At this moment, Ye Qisheng was standing at an oblique angle to them. The left cheek covered with medical gauze was turned away, revealing only her intact right cheek. Her skin was as white and smooth as spring snow, her brows and eyes exquisite and delicate, and her figure curvaceous and full.
She didn’t do anything at all, just standing there quietly, and she looked like a pleasing-to-the-eye painting.
Such a beauty had never appeared in the village before. Many men had their attention drawn away, stopping what they were doing in their hands and staring fixedly in that direction.
Seeing these men looking as if their souls had been hooked away, Liu Yuexia’s eyes burned with jealousy. She cursed fiercely and low, “Stinking vixen! Shameless!”
Not far away, Liu Shiting noticed the abnormality all around. Following the crowd’s gaze, he also saw that eye-catching, gorgeous figure. His brow furrowed slightly, and he stood there without moving for a moment.
Perhaps sensing the overly intense gazes of the crowd, Ye Qisheng suddenly turned around, revealing the gauze-covered left cheek abruptly, instantly ruining the previous beauty.
This jade-like beauty could have passed for a fairy, but that half of her face had ruthlessly ruined it.
The men showed expressions of regret, retracted their gazes one after another, and continued with their previous tasks.
Liu Shiting had a sturdy build, standing out vividly among the group of bending people. Ye Qisheng quickly noticed him, waved happily, and walked over to the edge of the field, smiling as she asked, “Big Brother Liu, is there anything I can do?”
Since they had kindly taken her in, she couldn’t just freeload without doing anything; she needed to show a bit of enthusiasm.
Liu Shiting paused, refusing in a calm voice, “No need. The work here is pretty much done. Your body hasn’t fully recovered, and the midday sun is harsh, so go home and rest.”
Liu Yuexia was unhappy upon hearing this, jumping out to shout, “What do you mean it’s pretty much done? The irrigation ditch on our side still needs to be dug for a long stretch! Since she’s eating our food and living in our house now, she should do all the remaining work!”
Liu Shiting glanced at her and reprimanded in a low voice, “Who is that to blame? If you hadn’t kept slacking off, would we still be digging until now?”
Liu Yuexia refused to admit it and argued, “When did I slack off?! Haven’t I been working continuously without stopping the whole time? If you don’t believe me, look at my clothes, they’re soaked through with sweat!”
With that, she turned her back, wanting to make him look at her back. Liu Shiting couldn’t be bothered to deal with her and buried his head to continue working.
This younger sister had been spoiled rotten by their mother since childhood. All the best food and drink were saved for her, and she wasn’t really made to do heavy farm work out of fear that it would rough up her skin and affect her future marriage prospects.
Relying on their old mother to back her up, Liu Yuexia’s temper grew more and more willful. All day long, she only knew how to take shortcuts, eat well, be lazy, and throw little tantrums.
This irrigation ditch seemed long, but in reality, it was only about two meters. If someone worked briskly, it would have been finished long ago in less than half an hour, but Liu Yuexia deliberately dragged it out, wanting to wait until he finished his side and came over to take over her work.
As for that sister-in-law Zhou Fenling, she was also full of tricks. Watching her sister-in-law slack off, she slowly followed suit and paddled along, acting as if swinging the hoe a couple of extra times would cost her two taels of flesh—it was truly irritating to look at.
Liu Shiting was a grown man. Although he saw through it clearly in his heart, he didn’t want to pick a fight with his sister and sister-in-law. After saying a few words, he didn’t waste his breath any further.
Ye Qisheng hadn’t expected that her casual remark would trigger a quarrel between the siblings, and she felt instantly awkward.
Feeling uncomfortable staying there, she found a random excuse and slipped away.
Following her memory back to the Liu household, she happened to run into Aunt Fan, who was preparing to go out and deliver food.
The moment Ye Qisheng saw the bamboo basket in her hand, she knew the work she could finally do had arrived. She hurriedly stepped forward and offered, “Auntie, are you going to deliver the food? I know where Big Brother Liu and the others are, let me deliver it for you!”
“No need!” Aunt Fan stepped aside to avoid her hand, cast a cold glare at her, and said expressionlessly, “Who knows if you’ll steal some of it on the road?”
Without waiting for Ye Qisheng’s reaction, she lifted her chin and strode away.
Ye Qisheng was left speechless, watching her retreating figure with a depressed feeling.
She had wandered aimlessly around the courtyard in the morning, which was indeed a bit impolite, but it didn’t warrant treating her like a thief, right?
Sighing inwardly, she gathered her spirits and dragged her tired steps back into the Liu house.
Having wandered outside for so long, the little bit of food she had eaten in the morning had long since been digested. Ye Qisheng rubbed her stomach, which was once again staging an empty-city performance, wondering if Aunt Fan had left any food for her.
Entering the kitchen, everything was already tidied up, and the semi-old solid-wood dining table was completely empty—there was nothing there.
She had thought the food would be kept warm in the pot, but when she walked over and lifted the lid, it was also completely empty. Only a tiny flicker of fire remained in the earth-built stove, demonstrating that a fire had just been made there to cook a meal.
Refusing to give up, Ye Qisheng searched the kitchen thoroughly again, still finding nothing. Aside from warm food and dishes, she couldn’t even find raw ingredients like a grain of rice or a noodle.
After all this tossing about, Ye Qisheng grew even hungrier. However, the old lady clearly hadn’t left her anything to eat, and she was helpless.
Besides, she was just a useless rich second-generation heir who only knew how to shop. She had never stepped foot in a kitchen in her eighteen years of life, and even if she managed to find rice and flour, lacking any homemaking skills, she wouldn’t know where to begin.
She couldn’t even start a fire in the stove.
Ye Qisheng had never lived through hardship since childhood, and this was her first deep realization that hunger could be such a terrifying thing. Her whole body felt weak, her head spun, and simply standing up felt like a chore.
At times like this, she yearned even more for her luxurious life of fine clothing and rich food from the past.
How happy she had been back then! For three meals a day, five or six master chefs were specially assigned to take care of them, rotating through the eight major culinary cuisines of Lu, Chuan, Cantonese, Min, Su, Xiang, and Hui. If she got tired of Chinese delicacies, she could switch to various Western or Southeast Asian cuisines at any moment.
As long as she wanted, she could casually enjoy food from all over the world right from her home.
But now, all of that was far away from her.
The reality was that she was now so hungry her eyes were going black, and she was almost fainting.
So hungry!
She really wanted to eat Buddha Jumps Over the Wall!
She wanted Wellington steak, fried chicken wings, Australian lobster, Beijing roast duck, white-cut chicken, West Lake fish in vinegar gravy, Dongpo pork…
Or else, even a most ordinary instant noodle cup would do!
The more she muttered to herself, the hungrier her stomach felt. Her shopping addiction, which used to make her spend money like water, surged up. She wanted to buy things so badly, she wanted to order delivery so badly…
Just as Ye Qisheng was filled with endless resentment, her vision suddenly blurred, and a golden interface materialized out of thin air, scaring her into almost screaming out loud.
Scared the daylights out of her!
What on earth was this?!
Hardly managing to stabilize her composure, she widened her eyes, staring in utter disbelief at the interface floating suspended in the air.
For someone growing up in a technologically advanced era, this screen wasn’t unfamiliar to her—it looked just like the shopping pages frequently seen on phones and computers.
Pure Chinese subtitles, with product arrangements similar to certain online shopping platforms, except without all the dazzlingly complex colors. It simply featured a few major categories like clothing, food, housing, and transportation, plus a search bar, with four small characters next to it: *Instructions for Use*.
Ye Qisheng hesitated for a long time, reached out a trembling hand, and clicked on the *Instructions for Use*. A cold mechanical voice instantly echoed in her brain—
> [Welcome to the Shopping System.
> This system is divided into Junior, Intermediate, Advanced, and Supreme tiers.
> Currently at the Junior tier, you can freely purchase items on the shelves. The richness of the products is directly proportional to the system tier; the higher the tier, the more complete the product varieties.
> Please strive to level up, Host. Wishing you a pleasant transmigration journey.]
A wave of joy washed over Ye Qisheng’s heart. Great!
The transmigration deity hadn’t forgotten her after all; they had still equipped her with a golden finger cheat!
And this cheat was entirely tailored to her tastes!
She loved this kind of simple and brutal setup: whatever she wanted, she could just buy it directly. How convenient!
Bring on the instant noodles!
Order the takeout!
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, Wellington steak, fried chicken wings, Australian lobster, Beijing roast duck, white-cut chicken, West Lake fish in vinegar gravy, Dongpo pork… and so on and so forth, time to eat!
Thinking that she would soon be able to feast lavishly, Ye Qisheng wiped the saliva from the corner of her mouth and tried adding a packet of instant noodles to her shopping cart, clicking confirm to purchase. However, the interface displayed *Insufficient Balance, Order Failed!*
Ye Qisheng was instantly dumbfounded. Following the prompt, she clicked on her balance, where a bold, capitalized **0** stung her eyes, leaving her with the urge to cry without tears.
That’s right, everyone knew you needed money to buy things, but she was currently penniless. Even the patched beggar-style clothes on her body were borrowed from someone else. Where on earth was she supposed to find money to place an order?
And even if she had money, how on earth was she supposed to deposit it into this shopping system?
Alas, sitting right next to a treasure trove yet unable to use it wantonly—it was too darn infuriating!
With her hopes dashed and disappointment setting in, Ye Qisheng felt depressed and blue. She rubbed her increasingly hungry stomach, noticed a jar of water by the stove, grabbed a chipped porcelain bowl, and scooped half a bowl to drink, which barely managed to suppress a bit of her hunger.
Just drinking water wouldn’t cut it, but since Aunt Fan hadn’t left her anything to eat, what could she do?
Ye Qisheng was driven half-mad by hunger. After leaving the Liu household and wandering outside for a while, she unconsciously walked back to the Liu family’s fields.
Aunt Fan had arrived long ago. The five members of the family were sitting under the shade of a tree, drinking porridge and gnawing on coarse grain sorghum buns.
Those people were eating with great relish right then; none of them noticed Ye Qisheng standing behind the tree.
Liu Shiting had his back turned, sitting on a large rock, unhurriedly drinking a bowl of porridge. Next to him, Aunt Fan broke half a bun in half and gave it to her youngest daughter, Liu Yuexia, receiving a sweet smile in return from her daughter. Mother and daughter smiled at each other, creating an atmosphere of total harmony.