Jiang Zhiyu had transmigrated into the game.
The torrential rain outside the window had already been falling for several days, pounding against the window frame with a constant patter. She leaned listlessly against the rain soaked wooden window, watching the fish swimming back and forth in the pond while counting on her fingers to figure out how many days it had been since she arrived in this world.
The wooden door creaked open, and a simply dressed woman walked in.
Jiang’s Mother came in carrying a bowl of medicine that had been boiled to a deep brown color. “Xiaoyu, drink your medicine while it’s still warm. Your cold will get better faster that way.”
When she saw that the window in Jiang Zhiyu’s room was still open, she hurriedly set down the bowl and went over to close it.
“Mother, I’m fine now. You don’t need to worry so much.” Seeing that there was no longer anything to look at outside, Jiang Zhiyu simply burrowed into her quilt, which conveniently shut out the annoying barking of the dog as well.
After closing the window, Jiang’s Mother turned around to pick up the bowl of medicine, but then helplessly opened a crack in the window.
“I’ll leave it open for a little while. Close the window after you finish your medicine.”
“Okay, Mother.”
Jiang Zhiyu’s eyes immediately lit up. Through the narrow opening in the wooden window, she caught sight of the little fish splashing about in the pond again, and her mood instantly brightened. She crawled out of the quilt and sat there obediently, looking as though she were patiently waiting to drink her medicine.
Jiang’s Mother smiled fondly and sat down beside her bed. Holding the bowl of medicine in one hand, she placed the other against her daughter’s forehead.
“Mm, your fever is finally gone. You really gave your father and me quite a scare.”
Jiang Zhiyu mischievously puffed out her cheeks and patted her chest to show how strong she was.
“Mother, I’m perfectly fine. Really. I could eat an entire cow right now.”
Jiang’s Mother smiled lovingly and lightly tapped her on the forehead.
“You little troublemaker. Drink your medicine properly so you don’t end up with lingering problems from this illness.”
As she spoke, her hand kept gently smoothing Jiang Zhiyu’s hair, her movements filled with affection and unmistakably maternal tenderness.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jiang Zhiyu took the bowl with both hands and gulped the medicine down in one go. Her pretty little face instantly scrunched up into a ball. She almost blurted out how bitter it was.
Wow, how could this medicine possibly be even more bitter than a hot Americano?
Fortunately, she kept those words to herself. Otherwise, Jiang’s Father and Jiang’s Mother would probably have thought the fever had burned her brain and asked the physician to add even more medicine.
Seeing that she had obediently finished the medicine, Jiang’s Mother was quite satisfied. She stepped forward to tuck the quilt around her daughter, closed the window, then picked up the empty medicine bowl and left the room.
Only after Jiang’s Mother gently closed the door behind her did Jiang Zhiyu finally begin to think seriously about her situation.
This was the seventh day since she had arrived in this world.
She had already been in this game world for that long.
【Prosperous Food Stall】 was the simulation management mobile game she had been eagerly anticipating for a long time. She did not have many other hobbies. She simply loved staying at home and playing games, and her computer and tablet were packed with all kinds of games, both big and small.
She had stayed up all night to grab a spot in the closed beta. After happily watching the words 【Installing】 appear on the game interface, she contentedly lay down on her bed, planning to take a short nap while looking forward to the game.
Jiang Zhiyu soon fell asleep, but in her dream, a vicious dog kept chasing her. When faced with its wide open jaws as it barked furiously at her, her first thought was that staying alive was the most important thing. She immediately grabbed the hem of her skirt and ran for her life.
By the time she was completely out of breath, she heard a passerby across the street shout, “Girl from the Jiang family, watch where you’re going!”
Before she could react, she suddenly felt the ground disappear beneath her feet. With a splash, she stepped into empty space and fell straight into the pond.
When she woke up and opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded by an ancient style interior that looked exactly like the setting shown in the game’s introduction. Before long, a line of scrolling text appeared before her eyes.
【System: Congratulations, user. You have entered a Prosperous Food Stall. Would you like to use ‘Jiang Zhiyu’ as your username and begin the game?】
As Jiang Zhiyu stared blankly at the line of text before her, her mind went completely empty.
She had transmigrated into this simulation management game.
Since she was already here, she might as well make the best of it.
Weak and exhausted, she reluctantly pressed “Yes” before collapsing back onto the bed.
At present, she felt dizzy and had a headache, a blocked nose, and aching limbs that seemed to have no strength. She had probably caught a bad cold after getting chilled.
Her identity in the game was that of the Jiang family’s only daughter. Her family’s financial circumstances were ordinary, but she was the precious treasure of Old Jiang and his wife.
The old Jiang couple made their living by running a Guo Duo shop in an alley at the edge of the capital city, right beneath the Imperial City. This time, in order to take care of Jiang Zhiyu, the couple had simply closed the shop for several days and devoted themselves entirely to looking after their daughter.
She thought about her family in the modern world. Her parents were constantly away working and could only call during holidays and festivals.
From childhood until now, the amount of time she had actually spent with them could be counted on one hand. Although she understood that her parents had their own careers to pursue, the reality was that they had always been absent from the journey of her life.
What she had always dreamed of and longed for was an ordinary, simple, warm family.
She had never expected that a wish she thought would never come true in this lifetime would actually be fulfilled inside a game.
As Jiang Zhiyu lay beneath the quilt, feeling emotional, another electronic sound accompanied by a line of text appeared.
【System Message: The user may only end the game after completing it.
Congratulations on completing the tutorial. Please enjoy your journey.】
Jiang Zhiyu turned over in bed and thought for a long time. Following the timeless Chinese principle of “Since I’m already here,” she decided that she might as well stay in this game for the time being and experience it properly.
After taking several doses of medicine, her cold really did disappear as quickly as it had come. Jiang Zhiyu was soon full of energy again.
Unfortunately, the weather was still against her. Although the torrential rain had passed, there was still no telling when the skies would truly clear.
After taking a walk home, she found that her parents were nowhere to be seen. She searched through the house from front to back but could not find either of them. Just as she was about to go to the kitchen to find something to eat, she noticed a piece of paper held down on the dining table in the main room.
“Xiaoyu, your father and I have gone to the shop to take a look. We’ll be back later. There are steamed buns and sweet potatoes in the kitchen pot, so make do with those for now. We’ll make you something delicious when we get back.”
So they went to the shop. No wonder she could not find them.
Jiang Zhiyu walked into the kitchen and picked up a warm sweet potato, preparing to break it open. Just as she was about to dig in, that familiar electronic voice sounded again.
【System Mission: Please proceed to Old Jiang’s Family Shop.】
There was even a red exclamation mark beside the mission.
Jiang Zhiyu’s heart jolted.
What? They were giving her a difficult mission right from the start? She had only just recovered from a serious illness and had not even had enough time to rest.
With a bite of honey sweet potato still in her mouth, Jiang Zhiyu put the remaining half back into the pot. The moment she stepped out of her family’s courtyard, she saw the sky in the distance covered with dark clouds.
The gray clouds were rapidly moving toward her. She turned back, picked up the oil paper umbrella from the corner of the courtyard wall, and only then left the house.
Following the system’s instructions, a dotted arrow immediately appeared beneath Jiang Zhiyu’s feet, stretching all the way into the distance.
Thank goodness this game had a guidance function.
She had not gone far when a tremendous crash suddenly sounded overhead, and the sky was already covered in thick, dark clouds.
Boom!
A thunderclap shook the heavens, illuminating the entire sky. The thunder struck her eardrums with such force that it felt as though someone had swung a hammer directly at her.
The torrential rain poured down like a breached flood, and the entire street resounded with the rushing sound of water. Rainwater mixed with mud and sand as it washed over the stone pavement. Water rose above her shoes and flowed rapidly downhill.
The people on the street scattered in an instant, rushing beneath the eaves of the shops lining the road to take shelter from the rain.
Jiang Zhiyu quickly hid beneath the eaves of a shop by the roadside, but even so, part of her clothes still became soaked by the rain.
【Please proceed to Old Jiang’s Family Shop.】
The system’s mechanical prompt repeated itself in her ears again and again. Jiang Zhiyu immediately understood that her parents might have encountered some troublesome situation, so she raised her umbrella and continued forward through the rain.
According to the game’s usual rules, extreme weather was bound to mean that something major was about to happen.
Before even a quarter of an hour had passed, she arrived at the legendary shop belonging to her family.
However, standing in front of the shop, Jiang Zhiyu experienced that same speechlessness for the second time.
The place was almost as run down as the deserted island construction game she had played before.
The Old Jiang Guo Duo Shop in front of her could only be described as dilapidated.
The old exterior walls had swollen from being soaked by the rain. Half of the roof had been blown away by some unknown gust of wind, while the windows creaked and groaned in the storm, making their final protests as though they were saying that they had already done everything they could to protect Old Jiang’s shop.
Jiang Zhiyu sighed and tried to calm herself down as quickly as possible so she could analyze the situation.
If the current problem with Old Jiang’s shop was simply that it needed to be renovated, then it was not a big deal. At least according to her years of experience playing simulation management games, it would be easy enough to solve. It would just take some time and silver.
She took a step forward, intending to enter the shop and take a closer look, when something suddenly crashed to the ground right in front of her feet.
The sign reading “Old Jiang Guo Duo Shop” had fallen right before her and split into two pieces.
At that exact moment, two crows flew overhead, letting out harsh, grating caws.
Jiang Zhiyu felt as though the system and the game itself were laughing at her. Annoyed beyond words, she casually picked up a broken piece of wooden board from the ground and threw it toward the crows that were perched on the roof nearby and still cawing.
The wooden board struck the branch they were sitting on but missed the crows. The broken board fell onto the small stone pavement beneath the tree with a faint thud.
The crows seemed to realize that Jiang Zhiyu was genuinely angry. After letting out two more cries, they flapped their wings and flew toward the rooftops in the distance.
The noise also startled the people inside the shop.
The old Jiang couple walked out, only to discover that it was their daughter standing outside. She was dressed in a single layer of clothing and had braved the rain with an oil paper umbrella. Most of one shoulder was already soaked, and her shoes were splattered with mud.
She seemed to have hurried over in a rush. A few strands of hair had already come loose, damp with rainwater and clinging to her temples.
“Father, Mother.”
Old Jiang looked at his daughter’s slender figure and felt a pang of heartache. His voice immediately became anxious, carrying a hint of reproach beneath his concern.
“Girl, why did you come out in such heavy rain? Didn’t I tell you to stay home and wait for us?”
Jiang’s Mother hurriedly pulled Jiang Zhiyu into the shop. She found a clean cloth and began wiping the rainwater from her hair and clothes.
Worried that her daughter might catch another cold, she quickly took off her own outer garment and draped it over Jiang Zhiyu’s shoulders.
When Old Jiang saw the trail of wet footprints Jiang Zhiyu had left behind as she entered, he noticed that half of her shoes were soaked through.
Without hesitation, he crouched down and began helping her sort them out.
People who had originally been complete strangers to her had become parents who shielded her from the wind and rain, caring for her with such tenderness.
Jiang Zhiyu felt warmth spread through her heart, and her eyes grew hot and moist.
She was both touched and heartbroken. The love that ordinary parents gave their children made her eyes sting, and her entire heart felt warmed by it.
She had just reached out to help her parents up when another voice suddenly came from inside the shop.
The voice was oily and grating, making Jiang Zhiyu extremely uncomfortable. She could not help but frown slightly.
“Oh, this must be the Jiang family’s girl, right?”