“Dad, is Mother really going to sell me for food?”
“No! If that woman wants to sell someone, let her sell me! Dad, I beg you, you absolutely cannot let her sell my sister!”
The sound of children arguing fiercely came from outside the dilapidated window. The woman they spoke of was currently lying as still as a corpse, before irritably rolling over.
Lin Yuming kept her eyes tightly shut, doing her best to ignore the noise outside. She never would have imagined that she, too, would one day experience transmigration.
Beneath her was a k’ang bed made of earthen bricks, covered with a tattered cloth packed with straw and patches. Above her were precarious roof beams, with the occasional squeak of a mouse echoing from a corner. Worse yet, a greasy, foul stench emanated from her own body!
She was the heiress of the Lin family and the CEO of the Lin Group. How could she possibly endure this!
Moreover, she had somehow become the mother of two children!
It was madness, absolute madness! In her previous life, she hadn’t even touched a man’s finger!
Lin Yuming sighed in a state of collapse, but what could she do? At this point, she could only accept her current reality.
The original owner of this body was named Lin Yu’er. Born into the Lin family of Luming Village, she was the youngest daughter. Because her parents were weak-willed, she had suffered endless bullying since childhood. In the Lin household, she never had enough to eat or wear, and she had to perform hard labor every day, living a life worse than a dog’s.
Six years ago, Lin Yu’er had set her sights on the village’s only scholar, Zhou Huaisheng. However, the daughter of the Lin family’s first branch also took a fancy to him.
As a result, Lin Yu’er was set up by the first branch and ended up sleeping with Tieniu, a supposed orphan living at the foot of the mountain!
Her dream of becoming a scholar’s wife was shattered, and Lin Yu’er became bitter and malicious. To make matters worse, Tieniu lived up to his name—as unrefined and dull as an ox! After having two children, the two of them hardly ever spoke!
Lin Yu’er followed the old ways of the Lin family, not only abusing her two children but now, as a locust plague descended and left the land barren, she even wanted to sell her little daughter to a brothel in exchange for food!
Lin Yuming covered her face. She truly did not want to take over this mess!
She was supposed to be on her newly acquired freighter, heading to Loria Harbor to finalize a new contract worth tens of billions that she had just signed! But now, everything was ruined!
Just then, she suddenly felt a blinding light before her eyes. When she opened them again, what greeted her was a towering cargo ship!
Lin Yuming’s eyes widened. This… wasn’t this her own freighter, fully loaded with goods?
She hurried toward the cabins, but for some reason, all the rooms were tightly sealed. The only place Lin Yuming could enter was the massive warehouse filled with food!
The Lin Group had intended to open a supermarket in Loria Harbor, so everything one could need was here!
At that moment, a “ding” echoed in Lin Yuming’s mind.
“Welcome Host to the binding of the Gourmet System!”
“Who’s speaking?”
Lin Yuming frowned and looked around, but the voice that answered her resonated directly within her mind.
“Host, I am the Gourmet System administrator, Number Sixty-Eight! You are truly lucky! To think you could encounter a system administrator as handsome and talented as me within a Space-Time Rift! As long as you complete the system tasks well, you will receive extremely generous rewards!”
The voice sounded incredibly annoying.
“Space-Time Rift? You mean my freighter was sucked in along with me, and that’s why we’re bound together? Can I go back? If I want to unbind, what are the conditions?”
Lin Yuming spoke clearly and deliberately. In just a few dozen seconds, she had rapidly organized her questions!
“What! Host! You are the first person to ever request to unbind from me!” Number Sixty-Eight asked in great shock. “Actually, completing the tasks isn’t hard. As long as you complete tasks to earn points, you can get whatever you want, Host!”
“You mean by completing tasks and leveling up, I can open the Space-Time Rift?”
“Yes.”
Number Sixty-Eight answered decisively.
Lin Yuming narrowed her eyes, highly skeptical of the administrator’s words.
“Host, you can start by using one thousand gold coins. This is your Newcomer’s Gift Pack. Gold coins can be exchanged for silver!” Number Sixty-Eight’s voice carried a hint of cautious testing and flattery. “Host, I have no reason to harm you. We systems need to meet our performance quotas too!”
As he spoke, a spreadsheet appeared before the warehouse, showing the quantities of all the food items.
She looked closely, especially at the exchange rate for the gold coins. One gold coin could purchase ten catties of candy, twenty cakes, and so on. Furthermore, one tael of silver could be exchanged for ten gold coins!
If Lin Yuming remembered correctly from Lin Yu’er’s memories, only wealthy families in this era could afford scented soap! A small piece cost an entire tael of silver!
Instantly, her eyes lit up!
This was the rhythm of someone about to strike it rich!
Before Lin Yuming could take a better look, the commotion that had quieted down after the man left suddenly flared up again, as if someone had arrived.
“You’re not allowed in!”
“What are you shouting for, you little brat! Your mother already took my money!”
Hearing that shrill middle-aged woman’s voice, Lin Yuming immediately withdrew from the system and flipped herself up from the bed with a “carp leap” movement!
Oh no, the original host had already called for the middlewoman today!
Lin Yuming shoved her feet into her shoes and, without waiting to put them on properly, rushed outside.
Two filthy children were holding two tree branches, blocking a woman dressed in a floral padded jacket.
The moment the older boy saw Lin Yuming, he shielded his sister behind him, his dark eyes filled with pure hatred!
“If you want to sell someone, sell me! Xiaoya is only four! she won’t survive!”
The little girl behind him wept silently, her thin, bony fingers deathly tight on her brother’s hem.
Lin Yuming’s eyes darkened, and her heart felt as if it had been slashed by a blade. In the eyes of these two children, there wasn’t a trace of the attachment a child should have for their mother at this age!
All that remained was a gaze full of resentment!
Seeing Lin Yuming come out the door, the woman immediately spoke up. “Hurry up and pull this little brat away. If we don’t leave now, it’ll be dark soon.”
As she spoke, the woman reached out, intending to pull Xiaoya out from behind Dabao.
Lin Yuming stepped forward, blocking the two children, and said, “Sister-in-law Zhang, I’m not selling Xiaoya anymore.”
“What?!”
Zhang Cui was stunned, then pointed at Lin Yuming’s nose in a rage and began to curse. “Lin Yu’er! You muddle-headed fool! You were the one who told me you wanted to sell the girl to pay off your debts! I ran over ten miles to the city to negotiate a price, and now you’ve taken the money and say you’re not selling?!”
Lin Yuming’s head throbbed from the noise. This Zhang Cui was no good either; Lin Yu’er’s attempt to sell her daughter wouldn’t have happened without her instigation.
“Sister-in-law Zhang, when I went to see you, it was to borrow money. You were the one who coaxed me, saying the girl at home was just another mouth to feed. My head was in a fog when I agreed. I came back and thought about it all night; Xiaoya is flesh and blood that came from my own womb, I really can’t bear it. How about this: I’ll return the money to you tomorrow, with interest.”
Hearing this, Zhang Cui was even more livid. Without a word, she shoved Lin Yuming aside.
“I walked all that way, and you say you’re not selling? I don’t care! You took the money, so the girl is coming with me!”