The heavy footsteps of her simple-minded Second Brother came from the courtyard. Thump, thump, thump. He ran into the kitchen and dropped a pile of firewood on the ground with a clatter.
“Leng Yi, sweep the courtyard and saw the firewood you brought back today.”
The thump, thump, thump of footsteps sounded again.
A moment later, the sound of sawing wood came from the courtyard!
Her simple-minded Second Brother was actually a good worker. If she could recover, he would be an extra pair of hands when she went out scavenging for food.
Soon, the faint smell of burning firewood drifted from the kitchen!
It was getting dark. The temperature difference between day and night here was extreme. Mother Leng was lighting the kang bed-stove; otherwise, the family would freeze to death in the middle of the night, if they didn’t starve first!
Before long, Leng Xuan seemed to smell a faint aroma of rice. She saw Mother Leng return with a small basin.
The rice fragrance grew stronger, and her stomach began to rumble shamelessly.
Mother Leng smiled at her eldest daughter and said gently, “Our little Xuan must be hungry. Here, have a mouthful of rice water.”
Leng Xuan kept her mouth shut tight. She knew this must be the twin babies’ rations. Her mother had sold her younger siblings’ milk powder to pay for her treatment, so how could she possibly take the two little ones’ life-saving food!
Seeing her refuse to open her mouth, Mother Leng said to herself, “Why won’t Xuan eat? Does she think this rice water is too thin? Tomorrow, Mom will take your Second Brother out to earn money for food. Come on, have a bite.”
Leng Xuan still kept her mouth firmly shut.
Only then did Mother Leng helplessly take the bowl, pick up a can of milk powder, and scrape at the inside with a spoon. The metal made a piercing sound. After scraping for a long time, she barely managed to get a spoonful of milk powder.
She treasured it, adding half a spoonful to the rice water and pouring the other half back into the can!
After mixing it well, she began to feed the two babies.
A wave of sorrow washed over Leng Xuan.
She couldn’t help but wonder, if she could stand up, could she, with the help of the system, secure a chance of survival for this family?
Leng Xuan made a secret decision in her heart. Just for Mother Leng’s spirit of never giving up, if the potion bought with that milk powder could truly help her stand up, she would settle down and do her best.
She would strive to live in this world, for herself and for this family!
She began to carefully ponder the information in her mind: killing Mutant Beasts could be exchanged for Points, and popularizing farming or medical knowledge could also be exchanged for Points.
The latter two were not things she could accomplish on her own. For now, the most reliable way to earn Points was to kill Mutant Beasts.
I wonder if the ants and cockroaches in this world have mutated. I really can’t handle the big ones!
Points could not only be exchanged for Purification Potions but also for Luck Value. With Luck Value, would her chances of finding food be higher than others?
After drinking the rice water mixed with a small amount of milk powder, the two babies fell into a well-behaved sleep. Leng Xuan felt the temperature begin to drop gradually. Just when she thought that Old Woman Chen wouldn’t be coming tonight, she heard voices outside the door.
“Leng Yi, it’s so late. Why are you still out here chopping firewood? Hurry inside, so you don’t catch a cold later!”
Her simple-minded Second Brother replied with a “Heh heh.”
It wasn’t until Mother Leng spoke up, calling for Leng Yi to come in and pour some water for their auntie, that her Second Brother was willing to enter the house.
The visitor was indeed Old Woman Chen. As soon as she entered the room, her face was wreathed in smiles. She mysteriously took out a small cloth bundle from her bosom and unwrapped it layer by layer. Leng Xuan finally saw the potion inside.
Unlike the full vial Qi Xu had during the day, the potion Old Woman Chen brought had clearly been divided and repackaged into small capsules.
“Yue’e, this is rare stuff. One thousand yuan a pill. You gave me 19 cans of milk powder. I buy back milk powder at 400 yuan a can, but seeing as we go way back, I’ll give you 450 a can. That’s 8,550 in total. By rights, that should only get you 8 pills, but I swallowed my pride and managed to get 9 pills for you from my supplier. I didn’t make a single cent off you on this deal.”
Mother Leng held the potion as if it were a precious treasure, thanking Old Woman Chen profusely!
After seeing Old Woman Chen off, Mother Leng divided the capsules into two portions and fed them to the father and daughter.
As the first capsule went down, a progress bar suddenly appeared on the light screen in Leng Xuan’s mind.
The progress bar was divided into five segments, and her purification value progress hadn’t even reached the first segment, which meant her purification value was less than 20%.
Just as that short, stout man had said, her body’s pollution value exceeded 80%.
After four capsules, Leng Xuan’s purification value rose to 19.9%, just 0.1% short of reaching 20%.
Since the system marked 20% as a milestone, perhaps she could stand up once her purification value reached that point.
There was one last pill left. Mother Leng held the final capsule, hesitating, unsure who to give it to.
Putting herself in her shoes, anyone would choose to give this pill to Father Leng. After all, based on Leng Xuan’s observation, although Father Leng also had intellectual disabilities, he definitely understood more than the original host. He could also bear more family responsibilities.
Leng Xuan turned to look at Father Leng and saw his eyes darting around, constantly signaling to Mother Leng with his gaze to give the last pill to Leng Xuan.
With Father Leng’s gesture, Mother Leng no longer hesitated and directly put the last pill into her daughter’s mouth.
Another wave of emotion surged through Leng Xuan. What had she done to deserve such favoritism from the original host’s parents!
However, she didn’t refuse. She obediently took the pill, not because she was afraid of death, but because she knew deep down that with the system, she had a much greater chance of contributing more to this family than Father Leng.
Besides, once she earned Points, she could exchange them for Purification Potions, and then Father Leng could stand up too.
If Father Leng took this pill, even if he could stand, trying to earn money to buy more potions would be harder than climbing to the heavens.
She was a rational adult who always approached things from the most advantageous angle.
Sure enough, after she took the potion, a notification sound came from the system.
Ding! Congratulations, host. Your purification value has exceeded 20%. Your current physical condition is——extremely weak, but you can walk with difficulty. Please be careful to avoid periods of high heat and extreme cold when going out!
She wiggled her fingers. They could really move!
Leng Xuan turned her head to look at Father Leng, who was already asleep.
She secretly vowed in her heart, “Father Leng, tomorrow I will definitely find a way to earn some Points and return the potion I took from you.”
She looked again at the two kitten-like babies and continued her vow, “Little ones, your big sister will definitely get your milk powder back as soon as possible!”
And then there was Qi Xu. Her family still owed Qi Xu a Purification Potion!
She had just transmigrated and was already saddled with a mountain of debt.
But since she had decided to accept her fate, none of this was a problem in Leng Xuan’s eyes.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. What she was best at was achieving magnificent transformations, one after another, through relentless, incremental effort.
It was so in her past life, and this life would surely be no different.
After sleeping a whole night on the warm kang, Leng Xuan felt completely revived. She propped herself up and sat up, creating a gap in the quilt.
A small, cold draft snuck into the bedding, making her shiver!
Last night, after she had fallen asleep, Mother Leng had taken off all her dirty clothes and had apparently even given her a wipe-down. Right now, she was wearing a set of worn but clean linen clothes.
Her hands had also been washed clean.
She looked up and saw that all the family’s dirty clothes had been washed and were spread out on the large kang opposite her, already dry.
Leng Xuan, wrapped in her quilt, ran over and hurriedly put on all the clothes!
This Mother Leng was truly too diligent. On such a cold night, when the whole family was asleep, she had braved the severe cold, dragging her disabled body, to wash everyone’s dirty clothes!
At that moment, the sound of her Second Brother chopping wood came from the courtyard, and the crackling of burning firewood came from the stove in the next room.
Seeing her daughter walk out, Mother Leng said in pleasant surprise, “Xuan, you’re up!”
Leng Xuan nodded. “I’m going to the toilet!”
Mother Leng froze on the spot.
Why did she feel like her eldest daughter… was no longer simple-minded?