"Where am I?!"
Fengye suddenly exclaimed when he woke up.
His bed was a slightly raised wooden platform with but barely an extremely thin sheet of cloth.
The room was extremely small, barely fitting one more small table. Books were piled on the bed and scrolls were hanging on the walls, as if put on display.
Looking at them, Fengye saw a completely different script!
It was a bit closer to ancient lettering, but even that wasn't the case.
Rather, it felt like a refined and beautifully elegant version of the ancient script.
Just as he tried to read it, suddenly, a burst of memories fell upon his head!
"Wha-" his head swayed, falling back to the hard wooden bed.
"Ah-" he tried to touch his head, seeing if there was any hole, wound, or maybe a wooden splinter…
He didn't trust the wood making at all!
"Wait, stop, don't get confused. I am… Fengye, Zhen Fengye of the Zhen family, a small official family with a ninth-rank official as the family head. But my father died a few weeks ago of old age and we just got our condolence pay.
But at the same time I'm…'
'I was Fengye and I just fell asleep when suddenly a lightning pierced my window and killed me on the spot?!'
He asked in shock, not daring to say it aloud.
But just as he was in shock, he heard the door open, "Come on lucky child, today is your wedding day, why are you still in your bed?"
"Hah?!?!" Fengye looked in shock, his eyes wide, "What wedding day? I- I'm young."
That was everything he could say.
The woman in front of him frowned "Fengye, didn't we agree to this already?
Stand up and wash your face before you come to the kitchen! I already prepared breakfast.
You will have to put on the red gown sent by the marquis estate today and then ride the horse to their door. If you don't hurry up, you will be late. If that happens, who can make sure they won't ask back for their betrothal gift?"
She didn't wait for him to speak anymore and pulled him by the arm, forcing him to stand up.
Shocked, Fengye was just about to pull his blanket over his body when he realised…
Why did he wear so many clothes when sleeping?
Just then he remembered, right… this was the ancient times, or at least a world in the ancient times, right?
Although he occasionally slept in with clothes, that was only a nap.
When he went to sleep, who put on more than boxer shorts, maybe adding a T-shirt?
But here, people wore full garments…
"Are you going to make me carry you all the way or what? You're already an eighteen year old young man, stand up on your own!" the older woman in front of him told him, nearly hitting him.
"Yes yes," he replied, standing up and about to follow her out.
When she saw this, she looked back at him with a frown "Put on something, are you an animal?"
Fengye looked at himself. This was what he would wear going to the office when it was empty, and now… he couldn't even go to eat with his family wearing this?
The woman finally disappeared and Fengye walked forward, closing the door.
He stood in front of his shelf above his bed. His clothes were stacked here, not many of them around. From what he could see, they were just three pairs, all already old, one seemingly about to become cleaning cloth.
Fengye reached out to the shelf, about to take on a set, when suddenly, he saw a box at the top. He took it down and opened it –
A pure red Confucian marriage robe, made for groomsmen to wear. Not only was the robe inside, there were various layers, containing everything from the robe to the underwear and even shoes and a hair crown.
"This, is it really about marriage?" Fengye asked, remembering the memories he just got.
He hit his head and was then rushed, with no time to concentrate at all.
Just as he thought, he was transmigrated to this world. Somehow, the person he transmigrated into was also called Fengye.
Moreover, this Fengye… he died of a bad fever the previous night, allowing the new Fengye to take over.
His fever stemmed from depression of his situation, grief over his father's death and nervousness because…
The week before, his mother had heard from someone that the marquis estate was looking to marry a son-in-law.
Many people had applied but the marquisate rejected them, specifically saying that it was a pure matriarchal marriage with no chance of any inheritance from the son-in-law. In addition, the man still had to be educated and at least an Apprentice –
"Apprentice, apprentice…
In this world, there are two paths: the Creative Arts and Martial Arts.
From the creative arts stem professions such as craftsmen, painters, poets, and at the peak of the creative arts are scholars and officials!
Martial arts focused on strength and had fewer professions, but many more people practiced this path. Either to improve their health or enhance their strength for menial jobs.
But the number of people truly becoming martial artists was lower than that of craftsmen.
"Maybe the saying is right… poor children become scholars while noble children train martial arts." Fengye suddenly said.
A feeling of relief suddenly washed over him.
In the future, saying such a quote would be useless and you might even be laughed at for being so old-dated.
But here, such a quote should be quite common and used well. At least if you said it, no one would laugh at you…
Looking at the red robe in front of him, a thought spread in his mind "This… marriage was exactly what I wanted, my wish… does it have anything to do with this?"
While asking this question, he already knew there was no answer to it.
He could neither deny nor agree to it.
In the end, he could only glance at the robe one more time before putting everything back into the box.
Struggling on one set of clothes, he had to follow his memories until he finally managed to do it.
He walked to the door with extremely slow steps, only opening it after a minute of standing in front of it.
With a deep breath and a sigh, he opened the door.
It felt like opening the door to a new life.
Deep in his heart, he knew that from now on… a new life had already started for him.
While the previous Fengye in this room died from nervousness, he, on the other hand, felt excitement about the future that was about to arrive.