Chapter 1: Beat Her to Death

Year 12 of Jinghan, Daqing Dynasty!

Qinzhou, Tiannan County.

“Playing dead! Hit her! Beat her hard! If she dies, it’s over and done with!”

“You wretched brat, so young yet so malicious! How dare you harm my grandson? Beat her to death and throw her body into the mountains to feed the wolves!”

In the Zhu Family Compound, an old woman dressed in lotus-colored silk stood with her hands on her hips, her eyebrows furrowed, her high cheekbones prominent, and her lips pursed tightly by her teeth, deep nasolabial folds carving her face.

Her temples were slicked back behind her ears, gathered into a round bun that swayed violently with her agitated movements.

At this moment, she was angrily cursing at Fatty Zhu, who lay motionless on the ground in coarse cotton clothing.

A servant woman, following her master’s orders, approached with a fierce glare and raised her hand to slap Fatty Zhu’s plump face.

Slap—

A searing pain spread across her face, and Jiang Qingzhu slowly opened her eyes.

Immediately afterward, a voice from a distance reached her ears.

“Aunt, throwing her into the mountains to feed the wolves is letting her off too easy. I heard the youngest son of the Chai family in the neighboring county is on his deathbed, and they’re looking for someone for a ghost marriage. Why not sell her to them? That way, our family won’t have raised her for nothing.”

“Yes! A ghost marriage! That little wretch deserves no better!”

Wasn’t she just fighting over an armory with someone? Then the other side sent her a bomb—why wasn’t she blown to pieces?

Just then, a large, fan-like palm appeared in her field of vision, swinging toward her once again.

Instinctively, she raised her arm to block it. As her gaze swept over the chubby little hand she’d lifted, she screamed inwardly: What the hell!

Is this my hand?

So small?

Slap—

Another sharp slap landed hard on her face, producing a crisp sound.

Her head was knocked to the side, and her vision swam with stars. Through blurred eyes, she saw several people dressed in ancient clothing standing not far away.

Great.

One slap jolted her awake from the explosion.

Another slap sent stars dancing before her eyes.

She—Jiang Qingzhu—had survived alone in the apocalypse for five years. Anyone who dared slap her would have long since had grass growing green and yellow over their graves!

Though she had no idea where she was, that large hand rose once more.

This time, she met it with both hands, blocking the incoming slap and seizing the opportunity to grab one of the woman’s fingers, using all her strength to bend it backward.

“Fuck your mother!” Jiang Qingzhu cursed aloud.

The servant woman’s finger erupted in excruciating pain. She had just let out a howl—”Ah—!”—when everyone heard a crisp cracking sound.

Followed by the woman’s even more agonized scream: “Ah! My finger is broken!”

“Huh? Is her finger that brittle? The force I used shouldn’t have been enough to break it, right?” Jiang Qingzhu thought to herself, instinctively standing up and delivering a kick to the woman.

Far.

She ran.

A concubine’s daughter.

She sent the woman tumbling several meters away.

Seeing the situation was unclear, she scrambled away from the group on her short legs, putting as much distance between them as possible.

At the same time, a flood of fragmented memories rushed into her mind. Jiang Qingzhu realized she had transmigrated.

The original host, Fatty Zhu, was five years old, the daughter of a concubine in a local landlord’s household.

Her father was a scumbag dressed in a blue scholar’s robe, exuding an air of refinement, fanning himself with a folding fan—elegant on the outside, rotten within.

Her mother was the beautiful daughter of the Jiang butcher family from Zhengyang Village, and a hopeless romantic to boot.

A concubine.

She didn’t know what kind of sweet talk her scumbag father had fed her, but she insisted on throwing herself at him to become his concubine.

While the original host’s mother was alive, she could still offer some protection.

A month ago, the original host’s mother suddenly fell gravely ill and passed away. Since then, the already-unwanted original host had lived a life worse than that of the servants in the household.

Just moments ago, Zhu Yanqing, the legitimate grandson of the Zhu family, had been teasing the original host as if she were a dog, throwing pastries on the ground and making her pick them up with her mouth like a dog.

Seeing there was food to eat, the original host didn’t mind his behavior and simply stuffed the pastries into her mouth.

However, Zhu Yanqing, being mischievous, wanted to throw the pastry farther. With a forceful motion, he lost his balance and fell. At that time, only the original host was near Zhu Yanqing. Coupled with Zhu Yanqing’s pitiful crying, when the adults arrived, he tearfully accused, “Grandmother, Fatty Zhu stole my red bean cake! And she pushed me!”

Zhu Yanqing’s words directly sealed the original host’s “guilt.”

Those who rushed over upon hearing the commotion gave the original host no chance to explain and immediately subjected her to a vicious beating.

The original host’s head hit the ground, and she died!

She—Jiang Qingzhu—seized the opportunity to cross over.

“I didn’t touch him; he fell on his own!” Jiang Qingzhu spoke the words the original host had never gotten to say.

The Zhu family matriarch was furious: “How dare you argue! My good grandson was standing perfectly fine. If you didn’t push him, how could he have fallen? We’ve fed and clothed you well, and I’ve been kind enough not to throw you out of the house. Today, you actually dared to hurt my good grandson over a red bean cake. It seems you’ve grown tired of living!”

“You motherless bastard. Yes, a bastard! Who knows what man your mother hooked up with to give birth to you! At such a young age, you’re fatter than a pig—clearly not of our Zhu family blood!”

At this moment, a young woman in grass-green silk standing beside the matriarch, her eyes filled with malice, spoke up: “Aunt, if she hurt my son Yanqing today, will she harm the one in my belly tomorrow? A thief may strike any day, but we can’t guard against one forever. Wouldn’t my son and I have to be on guard against her every day from now on? Besides, everyone in our Zhu family is decent-looking. Just look at her! Fat-headed and big-eared, who knows how much food and meat she’s secretly stolen from the family. She’s nothing but a black-hearted, starving ghost! This time, we must teach her a proper lesson to make her remember!”

The young woman emphasized the word “remember” with particular force.

“Grandmother, Mother, look, little brother’s hand is scraped. Ugly monster, how dare you bully my little brother? Believe me, I’ll scratch your face!” Zhu Meilan, only seven years old, had already mastered the Zhu family’s art of cursing.

At such a young age, she had honed her insulting skills, adding another layer to the original host’s “guilt.”

“Waaah, Grandmother, my hand hurts! She’s a bad person; I don’t want to see her anymore.” Seeing that he had supporters, Zhu Yanqing clung to his grandmother’s leg and began to wail.

“Aunt, you must stand up for Yanqing! Stand up for the whole family! There’s a famine outside, and food is outrageously expensive. Our family’s food didn’t fall from the sky. There’s no reason to let a gluttonous girl of unknown origin waste it.”

Just then, Jiang Qingzhu felt a sudden warmth on her wrist. She looked down and saw five faint black dots appear on her left wrist.

?

Was this her space?

Had her space crossed over with her?

As this thought crossed Jiang Qingzhu’s mind, with a mere thought, a piece of candy quietly materialized in her palm.

What appeared in her hand was a piece of candy, but what flashed in her mind was the empire she had once built.

In her previous life, although she was an ordinary person, before the disaster struck, she had unintentionally awakened a string of Five Emperor Coins left to her by her grandmother.

The five Five Emperor Coins had formed five parallel, interconnected spaces: a static space, a non-static space, a breeding space, a planting space, and

Spiritual Spring Space.

After the disaster began, she had stuffed the space with supplies like a hamster.

The space also housed over a hundred chickens, ducks, and geese, along with several pigs and sheep.

The vegetables in the fields had been harvested again and again. Little did she expect that her space would travel through time with her.

“Catch her! Lock her in the firewood shed! No one is to give her any food without my orders!” The old woman suddenly pointed at the surrounding servants and maids, shouting.

Jiang Qingzhu knew she couldn’t escape at the moment, so she simply withdrew the candy in her palm back into the space. Standing still, she allowed the approaching servants and maids to seize her.

[This is not a mindless power fantasy, but there’s no unnecessary suffering either—revenge is taken without delay!]

[During the famine escape, there will be food theft, deaths, and even killings!]

Soybeans sprout.