Because she originally wanted to cut her hair short, now if she can sell it for money, it’s quite an unexpected delight.

After everyone left the barbershop, the owner snipped her hair close to her ears, and then trimmed it nicely, giving her a copper coin for selling her hair.

A copper coin?

If she remembered correctly, the currency during the period of the Republic of China was the most chaotic. Copper coins were clearly the early currency, one copper coin could be converted to ten cents, ten copper coins were one dime, and later they kept depreciating. Anyway, it was a mess, and for someone like her, who lacked hearing, surviving in the Republic of China would be a bit difficult. She needed to find a way to translate what others were saying into written words.

So she carefully recalled the demon arts she’d learned. Surprisingly, she managed to find a method for conversion. As for whether her hearing could recover, it might be difficult. Relying solely on demon arts to make a change wasn’t impossible, but it was quite physically demanding. With her current physical strength, she couldn’t afford the continuous use of demon arts.

With her hair cut short and her body not fully developed, she looked exactly like a boy—quite safe, indeed. With her current height of 1.5 meters and frail body, who would hire her for a job?

Scanning this tiny town, there were no more men with long braids. All had switched to short haircuts because most of them were poor and wore locally made coarse cotton robes with mandarin collars from the Republic period. The women wore the same mandarin collar shirts, long pants, and not even the cheongsams were seen, clearly showing this place was a remote mountainous area.

But even in such circumstances, her hair could still sell for a copper coin, suggesting that if she were in a big city, the price would be higher.

She used sorcery several times to finally translate what passersby were saying. As it was translated, she felt from the words that this should be Sichuan Province. The Sichuan accent in the speech was quite strong, and there were many women carrying bamboo baskets, bustling back and forth. Although it was small, it was very lively. Even the shop names hanging around were very complete: barbershop, grain shop, clothes shop, tailor shop, pharmacy, and so on, all printed with traditional characters, particularly characteristic of this era.

She carefully asked someone what year it was now, and the translated response was: "The year 1915."

The Republic lasted from 1912 to 1949, a total of 38 years, and now it’s 1915, which is the third year of the Republic?

No wonder there were no braids long ago. In fact, many people thought the braids were only cut off at the start of the Republic, but in fact, during the last decade or so of the late Qing Dynasty, the hair was already gradually cut off. It was in 1911 that a nationwide notice was directly issued for everyone to cut off their braids, so by 1915, it would’ve been long gone.

It was quite a coincidence that she happened to be born in 1900. By 1915, she was exactly fifteen years old. Probably no one knew her exact birthday.

This was a tumultuous, challenging era, now under Yuan Datou’s rule. What could a deaf person like her do to survive?

A single pancake cost one cent, meaning her copper coin could buy ten pancakes; once she finished them, she’d be starving again. She went to a tailor shop to apply as a tailor, to a tavern to apply as a waitress, but no matter where she went, no one wanted her. Being thin and short, just a glance from anyone and they’d wave her away.

Finally, a flamboyantly dressed woman came over, chattering away with a pungent smell of makeup. Without a second thought, she turned and left. It didn’t need much thought to know it wasn’t a reputable place. Worried they’d follow and grab her, she looked around cautiously for a long time before daring to leave.

Clearly, there was no future in such a small place. She had to find a way to get to a big city. The matter of revenge also was beyond help because she didn’t even know where she was from. If she ever had the chance to come back to this place, she’d deal with it then.

So she bought ten pancakes and put them into her space, walking along the main road, stopping and starting during the day, entering her space to rest at night, and picking wild vegetables and wild fruits along the roadside to store in her space. She couldn’t bear to eat the pancakes, usually nibbling on wild vegetables and taking a bite of pancake.

As for water, she stored a lot in tile jars, which she made using clay and baked many in the mountains. Of course, this was also a survival skill learned in the Beast World. She never thought one day she’d make such temporary tools in the Republic to live for a few days. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The mountain roads were hard to walk but there were often mountain springs flowing down the mountain cracks, which was common in mountain areas. Once she finished drinking water, she had to fetch it this way.

At least she wasn’t short of firewood. Initially, she collected a lot in the mountains, and all the water she found she tried her best to boil before drinking. Parasites, she was somewhat afraid of those things.