Xu Huixin did not go straight home, but waited at the corner for Luo Yan and her father to come out. Seeing Xu Huixin, Luo Yan and her father breathed a sigh of relief.
Luo Xuwen said to Luo Yan, "That girl is a good person. It's just a pity she ended up with someone like that." Speaking of this, Luo Xuwen glared at Luo Yan again.
Luo Yan knew she was in the wrong. "She really is good. I simply cannot understand why someone who seems so outstanding would take a liking to Shen Shuyu."
At this moment, Luo Yan had lost the last bit of affection she had for Shen Shuyu. Especially after hearing him shout in the police station about his true feelings for her. The thought made Luo Yan sick.
If his feelings for her were genuine, then what about Xu Huixin? Was she just being used? Wasn't Xu Huixin innocent too? She was only a year older than Luo Yan.
She had heard from people in the residential compound that when Xu Huixin married into the Shen family, the youngest child, Shen Qiuhe, was just a few months old. It was Xu Huixin who had raised her, bit by bit, to the age she was now.
Shen Shuyu's shouts about his true feelings for her did not move Luo Yan in the slightest. Instead, they made her utterly disappointed in him as a person.
Especially since the current Shen Shuyu, worn down by illness, had long lost his former handsome looks. He was thin, and his clothes were wrinkled and dirty.
"What's so hard to explain? Shen Shuyu looks decent, is smooth-talking, has a respectable job, and his family conditions are good. It's normal for someone to take a liking to him. Of course, she was also young. If she were a bit older, she probably wouldn't have married him."
"Being a daughter-in-law is different from being a stepmother. As a daughter-in-law, having conflicts with your mother-in-law is one thing, but as a stepmother, everything you do is magnified endlessly."
"Girl, being a stepmother isn't easy. Whether you do well or not, you'll be criticized. If you do well, people will say you have ulterior motives, and if the child has any problems in the future, it will all be your fault."
"If you don't do well, it's even worse. The bad reputation will follow you for life, and your parents will be dragged down and criticized too." The Luo Xuwen family was like all ordinary families of that era: Luo Xuwen earned money to support the family, and his wife was responsible for raising the children.
He only stepped in to discipline them when his wife couldn't manage. Ever since Luo Yan said she wanted to marry a man with three children, the couple hadn't been able to sleep well.
Luo Xuwen, a grown man, spent all day at the factory asking people about what it's like to be a stepmother. The more he heard, the less certain he felt. He used to only know it was difficult, but after truly understanding it in depth, he realized just how immense the difficulties of a stepmother were.
These words from Luo Xuwen now were truly spoken from the heart.
In the past, Luo Yan would have been impatient listening to Luo Xuwen say these things. But after truly learning about Xu Huixin's life, she realized how shallow her previous thoughts had been.
"I understand, Daddy." Luo Yan's words allowed Luo Xuwen's perpetually anxious heart to finally relax. His daughter had rarely used such affectionate, doubled-syllable terms to address them since growing up. But whenever she did, it meant she was making a promise.
Father and daughter walked a bit faster. By the time they reached Xu Huixin, Shen Minqiang had also arrived before them.
After much consideration, Shen Minqiang had decided to spend money to avert disaster. It wasn't that he particularly loved his son Shen Shuyu; he was doing it to prevent his past deeds from being exposed.
Even if Shen Shuyu ultimately couldn't be saved, on the surface, he, as the father, couldn't appear to do nothing for him. Otherwise, if Shen Shuyu grew cold-hearted and spilled everything recklessly, more than just Shen Shuyu and his father would be doomed!
"Huixin, I know our Shen family has wronged you these years since you married in. We don't ask for your forgiveness now, we only beg you, no matter what, to give Shuyu a way out. As the saying goes, it takes a hundred years of cultivation to share a boat, and a thousand to share a marriage bed, right?" Shen Minqiang instinctively tried to play the emotional card with Xu Huixin.
Just like before, whenever he softened his tone, Xu Huixin would agree to any request.
This time, Xu Huixin simply ignored him. As Luo Yan and her father approached, Shen Minqiang immediately gave up on Xu Huixin and stepped forward.
"You must be Luo Yan. I'm Shuyu's father, Shen Minqiang." Glancing at Luo Xuwen beside Luo Yan, he immediately extended his hand for a handshake. "Brother, brother, I am truly sorry. It's his mother and I who failed to raise him properly, letting him do such an audacious thing."
“How about this: our family will compensate you three hundred yuan for your losses. Could you help us by telling the police you won't press charges?” Once touched by a crime like hooliganism, it's hard to shake off.
He knew that for such crimes, even if the victim didn't press charges, the police wouldn't easily let them go. Shen Minqiang wasn't actually thinking he could get Shen Shuyu out. He just wanted to show his attitude, for Shen Shuyu in prison to see.
Three hundred yuan sounded like a lot, but a regular worker's monthly wage was 36.5 yuan; you could earn it back in ten months. By offering this, Shen Minqiang was inherently looking down on Luo Yan.
Luo Xuwen's face turned pale with anger. "Take your dirty money and get lost! I don't want anything. All I want is for that beast Shen Shuyu to go to prison and eat a bullet."
Shen Minqiang felt secretly pleased. If Luo Xuwen didn't want the three hundred yuan, he could save it! He had many places where he needed to spend money; otherwise, he wouldn't have taken such a desperate risk, doing those capital offenses.
Despite his inner thoughts, Shen Minqiang didn't show a hint on his face. "Brother, I don't mean anything else. I just want to compensate you..."
A vein throbbed on Luo Xuwen's forehead. He clenched his fist, about to step forward and punch Shen Minqiang, mainly because the smile on Shen Minqiang's face was too grating.
Luo Yan reached out and stopped Luo Xuwen. She looked at Shen Minqiang. "Since you want to compensate me, I want one thousand yuan. My two years of youth spent with Shen Shuyu can't be settled for just three hundred yuan."
Luo Yan felt the price she was asking was perfectly reasonable. Shen Minqiang's expression froze.
Luo Yan smiled. "What? Can't bear to part with it? Is Shen Shuyu not worth that price? Or don't you want to pay? Back at the police station, Shen Shuyu kept saying his feelings for me were true love, that he truly liked me. What do you think if I go ask to see him?"
Luo Yan didn't know exactly what leverage Shen Shuyu had over Shen Minqiang. But Shen Minqiang coming to them now to put on this hypocritical act was abnormal in itself.
Luo Yan didn't think asking for this one thousand yuan was too much. Two years of her youth, a fraudulent marriage, pregnancy, an abortion—which of these hadn't caused her immense harm? If it were someone with a slightly weaker disposition, they might have simply died.
Shen Shuyu was, after all, Shen Minqiang's son, and he had some understanding of this son of his.
Usually, he was fine, but whenever it came to matters of romance, his brain seemed to short-circuit. It was like this before with Gong Lili, with Xu Huixin, and now with this Luo Yan!
Shen Minqiang wished he had never known such a person. But then he thought of the steel that had been sold off in large batches, and the people behind him.
"Fine, one thousand it is. I'll go home and get it for you." Shen Minqiang had only brought three hundred with him this time. In his estimation, a mere educated youth sent to the countryside might have some spirit, but she'd never earned a salary. Getting three hundred yuan for free should have made her secretly delighted.
He never expected her to dare to ask for such an exorbitant sum! And he had no choice but to give it, because if things really blew up, he would lose far more than three hundred.
He might even lose his life.
Xu Huixin was chatting in the group chat while listening to their conversation on the side. Hearing Shen Minqiang's words, Xu Huixin chuckled and followed him upstairs.
Her wages from the past three years added up to about one thousand yuan. She had originally planned to get that thousand back, but she never expected Shen Minqiang to deliver himself to her doorstep.
Not only did he deliver himself, but he also promised Luo Yan a thousand yuan.
One thousand for two years? She was there for three years, shouldn't that be fifteen hundred? Plus all the nanny work she did, asking for three thousand wasn't too much, right? Adding her wages on top, Shen Minqiang giving her four thousand was perfectly reasonable.
Four thousand yuan! That was enough to buy a big courtyard house near her parents' place and live alone. Xu Huixin trotted happily after him; she absolutely had to get this money.
So, just as the Lin Xi household was starting to cook the meal for the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, Xu Huixin contentedly took four thousand yuan and her personal belongings and headed for her parents' home. The Luo father and daughter also sensed something was amiss; after taking the money, they went straight from the entrance of the Red Star residential compound to the train station.
Watching them leave, Xu Huixin went directly to the Red Star Police Station to report the incident. Since she dared to take so much money from Shen Minqiang, she wasn't afraid of him playing dirty tricks later.
The police officers didn't say much, but Shen Minqiang paying out five thousand yuan at once—such a large sum—immediately caught their attention. It made Xu Huixin's report even more credible. After all, the salary of a union cadre was at most forty-seven yuan a month. How many years would he have to save, without eating or drinking, to accumulate five thousand yuan?
The head of the Red Star Police Station went directly to an old leader's house that very day.
Lin Xi was waiting for the meal while sending messages in the group chat: [Earth Girl Lin Xi: Aren't you afraid Shen Minqiang might get desperate and do something drastic?]
[Period Novel Stepmother Xu Huixin: I am. That's exactly why I went straight to the police station chief after getting the money.]
[The huge sum of five thousand yuan, plus all the jobs Shen Minqiang has arranged over the years for his sons, daughters, and daughter-in-law, is enough to get their serious attention.] Xu Huixin's ability to build such a large business in the original plot wasn't without reason. At the very least, without plot interference, her intelligence was very much online.
Gu Nuanyang entered the group chat around the same time as Xu Huixin, but their ways of handling crises were polar opposites. Gu Nuanyang, even after reaching safety, was still lost in melancholy, trapped in black-and-white thinking.
Only now did she truly see the gap between herself and others. She deeply realized her own shortcomings.
Once again, she knew she really shouldn't get caught up in those meaningless things anymore.
The group chat erupted in cheers, everyone praising Xu Huixin for her wit, courage, and clever strategy. Gu Nuanyang watched with envy; she also wanted to be praised by the group's friends like Xu Huixin was.
[Ancient World Xu Huanhuan: @Period Novel Stepmother Xu Huixin, sister, may I ask, what did you do for work before you crossed over?]
[Period Novel Stepmother Xu Huixin: I was in venture capital.]
Xu Huixin's one sentence filled the group with respect. Not many people knew about the venture capital industry before, but after some TV dramas and novels about venture capitalists came out, everyone gained some understanding of it.
But that was about it. The more, deeper aspects, they didn't know. They just needed to know the industry sounded impressive.
Xu Huixin didn't explain further. Her past life was already a very, very distant thing to her now, but she had loved her job. Wanting to return to that kind of workplace, Xu Huixin felt she should start preparing.
Without the so-called stepmother plot, there was no way she was going back to those hard labor jobs.
Xu Huixin picked up her textbooks that very day. It was 1976 now. In another year, the college entrance exams would be reinstated.
In her previous life, due to various reasons, she missed out on her two dream universities in China. In this life, she was determined to fight for a place at those two schools.
The meal was finally ready. Lin Xi brought bowls to the hearth in the main room. A tripod stand was placed over the hearth, with a small pot on top. Meat and flowering Chinese cabbage stems tumbled in the boiling broth. A long, narrow rectangular plank was laid across the top.
On it were two plates of dishes and a bowl of dipping sauce made with fish mint.
The flowering cabbage stems in the pot were also un-trimmed, very long. Dipped in the spicy, savory, and appetizing sauce, they were soft, tender, and delicious in the mouth.
The two children, like all adults in their childhood, loved eating the cabbage flowers. The cabbage flowers were soft and had a slightly starchy texture.
On the stool beside them lay long garlic sprouts and fennel.
Everyone ate this meal very comfortably. After eating their fill, the calls of children came from outside, and Xiao Fang dashed out to join them.
"They're lighting the lanterns today, you should go take a look too." The New Year atmosphere in Lotus Flower Village was quite strong. After the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, every household would take out their lanterns and hang them in the village.
The village would hang them from the Wind-and-Rain Bridge all the way along the road to the end of the village. Later, when the village had more money, they bought many beautiful colored lanterns. The village cadres had been busy with this outside these past few days.
The village loudspeaker announced in the morning that the lanterns would be lit promptly at 8 PM tonight. So, every household tacitly ate dinner early.
Everyone wanted to join in the fun.
"Grandma, aren't you going?" Lin Xi looked at Chi Xiangping.
Chi Xiangping said with a smile, "I'm going to call your Great Aunt. If I don't give her a way to save face, she'll be awkward for the rest of her life."
Sun Caohua was a woman who cared deeply about face, and this trait only grew more pronounced with age. The last-minute cancellation of the blind date she had arranged for Lin Xi had left her feeling utterly humiliated. She was also a WeChat user, and these days she had been chatting with Chi Xiangping much more frequently. Even though their families lived just across the street from each other on Upper and Lower Street, and they could simply call out from their courtyard gates if they had something to say, she insisted on acting as if they lived miles apart. Chi Xiangping needed to give her a way to save face. Her Xiaoxi had no siblings; her closest relatives besides herself were from the main branch of the family. They absolutely must not become estranged. "I expect Da Mingbao will come to fetch you in a bit. Take Yao Yuran with you."
"Alright." Lin Xi didn't interfere with Chi Xiangping's social life, just as Chi Xiangping had never probed too deeply into her relationships with Yao Yuran and Qin Suyuan when she brought them home.
After washing the dishes, Da Mingbao indeed arrived. She was holding a handful of handheld sparklers. Dressed in a white coat with a fur collar, a miniskirt, leggings, and boots, with a cute furry hat on her head, she looked utterly adorable.
Lin Xi's attire was much plainer: a thin base-layer sweater under a long, black, shapeless down coat, paired with fitted leggings and boots, and no hat.
Yao Yuran wore a red padded coat, with a blanket over her lap on the wheelchair, beneath which were thick, fleecy pajama pants.
Lin Xi pushed Yao Yuran along the side of the road, while Da Mingbao skipped and hopped beside them.
"There are so many tourism options nowadays, making a place truly distinctive isn't easy. After all, our village is seasonal. Once the lotus flowers wither, we can't just sit around waiting, right? So, after much discussion, my dad and Uncle Du decided to organize a lantern festival around the Spring Festival first."
"Then, starting next year, we'll plant more flowers in our village, the pretty and unique kinds." Da Mingbao had traveled to many cities and felt her father's ideas were rather rustic. They might bring benefits in the short term, but their long-term success was uncertain. Nevertheless, she fully supported their enthusiasm. "I expect the village will hold a general assembly after the New Year."
The village rarely held general assemblies, but whenever one was called, it was always for a major event. Just like twenty-one years ago, when everyone gathered to decide to plant lotus roots.
Thinking of this, Da Mingbao said to Lin Xi, "My dad's been mentioning at home these past couple of days that it was your father who proposed planting lotus roots for the whole village back then. Because some people disagreed, he planted them on his own land for a year first. Only after everyone saw the benefits did they follow suit."
The village's name, Lotus Flower Village, was also changed later. It used to be called Pond Village, named for the many large and small ponds scattered everywhere. Lotus Flower Village had little arable land, and most of it was far away. Before they started planting lotus roots, some men in the village even struggled to find wives.
Daughters, however, married off easily. Because family conditions were poor, everyone was afraid of gaining a reputation for 'selling their daughters,' so they asked for very little bride price.
The evening sky had turned dusky. Lin Xi turned her head to look at the distant ponds. In this light, they appeared as dark, indistinct patches, with only a few withered, broken lotus stalks standing within them.
She asked Da Mingbao, "What kind of person do you think my father was?"
Da Mingbao was taken aback for a moment, then shook her head. "I never met your father. But my dad says he was the most outstanding person of his generation in our village. If he were still here, with our village's beautiful scenery and topographical features in the province, we wouldn't have remained unknown for so long."
"My dad also says if your father were here, he wouldn't be the village head of Lotus Flower Village."
Lin Xi let out a soft sigh. The hand pushing the wheelchair was patted—a warm, gentle touch. Lin Xi looked down to see it was Yao Yuran patting her.
Lin Xi pressed her lips together. "I'm fine."
The Covered Bridge was bustling with activity. From afar, they could hear music. As they drew closer, they saw people dancing around a central speaker. The crowd included not only people from their own village but also from neighboring ones.
On the Covered Bridge, those who had worked hard away from home for a year and finally returned were singing and dancing. At one end of the bridge, children chased and played, their shrieks and laughter carrying over.
Xiao Fang and the other children ran up to Lin Xi and the others, chattering excitedly for a bit before running off again. The riverbanks on both sides of the Covered Bridge had wooden railings, so the children couldn't fall in, and everyone felt at ease letting them run wild.
As Lin Xi and the others reached the Covered Bridge, before they could even steady themselves, Lin Xi was pulled into the dancing circle by her eldest cousin's wife. Lin Xi glanced sideways at Yao Yuran, who smiled and waved her off, then wheeled herself over to some familiar faces.
Da Mingbao also squeezed into the circle. Amidst the cheerful music, Lin Xi was infected by the joy, a smile spreading across her face as she followed the steps of the dance she had known since childhood. At the height of the excitement, she and Da Mingbao, holding hands, broke away from the group and moved to the center, performing a duo dance. They had long since taken off their outer layers.
Da Mingbao's inner sweater was also white. The two of them, one in black, one in white, both tall and beautiful, danced with a grace that seemed to outshine each other. The people around them stopped dancing to watch. When they finished, someone approached them.
Thus, the duo dance turned into a friendly dance-off, with cheers rising wave after wave. Finally tired out, Lin Xi found Yao Yuran and put her coat back on.
Chi Xiangping and the others had arrived too. She pulled a handkerchief from her bosom. "Look at all that sweat on your forehead. Wipe it off."
Since they were close to Da Mingbao's house, she ran home and brought back two packs of bottled water. Anyone who was thirsty could just take one. After exchanging a few words with Lin Xi, Da Mingbao hurried off towards her boyfriend, Sun Xianquan.
Soon, the two of them appeared in the dancing crowd. At eight o'clock sharp, the village lanterns lit up. Lanterns hung beneath newly installed streetlights, and the newly planted trees along the road were wrapped with colorful lights, shimmering in a dazzling array. The roof and both sides of the Covered Bridge were entirely strung with warm yellow fairy lights.
These lights wound along every household by the roadside, all the way to the village's end. People stopped dancing, turned off the music, and followed the crowd towards the village end.
The light displays along the way were all different: some shaped like roses, some like gold ingots, others like wheat ears, corn tassels, or lotus flowers.
When they reached the village end, in the open space in front of Lin Xi's guesthouse, stood a large lotus flower structure. Lights traced its shape, and surrounding it were clusters of smaller lights arranged to resemble a lotus pond.
Women's Federation Director Sister Ren, seeing that more people had arrived, straightened her clothes and walked directly to the center. She felt a bit embarrassed and somewhat shy. After delivering the congratulatory speech she had prepared for a long time, she pulled her son and daughter up onto the stage.
Her daughter and son were younger than Lin Xi and the others. They could play together when they were little, but later, after Lin Xi and her friends graduated and went further away for their studies, they had fewer and fewer chances to meet and talk.
The brother and sister wore traditional ethnic costumes with an air of utter resignation. Her son, Wang Fubin, held a guitar, playing and dancing at the same time.
The song he sang was festive, but the dance moves were stiff. His younger sister held a handbell, shaking it with increasing rigidity. It didn't look like dancing; it was more like guiding corpses.
Da Mingbao, with her arm around Lin Xi's shoulders, laughed so hard she doubled over: "I wondered why they never left the house after coming home for the holiday. I thought it was because it was too cold and they were staying in to warm up by the fire. I never imagined they were practicing a dance. This is just too funny."
Lin Xi's ears were filled with everyone's laughter. The more everyone laughed, the stiffer the siblings on stage became. Lin Xi said, "When we did the group dance with them before, they were pretty good, weren't they?"
"That was with a big group! Now it's just the two of them. It's already a win that they're not tripping over their own feet. Our Sister-in-law Seven is something else. If it were any other parent, they probably couldn't have pushed their kids onto the stage to do the opening dance." Da Mingbao chuckled happily. Da Mingbao's family was related to Sister Ren's family; by seniority, Da Mingbao called her Sister-in-law Seven.
Finally, the dance on stage ended. The two siblings scampered off as if chased by a dog. Sister Ren shot them a fierce glare, then stepped forward to continue hosting. Next, Gu Dahong and Du Shuncheng took the stage.
The two sang a duet of "My Motherland." The song itself was beautiful, the sentiment was good, but their voices were off-key, and their singing lacked technique, relying purely on genuine feeling. Still, they ignited the crowd's enthusiasm, and everyone started singing along.
After that, the village cadres either went up to tell jokes or sang a song. Once they finished their performances, it was the villagers' turn.
Da Mingbao, a social butterfly, went up and performed a Xinjiang dance segment, pushing this rather informal "Spring Festival Gala" to its peak.
Later, Wang Peng performed a comedy sketch, the kids went up for a chaotic group dance, and the elderly ladies performed a square dance routine. By the time it reached ten o'clock, everyone reluctantly headed home.
Lin Xi didn't go on stage; she stayed in the audience as a spectator. But her recording hand never stopped.
Her WeChat Moments and group chats were flooded with her short videos. On the way home, everyone's enthusiasm hadn't waned. The reviews for this "Lotus Village Spring Festival Gala" were all positive.
The village hadn't been this lively in many years.
Back home, pouring hot water to soak her feet by the firepit, Lin Xi remembered what Da Mingbao had said today. She asked Chi Xiangping, "Grandma, I heard from Uncle Gu that back when our village started planting lotus roots, it was my dad who took the lead?"
"Yes. That year your father was seventeen. He went out to work for half a year and came back with a lot of lotus root seeds. He said he wanted to lead the village in planting lotus roots, but no one believed him. They thought a kid like him was talking nonsense."
"After being rejected, your father was very upset and discouraged. Then your grandfather gave him our family's ponds to experiment with." Lotus Village had many ponds; every household was allocated one or two.
"Your father connected our family's two ponds and planted lotus roots in them. The next year, the lotus roots he planted sold for a good price. Only after the villagers saw that it really made money did they follow suit."
"Because they were grateful to your father for leading the village to prosperity, when your father and mother got married and held their banquet, everyone in the village gave generous gifts. Later, after your father disappeared and your mother remarried, the villagers still took good care of us. When your grandfather passed away, the whole village contributed money. It was all in remembrance of that past kindness."
Chi Xiangping sighed as she spoke. The glory Lin Xi's father had once brought her was matched only by the volume of the villagers' gossip after he disappeared, abandoning his parents, wife, and child.
Lin Xi sighed. "What did my dad say when he left?"
"He said a friend was in danger and he had to go help. Everyone knew he had many friends. I, your grandfather, and your mother all thought that trip would be like before, that he'd be back soon, five days at the latest. Who knew that once he left, he never came back."
Chi Xiangping continued, "Xi'er, if you really want to know about your father, you should go see your mother. She was your father's partner; she might know more about him than I do."
"Also, your mother is divorced from her later husband now and is living with her own family. Her life isn't easy these days either."
Because of what happened in Lin Xi's childhood, she had always been resistant to matters concerning her mother, and Chi Xiangping rarely mentioned her in front of her.
"Wasn't it said that the man she married later was a big boss, his family was very wealthy? How could she be having a hard time?" Lin Xi's mother was named Xue Min. She was Bai ethnicity and very beautiful.
When she remarried, she moved to the city. She didn't take Lin Xi with her when she left. When Lin Xi grew older and tried to see her, she never met with her once.
"I heard the man she married later went bankrupt. He didn't want to drag her down, so he divorced her in advance and gave her some assets. The son and daughter she had later are with her. She's been sick since returning to her family home. Quite seriously."
Lin Xi felt she really should go see her now.
"Tomorrow, then. I'll go see her tomorrow. I'm just afraid she won't see me," Lin Xi joked.
"She will. Your mother sent word that she wants to see you." It was precisely because of this message that Chi Xiangping had found opportunities to persuade her these past few times.
"Xi'er, your mother was indeed a bit heartless later on, but you have to try to understand her. The family she married into was so well-off, it's normal they had high standards. Your mother had her difficulties too, her own reasons."
Lin Xi nodded. "I know." She changed the subject. "Grandma, did my dad bring anything special home during those years?"
"He didn't bring back many things. Besides the chopping board in the kitchen that's still solid after decades of use, there's also a cardboard box of things he always treasured. They're all up in the attic."
"I'll go take a look." Lin Xi couldn't sit still anymore. She dried her feet and went straight up to the attic. The attic could be accessed from the northeast corner of the living room, reached by climbing a wooden ladder.
The ladder was very steep, with open spaces between the steps. When Lin Xi reached the third step, she held onto the ladder and stopped.
"Grandma, when I was little, did I ever fall down the stairs?"
"Yes, you had just learned to walk then, and you were especially mischievous. We took our eyes off you for a moment, and you climbed onto the stairs. By the time we found you, you had tumbled down from the top. Your face was covered in blood. We rushed you to the hospital, and the doctor said your mouth would leave a big scar."
"Later, your mother contacted a doctor she knew, bought a kind of ointment, and applied it for you for over a month. It healed completely, and there's not a single scar on your face now. It's just that later on, we could never find that doctor again."
Lin Xi took a deep breath and climbed up step by step. She turned on the light. The attic had no partitions apart from four pillars, allowing the entire space to be seen at a glance. Her family's attic was quite high, allowing a person to walk upright inside.
Chi Xiangping shouted from below, her voice straining: "It's over by the old cabinet, the cardboard box on the very top."
The old cabinet Chi Xiangping mentioned was a chest of drawers that was part of her dowry when she got married. It was made from good wood by the family, and decades later, it was still very sturdy.
It still held Chi Xiangping's clothes and quilts. She would come up every now and then to tidy up and put some mothballs inside.
A cardboard box sat on top of the old cabinet. It wasn't big, square in shape. Lin Xi carried the box to the brightest spot under the light, sat directly on the floor, and opened it.
The smell of mothballs instantly hit her nose. The contents only filled half the box.
She poured everything out onto the floor. Inside were all sorts of things: stones, bottles, paper cards, and so on.
Lin Xi picked up the most numerous items—the stones—and held them in her hand. She turned on her phone's flashlight to examine them. Even through the outer layer of the stones, they appeared translucent white.
Her heart trembled, remembering Chu Qianmo's description of spirit stones during a group chat: The outer skins of the stones vary in color, but under sunlight, they are a luminous, translucent white.
She held each spirit stone up one by one, inspecting them under the light. The purity of the light passing through them varied, but each one was translucent. Lin Xi took a deep breath and tapped on Chu Qianmo's chat window.
[Earth Girl Lin Xi: Dog Bro, help me identify if these stones are spirit stones.] She bundled all the stones together and sent them to Chu Qianmo.
Then she picked up several small porcelain bottles and sniffed them. Even though they hadn't been opened for ten or twenty years, when opened now, the medicinal smell was still strong; they were filled with medicinal powder.
She sent these medicine bottles to Xu Huanhuan: [Earth Girl Lin Xi: Huanhuan Sis, could you help me see what medicines are in these bottles?]
Before waiting for their replies, Lin Xi picked up a few pieces that felt like steel but were icy cold to the touch—plaques and bracelets—and sent them to Yao Xiran.
[Earth Girl Lin Xi: Xiran, Xiran, emergency! Can you help me test what material these things are made of?]
After sending the messages, for the paper cards with drawings of unknown objects and the remaining miscellaneous items, Lin Xi truly couldn't figure out what they were anymore.
Her phone notification sounds chimed one after another; Chu Qianmo, Xu Huanhuan, and Yao Xiran all sent back OK messages.
Lin Xi didn't know how long she would have to wait for them. She looked outside through the wooden window in the attic.
Tonight's moon was crescent-shaped. Apart from a few faintly visible stars, nothing else could be seen in the sky.
She took out her phone and tapped on the group chat interface: "Chat group, oh chat group, if your previous host was really my father, then can you tell me, where is my father?"
The chat group showed no reaction.
She climbed down from the attic. Chi Xiangping had already gone to sleep, and Yao Yuran and her two daughters' room was also quiet. Lin Xi lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.
Not long after, she received Chu Qianmo's reply: [Wife-Slaying Dao Prover Chu Qianmo: These stones are indeed spirit stones. Several are high-grade, the rest are mid to low-grade. Where did you get these spirit stones? Do such things as spirit stones still exist on our Earth?]
Xu Huanhuan's reply also arrived: [Ancient World Xu Huanhuan: I personally went to have the doctors at Hui Chun Tang look. They said among the medicine bottles you sent me, there are hemostatic powder, wound medicine, and knockout drugs. Their efficacy isn't as good as Hui Chun Tang's own products, but the effects are still considered quite decent.]
The knockout drugs Xu Huanhuan sent to the group members were all purchased from Hui Chun Tang.
Yao Xiran's message followed closely: [Starfarer Yao Xiran: These items are preliminarily confirmed to be products from the interstellar era, but I haven't encountered them in my current dimension yet. We are running tests now; you'll need to wait a bit. I'll notify you as soon as there's news.]
These three messages undoubtedly confirmed Lin Xi's speculations. For a moment, she didn't know how to react.
At that moment, a system message appeared on her phone: [System Message: The group chat system does not have the authority to answer group member Earth Girl Lin Xi's question. However, this group chat system will upgrade step by step. If you wish to know the answer, then strive to help more transmigrators scattered across various dimensions~ The harder you work, the luckier you get~]
After this message flashed by, Lin Xi's phone screen switched directly to the group chat interface.
[System Message: Immortal Cultivation World Bai Qingting has entered the group chat.]
[System Message: Ancient Political Intrigue World Lu Shenzhi has entered the group chat.]
