As the most favored child in the Lu family, Third Brother Lu had a room in the house, specifically the west room of the main house with the best sunlight. Behind the west room, there was also a study. Usually, the west room was kept locked, and no one was allowed to approach it.
Old Man Lu's foot wasn't seriously injured. After a few days, he was already able to get out of bed and walk on his own.
He waddled into the room like a swaying duck, his eyes never leaving Liu Cheng'er. He didn't even spare Zhong Shuyan, his enemy, a single glance. This unusual behavior left the Lu family's eldest, second, and fourth brothers, who had been secretly vigilant, utterly perplexed.
Old Man Lu was exceptionally domineering at home and petty-minded. Apart from Third Brother Lu, anyone who defied him would face his retribution in one way or another. They had expected a major confrontation today, but it ended up being just this?
Third Brother Lu glanced at Old Man Lu, then shot a look at his wife beside him. His face darkened, but in the end, he said nothing, merely flicking his sleeve and entering the house.
Liu Cheng'er, holding Lu Panpan's hand, followed him inside. Lu Panpan followed with pursed lips, her steps unsteady. Compared to the last time the original host had seen Lu Panpan, this time she was noticeably much more withdrawn.
This was largely because Liu Cheng'er had become a different person. The former Liu Cheng'er, though the daughter of a wealthy family and somewhat willful by nature, was exceptionally doting towards Lu Panpan, her only daughter.
In the past, whenever Lu Panpan returned, Liu Cheng'er would be proud. Although her words among her sisters-in-law might not have been pleasant, she would always share any delicious food or fun toys she had.
Now, Lu Panpan was listless, like a frostbitten eggplant, her eyes timid when looking at others. Seeing a good child reduced to this state, Zhong Shuyan, with her soft heart, genuinely found it hard to bear.
After shooing her three stepsons off to chop firewood, and with Sun Xiaoyun and Zhang Xiaocao having gone out together, Zhong Shuyan sat in the courtyard sunning herself.
In these past few days, Zhong Shuyan had given the sisters-in-law water containing genetic repair fluid. Compared to her first few days after transmigrating, their health had improved significantly.
She had also made her three stepsons take the Tranquility Pills these days, and had even found time to secretly place formation arrays beneath their rooms.
With this two-pronged approach, she refused to believe they could still fall for Liu Cheng'er's tricks.
Sitting in the courtyard enjoying the sun, and hearing the sounds from the west room that were about to become rather indescribable, Zhong Shuyan beckoned to Eldest Girl Lu, who was playing with her younger siblings under the pear tree.
"Come here, Da Niu Niu." To be honest, the name "Eldest Girl Lu" was not only perfunctory but also rustic. It was just like "Eldest Brother Lu," "Second Brother Lu," and "Fourth Brother Lu."
She had considered changing the children's names, but felt it unnecessary. How many years had "Da Niu" been called? Eldest Brother Lu was already thirty and didn't have a proper name either. If she suddenly proposed changes, wouldn't that directly tell others she wasn't the original host?
To make the name "Eldest Girl Lu" sound less rustic, she had taken to calling her with a reduplicated nickname these days.
Hearing Zhong Shuyan call her that, Eldest Girl Lu came running over. "Grandma, what is it?"
"Go call your cousin Panpan out. Take her out to play." Liu Cheng'er was shameless, treating that kind of activity as casually as eating and drinking.
There was actually nothing wrong with that kind of thing itself; relations between men and women were normal. But to not even shield children from it was truly despicable.
Eldest Girl Lu also liked her cousin Panpan. She didn't enter the west room, just called out from the doorway. Soon, Lu Panpan emerged. As she came out, Eldest Girl Lu accidentally glanced inside and happened to see her third aunt riding her third uncle.
Eldest Girl Lu was old enough to understand such matters. Her face instantly flushed bright red.
Liu Cheng'er saw Eldest Girl Lu and threw her a flirtatious glance. Instinctively, Eldest Girl Lu grabbed Lu Panpan's hand and ran.
Standing at the doorway, Zhong Shuyan, seeing Eldest Girl Lu's reaction, knew she had witnessed Liu Cheng'er and Third Brother Lu's affair. She really didn't know what to say.
Eldest Girl Lu took her younger siblings out to play. Zhong Shuyan stood at the doorway, furious. Just as she was about to say something, she saw Old Man Lu emerge from the east room and head straight for the west room.
"Cheng'er, I'm here. I've missed you to death." Old Man Lu's voice carried an unmistakable, frantic eagerness.
Then, Zhong Shuyan heard Liu Cheng'er's barely suppressed gasps.
Zhong Shuyan walked away with a constipated look on her face.
She shut down her dimensional livestream and launched into a rant. She truly couldn't take it anymore. Liu Cheng'er had no morals, and Old Man Lu and his wife were even worse! If either of them had even an ounce of consideration for their children, they wouldn't be doing such things openly at home in broad daylight.
Then again, this was a world from an erotic novel, where the main theme was precisely that. Everything happened for the sake of eroticism. There was simply no logic to speak of.
After venting in the group chat, she sent a private message to Lin Xi.
[Ancient World Farmer's Old Lady Zhong Shuyan: Xi, do you have any method on your end to get rid of this scourge? Watching this kind of thing happening day in and day out, even I find it eye-searing.]
Just as Lin Xi was about to reply, a system message popped up in their dialog box.
[System Message: Detected that group member "Ancient World Farmer's Old Lady Zhong Shuyan" is seeking assistance from "Earth Girl Lin Xi." Does "Earth Girl Lin Xi" accept the commission from "Ancient World Farmer's Old Lady"?]
This message genuinely took Lin Xi by surprise. She had helped dimensional travelers numerous times, but whether it was in Hang Xingyue's world or Chi Qiushui's world, the system's wording had been different.
So the question arose: how was this world's commission different from the previous commission in Chi Qiushui's world?
Lin Xi was very curious. She was even more curious about whether there were any traces of Lin Zhongxun's existence in that world.
Driven by curiosity, Lin Xi clicked "Accept Commission."
Simultaneously, a new message popped up in the Transmigrator Chat Group.
[System Message: Earth Girl Lin Xi has accepted the commission "Get Rid of That Scourge" from Ancient World Farmer's Old Lady Zhong Shuyan. This commission offers no reward.]
Lin Xi accepting commissions from the group was no longer a rare occurrence; everyone was already used to it.
However, Liu Xingzhong, who had recently joined the group and hadn't been very active in chatting lately (who knew what he was busy with), saw this message and immediately popped up.
[Dragon-Ascendant's Rival Liu Xingzhong: May I ask, this sister Earth Girl Lin Xi, what's her deal exactly? I see everyone turns to her for help whenever they need to trade something or when something happens!]
Liu Xingzhong didn't mean anything by this; he was genuinely curious.
[Ancient World Xu Huanhuan: I only know that when I joined the group, the entire group had only me, Ah Huahua, Lin Duxi, and Bingbing. Less than two days after we joined, Xiao Xi entered.]
[Domineering CEO Villainess Supporting Character Ye Bingbing: When I joined the group, the group chat system gave a prompt that the group administrator had not yet joined, and some functions could not be activated. Everyone had seen the group admin notice, so when Xiao Xi joined, everyone just thought she was an Earthling who accidentally entered the group. But now that I think about it, she is probably the administrator.]
Before Lin Xi joined the group, apart from lamenting their misfortunes after transmigrating, Ye Bingbing and the others talked most about the group administrator.
[Primitive World Ah Huahua: Yes, that's right. However, after Xiao Xi joined the group, we talked about it less because we found we couldn't send messages about the group administrator topic anymore. We also couldn't private message each other individually. After a while, everyone just stopped thinking about this topic.]
[Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Lin Duxi: I think Xiao Xi is probably the group's administrator, or perhaps, she's still in a trial phase?]
Following the thread of Xu Huanhuan and the others' conversation, everyone brainstormed, and they unanimously believed that although Lin Xi wasn't the administrator now, she would inevitably become one someday.
Lin Xi didn't join their discussion. Guided by the system, she had already found a purple, tarot-card-like item among her father's old belongings. It was embroidered with an elegant beauty, half-covering her face, leaving only a pair of eyes visible.
That single gaze was enough to drive one mad.
Lin Xi sent a text to Chi Xiangping saying she was going to sleep. Then she chose to accept the task and selected soul transmission.
This was Lin Xi's first time in the ancient world. The moment her body materialized in the ancient era, she was already wearing clothes provided by the system, appropriate for girls of that time period.
She stood at the entrance of Little Hillock Village. Shortly after, Zhong Shuyan arrived. She had come running: "Hey, I started heading this way as soon as you accepted the task, but I didn't expect you to come so fast, whoosh, and you were here."
Zhong Shuyan was extremely apologetic.
"It's fine, it's fine." Lin Xi waved her hand, indicating she didn't mind, and took out a bunch of tasty, long-lasting food from her spatial storage for her.
Among the items were many health supplements for the middle-aged and elderly, as well as various nutrients like glucose. All were things Zhong Shuyan currently lacked.
Zhong Shuyan thanked Lin Xi profusely. Although she felt bad taking advantage, she truly had no other choice right now.
Even though living in this place felt worse than death, having been transmigrated for so many days now, she thought living was still somewhat acceptable, so she'd just keep living for now.
There was no one around. She stored the items in her spatial storage, and the two of them walked towards the village together.
Zhong Shuyan briefed Lin Xi on her current cover identity. She was the granddaughter of Zhong Shuyan's brother from her maiden family, here to visit her.
The original host's maiden family lived very far away. Transportation was inconvenient in ancient times, so the identity she fabricated for Lin Xi wouldn't raise any suspicion.
The ancient language differed somewhat from the modern one. Zhong Shuyan, having transmigrated into the original host's body, had inherited her language ability. During her livestreams, the group chat system broadcast everything in standard Mandarin.
Whatever Lin Xi said, however, would be automatically converted into this world's language.
Walking towards the village, Zhong Shuyan mimicked the original host's way of speaking to communicate with people they met. Before long, they saw Eldest Girl Lu and a few other children playing near the house entrance.
Seeing Zhong Shuyan, Eldest Girl Lu ran over to greet her and, upon Zhong Shuyan's introduction, called Lin Xi "elder sister."
"You take your younger siblings and play outside for a while. Come back when Grandma calls you, alright?" Zhong Shuyan instructed Eldest Girl Lu.
Eldest Girl Lu nodded obediently. Even if her grandma hadn't said so, she wouldn't have wanted to go back right now.
How could her Third Uncle and Third Aunt be doing that sort of thing in broad daylight? It was utterly shameful.
After arranging for the children, the two women entered the courtyard together.
Just in time, they saw Liu Cheng'er emerging from the room, looking languid with a flushed, spring-like complexion.
[Host, you have successfully collected the DNA of ten different men. You need ten more men to level up again. Please continue your efforts.]
'Piece of cake. How many points do I have now?'
[Across both worlds, you have accumulated one hundred points.]
'Good. Apply all these points to enhance my body's various functions. Especially that place—cycle through the Ten Famous Treasures. I refuse to believe these ancient men can escape my grasp.'
The sound of Liu Cheng'er conversing with her system rang in Lin Xi's ears. Lin Xi looked at Zhong Shuyan, who was staring back at her with her mouth agape.
Clearly, she had also heard their conversation, and she had never known before that Liu Cheng'er possessed a system.
The conversation over there continued.
[Host, please continue to suppress Lu Panpan. Strive to firmly seize the identity of this world's female protagonist in the shortest time possible!]
'Got it, got it.'
Just then, Liu Cheng'er looked towards Zhong Shuyan and Lin Xi at the entrance.
The moment her eyes met Lin Xi's, the system within her spoke again:
[Ding. Detected a premium female target with 90% compatibility. Successfully conquering this target will grant the host +100 points. Does the host choose to pursue conquest?]
Lin Xi: ??????
