“Quick! Give me your hand!”
Xia Xianxian, who had been looking guilty just a moment ago, stood up with a start. Tugging at Meng Wenzhou’s sleeve, she reached for his hand.
The shift happened too quickly. Before Meng Wenzhou could even react, a soft, white, and adorable little hand forced its way in, continuously nudging between his fingers in an attempt to interlock them.
Meng Wenzhou had never experienced this kind of situation before. Just as his face began to flush, a sizzling electronic voice abruptly shattered his daydreams.
[The Feather-for-Candy Barter System has been bound!]
[Would the primary host like to switch users?]
“Switch! Switch to Meng Wenzhou immediately!” Xia Xianxian quickly shouted at Meng Wenzhou from the side.
Well, what else was there to not understand now? Meng Wenzhou let out a soft sigh to himself. He had gotten excited for nothing; what a heartless girl.
Immediately following that, he began to interrogate the system.
“How exactly did you bind yourself to us? I won’t mention myself for now—consider me duped by this girl. But with her personality, how could she just randomly agree to a system of unknown origins? You bound yourself to her secretly, didn’t you! You didn’t go through proper procedures, right? Where is the report button? I want to report you!”
[……]
What was with this couple? One after another, the first thing they did upon opening their mouths was try to report it. This one was even harsher, demanding to file a report the very instant he was bound!
Xia Xianxian quickly chimed in to support him: “Exactly! You didn’t even ask, you just bound yourself to us secretly.”
[The system is a product of an alternate world and can only bind with individuals possessing unique energy. Having detected the energy fluctuations on the hosts, the system decided to choose you.]
“He didn’t tell you the whole story. He was supposed to bind to you, but somehow ended up stuck to me instead,” Xia Xianxian added, before letting out two fake “boo-hoo” sobs and continuing, “It even wanted to obliterate me this morning! Meng-meng, if its energy points hadn’t been insufficient, you wouldn’t even be seeing me today!”
Meng Wenzhou’s face had completely darkened. He stood there with his arms crossed, entirely expressionless.
His face was so dark that even Xia Xianxian felt a bit intimidated looking at him!
[Abnormal emotional fluctuations detected from the host. Activating the pacification protocol!]
Meng Wenzhou tilted his head to look at Xia Xianxian. “Did it offer you a pacification protocol before? Or did it give you any compensation?”
Xia Xianxian was almost popping with anger at this dog of a system. So it really does treat people differently based on who they are!
“NO!!!”
Meng Wenzhou pulled the corners of his mouth into an expressionless smirk. “Good. Very good.”
His tone was so freezing that it made one’s heart run cold.
A sharp burst of current static rang out, and the system’s tone softened significantly.
[Upon evaluation, the system is activating the compensation protocol!]
[The Lucky Wheel lottery mode has been unlocked. One draw is allowed per day!]
Before Meng Wenzhou could even speak, Xia Xianxian spoke up indignantly, “You’re only giving one draw for the two of us?”
[Host’s emotions detected to be too intense… sizzling… Activating additional compensation!]
[Based on the era the hosts are currently in, the additional compensation is as follows:]
[1. Ten catties of national food coupons.]
[2. 200 yuan in cash.]
“That’s it?”
Hearing that the couple was still unsatisfied, the system was completely out of options. This was the absolute limit of its authority; there was no more to give.
[Yes.]
Xia Xianxian actually felt she could detect a hint of resigned grievance in that electronic voice.
She exchanged a glance with Meng Wenzhou before opening her mouth to say, “Hmph! Consider yourself lucky to have run into someone as beautiful, generous, and easygoing as me.”
……
Early the next morning, Xia Xianxian was rummaging through things at home.
“What are you doing?”
Laid out on the table were the return-visit gifts Wang Cuihua had prepared yesterday, along with the half-catty of brown sugar and half-catty of White Rabbit milk candies traded from the system using the chicken feathers.
“I’m looking to see if there’s anything we can swap out. This air-dried rabbit meat looks really savory, so I want to swap it out with something else.”
The return-visit gifts only amounted to a single rabbit and half a catty of brown sugar in total. There weren’t necessarily any suitable items at home to replace them.
Seeing Xia Xianxian’s conflicted look, Meng Wenzhou directly called out to the system, “System, is there anything else at home we can trade? Can we trade directly with you for some cold rabbit meat?”
The system really wanted to swear, but it didn’t dare to.
To tell the truth, if given another chance, it would absolutely never choose this couple again. Shrewd, pampered, and complete busybodies. It was a good thing it didn’t have a physical form; otherwise, with how much they exploited it, it would surely end up transformed into a housekeeping robot.
[You can complete missions to receive the recipe and relevant ingredients for Spicy Cold Rabbit.]
Hearing the system’s words, Xia Xianxian stopped stressing. She instantly became generous, directly putting the brown sugar received yesterday together with the return-visit gifts.
“Wait, let’s leave the brown sugar for now. If we ever need to give someone a gift in the future, having brown sugar on hand is quite appropriate.”
Meng Wenzhou’s words made a lot of sense. When Xia Xianxian left, she simply stuffed a handful of milk candies into her pocket.
They still took the same road they had used for the wedding procession toward Shuize Village. This was the main road; though it was a bit longer, it didn’t have the twists and turns of the smaller paths, meaning there was no turning back. Returning to the bride’s family home via a single main road symbolized a smooth and harmonious marriage for the newlyweds.
At the village entrance, two grandmothers were gathered together chatting. Hearing the sound of a bicycle traveling down the road, they looked up to see Xia Xianxian and Meng Wenzhou, who had been married for three days.
“Oh, Xianxian brought her husband back!”
“Look at this young couple, they really make a well-matched pair.”
Since the very first day she transmigrated, Xia Xianxian hadn’t spent much time in Shuize Village, so how could she possibly recall all the grandmothers and aunties? She could only pretend to be shy, clutching the edge of Meng Wenzhou’s shirt tightly while lowering her head and smiling.
In the end, it was the eldest sister-in-law, Wu Hong, who spoke up to rescue them.
Wu Hong was walking toward the village carrying a basket filled with shepherd’s purse on her back. From a great distance away, she spotted the young couple riding the bicycle.
“Eldest Sister-in-law, let me take the basket for you. With so much shepherd’s purse, you must have been harvesting for a long time.”
After Meng Wenzhou finished speaking, he said to Xia Xianxian, “You and Eldest Sister-in-law ride the bike back first, I’ll walk.”
“Brother-in-law, you’re being too polite. How could we do that? I can just head back myself.”
Meng Wenzhou wasn’t just being polite; he was strictly afraid that Xia Xianxian wouldn’t be able to match faces with the locals. It was better for her to just ride back with the eldest sister-in-law. As for him, he was the new son-in-law in this village, so it was perfectly normal for him not to recognize anyone.
Seeing that the eldest sister-in-law was unwilling, Meng Wenzhou had no choice but to suggest they return together. “Eldest Sister-in-law, then let’s all head back together. It’s a good chance for me to follow you and learn about Xianxian’s past. She’s rather shy; she gets too embarrassed to even greet familiar faces when entering the village.”
Wu Hong couldn’t help but cover her mouth and laugh upon hearing this. This son-in-law was a good catch who really knew how to cherish his wife.
Wu Hong had only been married for half a year and hadn’t had much contact with Xia Xianxian, her sister-in-law. She didn’t notice at all that the person in front of her had been replaced with a completely different soul.
The eldest sister-in-law of the Xia family was a decent person at heart, though her tongue was a bit loose in daily life, fond of gossiping about various households.
Xia Xianxian was quite clever at this moment, chiming in from time to time and even pulling candies from her pocket to give to Wu Hong.
Having received candy and having someone act as her eager audience, Wu Hong spoke with increasing enthusiasm, managing to catch the two of them up on all the village gossip along the way.
Just as they neared the Xia family courtyard, the system issued a mission.
“Ding!”
[Homecoming Special Mission!]
[1. An enamel basin with a misprinted character.]
[2. A faded pillow towel.]
[3. Expiring brown sugar.]
[Complete the above 3 missions to obtain the ‘Spicy Cold Rabbit’ combo gift pack! (Location restriction: The Xia Residence)]
Heh, this system had actually learned to be clever, knowing how to restrict the items and the location range now.