After Being Exiled, I Became a Han Merchant in Dunhuang

“Listen to your auntie. Once you’re dead, everything will be clean. Don’t be afraid. Auntie will go with you.” When Sui Yu suddenly regained consciousness, those were the words that came to mind. She struggled and fell from the white silk. A pair of embroidered shoes dangled before her eyes. She hadn’t been strangled to death, but she was nearly scared to death instead. Looking up, she saw a little boy sitting on the bed, frozen in terror. The original owner’s family had been implicated by their clan and arrested. Before they were thrown in jail, her desperate concubine aunt hanged herself with her daughter. The original owner died, and Sui Yu took her place and survived. Just then, the northwest had won a great victory, and the court ordered people to settle the borderlands and farm the land. Sui Yu’s entire clan was sentenced to penal servitude and exiled to the northwest. She walked from Jiangnan to the northwest with her terrified, dazed little brother. Before she could even find her footing, she was assigned to marry a soldier stationed at the border. The man disliked her because she was a convict’s slave and wore a cold expression like a living King of Hell every day. But he was all bark and no bite, with a soft heart beneath his stubborn words. Sui Yu found his weak spot and slowly won him over, watching him fall for her step by step. “We won’t beg anyone anymore. I’ll earn military merit and use it to get you out of slavery.” From then on, the man worked hard to earn military merit while Sui Yu farmed and raised camels at home, waiting for his safe return. Once she was free, Sui Yu formed a camel caravan. It crossed the desert, passed through the Gobi, traveled beneath snow-covered mountains, and forded great rivers. She fell asleep to the sound of camel bells and woke to the cry of eagles. She carried silk, tea, and porcelain to the Western Regions, then returned with fine horses, gold and silver, precious gems, and rare medicinal herbs. She left her own distinctive footprints along the Silk Road. [Note 1] The novel’s setting takes inspiration from the Western Han dynasty, but the characters are fictional and have no basis in historical records. The heroine is a transmigrator. Later, she forms a caravan and travels to the Western Regions. Her introduction of cash crops will speed up the historical timeline, so please read with that in mind. [Note 2] Some currency units in the story are incorrect. I’ll fix them over the next week. My next book will be Eloping Concubine. Please follow it if you’re interested. Dan Sui is a wealthy merchant’s concubine. She does the work of a concubine but has only the title of a maid. The merchant is clearly ill and won’t live much longer. Once he dies, she’ll either be toyed with by his dissolute young master or dismissed and sold off. With her looks and no one to protect her, she’s bound to end up in a life of prostitution, reduced to a plaything to be abused. So while the merchant can still draw breath, she scurries around like a headless fly, searching for a new patron. One day, a new guard arrives at the residence. They say he’s a wandering swordsman. Skilled in martial arts = able to elope with her. Earns plenty of money = able to buy her a proper identity. No fixed home = won’t mind gossip. He’s the one. Dan Sui starts figuring out how to win him over. ** Hei San is a swordsman who roams the world, with no family or friends left. He’s cold-hearted and lives as he pleases, spending freely when he earns a lot and cutting back when he earns little. When he passes through Cangzhou, he runs out of money and casually takes a well-paid job as a cloth merchant’s guard. To his surprise, the male master of the house admires his martial skills, while the concubines in the inner courtyard take a fancy to his body. One by one, they hint that they want to roam the martial world with him… He’s sick of it, especially since there’s a beautiful young woman who keeps coming over to watch the commotion at all hours. She’s surrounded by wolves herself, yet seems completely unaware of it. A rabbit laughing at a wolf for falling into a fox’s den. What a fool. Coming soon: The Tiger Beastman’s Otherworldly Manor. Please follow it. A Chun is a white tiger beastman. Her fur makes it impossible for her to hide while hunting in the forest, so it’s no surprise that she was badly wounded and died the first time she went hunting in the Beast Forest after her mother passed away. What surprised her was that even though her body had died, her consciousness remained. She wandered the Beast Forest for two years. She flew through the sky with the birdfolk, dug underground tunnels with the rabbit beastmen, saw pack-dwelling wolf beastmen hunt together, and watched the pill bugs stockpile food… When she suddenly returned to life, even teetering on the brink of death couldn’t quell the burning ambition in her heart. She would invite birds and beasts to live together and combine the strengths of every species. The birdfolk would patrol the skies, the pill bugs would scout underground, and while the wolf beastmen hunted adult beasts, she, A Chun, would steal their young. Then she’d launch her great enterprise of raising game animals! But now she was badly injured and could barely stay alive, so she’d better borrow some food from the pill bugs first, then sneak off to the mountain territories of her six older siblings and shamelessly ask to stay with each of them for a while. Once she recovered, just wait and see how she’d talk some muscle into helping her rebuild her mountain home! Theme: Work quietly and wait for the flowers to bloom.