After receiving the notice from the Educated Youth Office, the Xu family was unwilling to let Xu Lin go to the countryside.
So on the very night the notice arrived, Father Xu broke one of her legs.
They claimed to the outside world that she had deliberately broken her own leg to evade the mandatory labor of going down to the countryside, ruining her reputation completely.
Fortunately, Xu Lin hadn't yet registered, so she couldn't be punished, and since she was now a cripple, even if she did go to the countryside, she wouldn't be able to do much work.
That was how she avoided being sent down.
The following year, Xu Nuan and Xu Kun turned sixteen, meeting the requirements for going to the countryside, but the Xu family arranged jobs for them in time.
Both escaped the fate of being sent down and thrived in the city.
But she had become a cripple, the laughingstock of everyone.
In her previous life, she had figured out why the Xu family had been so ruthless.
In this life, Xu Lin understood that the Xu family had struck so hard because they feared losing control over her—they wanted to imprison her.
This time, she wouldn't follow the same path as her past life. They wanted to break her leg? Hmph, then she'd break theirs first.
Xu Lin's eyes flickered with a ferocious spark, and the curve of her lips carried a hint of madness.
Xu Lin didn't consider herself a bad person, but she was definitely not a good one either.
She always lived by the rule: if you don't mess with me, I won't mess with you. But if you do mess with me—heh—I'll make you pay in kind.
She'd swallow anything except losses and humiliation.
Her creed was: revenge on the spot, and if not on the spot, then tenfold later!
Letting out a turbid breath, Xu Lin began sorting through the skills the System had left her.
First, both the Space Ability and Wood-element Ability she'd gained on the Apocalyptic Plane were still intact.
She had cultivated her Space Ability to level nine in the apocalypse and had comprehended many spatial skills,
such as Spatial Black Hole, Space Leap, Great Space Translocation, and so on. The sand and pebbles she'd thrown into the Xu family's mouths were done with Spatial Black Hole.
But now she was only at level one of her abilities, so she could only use Spatial Black Hole, and not from too far away—anything beyond ten meters was out of reach.
Many spatial skills required higher levels of Space Ability to be used.
Her Wood-element Ability was also level one. With it, combined with the medical skills she'd learned on the ancient plane, her healing effects were top-notch.
Besides her abilities and medical skills, the System had also left her the Metaphysical Skills she'd learned on a parallel plane where Metaphysics flourished.
In that life, she had cultivated her Metaphysical Skills to the ceiling of that plane—physiognomy, character reading, fortune-telling, feng shui arrangement, exorcism, and ghost-catching—she was proficient in all of them.
Aside from those, nothing else had been left to her.
She didn't know if she'd unlock other skills when encountering unexpected situations in the future—that would have to be verified later.
After washing up and changing into clean clothes, Xu Lin arrived at the large warehouse, which was stacked with the wealth the System had left her.
She needed to take stock of her assets to plan her next steps. But the moment she entered the warehouse, she was dumbfounded.
Where were her thousands of square meters of treasures piled to the brim? Where had they gone?
Clutching her bleeding heart, Xu Lin gritted her teeth, suppressing the urge to curse, and searched everywhere.
The shelves along the left wall of the warehouse were filled with ordinary medicinal herbs and various herb seeds.
Other than that, the shelves were empty—the gold, silver, jewelry, rare treasures, all kinds of alchemical pills, spirit medicines, and spirit treasures that had been stored there were all gone.
The sight made Xu Lin's heart ache. Those were her little moneys, her life-saving items. Alas, her fate was bitter.
Coming to this world, she'd have to work hard to earn her little moneys again.
On the right side of the warehouse, also against the wall, were neatly stacked woven plastic bags.
Xu Lin roughly counted—there were over forty bags.
She hurried over to check and breathed a sigh of relief.
The bags contained snow-white wheat flour and crystal-clear rice.
Besides that, there were soybeans, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and other common staples.
With these things, Xu Lin didn't have to worry about going hungry for a while.
Not long after, she discovered two dust-covered large crates in the northwest corner of the warehouse.
Seeing them, hope rose in her heart. Could they be filled with money and treasures?
She rushed over and opened them, and at the sight, Xu Lin beamed.
The crates contained two robots she had collected from a high-tech plane.
The first robot's manual indicated it was a farming robot.
Its chip was loaded with all kinds of knowledge related to farmland.
Whether it was growing grain, tending flowers and plants, or cultivating medicinal herbs, it was a master at all of it.
With this robot, Xu Lin could safely hand over those ten-plus acres of land to its care.
The second robot was a medical assistant. Its chip was loaded with skills for processing medicinal herbs, producing medicines, and assisting in surgeries.
With this robot, much of the work of processing herbs and mass-producing medicines could be delegated—Xu Lin could be the hands-off boss and let the robot do the work.
If an emergency arose requiring surgery or wound dressing, this robot could help too.
It couldn't be more practical.
But Xu Lin remembered she had collected over a dozen robots back then—why were only two left here?
Sigh, forget it. If she couldn't figure it out, she wouldn't dwell on it. Xu Lin cast the thought aside and quickly activated the robots.
No more talking—first, let the robot get to farming.
After the farming robot was activated, it was named Tian Tian, and from then on, it would deal with the fields.
The medical assistant robot was named Shenjun, kept to help her out.
Xu Lin believed that she would one day become an exceptionally skilled divine doctor,
making her name resound across all directions and shake the four seas in this world.
Of the ten mu of land, Xu Lin kept half for growing grain and half for medicinal herbs. If she ever came across fruit trees in the future, she could also transplant them into the Spatial Dimension.
In this way, she could achieve freedom of fruit and freedom of grain. As for freedom of medicinal herbs, that goal was too ambitious—
even with this ten-mu Spatial Dimension, planting it all with herbs still wouldn't reach the goal of herb freedom.
She'd better just plant the herbs she needed for herself.
Because this body was severely malnourished and overextended, Xu Lin decided to first refine Rongyang Pills to regulate her health.
Fortunately, the Counterattack System still had some conscience and left her medicinal herbs; otherwise, she would have had to expend considerable effort to nurse her body back to health.
Xu Lin input the formula she had written into Shenjun's panel, and Shenjun immediately recorded it and began working.
With the help of the robots, Xu Lin spent over two hours making a hundred Rongyang Pills.
This pill was developed by an old divine doctor from the ancient Planes and had remarkable effects on regulating the body, as well as the function of prolonging life.
In that Plane, it was a medicine in desperately short supply, and in this era of Longguo, it was an even more extinct divine remedy.
If word of it spread, people would surely break heads to get their hands on it.
Xu Lin took out a pill and popped it into her mouth. Soon, a warm current rose within her body, flowing toward her limbs.
Xu Lin knew this was the Rongyang Pill taking effect. Unwilling to waste the medicinal herbs, she immediately left the Spatial Dimension,
sat cross-legged on Xu Nuan's bed to regulate her breathing, striving to maximize the absorption of the Rongyang Pill's efficacy.
Early the next morning, Xu Lin woke to the sound of the Xu family banging and clattering in noisy commotion.
At this time in the past, Xu Lin would have already made breakfast and stood before the dining table being scolded.
The curses also reminded Xu Lin of her miserable days gone by, and anger immediately flared up.