After a male student transmigrated into the body of a widow,

Zheng Hao, dressed in rough linen clothes, made no attempt to hide his disgust at Gu Lin after the village chief and the others left.

No matter how well the book describes how clever and witty the male protagonist was in his youth, it can't compare to seeing it with one's own eyes. Gu Lin was shocked by how quickly the other person changed their expression.

However, the two couldn't just stare at each other in silence. As an adult, Gu Lin felt he should speak first: "Have you eaten?"

It was nearly noon, lunchtime, and Gu Lin felt that food was the most important thing for people, so asking this question was the most appropriate thing to do.

But as soon as he finished speaking, he saw that Zheng Hao's disgust for him had increased even more, and his eyes were filled with daggers as he looked at him.

Gu Lin stiffened, only then remembering that the original owner had been skimping on the male lead's food after his father fell seriously ill, never letting him eat his fill.

Seeing the other person's expression, as if they wanted to pounce on him and tear him apart, Gu Lin quickly said, "You just got back, so you probably haven't eaten yet. I'll go cook now, and we can eat in a little while."

Zheng Hao glanced at Gu Lin with a hint of sarcasm, then ignored him and went straight back to his room.

Seeing this, Gu Lin felt somewhat annoyed. He had really brought up the wrong thing, offending the male lead right at their first meeting.

A sudden rumble from his stomach interrupted Gu Lin's frustration. He hadn't eaten or drunk anything since he transmigrated last night, and he was starving. His stomach was also aching slightly. Gu Lin put aside his regret for the moment and decided to find something to eat to fill his stomach.

Arriving at the Zheng family's woodshed, Gu Lin first went to the stove and then to the wooden cabinet, but after searching both places, he found that there was no other food besides sauces.

Gu Lin paused for a moment, then turned his head to look around before finally walking towards a corner.

In the corner was a large vat. Gu Lin stood in front of the vat, picked up the wooden board covering the vat, and saw a cloth bag inside.

He picked up the cloth bag and opened it, revealing it filled with golden millet. Gu Lin turned his gaze and peered into the vat to see if there was anything else, but although the vat looked deep, it only contained the bag of millet in Gu Lin's hand.

Gu Lin then looked away, picked up the millet, and walked to the stove.

But the boy stood on the stove for a long time without moving. Gu Lin looked at the millet in his hand with a deep expression. Although he knew how to cook, he had always grown up in the south in modern times and mostly ate rice and noodles. He had never eaten millet before, let alone cooked it.

But right now there's only one bag of millet; if we don't eat it, we'll go hungry.

Gu Lin certainly wouldn't let himself go hungry. Based on his previous experience of cooking porridge, he first washed the millet and then soaked it in a wooden basin filled with water. Once it was almost soaked, he poured the millet into a pot, added water, and cooked it.

During this time, Gu Lin encountered some minor troubles. Unlike modern gas stoves, which produce fire with a simple twist, ancient stoves required Gu Lin to light a fire to use them. Fortunately, he had lived in the countryside for a period of time in modern times and had used a large stove. Although the stove in front of him was somewhat different from modern ones, Gu Lin quickly figured it out. He found a tinderbox in the wooden cabinet and lit the dry grass in his hands.

Once the dry grass caught fire, Gu Lin threw it into the stove opening, and the fire quickly ignited.

Perhaps Gu Lin had the foresight to soak the millet until it was soft, or perhaps the fire at the stove was burning brightly, because soon the aroma of rice filled the pot.

Gu Lin smelled the sweet aroma and felt even hungrier. He opened the pot lid, and the millet porridge was bubbling and boiling.

Gu Lin took a bowl out of the cabinet, and then, for some reason, took out another one.

He was a bit of a germaphobe and couldn't eat directly from these bowls, so Gu Lin ladled out some rice water to scald the bowls before putting the porridge into them.

Looking at the golden, thick millet porridge, Gu Lin's hungry stomach seemed to be on fire. He couldn't resist any longer and didn't even wait for the porridge to cool down before picking up the bowl and eating it.

Instantly, the unique aroma and sweetness of millet filled Gu Lin's mouth, soothing his acid-filled stomach. After finishing a bowl of porridge, Gu Lin licked his lips, still not satisfied, and then ladled out another bowl. Only after finishing two bowls of thick porridge did Gu Lin feel full.

There was still some porridge left in the pot, so Gu Lin decided to save it for dinner. He covered the pot with the lid and left.

In the evening, Gu Lin went to the woodshed to ladle out some porridge and found that there was less porridge in the pot, but he seemed not to notice anything. After finishing the porridge, he returned to his room.

He didn't notice that the wooden door of the house behind him was ajar, and it wasn't until long after he went back inside that the door closed.

Back in the house, Gu Lin lay on the wooden bed for a long time without closing his eyes. He had accepted the fact that he had transmigrated into the book, but he still needed to figure out how to survive in this world.

He had considered leaving during the day, but after learning about the background of this world, Gu Lin no longer had that idea.

The original book was told from the male protagonist's perspective, so Gu Lin didn't know the status of the "ge'er" (a male servant in the novel) in this world when he was reading it. However, after digesting the original owner's memories for a day and a night, Gu Lin learned that the status of the "ge'er" in this world was extremely low, far inferior to that of men and women.

This world, like ancient China, is male-dominated, but unlike ancient China, women enjoy a much higher status. Women in this world have many rights protected by law; in fact, women who do not wish to marry can establish their own households and live independently. However, men are not protected by these laws. Although they also bear the responsibility of continuing the family line, their male-like physical structure makes them unattractive to men, and their fertility is lower than women's. Therefore, their status has always been low, and they can only exist as appendages of men.

So in other words, if Gu Lin has no way to change this situation, then he can forget about gaining freedom, and he will definitely remain an appendage of some man.

Gu Lin was completely numb to this, but he did not lose his fighting spirit because of this blow.

Although he hasn't graduated from university yet in modern times, he has lost both parents and has already experienced many hardships from society. Without the support of his parents and relatives, he is destined to have a much harder time than others. Starting from junior high school, while his peers travel and play during winter and summer vacations or stay at home and laze around, Gu Lin is working hard to save up for his high school and university tuition.

His start was unfortunate, but he never thought of giving up and kept striving to live and move forward.

Because of this bittersweet experience, Gu Lin developed a strong mind early on. Even when faced with thorny difficulties, he can quickly adjust his state and calmly face them.

The next day.

Gu Lin woke up upon hearing the rooster crow.

Since there was no toothpaste in ancient times, he followed local customs and used willow twigs to clean his mouth. After washing up, Gu Lin went to the woodshed to start cooking porridge.

He looked at the dwindling millet in the cloth bag, a hint of worry flashing in his eyes. If this continued, his family would eventually run out of food.

He needs to find a way to make money quickly.

But how to make money in ancient times? For a moment, Gu Lin really had no idea.

If he were dressed as a man, he could try taking the imperial examinations. Even if he didn't become an official, having a degree would allow him to live a more comfortable life than ordinary people. But he was a young man, so he couldn't even be considered a person, let alone an official.

"Become a farmer?" Gu Lin shook his head. Although farmers ranked second in the social hierarchy of "scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants," seemingly a high status, they were actually the ones who lived the hardest lives. Gu Lin knew his own limitations; with his frail physique, trying to support himself by farming was simply a pipe dream.

Becoming a craftsman? Throughout history, people with skills have always been sought after, but Gu Lin has the desire but not the ability.

Finally, Gu Lin focused his attention on the last digit, "商".

Although merchants are considered of low social status and face significant limitations in terms of food, clothing, shelter, and the future of their descendants, Gu Lin is now so poor that he can barely afford to eat, so he has no time to care about such things.

Gu Lin's thoughts raced, and many ideas arose in his mind.

But there is something more important for him to do right now.

Gu Lin walked to Zheng Hao's door and said, "Has Xiao Hao gotten up? Breakfast is ready, come out and eat."

After saying that, Gu Lin turned and left without waiting for a response from the people inside.

After considering it all night, Gu Lin finally decided to stay in the Zheng family. In fact, he had nowhere else to go besides the Zheng family. The original owner had a maternal family, but it was dispensable. The Zheng family only had Zheng the Hunter and Zheng Hao, and no other relatives. This meant that if Gu Lin stayed in the Zheng family, no elders could control him.

Furthermore, if the future is uncertain, as long as he insists on remaining a widow for Hunter Zheng and refusing to remarry, no man can legally control him.

After making up his mind and deciding to stay with the Zheng family, Gu Lin wanted to get along well with Zheng Hao.

If he wanted to live peacefully in the Zheng family, he couldn't let Zheng Hao continue to dislike him; at the very least, he had to treat him like an ordinary person.

Gu Lin sat at the table, somewhat surprised to see Zheng Hao walk in. He had gone to invite Zheng Hao out for dinner, but he hadn't expected that the other party would actually come.

He simply thought that Rome wasn't built in a day, and he would try to soften the other party's attitude by starting with these small things.

Zheng Hao walked up to Gu Lin, looked at him coldly, and said in a cold voice, "What exactly do you want to do?"

He noticed something was off with Gu Lin starting yesterday. If he hadn't been observing him closely, Zheng Hao wouldn't have noticed anything amiss.

Gu Lin had been looking for an opportunity to be open and honest with the other party. Now that Zheng Hao had taken the initiative to come over, Gu Lin was not afraid and said, "Would you believe me if I said I wanted to stay with you and live a good life?"

Clearly, Zheng Hao didn't believe him, and his wariness even increased after hearing his words.

He had long seen through Gu Lin; he was vain, foolish, and vicious. In the past, Gu Lin had fawned over him in front of his father, but behind his back, Gu Lin cursed him as a bastard. Now, he wondered what kind of tricks Gu Lin was up to.

Gu Lin knew that words alone wouldn't be enough to gain the other person's trust, but for the sake of the future, some things had to be said: "I admit that I wasn't a good... elder before, and I made things difficult for you and mistreated you in every way. But after your father passed away, I thought a lot and realized my mistakes. Now, it's just the two of us in the family. It's hard for me to find someone who treats me better than your father, and I'm afraid of suffering if I remarry, so I don't want to remarry. I just want to raise you well so that I won't feel guilty towards your father after I die. I don't ask for your forgiveness for the many wrong things I did in the past, but you can see that I will keep correcting myself and making amends to you."

Gu Lin's words contained both sincerity and pretense, but his ultimate purpose was for the good of him and Zheng Hao, so Zheng Hao couldn't see through the act for the time being.

Zheng Hao was not moved by Gu Lin's outpouring of affection. His father had been good to Gu Lin, but Gu Lin was cold-hearted. Now, she was saying she would remain a widow for his father, but that was only because she couldn't find a good match. Once she had observed three years of mourning for her father and her reputation had improved, she would have had enough time to find someone else.

Zheng Hao, utterly disgusted by the heartless and ungrateful young man before him, said, "I don't need him."

Gu Lin understood that the other party didn't need anything, but he didn't argue with them any further. He pointed to the woodshed and said, "Go get the porridge first, it won't taste good if it gets cold."

Seeing that Gu Lin ignored his words, Zheng Hao's fierce expression flashed with a hint of annoyance. Gu Lin had no choice but to say, "If you don't believe me, you can keep watching me. You are ten years old now, and in five years you will be fifteen. At that time, you will be able to take charge and make decisions on all matters in the family. If you still think I am the same as before, you can kick me out."

Zheng Hao was a tough nut to crack. After hearing Gu Lin's words, he didn't feel at all that driving away his father's wife and his stepfather was a heinous act. He stared at Gu Lin, his dark eyes like those of a ferocious beast searching for its prey's weakness, waiting for the right moment to pounce. Though he didn't speak, it seemed he had said everything he needed to say.