"Ugh ugh ugh" Yunna lay beside a pool of water, coughing hard.
When she finally understood what was going on, her head hurt so much that she almost fainted.
Then she sadly realized that she had traveled to another world.
The original person in this body had just fallen off a cliff. Could it have been related to the shaking on the plane earlier? Did her plane crash too?
She didn't want to time-travel. She had worked so hard to reach her fourth year in university. She was about to graduate with a degree from a top school. She had already passed an interview, and the company was ready to hire her.
If she had arrived in a rich and loving family, it wouldn't be so bad. But the original person in this body had lived a terrible life.
She had already been kicked out of her home. She had nowhere to go and no money at all.
Wasn't time-travel supposed to come with a special gift? Like a system? Or maybe a magical space?
System system system. Yunna called out several times, but no one answered.
Then she looked at the body to see if there was any special item. A jade pendant? A personal piece of jewelry? Anything magical?
The only thing she found was a small earring on her right ear. She took it off, bit her finger, and let a drop of blood fall onto it. Nothing happened. Time didn't stop. No light, no sound, no magic.
She even checked the mole on the arm of the original body. After all that effort, she was tired and leaned against a stone, breathing hard and staring at the sunlight behind the trees with a hopeless expression.
She started to wonder if she should jump into the pool. Maybe that would send her back. Her life in the modern world wasn't perfect, but she had worked hard. She got into university on her own. For four years, she didn't take a single cent from her adoptive parents. She was almost done with school. She had a job waiting.
She just wanted to work for two more years and return the money her adoptive parents had spent on raising her.
She shouldn't have answered their call and gone back home. For the first time, Yunna truly felt regret.
She closed her eyes and tried to rest. She couldn't swim. When she was young, she fell into water once. Since then, she had always been scared of it. Even if she wanted to jump, she wouldn't have the courage.
Her head was full of the original person's memories. When she opened her eyes again, she took a deep breath.
The only good news was that this world didn't treat women badly. In fact, women were very rare and very important. Unless a woman committed a serious crime like betraying the country, the punishment for other mistakes was usually just a fine. Even worse cases were just sending them to give birth to one or two children and then letting them go.
The country she was in was called Fengluan. The ruler was a woman.
Long ago, this land was ruled by men. But the emperor back then was selfish, greedy, and cruel to women. He ruined the government. A strong royal princess took control, defeated him, and became the new ruler. Since then, women had ruled the country. The country was renamed Fengluan.
Over hundreds of years, women became fewer and fewer. Their position became more powerful. Now women could even work in the government. But most women didn't choose to do that.
They preferred to stay in their homes and be cared for by good-looking men. They lived easy lives, with no need to work. They could even marry several handsome husbands. When Yunna found out about this, she paused.
That kind of life didn't sound bad at all.
A life surrounded by beautiful men. She started to think maybe staying here wouldn't be so bad.
The most shocking thing to her was that in this world, women could get pregnant just by taking a fertility fruit before having sex. It was a common blue fruit found everywhere. Women would give birth after just over five months, and the entire process was completely painless. Even better, after giving birth, all the toxins in a woman's body would be cleansed, making her healthier.
However, a woman would usually give birth to several boys before she had a chance to have a girl. Some women never gave birth to a girl in their entire lives.
Yunna shook her head and thought to herself, isn't this just turning women into baby-making tools? Just without the pain.
Still, since she ended up in this world, she figured she might as well try to survive first and worry about everything else later.
After roughly understanding the basics of this world, Yunna sighed, stood up, and prepared to find a way out. The original owner of this body didn't know this forest at all, so she had no choice but to leave everything to fate.
Just like that, Yunna wandered through the forest for a whole day. Her feet were covered in blisters and bleeding. She looked completely miserable.
When she got hungry, she searched for wild vegetables she could recognize and ate them raw. It felt like she was chewing on grass.
This whole time-travel experience was just too miserable. It would've been better if the original owner had been rescued first, then she came over afterward.
At the foot of the mountain.
A few men and women were scattered on horseback, looking like they were out hunting.
In a corner of the forest, a woman sat on a horse. Beside her was an extremely handsome man.
"Xael, did any of the girls today catch your eye?" the woman asked.
"Do Second Sister and the others know I was rejected from a marriage?" Xael asked in a low voice.
"Xael, the Yang City is over two hundred li from Fengdu. Besides, this is just a small county under Yang City. No one will know. And the magistrate of Yi County is our aunt. No one dares to bully you."
"If you don't get married soon, Father is going to marry you off to his niece. Nyla ruined your reputation and caused the Xie family to cancel the engagement. If I hadn't told Mother to bring you to Yi County right away to avoid the gossip, you might already be married to Nyla by now."
"Nyla is not a good match. She brings different men into her household all the time. I don't have the power to get you someone influential, but I can find you a decent wife," the woman said with sadness in her voice.
"You've already done a lot for me. You can decide who I marry," Xael replied, sounding downcast.
In this world, women were rare and precious. It was nearly impossible for a man to marry someone he truly liked. Being far away from the capital was already a blessing.
"Alright, I'll talk to Aunt and arrange your marriage," the woman said, smiling the moment her brother agreed.
She had worried that Xael still had feelings for the Xie family's woman. That woman really wasn't bad. But when they heard about Xael's situation, they didn't even ask questions. They just sent someone to cancel the engagement. That still made her feel upset. Her brother had been fully devoted to that woman.
These past few days, ever since he found out about the broken engagement, Xael had been downcast and gloomy. After losing their father, she couldn't bear to lose her brother too. That's why, the moment she found out, she did what she thought was the best thing to protect him.