Volume 1, Chapter 1: The Weeping Beauty

"Husband, please, slow down..."
"Besides, your wounds have not yet healed. How can you do such a thing?"
"Qing'er has already made up her mind. As long as my husband leads a proper life from now on, I will serve you well."

In a daze, Liu Feng heard someone crying. The faint sobbing sounded like a thin needle, piercing his temples and making them throb.

"What is going on?" Liu Feng opened his eyes wide.

He didn't need to look twice to be shocked. What was this? Why was there such a delicate and beautiful woman beneath him? That couldn't be right; as a top-tier mercenary, he should be in the middle of a mission right now. Since when did he hold women and do such things? And to be so incompetent as to leave a girl in tears—that was unforgivable. He decided to let it go for now; if it couldn't be done today, there would be another time.

Liu Feng looked around. There were wind-leaking earthen walls, patched bedding, and dilapidated tables and stools. The girl beneath him wore tattered, coarse hemp clothing. She was beautiful, wiping away her tears with red-rimmed eyes, looking so pitiful that it tugged at his heart.

At that moment, a slight sting in his brain brought a flood of unfamiliar memories, making Liu Feng understand his situation. He had transmigrated. He was in a place he had never heard of: the Great Li Dynasty. He was still named Liu Feng, but this Liu Feng was a pauper in a destitute mountain village. The few acres of poor farmland he once owned had long been pawned away to pay for alcohol.

Since his teenage years, he had been alone. His father had died on the battlefield, and his mother, heartbroken, had been ravaged to death by marauding troops while searching for his father. For over a decade, he had lived in solitude.

Now, You Province was suffering from a once-in-a-century locust plague. Crops had failed entirely, and even tree bark and grass roots were nearly depleted. However, there was one "benefit": upon reaching a certain age, the government would assign wives to unmarried men. In truth, it was a way to breed the population, as years of war had decimated the number of men; without such measures, there would be no soldiers for the front lines and no one to till the barren fields.

He had been fortunate enough to be assigned a pair of sisters. The elder, Mu Wanqing, had gone out to dig for wild herbs, while the younger, Mu Wanqing—the girl crying like rain beneath him—remained.

"Husband, once you have recovered, Qing'er will be sure to ask my sister to join me in serving you well."
"A woman follows her husband wherever he goes. Since my sister and I have married you, we are yours."
"Please, husband, I beg you, do not sell us to the Yihong Brothel."
"A woman's chastity is more important than anything. If you really sell us, my sister and I will hang ourselves when no one is looking."

Liu Feng was speechless. Ancient women were truly something else; this level of devotion was unrivaled. Yet, Liu Feng had no time for such thoughts; he wasn't even sure if he could survive.

From the memories of the original owner of this body, he learned that the Great Li Dynasty was far from stable. Externally, it was surrounded by powerful enemies—the Southern Yue, the Northern Barbarians, and even the tiny state of Jingnan dared to strike at the Great Li. Internally, the court was in chaos, rife with corrupt officials, exorbitant taxes, and rampant banditry. In such conditions, the empire was on the verge of collapse, with famine and natural disasters leaving thousands of miles desolate and devoid of human life.

In the capital, after the new emperor ascended the throne, he had to allow corruption and factionalism to flourish in an attempt to stabilize the situation. Local officials invented countless excuses to levy heavy taxes. Liu Feng was in You Province, which bordered Yan and Qing provinces. Relatively speaking, the disaster in You Province was less severe, making it a target for the imperial court.

You Province also bordered the Northern Barbarians, who had historically plundered the region. However, Liu Feng’s village, Siwa, was relatively remote, and while they were hungry and cold, the ravages of war usually spared them. Despite the disaster, the province was rich in natural resources, with high mountains, dense forests, and winding rivers, making it a rear base for the court to extract taxes and conscript soldiers.

The current Governor of You Province was a loyalist planted by the late emperor to support the new one. He enforced brutal laws, causing public resentment to boil over. According to the tax standards, eighty percent of a household’s grain had to be surrendered, and if the remainder was insufficient, they had to hunt or fish to survive. Even worse, any male reaching the age of fourteen had to join the military, or their families would suffer. Women reaching fourteen had to be sent to the army as camp followers, or they would be forced into marriage; otherwise, their homes would be confiscated and they would be exiled.

Liu Feng had been lucky to be assigned this pair of sisters. They were not only beautiful, with graceful, curvaceous figures, but despite being only fourteen or fifteen, they were elegant