Early the next morning, Qiao Suluo got up, washed up, and began making breakfast. The house was completely out of grain. She had no choice but to use the leftover cornmeal flatbread and cabbage from last night to make fried rice; otherwise, they would go hungry.
Their small residential compound was actually just a yard enclosed by bamboo fences. Aside from the kitchen, there were only three crude rooms. She lived in the largest room on the east side, right next to the kitchen, while the other two rooms belonged to Que Hongjin and Bai Qianluo.
She wondered, "No wonder the original owner sold Yue Hanzheng and the other two. Could it be because there are only three rooms in the house and no place to sleep?"
According to the original owner’s memories, back when they all lived in this courtyard, she had a room all to herself, while the five Beast Husbands shared the other two rooms.
"You’re quite naive, Host," the System replied. "The original owner was incredibly vicious. How could she possibly sell three Beast Husbands over such a trivial matter? She despised them for being crippled and thought keeping them around was useless, so she figured she might as well sell them for a good price."
Qiao Suluo furrowed her brows. "Do Beast Husbands here really have so few rights? Can a female beast acting as the wife sell her Beast Husbands however she pleases?"
"Technically speaking, no," the System explained. "But since these five men were crippled and rendered useless, the original owner was free to dispose of them as she saw fit.
"These five were originally top-tier male beasts with formidable talents and noble statuses. Unfortunately, they suffered an incident that reduced them to their current state. There are plenty of people in the Capital City who are jealous of them and want them dead. Those people tossed the five of them to the original owner like garbage because they knew her true nature. It was a deliberate attempt to humiliate and torment them.
"It’s easy to kill a person, but humiliating them is the true way to break their spirit."
Speechless, Qiao Suluo muttered, "That’s so cruel."
As she conversed with the System to gain a detailed understanding of her current situation, her hands never stopped moving. After finishing the breakfast, she boiled a pot of hot water. Then she paused. "Wait, I remember the water vat was completely empty last night. How is it half-full today?"
Just then, she heard a noise outside the door. Looking over, she saw Bai Qianluo—as elegant as a jade tree and as aloof as an ethereal immortal—walking in with two buckets of water slung across a shoulder pole.
He wore a plain, long robe that fluttered gently in the breeze. The damp morning mist draped over him like a veil of gauze, blending him and the surrounding scenery into a traditional ink wash painting. Within this hazy, rainy scene, he looked like a banished immortal stepping straight out of a painting. However, his excessively pale complexion added a touch of fragile, weakened beauty to his appearance.
"So, he got up this early just to fetch water?" Qiao Suluo mumbled in surprise. "Isn’t his vision impaired? How could he carry water?"
Based on the original owner’s memories, she recalled that the village only had one water well, located all the way at the front entrance. Their house sat at the northernmost edge of the village, meaning he would have to walk quite a distance just to fetch water.
"Well, even though they are crippled, they still do the work they are supposed to do," the System replied. "They’re the ones who clean up inside and out around the house.
"That pile of firewood in the corner of the yard? They chopped and split that, too.
"But your five Beast Husbands were never simple figures to begin with. They might still possess some unknown abilities, allowing them to do household chores like normal."
Bai Qianluo seemed to sense something—or perhaps he "saw" something. His footsteps paused for just a fraction of a second before he set down the shoulder pole, carried the buckets into the kitchen, and filled the vat to the brim.
"I made breakfast," Qiao Suluo offered. "I made enough for you guys too. Do you want to eat together?"
Bai Qianluo "looked" at her, his cold and stunningly beautiful face tinged with a cautious, guarded expression. He was full of suspicion. He wondered why she had actually woken up early to make breakfast. In the past, she would always sleep until noon and then take their silver to dine at a restaurant in the county town. The only reason she hadn’t gone out over the last two days was probably because she had spent all the silver.
Seeing that Bai Qianluo wasn’t moving, Qiao Suluo didn’t want to wait for him either. "I’ll eat first, then."
After this meal, the house would be completely devoid of food and without a single cent to their name. She was anxious to head up the mountain to see if she could forage for some ingredients or gather mountain goods to sell in the county town; otherwise, they were going to starve. Could she really just let the whole family starve to death?
Qiao Suluo sat down and ate her meal by herself, paying no mind to whatever Bai Qianluo was thinking.
After a brief moment of silence, Bai Qianluo finally sat down to eat as well. Qiao Suluo noticed that he ate completely soundlessly. Every movement he made was incredibly elegant, as if he had received an excellent upbringing since childhood. He was unhurried, noble, and refined.
After finishing her meal, Qiao Suluo washed and put away her own bowl and chopsticks, slung a woven basket over her back, grabbed her tools, and headed up the mountain.
Upon arriving at the back mountain, her eyes lit up at the sight of the bamboo forest stretching as far as the eye could see. With the Dragon Boat Festival fast approaching, she could use the bamboo to make bamboo-tube zongzi to sell. It was just a pity that they didn’t have any glutinous rice at home, and buying some would require copper coins.
After wandering around for a bit, Qiao Suluo was quite puzzled to find absolutely no spring bamboo shoots.
"This Cat Clan Village is remote, crude, and underdeveloped," the System explained. "Many beastmen don’t have enough to eat and come into the mountain forests to forage. Every last spring bamboo shoot was dug up by the villagers a long time ago."
Qiao Suluo didn’t let this discourage her. She took a deep breath of the fresh air and remarked, "The air here sure is refreshing." Every breath felt incredibly soothing.
"Not only is the air and environment great, but there are also plenty of authentic, natural ingredients here," the System said. "Given enough time, you will absolutely fall in love with this place, Host."
The mountain was teeming with mushrooms after the recent rain, so Qiao Suluo gathered a few.
"Host, the people here don’t dare to eat mushrooms. If you take those to sell in the county town, no one will buy them."
"If I sell them in the Space Mall, I should be able to earn some points, right?" Qiao Suluo asked.
"That works," the System confirmed. "The Mall accepts this kind of ingredient."
Qiao Suluo quickly used her consciousness to enter her spatial domain, and a dazzling interface filled with various commodities appeared before her eyes.
"Host, you can click the Mall’s automatic detection option, and the Space Mall will provide a price quote."
She reached out and tapped an option on the Mall’s panel. The System’s mechanical voice automatically chimed in, "DING. Detected six catties of purely natural, pollution-free wild mushrooms. Price: six points per catty. Would the Host like to sell?"
She reflexively clicked ’Sell.’ Instantly, thirty-six points were added to her Space Mall account, and the basket on her back emptied out.
Having acquired some points, Qiao Suluo immediately checked the food section in the Mall. A catty of brown rice cost eight points, and a catty of whole wheat flour also cost eight points. But simply buying food wasn’t the only issue right now. She had two urgent problems to solve: having enough grain to eat, and making money. The few points she had on hand wouldn’t last long at all.
The System reminded her, "Host, you cannot resell Mall items to exploit the price difference in the Beast World. That violates the original intent of your mission. However, you are allowed to make your own food to sell.
"Please earn money as quickly as possible so you can rescue the three sold Beast Husbands."
Qiao Suluo’s expression shifted. At present, she had zero starting capital, so she could only start with small-scale trading. She needed to accumulate her initial funds before she could accomplish anything else.
For now, she could buy wheat and glutinous rice to make malt sugar to sell. According to the original owner’s memories, she knew that sugar was incredibly expensive on the Beast World Continent. She hadn’t spotted any sugarcane on the mountain, but she could make malt sugar herself. The market price for malt sugar was three cents a piece.
The handful of mushrooms she had just sold wouldn’t be enough, so she continued foraging through the mountains to gather more for sale.
"Oh? Is this konjac?"
While digging for mushrooms, she actually stumbled upon konjac growing on the mountain—and a massive patch of it at that! Qiao Suluo couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.