Having just transitioned from a fake husband to an official boyfriend, Raphael was caught entirely off guard by another direct curveball. His heart nearly stopped beating. The hands resting on his knees unconsciously gripped his clothes; overwhelmed by a mix of excitement and shyness, he did not even know where to look.
He had originally intended to keep this waist bag as a keepsake, thinking that whenever he felt sad or lonely in the future, he could take it out to gaze at it and remember her.
However, since they were together now, there was no longer any need to keep it, so he had brought it out and returned it to her.
Had he known that this bag would make her so happy, he would have returned it to her much sooner.
Meanwhile, Ye Qisheng had already sat cross-legged on the straw mat, enthusiastically browsing and selecting items on the system interface.
The low-tier system provided a limited selection of products—only about three hundred types—mostly common household goods for daily living.
There were seasonings, rice, flour, snacks, simple wooden furniture, small appliances, bedding, cookware, dishes, ceramics, and the like.
There were also medicines, roughly a dozen scattered items, which were more than enough to treat minor ailments like headaches, fevers, and diarrhea.
Ye Qisheng skimmed through the options and exited the interface, highly satisfied.
Although the variety was somewhat limited, it was enough to drastically improve her current quality of life.
Leaping up from the ground, she rolled her sleeves up to her elbows and urged Raphael, who was still dazed, “Raphael, help me move everything in the house outside! I’m going to renovate the house!”
The real-time display in the system showed that it was not even three in the afternoon yet. While the sun was still bright outside, they needed to hurry and clean up the nest where they were going to sleep tonight!
Raphael looked at her in confusion, but without asking many questions, he nimbly gathered the two straw mats she had just laid out into a pile and carried them to the kitchen. He also cleared out the half-worn mattress and the animal pelts he had brought.
While he was busy, Ye Qisheng was not idle either. She selected a vacuum cleaner from the shopping system, added it to her cart, and paid without even looking at the price.
The system immediately issued a notification:
【Congratulations! You have successfully purchased “Vacuum Cleaner X1.” The item has been stored in your space and can be retrieved at any time.】
Just as Ye Qisheng retrieved the vacuum cleaner from the space, Raphael happened to walk in from outside. Seeing her pull such a large object out of thin air, he was thoroughly startled.
Catching sight of him out of the corner of her eye, Ye Qisheng turned to look at him and said with a smile, “Raphael, come over here. I’ll teach you how to use this thing.”
Raphael stared blankly at her, then looked at the vacuum cleaner in her hand. Taking a moment to compose himself, he asked in astonishment, “Sheng’sheng, you… know magic?”
“Oh, actually, I am a little fairy who descended to the mortal realm to undergo a trial.”
Ye Qisheng maintained a calm expression, patted the waist bag tied around her waist, and lied without batting an eye or blushing, “This bag is a Qiankun Pouch I brought from the immortal realm. Inside are the belongings I accumulated in the past. This vacuum cleaner can be used to clean the room; it’s quite handy.”
Raphael’s pupils dilated, and he stood there frozen like a wooden chicken, speechless for a long moment.
Ye Qisheng scratched her head and asked cautiously, “Did I… scare you?”
There was no helping it; her brain was not the sharpest, and this was already the best excuse she could come up with.
In this fictional ancient era, compared to telling him she was attacked, thrown into the sea, and traveled through time to this world with a system, she felt that the explanation of a little fairy descending to the mortal realm for a trial was far less complicated and much easier for people to accept.
Besides, many of the goods purchased from the shopping system were high-tech products that could not be manufactured in this underdeveloped era, which, in the eyes of these ancient people, were no different from immortal tools and divine artifacts.
Since they had decided to live together, she did not have the ability to keep hiding things from him forever. It was better to resolve the origin of these items as early as possible.
She had expected to expend quite a bit of effort to thoroughly fool Raphael, but to her surprise, he accepted her story without much skepticism, coming to a sudden realization. “No wonder a lone woman like you would appear in a pool deep in the mountains. So… you are actually a fairy descended to the mortal realm…”
Feeling a bit guilty, Ye Qisheng cleared her throat lightly and forced a composed tone, “Most of my memories from before descending to the mortal realm have been sealed. I only know that I was punished to come down and undergo a trial. I can never return in this lifetime, so I can only honestly stay in this world as a mortal.”
Raphael’s eyes flickered slightly. The hand hanging by his side curled inward, and he lowered his voice to probe softly, “Do you want to return to heaven?”
“I don’t!” Ye Qisheng responded instantly. Her eyes darted around as she struggled to pull out a couple of literary poetic lines, “As the saying goes, ‘I only wish for a heart that lasts until our hair turns white; I envy pairs of mandarin ducks, not immortals!’ Now that I have you, of course I don’t want to go back to heaven!”
Raphael’s eyes lit up brightly, filled with a warm smile as he looked at her. He nodded firmly, reached out to take her hand, and swore solemnly, “I will treat you well. I will never make you regret being with me!”
Ye Qisheng’s eyes curved into crescents, her sweet voice soft and charming, “Mm! I believe you!”
With the issue resolved, Ye Qisheng no longer held back. She taught Raphael how to use the vacuum cleaner and had him clean every single corner of the main room. Meanwhile, she took a large broom to clean out the gaps in the thatched roof once more, driving out all the spiders lurking in the dark corners waiting to spin their webs again.
Knowing that she was particularly afraid of these small insects, Raphael dug out the dried insect repellent from the luggage he had brought and carefully sprinkled it in every hidden corner of the house, not even missing the roof.
Standing inside the house below, Ye Qisheng watched as he leapt down light-footedly from the roof, asking curiously, “Will this really keep bugs from coming into the house?”
Raphael nodded and confirmed, “Doctor Xu said one application of this medicine lasts for half a year. After six months, we can just replace it with a new batch.”
Ye Qisheng nodded in relief. She purchased a tape measure, paper, and a pen from the shopping system, having Raphael hold the other end of the tape measure while she carefully measured the dimensions of the room.
Based on the measurements, she divided the main room into two halves, placing a large folding screen in the middle to separate them. One side served as the bedroom, while the side near the door served as the living room, complete with floor mats, and finally outfitted each with the appropriate furniture.
For the living quarters, she placed a two-meter wooden bed hung with a floor-length white mosquito net. By the window, she set up a dressing table and chair, and chose one wall to install an entire row of sliding-door wardrobes.
For the living room side, since the current permanent residents were only her and Raphael—and there likely would not be any guests in the future—she did not want to make it feel too crowded. So she placed a table with two chairs, positioned a corner fabric sofa against the wall, and set up a few low cabinets alongside a coffee table, which was more than enough.
Witnessing her pull item after item out of thin air, Raphael went from initial shock and disbelief to gradually becoming accustomed to it. He waited calmly by her side, following her directions to move and arrange the items into their precise positions.
It seemed his wife had hoarded plenty of goods back in the immortal realm. Although these pieces of furniture and household items looked like ordinary mortal goods, they were sturdy, brand new, and durable—already more than wonderful.
Ye Qisheng worked quite nimbly. In less than half an hour, the main room—which had originally been bare and empty—was completely transformed. With the right furniture in place, a warm, tidy, and homey atmosphere emerged, forming a sharp contrast with the mottled and dilapidated walls outside.
Ye Qisheng clapped the dust off her hands, placed her hands on her hips, and surveyed the domain she had just set up, quite satisfied with her aesthetic taste.
Just as she was pondering whether to add a few more small pieces of furniture, she saw Raphael walk out from behind the screen carrying an armful of bedding. A faint smile graced his face, and he was walking outside in high spirits, clearly very fond of this newly decorated home as well.
Ye Qisheng looked at the bedding in his arms and asked in confusion, “Raphael, what are you doing with those beddings?”
“Taking them to the river to wash,” Raphael glanced at the still intense sunlight outside the window and smiled softly. “I’ll build a rack in the courtyard in a moment. If I hang them out until we go to sleep tonight, they should be mostly dry.”
The angel-like brother was quite a neat freak. Ye Qisheng nodded in understanding and instructed, “No need to go through all that trouble. Leave the bedding on the sofa and go build the rack. Later, I’ll wash and dry them in the washing machine, then you can hang them outside to air out and dissipate any lingering odors.”
Raphael had never heard of a washing machine, but thinking it was likely another divine artifact from the immortal realm like the vacuum cleaner he had used earlier, he did not pry further. Following her words, he placed the bedding on the sofa and went outside to build the rack.
Ye Qisheng placed an order for an all-in-one fully automatic washing machine, set it up in the courtyard, and stuffed the bedding directly inside with hurried hands.
Small home appliances from the system mall were all rechargeable-battery-operated; once their power was depleted, simply returning them to the space would fully recharge them in a second, which was extremely convenient.
Ye Qisheng reached out to press the power button. Just as she was about to walk away, a row of red text flashed across the LCD screen, reminding her that water needed to be connected for normal operation.
She slapped her forehead, only then realizing her own silliness after the fact.
She really was a useless rich young lady who had never done housework before. Thinking that having a washing machine meant she could just wash things, she had completely overlooked the importance of water.
Seeing her standing there with a troubled expression, Raphael set down the wooden frame in his hands and asked in confusion, “Sheng’sheng, what’s wrong?”