A silent warmth spread through the air.
This didn’t feel half bad. Even though she was in an unfamiliar era, at least she was protected by a pair of parents who genuinely knew how to dote on and look out for her.
Jiang Tangtang looked at this “lazy-bones couple” and smiled, feeling quite satisfied with her new parents.
Once the eggs were done boiling, Jiang Jianguo carefully peeled off the shells and held one right up to Jiang Tangtang’s lips. “Here, eat it while it’s hot.”
Lin Wanting chimed in softly from the side, “Eat slowly, don’t choke.”
Taking small bites, she ate the warm egg, savoring the pure, rich aroma of an egg unique to this era.
Right at that moment, her mind suddenly went completely blank. Without any warning, a familiar, faintly glowing interface popped up in her head—it was [Douyin Speed Edition]! Right below it, there was even an entry icon for the [Douyin Shopping Mall]!
‘Is this…?! My golden finger?!’ Jiang Tangtang’s heart pounded wildly.
After eating the egg her dad had “borrowed” and drinking the warm water her mom fed her, Jiang Tangtang felt a lot more comfortable, and a bit of her strength returned. She leaned back against her mom’s chest, watching her dad deftly bury the eggshells deep into the ashes of the stove to completely destroy the evidence.
“What a pity, only two,” Jiang Jianguo smacked his lips, clearly unsatisfied. “If only I could get a few more to properly nourish my daughter.” Looking at Jiang Tangtang’s scrawny little frame, his brow furrowed again.
Lin Wanting gently patted her daughter’s back and said softly, “Take it slow, isn’t Tangtang doing a lot better now?” She paused, lowering her voice even further. “Next time… just be more careful. Don’t let Mom find out.”
“I know, I’ve got it under control.” Jiang Jianguo waved his hand dismissively, then leaned toward the bed with a grin, pinching Jiang Tangtang’s little nose. “Be a good girl, Tangtang. Once your dad finds another opportunity, I’ll get you more delicious food.”
Jiang Tangtang lifted her tiny face, her eyes—which looked abnormally large due to her emaciated state—blinking up at her dad. She nodded with a look of innocent ignorance. In her heart, however, she knew that relying on her dad to “borrow” things like this probably wasn’t a sustainable long-term plan. She had to figure something out—after all, she had a golden finger now! Did she really need to worry about going hungry??
She prepared to thoroughly investigate her cheat code.
Concentrating her thoughts, the familiar [Douyin Speed Edition] interface materialized in her mind once again!
Leaning against her mother’s chest, she closed her eyes to make it look like she was resting, while completely focusing her attention on the glowing screen in her mind.
In the center of the interface was a massive wheel with the words: [New User Check-in, Double Coins!] Right next to it was a scrolling taskbar: [Watch a mini-drama for 30 seconds to earn 200 coins!], [Browse products for 1 minute to earn 150 coins!], [Successfully invite a friend…] and so on.
She tried tapping into the [Douyin Shopping Mall]. A dazzling array of product images popped up, ranging from basic fruit candies, eggs, and flour, to fabrics, soap, and even books and snacks that absolutely shouldn’t exist in this era! There was even a search bar clearly marked at the top. All items had their prices listed in coins: 10 eggs for 1,000 coins, 1 catty of fruit candies for 500 coins, 1 bag of high-grade flour for 400 coins… There were even books like the Barefoot Doctor’s Manual. Jiang Tangtang felt more and more reassured.
She clicked into her account profile, and sure enough: Account Balance: 0 Coins.
Returning to the daily wheel interface, she used her thoughts to tap the check-in button. The wheel spun rapidly, finally stopping on [Coins x100]. Her account balance instantly jumped from 0 to 100.
It worked! Suppressing her excitement, she immediately tapped on the task [Watch a mini-drama for 30 seconds]. A familiar, melodramatic historical romance drama began to play, with the actors’ roaring voices echoing in her head—audible only to her. Thirty seconds later, a notification popped up: [Coins +200].
Without a shred of hesitation, she immediately tapped the [Browse products for 1 minute] task. The screen shifted to the shopping mall, automatically and slowly scrolling through various product images. From Dacron fabric to White Rabbit creamy candies, it scrolled smoothly. Exercising her patience, she “stared” at the screen with her mind until the task was completed, banking another 250 coins!
Just as she finished the browsing task and her coin balance reached 550, she noticed a rather inconspicuous icon in the corner of the mall interface labeled [Local Treasures Recycling Station].
‘What’s this?’
With a slight nudge of her thoughts, she clicked in. The interface shifted, revealing a feature that resembled a scanning frame, with a few lines of small text below it explaining:
[Congratulations to the Host for triggering a special service and unlocking the Feature Recycling Function. This feature allows you to sell the unique local products of this era to the system in exchange for coins. Recycling prices will fluctuate based on scarcity, quality, and historical value.]
Inside her head, Jiang Tangtang let out a literal groundhog screech of pure joy!
A two-way exchange! Not only could she spend money (coins), but she could also earn money (coins)!
This was absolutely perfect.
She couldn’t wait to test it out. But what could she use for recycling? Her eyes swept across the dilapidated room, finally landing on a small pile of wild vegetables in the corner that her mother had dug up yesterday and hadn’t had time to process yet.
Among them was a type of wild herb with small purple flowers. She remembered it was called “Platycodon” (balloon flower). The roots could be used in traditional medicine, and the greens could be eaten as a wild vegetable. It wasn’t anything rare in this era.
“Mom,” she opened her eyes, using her tiny hand to point weakly at the pile. “That… purple flower one, looks pretty.”
Lin Wanting followed the direction of her finger and smiled gently. “That’s Platycodon. You can’t play with it carelessly, okay?” She simply assumed her daughter was bored from being sick and found everything novel.
Jiang Tangtang, however, struggled to sit up and get out of bed. “I want it…”
Seeing this, Jiang Jianguo quickly hurried over. “What do you want? Daddy will get it for you.” Right now, he felt his daughter looked incredibly weak from head to toe, and he wanted nothing more than to indulge her every whim.
“That… flower-flower.” Jiang Tangtang stubbornly kept pointing at the platycodon roots.
“Alright, alright, alright, I’ll get it for you.” Although Jiang Jianguo found his daughter’s interest a bit peculiar, he still walked over, picked out two of the best-looking platycodons from the pile of wild vegetables, and handed them to Jiang Tangtang. “Here, take them and play, just be careful not to put them in your mouth.”
Jiang Tangtang took the platycodons, which still carried the fresh scent of soil, and gripped them tightly in her hands. In her mind, she silently chanted, ‘Recycle!’
Inside her mind, the scanning frame of the 【Native Treasures Recycling Station】 aligned perfectly with the platycodons in her hands, and an imperceptible flash of light swept over them.
[Target detected: Wild Platycodon (Quality: Common). Do you wish to sell? Estimated recycling price: 1-3 Gold Coins.]
‘Only that much?’ Jiang Tangtang was a little disappointed. But on second thought, this was just the most ordinary wild vegetable; being able to exchange it for gold coins was already pretty good. A mosquito may be small, but it’s still meat. She selected “Yes.”
The two platycodons in her hands vanished instantly. At the same moment, a system prompt popped up: [Sale successful. Obtained Gold Coins x2.]
Her account balance updated to 552.
Though it was only 2 gold coins, Jiang Tangtang’s heart thudded wildly with excitement! It worked! It actually worked!