Title: Transmigrated as the Foolish Maid: My System Feeds the Empire
Chapter 1: Blood in the Dust
Pain. Blinding, white-hot pain laced with the sickening crack of leather biting into human flesh.
"Stupid, useless wretch! You dropped the bun! You dropped the only food we have left into the donkey dung!"
Smack!
I gasped, my eyes flying open as another strike tore across my back. My vision was blurred, the taste of metallic blood and dry, choking dust filling my mouth. I tried to push myself up, but my hands were bound by heavy, rust-flaked iron chains.
"Mother, just beat the fool to death," a sharp, whining voice sneered above me. "She’s been drooling and babbling since we left the capital. She’s wasting our air. And look at her now! She ruined the last steamed bun!"
My memories collided with a brutal, alien force. I was Lin Xi, a top-tier supernatural bounty hunter and survivalist in the 21st century. I had died in an explosion taking down a rogue syndicate. But now?
Now, I was Ah-Zhu. A fifteen-year-old maidservant. A cannon-fodder character whose only defining traits were being born a complete imbecile, and being fiercely loyal to the Ye Family’s disgraced eldest legitimate son.
We were currently part of a massive exile march. The Ye family, once the highest nobility in the capital, had been framed for treason. Stripped of everything, we were being marched three thousand miles to the brutal Northern Wastelands. Worse, a catastrophic, three-year famine had ravaged the empire. The earth was cracked like broken porcelain. There was no water. There was no food. People were trading children for a handful of grain.
And this body’s original owner had just been beaten to death for dropping a rock-hard, moldy bun.
I coughed, spitting a glob of blood onto the cracked earth, and slowly raised my head.
Standing over me was Madam Ye, the vicious stepmother of my master. She held a blood-stained riding crop, her aristocratic face twisted into an ugly, starving sneer. Beside her stood her pampered daughter, Ye Wan, who was chewing on a piece of dried tree bark but still acting as if she were a princess.
"Ah-Zhu..." A weak, trembling voice came from behind me.
I turned my head. Sprawled in the dirt, his legs crushed and twisted from the torture he endured in the imperial prison, was Young Master Ye Chen. He was only eighteen, possessing a face so ethereally handsome it looked carved from cold jade, but right now, he was deathly pale, covered in filth.
He dragged himself forward by his bleeding fingernails, throwing his frail body over mine to shield me from the whip.
"Stop..." Ye Chen coughed, blood staining his cracked lips. "She is a fool. She doesn't know any better. Madam... I will give you my jade thumb ring. Just... spare her."
Madam Ye’s eyes lit up with insatiable greed. She snatched the emerald ring from Ye Chen’s trembling hand, inspecting it.
"Hmph. A broken cripple protecting a drooling idiot," Guard Captain Zhao scoffed as he swaggered over. He was the imperial escort tasked with torturing us on the road. He kicked Ye Chen squarely in the ribs, sending the sickly young master rolling into the dirt with a pained groan. "Listen up, you exiled trash! We are entering the Dead Valley. There is no water for another fifty miles. From now on, anyone who slows us down gets left behind to feed the wild dogs. Especially this drooling bitch!"
A murderous rage ignited in my chest.
In my past life, no one dared to even look at me the wrong way. Now, I was being whipped by an old hag and a lowly guard captain? I watched them laugh, kicking my only protector in the dirt while they pocketed his last treasure.
Fools, I thought, my eyes turning dead and cold. You're all going to die screaming.
Suddenly, a crisp, mechanical voice echoed in my skull.
[DING! Host consciousness stabilized. The Supernatural Famine System is now binding...] [Binding Complete!] [Welcome, Lin Xi. In this world of starvation, you are the sole master of resources. Earn 'Shock Points' by stunning, humiliating, and face-slapping your enemies to unlock infinite food, water, and supernatural abilities!] [Initiating Novice Gift Pack...] [Reward 1: Spatial Inventory (100 cubic meters).] [Reward 2: Supernatural Power Awakened: Wood & Water Elemental Mastery (Level 1).] [Reward 3: Famine Starter Feast: Two liters of ice-cold, pure mountain spring water, and one sizzling, freshly roasted Peking Duck!]
I paused, the throbbing pain in my back vanishing as a surge of warm, mystical energy—Qi—flooded my meridians. I could feel the microscopic drops of moisture buried deep within the barren earth. I could feel the dormant seeds beneath the dust.
More importantly, I could smell the intoxicating, savory aroma of roasted duck hovering in my spatial inventory.
I slowly stood up, the heavy iron chains clinking around my wrists. I didn't stagger. I didn't drool.
Madam Ye raised her whip again. "Did I tell you to stand up, you brainless animal? Get back on your knees!"
I tilted my head, locking eyes with her. The absolute freezing void in my gaze made her freeze mid-swing.
"If you swing that whip at me one more time," I said, my voice smooth, quiet, and utterly terrifying, "I will rip your arm off and feed it to you."
The entire camp went dead silent.
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