At this moment, the villagers’ gazes were all on Zhaozhao, so naturally, they also moved along with her movements.
Soon, everyone looked toward Hu Laifu and Madam Zheng.
They thought, Here it comes. Zhaozhao had finished bestowing blessings. Now she was starting to curse people.
“Hu Laifu, good deeds receive good rewards, and evil deeds receive evil rewards. The bad things you did will eventually come back to you.” As Zhaozhao spoke, she turned toward the village chief again, “There are some things I also have to clarify. Two years ago, the fire at the entrance of the Jiang family was not set by me. It was accidentally started by Hu Baodun. The Hu Laifu couple were afraid of having to pay compensation, so they pushed the blame onto me. At that time, I had no way to explain it. Now that I’m leaving, I still have to make it clear.”
“And, in order to make the rumor that I was a jinx seem true, Hu Laifu secretly caught the Wang family’s chickens in the middle of the night, trampled on the village chief’s rice paddy, hid the Pan family boy’s books, and deliberately frightened Cheng Le’s family’s little daughter…”
“Whoa!!” The villagers looked at the Hu couple with shock and suspicion.
It turned out all of these things had been deliberately done by them. They had nothing to do with whether Zhaozhao was a disaster star or unlucky at all.
All the villagers whose names had been mentioned looked at the couple with hostility. Good, these two are the real scourges. If it were not for this couple, they too would have stayed close to Zhaozhao, and now they could have received her blessings. It’s all their fault. Now they had not only gotten nothing, but they might even suffer disasters in the future.
The two people from the Hu family had already gone pale. Despite the bitterly cold weather, their foreheads were covered in sweat. Madam Zheng was still struggling desperately, her voice soft and trembling, “N-Nonsense. These things clearly happened because of you. They, they have nothing to do with us.”
Zhaozhao said, “Whether you admit it or not doesn’t matter. In any case, I’m leaving.”
She waved at Lin Lan and the others, “You all have to take care of yourselves ah. Goodbye.”
Lin Lan and the others hurried forward a few steps, “Zhaozhao, will you come back again? Will we see each other again?”
“I don’t know.” Zhaozhao said, “Let’s see what fate brings ba. There’s no need to force it.”
“Then, then you have to take care of yourself too.” Lin Lan was reluctant to part with her. She lowered her head and looked at her own pocket. She had come out in the middle of the night and had brought nothing with her. Fortunately, this was right at the entrance of her home. She hurried inside and brought out her favorite hair tie, “Zhaozhao, this is for you. Keep it as a memento ba.”
Many people secretly thought that this girl from the Lin family was truly clever, while at the same time, they all began looking for things they could give her.
Sharpening the spear right before battle may not make it sharp ah[1]临阵磨枪 (lín zhèn mó qiāng) – literally “sharpen the spear upon reaching the battlefield.” It means making a last-minute effort when it is almost too late. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3335973_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3335973_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, but it is still better than doing nothing, right?
Those who had things on them hurriedly took them out, while those who had brought nothing quickly ran home to get something.
Someone even directly took out copper coins and, without another word, tried to stuff them into her hands. Zhaozhao, however, waved her hands, “No need. We don’t use copper coins where we come from.”
They can’t even use money. As expected, it really isn’t the world of ordinary people.
Originally, the system felt that everything that needed to be said had already been said. It was already light out, and they should leave too.
But when it saw the hair tie Lin Lan had given her, it suddenly thought of the things Madam Zheng had taken from Zhaozhao. The other things could be left aside, but the jade pendant Zhaozhao’s aunt had given her should at least be taken back.
Thus, Zhaozhao said to the Hu Laifu couple, “The things you took from me back then should also be returned. The blessings that do not belong to you are something you cannot bear.”
The Hu couple did not move at all. Zhaozhao looked toward the village chief, “I’ll trouble Village Chief Uncle to make a trip for me. The things are in the box beside the head of the bed in Hu Laifu’s room, pressed underneath everything else.”
The village chief agreed without another word. He called his two sons over and ran toward the Hu family’s house.
The Hu couple wanted to say something, but at this moment, the villagers were all glaring angrily at them. Let alone going home, their legs were already going weak.
Before long, the village chief returned, holding a small box in his hand.
When the box was opened, it indeed contained that jade pendant and the silver anklet. There were also three rings. Since there had been the most of these, Madam Zheng had pawned two of them, exchanging them for more than twenty liang[2]两 (liǎng) – a traditional Chinese unit of weight and currency. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3335973_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3335973_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); of silver.
The couple were very loose with their spending. Over the past two years, they had repaired the house and improved Hu Baodun’s meals, so they had spent almost all of the silver.
Zhaozhao put away the jade pendant, gave the silver anklet to Lin Lan, and gave the remaining rings to Grandfather Zhou. “Take these rings to the pawnshop and pawn them. Divide the silver you get among Aunt Yu and the others.”
Actually, the families of these few people who had helped Zhaozhao were all poor and did not have much money. So the fact that they were still willing to extend a helping hand to Zhaozhao was already extremely rare.
Everything that needed to be said had been said, and everything that needed to be divided had also been divided.
The system said to Zhaozhao, 【We should go.】
Zhaozhao suddenly felt a little reluctant to leave. She was reluctant to part with these people who had once treated her well, and at the same time, she also felt lost about the unknown future.
Her nose felt a little sore. Zhaozhao sniffed, her eyes slightly red as she looked at everyone, “I’m leaving. Goodbye.”
As her voice fell, the golden light became even brighter than before, and it even began flashing and flashing.
Everyone’s eyes were practically going blind from the flashes. They hurriedly closed their eyes, not daring to look directly at it.
Immediately afterward, magnificent music came from the Sky Screen. Everyone felt as though their souls had been cleansed, and the sensation was extremely shocking.
After a while, the music stopped, and the golden light disappeared.
They looked toward Zhaozhao. The latter had both hands raised. The villagers were astonished. Why was she still here?
As soon as that thought arose, with a ‘whoosh’, Zhaozhao simply disappeared into thin air right before everyone’s eyes.
Really! Just like that! She disappeared into thin air!!!
If they had still been somewhat doubtful and astonished by the things Zhaozhao had said just moments ago, now they completely believed her!
They could no longer remain standing, and with a ‘swish’, they all knelt down.
Seeing this scene, the system was satisfied. Its mood was very beautiful.
Seeing the morning sun rise and the sky become fully bright, it also prepared to withdraw after accomplishing its mission and put away the Sky Screen.
However…
Huh? What was going on?
It tried to put it away again… continued trying to put it away… tried its hardest to put it away…
Holy crap, crap, crap! It went too big!![3]开大了 (kāi dà le) – literally “went too big.” Here, it means to go overboard or make something much bigger than intended. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3335973_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3335973_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
The Sky Screen could not be put away. Not only could it not be put away, but damn it, the Sky Screen that had originally only appeared in Shangliu Village could now be seen not only by the villagers of Shangliu Village, but also by the people in the county seat. The people in the prefectural city could see it too. Even, damn it, the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital could see it. Throughout the entire Great Qi Dynasty, as long as people raised their heads, they could see the miraculous Sky Screen above their heads.
Even worse, the energy inside it was rapidly draining away, and it could not shut it off at all.
No, it had not yet explained everything clearly to Zhaozhao. Seeing that its energy was about to be exhausted once again, the system could not even cry.
The system tried again and confirmed that it really could not do it. The Sky Screen could not be shut off. Risking having its CPU burned out, it hurriedly patched up the loophole.
Just after it finished patching it, with a ‘click’, the charity system, which had been turned on for less than a day, shut down once again.
For its next startup, it could only wait until Zhaozhao accumulated enough energy again.
Thus, after sunrise that day, the moment the people throughout the various places of the Great Qi Dynasty stepped out of their homes, they were all left speechless from the shock of the Sky Screen.
There were those who were afraid, those who were awestruck, those who fell into deep thought, and even more who knelt on the ground.
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