After Lu Cheng finished cooking the porridge, he came to call Zhou Yu for breakfast.
Only after absentmindedly finishing her meal did Zhou Yu notice that Lu Cheng was watching her. He looked as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t bring himself to speak.
Zhou Yu understood the questions weighing on his mind. She sighed inwardly before finally saying, “The letter said that your father died while carrying out a mission… From now on, you’ll live with me. Even though I’m your stepmother, it’s still my responsibility to take care of you until you’re an adult.”
The moment Lu Cheng heard that his father had truly died, his mood sank to rock bottom.
In truth, he had already begun worrying earlier that year during the Lunar New Year.
No matter what happened in previous years, his father had always come home for the holiday. But this year, he hadn’t returned.
Lu Cheng had kept reassuring himself that perhaps his father had simply been delayed by something important.
Yet he had never imagined it would be this serious.
His father had actually died while on a mission?
For a moment, Lu Cheng found the reality impossible to accept.
He lowered his head and said nothing more, becoming even quieter than before.
Seeing his reaction, Zhou Yu could do little about it.
Her own emotions were complicated enough right now, and she wasn’t in the mood to comfort anyone. Besides, no amount of comforting words could truly help with something like this. Lu Cheng would have to come to terms with it on his own.
“You’re already over six years old. In the next few days, I’ll find a way to enroll you in primary school. As for anything else you’re thinking about, you can tell me…” Zhou Yu said calmly.
After speaking, she didn’t wait for any response from Lu Cheng before getting up and returning to her room.
Deep down, Zhou Yu understood that if events followed the original novel’s plot, she wouldn’t be raising Lu Cheng for many more years anyway.
When Lu Cheng was around twelve or thirteen, Lu Bin’s twin brother, Ji Jing, would take Lu Bin’s place and assume responsibility for him.
All Zhou Yu needed to do was raise Lu Cheng properly during the years before Ji Jing arrived.
Once Ji Jing came, she could hand Lu Cheng over to him and then live independently on her own.
Lu Bin’s death compensation amounted to twenty one-hundred-yuan notes, a total of two thousand yuan.
Unless absolutely necessary, Zhou Yu had no intention of touching that money.
When Ji Jing eventually came to take responsibility for Lu Cheng, she planned to hand the entire sum over to him so that it could be given to Lu Cheng in the future.
Although Ji Jing was wealthy in the original novel, this money had been bought with Lu Bin’s life. Zhou Yu felt it should belong to Lu Bin’s son.
After all, she was merely an outsider’s soul occupying this body.
As for Ji Jing himself, he had actually been a fairly decent person in the original novel.
The problem was that he probably didn’t know how to raise children.
Under Ji Jing’s care, Lu Cheng’s personality became increasingly lawless and uncontrollable.
But that wasn’t really something Zhou Yu needed to worry about.
She genuinely wanted to change Lu Cheng’s fate as a villain, yet she had no idea how powerful the original plot’s influence might be.
The only thing she could do now was spend the next few years before Ji Jing came to take him away carefully shaping Lu Cheng’s character.
At the very least, she hoped to give him a normal childhood and prevent him from growing into such an extreme and bitter person in the future.
After sorting through the original novel’s plot in her mind once more and thinking about Lu Cheng, who was over six years old yet as small as a four- or five-year-old child, Zhou Yu let out a faint sigh.
Forget it.
She would let the boy calm down today. Tomorrow, she would go to the town’s primary school to inquire about enrollment requirements and then arrange for Lu Cheng to start attending classes.
It wasn’t good for him to stay cooped up at home all the time. Perhaps after starting school, he could make some new friends, and his personality might become a little more cheerful as well.
At noon, both the adult and the child were preoccupied with their own thoughts, so they simply reheated the porridge from the morning and ate a little to fill their stomachs before returning to their rooms.
Feeling somewhat tired, Zhou Yu was just about to lie down for a nap when she heard a burst of noisy commotion coming from the courtyard.
Not only did the noise show no signs of stopping, but it seemed to be growing louder and louder.
A trace of irritation flashed across Zhou Yu’s face.
Rubbing her temples, she got up and walked out of her room.
“What are all of you doing here?”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but the moment the people in the courtyard saw Zhou Yu emerge, they instantly fell silent.
In the novel, the original host had been the type of person who was domineering, sharp-tongued, and difficult to get along with, so most of the villagers had avoided associating with her.
That actually worked in Zhou Yu’s favor.
Since few people had interacted closely with the original host, she didn’t have to worry too much about exposing herself.
A woman in her fifties immediately put on an expression of concern when she saw Zhou Yu.
Stepping forward, she said, “Lu Bin’s wife, we’re all worried about you. Now that you’ve lost your husband, how is a woman supposed to raise a child and support herself…”
Zhou Yu sidestepped the woman’s outstretched hand before it could grab her arm.
Then she stared expressionlessly at the woman for several seconds before finally remembering who she was.
This should be Lu Bin’s adoptive mother from the novel, Li Chunfang.
“Oh?” Zhou Yu replied coolly. “So what you’re saying is that you’re planning to take responsibility for our lives from now on?”
Li Chunfang felt a chill run down her spine under Zhou Yu’s unwavering stare.
The words she had been about to say lodged in her throat.
A few seconds later, however, she remembered why she had come.
Steeling herself, she forced herself to continue.
“Well, taking you two back to live with us isn’t impossible. Lu Bin’s wife, don’t you think Lu Bin’s compensation money ought to be handed over to his mother for safekeeping?”
“What compensation money?”
Zhou Yu’s expression immediately darkened.
“Even if Lu Bin did receive compensation after his death, it wouldn’t have a single thing to do with you. And don’t forget, we’ve already divided the household.”
“Lu Bin’s wife, you can’t say that.” Li Chunfang’s thoughts were entirely occupied by that large sum of money now.
Raising her voice, she shouted, “Lu Bin was still my son! How can his compensation money have nothing to do with me?”
Then she turned toward the surrounding villagers and cried out dramatically.
“Everyone, come judge for yourselves! Lu Bin’s wife is trying to keep all of Lu Bin’s compensation money for herself. She doesn’t intend to give a single fen to his own mother…”
“And you still have the nerve to stand here wailing?”
Recalling the original host’s style of speaking from the novel, Zhou Yu made a few adjustments and fired back immediately.
“I was a respectable young woman. I’d only been married to your son for less than two years before I became a widow. Now I’ve even got a ready-made son to raise.”
“Your son is dead, and instead of helping support the two of us, you’ve come here looking to squeeze money out of us.”
“I’d say your heart is black as coal.”
The original host had gone through this exact trouble in the novel as well. Relying on her fierce and aggressive personality, she had cursed Lu Bin’s adoptive mother out thoroughly, refused to give her a single fen, and finally chased her away with a broom.
Although Zhou Yu wasn’t about to start cursing people out, there was no way she would hand over any portion of the compensation money to Li Chunfang either.
Li Chunfang had wanted to say more, but hearing the surrounding villagers whispering and pointing at her, she suddenly found herself at a loss for words.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yu merely stared at her coldly without saying another thing.
Under that gaze, Li Chunfang felt increasingly uncomfortable. Coupled with the criticism from the onlookers, she soon found herself unable to stay any longer.
In the end, she could only leave in embarrassment.
Seeing that Li Chunfang’s fighting spirit was so weak, Zhou Yu merely curled her lips and said nothing before turning to head back inside.
With the excitement over, the surrounding villagers quickly dispersed as well.
Even after Li Chunfang left, Zhou Yu didn’t relax.
Because she knew that Li Chunfang wasn’t the real problem.
At most, she was simply the most impatient one, the first person to show up.
The original novel had made it very clear that once news of Lu Bin’s death spread, the original host’s life became one endless stream of trouble.
What a headache.
‘I wonder if I can move away?’
Zhou Yu really couldn’t be bothered dealing with all the supporting characters from the novel.
Not that she would suffer any losses against them, but dealing with them consumed far too much time. Just today’s incident had already cost her half a day of study.
After thinking it over, Zhou Yu decided that when she went into town the next day to inquire about school enrollment for Lu Cheng, she would also ask whether there were any inexpensive houses available for rent.
If she could rent a place in town, it would make Lu Cheng’s schooling more convenient. At the same time, she wouldn’t have to constantly interact with all the people connected to the original host.
After the disturbance caused by Lu Bin’s adoptive mother, Zhou Yu’s earlier drowsiness had completely vanished.
She no longer felt like taking a nap.
Rather than wasting more time thinking about it, she decided to continue studying medical knowledge. Everything else could wait.
During her studies, Zhou Yu accidentally discovered that the system could do more than simply play information inside her mind.
It seemed capable of constructing a virtual space, and her consciousness could actually enter it.
That was an extremely useful feature.
In the future, she could enter the virtual space whenever she needed to conduct experiments.
Furthermore, when studying medical materials, she could take notes and organize information within the virtual environment, making everything much more convenient.
Completely absorbed in her studies within the system’s virtual space, Zhou Yu lost track of time.
Four or five hours passed in the blink of an eye.
The system reminded Zhou Yu, according to the schedule she had set earlier, that it was already dark outside and time to prepare dinner.
Only then did Zhou Yu organize the study notes she had taken that afternoon before withdrawing her consciousness from the virtual space created by the system.
When she arrived in the kitchen, she remembered there was still a little pork left over from yesterday, so she decided to make eggplant with minced pork.
Considering that Lu Cheng had only learned of his father’s death today, Zhou Yu wanted to give him some personal space. So that evening, she planned to try lighting the stove by herself again.
Who would have thought that the result would be exactly the same as the first time?
Once again, Zhou Yu managed to fill the entire kitchen with thick black smoke.
Lu Cheng had been lying on his bed, immersed in his grief, when he suddenly caught a strange smell of smoke.
His brows furrowed.
As if realizing something, he abruptly sat up and dashed toward the kitchen.
Sure enough.
His stepmother was trying to burn down the kitchen again.
This time, without waiting for any instructions from Zhou Yu, Lu Cheng immediately ducked behind the stove and used the fire shovel to scoop up some ashes, smothering the firewood Zhou Yu had just lit.
Gradually, the black smoke dissipated.
Only then did Lu Cheng begin rebuilding the fire.
Zhou Yu was mortified.
However, to avoid the same thing happening again, she forced herself to stay despite her embarrassment. Standing beside Lu Cheng, she carefully watched the entire process, trying to figure out exactly what he was doing differently.
First, Lu Cheng cleaned out the ashes inside the stove with the fire shovel.
Then he picked out some softer kindling from the nearby woodpile.
The kindling looked like dried corn stalks and corn leaves.
Once the kindling caught fire, Lu Cheng tossed in a few dried corn cobs.
Only after the flames had grown larger did he begin adding dry firewood.
Who would have thought that even something as simple as starting a fire involved so many steps?
Previously, Zhou Yu had simply grabbed a piece of dry wood and tried to light it.
Not only had it refused to catch fire, but it had also produced clouds of black smoke.
Awkwardly, Zhou Yu rubbed her nose and gave an embarrassed smile before returning to the front of the stove and silently beginning to chop vegetables.
During dinner, Zhou Yu told Lu Cheng that she planned to go into town the next day to inquire about primary school enrollment for him.
Lu Cheng offered no opinion.
He simply nodded and continued eating with his head lowered.
Zhou Yu couldn’t help feeling that the child had become even quieter than before.
It seemed she would have to find an opportunity to help him open up in the future.