Thingyan

Ch 3: The Unfilial Children Trembles in Fear (QT)

The Qiankun Mirror expressed concern. Judging from the original owner’s memories, household registration management was extremely strict in this era. To travel elsewhere, one needed a letter of introduction. With a rural household registration, it was nearly impossible to move around freely in the city. Even if one stayed briefly at a relative’s home, they would be sent back to their place of origin after a few days.

For Yun Xi to come looking for work so optimistically, she was probably going to run into obstacles everywhere.

Yun Xi, however, felt that the Qiankun Mirror was too rule-abiding. Where there was a will, there was a way. Since private job buying and selling existed, there had to be other routes as well. Naturally, she had chosen to enter the city today because there was a route available in the city today!

Back then, the original owner had hesitated for a long time before finally taking the money and going into the city with her eldest son to buy the job. After completing the handover procedures, she had originally wanted to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a few things, only to see a huge crowd blocking the road and many public security officers present.

The two of them had squeezed in to watch and heard that a man had stolen a child, drugged him unconscious, and carried him inside a bag. The child’s grandmother had searched all over the street and, sharp-eyed, noticed a corner of her little grandson’s clothing sticking out through a gap in the bag. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. She immediately rushed over, shouting for help while tearing at him.

In his panic, the man pulled out a small knife and stabbed the old woman. While fleeing, he threw away the bag in his hand and injured several people before the public security officers pinned him down. Later, it was said that the old woman died, and the child hit the back of his head and became simple-minded. The two of them were actually the mayor’s family!

Because of this incident, the original owner had kept muttering afterward that the village was still safer. Her eldest son had scolded her several times for having long hair but short insight, and had even said with hindsight that if he had been at the scene and saved them, it would have been great. If he had connected himself to the mayor, would he still have had to worry about his future?

So here Yun Xi was, coming to save people.

First, she went to the state-run restaurant and bought a plate of dumplings to eat. They were stuffed with pork and scallions. This city was second only to the provincial capital, and the chef’s skill was excellent. To Yun Xi, who had long since practiced inedia and had just eaten a cornbread bun, this was simply a delicacy of the mortal world.

【This is the kind of life a demon queen should live. Once I come to the city, I’m going to eat well and dress well every day. I’m not the kind of demon who enjoys suffering.】

After eating and drinking her fill, Yun Xi leisurely went to the supply and marketing cooperative.

There were quite a few things she had never seen before. Toothpaste, toothbrushes, canned fruit, hair clips, hair ties. She bought a little of everything. Before long, she was carrying a large bag full of things.

Just then, someone outside suddenly screamed.

Yun Xi quickly followed the others and ran out to see. An old woman had grabbed hold of a man and was shouting,

“He stole my grandson! Hurry and catch him!”

The man said impatiently,

“Mom, stop making trouble. I’m joining the army to contribute to the country. A good man’s ambitions lie in all directions. Don’t stop me. Let go!”

Yun Xi gained some new insight.

So this kind of trick was possible too?

Look at the people around them. Those who had originally wanted to help had begun hesitating. Some people really did cry and make trouble to stop their sons or grandsons from joining the army. It truly was possible they were one family. If outsiders blindly interfered, they might end up blamed by both sides.

The old woman was both anxious and furious. Seeing that she could not hold onto the man, she lowered her head and bit his hand.

“Give my grandson back! Don’t be fooled by him! He’s a child thief!”

Once she bit him hard enough to draw blood, they looked much less like one family.

Seeing more and more people gathering around, and even some people wanting to help, the man’s face turned vicious. He pulled out a small knife and stabbed toward the old woman.

“He has a knife! He’s using a knife!”

The crowd instantly fell into chaos.

Yun Xi lifted her bag and threw it straight at the man’s face. Two bottles of canned fruit smashed into him. The man staggered, and blood streamed from his nose.

Seizing that opening, Yun Xi rushed forward, yanked the old woman away, grabbed the man’s wrist, and twisted.

The small knife flew away.

“Ah!”

The man let out a scream, his face twisted in pain. He kicked toward Yun Xi, and while Yun Xi dodged, he turned and ran.

The old woman had already collapsed weakly to the ground in fright, but she was still trying to crawl forward.

“My grandson, my grandson is in his bag…”

Several people blocked the man up ahead, and some even raised sticks to strike him.

Seeing this, the man directly threw the bag he was carrying toward the other side, trying to break through the crowd.

Yun Xi shouted,

“Careful, the child!”

Before her voice had even fallen, she had already rushed over and caught the bag, rolling once across the ground.

The old woman scrambled over, half crawling and half stumbling, her voice trembling.

“My grandson, my grandson…”

Yun Xi opened the bag and handed the child to her.

“Quick, see if he’s your family’s child.”

“Yes! Yes!”

The old woman nodded repeatedly, tears falling nonstop. She pressed her forehead against the child’s and became completely flustered.

“He has a fever. The child has a high fever. Little sister…”

The old woman had a heart condition. Her face was pale, and she had yet to recover from the shock. Out of instinct, she looked at Yun Xi and said this.

Yun Xi picked up the child and pulled the old woman to her feet.

“Hurry to the hospital. I have a bicycle! Where’s my bike? Everyone, move aside. Where’s my bike?”

The crowd had not yet reacted, but they hurriedly opened a path for her.

Yun Xi mounted the bicycle and had the old woman sit on the back holding the child, then headed straight for the hospital.

She had already ridden quite a distance before she heard the commotion behind her as the man was finally subdued.

When they reached the hospital, the doctor immediately sent the child into the emergency room, gave injections, started an IV, and arranged a ward. The old woman was also examined and given medicine.

Because Yun Xi had brought them away so quickly, even now, the only person beside the grandmother and grandson was still Yun Xi, who helped run back and forth and paid the medical expenses in advance.

She had been working in the fields that morning, so she was covered in dust. She had beaten the eldest son earlier, and just now she had rolled on the ground. Even her hair was messy now, but that only made her seem even more simple and genuine.

In any case, when the mayor received the news and hurried over, that was his first impression of her: a simple, brave countryside old woman had saved his mother and his son!

The doctor said the old woman had heart disease and could not withstand excessive shock. If she had arrived any later, she might have gone into shock.

His son had been drugged by the criminal and developed a high fever. Fortunately, treatment had been timely. He would wake up in another two hours, and his body had not been harmed.

If it had not been for Yun Xi, the mayor did not dare imagine what kind of disaster his family would have suffered.

When the old woman saw the mayor, she began crying.

As she cried, she said,

“I only looked away for one moment, and the child disappeared. It scared me to death. If anything had happened to Yangyang, I wouldn’t have lived either!”

The mayor quickly comforted her.

As the old woman spoke about the danger at the time, she remembered Yun Xi and hurriedly grabbed Yun Xi’s hand, saying to the mayor,

“It’s all thanks to this little sister that I was saved. At that moment, the knife had already stabbed into my clothes. I was nearly stabbed to death. And Yangyang too. That bastard saw he couldn’t escape, so he threw Yangyang into the air. Aiyo, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. Thank goodness this little sister caught the child!”

The old woman asked Yun Xi with concern,

“Little sister, how are you? Are you hurt? I saw you fall pretty hard.”

Yun Xi shook her head.

“I’m thick-skinned and tough. A bruise will heal in a couple of days. I’m fine. As long as the child didn’t fall, that’s all that matters.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, right, little sister, my name is Liu Guixiang. What’s yours?”

“Li Yunxi.”

“Aiyo, what a lovely name.”

The old woman grabbed the mayor’s hand again.

“Sister Li is our family’s great benefactor. You have to thank her properly.”

The mayor said,

“Comrade, I must thank you especially. Today, you not only saved my mother and my child, you also stopped that criminal from injuring people in time. There were so many people present. If the criminal had panicked and attacked with his knife, many people could have been hurt. Thank you so much! Under those circumstances, you still dared to rush forward. You took an enormous risk. You were truly brave!”

Yun Xi said,

“If I saw something like that, of course I had to lend a hand. I have children and grandchildren too. If I put myself in her shoes, the moment I saw how anxious elder sister was, I knew it didn’t look fake. Then that criminal was lying, saying something about joining the army and leaving. I thought something was wrong, so I hurried forward through the crowd. Otherwise, I might not have made it in time.”

The old woman was deeply moved.

“That criminal was far too cunning. Everyone believed his lies at the time. I was terrified to death. It really takes mothers and grandmothers like us to see through something like that.”

Yun Xi casually sighed and said,

“That’s why people say a mother’s love is great. When danger comes, we don’t even need to think before risking our lives. The problem is that children don’t necessarily understand a mother’s sacrifices. Elder Sister, you’re lucky. Your son cares so much about you and is so filial, and your grandson is adorable too.

I’m not so fortunate. My four children are each more unfilial than the last. They even got into a fight today. They made me so angry that I ran away from home and didn’t even want to go back. Just seeing them makes my blood boil.”

The old woman already regarded Yun Xi as a younger sister.

The moment she heard this, she became angry on Yun Xi’s behalf.

“With such a wonderful mother, and they still won’t behave? They deserve a good scolding.”

She turned to the mayor and said,

“Changde, from now on our two families should visit each other often. You’re older, so help teach Aunt Li’s children a lesson when you can.”

What she really meant was that she wanted the mayor to help Yun Xi’s children.

Maintaining close ties with the mayor’s family would undoubtedly bring countless benefits.

The mayor was just about to agree when Yun Xi waved both hands repeatedly.

“Please don’t bother with those worthless brats. I worked myself to the bone raising them, and they still tell their children that I’m a shrew. Bah! Every one of them is selfish and self-serving. From now on, I’m done taking care of them.”

She glanced at the clock hanging in the hallway and stood up.

“Well then, now that your family is here, Elder Sister, I can stop worrying. I still need to ask around about something, so I won’t stay any longer.”

The old woman was still feeling sympathetic toward Yun Xi.

Hearing that, she immediately grabbed her hand.

“What is it? Just tell me. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll have Changde ask someone else.”

Yun Xi replied,

“I’m asking about finding a job.

Today my eldest son said someone was selling a job. It would cost eight hundred yuan to get into the city. Wouldn’t that empty out the entire family? The other children wouldn’t accept that either. I disagreed, and my eldest son cursed at me. Then they all started fighting.

That made me realize something. No matter how successful any of them become, they’ll never be filial to me. Instead of depending on them, I might as well find a job myself and enjoy the second half of my life.”

“A job? You want a job?”

The old woman’s eyes widened.

Even the mayor looked surprised.

There were certainly people in their forties and fifties working in the city. But they were either long-established employees who had entered the workforce years ago or people doing odd jobs for extra money.

They had never seen someone from the countryside, at this age, trying to enter the city workforce.

Yun Xi spoke as though it were perfectly natural.

“I’m only forty-five. You saw my strength today. I’m stronger than plenty of young people. Why can’t I find a job?

My eldest son can find one, so why can’t I? I’m better than he is.

He spends all day calling me illiterate and uneducated, but I’ve secretly taught myself quite a few characters already.

Besides, I don’t think my second son’s teaching skills are anything special. If they let me do it, I could teach too. Who doesn’t know that one plus one equals two?

They’re always looking down on me.

I heard that city workers get grain and cooking oil every month. Then I wouldn’t even have to farm to eat.

And who knows? Maybe I could even become a teacher someday.”

To anyone listening, it was obvious she knew little about city life and was oversimplifying things.

Everything she described was essentially impossible.

For ordinary people, at least.

For people with connections in the city, however, it was not difficult at all.

The mayor immediately understood what she really wanted.

She wanted an urban household registration.

She wanted a formal job.

She wanted a place to live.

Most of all, she wanted to stop going home and suffering at the hands of her children.

Today, if it had not been for Yun Xi, there would have been a major violent incident. As mayor, he would have faced consequences as well.

More importantly, his mother and son had been saved.

Whether because of gratitude or obligation, he had every reason to repay Yun Xi.

The mayor spoke up.

“I can arrange that matter myself. Aunt Li, just wait for the news.”

The mayor stepped outside and instructed his secretary to make arrangements.

First, Yun Xi needed to receive recognition for her act of bravery.

Then she would be placed in the Municipal Government Logistics Department.

If she worked under his watch, he could look after her personally. Even if she made mistakes, he would be able to help resolve them.

Seeing Yun Xi’s astonished expression, the old woman smiled and whispered,

“Sister Li, just relax. My son is capable. He’s the mayor of our city. He’ll definitely arrange everything properly for you.”

“The mayor? Really?”

Yun Xi appropriately displayed a bit of shock and uncertainty.

The Qiankun Mirror: …

She really loved acting.

Apparently she was having a great time.

The old woman continued,

“No matter what official position he holds, he’s still an ordinary person. Today you saved my life. You’re my great benefactor. If you ever run into difficulties in the future, just come to me. We’ll treat each other like real sisters.”

Truthfully, if her grandson had really disappeared under her watch and something had happened to him, she would never have been able to face her son and daughter-in-law again.

Even if nobody stabbed her to death, she probably would have swallowed poison and killed herself.

Even now, the thought filled her with lingering fear.

Yun Xi truly had saved her life.

The old woman continued chatting with Yun Xi and even invited her to stay the night rather than return home.

As they talked, Yun Xi gradually became warmer and more familiar with her.

The old woman grew happier and happier, constantly calling her “Little Sister.”

Meanwhile, back in the village, the Dong family spent most of the day anxiously waiting for Yun Xi to return.

But she never came back.

That night, the eldest son tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

Wasn’t his mother supposed to be buying him a job?

Where was she?

╰───♡───╯

TOC

Ch 2: The Unfilial Children Trembles in Fear (QT)

Dong Zhiyong quietly told them what had happened earlier and urged them to hurry up and work, so they would not cause any more trouble. Right now, every household was cooking at home. If the commotion got any louder, the neighbors would hear, and people would laugh at them.

After hearing this, the second son, Dong Zhijie, wanted to call Dong Zhiyong over to chop firewood with him.

“Zhiyong, you’re strong and work fast. You chop it, and I’ll help stack it. I still have to write on the blackboard and grade homework when I teach. If I hurt my hands, it’ll affect my work.”

He was somewhat thin and scholarly, the sort of person who naturally made people feel favorable toward him at first glance.

But what use was that?

Yun Xi gave a soft sneer. This one had a black heart. Ever since he was little, he dodged whatever household chores he could, always using studying hard as his excuse. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Yet he had not amounted to much. It was only because, compared to the other people in the village, he counted as educated that he could become a teacher at the village primary school and teach the village children some simple knowledge.

After becoming a teacher, Dong Zhijie consciously felt his status in the family had changed.

He was an educated man. He looked down on these dusty, earth-scraping people who made their living from the fields. He simply did not show it. Instead, he carried himself with airs and often stayed at school grading homework, only coming home to sleep.

Oh, right. All three meals he ate in a day were made by the original owner early in the morning and packed for him to take to school.

Only the original owner felt that her second son had promise now that he had become a teacher. Perhaps he might even become a teacher in the city one day. She was sincerely happy for him.

As for the rest of the family, they only cared how much money he handed over and how much work he did for the household. They were not going to indulge him.

Sure enough, Dong Zhiyong rolled his eyes and said,

“A village schoolteacher, and you really think you’re somebody now? Back when Old Wu was alive, he was missing two fingers and still worked as a carpenter. If your work is affected, that just means your skill isn’t good enough. Mom told you to do it, so hurry up and go. Stop dragging your feet.”

After saying that, Dong Zhiyong was about to run off, but Yun Xi called him back.

“Don’t just talk about your brother. Go pick a few potatoes from the cellar and have your second sister-in-law fry potato slices. Then go borrow the bicycle from the brigade leader’s house and ask him to write me a certificate. I’m going to the city to handle something.”

The moment those words came out, everyone in the family stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

Even the eldest son’s family, who had been sulking inside the room, hurried out.

Dong Zhiyong said angrily,

“Mom, are you still going to buy Eldest Brother a job? Why? That’s the whole family’s money. I have a share too. If you’re buying Eldest Brother a job, you have to buy one for me too.”

Dong Zhizhi said anxiously,

“Mom, I’m a woman. I’m the one who needs a job the most. One of my classmates went to work at the supply and marketing cooperative, and the person she found is a fitter at the machinery factory. His conditions are excellent.”

One of these two was twenty, lazy and slippery, earning only five work points a day while constantly running off to play with bad friends.

The other was eighteen. After graduating from middle school, she had stayed home doing chores, but she found everything hard and tiring and was always dreaming of marrying well.

Both of them were anxious.

The second brother had a decent job and had already married and had a child. The eldest was the firstborn and had even given the family an eldest grandson, so of course he could get all the good things. Only the two youngest suffered losses. How could they not be anxious?

They were afraid Yun Xi would take all the family’s money and give it to the eldest.

Yun Xi said,

“With the three of them shouting at me like that and acting so unfilial, why would I buy him a job? Am I bored out of my mind? I’m going to handle my own business. With Eldest Son’s rotten character, if he enters the city, he’ll immediately leave us behind and despise us as poor relatives. This family will not pay for him. He’s destined to scrape a living from the fields.”

Dong Zhihong’s face flushed red with anger. His hands clenched into fists as he strode forward and glared at Yun Xi.

“Mom, have you gone senile? I’m the eldest son of this family. I’m the pillar of the household. If I can get a city job, that means smoke is rising from our ancestors’ graves in blessing. When I retire, the job can even be passed to your eldest grandson. From then on, our old Dong family will change its status and eat city grain.

Don’t blame me for saying this, but you really are a woman with long hair and short insight. No wonder my dad always disliked you for being illiterate and uneducated. You…”

Yun Xi casually grabbed the broom leaning by the wall and began beating him over the head and face.

“I’m illiterate and uneducated? Go ask whether the brigade leader’s wife can read. Go ask how many people in this village are educated. I have long hair and short insight? You’re an unfilial ingrate! A piece of trash like you thinks you deserve smoke rising from the ancestral graves? Bah! An unfilial thing like you only deserves to be struck from the ancestors’ registry!

And that little ingrate you gave birth to, even if he got to eat state grain, he wouldn’t share a bite with me. Why should I care whether he lives or dies? You shameless thing. You even dared tell your son I’m a shrew. Today, this old lady will show you exactly what a shrew is!”

The word “shrew” was something the eldest son’s family had said inside their room just now. No one had expected that even though they had spoken so softly, she had still heard them.

For a moment, the others began criticizing him too.

“Eldest Brother, you’ve lost your conscience. How can you call our mom a shrew?”

“You dared curse our mom. That makes you unfilial!”

“What are you clenching your fists for? You still want to hit our mom back? Even if you’re the eldest, I won’t let you off!”

As they shouted, Dong Zhiyong’s fist landed on Dong Zhihong’s face.

Dong Zhihong could not hit his mother back, but could he not hit his younger brother?

In an instant, all his anger turned toward Dong Zhiyong.

The commotion grew louder, and sure enough, several neighbors came running over to watch. Some even held rice bowls in their hands, eating while they watched.

“What’s going on? What’s happening? How did they start fighting?”

Yun Xi said heartlessly,

“It’s all because of Eldest Son. He insisted on buying a job in the city and emptying out the family all at once. How could the others agree to that? It’s unfair. So the brothers started fighting!”

Dong Zhijie’s expression changed slightly. He hurried over to break up the fight.

“Stop fighting! Haven’t you embarrassed yourselves enough?”

No one had expected Yun Xi to blurt everything out so openly.

Was it pleasant to hear that brothers were fighting over money?

In the time it took to eat one meal, this would spread through the whole village. For years to come, it would become gossip and a joke people brought up whenever they were chatting. It was utterly humiliating.

Wang Huijuan’s face looked ugly as she tugged Dong Zhihong back into the room.

Dong Zhiyong shouted irritably,

“What are you all staring at? Go back and eat. What’s there to see?”

“You child, everyone was just worried.”

“Exactly. Once a fight gets out of hand, of course we have to come over and break it up.”

Dong Zhijie quickly dragged Dong Zhiyong into the room too.

Dong Zhizhi and the second daughter-in-law, Wang Xuefen, were thin-skinned and had long since hidden in the kitchen.

Only Yun Xi remained in the courtyard.

An elderly neighbor woman tentatively asked,

“What exactly is going on? Buying a job? There’s a connection in the city? How much does it cost?”

“Eight hundred! Tell me, isn’t that deadly?”

Yun Xi walked over and stood with them by the gate. Leaning against the wall, she began chatting.

Once everyone saw that she was willing to talk, they crowded around her even more enthusiastically.

The core of what she said was simple.

Once children grew up, they all developed their own schemes. Every one of them wanted to pull the family’s money into their own pocket. Every one of them wanted to find a chance to run to the city. But how could ordinary rural families have that much money? Supporting such a large household was already difficult. There was hardly anything saved. Yet the children still felt they had suffered losses and did not understand their elders at all. They wished they could dig out even the money meant for the old people’s coffins.

They were all elders around the same age, and they all had several children and grandchildren to look after.

This topic resonated with them far too much. Once they started talking, they could not stop.

As Yun Xi spoke, her tongue slipped, and she spilled out all the usual conflicts and frictions among the brothers at home.

It was not until Wang Xuefen could no longer bear it and poked her head out of the kitchen to call them to eat that Yun Xi reluctantly let everyone disperse.

The moment everyone left, Wang Xuefen immediately complained,

“Mom, really. Even if you’re angry, you can’t say everything outside. Zhijie is a teacher. As someone who teaches others, he has to consider his image. If this spreads, what will the students and their parents think?”

Yun Xi sneered.

“We all grew up in the same village. Who doesn’t know who? If you’re really afraid of ugly rumors spreading, then do more work normally and properly show filial respect to this old lady. I guarantee that whatever spreads will be nice to hear. If you aren’t that kind of person yourself, why are you still thinking about a good reputation? Dream on.”

These words made the expressions of the three brothers, who had just come out, look even worse.

Yun Xi glanced at the shredded potatoes that had been served and said in surprise,

“Oh? Second daughter-in-law, your knife skills are almost as good as a chef at a state-run restaurant. So why have you always said you can’t cook? This level can’t be practiced in just three to five years.

Hurry up and try it, all of you. Normally, you don’t get to eat food made by Second Daughter-in-law.”

Her sarcastic words made Wang Xuefen’s face flush red.

From the moment she entered the family, Wang Xuefen had not wanted to work from dawn to dusk. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. She deliberately pretended she could not do anything well, always making a frantic mess and causing trouble.

Later, they only had her sweep the floor, feed the chickens, and cut pig grass.

Afterward, Dong Zhijie used connections to get her the job of scorekeeper. From then on, she went to the village school every day and secretly cooked extra meals with Dong Zhijie, doing even less at home.

Today, she had been intimidated by Yun Xi’s outburst. Then the family fought. Listening to her mother-in-law say all those things outside had left her mind in chaos. For a moment, she had not paid attention and cut the potatoes according to her normal skill level.

By the time she realized it, it was too late. She could only brace herself and cook.

She forced a smile and explained,

“Sometimes I help out at the village school too. I learned from others there.”

Yun Xi sat down, filled a large bowl with shredded potatoes for herself, took two cornbread buns, and began eating.

“Hurry up and eat. After eating, whoever needs to go to work, go to work. Whoever needs to do chores, do chores.”

In the past, she was always the one who divided the food.

Now she did not care.

The others looked at one another. As the eldest sister-in-law, Wang Huijuan stood and divided the food evenly among everyone.

In an era of scarce clothing and food, a large family never ate until full. They only ate until half-full.

Since Yun Xi had taken so much for herself, what remained for them was even less.

The scene at the dining table was very strange.

The old lady was eating so much, yet there was not much in the little grandson’s bowl.

Dong Zhihong had been slapped, beaten with a broom, and had fought with Dong Zhiyong. Now his whole body hurt. The corner of his eye was bruised, and the corner of his mouth was split. Even eating hurt so badly that rage surged through him.

His gaze kept falling on Yun Xi, full of anger.

But he did not make trouble again.

He was afraid that while the old lady was still angry, she would shout nonsense again and attract the neighbors to laugh at them. He decided to wait until this mood passed before saying anything.

As Yun Xi ate, she frowned and could not help complaining to the Qiankun Mirror.

【This cornbread bun tastes awful. According to the original owner’s memories, I’ll have to keep eating like this for many more years.】

The Qiankun Mirror helped her think of a solution.

【Master, we can go to the city and buy delicious food to hide in the space. Then you can secretly eat it later.】

Yun Xi did not respond.

Make her, a great demon lord, hide away to secretly eat?

She could not do something so degrading.

If she wanted to eat, she would eat openly and honorably.

After the meal, Yun Xi called Dong Zhiyong again to borrow the bicycle.

Dong Zhihong frowned.

“Mom, you don’t even know how to ride a bicycle. Can you stop making trouble? If you make it fall and scrape off someone else’s paint, how will you compensate them?”

“If I don’t know, then I’ll learn. All of you know how. Why wouldn’t I be able to learn? Who are you looking down on?”

The city was so far away. Yun Xi had no intention of walking there herself.

Once she learned about bicycles from the original owner’s memories, she had already made up her mind to get one.

Wasn’t it just riding and moving forward?

She even knew how to fly on a sword.

The most important things for riding a bicycle were courage and balance.

As it happened, Yun Xi had both.

Once she touched the bicycle, she wobbled a few times and then rode off!

The Dong family stared at her back in astonishment.

Dong Zhizhi anxiously chased after her for a few steps and shouted,

“Mom! Mom, you still haven’t said what you’re going to the city for! Wait for me! Take me with you! Mom!”

Yun Xi pretended not to hear.

This bicycle was truly interesting. With two wheels, once she pedaled, it could run forward.

Although the road was bad and rather bumpy, it was fun.

Yun Xi rode against the wind onto the city streets.

Rows of brick-and-tile houses lined the road. Occasionally, she could even see a tube-shaped apartment building.

The people coming and going on the street were all clean and tidy, their faces bright with smiles. Their entire spirit was completely different from the people in the village.

The Qiankun Mirror asked curiously,

【Master, what did you come to the city for?】

Yun Xi curled her lips into a smile.

“Of course, to get myself a job. Who wants to stay in the fields scraping food from the dirt with that pack of ingrates?”

╰───♡───╯

TOC

Ch 1: The Unfilial Children Trembles in Fear (QT)

Thingyan: I translated this not knowing another translator already picked it up (I double checked before I picked it up but it didn’t show up. Don’t know what happened). I apologize for that. Once I release all the translated chapters from the first two worlds, I will drop this novel 😔

World 1: The Despised Mother of the 1970s

“Mom, hurry up and get the money. I’m heading into the city right now to secure that job. If I’m late, the opportunity will be gone.”

The moment Yun Xi regained consciousness, she saw a young man speaking across from her and immediately knew she had arrived in a new world.

She had originally been a demonic cultivator in the cultivation world. Her tribulation had gone badly, and her physical body had been destroyed by heavenly lightning. Fortunately, her natal treasure, the Qiankun Mirror, could carry her through the Three Thousand Worlds, allowing her soul to survive.

Of course, she could not simply take over someone else’s body whenever she pleased. She had to make a deal with the fated individual.

The other party’s resentment was too heavy for reincarnation, yet they lacked the ability to take revenge themselves, so they offered their body to her. In return, she would eliminate their resentment and allow them to reincarnate successfully.

Resolving resentment was actually a form of merit. The more she did it, the more it helped repair her damaged soul. As her soul grew stronger, so would her abilities. Sooner or later, she would be able to reconstruct her body and return to the peak of her strength.

That was why she had readily entered this first small world.

Her current identity was the despised villainous mother of the 1970s.

She had worked herself to exhaustion and sacrificed her entire life, yet among her three sons and one daughter, not a single one was filial. They ate from her bowl, then cursed their mother after putting it down. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. In the end, they let her freeze to death in the pigsty on New Year’s Eve and even complained that her death was bad luck.

The original owner, Li Yunxi, had died in agony. Her resentment reached the heavens. She wished she had never had these children at all. All she wanted was for them to spit back out everything they had eaten from her and return everything they had taken from her.

This sort of thing happened to be Yun Xi’s specialty.

The man speaking in front of her was her eldest son, Dong Zhihong.

He was the best at putting on a show. Outwardly, he seemed reasonable. Inwardly, he was selfish and self-serving.

After his father died, he came to believe that a widow should obey her son. Since he was the eldest, his mother should listen to him. He also liked to put on the airs of a father figure toward his younger siblings, constantly lecturing them.

And now he was demanding money from the family as if it were perfectly natural.

Eight hundred yuan to buy a city job.

His tone made it clear he was not asking.

He never considered whether the family could afford it, nor how everyone would survive afterward.

The youngest son, Dong Zhiyong, and the youngest daughter, Dong Zhizhi, immediately protested.

“That’s way too much money. It’s not worth it.”

“Exactly. Where would the family get that kind of money for you to spend?”

Dong Zhihong waved a dismissive hand.

“What do you two know? Stay out of it.”

When he saw that Yun Xi had not immediately produced the money, he grew impatient.

“A city job! Plenty of people spend their whole lives wishing for an opportunity like this and never get one. What are you still thinking about, Mom? If you miss this chance, there won’t be another one!”

His wife, Wang Huijuan, immediately chimed in.

“That’s right, Mom. This is an opportunity for our family. It doesn’t matter if we tighten our belts and go a little hungry. For a chance this rare, we have to come up with the money. Eight hundred yuan is a lot, but we’ll be extra filial to you in the future. You’ll have everything you want. Don’t be so reluctant.”

She really had mastered the art of passive-aggressive remarks.

Wasn’t she basically accusing Yun Xi of hoarding money and mistreating them?

Dong Zhihong frowned at her.

“Mom, you’re uneducated, so you don’t understand. This isn’t the time to be stingy. Hurry up and give me the money. They’re waiting for me.”

Yun Xi slapped him across the face.

“Uneducated? Even if I’m uneducated, I’m still your mother. Is this how you talk to me?”

Wang Huijuan let out a shrill scream.

“Mom! How can you hit someone?”

Yun Xi immediately slapped her as well.

“If I didn’t hit you, you’d never know your place. Go ask around the village. Who isn’t hungry? Back then, people had to chew tree bark to survive! You’ve eaten a few decent meals and now you’ve set your sights on the family’s money. Who exactly are you insulting with those veiled remarks?”

“Mom! Have you gone crazy?!” Dong Zhihong’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Even though she had always been hot-tempered, that side of her was reserved for outsiders. At home, she was merely frugal and nagging.

How could she suddenly start hitting people?

And the person she hit was him, her eldest son!

Their eight-year-old son, Dong Xin, had been squatting by the wall playing with mud. Seeing his parents get slapped, he charged at Yun Xi.

“How dare you hit my mom and dad! I’ll kill you, you old hag!”

Yun Xi sneered.

With one kick, she sent him tumbling aside. Then she turned around and slapped Dong Zhihong again.

“If a child isn’t taught properly, the father is to blame. The reason your son dares treat me this way is because you’re a worthless bastard.”

Dong Zhiyong and Dong Zhizhi were completely stunned.

They stood there with mouths hanging open, unsure whether they should intervene.

Yun Xi swept a glance over them, rolled up her sleeves, and barked,

“From now on, I’m done indulging your bad habits. Every one of you acts like some exalted ancestor in front of me, with your noses stuck in the air. Asking for money to get things done? Did you even ask me first? What am I, some servant you can order around?”

Everyone was startled.

Their expressions changed instantly.

Wang Huijuan hurriedly said,

“Mom, you can’t say things like that. If someone overhears, we’ll be finished.”

Yun Xi picked up the bowl of water on the table, intending to take a drink. When she saw dust floating inside, she slammed it back down.

“You can’t even keep a bowl of water clean, yet you talk about being filial to me? I can’t stand this kind of filial piety.”

She stared at Dong Zhihong.

“There are four children in this family. I already paid to build houses for you and your second brother, helped you get married, and helped raise your children. Where exactly would I get the money to buy you a job? I don’t have it. Don’t you always say your father-in-law and mother-in-law are educated people? Go ask them. Stop coming to your uneducated mother.”

With that, Yun Xi returned to her room and shut the door behind her, leaving the stunned group outside.

The Qiankun Mirror congratulated her from within her sea of consciousness.

【Master, you’re amazing! That was a perfect imitation!】

Yun Xi curled her lips into a smile.

Throwing a tantrum?

What was so difficult about that?

She actually found it quite fun. It was something she had never experienced before.

When she made the deal with the original owner, she had already received all of her memories. She understood what kind of world this was and what sort of person the original owner had been.

The original owner’s husband had died eighteen years ago.

At the time, she had nearly lost her life giving birth to Dong Zhizhi after a difficult labor brought on by emotional distress. Before she had even completed her confinement month, her husband’s family threw her out. Her own family refused to take her and the children in as well.

She had no choice but to work herself half to death raising four children on her own.

At the time, her eldest son had only been nine years old.

For a woman in that era to raise children alone in the countryside was naturally difficult.

That was how the original owner developed her fierce personality.

She argued with people. She fought people.

But if nobody bullied her, she would never start trouble herself.

Everything she did was simply to protect her children.

Yun Xi’s performance just now had been copied straight from the original owner’s memories.

The original owner probably pitied her children for losing their father at such a young age and having to endure gossip from others. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Because of that, she doted on them more than she should have. She never hit them. She only nagged endlessly, hoping they would grow up successful.

The original owner worked tirelessly to earn work points, washed clothes, cooked meals, and spun like a top every day.

She never dressed up.

She always looked dusty and worn.

At some point, the children had begun to despise her.

They never said it aloud.

And she never noticed.

They disliked that she was uneducated and barely recognized a few characters.

They disliked her loud voice when she argued with people because it embarrassed them.

They disliked how stingy she was, unwilling to let them eat better food or wear nicer clothes.

They disliked that she wasn’t clean enough, that she was dark-skinned, that her clothes were ugly, and that she wasn’t as good as other people’s mothers.

How much of that came from the muttering of her rarely-seen in-laws, and how much came from things they heard outside, Yun Xi did not know.

What she did know was that these children were truly heartless.

Not one of them ever cared about how much their mother had suffered for them.

Yun Xi had lived a very long time in the cultivation world.

She had seen all kinds of people.

Some children simply could not be taught into becoming good people.

They were born cold-hearted and selfish.

So she had no intention whatsoever of teaching this family to become better.

She was not here to raise children for the original owner.

She was here to deal with them.

These ungrateful ingrates relied on their mother’s love while repeatedly stabbing her in the back.

People like that deserved no happy ending.

Since she had encountered them, it was their bad luck.

Outside, Dong Zhihong, whose face was still stinging from the slaps, continued cursing loudly.

From the sound of it, he intended to storm into her room and argue things out. Fortunately, Dong Zhiyong managed to stop him. The commotion continued for quite some time before finally dying down.

Yun Xi ignored them.

Following the original owner’s memories, she quickly located all the family’s money, ration coupons, household registration documents, and other important belongings, tossing everything directly into the Qiankun Mirror’s storage space.

The space was enormous.

However, carrying her through worlds had consumed everything originally stored there.

Now it was completely empty.

Naturally, she needed to restock it.

A newly purchased piece of cloth originally meant for Dong Zhizhi’s new outfit?

Into the space.

That little ungrateful daughter didn’t deserve it.

She would find someone to make clothes for herself instead.

There was also a bag of milk powder, a package of Changbai cakes, and a handful of milk candies in the cabinet.

The original owner had saved them for her eldest son’s eight-year-old boy and her second son’s five-year-old daughter.

Into the space they went.

The little ingrates had learned from their parents.

Behind her back, they all called her an old hag.

She was only forty-five years old and still in her prime.

Yet they had practically aged her with their insults.

From now on, they could forget about getting even a bite of her good food.

The family’s flour, rice, sugar, and eggs all went into the space as well.

Food and clothing were scarce in this era.

Wherever she was, they were more useful in her own hands.

One advantage of being the mother was that she naturally outranked everyone else by a generation.

She could put these things wherever she pleased.

She didn’t need to explain herself to anyone.

If nobody could find them, they would probably praise her for hiding them well.

After gathering everything, the room contained nothing but worthless junk.

Only then did Yun Xi come out.

Casually, she ordered Dong Zhizhi,

“Go wash the pots and dishes. Scrub them spotless. I don’t want to see a single black speck.”

Dong Zhizhi froze for a moment, muttered something under her breath, and reluctantly headed into the kitchen.

At that moment, the second daughter-in-law, who worked as the village scorekeeper, returned carrying her child.

The second son, who taught at the village school, came back carrying books as well.

They normally ate lunch together at the school, claiming they still had work in the afternoon and didn’t want to waste time going back and forth.

In reality, they were secretly cooking extra meals for themselves.

The fact that they had returned so early today clearly meant they had heard rumors about the eldest brother buying a job and rushed home to stop it.

According to the original owner’s memories, this day had been quite lively.

The family had a total of one thousand yuan.

Buying the job would cost eight hundred.

The original owner had been extremely hesitant and refused to hand over the money for a long time.

The four children and two daughters-in-law argued endlessly over the matter.

The three brothers nearly came to blows.

The eldest son felt his authority as the firstborn was being challenged.

Rather than blame himself for failing to control his younger brothers, he blamed the original owner for dragging her feet over the money.

He ended up resenting her because of it.

For years afterward, he still brought up the matter from time to time.

In the end, for the sake of her eldest son and for the family as a whole, the original owner handed over the eight hundred yuan.

She allowed him to become a city worker and made him promise to help his younger siblings in the future.

To her, it had been a gamble.

If she won, the whole family’s life would improve.

If she lost, they would only lose money.

They could always earn more later.

Wasn’t having a chance better than having none?

Other families supported their promising children in exactly the same way.

The result?

The other three children resented her.

They believed she favored the eldest son and had given most of the family’s money to him.

She had no authority whatsoever in the household.

No matter what she did, she ended up being blamed by everyone.

Naturally, Yun Xi had no intention of indulging them.

When she saw the leisurely second son and his wife, she immediately ordered,

“Go chop the firewood and carry the water. I need hot water tonight.”

Then she turned to the second daughter-in-law.

“Leave the child with your eldest sister-in-law and get cooking.”

The two people who had just entered the courtyard stared at her in shock.

Yun Xi glanced at them.

“What? In this family, does your mother have to beg you to do some work?”

╰───♡───╯

TOC

Ch 5: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

After giving away the gift, Xie Li was in an extremely good mood.

But the moment he returned to the educated youth dormitory, he saw a crowd waiting in the courtyard. As soon as they spotted him, they all shot him reproachful looks.

“Where’d you go? Did you forget it was your turn to cook today? We’re starving to death over here.”

Hu Dezheng grumbled in an exaggeratedly fake tone, striking first before the others could complain. He shoved Xie Li straight toward the kitchen.

“Hurry up and cook.”

Before Xie Li could even react, he had already been pushed inside. Looking around, he found cooking utensils laid out everywhere in front of him.

His expression stiffened in disbelief.

He actually had to cook too?

“No idea where you went, but next time come back earlier. Everyone’s a bit unhappy.” Hu Dezheng sighed in relief once inside the kitchen, waved a hand, and said, “I’m going to wash up first. Hurry and finish cooking. I’m genuinely hungry.”

After saying that, he turned around and left with complete confidence.

Xie Li stared at his retreating back, then at the prepared grain and vegetables sitting before him, before rubbing his forehead with a bitter smile.

He really trusts me.

There was no helping it. Even though he had never cooked before in his life and was inwardly panicking like crazy, dinner still had to be made.

Facing such a high-level household task for the first time, Xie Li felt rather uncertain. Following the original host’s memories, he clumsily cooked a pot of sweet potato rice and prepared two simple dishes.

One dish used napa cabbage harvested the previous winter and stored in the cellar. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. After washing it clean, he heated a tiny bit of oil in the wok, chopped the cabbage into chunks, stir-fried it to remove the raw bitterness, sprinkled in some salt, then took it off the heat.

The second dish was purslane dug up and dried during the previous autumn. He boiled it briefly, removed it, then mixed it cold with salt and minced garlic.

After finishing, Xie Li secretly tasted a bite and discovered it was actually not bad?

Still, staring at the sweet potato rice and imagining its overly filling texture, he remained unsatisfied.

Focusing his thoughts into the space, he took out eight eggplants.

These eggplants had been picked earlier on the way back. The crops inside the space grew far too quickly. Two hours outside equaled nearly a full day inside, meaning he had to harvest eggplants at least every half day. Otherwise, they would grow too old and tough, ruining both the taste and the selling price.

Xie Li chopped garlic into pieces and sizzled it in oil until fragrant. Then he washed the eggplants thoroughly, cut them into chunks, and stir-fried them in the wok. During the cooking process, he first added salt, then a cornstarch slurry. Before long, the unique fragrance of eggplant mixed with garlic spread throughout the air.

“Dinner’s ready.”

Very satisfied with his results, Xie Li called out for the others to come carry the dishes outside and line up for rice.

“Huh? Where did the eggplants come from?” The educated youths looked surprised.

Eight people cooked together, and all the grain and vegetables were pooled together from everyone’s contributions. This year’s eggplants had not even been distributed yet, so logically there should not have been any eggplant dish at all.

Keeping a perfectly calm expression, Xie Li picked up a bite and casually replied:

“I went to the county city today and saw some villagers selling eggplants, so I bought a few for an extra dish.”

Farmers were allowed to sell small amounts of their own vegetables, grain, chickens, and ducks. If educated youths received money from home, they would also buy a little extra food from villagers to supplement their rations. Only large-scale buying and selling was forbidden. Getting reported for that would be disastrous.

The reason Xie Li chose to deal with the black market was precisely because his quantities were too large and he wanted convenience.

“Xie Li’s awesome!”

Hearing his explanation, the educated youths immediately brightened up. Nobody complained anymore about dinner being late. Chopsticks flew rapidly toward the dishes.

They were already sick of eating cabbage and wild vegetables every day. Fresh eggplants were far more delicious. The dish was savory and flavorful, soft and tender, perfectly paired with steaming sweet potato rice. At long last, the stomachs that had starved through an entire day of labor received some comfort.

“This eggplant’s amazing. The salt’s perfect, and the cooking’s spot on.”

“Exactly. I don’t know how Xie Li made it, but it tastes fantastic. Way better than the rest of us.”

“Not just the eggplant. The other two dishes are good too. Hurry up and try them.”

Several people were stunned.

“Wow, with cooking skills like this, wouldn’t it be amazing if Xie Li cooked every day…”

Xie Li silently picked up a couple bites of food. Watching the young faces around him, still smiling despite their difficult circumstances, something stirred faintly inside his heart.

Quickly finishing the rice in his bowl, he set down his chopsticks.

“You guys eat slowly. I’m going to bathe.”

Once he left, the others exchanged glances.

“Did he get upset?”

“Why would he suddenly be upset?”

“Didn’t you just say it’d be great if he cooked every day?”

“What are you talking about? I was obviously joking.”

“You can joke around with other people, but why joke about that with Xie Li? It’s not like you don’t know he’s the stingiest person here.”

The original host’s reputation had been far too deeply ingrained. Even though Xie Li had remained calm and pleasant these past few days without losing his temper, his image had not improved much in the short term.

Hu Dezheng did vaguely feel that Xie Li had changed, but after thinking about it, he still could not say for certain, so he kept quiet.

Thus, Xie Li never realized that he had only wanted to enter the space while everyone else was distracted eating, yet others had interpreted his departure as him being petty.

…

The educated youth dormitory had no drinking water supply, but behind it near the mountain flowed a small river suitable for bathing. To save firewood, the men bathed directly in the river during every season except winter. The female educated youths had it harder, needing to haul water back themselves for bathing.

Xie Li arrived at the riverside, dove straight into the water, then entered the space beneath the surface and began another round of harvesting.

Only around four hours had passed since his last visit, yet the eggplants inside the space were already hanging heavy with fruit again. After picking them all, he estimated the total weight at roughly two hundred jin.

The long beans and pumpkins had also begun ripening one after another, but the quantities were still too small. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Too lazy to harvest them yet, Xie Li decided to let them continue growing naturally and planned to collect them once more had matured the next day.

At the same time, he calculated today’s profits.

Eighty-two jin of eggplants sold at seven fen per jin had earned him five yuan and seven mao four fen in total. After spending three yuan on snow cream and another five fen at the supply cooperative for a packet of cabbage seeds, he still had a little over two yuan left.

Seeds did not require ration coupons. The single packet he bought contained around two thousand seeds. If planted in batches at calculated intervals, he could guarantee one harvest every seven days, perfect for selling steadily to the black market.

Still, the profits from growing vegetables were simply too low.

For ordinary villagers, earning five yuan a day was already miraculous. One month would mean one hundred fifty yuan. Two months could buy an entire bicycle. Yet Xie Li still found it unsatisfying, which was why he had started planting cabbage too.

But cabbage did not seem especially profitable either…

Xie Li fell into deep thought, trying to figure out whether there was some crop with truly high returns.

Since he could not disappear for too long, he quickly exited the space and resurfaced from the river. While thinking, he washed himself before returning to the educated youth dormitory.

The educated youths were all busy with different tasks. Two female educated youths were cleaning bowls and chopsticks, while two others had gone into the village to fetch water. Aside from Hu Dezheng sitting in the courtyard reading by moonlight, two more had already gone to bed early.

“You’re back?”

Seeing Xie Li return, Hu Dezheng smiled at him.

“You should sleep early. Resting more will help your body recover.”

After drinking the spiritual spring water, Xie Li’s injuries had long since healed. But for appearances’ sake, he continued changing the bandage on his forehead every day, so everyone still believed he was injured and remained very concerned for him.

Xie Li paused before replying:

“I’ve been sleeping too much these past few days. It’s too early, so I’m not sleepy yet.”

Then he entered the room, grabbed one of the original host’s books, and sat down in the courtyard beside Hu Dezheng to read.

“You finally figured things out.” Hu Dezheng looked deeply gratified.

He had always wanted to apply for a worker-peasant-soldier university position and only needed one more year before qualifying, so he studied very diligently. He had once encouraged the original host to study with him, but the original host’s health had been too poor. Just one day of labor left him dizzy with exhaustion, making it impossible to support the energy required for studying.

Now that Xie Li had arrived, and knowing the national college entrance exams would resume in just over a year, of course he intended to study in advance and prepare early.

Ever since drinking the spiritual spring water, Xie Li’s body felt light and healthy. Every night he entered deep sleep that relieved all exhaustion completely. There was no need for him to sleep especially early anymore. Even if he studied with Hu Dezheng until midnight, he would still have enough energy for labor the next day.

Hu Dezheng could not manage that. After reading for about an hour and remembering he still had work tomorrow, he said goodnight and went inside.

The other educated youths gradually returned to their rooms to sleep as well.

In the end, only Xie Li remained alone in the courtyard reading.

And it was precisely under those circumstances that Li Tiantian appeared at the educated youth dormitory.

“Xie Li.”

Hearing someone call him, Xie Li turned around.

Under the moonlight, he saw the girl standing outside the fence, her eyes slightly red.

Frowning, he walked over and asked softly:

“What’s wrong?”

When Li Tiantian failed to speak, Xie Li thought briefly before asking sharply:

“Did your family discover the snow cream?”

“How did you know?” Li Tiantian looked startled before lowering her head dejectedly. “My dad doesn’t like you.”

Xie Li gently patted the little girl’s head.

“Did he say why he dislikes me?”

“It’s just… he thinks you’re poor and don’t have a house. He said if we got married in the future, we wouldn’t even have a place to live.”

Xie Li found it rather amusing.

So even in this era, owning a house was already a necessary condition for getting married? No wonder housing prices became so terrifying in later generations.

“It’s alright. Don’t worry about it,” he said. “And don’t argue with him after you go back either. I’ll rely on my own abilities to make him look at me differently.”

His tone was sincere and trustworthy, and Li Tiantian believed him wholeheartedly. A trace of expectation appeared in her eyes.

“How are you going to do that?”

“Isn’t he looking down on me because I can’t give you a home?” Xie Li curled his lips slightly, his tone relaxed as he gazed at her gently. “Once my house is built, I’ll go ask your father for your hand in marriage.”

Li Tiantian froze.

Unable to withstand the charm in his eyes, she looked away evasively.

“I’ll wait for you,” she whispered.

Xie Li had not expected her to accept him so openly this quickly, and he felt somewhat surprised.

Especially considering his current state of utter poverty. If anyone else heard him talking about building a house, they would probably laugh at him. Yet Li Tiantian looked as though she would believe anything he said…

A trace of emotion stirred in Xie Li’s heart.

“Tiantian, wait for me three months. I’ll definitely marry you properly.”

Whenever Xie Li made a promise, he never disappointed people.

After escorting Li Tiantian home, he stood at a distance and glanced once toward the Li family courtyard before turning back toward the educated youth dormitory and entering the space once more.

╰───♡───╯

TOC

“Eldest Aunt, why haven’t I seen Tiantian?”

Inside the main hall, cousin-in-law Jia Xiaotao, who had come to freeload another meal, had already swept through two large bowls of rice like a whirlwind. Suddenly remembering her real purpose, she glanced around the room searching for her target before raising her shrill voice to ask.

Hearing her own name mentioned, Li Tiantian’s attention was immediately drawn over. She tilted her ear to listen, only to hear Jia Xiaotao’s sour next sentence at the same time:

“Could she have gone out again? Eldest Aunt, it’s not that I’m criticizing, but a young girl shouldn’t always be wandering outside at night. You can’t keep spoiling Tiantian forever. You really need to discipline her properly. Otherwise, when she gets married, her husband’s family will definitely dislike her.”

Li Tiantian was instantly furious.

What business is it of yours?

Even stuffing food into her mouth could not stop her from talking. She came to freeload meals and still would not shut up! Besides, hadn’t they already finished eating? Why were they still here?!

Absolutely unbearable.

People with thick skin truly could not be understood by normal people.

As if that were not enough, Jia Xiaotao not only refused to leave, but after hearing Li Tiantian was resting in her room instead of going out, she barged in without even knocking. Wearing a bright delighted smile, as though she had not just insulted Li Tiantian moments earlier, she exclaimed:

“Oh my, Tiantian, so you’re in here! I just happened to have something to…”

Then she spotted what Li Tiantian was holding and her eyes widened instantly.

“Snow cream?”

Snow cream came in two types. One was sold in little packets for two mao each, beloved by many women. The other came in decorative tins with a larger amount inside, more refined in appearance, and cost three whole yuan.

There were barely any people in Xiaoxipo who used snow cream at all. Most simply used homemade lard, applying a thin layer to moisturize their dry winter skin. Even families with money who were willing to buy snow cream usually only bought the packet version. This was the first time Jia Xiaotao had ever seen the boxed kind.

She rushed over in a few quick steps and snatched it away, holding it beneath the kerosene lamp to examine it.

“Oh my heavens, I really wasn’t seeing things. It really is snow cream! Goodness gracious, your family is truly wealthy, Eldest Uncle. You’re actually buying boxed snow cream for Tiantian to use? This must’ve cost several yuan, right? Tsk tsk tsk, so rich!”

“What are you doing? Give it back!”

At first Li Tiantian had not reacted in time, but once she snapped back to her senses, she immediately lunged forward and snatched it back. Hiding it tightly behind her back, she glared at Jia Xiaotao defensively.

“Why are you in my room? Get out!”

“Oh my, you dead girl! I was only looking at it. Is there any need to be so fierce?” Jia Xiaotao had been startled and immediately clutched her chest while cursing. “I’m your cousin-in-law! Look at how stingy you are. Be careful or nobody will marry you in the future!”

Li Tiantian snorted.

Inwardly she thought: I already have someone who wants me. Of course I won’t fail to get married.

Turning her head away, she could not even be bothered responding.

Jia Xiaotao pulled down her mouth in displeasure and muttered quietly:

“What a debt-collecting little brat.”

Then she stormed back out unhappily.

After putting away the snow cream safely, Li Tiantian carried her bowl and chopsticks outside as well.

There was no point hiding anyway. She could not avoid them forever.

She set down her used dishes and noticed everyone else had already finished eating. Only her cousin was still eating, deliberately picking out all the meat from the cabbage-and-pork dish. Even though she had expected it, her heart still ached terribly.

They had finally managed to buy two jin of pork, and it had all gone into outsiders’ stomachs.

Li Tiantian was so angry she wanted to go outside into the courtyard just to get some fresh air.

“Wait. Tiantian, when did you get snow cream? Why didn’t I know about it? Where did it come from?” Li Jianguo asked with a stern expression and furrowed brows.

Li Tiantian froze mid-step, panic flashing across her face.

“What do you mean where did it come from? I bought it myself.”

“I definitely didn’t give you enough money to buy something like that. Besides, you haven’t gone to the county city recently either.”

The more Li Jianguo thought about it, the stranger it seemed. He nearly asked whether someone else had given it to her, but with outsiders present, he managed not to say it aloud.

Unfortunately, just because he did not say it did not mean others would stay silent.

“Oh? So Eldest Uncle didn’t buy it?” Jia Xiaotao’s eyes gleamed with mockery as she deliberately made a dramatic fuss, looking eager for entertainment. “Don’t tell me some wild man gave it to her?”

“What nonsense are you spouting?!”

Before Li Tiantian could explode in anger, Li Jianguo slammed the table violently.

“Cousin-in-law, you can eat carelessly, but you can’t speak carelessly! I already overlooked the fact that you stuff yourself with meat from our table and then insult us the moment you put down your chopsticks. But if you ruin my daughter’s reputation, then just you wait and see what I…”

He paused midway, seemingly unable to think of a proper threat. Then, noticing his wife Wang Cuihua beside him, he declared:

“Then just see whether Tiantian’s mother tears apart that filthy mouth of yours.”

Wang Cuihua shot her husband a speechless glance, but since they were united against outsiders, she did not undermine him in front of everyone. Instead, she followed up:

“That’s right. Cousin-in-law, if you can’t keep your mouth under control and keep spouting baseless nonsense like that, then I’ll personally teach you how to behave!”

Jia Xiaotao froze awkwardly and let out a dry laugh.

“Why are Eldest Uncle and Eldest Aunt so angry? You know me, I just have a loose tongue. I don’t mean any harm.”

At that moment she suddenly remembered why she had come in the first place. Slapping her thigh, she scooted forward excitedly.

“Oh right! I actually came because of Tiantian. I saw the meat earlier and got so distracted I forgot all about it.”

For once, she accidentally told the truth. Hadn’t she indeed forgotten her real purpose the moment she smelled meat?

Jia Xiaotao sat down eagerly and lowered her voice mysteriously.

“You know the Sun family from the neighboring village, right? Their son’s almost twenty and looking for a wife. They’re willing to buy the Three Big Items and even offer a hundred yuan in bride price. Such a great match! So naturally I thought of Tiantian and hurried over to let you know.”

“No need.” Li Tiantian, who had just enjoyed watching her parents put Jia Xiaotao in her place, was still secretly delighted inside. Seeing the topic suddenly shift, she quickly interrupted, “Anyone introduced by Sister-in-law is definitely unreliable.”

“Hey! You child, how can you talk like that?” Jia Xiaotao immediately became unhappy. She jabbed her husband, who was still poking through the empty dish with his chopsticks searching for leftover meat.

“Erniu, don’t you think this girl gets more unruly the older she grows?”

Li Erniu mumbled a couple vague responses and continued digging around for meat.

Frustrated, Jia Xiaotao glared at him in disgust before turning back to Wang Cuihua.

“Eldest Aunt, don’t you think those conditions sound pretty good?”

Wang Cuihua frowned. Honestly speaking, the prospective groom’s conditions did sound excellent, enough to make her hesitate slightly.

After thinking for a moment, she asked:

“Is he really as good as you say?”

“Mom…” Li Tiantian immediately became unhappy. She already had Xie Li now. She had absolutely no interest in meeting other men.

But Wang Cuihua ignored her entirely and continued chatting enthusiastically with Jia Xiaotao.

Li Tiantian grew so angry her face turned red. Stomping her foot, she saw her mother still refusing to acknowledge her and muttered quietly:

“Anyway, I’m not marrying him. Whoever likes him can marry him themselves.”

With that, she spun around and stormed back into her room, preferring not to look at them anymore.

Wang Cuihua did not take it seriously. What girl did not eventually get married? It was obviously just childish anger.

So she continued discussing the matter enthusiastically with Jia Xiaotao.

…

Furious, Li Tiantian marched back into her room. The moment she entered, she heard movement.

Looking up, she saw a chubby little boy inside her room, holding a very familiar-looking box and smearing its contents around recklessly.

“What are you doing?!”

Li Tiantian’s mind blanked for a second before she exploded in anger.

“Li Tiansheng, are you looking for a beating?!”

The chubby boy had always been spoiled rotten by his parents and had grown into a bratty little tyrant. Normally he never cared if Li Tiantian got angry.

But this time was different.

Seeing how terrifying her expression looked, he instantly panicked. His eyes darted around before he suddenly burst into fake tears.

“Mom! Mom! Save me! Help! Someone’s hitting me!”

Of the four adults chatting in the main hall, three immediately froze before scrambling toward Li Tiantian’s room.

Before leaving, Jia Xiaotao viciously pinched her husband under the arm.

“You big useless pig! Your son’s crying and you’re still stuffing your face. Why don’t you just choke to death eating?”

Li Erniu yelped loudly, but he did not dare argue with his fierce wife. He quickly stood up.

“Not eating anymore, not eating anymore. Let’s go see our son.”

The moment they entered the room and saw Li Tiantian trying to snatch something from her son’s hands, Jia Xiaotao panicked and shouted:

“What are you doing?! Li Tiantian, how dare you bully my son! Are you tired of living?!”

Then she rushed over protectively and forcefully slapped Li Tiantian’s hand away.

Caught off guard, Li Tiantian staggered from the force and nearly crashed into the cabinet nearby.

Wang Cuihua had a fiery temper too. Supporting her daughter, she suppressed her anger and swept a cold glance over Jia Xiaotao and her son before asking:

“Tiantian, why are you fighting with Tiansheng?”

Li Erniu and Jia Xiaotao’s son was named Li Tiansheng. He was eight years old, exactly the age where children were hated by everyone around them. Aside from kids his own age, there was practically nobody in the village who liked him.

Wang Cuihua had already decided it must have been Li Tiansheng causing trouble. Otherwise, her obedient and well-behaved daughter would never have gotten angry.

All she needed was one word from Li Tiantian before throwing them out.

“Mom, he ruined my snow cream.” Li Tiantian was both angry and anxious, nearly in tears.

Jia Xiaotao froze before glancing at the object in her son’s hand.

“Th-this…” She stammered for half the sentence before no longer knowing what to say. Pretending to be furious, she viciously pinched her son’s backside. “All you ever do is cause trouble for your mother!”

Then her eyes rolled cunningly before she turned toward Li Tiantian.

“Tiantian, your nephew’s still young. Don’t stoop to his level, alright?”

Protected by his mother, the chubby little brat already knew that, just like every other time, nothing bad would happen to him. Acting completely unconcerned, he dug out another huge glob of snow cream and raised it high.

“Mom, I just wanted to put some on your face. Lower your head. I’ll help rub it on.”

If Jia Xiaotao claimed she did not care about snow cream, that was obviously a lie. Seeing how thoughtful her son was being, she felt secretly delighted, though on the surface she scolded him:

“You child. I know you’re filial, but you can’t fool around in front of outsiders like this. Put it away. We’ll go home and use it later.”

It was obvious she had no intention whatsoever of returning the snow cream.

“Do you people even have any shame?!” Li Tiantian nearly died of anger. Looking toward Wang Cuihua, she called out pitifully:

“Mom…”

Wang Cuihua’s expression turned icy.

“Cousin-in-law, if you want to take the item, then pay for it.”

“Oh my, we’re all family. Why would taking one tiny thing require money?” Jia Xiaotao instantly forgot everything she had just said moments earlier. Calling themselves family over and over, she covered her mouth while laughing.

“Tiantian, dear, it’s only a little box. Sister-in-law knows you’re the most generous. Why not let your little brother have it to play with?”

“No!”

Forget paying for it. Even if they offered money, Li Tiantian would never sell it.

This was something Xie Li had given her.

Grabbing Wang Cuihua’s sleeve, she called out once more:

“Mom…”

Wang Cuihua had already started rolling up her sleeves.

“Jia Xiaotao, say one more word. Hand over the item right now, or don’t blame me for getting rough.”

Jia Xiaotao’s expression darkened slightly. She truly was afraid of this eldest aunt who never acted according to common sense, so she sneered in a mocking tone:

“Fine, fine, fine. We’ll return it. Isn’t it just some stupid thing? It’s not like we care about it anyway.”

After saying that, she snatched the snow cream from her son’s hands and threw it back rudely.

Thunk.

It hit the wall, bounced once, then landed on the bed.

Looking at the lid hanging half-open and the snow cream reduced to less than half a box, Li Tiantian’s nose suddenly stung. Large tears rolled down her cheeks one after another.

“…It’s all ruined.”

Catching sight of this, Wang Cuihua’s anger surged upward instantly.

“Pay for it!”

Did they really think the whole family was easy to bully if nobody lost their temper? She had already tolerated supporting those three freeloaders for more than ten years. Before, she had only endured it for her husband’s sake. But now she no longer wanted to.

“Li Jianguo, stop sitting there silently! You’re the one who insisted on helping them, and look what kind of ungrateful wolves you raised! Tell me clearly, what are you going to do about this?!”

Li Jianguo had been frowning deeply the entire time. Hearing those words, he glanced at his foolish nephew, then at his wife’s ugly expression and his daughter’s pitifully wronged face. Rubbing his temples helplessly, he finally said:

“Pay for it.”

“Pay for it?” Jia Xiaotao jumped up instantly. “It’s not even broken! Why should we pay? I don’t have any money!”

“I remember snow cream costs about three yuan a box.” Li Jianguo’s face remained expressionless as he swept his gaze over the family of three. “If you don’t repay this money… then I won’t support you with another single cent ever again. And don’t even think about getting another grain of rice from my house in the future!”

“What?” Even Li Erniu panicked. “Uncle, my family doesn’t have that much money!”

“Then you can owe it,” Wang Cuihua said coldly. One hand comfortingly patted her upset daughter while the fury in her heart refused to subside. “Until you pay it back, don’t come to our house again.”

So what Li Jianguo meant was that as long as they eventually repaid the three yuan, he still planned to continue supporting those three freeloaders afterward?

…

The farce dragged on for a long time.

Li Erniu and his wife rolled around making scenes and refusing to compensate them.

It was useless. Li Jianguo would not back down.

Furious, Jia Xiaotao grabbed her son by the ear and beat him viciously.

Wang Cuihua felt slightly soft-hearted seeing it, but after looking at her daughter, she still said nothing.

Facing the suddenly hard-hearted couple, Jia Xiaotao shot her useless husband a resentful glare. Throwing out one final hateful remark, she scooped up her son and stormed away bitterly.

Nobody had expected this matter would ultimately end with the two families completely falling out.

Once they had finally disappeared from sight, Wang Cuihua tidied the chaotic room while looking at her daughter, who still lay nearby crying. She let out a long sigh.

“Li Jianguo, I truly don’t even know what to say to you anymore.”

Li Jianguo looked dazed.

“Sigh… I don’t know how things ended up like this either.”

At first, he had simply felt that Li Erniu and his wife had it hard. They were children without parents or elders. If young people were lazy, then so be it. As their uncle, he could take care of them a little more in daily life.

He had never expected things would develop this far…

Narrowing his eyes, Li Jianguo finally hardened his resolve.

Sometimes, relatives needed to be cut off when it was time.

“In the future, if their family comes knocking again, don’t open the door. I’m only his uncle, not his father. I don’t have the obligation to support their entire family forever.”

Wang Cuihua looked shocked with delight.

“Old Li, you finally figured it out.”

Li Jianguo laughed bitterly.

What was so surprising about that?

Truthfully, he had long since grown sick of that parasitic family too. He had simply suppressed it before, stubbornly clinging to face and too embarrassed to say anything. Now that things had exploded, it was actually for the best.

Once the issue in his heart had been settled, Li Jianguo turned to look at his daughter. Remembering the question still bothering him, his expression became stern again.

“Tiantian, explain clearly first. Where exactly did that snow cream come from?”

“Xie Li gave it to me…”

Just thinking about it made Li Tiantian want to cry again. This was the first gift she had ever received in her life, and now it had been ruined like this. Holding the half-empty box of snow cream, the more she thought about it, the worse she felt. Her eyes reddened again.

Her parents said the other family would repay the money, but even with compensation, they could never buy the exact same gift again.

“You have some sort of improper relationship with that educated youth boy?”

Li Jianguo’s face suddenly darkened as he irritably patted his pockets searching for cigarettes.

“No.”

Still crying, Li Tiantian failed to notice his expression. She thought blankly: what improper relationship? They absolutely didn’t have one.

Feeling wronged, she explained:

“I just saved him that day and took him to the clinic, so today he gave me this as a thank-you gift. I originally wanted to keep it forever, but now it’s all ruined.”

“Was it really only a thank-you gift?” Li Jianguo asked suspiciously.

Li Tiantian hesitated briefly before lowering her voice.

“He also said he likes me, and I… I like him too.”

“No!”

“Huh?” Li Tiantian wiped her tears in confusion and looked at Li Jianguo, who suddenly seemed ready to explode. “What’s wrong, Dad? What do you mean no?”

“From now on, you’re not allowed to casually accept things from him anymore. And you’re absolutely forbidden from meeting that educated youth alone again.”

Li Tiantian froze.

“Why?”

She knew these matters could affect a girl’s reputation before marriage, making people gossip. But she had already said Xie Li liked her. Xie Li was such a good person. At worst, they could simply get engaged. Once engaged, normal interactions would no longer attract criticism from the villagers. So why was her father still this angry?

After thinking carefully, Li Tiantian spoke cautiously:

“Dad, if you think this isn’t proper, then I…” Her cheeks quietly reddened. “I’ll ask him to come propose marriage.”

“He’s a poor educated youth. What exactly is he going to use to support you?” Li Jianguo shot back mercilessly. “One box of snow cream was enough to buy you over? Think about it carefully. Compared to your cousin, he’s basically the same. Lazy, skipping work half the time, barely earning any work points from the production team, and constantly spending money. He’s been in the village for two years now. Every other educated youth receives packages from family, but he never does. Who knows how much money he even has left? How can you marry him? Can he even afford a bride price?”

Li Tiantian was scolded so fiercely she nearly went blank.

After finally recovering, she desperately thought for a long while before answering seriously:

“I don’t want a bride price!”

“If you don’t want a bride price, then what are you going to eat and drink?” Seeing his daughter’s elbow already turning outward toward another man, Li Jianguo felt heartbroken. “He doesn’t even have a house. If you marry him, where will you sleep? On the communal kang bed at the educated youth dormitory with him? Or in some broken straw hut outside?”

Watching his daughter fall silent in shock, Li Jianguo assumed he had finally persuaded her. Relieved, he stated firmly:

“So I absolutely will not allow you to be together with him. Return the money for the snow cream later and stop talking to him.”

Li Tiantian froze.

Then she glared fiercely at Li Jianguo before running out of the house with red-rimmed eyes.

“I’m not talking to you anymore!”

╰───♡───╯

TOC

Ch 3: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

Xie Li quickly arrived in town.

The town itself was not prosperous. After wandering around for a while and barely seeing anyone, he gritted his teeth, got back on the bicycle, and headed toward the county city instead.

The county city was far livelier than the town. Crowds moved back and forth through the streets, accompanied by the constant hum of conversation.

Carefully observing his surroundings, Xie Li followed several women carrying baskets and eventually found the busiest food supply store. He stepped inside to take a look.

Rice cost one mao eight fen, cornmeal nine fen, potatoes five fen, fatty pork one yuan two mao per jin, lean pork ninety-five fen…

Besides money, these goods also required ration coupons.

Within moments of entering, Xie Li had already seen several people painfully counting the ration tickets in their pockets before reluctantly giving up and leaving empty-handed.

That meant the black market definitely still had demand. A place like this was bound to have an underground market somewhere.

Having made up his mind, Xie Li walked out of the food store.

The moment he stopped outside, he noticed a young woman dressed simply, with only two patches on her clothes. She looked relatively well-off. Though her basket remained empty after leaving the store, she showed no panic. Instead, she cautiously glanced around before heading toward a secluded alley.

Speak of the devil. Another person lacking enough ration coupons.

Pushing his bicycle, Xie Li quietly followed after her.

He watched as she walked to the very end of the alley and entered a tightly shut courtyard. More than ten minutes later, she emerged again, this time with her basket filled with goods, leaving with a satisfied expression.

After checking carefully to ensure nobody was around, Xie Li stored the bicycle inside the space in a hidden corner. Carrying the eggplants from the sack, he walked forward and knocked on the courtyard door.

Half an hour later, Xie Li left the place. In another quiet alley, he cautiously retrieved the bicycle again along with another batch of eggplants from the bamboo cottage, then returned to the courtyard. This time, the owner welcomed him warmly inside.

“Excellent! These are the same quality as the earlier eggplants. Little brother, if you get fresh vegetables again in the future, bring them straight to us. We’ll give you a good price.”

Xie Li did not insist on ration coupons and was willing to accept cash only, which made him exactly the kind of supplier the owner liked. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Smiling broadly, the man eagerly tried to build a relationship with him while already reserving future vegetables in advance.

Once eggplants started growing, they obviously would not only be harvested once. New ones would continue maturing every day, enough to keep harvesting for months. This was no small business, so naturally they wanted to secure the supply.

Xie Li paused slightly before saying thoughtfully:

“In a few days, I might have a batch of napa cabbage. Are you interested?”

Selling things like long beans and pumpkins in this season was somewhat risky. Xie Li planned to go back and plant some cabbage to sell together with the eggplants. After all, spring was cabbage season. That way, it would not attract too much attention.

As for the other crops already planted and nearing harvest, he could simply store them inside the bamboo cottage until the proper season arrived, or slowly consume them himself.

Lesson learned. Next time, he absolutely had to plant seasonal crops.

“Of course we’ll take them! Bring whatever vegetables you have.”

The owner was delighted, thumping his chest in assurance that as long as Xie Li brought produce over, they would buy everything.

Xie Li nodded. After agreeing on a date for the next delivery, he prepared to leave.

Just as he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something. Pausing, he took out some money and turned back.

“Wait a second. I’d like to exchange for a ration ticket…”

After finally making a trip to the county city, how could he possibly not bring back a gift?

Because he made another trip to the supply cooperative and food store, by the time Xie Li returned to the village, the sky was already beginning to darken. Coincidentally, the production team had just finished work.

Glancing at the groups of villagers packing up and heading home along the field ridges, Xie Li did not hesitate. He first returned the bicycle to Li Dasheng’s family, then headed toward the corner near the village entrance and stopped there to wait.

Before long, the person he was waiting for appeared.

“Comrade Li Tiantian, I have something I’d like to say to you. Could I trouble you to stay for a moment?”

Li Tiantian, who had been chatting and laughing with her friend Qian Lanxiang on the way home, froze upon hearing his voice.

Looking up, she saw the young man’s tall figure standing beneath the setting sun, along with the faint warmth in his eyes.

Boom.

Her entire face flushed bright red instantly.

“Why are you here again? Didn’t I already say I’d give you a chance and watch your behavior?” she stammered.

“I went to the county city and brought you some snow cream.” Xie Li smiled helplessly. “See if you like it.”

Li Tiantian froze.

“What?”

Her face filled with confusion as she watched Xie Li hold something out toward her. Her hand instinctively reached out to accept it, but halfway through she suddenly snapped back to her senses and tried to return it.

“I don’t want it.”

Touching his nose, Xie Li smiled with helpless indulgence.

“You really don’t want it? I worked so hard just to get one. The supply cooperative only received ten boxes in total. I bought one, and the other female customers practically looked ready to tear me apart.”

His other hand remained extended stubbornly, as though he had decided he would not leave unless Li Tiantian accepted it.

Watching the scene unfold, Qian Lanxiang looked from Li Tiantian to Xie Li and back again before suddenly revealing an enlightened expression. Wiggling her eyebrows mischievously, she urged:

“Take it, take it! This is Comrade Xie Li’s heartfelt gift.”

“Stop stirring things up!” Li Tiantian snapped, pretending to hit her in embarrassment.

Qian Lanxiang dodged aside and hid behind Xie Li while continuing to shout:

“Take it, take it!”

Li Tiantian rushed forward to pinch her waist. Qian Lanxiang pushed Xie Li at the same moment.

Caught off guard, or perhaps simply taking advantage of the momentum, Xie Li stumbled forward directly into the rushing Li Tiantian. The two of them crashed together into a full embrace.

Boom!

Li Tiantian flushed from her cheeks all the way down to her neck, turning as red as a cooked shrimp from sheer embarrassment.

“This female comrade, don’t make trouble,” Xie Li coughed lightly and advised in an utterly serious tone. “Tiantian is thin-skinned. She gets shy easily.”

Seeing Li Tiantian looking both embarrassed and furious, almost on the verge of tears, even Qian Lanxiang felt a little guilty.

“Sorry.”

After all, hugging openly outside was inappropriate, especially since Xie Li and Li Tiantian were still not particularly close. If someone saw them and started gossiping…

Qian Lanxiang had already heard about the morning’s events from Li Tiantian while working earlier that day. She knew Xie Li had only just begun pursuing her and that the two were still unfamiliar with each other.

After apologizing, she awkwardly retreated several steps away and stationed herself at the corner to keep watch for them.

With the extra person gone, Xie Li gently patted the girl in his arms and coaxed softly:

“Don’t be afraid. She won’t tease you again.”

Li Tiantian broke free from his embrace and murmured softly, “Do you really like me?”

Looking at the girl whose eyes held both nervousness and a faint trace of expectation, Xie Li answered in a tone that allowed no doubt:

“That’s right.”

“But why do you like me?” Li Tiantian looked up at the tall, straight-backed young man before her, sounding puzzled. “I’m not pretty, I’m not very strong, and I’ve never gone to school. I can’t compare to the other female educated youths. You’re clearly so wonderful, so why would you like me?”

Xie Li laughed softly.

“Do you really think you’re not good enough?”

In his old way of thinking, every girl in the world was a unique treasure. He especially admired girls who were open and straightforward, carrying a bit of pride, because they were confident, self-loving, and had independent thoughts and lives of their own.

Li Tiantian being this insecure was something he had never expected.

“How are you not good enough?” Recalling their few brief interactions, Xie Li slowly began listing her strengths. “You’re filial to your parents, warm and generous, you have many close friends, and you’re clever and intelligent. You’re kind-hearted too. You called people over to take me to the clinic. Most importantly, you were willing to stay behind and care for someone unrelated to you in the clinic…”

After listing so many things, Xie Li concluded:

“You’re already wonderful.”

“You… really think that?”

Li Tiantian felt embarrassed from all the praise, but after thinking about it carefully, she really was quite good. It was just that nobody had ever praised her before, so she had never realized she was this excellent.

Now that someone suddenly had, for some reason, her heart felt strangely sweet.

“Absolutely true. In my eyes, you’re the best,” Xie Li declared solemnly.

Only then did Li Tiantian finally brighten up. Pressing her lips together shyly, she said:

“You’re not bad in my eyes either.”

Watching the girl regain her usual confidence, Xie Li secretly found it amusing. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. He gently smoothed down her hair and tidied the loose strands before asking:

“So, do you still not want the snow cream? If you don’t take it, I can’t return it anyway. It’ll just go to waste.”

Li Tiantian stretched out her hand.

“Give it to me.”

…

The feelings of first love had begun blooming in Li Tiantian’s heart, and she chatted with Xie Li for a very long time.

But as the sky grew darker and darker, she could only reluctantly say goodbye and head home, afraid her family would worry.

“Go on,” Xie Li said.

Li Tiantian turned back every few steps as she walked away.

On the way home, she kept her head lowered, lost in thought, saying nothing at all.

Qian Lanxiang apologized:

“You’re still angry? Don’t be mad anymore. I know I was wrong. Next time I definitely won’t fool around like that again.”

“No…” Li Tiantian lifted her face, still flushed red. “I was thinking about what we should name our future child.”

Qian Lanxiang: “……”

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Tilting her head, Li Tiantian spoke with complete seriousness. “He already said he likes me. We’re definitely going to get married in the future. Isn’t it normal to think about what our child will be called?”

Qian Lanxiang froze.

“But aren’t you thinking too far ahead? He only confessed not long ago. Shouldn’t you spend some time together first? What if you’re not compatible?”

“I think he’s really good!” Li Tiantian nodded earnestly. “He’s handsome, intelligent, and I heard he graduated from high school. That’s amazing already. Most importantly, he treats me well too. That’s enough. We won’t be incompatible.”

After thinking about it, Qian Lanxiang suddenly felt she made sense.

Such an outstanding man, and an educated youth too, so cultured and refined. If he liked her, she probably would have agreed to marry him the moment he confessed. The fact that Tiantian had managed to delay for a whole day was already impressive.

“Then do your best. I’ll wait to drink at your wedding banquet.”

As they spoke, they had already reached Qian Lanxiang’s courtyard. She stopped there, waved goodbye after saying those words, and entered her home thoughtfully.

Receiving her friend’s blessing, Li Tiantian’s eyes sparkled happily. Waving back, she continued home alone.

After arriving home, she greeted her parents, hurried into her room to carefully put away the snow cream, then came back out to wash her face and hands before sitting down for dinner.

Today, someone from the neighboring village was holding a wedding banquet and had slaughtered a pig. The Li family had managed to buy two jin of pork through connections, so besides pickled vegetables, the dinner table also had a dish of cabbage braised with pork.

Seeing it, Li Tiantian’s eyes lit up in delight. She sat down holding her bowl and had just been about to pick up her chopsticks when Li Jianguo suddenly spoke.

“Tiantian, I heard that educated youth named Xie Li stopped you to talk this morning?”

As head of the household, Li Jianguo sat at the place of honor. Picking up a piece of cabbage and pork with his chopsticks, he asked casually.

Li Tiantian hesitated, unsure whether she should tell the truth.

When Xie Li first came to the village, her father had already said he was unreliable and told her to stay away from him. Now that Xie Li liked her and wanted to pursue her, would her father object?

“I…”

Li Tiantian thought for a long time before finally preparing to answer, but before the words left her mouth, shouting suddenly came from outside the courtyard.

“Why’s the courtyard gate locked? Anyone home? Uncle, Auntie, I need something from you. Open the door!”

Li Tiantian’s expression instantly darkened.

“Why are they here again?”

Li Jianguo had once had a younger brother. Years ago, the man had been publicly paraded through the streets for harassment offenses. Unable to endure the humiliation, he took his own life, leaving behind an eighteen-year-old son named Li Erniu.

Out of sympathy for his nephew, Li Jianguo had even paid for Li Erniu’s marriage. Unfortunately, that kindness only invited trouble.

The entire family of three was lazy to the core. They worked three days and rested five, and whenever they ran out of grain or work points, they came shamelessly to the Li family home to freeload food.

When Li Tiantian was younger, the couple had even tricked her out of a white flour steamed bun.

A white flour bun!

Not only years ago, but even now, the Li family could not afford to eat those every day. One could easily imagine how wronged Li Tiantian had felt. Now, seeing them only filled her with anger.

“They always come to our house to eat. We finally bought some meat today, and their noses are sharper than rats’. They smelled it and came right over.”

Just moments ago, Li Tiantian had been reluctant to eat the meat herself. But now that she realized if she did not eat it, others would, she immediately took a huge bite while muttering complaints under her breath.

Li Jianguo frowned and swept a stern gaze over her.

“They’re your cousin and cousin-in-law. What kind of talk is that? If other people heard you, how bad would your reputation become? How are you supposed to get married in the future?”

Li Tiantian looked aggrieved.

“I just don’t like them.”

Wang Cuihua patted her daughter gently.

“If you don’t like them, then don’t look at them. Mom will go open the door. Take some food and go eat slowly in your room.”

Seeing his wife speak up, Li Jianguo did not dare continue arguing. He muttered quietly:

“How can she eat in her room when relatives are visiting? What kind of parenting is that?”

“Li Jianguo, haven’t disciplined you in three days, huh? Feeling itchy for trouble again?”

Li Jianguo instantly fell silent.

Only then did Li Tiantian brighten up happily and carry her bowl back to her room.

She knew both her parents loved her equally. But compared to her father, who cared about face because he was the brigade leader, her protective mother definitely made people feel happier.

The Li family house had poor soundproofing. Even from inside her room, Li Tiantian could hear her cousin and cousin-in-law loudly chatting outside. Before long, she could even hear the sounds of them helping themselves to bowls and chopsticks, acting completely at home. Their shameless ease practically seeped through the cracks in the door.

After finishing dinner, Li Tiantian had no desire to go back out. Setting her bowl aside, she flopped onto the bed.

Pulling out the snow cream from beneath her pillow and tracing the delicate box surface with her fingers, her irritated mood gradually calmed down. Sweetness curled onto her lips as she thought of Xie Li.

Had he eaten dinner yet?

He had said he liked how kind and clever she was. It was probably because she had helped save him during the wild boar incident, right?

Li Tiantian could not help laughing softly. What else could she have done? She had never seen someone so clumsy before. He had actually stood there and let a little wild boar knock him over. If villagers had not happened to arrive and frightened the boars away, he might have suffered even worse injuries.

Still, she ought to thank those little wild boars.

If not for them, how could she and Xie Li have met like this?

Li Tiantian burst into giggles, lying on the bed with her chin propped in her hands as she sank into sweet fantasies…

╰───♡───╯

TOC

Ch 2: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

The place where the original host had been sent down was called Xiaoxipo, a large village with more than two hundred households. It was extremely far from town, and walking back took two full hours.

Earlier that morning, when Xie Li had gone to the clinic to get stitches, brigade leader Li Jianguo had used the brigade’s ox cart to send him there. Naturally, there was no such treatment for the return trip. The road was rough, there were no vehicles coming or going, and they could only rely on their own legs to walk back.

During the entire journey home, Li Tiantian refused to say another word to Xie Li. Whether she was trying to avoid suspicion or simply disliked him, she also kept her distance physically, staying as far from him as possible.

Xie Li felt helpless inside. See? Girls just didn’t like him.

Forget it. Winning over a girl was never something easy anyway. There was still plenty of time. He could take it slowly.

Right now, the most important thing was getting back to his residence and figuring out what exactly the “Bishui Space” in his mind was.

After parting ways with Li Tiantian at the village entrance, Xie Li watched her lively and pretty figure disappear before turning around and following the original host’s memories back to the educated youth dormitory.

The dormitory had been built at the foot of the mountain, far from the village itself. There were four large communal rooms housing more than twenty educated youths, plus two smaller buildings used for cooking and bathing.

It was around four in the afternoon. The production team had not yet finished work, so the dormitory was completely empty.

Cautiously inspecting the surroundings, Xie Li returned to his room and shut the door. Sensing the extra presence inside his mind, he had just been about to ask the system about the Bishui Space when, in the blink of an eye, he found himself in an unfamiliar world.

Two mu of black soil, several bamboo cottages, and a spring of spiritual water…

Xie Li wandered around in a daze, staring without blinking, nearly unable to recover his senses.

So the Bishui Space was a portable dimension. As expected, it really was an incredible treasure.

[The Bishui Space is also sold in the system store. Player may view the item description to understand its functions.] The system appeared and disappeared unpredictably, speaking only once before vanishing silent again.

Used to it by now, Xie Li paid no mind and opened the system store.

The items in the store were arranged from highest to lowest price. The Bishui Space occupied the very front row, classified as a small orange-tier premium item, with a terrifying price tag that made people despair at first glance.

If he relied on missions alone, who knew how many worlds he would have to pass through before earning that many points?

There was also a detailed description.

Anything planted in the black soil would thrive, with plant growth accelerated at a ten-to-one ratio.

Food stored in the bamboo cottages would never spoil. Whatever state it was placed in would remain unchanged when taken out.

The spiritual spring flowed endlessly and possessed effects such as cleansing the marrow and strengthening the body, restoring dying vitality, detoxifying poisons, and tempering the physique…

Xie Li was an artsy young man who disliked reading novels. This was his first time encountering something so fantastical, and he found it deeply unbelievable.

All he could say was that products from the system truly were miraculous.

Then again, if the system could revive the dead and send people across time and space, creating something like this was hardly strange. Xie Li quickly calmed down, exited the space, and decided to test whether its description had been exaggerated.

Finding some seeds, he returned to the space. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Following the farming knowledge buried in the original host’s memories, he divided the handful of seeds into rows and planted them carefully into the soil.

After planting, they needed watering, something called “root-setting water.”

The educated youth dormitory was nowhere near a water source. Normally, even drinking water required walking two li to fetch it from the village well, so none could be wasted.

Glancing around, Xie Li set his sights on the nearby spiritual spring. Scooping up a handful of water, he sprinkled it over the seeds. Soon he felt unsatisfied with that and actually exited the space to grab a gourd ladle for watering.

One ladleful could water half a row of seeds, so the task was quickly completed. Yet the level of the spiritual spring remained exactly the same, without even the slightest change.

After finishing everything, Xie Li left the space frowning slightly, feeling that the work was somewhat tiring. Still, he became even more excited about the space’s effects.

If it truly worked the way the description claimed, then he had really stumbled onto an enormous bargain.

Not to mention how valuable an independent space capable of year-round cultivation would be in this era of food and clothing shortages, before hybrid rice had even been developed, this space would be immensely useful in other worlds as well.

…

A little after six in the evening, the educated youth dormitory gradually became lively.

“Comrade Xie Li, you’re back from the clinic? Are you alright?”

The original host had possessed refined and gentle looks, the best appearance among all the educated youths, along with elegant manners in every gesture. He was extremely popular among the female educated youths. The moment the girls returned from work and saw him, they ignored their exhaustion and swarmed forward to ask after him.

Caught completely off guard, Xie Li struggled to maintain his composure as he soothed the adorable girls one by one.

“I’m fine. I’ll be able to return to work in a few days.”

“Your health isn’t good. You should rest more.”

“Exactly! Comrade Xie Li, rest a while longer. Missing a few days of work points won’t matter. Don’t exhaust your body.”

The original host’s health really had been poor. Thinking of this, Xie Li suddenly realized he had forgotten to test the spiritual spring’s effects. After a brief hesitation, he replied:

“Thanks for the reminder. I’ll see how I feel in a few days.”

If the spiritual spring truly worked, then the original host’s body could still be saved. He would not have to continue farm labor with such a weak and frail physique.

At that moment, Hu Dezheng, who had come to the countryside in the same batch as the original host, approached looking as though he had something to say. Xie Li immediately seized the chance to escape the siege of girls, dragging Hu Dezheng outside into the courtyard as an excuse to find some peace and quiet.

Hu Dezheng first gave him a mocking look, then suddenly straightened his face and slapped Xie Li hard on the shoulder.

“You were way too reckless, kid. Even if you like Captain Li’s daughter, you still need to cherish your own life. Next time you run into wild boars, stay far away. Don’t rush toward them again.”

Without changing expression, Xie Li calmly accepted the blame on behalf of the original host.

“It was my first time seeing wild boars. I got frightened. Next time I’ll definitely stay far away.”

“As long as you know that.” Hu Dezheng did not think much more of it and changed the subject. “But since you’re injured, are you planning to rest for a few days?”

After thinking for a moment, Xie Li replied:

“That’s right. I suddenly remembered I should tell the brigade leader about what happened today, and I also need to ask him for a few days off. Save me some food. I’ll head over before it gets completely dark.”

Hu Dezheng waved his hand.

“That makes sense. The brigade leader’s a pretty decent man, and you like his daughter too. Since you’re asking for leave, it’s better to personally go to their house and say it.”

Xie Li answered with an “Mm,” then started walking, one deep step and one shallow step, toward the village glowing with scattered lamplight.

…

“Tiantian, what are you doing? Leave the bowls there, I’ll wash them. Don’t touch them.”

“I didn’t go to work today, Mom. Just let me do it. You should rest properly.”

Before he even reached the Li family courtyard, Xie Li could already hear the voices coming from inside. Curling his lips into a smile, he thought to himself that the little girl was quite hardworking.

He knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Li Tiantian’s voice rang out. As she spoke, she walked over carrying bowls in her hands.

The moment she saw it was Xie Li, her face reddened slightly as she remembered the embarrassing events from earlier that day.

“Why did you come? Are you feeling unwell?”

“I won’t be able to work for the next few days, so I came to ask the brigade leader for leave.”

Li Tiantian immediately called out, “Dad, hurry over! Comrade Xie Li is looking for you!” Then she hurried back into the courtyard clutching the bowls.

Judging by her reaction, she probably did not want to see Xie Li again for the next few days.

Xie Li felt somewhat regretful. His gaze followed her until she disappeared around the corner before finally withdrawing it.

A moment later, brigade leader Li Jianguo came out.

He was in his forties, with dark skin and an imposing presence even without anger. He had likely just gotten off work. Mud from the fields stained his clothes, and he wore a pair of green Liberation shoes. The way he looked at Xie Li was guarded and hostile, exactly like every father-in-law staring at the man pursuing his daughter.

It seemed the original host’s pursuit of Li Tiantian had already become common knowledge.

Feeling guilty, Xie Li coughed lightly and explained why he had come.

“This is just a small matter. Be more careful next time. Don’t recklessly cause trouble and make things difficult for everyone,” Li Jianguo said sternly.

Xie Li nodded, behaving exceptionally humble and polite in front of his future father-in-law.

“I understand. Next time I definitely won’t delay everyone’s work again.”

“Good. You can head back now. I’ll approve five days of leave for you. Remember to return to work after that.”

After speaking, Li Jianguo noticed Xie Li still standing there silently and became displeased.

“Is there something else?”

“I…” Xie Li still wanted to see Li Tiantian. His eyes drifted toward the direction where she had disappeared. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Before he could finish speaking, he met Li Jianguo’s suddenly sharp stare. After a pause, he helplessly said, “Nothing else. Thank you, Brigade Leader. I’ll head back first.”

So he would not let him see Li Tiantian?

Unless Li Jianguo planned to guard her day and night, there would always be chances to catch the little girl alone.

Xie Li grumbled inwardly, then realized he sounded like some villain trying to abduct an innocent girl. The thought left him both helpless and amused.

…

After returning to the educated youth dormitory and eating some leftover food, Xie Li rinsed off and climbed into bed.

Although it was a communal sleeping platform, everyone maintained decent hygiene, so there was no unpleasant smell. He slept peacefully until broad daylight.

When he woke the next morning, all the sleeping spaces around him were empty.

The others had probably wanted him to sleep longer, so they had left without making any noise at all. Rubbing his temples, Xie Li realized that after being sick for over half a year, his alertness had declined quite a bit.

After casually eating something, he shut the door and entered the space.

Over the course of a single night, all the seeds planted in the space had sprouted and grown. The slower-growing ones only had a few tiny leaves, while the faster-growing ones were already as tall as an arm. Some had even bloomed with beautiful yellow flowers. After examining them for a while, Xie Li recognized them as pumpkin blossoms growing among lush green pumpkin vines. It truly looked like “a touch of yellow amidst endless green.”

Logically speaking, they should not have grown this quickly. Even with a tenfold growth rate, this speed was far too exaggerated.

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Xie Li turned to look at the spiritual spring.

Could it be because he had watered them with the spring water?

After pondering for a long time without reaching any conclusion, Xie Li decided to give up thinking about it.

Forget it. Today he was going to be a human test subject and see whether the spiritual spring’s effects were real.

After searching around outside the space for a long time and failing to find a cup, he remembered that everyone here drank water from bowls. Feeling slightly miserable, he took a large clean bowl, filled it with spiritual spring water, and gulped it down in one go.

It tasted a little sweet, but otherwise he felt nothing.

Frowning, Xie Li repeatedly reopened the system store to confirm the description of the Bishui Space, puzzled as to why there was no effect.

Very quickly, the effects arrived.

In less than half an hour, Xie Li ran to the toilet three times. By the time he came out, his face was pale and his legs weak, yet strangely enough, he felt healthier than ever before. It seemed as though endless strength was flowing through his muscles.

Of course, that was just an illusion.

He tried lifting a large stone in the courtyard and could barely raise one corner. It seemed his body had merely recovered to the level of a normal healthy person, perhaps slightly stronger than average. He was no longer as frail as the original host, though he certainly had not gained supernatural strength either.

Most likely, the spiritual spring had cured the original host’s malnutrition from the past two years and adjusted his body into its optimal condition.

Suddenly thinking of something, Xie Li removed the bandage from his forehead to take a look.

As expected, the small wound had nearly healed completely.

He was delighted. A spiritual spring with effects like this was already more than enough.

For the rest of the day, Xie Li remained inside the space studying everything there.

The spiritual spring had already proven effective, and the bamboo cottages matched their descriptions as well. What truly impressed him, however, was the black soil. No matter what he did to it, it never dried out, always maintaining a moist condition. Crops planted there required no watering and almost no effort to care for.

At one point, he noticed several plants had flowered and remembered the issue of pollination. He immediately went outside, caught several bees, and brought them into the space to raise there.

Aside from that, everything necessary already existed within the space. There was sunlight, air, and water, meaning it practically managed itself.

Finally reassured, Xie Li stopped worrying about the space and flashed back outside.

Since he did not need to work and his wound had healed well enough that there was no need to visit the county hospital, he wandered around the educated youth dormitory for a few laps with nothing to do. Eventually, he simply took inventory of all his possessions.

Including the clothes on his body, Xie Li owned three sets of clothing in total, half a packet of malt candy, a Hero-brand fountain pen, and a scattered collection of bills and coins amounting to twenty yuan, three mao, and six fen.

It sounded like a lot, but in reality, it was only about half a month’s wages for a city worker.

If not for the portable space, surviving on this little bit of money really would have been difficult for the original host. No wonder he had gone down the crooked path of trying to seduce Li Tiantian.

Xie Li frowned slightly, feeling a sense of urgency. He thought to himself that once the crops were harvested, he needed to find a way to sell them for money.

…

After learning about the spiritual spring’s effects, Xie Li stopped using it to accelerate growth and instead allowed the crops to grow naturally.

The spiritual spring was far too miraculous. The vegetables grown from it would definitely be extraordinary as well. He worried that if he used too much spring water, the produce might attract unwanted attention once sold.

Even so, the crops still grew extremely quickly without additional watering from the spring.

The first crop to mature was eggplant.

That morning, after waking up and eating breakfast, Xie Li watched several familiar educated youths head off to work in groups. He was thinking that since his body had already recovered and the vegetables in the space were not yet ripe, perhaps he should cancel his leave and return to work. It would also give him a chance to talk to Li Tiantian…

Still thinking about it, he entered the space and immediately noticed the situation inside.

More than ten half-human-height eggplant bushes were hanging heavily with long eggplants as large as an adult’s palm. The fruits were abundant, glossy purple, and upon rough counting, each plant held more than ten eggplants, with even more hidden beneath the leaves. Some of the lower-growing fruits nearly dragged against the ground. Purple blossoms still bloomed beside them, attracting groups of buzzing bees collecting nectar.

At first glance, it looked as though two rows of pale purple ocean waves had suddenly appeared in the space, dazzling to the eye and filling one’s heart with a powerful sense of harvest satisfaction.

They were actually ripe!!

Didn’t that mean he could earn his first bucket of gold today?!

Amid his shock, Xie Li thought thankfully: good thing I didn’t cancel my leave, or I never would have discovered this.

Patiently, he picked all the ripe eggplants one by one, arranged them neatly, tied them together with hemp rope, and temporarily stored them in the bamboo cottage inside the space. Then he carried another ten or so eggplants out of the space, stuffed them into a woven sack, and prepared to take them to town to see if he could sell them for money.

The town was two hours away on foot. Walking there was possible, but exhausting and unnecessary.

So Xie Li went into the village to borrow a bicycle.

According to the original host’s memories, only two families in the village owned bicycles. One belonged to brigade leader Li Jianguo’s family, and the other belonged to Li Dasheng’s family on the west side of the village.

At a time like this, he obviously could not go borrowing from his future father-in-law’s house.

Arriving at Li Dasheng’s home, Xie Li explained why he had come.

Li Dasheng immediately revealed a troubled expression. Clearly, he did not really want to lend the bicycle to Xie Li. Yet in the end, he still agreed, though he looked deeply worried and repeatedly reminded Xie Li to ride carefully and not scratch the bike. After checking the time, he hurriedly left for work, still looking uneasy.

Xie Li did not pay much attention to it. Thanking the young man who kept looking back every few steps, he headed off in the opposite direction.

Because there had once been an incident where educated youths from outside the village became so hungry they formed groups to steal corn from the production team, the villagers generally held poor opinions of educated youths. Under those circumstances, Xie Li felt that Li Dasheng being willing to lend him the bicycle at all was already quite generous.

Riding the bike, Xie Li set off down the road.

This was far faster than walking. He rode out from the Li family courtyard, skillfully avoiding loose stones on the path as he sped toward the village exit.

“Creak!”

As he passed the village entrance, Xie Li caught sight of a familiar slender figure. He immediately squeezed the brakes, planted one foot on the ground for balance, and called out loudly to Li Tiantian ahead:

“Comrade Li Tiantian, are you heading to work?”

Hearing his voice, Li Tiantian turned around with a bewildered look.

“Yes… I’m going to work. Where are you riding off to?”

“I’m heading to town to buy some things. Want me to bring you something back?” Xie Li asked with a gentle smile.

Blushing, Li Tiantian shook her head and stepped back.

“You should just go by yourself.”

Xie Li revealed a helpless expression.

“You don’t have to be so afraid of me, you know.”

Not wanting the girl to keep avoiding him like this, he explained:

“Actually, you don’t need to feel troubled. Liking you is my own business. All you need to do is watch my actions properly and give me a chance. If you feel I’m not good enough, just say the word and I’ll disappear from your sight and never bother you again. But if you think I’m acceptable…”

Pausing slightly, Xie Li looked at her with warm eyes.

“Then you can like me too.”

Li Tiantian: “……”

Never in her life had she seen someone so shameless.

Her eyes widened as she wanted to scold Xie Li for being utterly without shame. But seeing his handsome refined face, his smiling eyes, she suddenly found herself unable to say the words.

When Xie Li first arrived in Xiaoxipo two years ago, which village girl had not secretly experienced a flutter of springtime affection for him?

Wearing a pale blue shirt, tall and straight-backed, handsome and elegant, he possessed a grace that even many city people lacked. Appearing in Xiaoxipo Village, he was like a phoenix falling into a chicken coop, naturally attracting everyone’s attention.

Li Tiantian had been no exception. Filled with girlish crushes, she often gathered with others to secretly watch Xie Li from afar.

But later, she discovered that he looked down on the villagers. He stayed silent, gloomy-faced, always seeming to hide unknown thoughts that made people uneasy. Quietly, she buried those feelings away.

Now Xie Li had changed.

His eyes were bright, his manners upright and courteous. The fluttering emotions from two years ago seemed to return once more to the tip of her heart.

“Then… I’ll watch your behavior,” Li Tiantian replied. She had no idea what virtue or fortune she possessed that could make someone as outstanding as Xie Li fall for her, yet somehow she agreed in a daze.

Only after speaking did she come back to her senses. Covering her burning cheeks, she worried Xie Li might think her too unreserved and quickly added:

“If your behavior’s bad, I won’t go easy on you.”

“Alright. I’ll listen to you.”

Xie Li could not help laughing. Leaning over, he plucked a pale yellow wildflower from the roadside. Pushing down on the bicycle pedal, he rode close to Li Tiantian, tucked the little flower into her hair, then lightly patted her head before speeding away.

“I’m off. I’ll remember to bring you something tasty.”

The pleasant scent from the young man brushed past in an instant.

Li Tiantian froze. Reaching up to touch the small flower in her hair, she muttered softly in a spoiled tone:

“Who wants the food you bring back anyway…”

╰───♡───╯

TOC

Ch 1: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

World 1: The Educated Youth Sent Down to the Countryside in the 1970s

Xie Li was about to die.

Sitting in a wheelchair, his pale yet handsome face completely drained of color, he stared blankly at the lush greenery and blooming flowers before him.

A nurse came over to push him. “Let’s head back.”

Xie Li gave a vague response, casting one lingering glance at the greenery behind him before slowly lowering his hand.

He was so unwilling to accept it. He was still young, had never even been in love, came from a wealthy family. Why did he have to leave this world so early…?

[Unwilling to accept it? Want to come with me? If you come with me, you can obtain eternal life.]

An electronic voice echoed through the darkness.

After a brief pause, Xie Li replied, “Sure.”

…

Spring, 1977. Commune Health Clinic.

Xie Li slowly opened his eyes, recalling what that system had told him.

[I am System No. 03, under the Jinjiang Great World. I manage dozens of transmigrators. You may call me Guan San. Your task is to accept the dying wishes of those blessed with great fortune, help them fulfill those wishes, protect the people they wanted to protect, and complete missions to earn points, which can be exchanged for anything you desire.]

[Since the player is male, all of your mission targets will be female. Please display your gentlemanly charm and officially escape singlehood in this world!]

Xie Li felt rather helpless. What was wrong with being single? He was proud of being single! Why did it have to bring it up and keep poking at his wounds?

Still, the jab thoroughly woke him up. Opening his eyes to face his new life, he happened to hear a tentative voice:

“You’re awake?”

Turning his head to the right, he saw a girl of about eighteen standing beside the bed.

She wore a grayish-blue blouse, her long hair braided neatly behind her back. Her face was small and delicate, her clear lively eyes filled with pleasant surprise as she looked at him.

Xie Li was used to treating girls gently and politely. By reflex, he gave her a soft smile and nodded warmly.

“I’m awake. You…” you are?

Before he could finish, the girl interrupted him.

“That’s great!” she exclaimed, patting her chest in relief. She bent closer to check his complexion, and seeing no change, reached up to touch his forehead. Nodding happily, she said, “No fever. Looks like you should be fine now.”

“…” Xie Li’s gaze flickered slightly, but he calmly nodded. “Right, I’m fine.”

He remembered now. This girl was clearly Li Tiantian, the mission target of this world.

Tsk, what a headache.

Sneaking glances at Li Tiantian, Xie Li rubbed his chin and pondered how he was supposed to handle this first mission.

Li Tiantian had no idea what he was thinking. Still delighted, she hurriedly said, “Oh right, since you’re awake, I’ll go get the doctor to take a look at you. Wait here for a moment.” Then she rushed out of the room in a flurry.

Xie Li froze for a second before sitting up in bed and letting out a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness. At least he had some buffer time.

He called out to the system to confirm the mission for this world.

[Main Mission: Change the course of the story and give Li Tiantian a lifetime of happiness. Mission completion reward: 1000 points.]

Since this was Xie Li’s first mission, he was extremely cautious. After confirming the mission, he reviewed the memories transmitted from the original host once more.

The story took place in the late 1970s.

The original host, who had come from a good family background, had been implicated by his elders and sent down to the countryside as an educated youth in Xiaoxipo Brigade. Every day he faced the yellow earth with his back to the sky, never eating enough, never dressing warmly enough, and constantly doing exhausting farm labor. He found the hardship unbearable.

In order to leave that awful place, he deliberately pursued Li Tiantian, the only daughter of brigade leader Li Jianguo, hoping to use her father’s connections to secure an opportunity to return to the city.

Who would have thought that after they married, Li Jianguo would drown while saving someone’s life? Soon afterward, a new brigade leader was selected, and the Li family lost its political standing. The original host’s carefully planned scheme failed before it had even begun.

He blamed Li Tiantian for being useless.

Then, as soon as news of the reinstated college entrance examination arrived, he studied desperately, got into university, secured his chance to return to the city, and immediately abandoned Li Tiantian without a trace.

At the time, the original host still didn’t know that Li Tiantian was already pregnant.

After being admitted to Capital University, he relied on his refined and gentle facade to thrive among his classmates. Coupled with his family’s political rehabilitation, he returned to the elegant life of a wealthy young master and completely forgot about Li Tiantian, whom he regarded as a stain on his life.

Forty years later, as the original host grew older, he suddenly remembered Li Tiantian and sent someone to investigate her circumstances.

Only then did he learn that several months after he left, Li Tiantian had given birth to a daughter for him. In order to raise the child, she took on all kinds of odd jobs, working herself sick. A few months earlier, she had passed away in the hospital.

Before her death, she had murmured the original host’s name over and over.

People tended to soften with age. When the original host heard the news, he was suddenly plunged into memories of the past.

He had done every bad thing imaginable in his life. As his parents and brothers passed away one after another, there was no one left around him he could truly confide in. The women who crowded around him all wanted his money. Only Li Tiantian had genuinely loved him when he had neither power nor status, and she had even borne him his only bloodline.

It was not exactly a complete awakening, but as the saying went, when a man is nearing death, his words become kind. The original host sacrificed part of his fortune and luck, making a wish to give Li Tiantian a lifetime of happiness in repayment for her misplaced devotion.

The mission was not particularly difficult, and as a newcomer, Xie Li had been fortunate enough to receive it.

At this point in the story, it had just reached the time when the original host, after spending two years in the countryside, had begun to stray down the wrong path and decided to pursue Li Tiantian in hopes of returning to the city. He had only just taken the first step.

The reason Xie Li had awakened in the clinic was also because the original host had tried to play the hero and save the beauty. When wild boars came charging down the mountain, he rushed forward to rescue Li Tiantian in hopes of winning her heart. In the end, he failed to save her and instead got rammed by another small boar, falling and smashing his head on the ground.

A panicked Li Tiantian, together with her father Li Jianguo, had rushed the original host to the clinic.

But Li Jianguo, being the brigade leader, had many responsibilities to attend to and soon returned to handle brigade affairs. Right now, only Li Tiantian remained to look after him.

This had also been an important scene in the original timeline where feelings first developed between the original host and Li Tiantian. Entering the story at this exact point greatly reduced the difficulty of the mission.

But…

“I still don’t know what to do.” Looking entirely unconcerned, Xie Li hinted, “System, you know as well as I do that I’m single too.”

Xie Li’s personal qualifications were excellent. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Yet it was precisely because he was too perfect, with his gentle temperament and warm smile that made people feel like basking in a spring breeze, that he became the dream man in many girls’ hearts. The girls admired him from afar and hardly dared approach him casually. As a result, despite being twenty years old, he had never had a girlfriend.

If he had never dated before, how was he supposed to know how to pursue Li Tiantian?

Especially in a world set in the 1970s, where food and clothing were scarce. For a pampered young master like Xie Li, whether he could even survive here was still an open question.

The system seemed to understand his implication and suddenly spoke up:

[Player, since you are a newcomer, you may draw a beginner’s gift pack. Would you like to draw?]

Xie Li’s eyes lit up slightly. Smiling, he said, “I want to draw!”

It was best to settle matters of luck quickly.

The moment he spoke, a roulette wheel appeared in his mind. It was divided into five colors: white, green, blue, purple, and orange. The later the color, the smaller its section on the wheel. Tiny words crowded the spaces, seemingly representing the rewards for each color tier. The orange section occupied only two or three percent of the wheel.

Xie Li said nothing. Calmly focusing, he carefully observed the wheel’s spinning speed. After a while, he made his calculation in silence. The instant the pointer swept past a certain point, he decisively shouted:

“Stop.”

Before his voice had even fully fallen, the pointer ceased its rapid spinning. It slowed, continued forward another half-circle from inertia, and finally stopped on the orange section.

He had won.

And judging by the color, it seemed to be the grand prize.

Even Xie Li froze for a moment before lifting his head to ask the system, “What’s the reward?”

The system also sounded somewhat disbelieving. After pausing briefly, it replied:

[Congratulations to Employee No. 233 for obtaining the orange-tier reward: Bishui Space.]

Like a Portable Space?

Before Xie Li could question it further, he suddenly sensed that something had appeared in his mind out of nowhere.

He wanted to inspect it carefully, but then heard approaching footsteps outside, along with Li Tiantian’s voice speaking to someone. Hesitating for a moment, he pushed aside his curiosity and focused instead on dealing with Li Tiantian.

…

“Doctor, please check whether he still needs to stay hospitalized now that he’s awake.”

Li Tiantian pushed open the door and entered with the doctor, pointing toward Xie Li for him to examine.

She had grown up cherished at home and had never really handled matters on her own before. It was her first time independently asking someone for help, and embarrassment flushed her cheeks pink. Her voice was so soft it was nearly inaudible. The young male doctor followed her into the room and could not help stealing several curious glances at her.

“Ahem!”

Xie Li coughed lightly, interrupting him.

The doctor snapped back to his senses. Seeing the warning look in Xie Li’s eyes, he quickly understood and could not help laughing helplessly before stepping forward to examine the wound.

“Since there’s no fever and the wound hasn’t reopened, as long as he’s awake, he can be discharged. Still, it’s best to rest for a while and avoid overexertion for now.” After the examination, the doctor spoke casually. Then, after some thought, he added, “If you still feel uneasy, you can also take him to the county hospital for a checkup. The clinic doesn’t have testing equipment at the moment, so it would be safer that way.”

“There’s no need to go through so much trouble. We’ll just discharge directly.”

Before Li Tiantian could respond, Xie Li had already thrown off the blanket, put on his shoes, and stood up.

In the original story, the host had not suffered any lasting problems from the injury, so Xie Li felt completely assured about his condition and insisted on leaving.

Li Tiantian refused stubbornly.

“Maybe we should still go get a proper examination…”

Xie Li froze for a moment before revealing a helpless smile.

“Do you know how long it takes to walk to the county town?”

Li Tiantian looked blankly from the doctor to Xie Li.

“Four hours. Why?”

“Four hours…” Crossing his arms and leaning casually against the wall, Xie Li tilted his head to look at her. “Although I’d really like for you to accompany me out, if we rush to the county town and then hurry back at this hour, it’ll already be dark by the time we return.”

“Th-that…”

Faced with the young man’s warm smile that felt like a spring breeze, Li Tiantian’s heart skipped a beat. Her face reddened uncontrollably as she muttered shyly and irritably:

“Then forget it. We’ll head back first. Just remember to go to the county town yourself tomorrow for a checkup!”

She did not dare look at him again and hurriedly turned to leave, afraid their eyes would meet once more.

Too strange.

Why was her heart beating so fast?

“…too shameless!” Li Tiantian muttered under her breath.

In this era, saying something as bold and straightforward as wanting to go out together with her, while staring at a girl with that kind of gaze, really was rather shameless.

Hearing this, Xie Li could neither laugh nor cry. After paying the medical fees and collecting the gauze and ointment, he strode after her.

╰───♡───╯

TOC

Ch 5: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

The Locked Classroom (5)

【Now calculating rewards…】

【Stage cleared, base points: +100】

【Exploration rate 99%, bonus points: +49】

【NPCs eliminated: 4, bonus points: +40】

【Advanced borrowed points: -10】

【Total points earned this stage: 179】

【Clear evaluation: S】

When Yi Han opened his eyes again, he discovered he had returned to the little room from the beginning.

The room still contained only a bed and four walls. The only difference from before was that the wound on Yi Han’s chest had already been healed inside the stage.

Opening the app, he noticed a new tab labeled “Clear Log.”

After tapping it, he could see records of previously cleared stages.

Under the first subcategory labeled “Beginner Level,” the name of the stage he had just completed was displayed:

“The Locked Classroom”

Behind the title was a golden “S.”

Further down were subcategories like “One-Star Stage,” “Two-Star Stage,” “Three-Star Stage”…

But all of them were currently grayed out and inactive, with empty contents.

【Requirement to activate One-Star stages: Clear a Beginner stage with at least a C-rank evaluation. You already meet the requirement. Please wait patiently for 24 hours while the system activates it automatically!】

【This period also serves as your rest time. After each game ends, players receive a basic 24-hour rest period. Once the time expires, the system will automatically draw the next stage.】

【If you wish to extend your rest time, you may use points to purchase it in the system store.】

After hearing the three consecutive system notifications, Yi Han’s eyes shifted slightly.

Then he swiped open the store interface.

Earlier inside the stage, he had already purchased ingredients for braised pork from the store. At the time, however, only the ingredient section had been unlocked for him.

Now that he was outside the stage, Yi Han finally saw the system store in its entirety.

Weapons. Magical treasures. Bloodlines. Servants…

Even ordinary daily necessities like clothing, food, housing, and transportation.

And the thing that shocked him most was a category called:

“Main God Space Housing.”

Players could spend points renovating their rooms, upgrading the original four-wall basement into apartments, luxury suites, seaside villas, massive estates…

Even the location could be selected.

Among the filter options, Yi Han actually saw the words:

“Main God Space School District Housing.”

Which caused Yi Han, whose first reaction had been “Who the hell would waste points on something like this?”, to fall into deep thought.

Originally, he had assumed his little room was merely a tiny dimensional space.

That was why there were no doors or windows, and nothing existed beyond the walls except perhaps other players’ rooms.

But after seeing this entire lineup of housing-related products in the store, Yi Han suddenly felt that beyond these walls might exist an entire parallel world no different from reality…

Residential districts. Schools. Commercial streets.

The only difference was that every resident in this world was a player of the escape game, struggling every day to gather enough points to reach that impossible 100 million.

Yi Han thought about many things for a while.

But his current points were far too few. He did not even have enough to add a door to his room.

So he quickly calmed down again.

Past the housing category, the most expensive items in the store were the special bloodlines and bizarre abilities.

There were also some special-effect items with absurdly high prices, each followed by terrifying rows of zeroes.

After browsing around, Yi Han realized the only things he could currently afford were ordinary daily necessities and food.

Since he had only eaten a tiny serving of braised pork inside the stage, now that he finally relaxed, his stomach began feeling empty again.

So he first ordered a giant grilled meat rice bowl from the food section.

The result:

One meal cost him 20 points.

He only had 179 total.

At this rate, if he spent money on absolutely nothing else and only paid for meals, he could survive merely three days…

And among beginner players, his situation was already considered good.

Most newcomers only earned around 120 or 130 points after clearing their first stage.

Of those, 100 points would usually be spent healing the injuries they carried over from the real world.

The remainder, even if used to buy the cheapest plain rice and pickled vegetables, would only last about one day.

If players wanted to survive, they had to continuously clear stages.

And if they wanted extra points to purchase abilities and items…

Heh.

As for the 100 million points required to leave the game…

Who knew how many lifetimes that would take to save up?

After finishing the 20-point meal, Yi Han finally felt tired.

He originally intended to sleep for a bit, but could not fall asleep.

Not having enough points gave him an enormous sense of urgency.

Yet even if he skipped extending rest periods and rushed nonstop from stage to stage every single day, gathering 100 million points would still be unimaginably difficult.

Clearing stages could maximize point gains.

But no matter how much he earned, there was a limit.

It was like being an overworked office worker earning fixed wages.

Working for others would never make anyone truly rich.

If one wanted fast money, one had to become the boss.

Lying on the bed, Yi Han thought quietly for a while before taking out his phone again.

That bankrupt shop still sat in the corner of his inventory.

Opening the shop management interface, Yi Han asked the former owner’s resentful spirit:

“Where was your previous store located? And if we wanted to rent it again, how many points would it cost?”

“In… the commercial district.”

The former owner seemed flattered that Yi Han suddenly initiated conversation, but still answered honestly.

“However, it’s not just a matter of points… Reopening requires many other conditions too. We can’t do it right now.”

Yi Han roughly understood.

It was probably all kinds of annoying permit procedures.

Even opening a store in the real world was a bureaucratic nightmare, let alone inside the Main God Space of an escape game.

“If we don’t open a physical shop,” Yi Han said thoughtfully, changing direction entirely, “what about an online store?”

“The players in the escape game all use the app inside stages. If we secretly leave our menu inside the app, then whenever players need something, couldn’t they just place orders directly…?”

The former owner seemed completely stunned by the suggestion.

After a long while, he weakly replied,

“An online store… We actually used to have one. But not the kind you’re describing. Wouldn’t that count as violating rules right under the system’s nose…? Besides, we no longer have a business license now…”

“Just tell me whether it can be done,” Yi Han asked.

“I… I’ll try…”

Clearly persuaded, the former owner immediately ran off to operate the store backend.

Not long afterward, he returned with exciting news.

“It works! Our online store can secretly bind itself to the system app. Probably no player ever dared attempt something like this before, so the app has zero protection against it! As long as the stage level has been fully unlocked by you, we can now distribute menus there!”

“What does ‘fully unlocked’ mean?”

“It means perfectly clearing stages of that rank and reaching the requirements to activate higher-level stages. For example, since you can now activate One-Star stages, all Beginner-level stages are within our operational range now!!”

There were countless players in the escape game.

Naturally, there were countless stages as well.

“The Locked Classroom” Yi Han had just cleared was only one among many Beginner-level stages.

But because he had fully unlocked Beginner-level content, he could now secretly distribute menus to all players currently inside Beginner stages.

“Good. Then open ordering permissions immediately.”

At present, Yi Han’s recipe book contained only one dish:

Braised Pork.

After consumption, it healed injuries and restored players to healthy condition.

However, according to the former owner, the dishes only achieved maximum effectiveness when made and eaten personally by the owner.

If served to customers, the effect weakened to roughly 50%.

Even so, Yi Han believed this dish would still have tremendous market value.

Every player in Beginner stages desperately wanted to heal their injuries.

After setting up the menu, Yi Han priced the braised pork at:

50 points.

The system charged 100 points for healing.

His braised pork only had half the effectiveness.

Therefore 50 points was perfectly reasonable.

As for what customers needed to mortgage in order to borrow those 50 points, that was no longer Yi Han’s concern.

Just as expected, shortly after the menu went live, orders immediately began appearing.

Yi Han first spent 50 points purchasing a small batch of ingredients and cooked five servings of braised pork.

They sold out almost instantly.

Because the online shop was secretly integrated into the system app, customers received meals exactly the same way as system-purchased items.

Yi Han did not need to worry about delivery at all.

He simply repeated three steps over and over:

“Insert ingredients” → “Wait 1 minute” → “Retrieve dish.”

The moment food was finished, it automatically appeared in the customer’s hands.

And so, after repeating this process several times…

Yi Han became tired.

In one hour, he produced a total of 50 servings of braised pork.

Each serving cost 10 points in ingredients and sold for 50.

Net profit:

40 points per serving.

50 servings meant:

2000 points total profit!

Equivalent to clearing more than ten Beginner stages within a single hour!

Knowing when to stop, Yi Han closed the ordering channel after delivering the 50th serving and hid the menu interface inside the app again.

Counting money was enjoyable.

But this was still essentially causing trouble directly under the system’s nose.

He could not be too reckless.

Besides, money could never truly be exhausted.

As long as this shop remained operational, and as long as he stayed careful enough not to get caught by the system, Yi Han probably would never need to worry about points again.

Still, even though business earned money faster, he could not abandon the game side entirely.

Yi Han’s next objective was to clear higher-level stages as quickly as possible, collect the remaining recipes, and unlock higher-level business territories!

In the end, Yi Han did not spend points extending his rest time.

After resting one night and waiting for the weakened status to disappear, he drew the next stage.

【Stage Name: Endless Staircase (One-Star)】

【Number of Players: 2】

【Stage Description: Late at night, you leave a coworker’s home. But after descending to the first floor, you discover that where the main entrance should be… there is only another staircase leading downward. Please find the exit before midnight.】

【Clear Reward: 200 points (base reward)】

【Failure Penalty: Become a resident of the ghost building and remain there forever.】

…The moment Yi Han saw “Number of Players: 2” again, his face darkened instantly.

Thus, during the countdown before entering the stage, he decisively spent nearly all his savings purchasing a special item.

【Malice Detector】

【Quality: B Rank】

【Condition: Brand New】

【Description: Detects malicious intent from companions nearby. Becomes ineffective after one warning.】

During the previous stage, Yi Han had already grasped some of the system’s patterns.

There were many things he could guard against.

But the one thing he could not defend against was the system’s fake player count information.

That part was absolutely insane!

The fake teammate from the previous stage had probably been a newbie too, which was why Yi Han detected him so easily.

But future stages might contain truly skilled actors.

Yi Han had to prepare for that.

Soon the countdown ended.

Darkness swallowed his vision.

Then after sight returned, before he even had time to inspect his surroundings, another system notification suddenly sounded.

【Because you caused excessive destruction to the game environment during the previous stage, increasing the staff workload by tenfold, this stage will randomly assign you one debuff that does not affect combat ability as punishment. Duration: from now until stage completion.】

【Selection complete. Debuff obtained: Delicate and Adorably Feminine Crossdressing Illusion.】

【Have fun playing :-）】

Yi Han: ????????????????

── ⋆⋅🖤⋅⋆ ──

TOC

The Locked Classroom (4)

Ever since leaving that classroom, Yi Han’s wonderful teammate had become deeply confused.

After witnessing “Coworker A, who mysteriously vanished in the restroom” and “Coworker B, who was brutally eaten in the classroom,” he seemed to be starting to question his entire ghostly existence.

Yi Han could not help wondering if he had scared him too badly.

He had only farmed two ghosts and earned 20 points so far…

This guy better not quit on him now.

So Yi Han vaguely comforted him, “…Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”

Unfortunately, judging by the other party’s face, he did not seem comforted at all.

Yi Han said no more and instead turned his thoughts to something else that had been bothering him.

Before the game began, the system had clearly stated that there were two players.

Now that this silly kid beside him was confirmed not to be a real player, where was the actual player?

Yi Han had considered this before and once guessed that maybe they had already been eliminated.

But after encountering several ghost NPCs, his view changed.

This beginner stage, or perhaps even the entire escape game, seemed relatively mild so far.

It felt more like a true game stage.

“Humans” and “ghosts” belonged to different camps, each with different objectives.

For example, Yi Han, as a “human,” had to find the keys and escape the teaching building.

Meanwhile, the ghosts, including the fake teammate beside him, probably had the task of “creating obstacles along the player’s escape route.”

They lurked beside him, hid in dark places he would pass through, and did their absolute best to build a terrifying atmosphere and scare him away.

But none of them had seriously tried to kill him.

When he encountered the female ghost under the teacher’s desk earlier, it was already past 10 PM, and the game time was more than halfway over. If the ghosts had any killing moves, it should have been time to reveal them.

Yet when Yi Han opened the classroom door and saw the fake teammate still waiting outside, foolishly asking whether he was okay, Yi Han had a feeling.

Even if he had not knocked that female ghost unconscious, she probably would not have killed anyone.

So the other real player was likely still alive.

They probably would not obsessively grind exploration percentage like Yi Han, so they might already have reached the first floor.

However, the system had not announced their successful escape, which meant they had not found the final key either.

And so Yi Han and his wilted NPC teammate continued onward, each lost in their own thoughts, saying nothing as they searched all the way down to the first floor.

The door from the stairwell to the first-floor lobby was unlocked. Yi Han did not know whether the other player had opened it.

In any case, only one locked door remained now:

The main entrance of the entire teaching building.

This game was nearing its end.

Yi Han’s exploration percentage had also reached 86%. After searching the first floor, it would hit 100%.

The two rounded the corner at the stairwell entrance and stepped into the lobby, only to stop at the same time.

Beside the entrance hall near the teaching building’s front doors stood a woman with her back facing them.

Long hair. Black clothes. Long pants.

There were some text slogans hanging on the walls to either side of the lobby, and several potted plants and small sculptures sat against the wall.

The woman was currently feeling around them.

Yi Han: …What perfect timing.

The fake teammate beside him, however, did not look so great.

Yi Han turned his head and somehow saw a whole series of complicated emotions on his face at once:

surprise, embarrassment, unwillingness, conflict, and sulking anger.

Wasn’t he just about to be exposed?

Was all that really necessary?

The woman heard the sound too and immediately turned around.

Then she also froze.

“You two…”

Her gaze moved back and forth between them.

Unexpectedly, the NPC teammate actually copied the question Yi Han had asked him at the start and struck first.

“Are you human or ghost?!”

The woman: “…I’m a player.”

Boy: “No, you’re not. We two are the players. You’re the fake!”

Woman: “…???”

Yi Han almost laughed out loud.

But at a time like this, as someone who was supposedly still unaware that the teammate he had traveled with for two hours was a fake, he could not laugh.

So he could only put on a guarded expression, looking from one to the other while keeping distance from both.

Boy: “Bro, trust me. I showed you my app. I’m a player too. This woman definitely isn’t.”

Woman: “…I have the app too. What does that prove?”

She raised her phone screen and openly showed it to Yi Han.

Yi Han had long known that ghosts also had the app, so it could not prove identity at all.

He gave no clear response.

“All three of us have the app. Anything else?”

The boy choked.

The woman also fell silent.

Honestly, Yi Han himself could not think of anything to say at this moment that would prove he was human.

But he was not worried at all.

After all, neither of these two could beat him.

After a long pause, the woman suddenly gritted her teeth.

“I can prove my identity. I found the key.”

She slipped one hand into her sleeve, pinched two fingers together, and pulled out a bright, gleaming key from her cuff.

It should have been the one she had found on the sculpture just as Yi Han and the boy appeared.

“This is the final key. Whichever one of you can prove your identity gets to leave the building with me.”

She only flashed the key briefly before quickly putting it away again, speaking warily.

Now the situation was very clear.

Yi Han looked disappointedly at the male NPC beside him and said,

“…I trusted you so much, and you actually lied to me.”

Boy: …

Actually, the logic was very strange.

Why would the person who found the key automatically be the real player?

But Yi Han already knew who was fake, so he was too lazy to nitpick the details.

And the other party seemed stunned by his acting skills. His face filled with embarrassment, and he even stammered as though trying to explain, completely forgetting he could still accuse Yi Han back.

So after Yi Han performed a few more dramatic lines like “Forget it, don’t say anything” and “I’m so disappointed in you,” the boy left in shame.

Yi Han successfully took his place.

Seeing the boy looking genuinely guilty, like he really had wronged someone terribly, Yi Han almost felt bad for him.

…This kid’s combat ability was no good, and his mental resilience was no good either.

He still needed training.

And just like that, only he and the woman remained.

The woman had watched the entire melodramatic soap opera unfold and was speechless for a moment before finally saying,

“…Let’s go. We should leave.”

But Yi Han remained where he stood, eyes bright.

“Wait a moment first.”

The woman frowned. “What?”

“Nothing much. There are just a few things I still want to understand.” Yi Han smiled casually. “Can you tell me which floor your first room was on after entering the game?”

“…The fourth floor. Why?” she answered.

“And on your way down, you never encountered any ghosts?” Yi Han asked again.

“…”
This time the woman understood.

“You suspect me?”

“No. Just asking casually.” Yi Han smiled again.

“…I already found the key. I’m leaving now. If you want to clear the stage, follow me. If not, stay here yourself.”

Her expression turned cold as she acted displeased and turned to leave.

Then suddenly:

CLANG!

The exact same deafening sound as when Yi Han had smashed the female ghost’s skull earlier echoed through the lobby.

The woman’s eyes rolled shut, and she collapsed onto the floor unconscious.

Yi Han calmly put away the iron pot and searched her body, retrieving the key.

“The hiding place of the final key…” he said quietly, “was the ‘teammate’ himself.”

“You people really are crafty.”

The system did not respond to his comment.

Instead, another notification appeared.

[Congratulations. You have obtained all keys. Opening the door will end the game.]

[You must now make a choice: Leave alone, or leave together with the other player.]

[Please note: If the player you choose is not a real player, the stage will be judged as failed. You will receive neither base points nor bonus points. Please choose carefully.]

Yi Han carefully read the message once before putting away his phone.

There was still time.

He was not in a hurry.

After helping the unconscious woman sit against the wall, Yi Han returned to thoroughly search every classroom on the first floor.

The exploration percentage rose bit by bit.

Until finally, after finishing everything, it stopped at 99%.

He already knew where the missing 1% was.

The elevator inside the stairwell.

But the elevator in this teaching building was broken and could not be opened at all.

In this stage, 99% was probably the maximum exploration percentage players could achieve.

Yi Han was confident nobody could score higher than him.

The only regret was that he had not earned more points from defeating ghosts.

Then Yi Han thought about the NPC teammate who had followed him through several floors…

If only he had not driven him away earlier.

Knocking him out would probably have earned another 10 points.

“…Are you still here?”

Unwilling to give up those points, Yi Han stood in the first-floor lobby and called out loudly.

But the surroundings remained silent.

After waiting a long while, nobody responded.

…He was an NPC. Until the player cleared the stage, he should not be able to leave first.

So why was he hiding?

Could it be he had actually believed Yi Han’s nonsense earlier and was too ashamed to show his face?

After weighing things carefully, points ultimately defeated conscience.

Yi Han looked calmly around the room and said,

“Actually, I knew your identity from the very beginning. Everything I said along the way, including earlier, was all a lie.”

At that moment, hidden in some corner, the newbie ghost NPC who had been feeling guilty for deceiving a “pure and upright player”:

…………！

So you were not angry?!

I was genuinely feeling guilty over here and you were watching for entertainment?!

“…Bastard! Eat my knife!!!”

The moment Yi Han finished speaking, the boy burst charging out from the corner holding his completely useless fruit knife, shouting furiously.

His originally pale face had flushed red from anger.

Then:

CLANG!

Another resounding iron-pot-against-skull impact echoed through the lobby.

The boy collapsed unconscious onto the floor, his fruit knife flying away dramatically.

Another 10 points acquired.

Yi Han felt deeply satisfied.

Dragging the boy over beside the unconscious woman against the wall, Yi Han finally took out the key and opened the main entrance of the teaching building.

He walked out alone.

The system sent one final confirmation message, asking whether he truly wished to clear the stage without bringing anyone else.

“Confirmed,” Yi Han replied.

He had entered every room on the fourth floor.

He had also searched every pocket on the woman.

Yet he had never found the other two keys that should logically exist under the condition that there were supposedly “2 players.”

This stage had only ever contained one human player from beginning to end.

The woman had also been fake.

She existed only to hold the final key and serve as the last trap meant to make him fail at the very end.

That was Yi Han’s answer to the final question.

[Congratulations! Stage: The Locked Classroom (Beginner Level) successfully cleared!]

Because some readers said they did not understand, the author moved a reply comment here to explain:

How did he determine the female teammate was fake?

If the woman were a real player, then after escaping her first locked classroom, she should have possessed a classroom key.

And according to her own story, she later entered the stairwell from the fourth floor and descended from there, meaning she also should have possessed the fourth-floor stairwell key.

But she had no keys at all.

Meanwhile, the protagonist had searched every classroom on the fourth floor and inspected the hallway near the fourth-floor stairwell without finding those two keys that should logically exist.

Therefore, those two keys never existed in the first place.

Which meant the woman was lying.

Which meant she was not a human player.

Why did the system release misleading information?

It was not false information.

It was a special setting~

There will be an explanation later in the story.

── ⋆⋅🖤⋅⋆ ──

TOC

Author Archives: Thingyan

Ch 3: The Unfilial Children Trembles in Fear (QT)

Ch 2: The Unfilial Children Trembles in Fear (QT)

Ch 1: The Unfilial Children Trembles in Fear (QT)

Ch 5: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

Ch 4: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

Ch 3: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

Ch 2: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

Ch 1: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

Ch 5: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

Ch 4: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game