Author Archives: Thingyan

Endless Staircase (4)

Seeing Yi Han’s expression turn unfriendly, the girl quickly said, “I won.”

Her movements had been especially fast. That tiny trick had actually only been caught by Yi Han’s sharp eyes. Even Jian Lin thought he had only lost because of bad luck.

“I’ll choose truth…” he said after hesitating for a long while.

When ordinary classmates played this kind of game, the person who chose dare was usually in more danger. Truth, at most, would involve questions like “How many girlfriends have you had?” or “Was your first kiss taken yet?” Aside from being a little embarrassing, it was usually nothing serious.

So Jian Lin instinctively felt that, even in this escape game, choosing truth would be safer.

Unexpectedly, the girl NPC once again revealed that scheming smile.

“Very well. Please answer.”

Her eyes turned between Jian Lin and Yi Han before she spoke maliciously.

“During this instance, have you deceived your teammate about something very important, something that concerns her interests and may even endanger her life?”

Jian Lin froze.

After hearing the NPC’s question, his face instantly became very ugly.

The wording of this question was far too cunning.

He had indeed not told the full truth about something, but it was absolutely not like what she described…

This question was entirely meant to sow discord. It was the lowest-level divide-and-conquer trick.

But although it was low-level, it worked.

Jian Lin had indeed hidden something. For a moment, he did not know how to explain, and he instinctively looked toward Yi Han in panic.

Yi Han was also looking at him with a deep gaze. Seeing him refuse to answer, his eyes seemed to carry a trace of probing.

“You only need to answer yes or no,” the NPC girl added even more sinisterly. “In Truth or Dare, you can only tell the truth. If you lie, the task will immediately be judged as failed.”

“I…” Jian Lin’s face was pale.

In the end, he could only compromise.

“Yes.”

【Forced Task 3: Complete.】

“Congratulations, your task is complete. You may now return to the stairwell and continue the game.”

The girl smiled in satisfaction and gestured toward the door, indicating it could now be opened and they could leave.

Jian Lin lowered his head, embarrassed and afraid to look at Yi Han.

Yi Han only looked at him wordlessly for a moment.

Then he turned toward the relaxed-looking girl NPC and took out his pot.

“…What are you doing?” The NPC’s smile froze.

Although an iron pot probably did not count as a weapon, Yi Han’s stance was truly frightening, as though what he held was not a pot, but a bone-chopping cleaver.

“Both of your coworkers have already been kicked out of the instance by me. If you don’t want the same thing to happen, cooperate and take us to the clearance clue. Otherwise…”

Yi Han’s tone was flat. He glanced at the hole he had smashed in the wall nearby, the threat in his words extremely clear.

He had not acted yet, but his presence was oppressive, and his tone was even more sinister than hers had been.

“…”

The girl NPC was probably one with little combat ability, but as a fierce ghost, she had never been provoked by players like this before. She immediately pointed angrily.

“Get out.”

Of course, Yi Han could not possibly just leave like that.

He stepped forward, twisted her arm, and pinned the NPC girl down.

The entire process only used one hand.

“Y-You, you, you…”

The NPC girl could not understand no matter how she thought about it.

How could this delicate, sweet-looking beautiful girl be so violent and so strong?

“Where’s that iron wedge from earlier?”

Yi Han twisted her arm behind her and pressed her against the wall, then reached toward Jian Lin.

The NPC girl turned her head in terror.

“What are you going to do?!”

Yi Han replied, “Earlier, I used that thing to pry a crack in the wall first. Then I hammered it inward with force…”

NPC: …???

Unable to break free, the girl stared at him in horror as Jian Lin truly returned to -1801 and brought over that terrifying iron wedge.

She immediately cried and surrendered.

“Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d done that earlier?”

Yi Han lost interest and pulled her off the wall.

And so, with an NPC captive in hand, Yi Han and Jian Lin no longer needed to search by themselves.

Yi Han held her like a chick, and the three of them left the room, following the stairs upward.

Although even Yi Han had not expected things to go this smoothly, clearing the stage faster was indeed a good thing.

The girl NPC cried the entire way, but she behaved honestly.

Under her guidance, the group climbed all the way up to the 6th floor, the highest floor in the building.

They finally stopped in front of door 601.

The girl was still held in Yi Han’s hand. With tears in her eyes, she glared at him again, signaling that this was the room.

“What do you think? Is this the right room?”

Even after the Truth or Dare incident, Yi Han still looked toward Jian Lin, the luck emperor, as usual.

Jian Lin looked like he wanted to say something, but Yi Han was clearly not the kind of person who liked melodrama. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. So he temporarily swallowed his explanation and turned to look at the door marked 601.

His gaze seemed capable of sinking directly into that gray-blue metal, piercing through it to glimpse the secret within.

After a long while, Jian Lin suddenly shook his head.

Instead, his eyes shifted aside.

“…It’s hard to explain, but I feel like choosing the room next door, 602, would be better.”

After a pause, he added,

“But I’m not sure either… My luck today seems pretty bad. Maybe we should still…”

“No. We’ll listen to you,” Yi Han said decisively.

Seeing that they had not been turned against each other at all, and that her question had been asked for nothing, the girl NPC instantly became even angrier.

She could not help trying to provoke them again.

“Men are all liars! He lied to you, and you still dare trust him? Aren’t you afraid you’ll waste this knock for nothing?!”

Yi Han: …

Whether all men were liars, he did not know.

What he did know was that the NPC’s desperate statement had conveniently proved that the hidden rule Jian Lin provided was probably true.

Yi Han sighed.

“I didn’t expect that even after falling to this point, you’d still try tricks. Since that’s the case, don’t blame me for being heartless.”

Girl NPC: …???

In any case, this NPC no longer had any use.

Yi Han brought the pot down.

And she… became 10 points.

The triple kill for this game was achieved.

“Knock,” Yi Han said.

He had no guilt whatsoever over discarding someone after using them. When he spoke to Jian Lin again, his expression had not changed at all, merely giving a calm instruction.

Jian Lin turned and knocked on the door.

Yi Han kept his eyes forward the entire time, only thinking that if the two hidden rules Jian Lin had given were both correct, then all three ghosts in this building should be gone by now.

In that case, what would come open the door for them?

This time, they waited longer than the previous two times.

After quite a while, the door finally creaked open.

Inside the doorway was complete darkness.

Yi Han waited a while longer, but no one ever poked their head out. The inside remained completely silent. It seemed this room truly had no one in it.

Without hesitating further, Yi Han switched on his phone flashlight and stepped inside first.

Jian Lin followed closely behind. By the time he entered, Yi Han had already turned on the lights.

The room was brightly lit. Its layout was no different from the underground apartments. The two stood there for several seconds and even called out a few times, yet no NPC emerged from anywhere inside.

Only then did Yi Han finally relax and put away the pot.

The two of them then performed a quick search through the rooms together and soon determined that this was the home of a maintenance worker.

Of the two bedrooms, only one contained a bed. The other had been converted into a storage room, filled with all sorts of tools. A folding ladder leaned against the corner wall.

A dated maintenance logbook lay on one of the shelves. Judging from the layer of dust on the cover, it had clearly not been touched for quite some time.

Yi Han casually flipped it open and immediately raised an eyebrow.

After this maintenance worker’s final work assignment, there were no further records, as though he had vanished. And the last place he had gone that day was this building’s rooftop.

“So these clues are guiding us to the rooftop?” Yi Han rubbed his chin.

But the problem was…

This building had no door leading to the rooftop.

Yi Han had personally come through the stairwell earlier. There was no way he could remember wrong.

Actually, if they had not encountered three ghosts in a row during the first three attempts, they probably would have already found multiple clues in ordinary rooms that hinted at the correct escape route.

Gathering multiple pieces of information and then deducing the correct answer from them… that was what normal players’ puzzle-solving experience should look like.

But this time, with a sudden luck emperor by his side, Yi Han had become addicted to beating ghosts for points during the early game. The points and recipes had indeed felt great to collect, but now that it was time to determine the true escape route, they lacked enough information and could not make a firm judgment.

A game would never create a level impossible for players to clear. Since this room had been personally identified by the NPC girl… there should definitely still be more clues here regarding the path to survival.

Yi Han put down the maintenance logbook and searched through the house carefully once again together with his teammate.

And in the end, they truly found something.

A spare key to the rooftop door that the room’s owner had specially gone out to copy.

【System Prompt: Player has obtained the key to survival. The escape door has now appeared normally within the scene.】

Holding the key, Yi Han opened the door and saw that beside the staircase on what had previously been the top floor, the 6th floor, there was now an additional staircase leading upward.

“…So that’s how it is. If the rooftop staircase and door had been visible from the start, then as long as players reached the 6th floor, it wouldn’t have been hard to discover that the escape route was here. So the game hid this part of the scene until the most critical key had been obtained.”

There was nothing else useful left in the room, so Yi Han prepared to lead Jian Lin out and head straight for the rooftop.

But just before they left the room, Jian Lin suddenly stopped him.

“Yi Han… I-I want to explain something.”

“Hm?” Yi Han paused and turned to look at him.

“Earlier, during Truth or Dare… what that girl asked about…”

Yi Han could already guess what he wanted to say from the hesitant expression on his face.

But Yi Han did not really think it was necessary to hear it.

Because he had already guessed that what Jian Lin was hiding was definitely related to his luck-based ability.

That NPC had phrased her question so maliciously on purpose. It was a kindergarten-level attempt at sowing discord. Naturally, Yi Han would not believe it.

It was not because he had that much trust in this teammate he had only just met. He simply had confidence in his own judgment.

As someone who had grown up alone without family, surviving amidst the malice of adults since childhood, Yi Han actually trusted very few people now. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Whether this teammate was truly as kind and innocent as he appeared, Yi Han did not really care to know. After all, once they left this instance, they would probably never meet again.

As long as his ability was useful to Yi Han, and as long as he was obedient and did not drag the team down, that was enough.

Yi Han actually had a feeling that entering the rooftop escape gate might not be the final challenge of this instance. There could still be some unknown danger waiting above.

So at a time like this, even though he did not want to listen, he still felt he should patiently stabilize his teammate’s mental state.

“…It’s okay, you don’t need to explain.”

Yi Han adjusted his tone into something gentler and looked at him seriously.

“I trust you.”

But the moment he finished speaking, he felt like something had gone in the wrong direction…

Because his pure-hearted teammate’s face visibly turned red again.

Yi Han: …Forget it. Better talk less in the future.

── ⋆⋅🖤⋅⋆ ──

Next

Endless Staircase (3)

“How are you?” Yi Han asked, putting away the pot.

“I’m fine. He didn’t cut me.”

Jian Lin held his hand, clearly still shaken. It was hard to tell whether he had been scared by the male ghost NPC or by Yi Han.

Behind him, the cutting board had overturned onto the floor. The table and floor were a complete mess.

Yi Han glanced over and immediately understood.

Jian Lin’s dough-making must have been so terrible that the NPC became dissatisfied enough to try chopping him up…

But now that the NPC had been smashed offline, the forced task had been interrupted before completion. Not only could they no longer ask for clues, the door to room -1801 was now completely impossible to open.

So how were the two of them supposed to get out?

Yi Han stepped forward and tried it.

He discovered that the thin security door had been locked solid by system rules. Whether he pushed it by hand or kicked it, it did not move at all, as though it had been fixed directly into the wall.

After thinking briefly, Yi Han turned and went back into the master bedroom.

“Are you looking for… the key?” Jian Lin followed him dazedly.

But the moment he finished speaking, Yi Han came out of the bedroom again holding a huge fire axe.

When Yi Han had briefly searched the master bedroom earlier, he had seen a hardware toolbox in the cabinet. This axe had been standing behind the box. Because it was especially large, he had noticed it at the time.

He had not expected it would actually come in handy now.

“It might not work. I’ll try first,” he said, waving for his teammate to step back.

And so Jian Lin backed aside helplessly and blankly, then watched as Yi Han raised the huge axe high and swung it down hard at the door.

A thunderous clang rang out, shaking even the air around them.

But when they looked carefully, not even a scratch appeared on the seemingly flimsy door.

“As expected. If the task isn’t completed, the door can’t be destroyed.” Yi Han sighed, unsurprised.

“Then… I’ll go finish making the dumplings,” Jian Lin said.

“No need.”

Yi Han rejected the suggestion without even turning his head.

Neither of them knew how to make dumplings. And now the NPC was gone, so who would judge whether the task qualified?

At a time like this, wasting time obediently following the task procedure would be idiotic.

Yi Han took two steps back and stared thoughtfully at the old security door.

As he looked, his gaze suddenly shifted elsewhere.

“…What are you going to do?” Jian Lin’s face turned pale.

“I’ll try again,” Yi Han said, raising the axe once more.

Only this time, his target was not the security door.

It was the white wall to the left of the door, the wall connecting room -1801 to the neighboring -1802.

“…”

Under his teammate’s terrified gaze, the massive axe swung down again.

Another thunderous crash followed.

This time, one corner of the axe bit into the wall. The paint peeled away, revealing faint gray filler inside, sand, cement, and other materials. Dusty fragments scattered all over the floor.

Sure enough, he had guessed right.

When the system built these game scenes, the unimportant sections had been glossed over.

To put it plainly, it selectively cut corners.

In the real world, the structure of a residential building could almost never be split open with an axe.

But the game system had probably never considered that a player would try to smash the walls of an escape game, especially the wall of a room with a ghost.

So it only put effort into the surface. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. The inside was not made with real-world construction-standard materials.

As a result, when it encountered a violent player like him, of course it got chopped open.

Seeing that he had truly found a breakthrough point, Yi Han pressed on. He rolled his shoulders, lifted the axe with force, and swung again.

Although this wall was not as solid as C25 or C30 concrete in the real world, chopping it open completely was still difficult.

Yi Han struck again and again, finally breaking a crack into the wall.

He tossed down the axe and turned back into the bedroom.

A moment later, he came out carrying an iron wedge.

“Took it off the guardrail of the iron bed,” he explained.

Jian Lin: …………

“Hold this for me,” Yi Han said.

Turning around, he suddenly realized the other party was still petrified.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“…………Nothing…”

Jian Lin had not recovered yet, but he unconsciously obeyed Yi Han and reached out to hold the object inserted into the crack in the wall.

Then Yi Han switched to his own S-rank iron pot and aimed at the end of the wedge…

Jian Lin vaguely remembered that during this wall-demolition operation, they changed tools several times.

By the time he came back to himself again, the wall in front of him had already been broken open into a hole large enough for a person to pass through.

“Let’s go.”

After that burst of exercise, Yi Han had a thin layer of sweat on his body, but not to the point where he needed rest.

He climbed through the hole first into room -1802.

Jian Lin hurriedly followed.

By the time he made it through as well, Yi Han had already turned on the lights.

Unexpectedly, Yi Han was not the only person in this room.

A girl of about thirteen or fourteen stood face-to-face with Yi Han in the narrow entry hall. She wore a school uniform stained red with blood. Her face was also an ashen blue, though it was hard to tell whether that was how she normally looked or whether she was angry.

“…You’re the third NPC in the building?” Yi Han asked calmly, without the slightest shame over smashing through someone else’s wall.

He had originally worried that entering through the wall would waste one of their room-entry slots.

He had not expected the last ghost to happen to be waiting next door…

Praise the luck emperor.

“You two are way too bold,” the girl NPC said gloomily, her voice eerie.

When Yi Han had been smashing the wall next door, she had probably been waiting on the other side the whole time. Who knew how she felt about that? So it was normal for her tone to be bad.

“Oh, so?” Yi Han said carelessly while rapidly scanning the room from the corner of his eye.

Room -1802 had exactly the same layout as -1801, only mirrored.

Both bedroom doors were slightly ajar, and the kitchen door happened to be blocked by the girl, making it impossible to see the interior layout.

For the moment, he could not guess what forced task she might propose.

But then again, they had not knocked when entering.

Would that still trigger a forced task?

If he went forward right now and directly gagged, tied up, and kidnapped the girl NPC in one smooth chain of action, could he avoid the task?

Yi Han’s fingers twitched slightly.

But before he could act, the system notification appeared at lightning speed.

【System Notification: Due to knocking on the wrong door, Forced Task 3 has been triggered. Play 2 rounds of Truth or Dare with the owner of room -1802. If the game ends abnormally, this game will be judged as failed. After the game is completed, you may return to the stairwell and continue clearing the stage.】

…Fine.

Because in the previous round, Yi Han had knocked out the NPC before completing the task, the system had directly and temporarily changed the rules this time, refusing to let him exploit another loophole.

Yi Han could only temporarily release the handle of the iron pot in his inventory.

“Truth or Dare is simple. We’ll play rock-paper-scissors. One round per person. Which of you goes first?” the girl NPC said while extending a hand and lightly making a fist.

“I’ll go,” Yi Han said.

The previous two forced tasks had both been handled by Jian Lin.

This time it was one round per person, so both of them had to participate. It did not matter who went first.

Listening to the girl count down, “3, 2, 1,” the two reached out at the same time.

The NPC threw paper.

Yi Han threw rock.

“Truth or dare?” The girl grinned like her scheme had succeeded.

“…Dare.”

Knowing his luck was bad, Yi Han fell silent for a long moment before choosing.

“Go open the bedroom curtains.”

The girl quickly chose the dare task.

…That simple?

Yi Han followed the girl’s finger and looked toward the apartment’s master bedroom.

But the next instant, he reacted.

The room he was currently in was on the negative eighteenth floor.

Thinking back to the previous two rooms, the curtains had all been tightly closed.

At the time, because he subconsciously remembered that the game took place late at night, he had not found anything strange about the curtains being drawn.

But now that he thought about it…

What would be outside the window on the negative eighteenth floor?

Seeing the NPC girl’s malicious smile, Yi Han had no doubt there was definitely nothing good outside.

Maybe seeing it would mean death.

Even if it did not kill him, getting badly frightened was basically guaranteed.

“I’ll go in alone. You wait here,” Yi Han told his teammate before turning and leaving.

The master bedroom of -1802 was not very different from the one next door, aside from different furniture styles.

The overall feel was still old and shabby.

The curtains were tightly closed, not leaving even a sliver of a gap.

The NPC girl followed him but did not enter. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. She merely stood by the door and watched him with a smile.

Yi Han roughly scanned the room, then stood in front of the window.

The instant his hand touched the curtain, his heart inexplicably jolted.

It felt as though he were standing face-to-face with something extremely dangerous. Every hair on his body rose at once.

Yi Han frowned.

After thinking briefly, he closed his eyes.

Then, without much hesitation, he pulled hard and drew the curtains open to both sides.

When a person has their eyes closed, they can still sense changes in light.

The master bedroom lights had been on. He had turned them on when he entered. Although they were dim, after he opened the curtains, Yi Han felt through his eyelids that every trace of light had been swallowed by whatever stood outside the window.

The area around him became pitch black.

It seemed as though countless malicious gazes were staring at him from within the darkness.

His body temperature dropped sharply.

Breathing became difficult.

Yi Han did not open his eyes.

After completing the task, he turned around directly. Recalling the positions of the bedroom furniture, he walked steadily out of the room.

Only once he felt light again did he open his eyes.

Before him stood the NPC girl, whose expression did not look very good.

Yi Han passed by her without changing expression.

After both of them were completely out of the room, Yi Han even shut the door behind him.

“Hmph.”

The girl NPC gave a cold snort. Although reluctant, Yi Han had already completed the curtain-opening task, so she had no choice but to let him off.

“Next round. Your turn.”

She turned to look at Jian Lin.

Because Yi Han had told him not to follow, Jian Lin had been waiting in the small entry hall.

Now, seeing Yi Han come out as if nothing had happened, he sighed in relief.

Then he and the NPC extended their hands together.

“3, 2, 1,” the girl counted.

But after Jian Lin threw “paper,” Yi Han watched helplessly as the girl’s hand, which had originally been about to throw “rock,” swiftly extended two fingers and turned into “scissors.”

Yi Han: ?

Yi Han, whose practical ability was extremely strong, felt his hands itch again.

── ⋆⋅🖤⋅⋆ ──

Endless Staircase (2)

【Current stage exploration rate: 30%.】

【NPC eliminated *1. +10 points at settlement.】

Seeing these two messages received in the app, Yi Han became even more determined and seriously reminded him again,

“You can keep knocking for the next few doors too. It’s fine. I trust you.”

“T-Then… okay.”

Innocent Jian Lin froze slightly, then blushed and agreed in a daze.

Since this apartment had no recipe or clearance clue, the two left and returned to the stairwell.

Yi Han’s current exploration rate was 30%. Of that, 20% came from room -2001. The other 10% came from the stairwell between the 4th floor and the -20th floor.

With a rough calculation, Yi Han vaguely sensed that something was off.

The stairwell provided 10% exploration. The rooms entered through the 4 knocking chances totaled 80%.

Then there was still 10% left…

Where was it?

Yi Han had entered the game on the 4th floor. Although he had not gone upward, judging by the architectural style of this old residential building, there were at most 2 or 3 floors above. It could not possibly provide another 10%.

His intuition told him that the missing 10% might be related to the path to survival.

But for now, he had no new ideas, so he could only remember it and focus on going upstairs.

This time, the two stopped on the -18th floor.

Yi Han glanced slightly at Jian Lin beside him and saw this luck emperor staring at the doorplate for -1801, as though he sensed something.

“Knock?” Yi Han asked.

The number -18…

Without the minus sign, it could actually be considered a widely favored lucky number. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. But now that it appeared on the doorplate of the negative eighteenth floor of a ghost building, it inevitably made one think of things like the eighteenth level of hell.

No matter how one looked at it, it felt ominous.

Why would the luck emperor choose a number like this?

But facing Yi Han’s questioning gaze, he still nodded.

Seeing Jian Lin’s thoughtful yet not entirely certain expression, Yi Han somehow suddenly got the feeling that this teammate was probably not merely “pretty lucky” as he had said.

He might genuinely possess some ability, bloodline, or item related to luck.

Perhaps it was still low-level at the moment, which was why he doubted his own luck after the first knock. But to Yi Han, the result of the first knock had obviously been good too.

And this time, maybe he really could hit the target again and directly help Yi Han find the recipe.

“Good luck, luck emperor… Help me find this stage’s recipe. If not, another 10-point ghost is fine too.”

Yi Han remained calm on the surface while silently cheering him on inside.

Then Jian Lin took a deep breath and gently knocked on the door.

A moment later, dragging footsteps gradually approached the door.

Click.

Someone opened it.

It was a wrinkled middle-aged man. His face was somewhat fat, and his eyes were abnormally small, tucked beneath his eyelids as he looked the two outside over with obvious ill intent.

…He also seemed to be holding a kitchen knife, its blade still dotted with mysterious bits of minced meat.

“You came at just the right time. Dinner hasn’t started yet. Hurry in.”

The man bared his teeth in a smile. Saying something terrifying, he stepped aside to make way for them.

Yi Han turned his head and sure enough, his teammate’s face was once again filled with awkwardness, clearly thinking he had crashed and burned a second time.

Yi Han took the lead and followed the male homeowner into room -1801.

Just like last time, after both entered, the door was shut behind them.

Only this time, the lights were on. The male homeowner did not scare them like the female ghost had before. Instead, he led the two straight into the kitchen.

The kitchen was filled with a heavy, trapped smell of cooking oil mixed with the raw stench of meat, making people nauseous.

The moment Yi Han entered, he saw a pile of minced meat and bones on the cutting board. Before coming to the door, the male homeowner had probably been chopping them.

Who knew what kind of meat that was…

“We’re making dumplings tonight. Since you’re here, come help me.”

He dropped the kitchen knife onto the cutting board, brought out flour and a kneading board, and immediately filled the already small countertop.

【System Notification: Due to knocking on the wrong door, Forced Task 2 has been triggered. Help the male owner of room -1801 in the kitchen. Failure will result in this game being judged as failed. Success will allow you to return to the stairwell and continue the game.】

Seeing the task content, Yi Han frowned.

Behind the previous door, the NPC only asked them to demonstrate a piano piece. That had a clear completion standard. Whether it sounded good or not, finishing the piece counted as passing.

But behind this door, the task content did not reveal any specific standard.

What exactly counted as helping in the kitchen?

How long did they need to help?

To what extent?

Would making the dumplings be enough, or did they need to cook them and serve them at the table?

Or did they need to make the dumplings to the male homeowner’s satisfaction?

Their main mission to escape the ghost building had a time limit. They could not waste too much time here.

Thinking this, Yi Han turned to look at his teammate.

Jian Lin was very self-aware. He turned around, took an apron from behind the door, put it on, and then began clumsily kneading dough.

After watching him for two seconds, Yi Han knew that Jian Lin was not very good at cooking either.

But he only needed to stall for a little time.

Seeing that the male homeowner was instructing from the side and probably could not leave, Yi Han turned and exited the kitchen.

Logically, something like a “recipe” was most likely to be in the kitchen.

But during the few minutes when the task was being issued, he had already looked around. The kitchen was extremely simple. The cabinets and similar areas were exposed, with no recipe he wanted and no other place to hide anything.

He went straight into the bedroom.

Without the homeowner watching him, Yi Han could finally start rummaging around without restraint again.

Wardrobe. Nightstand. Under the bed…

After finding nothing in the secondary bedroom, he moved to the master bedroom.

Because this kind of old apartment had no living room or dining room, the master bedroom was usually used as a combined space for dining table, sofa, television, and bed.

The moment Yi Han entered, he saw a very old round table with foldable sides placed right in the middle of the room.

Several round stools covered in knitted cushions were arranged around it.

There was clearly only one person living here, yet such a large table and so many stools had been prepared. Who exactly was he planning to invite for dinner?

Walking around the dining table, Yi Han saw an old sofa and television behind it.

With just one glance, he spotted a sheet of paper wedged between the sofa cushions, giving off a faint glow.

【Recipe: Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumstick】

…The luck emperor really was a luck emperor.

Yi Han could not help glancing toward the kitchen where his teammate was. Not long after he had left, the sound of chopping meat had started up again. They were probably continuing to prepare dinner.

Without hesitating, Yi Han took out the blank recipe book from his system inventory and merged this page into it.

The relevant description then appeared.

【Recipe: Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumstick (Learned)】

【Description: After consumption, increases leg muscle strength and jumping ability according to deliciousness. Duration: 2 hours.】

…Eating chicken legs strengthens the legs?

This dish was clearly different from the braised pork.

The effect of braised pork was immediate treatment, healing wounds and restoring health right after consumption.

This chicken drumstick, however, added a buff to the eater, similar to the stat-boosting snacks made by players with cooking skills in traditional games.

This made Yi Han think of a relatively important hidden setting:

The cooldown time for using this type of buff medicine or food.

Anyone who had played games knew that healing potions or buff snacks usually had a cooldown time. Within that period, only the first use of a potion or item would grant the full effect. Drinking again too soon would halve the effect or even make it disappear entirely.

There was also usually a limit to how many buffs could exist on one player at the same time.

If the number reached the limit, then eating again would only overwrite a previous buff instead of increasing the total number.

Yi Han had already considered this issue before.

Because if braised pork could be eaten without limit, then in this escape game, as long as he was not killed instantly on the spot, he could rely on it to resurrect infinitely at full health.

Even for an S-rank item, that should be far too overpowered.

All dishes in this recipe book must have hidden consumption restrictions.

They were simply not written out clearly.

Fortunately, Yi Han had the resentful spirit of the former owner, who understood the rules very well.

His answer was:

The universal hidden cooldown for dishes was 24 hours.

Within 24 hours, a player could only eat 3 dishes.

The same dish could only be eaten once.

With this rule in place, and considering that the honey-glazed chicken drumstick’s buff only lasted 2 hours, Yi Han first bought the ingredients, placed them into the iron pot, waited 1 minute, and removed the finished product.

But he did not eat it immediately.

Instead, he placed it into his inventory for future need.

Now that he had obtained the thing he wanted most, Yi Han no longer had much interest in searching in great detail.

He casually checked the remaining areas and prepared to return to the kitchen.

So far, he had entered rooms twice.

His gains were respectively “10 points” and “Recipe: Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumstick.”

But regarding the clearance clue for this stage, there had still been no progress.

As he walked into the kitchen, he was still thinking that after his teammate completed the forced kitchen task, he would use force to threaten the NPC male homeowner and see if he could dig up some clues.

But as soon as he entered, he saw flour everywhere.

On the floor, on the countertop, and on both people cooking.

Bowls and chopsticks lay all over the place in complete chaos.

It looked as though Yi Han had already smashed the place once.

His teammate, still wearing the apron, heard him enter and turned around pale-faced.

Only then did Yi Han clearly see that Jian Lin’s hand was being firmly pinned to the cutting board by the male homeowner. The male homeowner’s other hand held the kitchen knife raised high, poised to chop down.

“What are you doing?!”

Yi Han frowned, pulled out the pot with a reverse grip, and strode forward.

CLANG!

With one thunderous sound, before either of the two present could react, the male homeowner was knocked unconscious on the floor.

Jian Lin stared in shock.

As for the NPC male homeowner, who originally could have survived until the forced task ended and then been violently interrogated for clues…

The system judged him severely injured and completely unable to turn the situation around in this round.

So he vanished on the spot and was forcibly logged off.

【…NPC eliminated *1. +10 points at settlement.】

Yi Han: …My hand moved too fast. Couldn’t hold it back.

── ⋆⋅🖤⋅⋆ ──

Endless Staircase (1)

Yi Han was currently standing in the stairwell of an old residential building.

Before him was a gray-blue security door that looked as though it had come straight from the last century. The paint on the doorplate had peeled so badly that he could only barely make out “401”… Half an old couplet was still pasted on the door, along with torn scraps of locksmith advertisements that had not been fully removed.

The environment was cold and damp, the lighting dim. A stale smell lingered at the tip of his nose, making him frown.

“Hello…” a gentle voice sounded beside him.

Yi Han turned and saw a young man standing nearby with warm, gentle features. He looked about the same age as Yi Han. Only… for some reason, the moment he saw Yi Han’s face, he froze slightly. Then the tips of his ears seemed to turn a little red.

Yi Han: …

…Could someone please tell him exactly what this “delicate and adorably feminine” illusion debuff had turned him into?

“Hello… My name is Jian Lin. Looks like we’re teammates this round.”

The young man suddenly snapped back to himself. A slightly embarrassed expression appeared on his face, and he smiled shyly while extending a hand.

“Yi Han.”

Since the malice detector did not make any sound, Yi Han gave his name淡ly and politely shook his hand.

Although they separated almost immediately, at the instant their skin touched, the other party seemed to blush again…

Yi Han: …

…Wake up, brother. What is wrong with you? Also, do you really not think there’s something off about a delicate, adorable girl who is half a head taller than you?

Forcibly ignoring the strange feeling, Yi Han went straight to the point.

“The objective of this stage is to escape the ghost building. Let’s follow the stairwell first and see if we can find clues about the exit or key.”

“Okay… But wait, I have something here.”

Jian Lin paused and took out his phone.

“In a previous stage, I was lucky and earned some extra points, so before entering this one, I performed a random divination. I obtained some stage-related information the system didn’t mention. Since we’re clearing this together, I’ll share it with you first.”

Then Yi Han received a notification:

“Teammate forwarded a message face-to-face.”

The malice detector still did not warn him, proving the information probably was not some fake trap meant to harm a teammate. So Yi Han opened it and read.

【Hidden Rule 1: Players may knock on and enter any room in the building, but throughout the entire game, you may only knock 4 times. The 5th knock will trigger an instant-death ending.】

【Hidden Rule 2: There are 3 ghosts in the entire building.】

After reading the message, Yi Han was genuinely surprised.

This hint was far too detailed and specific. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Although it could not directly help them clear the stage, it directly allowed players to avoid one death condition.

This teammate was not simple.

If this really came from a random divination, then being able to obtain such useful information meant his luck stat was probably extremely high.

Looks like with a luck emperor on the team, this stage should go smoothly.

Yi Han memorized the rules and thanked him.

“It’s just that I’ve been pretty lucky since I was little, so I tend to draw useful things,” Jian Lin hurriedly waved his hands, and that embarrassed blush immediately reappeared on his face.

…Fine.

Yi Han suddenly felt this kid was probably the legendary type who got shy the moment he spoke to girls (?).

After briefly discussing it, the two decided to first follow the stairwell downward.

Every room could be entered, but only four times total, so choosing which door to knock on first required caution.

The two walked one after the other, counting floors as they descended.

It only took one minute to walk from the fourth floor to the first.

And after arriving at the door marked 101, what appeared before them was indeed not the expected building entrance, but another staircase continuing downward.

This had already been written in the stage description when the instance was drawn, so neither of them was particularly surprised. They simply continued downward.

The floor below the first looked no different from the previous stairwell. The doors were still those old gray-blue security doors, while the doorplate numbers had changed to “-101.”

Continuing downward, they passed “-201,” “-301”…

Until they reached “-2001.”

“Pick one and knock,” Yi Han said, stopping.

Starting from the -20th floor, he had noticed that the exploration percentage displayed in the app stopped increasing. His thoughts shifted, and he paused.

His own luck was pretty average, the normal-person kind.

And since this time the team had a luck emperor, he very consciously handed the right of choice to the other party.

Jian Lin also seemed to feel that continuing downward would not lead anywhere. He nodded, hesitated briefly, then chose the door on the left marked “-2001” and gently knocked three times.

A moment later, the door lock clicked.

The door opened.

Behind it was pitch black.

Only after a long while did a wide-foreheaded woman reveal herself.

“It’s been so long since living people came here… Slurp…”

The woman smiled strangely. Her tongue, like some kind of animal’s, quickly flicked across her lips. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Her gaze darted repeatedly between the two of them. Something was wrong with her eyes too. They bulged slightly like a frog’s, and when they moved, they seemed slightly out of sync.

Seeing the person who opened the door looked like this, the luck emperor teammate instantly became awkward.

This woman was obviously not human.

There were only three ghosts in the entire building, yet his very first knock had stepped directly on a landmine…

This was probably what people called a luck emperor’s rollover scene.

Yi Han, however, could not help brightening.

No matter what kind of ghost it was, under his pot, it equaled points.

A luck emperor was a luck emperor indeed.

Right at the start, he found 10 points for him!

“Come in.”

The female ghost had yet to realize the danger approaching. She opened the door completely and invited the two inside.

Then, once they stepped in, the door slammed shut behind them.

The light was blocked outside, and the room instantly became pitch black.

Something seemed to draw close in the darkness where they could not even see their fingers.

Before Yi Han could take out his pot, he felt his teammate grab his arm. Then that dangerous aura was cut off.

The innocent young man Jian Lin had instinctively protected him behind his body at the very first moment.

Yi Han: …

“Don’t panic… Turn on the light first,” Yi Han whispered beside his ear.

But this teammate was obviously extremely nervous too. The hand gripping Yi Han’s arm refused to let go.

The protective instincts of young boys in front of girls were truly terrifying.

For a moment, Yi Han did not know whether to feel speechless or helpless.

Dragging along this obstructive arm, Yi Han had no choice but to personally reach toward where the light switch should be.

Click.

The light turned on.

And before they could even see the surrounding environment clearly, the first thing they saw was a face pressed terrifyingly close.

The female ghost hovered less than an inch away from the two of them, her long tongue stretched out, only a tiny distance from Jian Lin’s face, who stood in front.

“…”

Yi Han even suspected that if this fragile “girl” he had to protect were not still behind him, Jian Lin might have fainted already.

Light was indeed one of the conditions that restricted ghost activity.

The female ghost looked regretful, but once the light was on, she seemed unable to do anything more. She had no choice but to retract her tongue, smack her lips, and turn away in boredom.

Only then did the thin shoulders still blocking Yi Han finally relax.

Looks like the first trial was passed.

Yi Han patted the teammate still blocking him as comfort, then followed the female ghost inside first.

The apartment layout was extremely old-fashioned.

There was no living room. Upon entering, there was only an unusually narrow hallway. Around the hall were doors to the kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. All rooms combined were probably only forty or fifty square meters.

The floor was also made of extremely old tile, cracked in many places and covered in stains. Under the dim yellow light, it looked both dangerous and dirty.

The female ghost brought the two to the bedroom on the left.

This time, she turned on the light herself.

Inside the room, facing them directly, stood an old upright piano.

“How unfortunate. You chose to visit my home,” the female ghost said regretfully while drooling. “Although I’m very hungry, due to the rules, we still need to go through the process before eating dinner…”

“I’ve been learning a piece recently. Which one of you can demonstrate it for me?”

【System Notification: Due to knocking on the wrong door, Forced Task 1 has been triggered. Play the piano piece Moonlight for the mistress of room -2001. Failure will result in this game being judged as failed. Success will allow you to return to the stairwell and continue the game.】

Yi Han could not play piano at all…

But he did have some experience smashing pianos.

And he was even better at smashing ghosts.

So without another word, he reached back to pull out his pot again.

But before he could move, Jian Lin blocked him once more.

“Um, I can play piano. Leave this stage to me. I’ll definitely do my best to pass it… I’m sorry.”

Jian Lin looked deeply guilty over choosing the wrong door and sincerely fought for a chance to redeem himself.

“…”

Yi Han originally did not want to make things this troublesome.

But after thinking about it, if Jian Lin could help stall for a while and prolong their time inside the apartment, Yi Han would have time to search elsewhere for useful clues.

So he said, “Fine.”

This female ghost could not run away anyway.

Let her listen to one more song before she died.

And so, his teammate sat down at the piano, lifted the lid, and began playing.

Yi Han turned and left the room.

The thing he wanted to find most right now was a recipe, so he first entered the kitchen, the place most likely to hide one.

Unfortunately, after searching around, he found nothing.

After a burst of clattering pots, bowls, ladles, and pans crashing to the floor, Yi Han walked out of the kitchen, glanced casually at the bathroom, then turned to open the door of the second bedroom.

Meanwhile, inside the room, the female ghost sat listening to the piano music while fearfully enduring the sound of her kitchen being destroyed.

Then she immediately heard the sound of the neighboring bedroom being violently broken into…

But because she was currently in a task state with a player, and the player was playing piano, she had to sit there and listen.

So even though she heard the other side being destroyed like mad, she could not stand up.

…The female ghost was so angry her hair nearly exploded, and her fingers almost dug into the stool.

The young man playing piano in front of her was much steadier.

Even though the room next door sounded like it was being demolished, he kept his eyes closed the entire time, seemingly focused on recalling the score, his hands never stopping.

Only after finishing the piece did he open his eyes.

【Forced Task 1: Complete】

The instant the message arrived, the female ghost sprang up and rushed out of the room.

So when Jian Lin opened his eyes, he found the room empty…

Immediately afterward, a thunderous clang sounded from the neighboring room.

Jian Lin jumped in fright.

Worried something had happened to Yi Han, he hurriedly got up and went to check.

But all he saw inside the neighboring room was total chaos. Doors and cabinets were wide open, and the female ghost was nowhere to be found.

Only a delicate and pitiful beautiful girl stood inside, expressionless, eyes lowered…

Jian Lin guessed she must have been terrified!

“Are you okay? I’m sorry. Thank goodness we passed… This was all my fault. Next time, you should knock.”

Yi Han, whose face was dark because he was internally cursing the stingy game for only giving 10 points despite knocking down a female ghost in a one-star stage:

“…No.”

His tone was fierce and firm.

Jian Lin: …?

── ⋆⋅🖤⋅⋆ ──

Previous

After much careful thought, Xie Li did something rather foolish.

While selling vegetables in the county, he asked the black market middleman, Uncle Luo, to help him obtain two industrial vouchers. Then he went to the department store and bought two Hero fountain pens, one worth two hundred yuan and the other over one hundred. Afterward, he deliberately aged the gift boxes to make them look old before bringing them back to the village and heading to the production team office to find Li Jianguo.

“Father-in-law, I have a small favor to ask.”

Li Jianguo frowned unwillingly.

“What is it now?”

Xie Li placed the two gift boxes before him.

“It’s like this. I have a couple of things I’d like to sell, but I don’t have any connections. Could you help me find a buyer?”

“What are these?”

Li Jianguo looked baffled. He picked up the boxes, which looked rather old and worn, opened them, and froze.

“Where did you get these?”

Xie Li maintained a perfectly calm and innocent expression.

“I brought them from home when I first came here. I never had a suitable occasion to use them, so they stayed in pretty good condition. But now that I need to build a house, I don’t have enough money, so I thought I’d sell them.”

Li Jianguo paused, looking as though he wanted to say something but held back. He gave Xie Li a complicated look.

“…Leave them here. I’ll ask around for you.”

Xie Li immediately understood that his future father-in-law had accepted the task. Satisfied, he nodded and turned to leave.

In this era, privately trading valuable goods was a very discreet matter. As long as nobody reported it, officials generally ignored it. That was exactly why Xie Li chose to let Li Jianguo handle the sale.

First, involving Li Jianguo would subtly pull him onto the same side and strengthen the feeling that they were family.

Second, it gave Xie Li a legitimate explanation for where his future money came from.

After all, the original host had lived frugally in Xiaoxipo for two years. Everyone knew he was poor. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. If he suddenly produced a large sum of money, he needed some believable explanation, even if it was a rather clumsy one.

A few days later, Li Jianguo sent someone to summon Xie Li to the production team office and handed him fifty ten-yuan bills.

“My friend couldn’t get industrial vouchers, so I asked for extra money instead. See if this is enough. If it isn’t, I can talk to him again.”

After thinking briefly, Xie Li asked:

“Father-in-law, do you think this is enough to build a house?”

“For a house? Definitely enough.” Li Jianguo replied. “I know someone at the brick factory. I’ll approve a note for you later. Two or three hundred yuan should be enough altogether.”

Xie Li smiled.

“Then it’s enough. Thank you for the trouble, Father-in-law.”

Li Jianguo’s brows immediately knitted together again. He shot Xie Li an irritated glance and grumbled unwillingly:

“How many times have I said it? Tiantian hasn’t married you yet. Stop calling me Father-in-law!”

Xie Li pretended not to hear him at all. Instead, he mentally calculated whether the remaining money, after deducting house construction costs and bride price expenses, would still be enough to buy the “Three Great Items” for marriage.

Those things were a woman’s pride and status.

Technically, they were not necessary. But buying them brought face and honor.

Li Tiantian was marrying a poor educated youth with nothing to his name. Even if the villagers smiled politely on the surface, who knew what they said behind her back?

Xie Li wanted her to marry beautifully and proudly, to live a life everyone envied.

Which meant…

He still needed to make another trip to Uncle Luo.

…

Because he had been so busy earning money, many times when Xie Li visited Li Tiantian, he merely dropped off gifts and left without even having time to properly talk to her.

This particular day, however, the weather was wonderfully clear, and the production team had no work scheduled. So Xie Li invited Li Tiantian out for a walk.

The moment they met, he noticed she was wearing the new dress he had bought her earlier, and he could not help staring a few extra times.

Li Tiantian’s cheeks flushed shyly. Gathering her courage, she asked softly:

“Do you think it looks good?”

Xie Li nodded immediately.

“It looks beautiful.”

He truly meant it.

The pale cyan cotton dress perfectly outlined the girl’s youthful and lovely figure. The delicate floral patterns stood out brightly and uniquely, making Li Tiantian’s already fair skin seem even lighter. With her palm-sized face and delicate features, she looked obedient, pretty, and impossibly charming.

Honestly, it suited her perfectly.

Xie Li stroked his chin thoughtfully, deciding that next time he visited the department store, he absolutely had to buy Li Tiantian more new clothes.

His eyes remained fixed on her without blinking.

Li Tiantian’s face turned even redder. In a tiny voice, she murmured:

“As long as you think it looks good.”

The two of them walked along the river embankment of Xiaoxipo toward the small grove upstream, avoiding the women washing clothes by the riverbank before finally finding a quiet place to talk.

“Which Three Great Items do you prefer?” Xie Li asked. “A watch, bicycle, and sewing machine? Or a television, bicycle, and sewing machine?”

“You don’t need to spend so much…”

Before Li Tiantian could finish speaking, she suddenly stopped, lowering her head deeply as her ears turned bright red.

Xie Li glanced at her before turning toward the deeper part of the grove.

A few indistinct sounds drifted over with the wind. One of the female voices sounded vaguely familiar…

“Let’s talk somewhere else.”

Xie Li cautiously suggested it. Gently patting Li Tiantian’s arm, he led her away from the grove.

After they walked far away from the grove, Li Tiantian finally lifted her head and cursed indignantly:

“So shameless! In broad daylight too…”

She could not continue.

“Did you recognize who it was?” Xie Li asked with amusement, folding his arms as he looked at her.

Li Tiantian looked blank and shook her head.

“I couldn’t tell. Why? Were they people we know?”

Xie Li tapped her nose lightly.

“To me, it sounded like the one from your cousin’s family.”

“Jia Xiaotao?” Li Tiantian’s eyes widened in disbelief. “How is that possible? She’s already married!”

So what if she was married?

Xie Li kept that thought to himself. He did not want to ruin the pure and upright image he had in Li Tiantian’s heart, so he changed the subject instead.

“Forget about it. How about I borrow a bicycle and we go buy some things in town?”

Life in this era was simply too barren. There was practically no entertainment at all, so Xie Li honestly could not think of any particularly good date ideas.

Fortunately, for people in love, even going out shopping together was enough. Even if they sat facing each other without saying a single word, the air itself would still feel sweet.

Li Tiantian stopped dwelling on Jia Xiaotao’s affair and nodded happily.

…

On the way back from town, Xie Li bought three jin of pork.

When he escorted Li Tiantian home, Wang Cuihua invited him to stay for dinner. He accepted without ceremony.

“I knew Auntie would ask me to stay, so I specially bought some meat. Where’s the kitchen? I’ll cook it and we can add it to dinner.”

“You bought meat?” Wang Cuihua looked pleasantly surprised. “It’s already been several days since we finished the wild boar meat from last time. I’ve really been craving this.”

Then she reached out her hand.

“Give it to me. I’ll cook.”

Xie Li stepped back a few paces and refused with a smile.

“No, Auntie. I specifically wanted to show off my cooking skills for you. If you cook it instead, then there’s no point.”

Wang Cuihua burst into laughter and pointed him toward the kitchen.

“Fine then. Go ahead. We’ll wait and see your craftsmanship.”

Xie Li carried the meat into the kitchen, and Li Tiantian immediately said:

“I’ll help too.”

Then she hurried after him.

Wang Cuihua shook her head helplessly and began setting out bowls and chopsticks.

A while later, an irresistible aroma drifted from the kitchen.

She froze slightly and muttered under her breath:

“So he really does have some skill.”

Just then Li Jianguo came home from work, and she quickly told him about it.

Li Jianguo glanced toward the kitchen and snorted.

“At least the brat knows what he’s doing.”

What Xie Li made was braised pork.

When it was served, the meat gleamed golden-brown and smelled so delicious it was almost intoxicating. Li Jianguo had already prepared white liquor in advance. He picked up a piece of meat, and his expression immediately turned complicated.

Li Tiantian thought perhaps it tasted bad and looked puzzled.

“But it smells amazing…”

Xie Li picked up a piece and placed it into her bowl.

“Try it.”

“It’s delicious!”

Li Tiantian bit into it skeptically, only to cry out in astonishment.

Xie Li curled his lips proudly.

“Of course it’s good. I made it.”

While cooking, Xie Li had secretly added a few drops of spirit spring water. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. The spring water greatly reduced the gamey odor of pork, making the meat soft, delicate, and melt-in-the-mouth tender with an especially rich aroma.

He had discovered this effect when preparing wild boar meat last time.

Back then, after the educated youths received their share of pork, they had tried to save it carefully, cooking three jin of meat together with vegetables and stretching it over three meals.

The first attempt had been tough and unbearably gamey. Even though everyone had not eaten meat in months, they still could barely force themselves to swallow it.

The second time, they followed the villagers’ advice and added ginger and garlic. Most of the earthy smell disappeared, but it was still unpleasant.

The third time, Xie Li took over and experimentally added a spoonful of spirit spring water.

When the dish came out of the pot, the educated youths nearly started fighting over the food.

And now here he was, impatiently showing off at the Li household.

Sure enough, this display of skill finally softened Li Jianguo’s perpetually hostile attitude toward him.

“Your cooking’s not bad. Keep it up next time.”

Xie Li smiled modestly.

“I’ll follow Father-in-law’s instructions and continue working hard.”

Li Jianguo ignored the title entirely and happily enjoyed his liquor and meat one bite at a time.

The more he ate, the happier he became, even urging Xie Li to eat and drink with him.

Xie Li accepted graciously, winked at Li Tiantian with his left eye, and took the wine bowl.

…

While the Li household enjoyed a warm and cheerful dinner, over in western Xiaoxipo at Li Erniu’s house…

Jia Xiaotao lazily cooked coarse bran rice while leaning on her waist when the little fatty suddenly ran into the house.

“Mom! They’re cooking meat again over there! I smelled it when I walked past!”

Jia Xiaotao froze and looked at the pot of rough bran rice before suddenly feeling tempted to go freeload another meal.

But remembering Li Jianguo’s warning after the argument in the fields not long ago, she hesitated before saying:

“Forget it this time. Let them enjoy one meal. We’ll go over next time.”

“I want meat! I want meat!”

The little fatty immediately threw himself onto the ground and rolled around refusing to get up.

Jia Xiaotao exploded in anger.

“Li Tiansheng! You think clothes wash themselves, huh? You still dare roll around on the ground? Looks like you’re asking for a beating!”

The little fatty was not afraid of her at all. Lying flat on the floor with his limbs flailing upward like an overturned turtle, he screamed wildly:

“I want meat! I want meat!”

Jia Xiaotao was so angry she wanted to hit someone.

Did she not want meat too?

Wasn’t it because her useless husband could not even afford to let his wife and child eat meat? She had married such a worthless coward. Was her life easy?

Right then Li Erniu returned home.

She immediately shot him a cold glare.

“Where did you go?”

“Aren’t we almost out of grain at home?” Li Erniu replied cheerfully, completely unable to read the room. He stepped forward proudly showing off. “Look, I just borrowed twenty jin of broken rice from one of my brothers. It tastes way better than bran rice and doesn’t scratch your throat.”

Seeing his son sprawled on the floor, he immediately fussed over him.

“Why are you lying there? Hurry and get up. Don’t lie on the ground for no reason. It ruins your clothes. This fabric was hard enough to get even as defective goods.”

He rambled endlessly like a stingy old miser, talking from cloth fabric to broken rice without stopping.

Jia Xiaotao finally lost her temper completely and exploded:

“Li Erniu, besides talking about this nonsense like some old woman, what else can you even do? You worthless coward! Marrying you must have been the terrible karma from my last life. I must’ve been blind in this one!”

╰───♡───╯

Next

“Xie Li, get up quick, there’s something exciting happening!”

“What excitement?”

Ever since reaching an agreement with the Li family to get engaged first and marry later, Xie Li had become even busier.

Aside from occasionally going to work with the production team, he also had to avoid outsiders while entering the space to farm. Every day he was constantly on the move, planting vegetables, harvesting vegetables, planting vegetables, harvesting vegetables… like a squirrel obsessed with hoarding supplies, working desperately so he could marry a wife.

He only slept three or four hours a day. If not for the spiritual spring supporting his body, he definitely would not have been able to endure it.

Hearing Hu Dezheng’s words, he froze briefly before climbing out of bed.

“Wild boars came down the mountain again! The village is organizing a hunt right now. We’re going too!”

Hu Dezheng’s eyes sparkled with excitement. After calling for Xie Li, he rushed around waking the other educated youths before impatiently running into the courtyard to search for suitable weapons.

Xie Li frowned, still confused. He casually grabbed a stick from the courtyard and followed Hu Dezheng outside.

“They don’t really need our help chasing away wild boars, do they? The villagers can handle it themselves.”

The other educated youths had also heard the news and hurried out carrying tools and sticks. Hearing Xie Li’s question, one of them laughed.

“Xie Li, you don’t know? If the wild boar damaging the crops gets killed, everyone who helped gets a share of the meat.”

“Exactly! Last time the boar ran too fast and we missed it, otherwise the whole village could’ve shared pork. I haven’t eaten meat in forever. There’s no way I’m missing this chance!”

The group buzzed excitedly, clearly motivated by thoughts of pork.

At first, Xie Li did not fully understand what they were getting so excited about. But once he heard “meat,” his eyes immediately lit up.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Since arriving in this world, he had only gone to the county thrice, both times in a hurry. After over ten days here, he still had not eaten pork even once.

Grabbing his stick tighter, he became the first to rush out the gate, urging everyone to follow. Hearing the commotion, the other team of educated youths also emerged from their rooms, and more than twenty people from the educated youth station headed toward the source of the excitement.

When they arrived, they saw a lone wild boar trapped beneath a large tree at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by villagers. It looked at least two or three hundred jin in weight.

Li Jianguo stood at the front gripping a homemade shotgun, directing everyone to surround the beast and prevent it from escaping.

The animal had dug up freshly planted sweet potatoes only days after sowing, causing huge losses for the village. If they could not at least get some meat from it, the villagers would suffer terribly.

Li Jianguo noticed the educated youths arriving and glanced toward them before shouting:

“Xie Li, stand farther back! Don’t come closer. This isn’t a piglet this time, don’t underestimate it!”

“Hahahahahaha!”

The entire crowd burst into laughter.

Over twenty days had passed since Xie Li’s earlier injury, and the fake bandages he used as camouflage had long been removed. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. If Li Jianguo had not brought it up, everyone might have forgotten the scene where Xie Li had been knocked into the hospital by a piglet during the last wild boar incident.

“That’s right, Xie Li, hurry and move away. Don’t get knocked flying again!”

The villagers delighted in teasing him.

Black lines practically formed across Xie Li’s forehead. He knew Li Jianguo was just venting his frustrations over the fact that Xie Li had stolen away his daughter, so he helplessly stepped farther back.

“How about here?”

“No, no, farther!”

Xie Li laughed despite himself, shook his head, and retreated another three steps until he stood beneath an old tree.

“How about now?”

“That’s good, that’s good.” Li Jianguo had mostly been joking and had not expected Xie Li to actually obey so seriously. Feeling amused, he waved his hand. “If the boar charges you, remember to climb the tree.”

Xie Li: “……”

But Li Jianguo’s moment of amusement made him relax slightly, and a flaw appeared in the encirclement.

With a sudden gust of wind, before anyone could react, the wild boar violently charged forward. It knocked over two villagers and actually broke through the defensive line.

And by pure coincidence, it charged straight toward Xie Li.

Instantly, everyone’s eyes locked onto him.

As for Xie Li himself, watching the boar thunder toward him, he suddenly felt as though time had slowed.

He could clearly see the boar’s coarse, hardened bristles, packed together with pine resin like thick armor…

There’s no way I can beat a wild boar.

The thought flashed through his mind.

In the next instant, Xie Li twisted sideways and narrowly dodged.

Man and beast brushed past one another, nearly colliding.

Even after recovering, Xie Li himself found it unbelievable. In that split second, he had not been confident he could avoid it at all. He had almost hidden inside the space.

Fortunately, he resisted the urge and managed to dodge in time.

As that thought crossed his mind, a loud crash rang out behind him.

Turning around, he saw the massive wild boar continue charging straight into the tree.

The horrifying impact sound alone made it obvious to everyone present what would have happened if that collision had landed on Xie Li instead.

At best… he would have been crippled for life.

Li Jianguo was right behind it, the second person there to recover from the shock. Seizing the opportunity while the boar was injured, he raised his shotgun without hesitation.

Bang!

Then he shouted anxiously:

“Move! An injured boar is even fiercer. Don’t let it bite anyone!”

The villagers fought wild boars every year to protect their crops and already had plenty of experience. Without even needing Li Jianguo’s command, they had already formed a human wall around the injured beast.

Hoes, shovels, carrying poles, clubs…

Everyone rushed forward together and beat the wounded boar to death in a chaotic flurry of blows.

The dead wild boar lay sprawled on the ground, tusks jutting outward. Black and massive, it radiated savage dominance even in death.

Li Jianguo did not care about any of that. Brimming with pride, he waved his hand grandly.

“Well done! Boil water, butcher the pig! Everyone gets a share of the meat!”

Instantly, Xie Li forgot all the tension from moments ago and began eyeing the boar meat greedily.

…

Although they had not contributed much, the educated youths still received shares of meat after the boar was butchered. Those who had worked harder received more, while those who barely helped received less.

The two villagers who had been knocked over by the boar suffered only superficial injuries and each received two jin of meat.

Altogether, Xie Li and the other educated youths received three jin.

Most of the credit for that apparently belonged to Xie Li. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Li Jianguo declared that if not for Xie Li serving so well as bait and luring the boar into smashing itself against the tree, the hunt would never have succeeded so easily.

The villagers burst into laughter once again, laughing so hard Xie Li nearly questioned his life choices and wondered if he had somehow become the village comedian.

Once everyone received their portion of pork, the crowd gradually dispersed.

But before leaving, Li Jianguo reluctantly said in front of everyone:

“Come to my house for dinner tonight.”

“???”

What? Things progressed this fast?

The villagers’ curious stares practically became tangible as they examined Xie Li from head to toe like some rare creature.

Having been stared at enough lately, Xie Li’s skin had thickened considerably. Calmly, he replied:

“I’ll remember that.”

“And one more thing. You received a package. Come pick it up from my office later.”

After saying that, Li Jianguo carried the shotgun in one hand and five jin of pork in the other as he turned to leave.

Xie Li’s heart jumped with joy. He immediately chased after him.

“Father-in-law, wait a second! I’m free anyway, so I’ll go get the package now.”

If nothing unexpected had happened, the package should have come from the original host’s parents.

Their lives had been even harsher than the original host’s. They had been sent to Beidahuang near Changbai Mountain, where the labor was exhausting, the food terrible, and the living conditions miserable. Because of that, they had never been able to support their son much.

A while earlier, when Xie Li decided to grow medicinal herbs, he thought of them and sent a letter.

Inside the letter, he tucked two ten-yuan bills between double layers of paper so they could improve their living conditions. Sending more money would have been too conspicuous. Twenty yuan happened to equal the original host’s total savings, making it seem reasonable.

Besides the money, Xie Li also wrote about Li Tiantian.

In the letter, he used every beautiful phrase imaginable to praise her, making it absolutely clear that he intended to marry no one else in this lifetime, and asking his parents for their approval.

In the previous life, the original host had never told his parents about Li Tiantian at all. Until the day they died, they never learned of the terrible thing their son had done. But in this life, Xie Li had written honestly to them, and he suspected they would agree.

At the end of the letter, he also asked them to send him some ginseng seeds.

The parents of the other educated youths all worked in cities, but the original host’s parents had been exiled instead. Because of this, they felt especially guilty toward their son. Somehow, through unknown connections, they managed to send the package within just over ten days.

Xie Li picked up the package and opened it on the way back.

As expected, it contained ginseng seeds.

The Xie parents had no idea why their son wanted them, but in Beidahuang, ginseng seeds were relatively easy to obtain. People there had already begun experimenting with cultivating ginseng successfully, so it was easier for them to acquire than many other things.

They had generously sent fifty seeds at once.

Not only that, they also enclosed instructions on how to grow ginseng.

These methods had only recently begun spreading in the north and were far more practical than Xie Li’s own guesses. Unfortunately, because he possessed the space, he did not need to worry about temperature or humidity at all, making much of their painstaking effort unnecessary.

Beneath that was another letter. Judging by the handwriting, it was from the original host’s mother.

The letter roughly said she approved of his marriage plans and encouraged him to pursue the girl sincerely. If he truly succeeded in winning her heart, then he should treat her well.

“Mother knows my son has always been proud. If you have truly fallen for a girl, then she must surely be exceptional. Since that is the case, why not devote yourself wholeheartedly?”

At the bottom were two small words:

Good luck!

Xie Li smiled warmly after reading it and realized he had genuinely begun liking this pair of parents.

Even while enduring terrible hardship, they remained optimistic. They never dumped negativity onto their son and never interfered with his marriage decisions. Even in modern times, parents this open-minded were rare.

He truly hoped time would pass faster so he could meet them in person.

Returning to the educated youth station, Xie Li found an opportunity to enter the space and planted the ginseng seeds.

Six-year-old ginseng had the best value. Older roots gradually became woody and slowed their growth dramatically, meaning this batch would need roughly seven months inside the space.

But when speaking to Li Jianguo earlier, Xie Li had boasted he could build a future within three months…

To speed things up, he carefully watered every single ginseng seed with a scoop of spiritual spring water, hoping they would mature quickly and earn him the money needed to marry Li Tiantian sooner.

…

Growing ginseng took time, so Xie Li did not rush it. Instead, he began preparing the engagement arrangements.

First, he needed someone to formally visit the Li family on his behalf.

According to Xiaoxipo customs, the matchmaker did not necessarily need to be an official go-between. Any married older woman would do, especially one with a harmonious family and both sons and daughters, since that was considered auspicious.

Xie Li gifted some dried fruits to Li Dasheng’s family and asked Li Dasheng’s mother to act as the engagement representative.

Besides that, he prepared the traditional four kinds of engagement sweets, along with two portions each of cigarettes and alcohol. He also made another trip to the county to sell vegetables, finally gathering one hundred yuan as the formal engagement gift money.

When they visited the Li family to discuss the engagement, Wang Cuihua looked surprised upon seeing the red envelope but firmly refused to accept it.

“This is only an engagement. We can’t accept something this valuable.”

“Auntie, I heard that in Xiaoxipo, the larger the engagement gift and bride price, the more it shows the man values the woman. I don’t yet have my own house, so I can’t properly marry Tiantian yet. But I still want you to understand my sincerity. I truly love her.”

Wang Cuihua looked at Xie Li with a complicated expression.

At first, she had only agreed to the engagement because she was angry with Li Jianguo. But now, seeing the sincerity in the young man’s eyes, she suddenly realized she might have made the best decision of her life.

Her daughter would not regret following him.

“You speak very well,” she said with a smile. “But… you still need to build your house. Keep the money for now. Once your house is finished and you’ve married Tiantian, then you can come honor me as your mother-in-law.”

After thinking for a moment, Xie Li accepted the envelope back.

“Thank you, Mother-in-law.”

If the one hundred yuan returned to him, so be it. Once he officially became their son-in-law, there would be endless opportunities to honor them properly later.

At the moment, he had no visible source of income except the package he had recently received. Wang Cuihua likely assumed the money came entirely from his parents and worried he had spent all of it on the engagement gift, leaving himself with nothing to survive on and indirectly burdening Li Tiantian later.

He really needed to establish a legitimate visible income source soon so he could openly spend money without suspicion.

And just like that, the engagement was settled.

Watching Xie Li and the older woman leave the Li family home together, the entire village quickly learned that he and Li Tiantian were now officially engaged.

Most people secretly shook their heads with pity for Li Tiantian.

Not a single one of them believed this relationship would end well.

╰───♡───╯