Pushing open the courtyard gate that was practically useless, Shen Qiao walked straight into the kitchen. She scrubbed the iron pot clean, filled it with a suitable amount of water, and brought it to a boil. Crumbling her only coarse grain flatbread into pieces, she tossed them into the pot, cracked in an egg, and washed a handful of wild greens to throw in as well. She picked up the salt jar, intending to add a pinch, but looking at the dirt mixed in with the salt, she thought better of it and set it back down.
She retrieved two bowls, dished out all the wild green porridge from the pot, cleaned the pot once more, and refilled it with water to boil before finally sitting down to eat.
Chewing on the completely tasteless wild green porridge and staring around the empty room, Shen Qiao could not help feeling like crying again. How could she be so unlucky? She had literally slept her way out of existence! It was a once-in-a-millennium blunder for the Netherworld staff to reap the wrong soul, yet out of all the bad people out there, why did they have to reap her by mistake? And today, she had nearly tumbled down the slope just gathering mushrooms. Why did every piece of bad luck happen to her?
Wait… bad luck? That reminded her of her system—its luck stat was zero! No wonder she was so misfortune-prone. She quickly scarfed down the rest of the foul-tasting wild green porridge in a few quick bites.
Wiping the corner of her mouth, she hurriedly opened the system interface. Remembering the novels she had read in her past life, the female leads’ systems always came with instructions on how to earn points. Her system had a points section too; even though it currently stood at zero, the mere existence of the category meant points could be earned.
She scanned the screen from top to bottom and left to right, but could not find a manual anywhere. Could it be voice-activated?
“System?”
…
“Sys?”
…
“Baby?”
“Darling?”
…
Was the system broken too? Feeling on the verge of a breakdown, Shen Qiao could not help cursing, “What kind of piece-of-trash is this? Other people’s systems can communicate via voice or mental thought, or at the very least have a touch screen. Mine is just completely useless…”
Just then, a mechanical voice suddenly sounded: “Who are you calling useless?”
“Holy shit! Who’s talking?”
The mechanical voice rang out again: “There’s no one else here besides you and me. Who else could it be? You’re truly stupid.”
Shen Qiao finally snapped back to reality, her eyes glued to the display screen. “You can talk? If you can talk, why haven’t you said a word this whole time? And who are you calling stupid?!”
“…”
Seeing the system go silent again, Shen Qiao snapped in frustration, “What’s wrong with you? Why’d you go quiet again? You didn’t crash, did you?”
“You crashed! Your whole family crashed!”
Looking at the display screen, which acted like it was spoiling for a fight, Shen Qiao said helplessly, “Look, you’re a trash system with nothing to your name except a bunch of zeroes, yet you’ve got quite the temper. What, you wanna fight or something?”
“You refuse to accept being called a stupid woman, but I don’t have a physical body—how could you even hit me?”
“Can’t you speak properly? How on earth did I end up bound to such a useless system like you?”
“Me? …A useless system? I haven’t even complained about you yet! Other systems get bound to miracle doctors, secret agents, or big shots. What about you? Completely talentless.”
Shen Qiao had never expected to be looked down on by a system. Pointing a finger at the screen in exasperation, it took her a moment before she conceded, “I’m not going to stoop to your level.”
After a brief pause, she added, “Look, we’re already bound together now, so just accept your fate. Let’s try to get along, alright?”
After a short silence, a somewhat humanized sigh came through: “Sigh… Fine.”
Listening to the system’s reluctant tone, Shen Qiao could not help rolling her eyes. “Since we’ve decided to get along, could you tell me how to use this system?”
“Tasks are issued randomly. You can choose whether or not to accept them. The point reward depends on the task’s difficulty level. Accepting and completing a task earns you points; failing a task deducts the corresponding amount.”
“…And then?”
“Then you use points to exchange for Combat Power, Luck, and Storage Capacity.”
“…What types of tasks are there?”
“I already told you they’re random, which means they aren’t fixed. How can there be set types for something that isn’t fixed?”
Shen Qiao was left speechless once again. Staring at the screen, she asked, “How do I contact you? Do you have a name?”
“Mental communication works. I don’t have a name.”
“How about I call you Little Sys?”
Before the system could respond, she dismissed the idea herself. “No, no, that doesn’t sound good. Seeing as you’re so cold and quiet all day, how about I call you Xiao Mo? What do you think?”
“Suit yourself.”
“Alright, Xiao Mo it is then.” With that, she ignored Xiao Mo and went to prepare a bath. Well… in truth, it was because Xiao Mo’s screen had gone completely black.
Shen Qiao found the washbasin in the house, scooped half a basin of cold water, and mixed in hot water to wash her hair twice. Even though there was no shampoo or soapberry available, she insisted on washing it twice anyway. Once her hair was clean, she changed the water and wiped down her body. After scrubbing herself from head to toe, she felt utterly exhausted. This fragile little body was severely malnourished, and after trekking up the mountain earlier that afternoon, she truly did not have the strength to move another inch. She quickly collapsed face-down on the bed. Since her hair was still wet, she had to lie on her stomach and gather her locks in front of her. If anyone had walked in right now, they certainly would have gotten quite a fright.
She had thought she would not fall asleep so quickly lying on her stomach, but to her surprise, she drifted off moments later.
The next morning, right after she got up, finished washing, and was about to cook herself some food, she heard someone calling from outside: “Shen Qiao! Shen girl!”
Shen Qiao immediately put down the firewood in her hand and stepped outside, where she saw a middle-aged woman standing at the gate.
The woman had slanted eyes, sunken temples, and high cheekbones—a textbook look of someone shrewd and mean-spirited.
It took Shen Qiao a moment to recall that this was Auntie Liu from the village, a notorious gossip who loved whispering behind people’s backs and spreading rumors. “Auntie Liu, is there something I can help you with?”
The moment Auntie Liu saw Shen Qiao, she grabbed her hand and wailed, “Oh my! Look at you, girl, how did you let yourself starve so thin? It breaks my heart just looking at you!” As she spoke, she even dabbed at the corner of her eyes with her sleeve, brushing away nonexistent tears.
“…” Shen Qiao stared at her, unsure what kind of act she was putting on, and simply watched her performance in silence.
Seeing that Shen Qiao remained quiet, Auntie Liu pressed on, “I came here today with good news for you.” With that, she strutted into the courtyard on her own accord.
Her eyes darted around non-stop, sizing up the surroundings as she talked to herself: “The courtyard might be a bit small, and the house is a little dilapidated, but with some repairs, it’s manageable enough. Still, fixing a house costs quite a bit of money. Sigh, I suppose taking a bit of a loss is fine.”
Standing in place, Shen Qiao could not make heads or tails of what was happening. She asked in confusion, “Auntie, what business do you actually have here?”
Only then did Auntie Liu turn around, offering a beaming smile: “Shen girl, I came to congratulate you! Hehe…”