Zhao Family Village.
"Erden! Erden!"
A slightly anxious voice drifted vaguely into Lu Changsheng's ears.
Where is this?
Why is it so sticky?
So stifling?
Lu Changsheng tried hard to open his mouth, but the next moment, he felt a rush of liquid pouring into his nasal cavity, almost cutting off his breath.
He snapped his eyes open, only to find his vision blurry and distorted. Along with the flowing river water, the sensation made his eyes ache intensely.
"Erden! Erden!"
He heard the shouting and kicked his legs with all his might, swimming toward the surface.
Splash!
The moment he broke the water's surface, a cheer rose from the bank.
A group of dark-skinned teenage boys and girls, looking as though they had been smeared with charcoal dust, clapped and jumped up and down.
Plop! Plop!
Several of them dived straight into the water, swam over to Lu Changsheng, and hauled him ashore.
"What is wrong with you? We thought the water monkey got you!"
A boy as dark as coal exclaimed.
Lu Changsheng shook his head. Something seemed to be churning inside his mind; he suspected water had gotten in, but it didn't quite feel like that.
It was more as if a series of images were flashing across his mind piece by piece, and gradually, he remembered many things.
"I'm fine! Heihou!"
This was a river just outside Zhao Family Village.
For children around seven or eight years old like them, this was not only a place to play, but also a place to find a little meat for their families.
Although the fish in the river were scooped out every time a drought hit, once the rainy season arrived, plenty of fish would appear again.
Big turtles, fat carp, long-tailed fish...
As long as they could catch one, the family could have a meat dish for dinner.
In this miserable ancient world, being able to eat some meat was a thrilling luxury.
However, due to the terrain, this section of the river had a rapid current.
It was common for children who went into the water never to come back up.
While the adults didn't completely forbid them from coming here to catch fish, they warned them that if any child ever failed to surface, no one else was to go down into the river.
Otherwise, they might be pulled under.
This was why Wang Heihou and the others only jumped into the river to pull Lu Changsheng out *after* seeing him float to the surface.
What they didn't know, however, was that the original Lu Erdan had truly died, and now a transmigrator's soul had replaced his body.
"What a world—"
Reviewing his predecessor's memories, Lu Changsheng felt his scalp tingle.
This body's background was far more wretched than he had imagined.
He felt a pang of nostalgia for his past life. Although he had been an overworked 996 corporate drone back then, at least he could always count on three meals and a secure roof over his head, couldn't he?
"Ah! I touched one! I touched one!"
A cheer rang out.
The others looked over with envy.
In the water, Wang Heihou held up one hand, a palm-sized long-tailed fish struggling desperately in his grasp.
The boy was thin and small, but wiry and nimble. He expertly slid his fingers into the fish's gills and hooked its mouth, so no matter how hard the creature threshed, it could hardly escape.
Having fished for years, they possessed experience that ordinary people could hardly match.
This first fish of the day ignited the other children's enthusiasm. With a series of splashing sounds, small heads could be seen bobbing up and down in the water.
Unfortunately, catching fish in the river was never that easy.
When it was time to go back, only Wang Heihou had caught a fish!
...
A group of children clustered around Wang Heihou as they walked toward the village.
Only Lu Changsheng felt a sense of mental exhaustion.
Just a single fish!
"Oh~ Heihou caught a fish!"
"Yeah! Am I awesome, or what?"
"Awesome, totally awesome!"
Along the way, people praised him from time to time, looking at the fish in Wang Heihou's hand with a mixture of envy and longing.
Wang Heihou smugly raised the fish high, purposely walking several extra circles around the village.
Lu Changsheng figured that if he walked a couple more circles, the fish would probably start to spoil.
"This world is truly terrible!"
"Who knows how I'm going to survive from here on out?"
He started walking toward home when suddenly, his vision blurred violently.
Immediately afterward, a faint virtual light screen appeared before his eyes.
"Name: Lu Changsheng"
"Age: 9/55"
"Bone Structure: 1/10 [Superior (Replaceable • Locked)] (Note: Talent levels currently visible: Inferior, Mediocre, Subpar, Intermediate, Superior, Genius (Replaceable • Locked!))"
???
And then?
Lu Changsheng kept reading and found another line of text below—
"You have achieved the milestone of reaching 5 years of age. Your bone structure has increased by 1 point!"
...
???
And then?
That's it?
With the arrival of his cheat, Lu Changsheng felt an infinite wave of joy, but upon seeing such exceptionally concise text, a chill washed over him.
"This is my cheat? My bone structure automatically increases by 1 point every 5 years?"
He looked at his age again.
Fine!
His natural limit was 55 years old!
There was something wrong with this body!
Normally speaking, barring natural disasters, man-made calamities, or accidental deaths, a human's natural lifespan shouldn't be this short.
Something is fishy!
"Could it be that the foundation of this body is poor, which is why its lifespan is so short?"
Lu Changsheng thought to himself.
Among the brief information provided, the word "locked" took up a substantial portion.
Lu Changsheng was somewhat speechless and could only treat it as a source of unknown anticipation.
The only thing that brought him a sliver of comfort was that the evaluation of his bone structure above was actually rated as Superior!
"Even with the locked content, just looking at the current bone structure grade is enough to prove that my talent is quite exceptional!"
He was timber fit for carving!
...
Lost in thought, he had already arrived in front of his home.
It was a simple courtyard enclosed by piled-up stones. Pushing open the door, a few scattered farming tools came into view.
Hearing the commotion, his frail younger sister, dressed in oversized adult clothes, ran out from the house and asked if he had caught any fish.
Lu Changsheng shook his head.
His sister was named Lu Heitu.
According to their mother, she had suddenly dropped out while working in the fields, covered from head to toe in mud. Everyone said a child born like that wouldn't survive, but unexpectedly, the little girl stubbornly pulled through.
Many people believed Heitu was an ill-omened presence, sent to take revenge on the Lu family.
In this day and age, son preference reigned supreme.
Raising a boy meant he could do farm work and support the family, and once he brought home a wife, it would add to the labor force.
As for girls, for the first dozen years they only consumed resources without producing anything, and just when they reached the age to contribute, they belonged to someone else's family.
Therefore, the survival of Lu Heitu didn't bring joy to the elderly parents; instead, it felt somewhat alarming.
Fortunately, the old couple still had a bottom line and didn't follow what others suggested—throwing the newborn Xiao Heitu into the river.
After some time, as Xiao Heitu grew taller, that laissez-faire attitude toward life and death faded away as well.
...