Zhi Xiang Jiao?
The check-in location at the village chief’s house that requires 2 points? Just from the name and combined with the incense burner at the village chief’s house, it’s obvious without guessing that this must be related to incense.
Yu Hongdou thought carefully, recalling that incense seemed quite commonplace here.
Ordinary households use incense for various purposes – during festivals for worshipping gods and ancestors, seasonal prayers for abundant harvests and favorable weather, summer mosquito repellent, and livestock disease prevention.
Wealthier families use incense for daily fragrance, while scholars have even more refined practices – some for elegance, some for mental focus, some for auspicious symbolism. As for the nobility… Yu Hongdou could imagine without thinking how elaborate their incense usage must be.
So incense offered great potential! Instantly, her mind filled with schemes for making fortune.
But before these plans could fully form, they were interrupted by her parents.
“A cult?” Xu Shi exclaimed in shock, immediately covering her mouth. Though only the three of them were in the room, she felt like a thief, her heart pounding so hard it seemed about to leap from her chest.
“Husband, with such a serious matter, won’t you be in danger?” As fear gave way to worry, Xu Shi lowered her hand from her mouth and grabbed her husband’s arm, anxiously seeking confirmation.
Actually, she knew perfectly well there must be danger – she just wanted reassurance from her husband, something to ease her mind.
“I’m just a country fellow – what dangerous tasks would they assign me? I mainly returned under the pretext of hunting game to investigate the mountains, just to report anything unusual.” Yu Sanlang gestured for his wife not to worry. Hearing movement outside, he decided to drop the subject.
“Dad, Mom~” The eavesdropper Yu Hongdou couldn’t hold back either. Rubbing her eyes as if just waking up, she scrambled out of bed and jumped to the floor.
Nature calls!
Emerging from the outhouse while pinching her nose, Yu Hongdou thought they really needed to move to the city. If nothing else, living with the extended Yu Family meant they couldn’t even afford toilet paper.
Actually, the novel’s setting incorporated multiple dynasties’ cultures, so toilet paper did exist and wasn’t particularly expensive. But the Yu Family was just too large.
With everyone using sheet after sheet, they’d go through a hundred sheets in three days – monthly expenses enough to buy two chickens.
Most village households used a type of untearable tree leaves. Collected in summer and autumn, steamed in pots and air-dried, these leaves had thread-like veins with extreme toughness that wouldn’t crumble when broken. The only drawback was they tore easily…
After washing her hands three times in the yard, Yu Hongdou returned to find meal already on the table. Only her smiling brother Yu Song sat by the kang table.
“Parents went to the main room. Big brother will keep you company.” Yu Song pulled over a face towel to dry his sister’s damp hands, then lifted her onto the kang before sitting beside her to continue peeling boiled eggs.
“Brother, I want to play in the mountains today.” Yu Hongdou rested her chin in her hands, watching her dear brother work. Warmth filled her heart, making her want to act spoiled.
In her childhood, her parents had been busy building their careers, sending her to live with her aunt. When they finally had free time, they immediately had a second child. Once the twin siblings were born, she – the emotionally distant eldest – became even more marginalized.
In the process of growing up, Yu Hongdou made peace with herself. Her parents did not lack love for her—it was simply that too many things took precedence over that love. Thus, after transmigrating, she accepted reality almost immediately.
“What’s on your mind, little silly? If you don’t eat soon, I won’t take you up the mountain.” Yu Song peeled a boiled egg and placed it in his sister’s porridge bowl, using a spoon to mash and mix it in. Noticing her staring blankly at him, he chuckled and tapped the tip of her nose with the spoon handle.
“Hehe, here you go, brother.” Startled out of her thoughts, Yu Hongdou shook her little head and grinned foolishly at her doting older brother. She pulled two taels of silver—which she had “borrowed” from Zhang San’s secret stash—from her pocket and slid it across the table toward him.
Yu Song’s smile froze. He picked up the silver, examined it briefly, then put on a stern expression as he stared at his sister. “Hongdou, where did this come from?”
“I found it.” Yu Hongdou had only decided in the outhouse earlier to hand over the two taels. Her brother and father both worked in the city and had many expenses, unlike her, stuck in the village with money but nowhere to spend it.
The key was, as long as she had sign-in points, she could keep “borrowing” like this—no fear of running out of money in the future.
“Where did you find it? Did anyone see you?” Yu Song wasn’t particularly concerned about returning lost property; his first thought was whether finding the silver might put his sister in danger.
“In the hollow of the willow tree outside Ma Laizi and Zhang San’s houses. I was treasure hunting and found it.” This was the location Yu Hongdou had prepared before taking out the silver.
Yu Song said nothing more, patting his sister’s head and urging her to finish her meal quickly. Internally, he speculated that the silver was either something Ma Laizi had swindled or money Zhang San had squeezed out of his mistress.
It’s often said that like attracts like. Every village has its troublemakers, and Ma Laizi and Zhang San were a perfect match for each other—the former skilled in deception, fraud, and theft, the latter indulging in drinking, whoring, gambling, and smoking. The fact that they lived next to each other was no accident; the village chief had deliberately arranged it so that households with more able-bodied men nearby could keep an eye on them.
Fortunately, both men knew their roots were in the village and didn’t dare cause too much trouble locally, or they would have been driven out or beaten to death long ago.
When Yu Hongdou was fully equipped by her brother and stepped out the door carrying the small basket her father had specially made for her, they happened to run into Yu Sanlang and Yu Silang emerging from the main house.
With one glance at his daughter, Yu Sanlang knew what she was up to. Considering she had been ill and cooped up at home for several days, he thought a trip out might do her good. He simply told them to return early and let them go.
“Times have been tough for the family these past few years. Hongdou was born frail and we’ve struggled to raise her. Fourth Brother, since you don’t have children yet, you can’t understand this kind of heartache. So stop speaking up for that Liu Shi, or I’ll have to get angry too.” Yu Sanlang watched his children leave, then turned to his younger brother with a weighted tone that held a hint of warning.
Yu Silang was taken aback, his face flushing red as he hurriedly waved his hands to defend himself. But his dear third brother had already turned away to speak with his wife.
Yu Hongdou’s main reason for wanting to go into the mountains was to see if she could use her Sign-in System to uncover clues about Zhi Xiang Jiao hidden there. Yet, along the way, the overwhelming verdant glow everywhere made her itch with excitement and longing…
[Sign-in Location: Taoyuan Village Mountain Path. Consume 1 sign-in point?]
[Sign-in Location: Taoyuan Village Earth God Temple. Consume 2 sign-in points?]
[Sign-in Location: Dongshan Slope Rabbit Burrow. Consume 1 sign-in point?]
[Sign-in Location: Bandit Guo Jinlong’s Treasure Vault. Consume 2 sign-in points?]
Huh? What? Bandit? Treasure vault? Zhang San’s private savings only amounted to 2 taels of silver, so what kind of surprise could this treasure vault requiring 2 sign-in points possibly bring her?