Han Bai, a graduate of a prestigious university in the twenty-first century, fell from a hundred-meter cliff while surveying geology and transmigrated to the sixth year of the Qingyuan era in the Southern Song dynasty.
He had no identity, no money, and no idea whose body he was in.
All he had was a dark green jade pendant carved with two fish facing opposite directions. It looked like proof of identity, but he didn't dare rely on it.
After going hungry for three days, he met three beggars: Chen Shun and two little girls, Da Ya and Er Ya.
He bragged that he had relatives in Shaoxing and tricked Master Jia into giving him a ride there.
In Shaoxing, the steamed bun seller refused to let him buy on credit. The brothel's top courtesan, Tianxiang, invited him to eat eight dishes and a basin of rice. He ate his fill, then climbed over the wall and ran away.
After running off, he ran into the three beggars again and moved into a haunted house so terrifying even ghosts wouldn't dare live there.
Rubbing his stomach, Han Bai thought all night. These days, nobody would hire him even as a laborer without a travel pass. So he'd become his own boss.
He had Chen Shun make a wooden box with ten holes. One bead, ten coins per go.
Outside a tavern in eastern Shaoxing, a crowd of beggars called out, "Prize-winning ball toss! Plenty of chances!" He hoisted the box onto his shoulder and stood there.
His first fortune began with a scam.
