3 - Blessing Activated

"Please send me back", Jiushu prayed. 

She did not want to remain here. She looked at the faces of her fake mother, father and siblings. Jiushu is absolutely sure they are not her real parents. How could they be? There isn't a single point they are similar to her on, save that they had a head, hands and feet. 

They could very well be monkeys for all the resemblance. She was from western most province, even if she hasn't transmigrated, she looked nothing like the woman parading as her mother. She has almond eyes, fair skin and long and thin fingers. Rest of the family have typical small eyes, dark skin and stubby fingers. 

Worse than that, this is a fucking medieval world. There is no plumbing, worse yet, there is no internet. She is a scholarship student in computer science. She is addicted to her phone, videogames and celebrity brushing… Her daily dose of idol star husbands… Her daily dose of rare drops.. She couldn't live without them.. And the gods damned angel brought her to this fucking medieval world. 

If she does not get an idol star level husband to match her recently updated miss world level looks… She will find that angel even if she has to go to the ends of earth and dismember her piece by piece. Then bury those pieces in a negative assembling direction in most stinky swamps she could find in the world… 

Her anger was able to last only an hour, before it petered out. 

'If it was going to end up like this, I would have liked to study biology. At least then, I would have had some advantage going into this god forsaken land' - she mused. 

At least then, she would have run away without looking back for she at least would have known how to recognize poison from food. For now, there is too little information for her to venture out into the wild. 

This land is called dragon kingdom. Religion is fairly important in this kingdom, for there are angels and demons in the world. There are always twelve angels. Contrarily, there will always be twelve or less demons. For, Angels have power called blessings, while demons can take away that power. Simply put, a demon is someone who stole Angel's power. There is always someone willing to steal a power, a blessing, once stolen, deteriorates in power. 

What are these blessings? No one knows. How do these blessings work? They make people great. Yet, there is one thing they did know. The prayers are always heard. Even more so, if you offer a drop of blood to the angel. 

When one of her fake brothers presented her with a rusted knife, Jiushu couldn't be more reluctant to touch the blade. She bet she will have half the diseases in the world if she so much as got a papercut with that blade. Thus, she prayed with just a water basin. Every night, she prayed as everyone else did for her return. Every morning she cursed the angels for not listening to her request. 

Life continued on. 

The schedule they are on is awful. The sanitary conditions are awful. There is no soap. There are no restrooms. When they are thirsty, they drink the water from the stream. Boiling water? Unheard of. There are two things they eat. rice … and wild vegetables. 

The hunger is worse. They have to huddle in their musty hut for some shade on hot days, in stifling humidity. The roof leaked on rainy days. Jiushu is stuck with the worst of the places to rest in the house. It is but within a week she figured why the family did not leave her to her fate. 

The family she is with are farm laborers. One more hand will make plenty of difference in pay, which is taken on behalf of the children by the mother. All she could say about it is at least everyone else worked just as hard as her, ate the same food as her during the planting. However, the situation differed immediately after planting. 

One day, one of the boys ran to her saying she needs to go collect vegetables in the mountain. Her fake mother usually only had her run errands, while the sister at the same age played a lady. Yet, on this day, she is given a rare break, and set out urgently. When she came back, the news in the village was that her sister had turned out to be a lady. 

"Ai ya.. Who could have guessed? Little two would actually turn into a phoenix…" one of the aunts exclaimed to another. 

The cogs turned in Jiushu's head. 

She may not have read enough web novels to understand transmigration immediately. However, even she possessed enough sense to know this is her body's birth right snatched by the ugly family. Her first instinct is to chase after the men who came to retrieve her. 

Her legs slowed down as she turned the corner. Given the difference in beauty, height and general demeanor, the men shouldn't have believed her identity easily. Yet, they did. They not only believed it, they packed and left. Not even an inquiry. 

She is not an infant, but a grown up young lady. Moreover, she has been brought up by an elegant rich mother. Yes, novels talk about switching between rich and poor, but it's not that easy in reality. The way one moves, the way one talks and even the way one moves his eyes will give away the well bred children from the ones who grew up without care. She is not discriminating here … but it is just a fact, especially in ancient days. Noble & rich taught their children from the way to hold a chopstick to the way to stand. 

Real life is full of sharp people everywhere, and all it takes is one concerned person with power to double check. If there's not even a single earnest person looking out for her, it will not be much different from where she is right now. At least here, she could run away, she doubted she could do the same from a rich family. 

She decided to play possum and wait with this greedy family. If they come back before rice is harvested, all is good. If they did not, she would leave without turning back. In the first place, she is a zero EQ girl from engineering, there is no way she would survive in a palace drama setting. It's very much looking like a palace drama setting at the moment. 

The men did not come back. The white jade bangle on her hand remained. Fortunately, it's a really opaque jade, looking more like bone than like jade. It might not go for much even if they cut off her hand to get it. If it were truly ancient time, it would make more money to sell her off as a slave. Wait! did she stumble upon that evil scheme here? Is that what her fake parents are waiting for? She prodded villagers for information. She got it almost immediately. Traders come only after harvest season, slave dealers are the same. 

Jiushu opened her eyes wide. Damn.. she should have chased after those men and entered palace drama. At the very least, she would have avoided becoming a slave. Though, it's not too late. What is the most important thing in order to not get trafficked? Parents sell off their children. So, she could get rid of these false parents, but she could also get caught and sold by a procurer. There is no one guarding her. 

Yet, she by herself could build a mud house of her own, and cultivate a wild land of her own. It may be hard, but all her effort would be dedicated towards her own self. Jiushu decided. She needs to split off from this greedy family. Only, the family is far too low on social strata, no one's interested in their quibbles. Eventually, Jiushu gave up thinking on it. There is no point solving problems with no solution. She will take it as it comes. Thus, her schedule continued.

Today though, is different. Yesterday was harvest day, also, the 169th day since she arrived. She seriously expected something to happen, but nothing did. So today morning, instead of blaming and doubting God like any other time, she set up an altar and prayed seriously. 

'Please god, give me something. Any thing.. Even a system will do, and you know how much I dislike that trope. I will forever be your polite, obedient and diligent believer from now on. Please, I beg of you.' 

She finished her prayers, threw the water towards the morning sun. The water shimmered golden and silver with rays of sun. It's a beautiful sight, flowing water with light and shadows dancing upon it, splashing water glinting gold and silver, and a pretty girl watching in rapture. The magic lasted for a moment, before splashing water fell down and water just flowed as it always did.

Jiushu set off to work as usual. They are going to sun the rice today. 

She carried her part of the rice, spread out a blanket looking at the others, poured rice on it. She followed the movements of other village women, and spread it evenly on her blanket. She finished soon, paused to admire her work. Regardless of how much she hated physical work, there is a strange sense of fulfillment in seeing a crop through from planting to harvest. Perhaps there are leftover peasant genes in me, Jiushu wondered, looking at the rippling waves of rice on the blanket. 

It is at this time anime fireworks went off all over the blanket. Jiushu would have moved, if not for the fact all the fireworks resembled cartoon fireworks way too much. Soon, words floated in the middle of the air. 

Congratulations!

You activated your blessing, peasant.

She stared dumbfounded at the words. 

Then, like a game's replay, they changed again. 

Being a peasant is hard work, yet, it's fruits make it all worthwhile. There is an exclusive planting area prepared for you in your Jade bangle. Plant, grow, and harvest, Ahoy! 

The village woman beside her snapped at her to get a move on, for there are a lot more rice to dry. Jiushu started working, and soon almost all the rice was spread out. They got their first break for the afternoon. She has received her share of food, moved to behind a tree. Her food will get snatched by the greedy family if she goes near them. Instead of drinking, she touched her bangle. 

Immediately, she was in a different house. The congee bowl in her hand is still steaming. She could see the view outside the window, it is the same view as the tree she is standing under. Her Jade bangle is standing upright on the window. Jiushu put her hand through it. She is under the tree. The bangle shrunk, fitting her hand in such a way it could not be removed at all by force. 

One of the small children is watching her, he gasped pointing a finger at her. 

'You … you .. vanished..' he stumbled. 

Jiushu shooed the boy away, before touching her bangle again. 

She is back in the same hut. 

Happiness bloomed in her. With this, she could get away. It may not be a good life compared to what she had before, but she can and will make do. 

'Thank you .. Thank you..' she thought, looking around her own space. 

An angel somewhere looked at the blooming peony in her garden, and smiled.