Reincarnated as a Poor Little Green Tea, Am I Destined to Be Bullied? - Volume 1 Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Died of Poverty?

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Ling Qingyu died.

Some people, after they die, always hope for a memoir to record their past, whether glorious or melancholic. Whether good or bad, they want to leave something to be remembered by, right?

But Ling Qingyu was different.

Forget about a memoir. If possible, he wanted to burn that turtle he drew on his female deskmate’s scratch paper when he was a child, leaving no trace of his existence in this world.

Don’t blame him for being so detached.

After all, this young man’s death was quite spectacular.

— He died of poverty.

“Oh, you’re saying it so complicatedly, I don’t understand. Why did you die from eating a meal?”

“I’ve explained many times already… Great Deity. I didn’t die from eating a meal, I died from food poisoning. I ate expired meat, got food poisoning, and couldn’t be saved. Do you understand?”

“How pitiful.”

“Right… I think so too…”

“To think it was 【food poisoning】, food poisoning… oh my, the food died of poisoning, what a pitiful meal.”

“The one who got food poisoning was me?! Not the food! No, you’ve been asking nonsensical questions from the start. Are you doing this on purpose?!”

“See, you’re getting agitated, I knew this would happen.”

“You knew and still asked?!”

Ling Qingyu was about to die a second time from anger.

At the moment of his death, he had already been certain that “dying of poverty” was the most painful thing in the world.

But now his thoughts had changed.

Because he had encountered something even more painful than that.

That is — after dying of poverty, he still had to explain to the “deity” he met after death exactly how he died of poverty!

He was already dead, unable to feel the passage of time. Ling Qingyu only knew that after he died, he closed his eyes, his breath stopped, and when he opened his eyes again, he was already in this vast and boundless space.

He no longer had a physical form, and all he could see was a large expanse of luminous mist.

The mist occasionally emitted inquiring sounds, barely distinguishable as a female voice, speaking in a mischievous and irritating manner.

The mist claimed to be a deity guiding souls to reincarnation.

Although Ling Qingyu had no real sense of this, he was already dead, so there was no point in believing or not believing. He was just complaining about how terribly incompetent this deity’s business skills were.

Sigh…

Thinking carefully, his life had truly been devoid of joy.

It was as if he was at odds with financial fortune. Orphaned as a child and sent to an orphanage, he later became self-reliant, working hard at part-time jobs. Every time the end of the month came for wage settlement, after working for twenty-nine days, on the thirtieth day, the boss would inevitably abscond with the money.

Finally finding a shop that didn’t close down for thirty days, and the boss hadn’t run away — only to discover it was a month with thirty-one days.

The next day, the boss had mysteriously deactivated his phone number again.

Studying hard to get through school on subsidies, hoping for some scholarship money, but always falling just one place short.

As for the cause of his final death… just thinking about it made non-existent tears well up in his non-existent eyes once again.

What’s wrong with frozen meat that’s been kept for two years?! Huh?!

I was frugal, living alone as my entire family, and the family’s biggest asset was my refrigerator. A piece of pork frozen for two years, hidden in the very back, discovered forgotten and uneaten, too reluctant to throw away, eaten and then dying of poisoning — is that so laughable?!

So, forget it.

Such a life, better not to look back. Reincarnation might truly be a release.

Think about those days of struggling with all might just to live a little better, yet still looked down upon by others, with no possibility of turning things around… how different is that from being dead?

It’s nothing more than dreaming a dead man’s dream in the world of the living.

The luminous mist seemed to sense that the spectral figure of the man before it had suddenly become fragile and was disintegrating.

Her voice, now the only thing Ling Qingyu could perceive as a gentle breeze, came drifting once more.

“Well, let’s do this. I’ll ask you one last question, and you answer it well. Listen carefully, this concerns what kind of living conditions you’ll have after reincarnation. Since you’ve struggled up from hardship, I don’t need to explain the importance of this to you, right?”

Hmm…?

Reincarnation? Next life?

Hearing this, Ling Qingyu finally nervously swallowed — of course, this was just his sensation without a physical body.

Right… the past is gone, there’s nothing worth reminiscing anyway. Isn’t it enough to have a chance to live well in the next life?

Thinking of this, Ling Qingyu gazed at the patch of luminous mist and mustered up the courage to express his determination.

“Alright, Great Deity, please ask. As long as it’s something I can answer, I’ll definitely give the most perfect answer.”

“Very good resolve. Then, listen carefully to my question.”

“Mm.”

“I’ll say it again, this concerns whether you can be reborn into the life you hope for.”

“Mm, I understand.”

“Well then, here’s the question.”

“Okay.”

“So, why did you poison the pork, and why did you poison yourself to death? Please answer in order.”

“Damn, I’m really done.”

The eyes full of determination completely crumbled.

Oh heavens, I’m dead, so what? Everyone dies at some point.

But why do I have to be assigned this neurotic broken deity as a guide after death?!

The more he thought about it, the more wronged he felt, but he couldn’t cry.

This poor young man was truly on the verge of a breakdown.

He almost scattered into ashes on the spot.

Perhaps the luminous mist finally had a pang of conscience?

It flickered and shook a few times as if apologizing, circling around the collapsed and kneeling Ling Qingyu a few times, before speaking.

“Sorry! I’m a newly appointed deity who just started recently, and I’m not very familiar with the matters of guiding reincarnation. It’s like… as you humans often say, you need to be tolerant of life. If there’s anything I’m not doing well, please be tolerant too. I actually know that food doesn’t get poisoned, it’s you who got poisoned. I understand all that.”

“Great Deity, I didn’t expect you to be so kind…”

“I just haven’t seen a human poisoned to death by pork before, so I asked you that way on purpose earlier, because it’s quite amusing.”

“I’ll fight you?!”

It’s still a neurotic after all!

This was futile, of course.

How could the incorporeal Ling Qingyu touch the ethereal deity?

But that ball of luminous mist actually swayed left and right, dodging punches that never came, as if playing a game of dodge that no one had ever played with this poor little fellow in his entire life.

As the light, playful, but irritating laughter subsided, the luminous mist suddenly dispersed, then abruptly reappeared behind Ling Qingyu.

“But! Little one, you’re very lucky now. Usually, I would just arrange for you to be reborn into the most ordinary family, living the most ordinary life, just to meet the performance quota, another plain and uneventful existence.”

“Then are you saying the current situation is different somehow…” Someone’s getting his hopes up, I won’t say who.

“Of course!”

The tone of the luminous mist seemed to suddenly become more excited.

“Right now, I happen to have a business target requirement, and I have a suitable reincarnation path for you on hand. How about it? Want to give it a try? It’s super different! I guarantee financial prosperity! Not just financial prosperity, I guarantee you won’t lack in romantic luck either! You haven’t dated a girl before, have you~ little one.”

“……”

Let’s not talk about how I feel like I’ve been looked down upon somehow.

But why does this deity sound like a salesperson? Is this reliable?

But honestly, whatever.

Ling Qingyu now felt that being reborn into the most ordinary family and starting over from scratch, he didn’t know how it would be for others, but for him, it would be happiness enough.

He had more than once before lain on the grass outside the orphanage, watching the kindergarten letting out in the distance, using stones to draw on the sunset-reddened earth the arc of each child’s smile as they ran out of the courtyard towards waiting parents, accepting candy-coated hawthorns from their hands.

Only those who have experienced the deepest loneliness and pain can understand that “ordinary” is also a treasure that is quite hard to come by, another kind of contentment without desires, a…

“I plan to arrange for you to be reborn as a penniless girl, you know?”

“Hey?!”

What happened to ordinary?! What did I ever do to you?!

Penniless, you said financial prosperity?

A girl, you said good luck in romance?!

Before Ling Qingyu’s utterly unthreatening protests could emerge, the luminous mist was still enthusiastically explaining to him.

“Don’t be hasty, why so anxious? Was that pork you ate injected with hormones? Think about it, if you choose an ordinary life, your current memories will be erased, destined for a lifetime of mediocrity. But if you accept my proposal, not only can you be reborn with your memories and existing knowledge intact, although you’ll be poor now, you’ll have reversed the fate of a penniless person, become lucky, and have a complete chance to change your destiny and become rich and happy in the future! Are you really not going to consider it? Besides, that body really is of a super beautiful girl! Who says girls can’t have lots of romantic luck~ Maybe you’ll even find the Peach Blossom Spring directly, I’m absolutely not lying to you about this~”

“……”

Laughable, your proposal seems appealing but is actually full of holes.

A super beautiful girl, is it? But I can’t marry her myself, what’s the use of becoming one!

“A chance” to become wealthy?

Don’t joke around, there are plenty of things that have “a chance,” but before that chance comes, it’s all just called having a chance.

Even so, Ling Qingyu didn’t immediately reject it.

He was thinking.

Because in Ling Qingyu’s heart, there had always been a dream of turning his life around.

It’s just that, worn down by life, he had gradually started to accept his fate.

Ah, forget it, there’s no value in taking risks, an ordinary life is still a life.

Sometimes choosing stability and living a more ordinary life isn’t necessarily a mistake. It might not be outstanding, but at least it’s secure.

“Great Deity, I choose a simple and ordinary…”

“Oh right, I forgot to tell you, you don’t have the right to choose. This is my business, I have to meet the target, and you just happen to fit the bill. Isn’t that a coincidence?”

“Then why did you say so much like a salesperson earlier?!”

So I never had a choice, and you made me struggle with this for so long?! How despicable are you?!

The words had already fallen, and the future had already begun.

All the dreamy light spots in the surrounding space were shaking frantically. For the first time in this illusory realm, Ling Qingyu felt the flow of air.

Everything was spinning, yet he didn’t feel unsteady or dizzy. Everything around was rapidly falling. Before his senses became even more dulled, only the voice of the luminous mist remained clearly audible.

“Oh, just right, that girl has died too. As per her wish, I’ve arranged for her to go to another world to start anew, and you… Ling Qingyu, you’ll take over her life. Try to become happy!”

“?!”

Take over her life…

She just happened to die too?!

Ling Qingyu only needed to tilt his head slightly to see a blurry soul, which looked like it should be a girl.

She was raising both hands high, smiling so happily, jumping up and down, waving her arms and constantly shouting, “I’m liberated! I’m free! Finally released!”

Then, she completely disappeared, her soul dissipating into the endless void. If what the luminous mist said was true, she should have gone to a completely different world.

“Ah… did you see that? I helped her complete her reincarnation. I’m sure in her next life, she won’t suffer as much as in this one. Oh, oh, right, she died by suicide in this life. Sigh, people these days just can’t see things through.”

You’d better not say anything more!

By the way, that girl seemed to be laughing especially happily before she left, right?!

Obviously, the happier a person laughs after death, the more horrifically they must have cried before death.

She’s gone off to live a good life.

Then what about me?!

There was no longer any way to continue thinking further, as consciousness had completely fragmented in the descent.

Just as the last thread of consciousness was drifting away.

Vaguely hearing gentle words, like the murmur of birds at dawn before waking from a dream.

“In your new life, please try hard to live on.”

“I wish you, no regrets on this journey.”

“Of course, as a girl~”

“If we have the chance to meet again in the future, perhaps I shouldn’t call you Ling Qingyu anymore…”

“From now on, your name is…”

“Lin Yueye.”