When Mi Duoduo fell asleep, her mother Li Xiuqin hadn’t returned from work yet. She slept soundly until six in the morning, waking up feeling refreshed and energized.
Every morning, she could still use the water from their own water jar for washing up, but going to the toilet was the most frustrating ordeal.
The staff residential compound housed several hundred people, yet there were only four public toilets, each with just six stalls. Mornings were especially crowded, with people emptying chamber pots and those needing to use the toilet jostling together. The already foul-smelling toilets also required long waits.
Some elderly residents were particularly inconsiderate—as soon as the person in front stood up, before they could even pull up their pants properly, the person behind would already be pushing forward, forcing the one in front to hurriedly adjust their clothes and vacate the spot.
If the person ahead happened to be constipated, the wait could drag on endlessly.
Mi Duoduo’s smooth morning toilet visits relied entirely on her mother and sister securing a spot for her.
Her mother, Li Xiuqin, would watch for someone nearly finished. As soon as that person stood up, she would immediately position herself beside the stall, quickly finish her business, and wait for Mi Duoduo to be pushed over by her sister. Only then would her mother stand up, adjust her clothes, and step aside, letting Mi Duoduo take her turn. Mi Laidi would go after Mi Duoduo.
If Mi Laidi went first, Mi Duoduo’s spot would almost certainly be snatched away by someone else—as a young girl, she was too shy to push in behind someone who hadn’t yet finished dressing.
After finally leaving the toilet, Mi Duoduo felt as if she reeked all over. She lingered outside her home for a while to air out the smell before going inside.
After breakfast, those who worked left for their jobs, and those who studied headed to school, leaving Mi Duoduo alone at home.
She hurriedly lit the coal stove to boil water and cooked twenty duplicated eggs in one go. Then, she scooped a spoonful of Spirit Spring Water from her Space and drank it. The sweet taste spread across her tongue, but she didn’t dare drink too much. Feeling no unusual sensations afterward, she drank half a bowl of chicken soup and ate one boiled egg, finally satisfying her hunger.
She also took out a bowl of snow-white flour from her Space and poured it into the family’s flour sack, mixing it thoroughly by hand. It blended seamlessly with the original flour, showing no signs of being different. She did the same with the cornmeal, quietly replenishing some of it.
Mi Duoduo also placed two eggs into the basket where eggs were kept. Since whoever returned home earliest usually prepared the meals, the exact number of eggs was never closely monitored. An extra two or fewer would go completely unnoticed.
While quietly adding supplies in the kitchen, Mi Duoduo asked the Duplication System in her mind, “Xiao Fu, how did Su Qingyao’s family manage last night?”
Xiao Fu responded immediately, “Host, you went to bed early last night and didn’t know, but the entire Su family went to the police station to give statements. They didn’t return until after seven, leaving them no time to prepare anything.
Lu Xiaocao had to borrow grain and a stove from a neighbor to cook a meal. As soon as she brought the food back, her younger brother Lu Jiaming came up to her, demanding five hundred yuan—Lu Jiaming was an idle loafer to begin with.
Su Qingyao also mentioned that her two-thousand-yuan savings passbook, prepared for going to the countryside, was missing. She kept muttering, ‘Just yesterday there were two thousand yuan, and today the house gets robbed,’ subtly pointing the blame for the missing items toward Lu Jiaming. Chen Shimei believed that since the locks weren’t broken but things were missing, it must have been Lu Jiaming who brought people to steal them.
Chen Guangzong thought the same, and a fight broke out on the spot. After being beaten, Lu Jiaming went and called Lu Xiaocao’s parents, and the whole family was in turmoil until late into the night.”
In the end, it was Chen Shimei who spoke up, saying their family now had nothing left and needed to buy necessities, demanding that the Lu family return all the money Lu Xiaocao had given to her parents over the years. Only then did the Lu family members leave, grumbling and cursing.
Chen Shimei had long realized that Lu Xiaocao had been taking things to her parents' home without ever getting a single penny back.
He had also beaten Lu Xiaocao severely the night before. As for Lu Xiaocao's parents, they resented Chen Shimei and Chen Guangzong for not helping their son when he was beaten, and they didn’t care at all about Lu Xiaocao’s well-being.
In the end, Chen Shimei took Chen Guangzong to spend the night in the factory duty room. They ate at the factory canteen this morning and even advanced a month’s salary to buy household necessities.
Su Qingyao asked Chen Shimei for money to prepare supplies for going to the countryside. Chen Shimei initially refused, but Su Qingyao cried, saying that if she went to the countryside without quilts or warm clothes, she would freeze to death. She demanded that Chen Shimei either advance half a year’s salary or borrow money, asking him if he really wanted to watch her die.
In the end, Chen Shimei had no choice. In front of everyone at the factory, he only gave Su Qingyao ten yuan.
Su Qingyao’s eyes immediately reddened, saying that giving her only ten yuan was no different from sending her to her death. If Chen Shimei really didn’t want her to live, she would sever their father-daughter relationship.
Chen Shimei was also furious at the time and snapped, "Sever it then!" The two of them immediately wrote a statement severing their father-daughter relationship.
Chen Shimei didn’t take this statement seriously at all, thinking he could just coax Su Qingyao later when no one was around and save the money for supplies.
Little did he expect that Su Qingyao would immediately lock the main door, barring him from entering, saying that the house originally belonged to the Su family. Now that their relationship was severed, he had no right to live in the Su family’s house.
Mi Duoduo asked again, "What about Lu Xiaocao?"
"Lu Xiaocao went to work as usual this morning, also advanced a month’s salary, and gave half of it to her brother, Lu Jiaming."
"Is Su Qingyao at home now?"
"No, she went to the newspaper office."
"Why did she go to the newspaper office?"
"I can’t find out. The newspaper office is too far away, beyond my investigation range."
Mi Duoduo pressed further, "Xiao Fu, how far can you investigate at most?"
"Host, I can currently only investigate within a radius of three hundred meters. A lot of what I told you earlier was overheard from people chatting nearby. By the way, last night, Su Qingyao protected the food and took it back to her room, leaving nothing for Chen Shimei and Chen Guangzong."
Since Su Qingyao wasn’t home, it was the perfect time to take a sponge bath.
In the two days since Mi Duoduo arrived, she hadn’t had a proper chance to wash herself thoroughly, let alone take a real bath.
In previous years, only around New Year’s would her mother take her to the public bathhouse. Usually, she would just wash up simply at home. In the summer, she could manage by washing in the backyard storage room.
Mi Duoduo first bolted the front and back doors, filled two basins with warm water, and prepared her change of clothes, a towel, and the pair of slippers made from old plastic sandals.
Once everything was ready, she drew the curtains in her room, closed the door, and finally took off all her clothes.
Unexpectedly, the Duplication System suddenly shouted, "Host, host! I told you you’re a bean sprout! Look at this little body—there’s no meat at all!"
Mi Duoduo’s heart skipped a beat. Oh no, she had forgotten there was a System watching her.
She hurriedly asked, "Xiao Fu, are you male or female?"
The Duplication System replied, "Host, I am merely a system, a stream of data. I have no gender."
Mi Duoduo flushed bright red with embarrassment, grabbing a towel to hastily cover herself, and retorted irritably, "Even without a gender, you can't just stare like that! Can't you turn off your visual perception on your own?"