Five Dynasties: I Really Didn’t Mean to Eat People

Chen Qin opened his eyes to find himself buried beneath a pile of corpses.

He shoved the bodies off and crawled out. Before him lay a village burned to ruins, and Liang soldiers stripping the dead and cutting off ears to tally their kills. One soldier spotted him and laughed. “This one's still alive. We can eat him.”

This was the era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Human life was worth less than a dog's, and human flesh was called “two-legged mutton”: old people were “rotten with the bones,” while the young were “a quick roast.”

Chen Qin had no System, no golden finger, only the mind of a modern man. He didn't want to eat anyone, and he definitely didn't want to be eaten. So he killed the cook who was about to butcher him, set fire to the provisions, and fled into the night.

By the river, he came across a man riddled with arrows. His name was Guo Wei, a scout who killed without blinking. Guo Wei said, “You saved me, so I owe you my life. But in this world, people who save others don't live long.”

Chen Qin didn't believe him.

He evaded the pursuers with Guo Wei and made his way into Weibo. In town, anyone who couldn't pay their taxes had their legs broken on the spot. Soldiers could abduct women with impunity, and girls of seven or eight sold themselves with a blade of grass tucked in their hair, just to earn enough for a coffin to bury their mothers.

Chen Qin gave the girl the last three copper coins he had. That night, she came looking for him and handed him a bloodstained bundle of cloth