The ceiling was made of rough-hewn timber, not the sterile white plaster of a modern office. There were no fluorescent lights buzzing overhead, no hum of the air conditioning, and no insistent ping of Outlook notifications demanding immediate attention.
Li Wei stared up at the wooden beams, the early morning light filtering through the intricate lattice of the window, casting strange, geometric shadows across his body. He lay still, his chest rising and falling in a slow, deliberate rhythm. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if this was what heaven looked like. Had his decades of grinding overtime, the sleepless nights, and the eventual heart attack in the elevator finally paid off?
Then, the headache hit him.
It wasn't a normal hangover. It was a splitting sensation, like a chisel being driven into his temple, accompanied by a rush of memories that didn't belong to him. Images flashed before his eyes: a struggling scholar bent over a desk, a dying father holding the hand of a friend, a humiliating wedding ceremony where he was the one bowing low while others sneered.
Li Wei groaned, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes. "Not heaven," he muttered, his voice raspy and thin. "Reincarnation."
He sat up slowly, the thin cotton quilt sliding off his chest. He looked at his hands. They were pale, soft, and uncalloused—hands that had held a brush more often than a plow. They were the hands of Li Wei, the failed scholar, the live-in son-in-law of the Su family.
"You were tired in your last life, and you're tired in this one too," he whispered to himself, a wry smile touching his lips. In his past life, he had been a middle-aged middle manager, a cog in the corporate machine who had dreamed of the American West, of endless skies, horses, and the freedom of the open range. He had collected cowboy boots he never wore and country records he rarely had time to listen to.
And now? Now he was a joke.
"Brother? Are you awake?"
The voice was tentative, laced with a familiar anxiety. The wooden door creaked open, and a young man slipped inside. He was sixteen, skinny, with a smudge of dirt on his cheek and eyes that held the haunted look of someone constantly expecting a scolding.
Li An. His younger brother in this life.
"I'm awake, Li An," Li Wei said, his voice steadying. He swung his legs over the side of the *kang*, the heated brick bed. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Li An glanced nervously over his shoulder before closing the door tightly and rushing to Li Wei's side. "It's the Clan Elders," he whispered, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial hush. "They arrived at dawn. They are in the main hall with Father-in-law right now."
Li Wei paused in the middle of stretching. The name 'Li Wei' might be new, but the instinct to read the room was old. "Clan Elders? We don't usually see them unless there's money involved or someone is in trouble."
"They are talking about you," Li An said, his fists clenching the fabric of his trousers. "I was fetching water and I heard them. Elder Chen... he's loud. He says you are an embarrassment to the Su family name. He says you are a parasite."
Li Wei let out a breath, a short, sharp exhale. "Parasite. That's a strong word for a man who eats rice and keeps his head down."
"They want Father-in-law to annul the marriage," Li An said, the words tumbling out in a rush. "They say Sister Qing has suffered enough being married to a... a useless man who can't pass the imperial exams. They want to send us away."
Li Wei stood up. He walked to the window and peered out through a tear in the paper screen. The courtyard of the Su residence was pristine, swept clean by servants, with a singular, ancient pine tree standing in the corner. It was a world of rigid rules and suffocating etiquette. A world where a man's worth was measured by his rank and his ability to pass tests on poetry and philosophy.
A memory from his past life surfaced—the feeling of being trapped in a cubicle, the fluorescent lights, the endless spreadsheets. He had died for that life. He had worked himself to death for a company that replaced him in a week.
A sudden surge of defiance rose in his chest, hot and bright. He wasn't going to do it again. He wasn't going to be the obedient son-in-law who died of shame.
"What did Father-in-law say?" Li Wei asked quietly.
"Father-in-law... he tried to defend you. He mentioned the promise he made to our dying father. But the Elders... they have money, Brother. They lend money to the family. They hold leverage."
Li Wei turned away from the window. He looked at his younger brother—the fear, the dependence. In this life, he wasn't alone. He had someone to protect.
"Help me dress," Li Wei said, his tone calm.
"Brother? Shouldn't we hide? Or perhaps go out the back?"
"No," Li Wei said, reaching for his outer robe, a simple hemp garment dyed a drab blue. "Hiding makes us look guilty. I have done nothing wrong but be born without a talent for poetry. It's time I showed them what I *am* talented at."
As Li An fumbled with the sash of his robe, a chime resonated in Li Wei's mind. It wasn't a sound in the room; it was a sound inside his skull.
*Ding.*
A translucent blue panel flickered into existence before his eyes. It hovered in the air, ghostly and transparent, readable only to him.
**[System Initializing...]**
**[Host detected: Li Wei.]**
**[Soul Signature: Match.]**
**[System: The Supreme Western Ranch System.]**
**[Status: Inactive.]**
**[Activation Condition: Gain ownership of land.]**
Li Wei blinked, staring at the text. He wasn't a man who panicked easily. Decades of corporate crisis management had given him a poker face of stone. A system? Like the web novels he read to pass the time on the subway?
He focused on the panel. *Supreme Western Ranch System.*
A slow smile spread across his face, erasing the weariness of his expression. If this was real... if this was truly real... then he held the winning hand. He didn't need to pass the imperial exams. He needed land. He needed dirt.
"Brother?" Li An asked, seeing the strange look in Li Wei's eyes. "Are you feverish?"
"I've never felt better," Li Wei said, his voice dropping an octave, gaining a rough, confident texture. "Come, Li An. Let's go meet the Elders. I have a proposal for them."
The main hall of the Su residence smelled of expensive sandalwood incense and damp earth. The air was thick with tension, heavy enough to taste.
Su Qing stood behind the intricately carved rosewood screen that separated the hall from the women's quarters. In this dynasty, women of good standing did not sit in on business meetings, but Su Qing was not an ordinary woman. She managed the household accounts, she disciplined the servants, and she knew more about the family's precarious finances than her father did.
She peered through the lattice, her dark eyes narrowed.
Her father, Magistrate Su Chang, sat in the host's chair. He looked older than his years, his beard streaked with grey, his face etched with a polite, pained smile.
Opposite him sat Elder Chen and two other clan uncles. They sat with the arrogance of creditors, sipping the finest tea the Su family had to offer as if it were water.
"Magistrate Su," Elder Chen said, setting his porcelain cup down with a deliberate *clack*. "We are not trying to be cruel. We are thinking of the family legacy. Your daughter is twenty years old. She is in her prime. To have her tied to a man who cannot even pass the county level exams... it is a waste of a good bloodline."
Su Qing's grip on the wooden screen tightened until her knuckles turned white. *How dare he talk about me like livestock?*
"Brother Chen," Su Chang said, his voice weary. "Li Wei is a good boy. He is gentle. He keeps to himself. And his father was my dearest friend. I cannot simply cast him out into the streets because he is not a scholar."
"Gentle?" Elder Chen scoffed. "Gentle is another word for useless. He has been here for two years. Two years! What has he contributed? He eats our food, wears our clothes, and reads books he doesn't understand. He is a matrilocal husband, yes, but even a matrilocal husband should bring *some* value. Does he help with the accounts? Does he manage the servants? No. He stares at the sky."
"It is true he is... unmotivated," Su Chang admitted, his shoulders slumping. "But I made a vow on his father's deathbed."
"A vow to a dead man should not ruin the life of the living!" another uncle chimed in. "Su Chang, the clan is whispering. They say the Su family raises lazy men. If you do not act, the reputation of your lineage will be ruined. And regarding the loan for the western irrigation project... the clan might be... hesitant to approve it if this... situation... continues."
It was a threat. A thinly veiled, greasy threat.
Su Qing felt a surge of anger. They were using money to force her father's hand. They wanted her to remarry—likely to the son of a merchant guild leader they owed favors to.
She was about to step out, propriety be damned, when a commotion at the door stopped her.
"Let me through! My brother has business here!" Li An's voice shouted from the courtyard.
A moment later, the heavy doors to the main hall were pushed open.
Li Wei walked in.
Su Qing blinked. She had seen this man every day for two years. She knew his face—the soft jaw, the pale skin, the eyes that always seemed to be looking at the ground in apology. She had long since categorized him as a burden she had to bear for her father's sake.
But today... something was different.
He didn't shuffle. He didn't bow low and stammer. He walked in with a straight back, his shoulders squared. He wore the same plain hemp clothes, but he wore them like armor. His eyes swept across the room, settling on Elder Chen with a gaze that was unnervingly direct.
"Li Wei greets Father-in-law. Li Wei greets the Elders," he said, bowing. It was a proper bow, precise, lacking the usual groveling hesitation.
Elder Chen raised an eyebrow, clearly annoyed that his tea time was interrupted by the topic of his ridicule. "Oh? The useless scholar finally decides to show his face? Come to apologize for wasting our rice, boy?"
Su Qing held her breath. She knew Li Wei was sensitive. He usually wilted under criticism.
Instead, Li Wei stood tall. "Elder Chen speaks harshly, but not without reason. I have indeed been a burden to the Su family."
Su Chang looked up in surprise. *Is he agreeing with them?*
"However," Li Wei continued, his voice smooth and clear, "a man's worth is not decided by his past, but by his future. I have heard the discussion regarding my marriage and my residence."
Elder Chen snorted. "Good. Then you know it's time for you to leave. Pack your bags. We will find you a small shop to run, far from here."
"I have no intention of leaving," Li Wei said.
The silence in the room was absolute.
"You... what?" Elder Chen asked, his face darkening.
"I have no intention of leaving," Li Wei repeated, stepping further into the room. "Because I intend to pay off my debt to the Su family, and then double their wealth. But to do that, I need resources."
"You have no skills!" Elder Chen slammed his hand on the table. "You are a failed scholar! What can you possibly do? Can you fight? Can you calculate? Can you govern?"
"I can farm," Li Wei lied. Or perhaps, it wasn't a lie. The system in his head pulsed. *Ranching is farming, isn't it?*
Su Chang looked at his son-in-law with a mix of concern and confusion. "Wei'er, what are you saying? We have tenants for the farm work."
"Not the farms outside the city," Li Wei said. "I am talking about the Westland."
"The Westland?" Elder Chen laughed, a mocking, ugly sound. "The rocky wasteland? The bandit-infested scrubland? That place is cursed! Nothing grows there but thorns!"
"That is why it is worthless to the Su family," Li Wei said calmly. "But I see potential. I wish to take a loan from the family coffers. One hundred taels of silver. I will purchase the Westland."
"One hundred taels!" Su Qing gasped softly from behind the screen. That was a massive sum. It was half the family's liquid cash.
"And what will you do with rocks?" Elder Chen asked, amused now. He looked at Li Wei like he was a jester.
"I will raise cattle," Li Wei said.
The room went dead silent again. Then, the elders burst into laughter.
"Cattle?" Elder Chen wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye. "Boy, do you not know our customs? Cattle are sacred tools of agriculture! They are for pulling plows! We do not eat them! The Emperor himself forbids the slaughter of healthy oxen! You want to raise cattle on rocks? For what? To look at them?"
Li Wei didn't smile. He waited for the laughter to subside. "I know the laws. I do not intend to slaughter plow oxen. I intend to raise a new kind of cattle. A breed that does not plow. A breed meant for food."
"Blasphemy!" an uncle shouted. "Madness!"
"It is innovation," Li Wei countered, his voice hardening like steel. "The North has horses. The South has pigs. I will create a demand that does not yet exist. I will turn the Westland into a pasture."
He turned to Su Chang. "Father-in-law. You promised my father to take care of me. But I do not want care. I want a chance. Give me the loan. Grant me the Westland. If I do not repay the loan within three years, I will voluntarily divorce Su Qing and leave the city forever, never to return. I will sign a blood oath."
Su Qing's heart hammered against her ribs. *A blood oath? He is betting his life and his marriage on a patch of dirt?*
Elder Chen stopped laughing. He saw an opportunity. If Li Wei signed a blood oath, he would be legally bound to leave in three years—likely much sooner, when he inevitably failed. It was a way to get rid of him without looking like the villain.
"Interesting," Elder Chen mused, stroking his beard. "A blood oath. If you fail, the debt falls on your brother, and you leave. Su Chang, this seems... generous to the boy."
Su Chang looked at Li Wei with deep worry. "Wei'er, are you sure? The Westland is harsh. One hundred taels... if you lose it..."
"I will not lose it," Li Wei said. He didn't look at Su Chang. He looked past him, towards the west, his eyes burning with a vision only he could see. "I see green grass. I see herds. I see gold."
Su Qing watched him. She had never seen him look like this. He looked... capable. It was terrifying and fascinating all at once.
"Write the contract," Li Wei said to Elder Chen. "Unless you are afraid a 'useless scholar' might actually succeed?"
Elder Chen's face twisted. "Fine! Write it, Magistrate! Let the fool ruin himself."
As the brush hit the paper, the system in Li Wei's mind chimed again.
**[Condition Met: Ownership of Land Imminent.]**
**[Quest Updated: Acquire the Westland.]**
**[Reward: 10 bags of Elite Napier Grass Seeds, Basic Ranch Construction Kit.]**
Li Wei hid his smile by bowing low. The game had just begun.