Suddenly, a flash of white light streaked through her mind. Images immediately appeared before her eyes, playing out like a movie on fast-forward.
Startled, Su Muqing's eyes widened in disbelief. What was happening? Before she could even begin to sort through the chaos in her mind, the suffocating fear returned. Su Muqing felt the air around her growing thinner. Instinctively, she reached upwards, pushing, clawing, and digging at the space above her head!
She wasn't in a hospital! Nor was she having a nightmare. The pain in her hands constantly reminded her that she wasn't dead. She seemed to have…transmigrated? Pathetically, the body she had transmigrated into appeared to have died not long ago, and it had already been buried!
Suspecting she might have transmigrated, Su Muqing didn't give up digging. After a long while, just as she felt her hands had gone numb, she felt a faint breeze slip through her trembling fingers! This thrilling realization spurred her on, and she desperately pushed aside the clods of earth above her head!
At this moment, Su Muqing's head was still buried within the straw mat. As the gap she had dug near her hands grew larger and more air entered, she struggled to reach out with her other hand, digging with both.
Finally… After a long and repetitive process of digging, the space above her head was completely exposed! The moment she pulled back the straw mat, a gust of wind blew onto Su Muqing's face! It brushed away the sweat from her face and dusted her with soil.
She simply closed her eyes, breathing deeply and greedily. As her breathing gradually steadied, she could clearly feel the humid air left after the stifling heat, along with a strong smell of earth, which wasn't particularly pleasant! However, it was precisely this smell that brought relief to Su Muqing, who had just experienced the terror of death, and made her deeply realize how wonderful it felt to be alive!
After a period of adjustment, Su Muqing tentatively opened her eyes slowly. It should be early morning outside! The sky wasn't very bright yet. She used her hands to support the surrounding clumps of earth and began to slowly wriggle outwards. With each bit of space she created, she continued to push away the soil covering her body! After her upper body was completely exposed, she used leverage to sit up and then, with one surge, she broke free from the straw mat and lay down on the cracked ground beside it!
She lay there for a while, unsure if it was from exerting herself too much or from being too tense, but the feeling of weakness grew stronger. Her body began to go numb, and even moving felt difficult! Su Muqing, like a worm, wriggled on the ground, then rolled herself to the side of the road. After recovering for a bit longer, she managed to get up and lean against the roadside. While calming herself and regaining her strength, she also took the opportunity to sort out her thoughts!
Recalling the scenes that had just flashed through her mind, and combining them with her current situation, the unreal nature of everything helped Su Muqing break free from her previous state of being lost in the grief of losing her parents. These successive fantastical developments had left her somewhat mentally fractured. After losing both parents and then experiencing a car accident, she was actually gifted with transmigration? Had she offended some deity in heaven? Was she destined for such a roller-coaster, tragic experience?
… This was a dynasty that had never appeared in history, called the Great Yu Dynasty. This body was also named Su Muqing, with the childhood name Qing Jie'er. She was not yet 14 years old, from Houxi Village, Ping'an Town, Luoning Prefecture. She was an orphan, picked up by Su Yuanming, who was on a caravan journey. She had been abandoned by the roadside of Qingmu Prefecture, with the bodies of a man and a woman not far away. Su Yuanming, feeling pity, took her into the city and reported it to the authorities. After an investigation, the officials determined it was a bandit attack. Likely not wanting to kill an unknowing infant, they had abandoned her by the road to fend for herself. The deceased man and woman were likely the infant's parents. After a hasty conclusion, the officials handed the child back to Su Yuanming. Su Yuanming, remembering that he and his wife had been married for many years without children, and his wife desperately wanted one, brought the female child back to Houxi Village. His wife also liked her very much after they brought her home. Knowing that Su Yuanming had found her near Qingmu Prefecture, Su Li, the wife, reversed two characters and named her Su Muqing.
… Since the beginning of the year, many places had experienced varying degrees of drought, with Luoning Prefecture being the most severely affected. It hadn't rained a single drop since before the new year. Crops couldn't grow, and the surrounding streams and lakes began to dry up. Wells also stopped yielding water; within two months, the silt at the bottom of the wells had dried into thick earth blocks. The drought continued into summer. After the river in Houxi Village completely dried up, the villagers, after countless discussions and deliberations, persisted for another half a month, but still, no rain fell. In the end, everyone had no choice but to abandon their village and flee. Setting out from Ping'an Town, they passed through Luling Mountain, Sian County, Guang'an Prefecture… and then continued south towards Suining Prefecture to seek a livelihood. That region was known for its prosperous prefectural cities, vast terrain, and ample rainfall. They hoped that upon reaching the prefectural city, the officials would arrange a new place for them to settle. Houxi Village was a large village, with over 170 people, old and young. After deciding to flee, they packed their belongings and grain. Ox carts were used to transport the elderly and children, while wooden carts and wheelbarrows were shared among several families. The women carried baskets and shoulder poles. After more than a month of fleeing, they had only reached the end of Luling Mountain, and already fifty-odd people had died! The weather grew hotter and hotter. To conserve energy, the refugees rested in the woods during the day, foraging for food, and then traveled along the official road in the dark at night! They had rested on a dirt slope at the foot of the mountain last night. Suffering from severe lack of food and water, Su Muqing and Su Li had both lost consciousness. Su Yuanming, heartbroken for his wife and daughter, had entered Luling Mountain while they rested, hoping to try his luck and hunt something to supplement their strength. However, Su Yuanming had not yet returned when Su Li fell unconscious. Su Muqing was even worse off, barely breathing. Five more people had died yesterday. All the villagers of Houxi who died along the way were buried together in a large pit dug by the roadside. When everyone else had been placed in the pit, Su Muqing still held onto a faint thread of life. She was finally placed on top of the corpse at the very edge. Because it hadn't rained for a long time, the soil blocks were dry and loose. Su Muqing's head happened to be at the thinnest point on the edge, which was why she was able to emerge from the earth! If it had been the usual burial method, she would truly have died.
Su Muqing, who had already thought her situation was dire, had a more complex and grim expression after thoroughly sorting through the thoughts in her mind! Transmigrating into an orphan was one thing, then encountering a once-in-a-century famine year, and then being buried alive! How could she feel like she had encountered every tragedy? Who else? Who could be more miserable than her? Damn it! Even TV dramas wouldn't dare to depict this! She must have committed some grave offense and been sent down to the mortal realm as a celestial being in tribulation!