Li Xiuxiu’s suppressed sobs and Liu Congming’s unconscious whimpers were like countless fine needles piercing Liu Xiaoman’s eardrums.
She struggled to open her eyes again. This time, the darkness and blur faded away, replaced by an unprecedented clarity.
Her gaze did not fall on the weeping family beside her, but instead locked firmly onto the semi-transparent virtual panel in her mind.
Her body still felt like a pile of scattered firewood; every breath tugged at the burning pain in her lungs, and the dizziness from her high fever had not subsided.
Yet driven by a fierce will to survive, her mind was operating at an unprecedented speed.
With her thoughts, she greedily scanned the few lines of the beginner’s guide on the system interface—
[Scan]: Identify the value of all things.[Recycle]: Exchange items for points.[Redeem]: Obtain what is needed.
Simple. Brutal. Effective.
Her mind immediately tapped the greyed-out [Redeem] button.
A crude item list popped up. There were only a few items, yet each one looked like a life-saving miracle.
Liu Xiaoman’s gaze instantly locked onto the top two options:
[Strong Antibiotic (Capsule) – 1 point][White Rice Porridge (Hot) – 0.2 points]
Her goal became instantly clear: she had to obtain 1.2 points as quickly as possible.
She turned her stiff neck and looked at Liu Congming, who was crouching by the pile of straw, absentmindedly gnawing on his fingernails.
His big eyes were empty, filled only with instinctive hunger.
Gathering all her strength, Liu Xiaoman forced a few words out of her cracked throat. Her voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping:
“Congming… go… pull the grass by the door… bring it to sister.”
Her gaze shifted toward the broken opening of the thatched hut.
In the night wind, a few inconspicuous weeds swayed stubbornly.
She silently thought: [Scan].
Wherever her consciousness reached, a line of text appeared above a weed with broad leaves clinging to the ground:
[Plantain herb, a grass-family plant. The entire plant is medicinal and contains weak bio-energy. Recyclable. Value: 0.02 points per plant.]
Another plant with small yellow flowers was marked:
[Dandelion, a composite-family plant. Contains weak bio-energy. Recyclable. Value: 0.01 points per plant.]
“Heaven never seals off all paths!” Liu Xiaoman’s heart burst with wild joy.
These weeds—so common in the modern world, even considered a nuisance—actually had value in this system!
This was practically a golden cheat tailor-made for her, an agricultural scientist!
She forcefully suppressed the excitement threatening to burst from her chest and calculated quickly:
0.02 per plantain, 0.01 per dandelion… to reach 1.2 points, she would need around sixty to seventy weeds.
Hope for survival was right in front of her!
She strengthened her tone and gave clearer instructions:
“Yes, those—wide leaves… and the ones with small yellow flowers. Pull all of them! Hurry!”
Though slow to react, Liu Congming instinctively obeyed his sister.
He froze for a moment, then obediently got up and stumbled toward the door.
But a thin, withered hand suddenly grabbed him.
Li Xiuxiu crawled over on her knees, tears streaming down her face as she looked at Liu Xiaoman, her voice full of pleading and despair:
“Xiaoman, have you lost your mind from the fever? Why pull those weeds… lie down quickly, mother… mother will go beg your grandmother again…”
“Beg her?” Liu Xiaoman’s eyes suddenly flashed with unprecedented sharpness.
The gaze was so firm, so cold—it did not belong to a dying fifteen-year-old girl, but to a lone wolf protecting its young.
She stared at her mother and said word by word:
“Mother, if we beg Grandmother, we’ll only die faster! Trust me—just this once. We can survive!”
This sudden surge of authority instantly stunned Li Xiuxiu, who was used to weakness and tears.
Subconsciously, she released Liu Congming’s hand.
Freed, Liu Congming immediately ran outside like a little soldier, stumbling as he went, using his weak hands to pull weeds one by one.
He couldn’t distinguish types, only following his sister’s instructions—grabbing those with broad leaves and those with yellow flowers, carrying them inside again and again, piling them beside Liu Xiaoman.
The weeds were damp with cold dew and soil, giving off a fresh, earthy scent.
Enduring a heart-wrenching cough, Liu Xiaoman stretched out her skeletal hand and tremblingly touched the pile of weeds.
In her mind, she shouted:
“Recycle!”
In the next instant, something miraculous happened.
The pile of dirt-covered weeds vanished into thin air under her touch.
At the same time, the point counter in the lower right corner of her mental panel jumped from “0” to “0.3”.
Li Xiuxiu stared in shock. She covered her mouth in terror, not even daring to cry, afraid to make the slightest sound.
Meanwhile, Liu Congming simply stared blankly before running out again to bring back another pile.
Pile after pile of weeds disappeared in Liu Xiaoman’s hands. The points climbed—0.3, 0.5, 0.8… slowly but steadily rising.
Each increase was like an injection of strength into her heart—a pulse of life returning.
Li Xiuxiu’s body trembled like a leaf in the wind. Her expression shifted from shock, to confusion, and finally to deep fear.
“Enough!”
When the points reached “1.25,” Liu Xiaoman shouted inwardly.
Without hesitation, her mind rapidly selected items on the [Redeem] list—
[Strong Antibiotic], [White Rice Porridge]—Redeem!
At the same time, in the main house of the Liu family residence, Wang Jinhua was cracking melon seeds while gossiping to Old Madam Tian, who lay resting on the heated kang:
“Mother, I think those jinxes in the second branch will breathe their last tonight. Especially that Liu Xiaoman—she only had half a breath left this afternoon. She’s probably already cold by now. Good thing too—saves our food.”
Old Madam Tian didn’t even open her eyes. She merely hummed in response, a satisfied sneer curling at her lips.
They could never have imagined that the person they thought certain to die was now fighting for survival in a way beyond their comprehension.
At the moment Liu Xiaoman confirmed the exchange, a change occurred out of thin air in the thatched hut.
A red-and-white capsule wrapped in transparent plastic, and a bowl of steaming white rice porridge in a thick white porcelain bowl, suddenly appeared atop the pile of grass beside her.
The fragrance of the porridge was rich and overwhelming, instantly filling the entire broken hut.
That sweet, glutinous aroma was something Li Xiuxiu and Liu Congming had never smelled in their lives.
This supernatural scene became the final straw that broke Li Xiuxiu’s nerves.
Her shock turned completely into boundless fear.
A dying daughter who could make grass vanish and conjure medicine and fragrant porridge out of thin air…
If this wasn’t demonic magic, what was?
But Liu Xiaoman had no time to worry about her mother’s reaction.
Her eyes were fixed on the life-saving antibiotic and the life-sustaining porridge. Only one thought filled her mind:
Survive!
Yet immediately, a more severe problem arose—
She had to come up with a reasonable explanation at once. Otherwise, before dying of illness, she might be scared to death by her own timid mother… or worse, be reported and burned alive.
Finally, Li Xiuxiu found her voice again from the depths of her terror.
Pointing at the steaming porridge and the strange pill, she shrank back, her body trembling uncontrollably, her voice shaking with a heavy sob:
“Xiaoman… Xiaoman! Th-this… what kind of demonic magic is this? You… have you been possessed by something unclean…?”