Step Down, Let Me Come!

Chapter 1: Exile

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“Don't play dead! Get up quickly!”

In a stupor, Shen Tang felt someone kicking her foot.

As if kicking wasn't enough, the other person also started cursing.

[MD, who kicked me?]

She curled up her legs in pain and weakly opened her eyes.

It felt like someone just removed a gauze from her eyes. Her vision changed from a bit sandy to high-definition.

[What happened?]

Because of the sharp pain, she took one deep breath, as she stared blankly at the unfamiliar things in front of her.

[Did I compete at drinking with someone last night?]

It seems that after she's been drinking for most of the night, the editor called her urging for a draft. Therefore, she took a brush in a drinking stupor.

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No matter what, she couldn't recall what happened after.

Though it can be certain that she shouldn't be like that now!

Shen Tang fiercely pinched herself, until she felt a distinct stab of pain. It broke her happy-go-lucky mindset.

After seeing one’s own but still unfamiliar hand, four words immediately popped into her head-

She transmigrated!

Additionally, she also “traveled” to different times.

[She merely didn’t know if drinking alcohol or pulling all-nighters to catch up with her schedule was the reason behind her sudden death].

The more she thought about it, the more she felt like the dwarfs were hammering inside her head without stopping. Pain let Shen Tang hastily freeze. 

“Eat faster, after that we’ll be on our way”.

She covered her head in an attempt to ease the stinging pain when the tall shadow blocked the sunlight from above.

The person wore a pair of straw sandals stained with dark brown mud. He threw out a burnt black, palm-sized pancake, which landed on the muddy ground beside her skirt. Regardless of whether Shen Tang would eat it or not, he continued handing it to others.

In the next second, a hand appeared beside her and rapidly took hold of that pancake.

Shen Tang reacted too slowly, consequently, she could only glance at the side suspiciously.

The one who snatched her food was a woman with messy hair and a dirty face. She used both hands to try to gobble it up. At the moment, she looked exactly like a reincarnation of a starving ghost.

She was so afraid that the Shen Tang would take it back, that she didn't even shake off the dirt from the pancake before she stuffed it whole in her mouth.  Finally, as if she still wished for more, she started sucking at the crumbs of a cake that were left on her fingers.

Shen Tang “…….”

She also didn’t know how many days the woman went without washing, but the long hair that should be beautiful in a jet-black color was greasy and full of knots. The exposed skin on the head accumulated a layer of a yellow, sticky substance.

After a careful sniff, an even weirder stench came from her body. It resembled stinky socks that were stuffed for three to five weeks with hymenanthes to make juice – the only thing that was presentable were her facial features that couldn’t be covered by dirt.

Shen Tong amiably reasoned with her “Lady, this is my pancake”.

Nevertheless, the woman seemed to be deaf and ignored her, still smacking her mouth, relishing the taste of the pancake.

At this time, she noticed that the color of her fingers was different from the rest of her hand, and her throat convulsed. 

She didn’t have mysophobia, but after suffering this kind of visual attack at such a close range, she subconsciously felt physical discomfort. 

If you looked at Shen Tang now, you could see that her complexion had changed. The woman was worried that the fool would go crazy and start beating herself, so she tried to move her buttocks in the opposite direction.

Remaining in one position wasn’t bad, but when she moved, Shen Tang sensed that something was pulling her.

She bowed her head to see what was tugging at her waist. It was one extremely thick hemp rope, the one that was used to tie a group of grasshoppers. It bound her body with women of all ages and a messy appearance.

After raising her head to look around, as far as the eye could see seemed to be people in coarse hemp prisoner clothes. All of them had a look of tiredness across their faces. There were all kinds of people old and weak, women and children, male and female.

Additionally, there were also a dozen or so strong young men dressed more uniformly with sabers hanging around their waists, that were patrolling and overseeing people.

When their line of sight swept over the statures of pretty young female offenders, it would occasionally halt for a moment.

This, this….

Did… a large family commit a crime and then was taken to the execution ground to cancel their household register? They could also be exiled.

The difference was only in getting reincarnated quicker or later.

[Gulugulugulu]

Her stomach untimely rumbled with hunger. It was so loud that even others could hear it.

Shen Tang covered her slightly pained belly with a hand. The hunger caused her to salivate.

The more she swallowed, the stronger the feeling of hunger became, to the point of being unable to ignore it.

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In her mind, Shen Tang was knitting her eyebrows. She could only let her attention shift from this torture to the happenings in front of her. Some prisoner anxiously ate food and ended up choking on the dry cake. He unceasingly pounded on his belly in an attempt to swallow it, but his face gradually became blue.

People around didn’t seem to care. 

Neither stepped forward to pat the back, nor handed water.

He kicked his legs with difficulty and tried to crawl towards the man dressed as an official. He used all of his strength to extend his right hand to seek help, but until it powerlessly fell during his last breath, the latter still didn't have any thought of helping. Furthermore, after he kicked the other person's legs and discovered that he really died, he muttered: “bad luck!”

He took out a dagger from his waist and bent down to cut off the skin on the right half of the man's ear, then threw it into a dirty cloth bag.

Shen Tang “.....”

“We should move!”

“Quicker!”

“Get up! Don’t give Laozi the reason to whip you!”

Prisoners put on their heavy shackles again.

The shackles for female prisoners were small, weighing about thirty-five catties, and the shackles for male prisoners were more than one size larger, weighing fifty if not eighty catties.

The dozen or so young men in uniform urged on, then kicked the prisoners that didn't react quickly enough. If they still didn’t get up, they directly whipped them. The massive force behind the whippings left a shocking finger-wide injury on their skin.

Shen Tang silently immersed herself in walking. She searched the memory of her body with great effort.

The result was really unfortunate. 

She not only did not have the luck of a transmigrator, she also didn't have the memories of a previous owner of this body as well as home. Besides knowing that her name was Shen Tang and her pen name “You Li”, she knew that in her precious life she was painting to make a living. She was also afraid of a nagging editor. Other things were generally vague !!!
After stealing glances at the prisoner and the guards nearby, she sighed secretly: [Unlucky, this TM is the beginning of hell, right?]

Seriously unlucky, no one is worse off than me!

Regardless of this, life is the most important.

Should I escape?

Or wait for an opportunity to escape after getting to the destination?

Presently, it looked like, both of the choices weren't too optimistic.

They hurried on, facing the scorching sun. Midway, some prisoners died from exhaustion. Until sunset smudged the horizon, only then they were granted permission to rest for the night.

Guards jointly put up a bonfire. From their luggage, they took out dry meat and put it on fire, then sprinkle a little salt on it to make a pot of broth.

This time, Shen Tang reacted really fast, and she managed to save her pancake.

Once, she was sitting, she started to attentively chew a stiff ice-cold pancake. She used her saliva to soften it and then swallowed it. She put her attention on the guards that were in a quiet discussion. Despite the content of their talk being sparse, she pieced some information together with difficulty.

These prisoners were from one family.

Their surname was Gong, The young, and the old, even servants could not escape and were thoroughly captured.

They were divided into 3 parts and then escorted to the destination in batches.

The men were sent to the frontier to serve as laborers for the army, and the women were sent to the brothel of Xiao city.

Shen Tang went with the second group. Most of them were female relatives and maidservants of the Gong family. The most senior among them was the old lord. In this batch were also a few young wives, young and beautiful concubines, heirs of different ages, as well as servants and maids.

She reckoned that the owner of this body wasn't a slave, but an heir. 

Bones' age also couldn't be more than 21 to 22 years old.

Because of the sentence, the men have gotten tattoos on their faces, and women have gotten engravings behind their ears.

If they were to die on the road, the guards would have simply cut out the patch of skin or ear with characters.

She touched her ear, and as expected, it has already formed a scab.

Shen Tang “.....dang!”

Pure: Just as a quick translator note, ‘MD’ is just a slang for motherf*cker.