yong'an calendar 547, December 25th.
In Ku Hai County, on the southern border of Qi, the setting sun cast its last glance over the wild lands of West Mountain before sinking into slumber. Night fell, and in the wind, snowflakes like salt scattered across the sky, blanketing the mountain wilderness and tree branches with a layer of white hair, creating a world of silver and a vast, boundless expanse.
Before long, a thick layer had accumulated.
Later, the snow turned into goose feathers, dancing wildly with the wind, carrying the only starlight to an unknown distance.
Further south of the county town, on the path leading to a small river and deep into the dense forest, a figure gradually appeared. He struggled to drag something, moving forward through the snow towards the county town, leaving a long trail behind him.
It was a young man with a resolute expression and upright features, but his skin was sallow. He appeared to be around twenty-one or twenty-two years old, wrapped in deerskin stuffed with old rags and dry grass.
Although he looked bulky, his thick clothes clearly could not withstand such a powerful snowstorm.
In fact, the young man's lips were already blue and purple from the cold. If someone looked closely, they would see his body trembling constantly, and some exposed skin had already begun to crack.
The thing he was dragging was, strikingly, a dying woman placed on a small wooden cart.
The woman's body was covered in blade wounds, the bloodstains horrifying to behold. Her thin clothing provided no protection against the severe cold. It was already the peak of winter in Qi, with rivers frozen over. A normal person dressed like her would not survive more than Fifteen minutes in this furious snowstorm.
Yet, the woman, covered in heavy snow, still had a faint rise and fall in her chest and a breath at her nostrils.
The young man dragged the woman, stopping and starting. Every half-li, he would stop to rub his hands, jump in place, clear the snow from his body, and confirm whether the woman was still alive.
When he stopped for the third time, squatting beside the woman and leaning close to her chest, staring intently, the heavily wounded woman suddenly opened her eyes and turned her indifferent gaze towards him.
The young man felt the woman's gaze but showed no panic, saying expressionlessly:
“You'd best not think I'm taking liberties with you, or I'll throw you right here… We met by chance, and saving you in this snowstorm is a great kindness. If you judge my gentlemanly heart with a petty mind, I'll leave you buried in this cold snow for three months.”
The woman remained silent, not uttering a word.
The young man then showed her his hands, red and stiff from the cold, covered in chilblains, his voice trembling slightly as he said:
“My hands can no longer feel your breath.”
“You don't speak, and you keep your eyes closed, so I can only watch your chest to see if you're dead or not.”
“There's at least five more li to go back. Once the mountain is sealed by snow, the path is truly difficult. I don't want to drag a dead person back.”
The woman was silent for a long time before she spoke weakly, asking in a hoarse voice like a dead person:
“Where are we going?”
The young man was quite surprised that the woman could still speak, but his rest time was up. He hurriedly pulled the wooden cart back through the snowstorm, saying as he walked:
“To the dilapidated temple about a li outside the county town.”
“Although it's also deadly cold there, with wind blowing through cracks in the walls and tiles, at least the snow can't get in… At the end of last month, I begged Zhang Hunter for a long time at his door. He promised to let me use the treehouse outside the county town, which offers shelter from the wind, for the winter. Although he speaks harshly, it's still a life-saver for me. Otherwise, with this heavy snow in Qi this year, after I burn all the firewood in the dilapidated temple, I'm sure to freeze to death. After dropping you off at the dilapidated temple, I still have to go get the key from him…”
He paused, his tone becoming undeniable, and said:
“I can't take you to the treehouse. I simply don't have the strength to drag you up there in this snowstorm. You'll stay in the dilapidated temple, and I'll come see you tomorrow morning. If you live, you live. If you don't, I'll just find a spot to bury you. I will have done my utmost.”
The woman remained still in the snowstorm until she saw the outline of the small dilapidated temple in the distance. Only then did she speak weakly:
“What is your name?”
The young man hesitated for a moment, then answered vaguely:
“Wen Chaosheng.”
The woman asked again:
“And your home?”
Chaosheng panted, pulling her with effort, and replied:
“I'm not a person of Qi; I'm a vagrant. I have no status here and most of the time can't enter the county town. I usually live in the dilapidated temple outside the county town.”
“Where would I have a home?”
The woman stared at Chaosheng's back, her eyes slightly narrowed, sometimes dazed, sometimes clear. Finally, she closed her eyes and said no more.
After Chaosheng dragged the woman to the dilapidated temple, both of them were covered in a layer of snow, like snowmen.
The dilapidated temple was indeed as Chaosheng had said: it could keep out the snow but not the wind.
At this moment, the snowy night was vast, and the wind had already turned into knives. Blowing like this all night could truly kill a person.
Chaosheng forcefully dragged the woman off the wooden cart and placed her behind a half-statue in the dilapidated temple, where the wind was slightly less severe. Then, seeing the woman fall unconscious, he brought some dry grass from a corner of the dilapidated temple and, without minding the dust and dirt on it, spread it directly over the woman.
“That's all there is. Pray for yourself.”
After he finished speaking, his gaze swept over the exposed brick cracks in the corner of the wall. He hesitated for a moment, then turned and left.
Outside, it was pitch black, and the snowstorm was raging. The cold seemed to penetrate the endless darkness of the night through the white snow, reaching straight into one's bones. Chaosheng gritted his teeth, ignoring the cracked wounds on his hands, and plunged into the snowstorm.
He had Transmigrated to this world three years ago, owning nothing, not even the identity of a person of Qi. He was deemed a vagrant and driven out of the county town. Whenever county officials were on duty, these vagrants could not enter. Only on the third day of each month could they enter the county town once to apply for the identity of a person of Qi from the yamen runners in the county town.
However, Ku Hai County was a small county town on the border. According to the laws of Qi, the quota for allowing foreigners to become citizens of Qi each year was limited. Most of them were people from other countries who would offer some silver and valuables, and the Magistrate of an ordinary county town would usually turn a blind eye and approve it.
However, Chaosheng was a vagrant who had Transmigrated, penniless and owning nothing. Let alone valuables, he couldn't even produce a single bun or a grain of rice. How could he bribe the officials?
The outcome was predictable.
He was excluded from the county town and could not set foot inside it on ordinary days.
Later, Chaosheng went to the county town to appeal on time every month, hoping to obtain the identity of a person of Qi from the Magistrate, but he was met with rejection every time.
Later still, the Magistrate became annoyed with him and simply laid out the conditions to Chaosheng.
—Ten taels of silver.
If Chaosheng could get him ten taels of silver, he would grant Chaosheng a legal identity as a person of Qi and arrange a residence for him in Ku Hai County, allowing him to farm like other common people, working from sunrise to sunset.
Otherwise, Chaosheng would live as a vagrant for three years. If he was still alive after three years, it would be Heaven's will, and he would also agree to grant Chaosheng the identity of a person of Qi.
Ten taels of silver were out of the question. Let alone him, a mere vagrant, even in a small county town like Ku Hai County, unless one came from a well-off family, one couldn't even dream of producing five taels of silver.
For three years, merely surviving had been incredibly difficult.
During the great snow and cold winter three years ago, an old black dog in the county town led the nearly frozen Chaosheng to the dilapidated temple hidden among the wild grass and dead branches, and shared half a bowl of unfinished leftovers with him, allowing Chaosheng to endure that night's snowstorm.
The old black dog's owner had gone into the mountains years ago to find Spirit Medicine for his bedridden mother. Later, it was said he encountered a tiger and never returned.
Since then, the big black dog would run out of the county town every day, going to a familiar mountain top to wait for a familiar person, regardless of wind or snow.
The dilapidated temple was on the path the big black dog often took.
By reckoning the days, the three-year period had arrived. On the third day of next month, he would be able to obtain the identity of a person of Qi from the Magistrate of Ku Hai County, finally escaping this miserable life of daily struggle for survival.
The most crucial thing now… was to survive this terrifying snowstorm that had arrived early!