After settling Jiang Yanli, Shen Baizhi hurried along the riverbank toward Shen Family Village.
She had just reached the spot where she’d met Susu the day before when, from afar, she saw what looked like someone drowning in the river.
At the same time, a clear mechanical voice sounded in her mind once again:
Merit System activated!
Merit points detected nearby. Host, please do not miss this opportunity!
Shen Baizhi froze for a moment.
Could it be that all those novels she’d read in her previous life were actually real?
Not only was rebirth real, but even all kinds of systems truly existed!!!
Then… then… did that mean cultivation novels and apocalypse novels were real too???
While she was still reeling from the shock, the system’s mechanical voice rang out again:
Merit points detected nearby. Host, please do not miss this opportunity!!!
Shen Baizhi snapped back to her senses. She didn’t have time to look through the system’s details, but just hearing the words “merit” was enough for her to guess what the opportunity was.
Wasn’t it the person about to sink to the bottom of the river?
She quickly shrugged off her outer coat, tossed it onto the ground, jumped into the water, and swam swiftly toward the figure.
Lately, was she fated with water or cursed by it? In this freezing weather, she’d jumped into the water to save people two days in a row!
Only after diving under did Shen Baizhi realize that this drowning victim was a little boy, about five or six years old, already lying motionless on the riverbed.
She hurriedly hauled him up. Once on the shore, she performed artificial respiration on the child the way she’d learned online in her previous life.
After a frantic round of effort, the boy suddenly spat out several mouthfuls of water and burst into tears.
Shen Baizhi wrapped the child in her own clothes. After he calmed down a little, she asked gently:
“Who are you? How did you fall into the river?”
“Where are the adults in your family?”
She was certain the child wasn’t from Shen Family Village, and this stretch of river wasn’t close to any other village either, so she found it strange that he’d ended up drowning here.
The child had just been badly frightened. Seeing Shen Baizhi, he treated her as his only lifeline and cooperated fairly well, answering her questions seriously.
“My name is Tang Yun. I… I came to play by the river and accidentally fell in.”
After saying that, the boy timidly lowered his head and refused to speak further.
Shen Baizhi frowned and pressed on:
“Then where are the adults in your family? Why were you alone by the river?”
The child cautiously looked up at Shen Baizhi several times, pouted, and finally couldn’t hold back anymore. With a loud wail, he burst into tears, sobbing as he spoke:
“Mommy… Mommy got married today. Auntie said Mommy doesn’t want me anymore. From now on, I’ll be her family’s child. She said I’ll have to be a horse for my big brother and sister to ride!”
“I don’t want to be a horse. I want my mommy…”
“So I ran away when they weren’t paying attention. When they realize I’m gone, they’ll definitely come looking for me, and then Mommy won’t marry someone else…”
Shen Baizhi was startled. Though the child’s words were vague, she could roughly understand what had happened: his aunt wanted him to serve her own children like a beast of burden, he refused, so he ran away.
This… this… wasn’t the person getting married today her Fourth Uncle?
And this child’s mother—could she be her… Fourth Aunt?
Although her Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt were considered late in marrying for this era, they were clearly both marrying for the first time!
In her previous life, she’d never heard that her Fourth Aunt—who caused endless trouble at home—had given birth to a child before marriage.
Wait. She remembered now.
In her previous life, because Lin Ranran deliberately delayed Lin Cheng, they didn’t return to Shen Family Village until after lunch that day.
By the time they got home, the relatives from her Fourth Aunt Tang Yumei’s natal family who’d come to escort the bride had already left, and the atmosphere at home was extremely tense. The moment Shen Baizhi arrived, her grandmother pointed at her nose and berated her fiercely.
That afternoon, the newlyweds—Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt—had a huge argument, and Fourth Aunt went back to her natal home the very same day.
Later, she heard that because everyone had been busy with the wedding, a nephew from the bride’s family who’d come along for the festivities had drowned. The child’s body surfaced several days later downstream in this very river.
From then on, Fourth Aunt blamed the Shen family for everything, making trouble day after day, never letting anyone have any peace.
Now everything made sense.
If she hadn’t saved Jiang Yanli, she wouldn’t have been at the river at this time, and this child named Tang Yun would have died for sure.
She took out the watch Jiang Yanli had given her from the pocket of her coat. It was almost eleven o’clock—nearly lunchtime. Someone should come looking for the child soon.
Shen Baizhi put on a gentle smile and coaxed him:
“Tang Yun, right? Let’s make a secret promise, okay?”
“I don’t want anyone to know that I saved you. And you probably don’t want your family to know you almost drowned just now, right? So let’s pretend we don’t know each other. We’ve never met, and I didn’t save you. You just got your clothes wet while playing by the river. How about that?”
She’d just gotten hold of a weakness of her Fourth Aunt’s, but she hadn’t yet figured out how to use it. Better not to alert the enemy for now—she could plan things slowly when she had time.
Although Tang Yun was only five or six years old, he knew that if his family found out he’d run away and almost gotten into trouble, he’d definitely be scolded. He nodded repeatedly.
“Okay, I won’t say anything. But I’ll remember that you saved me!”
Shen Baizhi patted his head, handed his clothes back to him, and pointed toward the road leading to the village.
“Then go that way now. Remember, don’t tell anyone our secret—not even your mom.”
After watching Tang Yun leave, Shen Baizhi found a deserted spot. She took out the clothes she’d collected the day before from her space and changed into them, then put the slightly damp coat back on. Only then did she finally have time to study the system that had just appeared.
She searched for a long time but couldn’t find where the system was, so she tentatively spoke up:
“System? System?”
After calling twice, she felt something like a computer screen appear in her mind. On it were only some simple descriptions.
Name: Merit System
Function: The host can gain merit by directly or indirectly saving lives. Merit can be exchanged for items in the shop.
(1 life = 1 merit)
Below the two lines of text were images of three items.
So this was the “shop”—a shop with only three items!
Still, something was better than nothing. Shen Baizhi quickly focused her consciousness on the three items.
Strength Pill: After consumption, grants immense strength. Effect lasts seven days.
Health Pill: After consumption, strengthens the body and can rapidly cure one non-lethal illness.
Abandoned Reserve Warehouse Experience Voucher: Allows time travel to an abandoned reserve warehouse for a one-day visit. Items can be brought back from the scene.
Below each image were numbers: “1,” “1,” and “2.” These were clearly their exchange prices.
At the very bottom of the screen was a line of small text:
Shop items refresh once every seven days.