He Wanqing had just finished figuring out her new “life philosophy” and was about to open her eyes when a strange crackling sound suddenly rang out in her mind.
Bzzzzt— Bzzzzt—
“System 616 has located a target host. Beginning binding process—”
“Ding! Binding complete! Host, would you like to activate the system?”
A system? What kind of nonsense is this?
616 immediately protested, “Host, this system is not nonsense. You’ll understand how amazing I am in the future!”
He Wanqing jumped again. “You can hear my thoughts?”
“Of course. The system and host are now connected as one. As long as you permit it, I can hear all your mental activity. So from now on, you can communicate with me directly in your mind.”
Realizing the conversation had drifted off-topic, 616 quickly corrected itself.
“So, host, would you like to activate the system?”
After asking, 616 prepared itself for activation.
But unexpectedly—
“Not so fast. Tell me what you actually do first. Then I’ll decide whether I want to activate you.”
He Wanqing had spent years cultivating a laid-back attitude toward life. Did they really think she’d let herself be led around by the nose so easily? Especially by something that wasn’t even human.
616 was stunned.
This host really didn’t follow the usual script.
It sulked for a second before reluctantly introducing itself.
“I am System Number 616 of the Great Cosmos. You may call me 616. I am an herbal collection system.
“As long as the host collects a type of medicinal herb, the corresponding herb entry in the encyclopedia will light up, and you will receive points. The more valuable the herb, the more points you earn.
“When your points reach five thousand, the trading function will unlock. At that point, you can trade with hosts from different planes through the system forum.
“So until five thousand points are reached, the forum will remain locked.
“Because this system specializes only in herbs, you may only sell herbs on the forum to earn points.
“There are two selling methods:One, you can post herbs for sale and allow other plane users to browse and purchase them.Two, you can respond directly to purchase requests made by others.
“However, all pricing must follow the market standards of the corresponding plane. Otherwise, not only will you fail to earn points, points may even be deducted instead.
“On the other hand, there are no restrictions on what you can buy—except that purchased items cannot exceed the technological level of your current world. Otherwise, the purchase will fail. Also, besides the item price, you must pay a rather expensive transaction tax.”
He Wanqing immediately asked, “What exactly counts as collecting herbs? Do dried herbs from an apothecary count? What about just part of a herb? Seeds?”
“The system only recognizes living herb plants capable of growing. Everything else is invalid.”
“Alright then. And are the points assigned by you?”
“No. They are evaluated by the Main System, so there may be some delay before points are credited. But it won’t take longer than three days.”
Since the scoring wasn’t even controlled by 616 itself, He Wanqing became even more casual toward it.
“So basically, you’re not that useful. You’re just a messenger tool.”
616 nearly spat blood.
“You haven’t even activated the system yet! How can you already say I’m useless?!”
He Wanqing wasn’t the first host 616 had bound to, nor would she be the last. But she was definitely the least enthusiastic—and the coldest toward it.
616 felt deeply depressed. Had its charm really declined this much?
After over two hundred years of existence, this was the greatest emotional blow 616 had ever suffered.
And it had no idea this was only the beginning.
“Fine then, Little Sixie. Activate it.”
At the nickname, 616’s signal crackled violently.
Little Sixie?! Such a ridiculous name didn’t suit it at all!
Still, for the sake of successful activation, it decided to protest later.
A few seconds later—
“Ding! System activation successful!”
Immediately, He Wanqing sensed something like a smart display panel appearing in her mind.
616 explained:
“The interface is divided into left and right sections. Currently only the left panel is active. The right side is the system forum, which remains locked for now.
“The red number in the upper left corner represents your current points. At the moment: zero.
“The blue number represents the number of herb encyclopedia entries you’ve unlocked. Currently also zero.
“I hope the host works hard to collect herbs and unlock the forum soon.”
“Alright, alright. I get it. Stop reminding me all the time.”
He Wanqing hated being nagged while doing things. The more someone urged her, the less she wanted to do it.
After detecting her thoughts, 616 fell silent.
If it had tear ducts, it felt like it could cry an entire bowl of tears.
After sorting out the system, He Wanqing finally opened her eyes.
“Mother, you’re awake. Would you like some wild vegetable porridge?”
Ye Jianshan was the first to notice her movement. He quickly hid the wild vegetable buns and hurried over.
Only then did He Wanqing realize how hungry she was, so she nodded.
Immediately, the brothers sprang into action.
Ye Jianwu fetched a bowl.Ye Jianwen ladled the porridge.Ye Jianshan personally handed it to her.
Ye Jianming instinctively wanted to follow along too, but quickly lowered his head again.
Taking the chipped brown pottery bowl, He Wanqing’s heart trembled slightly.
This blackish liquid floating with vegetable leaves… was actually food?
No wonder the original owner couldn’t endure this suffering. He Wanqing felt that if she had to eat this for several days, she’d probably die on the spot too.
Still, her stomach was completely empty.
With the determination of someone facing death, she drank the bowl of porridge.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t unbearable.
There was no strange taste—just a mixture of wild vegetables and coarse grains. Barely edible, but edible nonetheless.
After chewing the vegetable leaves for a bit, she returned the bowl to Ye Jianshan.
“Who cooked today?”
“It was little brother. He knows Mother likes his cooking the most.”
During the refugee journey, all four brothers had taken turns cooking. The ingredients were basically the same, but strangely, food cooked by anyone except Ye Jianming always tasted slightly worse.
He Wanqing now understood from memory that the fourth child was genuinely talented at cooking.
Even with terrible ingredients, he could still make something edible. If given proper ingredients, the results would probably be excellent.
Although He Wanqing was laid-back in life, she still cared deeply about food.
So her gaze toward Ah Ming instantly became fiery.
This child was treasure-tier!
Unfortunately, Ah Ming, with his head lowered, noticed nothing.
Ye Jianshan carefully asked, “Mother, would you like another bowl?”
“Have you all eaten?”
“We’re eating wild vegetable buns. The porridge is for Mother.”
Compared to dry, hard-to-swallow buns, porridge naturally tasted better. And in their household, all good things always went to their mother first.
That was the belief He Wan had drilled into her four sons.
Now, the one benefiting from it had become He Wanqing.
“Then give me another bowl. If there’s extra, you boys can split it.”
She knew exactly how selfish the original owner had been.
But she had no intention of changing too suddenly. If people noticed something strange, that would be troublesome.
So He Wanqing decided to speak less and observe more.
After finishing the second bowl of porridge, she began searching for the small box where the original owner kept important belongings.
After considerable effort, she finally pulled a bundle out from under the bedding.
Inside was indeed the small box from memory.
After carefully shifting herself toward a less visible spot, she opened it.
“Oh?”
There was actually quite a lot of silver inside.
Broken silver pieces totaled around thirty taels, along with scattered copper coins. There were also the family’s travel permits and land deeds.
Of course, since they had already fled their homeland, the land deeds were practically useless paper now.
Still, they could serve as souvenirs.
Once she understood the family’s financial situation, He Wanqing relaxed considerably.
Now she felt much more confident about living her ideal “laid-back middle-aged Buddhist woman” lifestyle.
After all, in this world:
1 tael of silver = 10 mace = 1000 copper coins.
One tael could buy roughly:
So thirty taels was definitely a substantial amount of money.
It needed to be hidden carefully.
Immediately, He Wanqing thought of the system.
“Little Sixie, can you store items?”
“Host… no.”
616 was happy she remembered it at all, but storage capabilities were beyond its current abilities.
“I knew it. You really are a useless system.”
616: “…”
I’m a system, not a spatial storage artifact!!!