Ye Qisheng looked at him, feeling miserable. “No water… can’t wash…”
Currently, the Shopping System only had 300 types of goods, and water pumps had not yet appeared in the small home appliance section. Therefore, they still had to carry water from the river the honest, old-fashioned way.
So it was just a lack of water. Raphael smiled and said immediately, “It’s fine. I’ll go fetch water right now! However much you need, I’ll get it!”
With that, he turned to go to the kitchen to fetch a bucket. Ye Qisheng held his hand, stored the washing machine back into her space, and said, “Forget it, I’ll go with you. Saves you the trouble of carrying it back and forth.”
Anyway, the room decoration was nearly finished, and she felt a bit tired. She might as well go out for a stroll with him.
Raphael glanced down at her hand holding his. His lustrous blue eyes rippled like water, and a clear smile floated from the depths of his gaze.
He nodded, turning his palm to hold her soft, long-fingered hand.
Walking out holding hands with a member of the opposite sex for the first time, Ye Qisheng could not help feeling a little thrilled. Her heart thudded in her chest like a frightened deer.
Raphael felt it even more acutely than she did. His cheeks burned slightly, a shy expression gleaming in his eyes, and he kept his head lowered somewhat. Occasionally, he even accidentally stumbled into matching the same hand and leg while walking.
The two strolled slowly out the courtyard gate. Both were speechlessly quiet, feeling only the warmth of each other’s palms.
This kind of feeling was subtle and delicate. Ye Qisheng curled the corners of her lips, suddenly feeling a strong urge to laugh.
She felt like the two of them were like elementary school kids dating for the very first time—nervous, flustered, bewildered, yet carrying a small touch of excitement and sweetness, exploring an unfamiliar world with expectation.
At a time like this, she could not help feeling fortunate that she had never followed her superficial friends in treating men like disposable clothes to swap at will. Otherwise, she probably would never have experienced the wonderful purity of a first love.
Just as she was immersed in the joy of being hopelessly in love, a sudden *ding* sounded in her mind, followed by the emotionless voice of the system:
【Random Task: Host is requested to immediately collect one hundred Purple Willow Fruits. Upon completion of the task, a random gift bag will be awarded. If the task fails, existing product categories will be randomly reduced.】
What on earth?!
There were only 300 products on the shelves in total, which she already deemed too few, and now it was going to randomly reduce them?!
Ye Qisheng was jolted to her core. All those poetic, tender feelings of a young girl vanished without a trace in an instant. She hurriedly opened the panel to check the details.
At the very top of the product interface, a glittering golden banner had been added, listing the newly issued task in bold, enlarged black text. Detailed information about the task item was also transmitted directly into her mind.
A countdown timer was displayed below the task bar, reminding her how much time was left before the task failed.
The wretched system had only given her three hours. In the span of a single distracted moment, a minute had already ticked away.
Ye Qisheng was not unfamiliar with the task item. Among the wild fruits Raphael had fed her earlier, there was one she had stored in her space because she could not finish it. The name displayed on the panel back then was precisely “Purple Willow Fruit.”
Without a moment to lose, she immediately asked the person beside her, “Raphael, do you still have those Purple Willow Fruits you gave me earlier? I need a hundred of them!”
“Purple Willow Fruit?” Raphael paused for a moment, soon understanding what she was referring to. “Do you mean those purple fruits? They grow on the cliff deep in the mountains. If you want them, I can go pick them for you.”
Ye Qisheng was overjoyed upon hearing this. “That’s wonderful! You still remember the way, right? Let’s go pick them right now!”
Hearing that she intended to go along, Raphael showed hesitation, worrying, “Why don’t you wait for me at home? The mountain paths are rugged, and those fruits grow right on the cliff. If you follow me there, I fear you might encounter danger.”
That was indeed a problem. Ye Qisheng asked, “How long will a round trip take you?”
Raphael pondered for a moment, his tone somewhat uncertain. “It’s hard to say. That cliff is quite far away. Just getting there will take more than half an hour. Adding the time to search, it will take at least two and a half hours.”
Two and a half hours meant five hours in modern time?!
Ye Qisheng made a prompt decision. “Then I’ll go with you! We can save some time on the return trip!”
Raphael did not know why she suddenly needed this fruit, but seeing her anxious expression, he figured this matter must be extremely important to her. He refrained from further persuasion, squatted down to let her climb onto his back, and then leapt, dashing toward the nearby mountain ranges.
The flying sensation came without warning. Ye Qisheng hurriedly wrapped her arms around his neck. The scenery on both sides retreated at lightning speed, accompanied from time to time by high jumps and steep drops like a roller coaster, the wind howling as it blew her hair backward.
Thank goodness she had neither a heart condition nor a fear of heights, or else she might have ascended straight to heaven right then and there.
Raphael looked tall and slender, with a gentle, frail, and harmless appearance. She had not expected him to be so formidable.
For a brief moment, Ye Qisheng even suspected she had actually transmigrated to a cultivation realm, and that Raphael was a top expert among cultivators who, due to an unfortunate accident, had lost his memory and ended up stranded in Liuye Village.
Otherwise, no matter how a normal human broke through their limits or possessed natural genius, could they really achieve this level?
Raphael was unaware of her wild thoughts. He concentrated wholeheartedly on traveling, thinking only of completing the task she had assigned him as quickly as possible.
Driven by his all-out sprint, they arrived at the cliff edge where the Purple Willow Fruits grew fifteen minutes earlier than expected.
Raphael landed on a flat rock, carefully set her down, and instructed, “I’ll go pick the fruits. You stay here properly and don’t wander off.”
Ye Qisheng nodded. “Be careful. If there are ones you really can’t reach, don’t force it. Safety comes first.”
Raphael felt a warmth in his heart. Looking at her with eyes as gentle as water, he softly replied, “Alright.”
Ye Qisheng remembered that back basket items were sold on the system shelves. She immediately placed an order for an extra-large one and had him strap it onto his back, making it convenient to gather the fruits shortly.
Raphael put on the basket, took one last deep look at her, turned around, dashed toward the cliff edge at top speed, and leapt down without hesitation.
Ye Qisheng’s eyelids twitched violently. She hurried to the edge of the cliff and cautiously poked her head out to look down. Seeing him maneuver with ease among the jagged, protruding rocks, the heart that had leapt into her throat finally settled back down.
Fortunately, she had an expert like Raphael around; otherwise, she really would not have been able to complete this task and could only await punishment.
Returning to the open clearing where she had been standing, she raised her head to survey the surroundings. As far as the eye could see, there were towering mountains, ancient trees, and continuous mountain ranges stretching into the distance. Thick, mist-like white clouds drifted among the lush, dripping-green forests, resembling a traditional ink-wash landscape painting.
There were still two and a half hours before the task expired. She was in no mood to admire the scenery. She retrieved the washing machine containing the bedding, ordered a ton of purified water, poured a sufficient amount inside, and finally pressed the start button.
Hearing the normal operational sound from the washing machine, Ye Qisheng let out a light sigh of relief. She had finally put the washing task into motion.
When ordering the back basket earlier, she had accidentally browsed through the food and beverage section and noticed that water was actually included among the 300 items. It was simply that she did not have eidetic memory and could not remember everything.
Since water could be bought directly from the system, she would not waste effort looking for a nearby water source to wash the bedding.
In any case, she was silly and had more money than sense, so she could afford to splurge.
Taking advantage of having nothing to do at the moment, she began studying the system functions, pondering how to level up.
Earlier, she had bought a whole collection of miscellaneous items, spending a total of 131,230.5 yuan. The display on the experience bar read: 131,180.6 / 10,000,000.
If she understood correctly, upgrading from low-tier to mid-tier required spending ten million yuan. But why did the displayed experience value differ from the cumulative amount spent by 49.9 yuan?
Shouldn’t the accumulated experience match whatever amount was spent?
Before she could figure out the answer, the washing machine nearby finished its first round of deep cleaning, opened the drain valve, and the dirty water poured out with a splash.
Pulling her mind back, she waited for all the water to drain out, opened the lid to pour fresh water inside, closed it again, and set it to perform the rinsing cycle.
Opening the panel once more, she noticed the numbers on the experience bar had changed: the trailing 4 had jumped to a 5, while the total spent amount remained unchanged.
Ye Qisheng was stunned. She had only gone over to add water to the washing machine just now and had done nothing else; how did her experience points go up?
A sudden stroke of inspiration flashed through her mind. She opened her purchase history and fixed her gaze on the one ton of water she had bought most recently, finally figuring it out.
As it turned out, this experience value was determined according to the actual usage of the purchased goods! It was not that buying items gained experience immediately; they had to actually be used for it to count.
The miscellaneous items she had bought earlier all showed signs of having been used. Even for the mattress she had set up, she had laid down on it to test its comfort, which was why they were all factored into the experience bar.
As for the ton of water she had just bought, since it was not yet fully used up, only the portion consumed for washing clothes was calculated.
Having cleared up the situation, Ye Qisheng could not help but complain bitterly in her heart. This cheat tool was way too wretched! It could have at least given her notes on these crucial details!
Making a useless person like her with a slow brain fumble for the answers was truly putting her on the spot—a whole row of her brain cells had just died!