Chapter 1: The Ugly Ger’s Farming Story

PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU PROCEED!

Thingyan (translator): This is the first ever novel I translate, so I had many troubles with translating. I really did tried my best while juggling between full time school and translating. I hope you can tolerate my inexperience because there will be some errors. I have plans to come back and redo the chapters eventually. Thank you for your patience and understanding 🥲

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Xu Qing looked at the shimmering water in front of him, lost in thought. The reflection on the surface showed a thin and innocent face with a red mole between the eyebrows, which was the symbol of a ger in this world. Upon closer inspection, one could also see many small red bumps, commonly known as acne, covering the pale face.

Yes, Xu Qing was no longer the original Xu Qing who belonged to this body, but a person with the same name from the end of the apocalyptic world. He had been in this world for exactly five days, and during this time, he had felt both joyful and fearful. He was happy to have been reborn and to have a second chance at life, but he was afraid that the original owner of this body would come back and leave him with nowhere to go. However, after all this time had passed, the situation that Xu Qing had feared had not occurred, and he felt foolishly happy. It seemed that he really had a new lease on life.

In his previous life, Xu Qing was an orphan. He had just graduated and was ready to find a job and work hard to give back to the orphanage he grew up in when the end of the world broke out suddenly, and zombies roamed the land. By the time he returned to the orphanage after much struggles, he could not find anyone he knew there alive. In order to find his former companions in the orphanage and also to survive, Xu Qing joined a team. During an accident, he awakened a spatial ability and won a certain degree of status within the team. Since then he was no longer useless. Unexpectedly, during a search for supplies, Xu Qing and his teammates got separated and lost their way. It was when Xu Qing was killed by zombies.

Fortunately, the Xu Qing in this world was also an orphan. His parents had passed away a few years ago, and he had no other relatives, so Xu Qing did not have to worry about being discovered.

As he looked at the red bumps on the face reflected in the water, he felt a pang of pain. Due to his acne, this body was known as the ugliest ger in the village, and everyone called him “Ugly Ger!” As a result, when his parents built their house, they chose a location at the foot of the mountain, a ten-minute walk from the village, where there were no other families around. In the original owner’s scant memories, aside from some memories of his parents, everything about the villagers was fuzzy and Xu Qing knew almost nothing about the outside world. Because of his ugliness, the original owner felt so inferior that he had no friends and never hanged around in the village or went to the market. His life could be described as extremely closed off!

“It’s really pitiful.” Xu Qing touched the red bumps on his face. Such small things tortured the original owner’s life just like that, but he felt lucky to have taken over this body. Apart from being slightly weaker than a man and being able to give birth, there was no difference between gers and men in this world without women.

“Although I am gay, I really can’t accept things like giving birth!” Xu Qing stood up, patted his patched clothes, and walked towards the courtyard house not far from the foot of the mountain above the river bend. Looking at the lush green scenery and the smoke rising from the village in the distance, Xu Qing, who had experienced the end of the world, realized how long it had been since he had felt such happiness and comfort.

He turned around and looked at the four-room courtyard house in front of him. The thatch was made of grass, and the walls were made of mud. A stone and mud fence surrounded the yard, which was about an adult’s height. Because their house was relatively close to the mountain, father Xu spent a lot of money building the wall this tall to prevent their livestock from being eaten by wild animals and to keep their home safe.

Xu Qing opened the courtyard door and closed it behind him. It was his habit to be cautious. The courtyard was spacious, with large spaces in front and back of the house. The area from the courtyard gate to the hall was paved with stones that father Xu had picked up from the riverbank in front of their house. This not only prevented slipping after rain but also looked beautiful. It was mother Xu’s request. It seemed that Xu Qing’s parents were affectionate.

On the left side of the courtyard, there was a well, and the first room nearby was the kitchen. There was a small room for miscellaneous items next to the kitchen, between the hall and the room. There was a door from the kitchen leading to this small room. The middle was the hall, and there was a door on the right side of the hall leading to two bedrooms. Xu Qing lived in the inside room, and the outside room was where father and mother Xu lived before they passed away. The thatched house was on the far right of the courtyard, a few steps away from the main house. The firewood was stored under the eaves behind the house.

People from the modern world would definitely think the house is short, ugly, and poor, but in this village, most families live in thatched houses. Only the village head and a few well-off families live in tile-roofed houses. Father Xu was a hunter with owned three mu of paddy fields and four mu of vegetable fields. He usually sold some game meat and occasionally had meat at home. Compared with many families in the village, their family was better off. Some families couldn’t even afford to eat meat a few times a year! However, a few years ago, mother Xu suddenly fell ill and passed away before he could be treated. Not long after, father Xu died of grief, leaving only Xu Qing, who was only fifteen at the time. Now, he was already twenty years old, which was considered old in this era.

Xu Qing didn’t know how he ended up here after his death. After five days of fear and anxiety, he finally relaxed and thought to himself, “No matter what, it’s good to be alive!”

“As the ancients said, having a mountain behind and facing water in front is definitely a great place for feng shui. Not bad, not bad.” Xu Qing drew a bucket of water from the well and walked lightheartedly towards the kitchen. He rolled up his sleeves and cleaned a pot. After five days, he had become familiar with these ancient kitchenwares. Although there was no electricity or lighter, as long as he was alive and had such fresh air to breathe, he was already satisfied.

After cleaning the pot, adding water, and covering it with a wooden lid, Xu Qing scooped a bowl of corn from the store room and washed it clean. This corn was left by the original body, and he couldn’t waste it. These days, he had been eating what the original body left behind. Although it was very different from modern rice, he couldn’t waste anything that could fill his stomach. During the apocalypse, some people ate anything they could find.

Xu Qing walked to the stove and rubbed the flintstone a few times. When there was a spark, he put it into the tinder in the stove, and soon the fire ignited. After adding a few pieces of dry firewood, Xu Qing took a sickle and went to a small plot of land behind the house to find some greens, a few garlic sprouts, and a few pieces of tender ginger, which he washed at the well.

The currency used in this world is also gold, silver, and copper, just like ancient China. The exchange rate is 1:10:1000, and one wen is equal to one yuan.

“After deducting the taxes and spending five taels on purchasing seeds, the original owner’s parents left behind thirty taels. Now there are twenty-five taels left, which is enough for a family of three with some extra for expenses. Although it may seem like a lot to others, it’s still a bit too little! Fortunately, the original owner didn’t like going out, otherwise there wouldn’t be anything left from these twenty-five taels.”

After washing the vegetables, he went back to the kitchen and put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Once it was boiling, he poured in some corn and covered the pot. Then, he opened the cabinet next to the stove and took out some frozen pork belly that he had retrieved from his portable space earlier in the morning. It was frozen solid, so he rinsed it off with water and set it aside. After separating the vegetable leaves and chopping the garlic and ginger, Xu Qing sat down by the stove and added some firewood, waiting for the corn to cook.

After some thought, he decided to go into his portable space. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing appeared in a place with blue skies and white clouds. His space had reached level four during the apocalypse and had five acres of land. It could hold living creatures and preserve food freshness. In the center of the land was a spiritual spring. Although it couldn’t revive the dead but it could strengthen the body. Nothing was planted on the five acres in his space, only the supplies, that he had collected with the team, scattered around here and there. There were five hundred bags of rice, around two hundred pounds of frozen pork, and nothing else.

Because a new female spatial ability user had joined the team, the captain had requested that most of the supplies in his space to be given to her. Xu Qing was left with only the rice and pork, but as they say, something is better than nothing.

Xu Qing first walked up to a black box and placed his 25 liang of silver inside since it wasn’t safe to leave it at home or on his body. Then he turned and left the space. The corn was done when he came out. He scooped some rice into a wooden bowl and cleaned the pot. After cutting the pork belly into thin slices on the cutting board, he added the fatty slices to the pot and waited for the meat to release its oil and turn golden. Then Xu Qing added the garlic and ginger and finally the remaining meat. He used a wooden spoon to stir the nearly cooked meat and added salt to taste. He scooped it into a bowl and added some water to the pot, waiting for it to boil before adding the washed vegetables. After cooking the vegetables, He scooped them out.

“Time to eat!” Looking at the white rice, vegetable soup, and garlic and pork belly on the wooden table, Xu Qing felt a sense of accomplishment. He loved cooking and eating, especially when it was something he made himself. If the people in the village saw it, they would surely say, “How could it not be delicious? You added so much oil and meat. You’re such a spendthrift!”

After finishing lunch and cleaning up the kitchen, Xu Qing took a hoe from the storage room and went to the front of the house. He planned to make two vegetable patches since it was a waste not to plant anything in such a large space. “I’ll start by digging up the soil. There are still some seeds left over from when the original body bought some last time. It’s almost spring, so it’s the perfect time to plant vegetables. I’ll have to go to the market tomorrow to buy some spices, more seeds, and maybe some piglets and chickens.”

During the apocalypse, people living in the established bases also had to farm and raise livestock to support themselves, so it was not unfamiliar to Xu Qing. Thinking about how everything he was planting and raising was his, Xu Qing was full of energy.

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Thingyan: I’m translating this as I read so, I don’t know if the novel is good or not. Until up to where I’ve read so far, a few chapters in, it seems like a slice of life and chill novel without much angst. We’ll see 😀