Transmigrated Leftover Woman in Rural Style

Water splashed everywhere, a chill seeped into her bones, and an overwhelming feeling of suffocation washed over her. Li Nuan instinctively flailed her limbs, struggling. Wasn't she dead? Why did the feeling of drowning still feel so real?

Seeing that she was about to collapse from exhaustion and her consciousness was beginning to fade, Li Nuan thought: I'm already dead, what's the point of struggling? So be it. She let herself sink to the bottom of the water, and the surface returned to calm.

When Li Nuan woke up, it was the middle of the night. At that time, the woman holding her was crying mournfully. The tears fell drop by drop onto her face, some warm and some itchy. She opened her eyes and, in the dim light, admired the world after death.

The first thing that caught her eye was the thatched roof. However, the light was too dim to see clearly. Next came the blackened, peeling mud walls, some with holes in them. Due to her limited perspective, this was all she could see for the time being.

Li Nuan turned her head, trying to get a better look at the place. She had barely moved when the woman holding her noticed. The woman stopped crying and excitedly called out, "Who's there?" Then she gently laid her down, letting her lie flat.

As the woman cried out, footsteps approached. Li Nuan was puzzled: How could the underworld be like this? It was completely different from the legends. But she didn't have time to be puzzled for long, because three people were already standing in a row in front of the bed (let's call it the bed for now).

Li Nuan looked at the three men—one old and two young. The old man was thin and pale, his back already hunched. They were all looking at her with great emotion, and the old man even secretly wiped away his tears.

The group stared at each other silently, no one uttering a sound. Li Nuan thought to herself: Even if a dead person doesn't speak, others should still be able to hear their thoughts. It wasn't until the woman sitting on the inside of her bed spoke that Li Nuan realized something was amiss.

The woman gently touched Li Nuan's face before choking back tears and saying, "It's good that you're awake. Little Nuan, please don't go to the river anymore, it's too dangerous."

The three men by the bed nodded. The two younger ones helped the older one sit down on the edge of the bed. The older one said, "Sister, you can stay home and do the housework from now on. Xiaogang and I will go to the river to collect fish baskets."

The younger one nodded sheepishly and said with a grin, "Sister, you've slept for so long, you must be hungry. Mom made fish porridge, it smells so good. I'll go get you some."

The little one disappeared in a flash, and the old man sitting by the bed spoke up: "Xiao Nuan, it's all your fault for being useless and dragging you down with me." As he spoke, he took Li Nuan's hand and gently stroked it. His hand was withered and thin, cold, and the thick calluses made Li Nuan feel a little pain.

At this moment, Li Nuan was immersed in the information she had gathered from those people's words, her face filled with disbelief. How could this be? Wasn't she dead? How could these people dressed in retro attire claim to be her family?

Could it be...?

Li Nuan suddenly sat up and carefully surveyed her surroundings. The room before her was so simple it could hardly be called a bedroom. Beneath her lay only a wooden plank frame. In the corner, besides a blackened wooden box, there was only a makeshift bamboo basin stand. Thankfully, she was covered with a genuine cotton quilt.

The door, already somewhat crooked, was also bound together with bamboo strips. The only window was now covered by a rough straw curtain. Apart from that, there was nothing else in the room, not even the most common and heavy linen curtain.

Looking at the people in front of her, she saw they were all dressed in coarse, gray linen clothes, patched and tattered. Li Nuan suddenly felt an intense headache; she was about to collapse.

Upon seeing this, the woman who called herself "Mother" quickly reached out to support her. The older boy also anxiously asked Li Nuan what she was looking for. Seeing the tense and puzzled expressions on everyone's faces, Li Nuan sighed inwardly and lay back down.

It wasn't that she didn't want to sit, but she was feeling dizzy, lightheaded, and a little short of breath. Also, she must have transmigrated, or perhaps been reincarnated into another body. It was all too unbelievable; she needed time to process this fact.

The three men were puzzled to see Li Nuan lying there with her eyes closed, not uttering a sound. The boy said to the other two, "Father, Mother, don't worry. I'll go and fetch a doctor when it's light."

After they finished speaking, the room fell silent again. A moment later, another young man brought in porridge and medicine. Li Nuan let the woman feed her the medicine and porridge. Afterwards, the group dispersed, and the woman lay down beside Li Nuan.

Although Li Nuan kept her eyes closed, she couldn't fall asleep again. She lay quietly, trying to calm herself down from the shock of her rebirth.

She still remembers her past life: after graduating from university, she worked desperately for four years. Just when she was about to be promoted, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

Afterwards, her family spent all their savings to give her a healthy hematopoietic stem cell transplant, which saved her life. However, she was unable to return to work. Due to an infection following the surgery, she developed sepsis.

The family had already exhausted all their savings to treat her leukemia. Later, they even took on debt to treat her sepsis. This illness not only bankrupted their once well-off family, but also left Li Nuan a 30-year-old spinster, and her two younger brothers faced numerous obstacles in their marriages.

Originally, her sepsis treatment was in its final stages, and she was expected to return to society soon. However, that clueless new nurse mistakenly injected her with adrenaline, causing her to suffocate and die.

As for how the original owner died, Li Nuan didn't know. And unlike in the novels, she didn't inherit the original owner's memories upon waking. Therefore, she dared not utter a sound, fearing she would give herself away. If things went wrong, she could be burned to death, which would be disastrous.

Li Nuan thought, since she had transmigrated and been reborn, she should live a good life. In her previous life, she hadn't treated her family well. In this life, she should take care of her loved ones in place of the original owner. With that thought, Li Nuan drifted off to sleep again.

She slept for two days in a daze. In her dreams, the life of another girl was clearly imprinted in Li Nuan's mind. Before waking up, the girl begged Li Nuan to live well in her place, take care of her family, and not tell them the truth.

When Li Nuan woke up, her whole body ached as if she had climbed countless mountains, and she was utterly exhausted. The woman who had been keeping watch over her was probably truly frightened by Li Nuan's antics. She held her and cried, "You heartless girl, how could you sleep for so long? Your parents and brothers were so worried. Your father is still in bed and can't get up."

Li Nuan felt a lump in her throat. Having regained the memories of the original owner of the body, she now understood how difficult life had been for this family. This reminded her of her family in her previous life, who had also endured hardship. Now that she was dead, perhaps their burden would be lighter.

In her past life, when she was still working, she bought an insurance policy for herself and her entire family. The policy stated that if the insured died due to an accident or serious illness, the insurance company would pay the beneficiary a large sum of money. Back then, she gritted her teeth and invested two years' worth of company dividends into it.

Furthermore, the hospital will provide compensation. With that compensation, the family can pay off their debts. The remaining money will be enough for them to live comfortably for the next twenty years. Thinking of this, Li Nuan's gloomy mood eased somewhat. Yes, her two younger brothers are both so capable. With that money, how could they not live well?

Now that she's been reborn, she might as well live a more fulfilling life. She'll repay the regrets of her past life to her family in this one. From now on, Li Nuan will be Li Xiaonuan, a "late-blooming" girl who has already stepped into the nineteenth year of her life.

Of course, that's how we talk about it now. In the terms of the previous life, this age would be considered just entering university. It's the prime of youth, the very edge of being considered old.

Li Nuan, no, she's now called Li Xiaonuan.

It took Li Xiaonuan nearly ten days to fully recover. During those ten days, she also figured out the dynasty she had traveled to. It was a very magical dynasty, quite different from the historical development of China.

Before the Song Dynasty, all of history followed the same trajectory. After the death of Prince Wei, Zhao Bing, the Yuan army failed to enter the pass. Instead, a distant relative of the royal family named Zhao Wugong led a group to drive them back to the grasslands.

Zhao Wugong ascended the throne, changing the country's name to Qisong and calling himself King Yi. He retained some of the old systems of the previous dynasty and promulgated a series of new reforms. Although almost all the former officials opposed the new reforms, all their protests were futile in the face of Zhao Wugong, who seemed to have descended from the heavens like a divine general.

Afterwards, Zhao Wugong further demonstrated his leadership skills to the fullest. In less than five years since ascending the throne, he managed to bring order to a country riddled with problems. Although the economy was still some distance from the prosperity of the previous dynasty, it was already a level that no previous monarch could match.

King Yi was wise, decisive, and farsighted. He enjoyed studying divination and the I Ching, but these were not his forte. His true expertise lay in mechanical arts and agriculture. During his reign, King Yi vigorously promoted agriculture and ordered the construction of ships to sail the seas in search of high-yield crops.

Unfortunately, fate was cruel; King Yi died before the ships were completed. His short sixteen-year reign as emperor was a legendary one. Those three ships still stand in the shipyard to this day. Because King Yi never had time to draw up nautical charts, his descendants dare not venture out to sea.

The year Li Nuan transmigrated to was the 131st year of the Qi Song Dynasty. The fifth emperor of Qi Song, the Eagle King, now ruled this land. The Eagle King, just as his title suggested, belonged to the vast sky.

Following the dying instructions of his father, Emperor Taizu, he began his campaign to conquer the Mongol Empire. It took him ten years to conquer the former territories of Western Xia, Dali, and the Jin Dynasty. Now, the two countries have signed a fifty-year ceasefire agreement. Without war, the Eagle King is restless again.

He turned his attention to the three large ships and ordered a nationwide announcement. Anyone who could provide nautical charts, regardless of size or distance, would be richly rewarded. Six months have passed since the announcement was posted. Aside from some useful route maps provided by fishermen who had strayed into deep waters, there have been no other results.

For Li Nuan, this was a perk of being a time traveler. Needless to say, the founding emperor was probably a time traveler like her. Thanks to her work in her previous life, she could replicate an entire globe. She could draw a complete nautical chart in a matter of minutes, with all the markings clearly visible.