Chapter 10

Warning! Warning!

[The host has less than three days to survive! ]

Listening to the system's broadcast bombardment, Cui Youyi closed her eyes and leaned back, trying not to hear anything and just giving up.

[Dear host, you have less than three days to survive! ]

The system began to test cautiously. Cui Youyi took the opportunity to turn over and change to a comfortable position, silently counting sheep in her mind.

A system that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't should be severely punished. What's more important is that it can't even explain how to prolong its life, just like an artificial intelligence retardation.

"My two sisters-in-law." Cui Youyi sat up suddenly and interrupted the system's mumbling.

"According to the law, we have to reclaim the land, right? Did the village chief explain what the rules are?"

Ningguta is about to enter winter, so there is no need to clear the land and hoe the fields.

The main crop in Ningguta is still corn. If she remembered correctly, it should be ripe at this time. If the village chief wanted her family to help with farm work, not to mention whether they could do farm work, her second brother's health would not be able to handle it.

Liu Shi and Song Ruo exchanged a glance, then began to explain, "The village chief said that the county magistrate told him not to arrange any work for us to reclaim the land and to focus on assisting you in participating in the ice sculpture competition."

"Looking at what the village chief said, I need to discuss the specific rules with the county magistrate."

Song Ruo added, hesitating for a long time before asking, "Little sister, you and this county magistrate..."

Before Cui Youyi could react, Liu Shi interrupted Song Ruo with a cough: "Little sister, will you feel unwell if you go to the ice sculpture competition? We girls will suffer if we catch a cold."

As the eldest sister-in-law is like a mother, Liu Shi naturally has to consider the unmarried Cui Youyi in everything.

Compared with their previous status, ten county magistrates combined were not worthy of the daughter of the Cui family, but now they are criminals exiled to Ningguta.

There is a huge gap between me and the county magistrate. If he is a good man, it would be fine. But if he is a black-hearted person, my whole life will be in jeopardy. Seeing that I am not enlightened, it is better not to break the window paper.

The wind was strong at that time, and Cui Youyi did not hear clearly what her second sister-in-law had not finished saying, but she did not think much about it and replied to Liu Shi.

"Don't worry, sister-in-law. It's impossible to say that you won't be affected at all, but we have all kinds of protective gear in this line of work. As long as you wear the right ones, you'll be fine."

Liu Shi had many concerns in his mind and asked questions one by one. Cui Youyi also answered patiently. Song Ruo would add a few words from time to time. The three sisters-in-law were very harmonious.

It was a rare moment of warmth, and Cui Youyi was so thirsty from explaining.

After finally arriving home, she hurriedly paid the balance to the ox cart driver and then hurried off to pack her things.

I don’t know if the system realized that Cui Youyi didn’t want to pay attention to it, but it was silent all night, and Cui Youyi had a rare good sleep.

Until dawn——

[System Task 3: Please find the target person to obtain the ice sculpture theme, and carve an ice sculpture that meets the requirements within two days.]

[Task Reward: Survive for five days.]

As soon as Cui Youyi opened her eyes, she heard the system's ruthless broadcast, and her good mood disappeared.

"Where can we find the target person?" Cui Youyi asked speechlessly.

Why else would she say she couldn't deal with dumb things? Even the system didn't clearly assign tasks, forcing her to ask questions about everything, and sometimes even making her guess...

[Host, just walk towards the village entrance. The target person will appear in a small, three-story, blue brick courtyard.]

Hearing this, Cui Youyi became interested. The system explained it so clearly. Was it afraid that she wouldn't be able to find the person?

It was like a sudden change of system, and Cui Youyi was still a little uncomfortable.

However, by the time she had finished her breakfast, the system had already reminded her several times, fearing that she would miss the target person.

After saying hello to her brother and sister-in-law, Cui Youyi took her eldest nephew Cui Langxi out to look for someone.

In fact, Cui Youyi wanted to go out by herself, but her sister-in-law was afraid that something might happen, so she insisted that Cui Langxi accompany her.

So the aunt and niece set out with a backpack on their backs to find the way home and look for people.

"Aunt, where are we going?" Looking at the route, it didn't look like we were going to look for wild vegetables, so Cui Langxi was a little puzzled.

"Go to a blue brick house to look for someone." Cui Youyi didn't want to hide it from her nephew, so she told him directly when he asked.

Cui Langxi paused and looked at Cui Youyi hesitantly, wanting to say something.

Cui Youyi was so amused that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Look at your face, it's as wrinkled as a bitter melon. You're so young, yet you think so much. Follow me, this is a big deal about the ice sculpture competition!"

Cui Langxi was young after all, so he was fooled by Cui Youyi's half-truths.

"Excuse me, is anyone there?" Cui Youyi found the blue brick house without any obstruction and started knocking on the door.

For some reason, my heart suddenly started beating wildly after knocking on the door, especially when I heard footsteps from inside.

She couldn't help but suspect that the people inside were jackals, tigers or leopards, otherwise why would the body give such an early warning.

Cui Youyi took a step back, hesitating whether to escape.

With a creak, the heavy wooden door slowly opened, and a familiar face appeared in front of Cui Youyi.

"Why is it you?"

"Brother Jun, who is here?"

The words that Cui Youyi blurted out overlapped with the voices in the house, and the scene was a little awkward.

Cui Youyi said this without saying anything, and Wang Jun also stood in front of the door without moving.

Cui Langxi looked at his aunt, then at Wang Jun, staring at his face intently.

"Why are you all standing here? Are you acting as door gods?" A woman in a blue cloth shirt with a double-breasted collar walked quickly to the door.

"Hey, where did this sign girl come from? But I have something to ask my aunt, so please come in with me quickly."

As soon as she spoke, Wang Jun stepped aside in a rather obedient manner.

"Aunt, we are new here and live at the end of the village. We are here to get acquainted with the locals and bring you some food."

Cui Youyi took out the prepared pastries from her backpack and handed them to the woman obediently.

Look at the way she is dressed. Although it is the outfit of an ordinary peasant woman, the material used is fine cotton. She must be related to Wang Jun.

I just don’t know whether the target person is Wang Jun or this woman.

"Uh..." The woman paused after hearing Cui Youyi's introduction.

She had heard that a new family of exiles from the capital had come to the village, and she had heard about them a long time ago.

She originally wanted to ask her son about the family's background, but unfortunately, before she had the chance to ask, they had already visited her.

She looked at Wang Jun and got his tacit consent before she warmly took the things and pulled Cui Youyi and Cui Langxi into the house.

Perhaps they hit it off, and after chatting about all sorts of things, Cui Youyi and this woman felt like they had met too late. Cui Youyi also found out her identity.

This woman was Wang Jun's widowed mother. She came to Ningguta with Wang Jun many years ago. She felt that life in the city was boring, so she found a nearby village and bought some land to live there. Wang Jun would come to the village to visit his mother during his holidays or free time.

Because of Wang Jun, the villagers called her Old Madam Wang, and Cui Youyi was able to call her Aunt Wang because she was favored.

The more Aunt Wang looked at Cui Youyi, the more she liked her. The smart and sensible Cui Langxi was simply her dream grandson.

She glanced at her son who had been standing there pretending to read, and insisted that Cui Youyi and the others stay for dinner. She also considerately opened the door and took Cui Langxi to pick vegetables, trying her best to leave space for Cui Youyi and Wang Jun.

"My Lord, what a coincidence!"

Cui Youyi still had a smiling face, just like that day.

Wang Jun could not see any trace of the unpleasantness that happened that day on her face.

"It's quite a coincidence. After a whole morning, Miss Cui finally discovered someone like me."

Hey~ Why does this sound so sour... Cui Youyi felt like she was getting goosebumps all over her body.

"You have to think carefully before talking to adults."

What if it is used to block a knife again?

I hope you understand what I haven’t said yet, Cui Youyi thought kindly.

Wang Jun realized that he had spoken out of turn, so he asked directly, "Then why did you come to see me today?"

He didn't believe that Cui Youyi talked to his mother for so long just to chat.

"Your Excellency is truly the Bao Gong of the modern age!" Cui Youyi's eyes lit up.

That’s great, I don’t have to find a topic to ask him about the theme of the ice sculpture!

Cui Youyi handed over a cup of tea with great attitude.

"That's right."

"I can't sleep at night just thinking about participating in the ice sculpture competition."

"First, the competition rules aren't clear yet. I'd like to practice and prepare in advance, but I don't know where to start. Second, the Ningguta ice sculpture themes are all-encompassing, and I feel like I'm not very knowledgeable enough. I'm worried about what kind of work I'll have to submit for the preliminary round."

"I happen to have some material suitable for ice sculpture, and since I happened to meet you, sir, I thought I'd ask you for a favor. I wonder what theme I should carve that would be more in line with the style of Ningguta?"

"Ask me about the topic? Miss Cui, did I leak the topic in advance?" Wang Jun put down his teacup and fixed his eyes on Cui Youyi.

In the past, the themes of ice sculpture competitions were drawn blindly starting from the preliminary rounds, and occasionally the preliminary and final rounds would have the same theme.

For this year's ice sculpture conference, they are preparing to re-divide the themes of the preliminary round, round-robin and finals according to the difficulty of the ice sculpture themes.

When Cui Youyi asked this question, it was hard not to think of something wrong. He immediately suspected that an undercover agent had leaked the information.

"Aren't these themes all chosen blindly?" Cui Youyi asked in confusion. "I just want to carve an ice sculpture that suits the Ningguta aesthetic. Is that not possible?"

What kind of brain circuit is this guy having? He's acting like he's suffering from paranoia every day. Cui Youyi is really convinced.

Since I came to this world, I seem to have rarely met normal people!

Wang Jun realized that he had misunderstood Cui Youyi, but he stood up and apologized to Cui Youyi solemnly. He overreacted.

"I have spoken carelessly and offended the young lady. I beg your forgiveness."

Wang Jun's action made Cui Youyi, who had complained ten times in her heart, feel a little embarrassed.

"Your Excellency's words are too kind, Your Excellency's words are too kind." Cui Youyi dared not accept such a big gift from him and quickly avoided it.

This guy is not that bad. Forget it, forget it. I will complain less about him next time.

"Ahhh, what are you doing!?"

A sharp and piercing female voice was heard, and the open wooden door of Wang Jun's house creaked when it was pushed, which made Cui Youyi's ears hurt.