the loud laughter.
Fearing they would bully Yang An, Yang Ning anxiously said, "Sister is fine! Erlang, go back to your room, don't come out!"
The scoundrels laughed even more merrily.
Chen San smiled and said, "Hear that? Your sister said she's fine. Hurry up and go back to reading your books. In a few days, I'll send your sister back."
Yang An stepped out from under the eaves.
The sky full of snowflakes dyed his shoulder-length black hair, making him look even more gaunt and handsome.
Barefoot, he stepped into the snow.
Making a crunching sound.
Yang An walked toward them step by step. "I said, let go of my sister."
Chen San said brazenly, "What if I don't?"
What then?
Then none of you will live today!!