Punishment
The school’s investigation was swift, and it soon found out that Chen Yu was behind everything.
At first, Chen Yu tried to deny it. But when the school presented the results of its investigation, with both physical and eyewitness evidence, her heart sank to the bottom. She stopped arguing and calmly admitted what had happened and why she had done it. From her tone, it seemed that she did not believe she had done anything wrong.
Later, perhaps because the school had pressured her, Chen Yu clarified everything over the school-wide broadcast after Monday’s flag-raising ceremony. She admitted that everything she had said was nothing but rumors and lies, said that she knew she had been wrong, and promised never to do such a thing again. She also publicly apologized to Jiang Wan and wrote her a handwritten letter, which a teacher delivered to Jiang Wan.
Later on, the school decided to expel Chen Yu.
Her parents came to make a scene. They caused quite a commotion, shouting loudly, questioning the teachers, and being extremely aggressive, like the kind of shrewish women one might see in the streets.
In the end, the principal stepped in and explained to Chen Yu’s parents what their daughter had done. Only then was the matter settled. Realizing they were in the wrong, they never came back again.
After that incident, Jiang Wan never heard anything about Chen Yu again.
As her thoughts returned to the present, Jiang Wan had also decided what she needed to do next. The most urgent thing now was to stay alive.
……
She wandered around the village and unconsciously found herself standing outside Doctor Li’s house.
Jiang Wan looked up. There were no elaborate decorations on the gate, only a few small bundles of dried herbs hanging from it, seemingly meant to ward off insects.
The gate was somewhat dilapidated, and the couplet pasted on it had faded, with only a little red remaining.
Just then, the gate suddenly opened, and Doctor Li’s wife, Chen Tian, poked her head out.
“Oh? Are you all right, girl?” Chen Tian asked worriedly.
At those words, the tips of Jiang Wan’s ears turned slightly red. The next moment, the corners of her lips lifted gently, her eyes curving into a soft arc with a faint warmth in them.
“Thank you for worrying about me, Grandma. I’m fine. Really.”
A faint smile lingered on Chen Tian’s lips. Her gaze was gentle and warm as it slowly settled on Jiang Wan, filled with affection and tolerance.
“That’s good. I had just gone to deliver some mended clothes to someone. I heard people saying that you were the woman those men in black were looking for and that they had surrounded you. I was worried something might have happened to you, that they might have made things difficult for you.”
Jiang Wan explained, “After I explained everything to everyone, they didn’t make things difficult for me. They all went back home to take care of their own business.”
Chen Tian seemed to remember something.
“Why don’t you come inside first, girl? It isn’t good to keep standing at the door talking like this.”
Jiang Wan thought about it but still refused.
“Thank you, Grandma, but I won’t go in. Do you know of anywhere around here where I could do some work in exchange for food?”
Chen Tian immediately understood what she meant and hurriedly said, “There are many people in the village who can’t read. Very few of them are literate. You could try asking around.”
At that, Jiang Wan’s eyes curved slightly. An idea had already formed in her mind, and she nodded.
“Thank you, Grandma. I’ll be going.”
Chen Tian remained standing at the doorway, holding onto the doorframe as she watched Jiang Wan walk away, feeling even more sympathy for the girl.
The evening afterglow fell over Jiang Wan, making her already slender figure appear even more lonely.
With dinner approaching, smoke curled from the chimneys of every household in the village, and the delicious aroma of food drifted through the air, making Jiang Wan’s stomach ache with hunger.
She swallowed and called out to the system in her mind.
“Black-hearted merchant, navigate me to that hiding place in the crevice where I hid from the men in black before.”
The Mirror System made no unnecessary sound. Its voice remained cold and low, without the slightest ripple of emotion.
“Understood, Host. Deducting 0.001 years from the Host’s lifespan. Please follow the system’s instructions throughout the journey.”
A faint sense of speechlessness flashed through Jiang Wan’s heart, but her expression remained calm and composed, revealing nothing.
“System, I have to pay a price even for navigation?”
“You really are incredibly calculating.”
The Mirror System was filled with confusion. It did not understand or agree with what its host had said. It had already told her before that requesting assistance from the system required an equivalent exchange.
“The system is not calculating.”
Jiang Wan did not want to argue with it.
“Oh, oh, okay, I understand. Let’s go, let’s go. If we don’t leave now, we won’t be able to see the road.”
The Mirror System stopped arguing and began guiding its host along the route.
“Please turn right at the second alley and proceed for three hundred meters, then continue straight…”
“Please continue straight for fifty meters, then turn right and then left…”
“Please continue straight through the alley ahead, then turn sixty degrees to the right and proceed straight…”
Jiang Wan was completely confused when she heard the instruction to turn sixty degrees to the right and continue straight.
After trying three times, she finally got the angle right, and the system immediately continued guiding her forward.
“……”
By the time they reached their destination, it was completely dark.
Only a full moon hung high in the sky, its silvery-white light gently spilling through the forest and casting dappled shadows across the ground.
The evening breeze swept through the trees, making them sway and bringing with it a peaceful, comfortable feeling. For some reason, Jiang Wan found herself enjoying it.
The system tactfully went offline, leaving her undisturbed.
For a moment, Jiang Wan suddenly felt incredibly small.
But she quickly dismissed the thought.
She pushed aside the stone covering the crevice.
Everything looked exactly the same as when she had left. Nothing was missing, and nothing had been added.
Just as she was about to crawl inside, Jiang Wan suddenly remembered something she had yet to do.
She had not taken the medicine Doctor Li had given her.
There was nowhere nearby where she could light a fire and boil the medicine, so she could only take the individual herbs from one of the prepared bundles.
She pulled out one packet and spread the herbs across the stone.
Jiang Wan counted them. There were nine different medicinal ingredients in total, though some made up only a small portion of the mixture.
She mentally arranged them in order.
Then she picked up the small white round pieces of medicine with her fingers and placed them all in her palm. Tilting her head back, she tossed the medicine into her mouth.
She covered her mouth and chewed and swallowed the bitter, pungent herbs, afraid that she might be unable to endure the taste and spit them out. She forced herself to swallow them.
She did the same with the other medicinal ingredients.
The farther she got, the longer it took to swallow the dry herbs. She would always have to pause for a moment before continuing, repeating the process over and over.
After swallowing everything and getting it all into her stomach, Jiang Wan’s mouth was unbearably dry. Saliva kept gathering in her mouth, making her feel slightly better.
Perhaps it was because of the medicine. Not long afterward, she began to feel sleepy.
She immediately crawled into the crevice, covered the surroundings again, and fell asleep.
……
The next morning, Jiang Wan’s biological clock woke her up right on time.
The first thing she felt was exhaustion throughout her entire body.
After resting for a few minutes, she moved aside the stone covered in green moss and stretched her body.
Jiang Wan took a few steps forward when her vision suddenly went black and her body swayed.
Her first thought was of the lifespan that had been deducted.
A wave of lingering fear surged through her.
Now she had a concrete understanding of the price she had to pay whenever she asked the system for help.
Fortunately, she had remembered the route on her way back yesterday.
Following that route, she asked the villagers living on both sides of the road whether they needed anyone to write or read letters, or copy books. All she needed in return was a little food.
After asking around, she found only two households that needed someone to read their letters.
Jiang Wan was fortunate that she had developed an interest in Traditional Chinese characters while she was in college and had seriously studied them. Otherwise, she would not have been able to handle this.
She continued asking around.
Along the way, Jiang Wan activated her mind-reading ability, making it quick and convenient to find people who needed help reading or writing letters.
But in the end, she did not find anyone else.
Jiang Wan was not discouraged. The food she had received from those two households was enough to get her through the day without going hungry.
Along the way, she noticed something strange: there were very few young, able-bodied men to be seen. She only learned why when she reached the center of the village.
Apparently, people came here regularly to recruit workers, and the monthly wages they offered were fairly decent. As a result, the young men of the village had all gone elsewhere to work.
Jiang Wan asked the system for the time. This time, she was especially cautious and asked first, “Does it cost lifespan to ask?”
Mirror System: “No, Host. The system isn’t that unscrupulous.”
“The current corresponding time in the real world is 10:50:32.”
Jiang Wan saw that it was still early. She happened to spot a tall, flourishing tree nearby and decided to go there to enjoy the shade and rest for a while.
After walking for about four or five minutes, Jiang Wan arrived and found a small secluded spot. She leaned against the tree and enjoyed the cool shade.
Two or three days passed in the blink of an eye. The aftereffects of having her lifespan deducted finally disappeared, and she also learned the name of the village.
Fengde Village.
That day, Jiang Wan happened to encounter someone who had come to Fengde Village to recruit workers.
She stopped in the distance, feeling that the man looked somewhat familiar. She thought he was Lin Yuan, but his face was different. Only his build looked somewhat similar.
She intended to turn around and go help the Li family, whom she had arranged with the previous day, write a letter. Yet for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to leave.
She could only activate her mind-reading ability to investigate.
The instant their eyes met, Jiang Wan saw the memory inside his mind.
It was Lin Yuan—the same Lin Yuan who had shouted, “She’s the woman the men in black are looking for!” before quickly fleeing toward the village entrance that day.
Her fists clenched.
She began planning how to capture him without alerting anyone.
Jiang Wan first kept her appointment and helped the villager write the letter, then handed it over to someone who could deliver it.
She deliberately went back to the place where she had been keeping an eye on the situation and took another look. Sure enough, Lin Yuan was still there.
He was dressed in gray clothes with a jade crown on his head, looking quite respectable. The fabric appeared to be of decent quality, giving him the appearance of a wealthy businessman whom people could easily trust.
The people waiting to be recruited formed a huge circle, with people packed tightly inside. There was no shortage of young, strong men, as well as elderly people with graying hair.
They all pushed forward eagerly, afraid that if they were even a second too late, they wouldn’t be selected.
Lin Yuan only recruited half of them, and he chose only young, able-bodied men. Not a single one of the elderly men with white hair was selected.
Then Lin Yuan said to them, “Have them pack up their things. Tomorrow, come here and I’ll take you to work.”
The young men trusted him completely. Without hesitation, they all hurried home to pack their belongings.
After Lin Yuan watched everyone leave, Jiang Wan quietly followed him.
She held a small wooden stick in her hand.
Lin Yuan hadn’t gone very far when he noticed that someone was following him. He immediately quickened his pace, trying to shake off the person behind him.
After several days of walking around the area, Jiang Wan had become familiar with the terrain. She deliberately pretended to have been shaken off, then circled around from another direction.
Taking advantage of the moment when Lin Yuan wasn’t paying attention, she suddenly struck his pressure point with the small wooden stick.
Lin Yuan cried out in pain and tried to fight back, but instead, his body went limp and he collapsed onto the ground.
Jiang Wan immediately questioned him about his purpose in recruiting these people.
“So your boss’s job for you is to deceive people? You’re working as a human trafficker?”
Lin Yuan immediately became furious.
“Don’t talk nonsense! I’m legitimately recruiting workers. They go to work and get paid monthly!”
Jiang Wan pressed the small wooden stick against his waist.
“Really? Doesn’t look like it.”
“Wait, wait! Let’s talk this out! I really am just recruiting workers. I only make a referral fee from the middle!”
“Then why haven’t some of those young men come back?”
Lin Yuan guiltily pressed his face against the ground.
“How would I know? I’m only responsible for making the introductions. I don’t know anything else.”
Jiang Wan activated her mind-reading ability and knew immediately that he was lying.
“Fine. Then why did you tell the villagers that the men in black were after me?”
She had originally wanted to ask why he had entered that manor and survived, but Jiang Wan knew that he was stubborn as hell, and she couldn’t read that part of his mind either.
Lin Yuan explained, “Who told you to keep chasing me? I had no choice but to resort to that.”
After getting her answer, Jiang Wan asked about something else.
“Is Sheng Zixu in that manor? You’d better tell me the truth.”
She pressed the small wooden stick harder against him, making the threat blatantly clear.
Lin Yuan’s whole body shuddered.
“You mean that man who was traveling with you?”
Jiang Wan neither confirmed nor denied it.
“Talk. Where is he being held?”
Lin Yuan begged for mercy.
“Granny, I really don’t know where they’re keeping him! I only happened to see him being brought inside. I don’t know where they took him afterward.”
“Please let me go… I’m begging you…”
Jiang Wan took advantage of the situation.
“Letting you go isn’t impossible. Take me inside the manor. Otherwise…”
The small wooden stick lightly bounced threateningly against his lower back, as though if he refused, she would cripple him.
Lin Yuan could only think one thing.
She was crazy.