Chapter 24
While the two little girls were fishing with sticks, the system was thinking about how to tell the host about this sudden side quest.
Tell her directly that because Zhao Xiaoli is the protagonist who can unconsciously plunder luck, she and her mother were killed in the previous life?
The system can imagine how angry Yun Mian will be at that time without any analysis or calculation. After that, she will not only not be able to complete the task, but may even turn against the heroine and they may never have any contact with each other again.
The most important thing is that the winter when Yunjin died is approaching, and Yunmian will definitely find ways to persuade her mother to leave Zhaojiagou together.
But in this way, they may be able to survive a little longer in this world, but the main mission will definitely fail because they are far away from the protagonist.
Moreover, the two children have been very good friends since they came into this world, and the system does not want Yunmian to lose his first true friend in two lives.
Until dusk fell, the scorching heat was still steaming over the land. Yun Mian and Zhao Xiaoli actually caught a few fish with the help of a few earthworms and an embroidery needle with a curved hook.
However, the big fish were all caught by Zhao Xiaoli. She could catch a big fish almost every time she put out the bait, and the species were all different.
All the small ones were caught by Yunmian. They were more like gifts from the big fish caught by Zhao Xiaoli. Their tails were crackling in the grass and they were flapping their arms and legs, trying to get back into the pond.
"…But how are you going to take this back?" Yun Mian pointed at the big fish flapping on the ground, feeling a little envious, but also worried about the other party's true feelings.
Zhao Xiaoli was silent for a moment. Under the gaze of Yun Mian's clear black and white eyes, she silently stretched out her foot and kicked a big fish that had already jumped to her feet back into the pond.
The system, which was swaying in the wind on the grass, suddenly froze: "Side quest completion progress: 0.03%???"
Yun Mian looked down and saw at least seven big fish on the ground. Some of them were even taller than Zhao Xiaoli herself. It took the two of them and the three dogs all their might to pull them up.
"Let me help you!" She smiled with great enthusiasm, then knelt on the ground, stretched out her hand and pushed the smooth and sticky scales of the big fish with great effort, pushing it to the edge of the pond little by little.
The next second, the big fish seemed to know that it could escape today. It suddenly flapped its tail and used the momentum to throw itself into the pond.
The water splashed high and then fell, and the progress of the side quest increased again to 0.05 percent. At this time, Yun Mian had already reached out to the remaining fish.
"Do you want this one?" Before releasing it, she looked up and asked Zhao Xiaoli politely.
Zhao Xiaoli: "...let it go."
She looked at the big fish at her feet, which were probably heavier than herself and Yunmian combined, and then looked at the palm-sized fish that had been strung together by Yunmian with straw ropes. The indescribable feeling of being favored by fate became stronger and stronger.
So she didn't move, but just stood there watching Yunmian release the big fish that she had caught with great difficulty into the pond one by one, until only the last big fish was left on the grass.
"You can take this one home!" Yun Mian clapped her hands and stood up, pointing at the fish which was not particularly big in comparison, and said happily: "This fish must be really, really delicious. That's great. Now we can all eat delicious fish meat when we go home!!"
Zhao Xiaoli looked at the only remaining fish, and suddenly an impulse surged in her heart: "Why not let it go too? I... I don't particularly like eating fish."
In other words, she suddenly wanted to know what would happen if the things brought by her good luck were not accepted?
"You're lying."
The childish and straightforward revelation left Zhao Xiaoli stunned.
She looked at Yunmian in surprise.
Yun Mian had already picked up her bunch of small fish fry and held them in her arms, guarding against Ping Ping An and Little Gray Wolf stealing some. She frowned and said in confusion, "You can take all this away, why don't you want it? You told me you wanted to eat fish when you went to school this morning."
Zhao Xiaoli smiled bitterly: "You don't understand, I always feel that I have gained too much, a fish... is really nothing."
She was not showing off, and Yunmian did not understand this behavior which is called Versailles in modern times.
"Then let it go." Although Yun Mian didn't quite understand what Zhao Xiaoli said, she could feel her sudden melancholy.
As expected, Zhao Xiaoli threw the last fish back into the pond.
She has no fish now.
Yun Mian touched her little fish reluctantly, and finally untied the knot on the straw rope, took out four little fish and piled them in front of Zhao Xiaoli.
Under the other party's blank gaze, Yunmian pursed her lips and said with curved eyes: "Little Li, I will share the fish with you, don't be unhappy, we will go home tonight and let mom cook delicious fish soup~"
She was actually reluctant to leave, but Xiaoli was very kind to her. She would help her pick persimmons, give money to her mother, rush out and cry to stop Zhao Yuntao and his friends from beating her, trick Zhao Yunbo into giving her candy, and so much more...
In her previous life, Yunmian had almost never seen a healthy child who could run and jump. She had always lived in the hospital and had no friends. Zhao Xiaoli was the first child she met.
Yunmian felt that she liked Xiaoli very much, so out of the eight small fish on the straw rope, Yunmian gave away four without hesitation.
This way, they can all drink the milky and fragrant fish soup when they go home!
"Uncle, are you saying that Xiaoli is too lucky and will get seriously ill in the future?" Yun Mian sat in the yard to enjoy the cool air. The hot summer and the words of Uncle System made her feel a little uneasy.
The system's lies are not as sensitive as humans', and people cannot detect emotional fluctuations, so it seems to remain calm.
"Yes, this is the side quest I just received this afternoon. But Mianmian, we are not the souls of this world. We cannot tell her the truth directly, otherwise we will be expelled by the world consciousness immediately. We can only use other methods to complete the task."
"..." Yunmian's mind was in a mess. She heard what Uncle System said, but...what should she do?
She was just a little girl who was about to turn six years old. She had been doing the main quests in a confused manner. Now a side quest that sounded particularly serious suddenly popped up. Yun Mian raised her hand and scratched the back of her head. For a moment, she really didn't know what to do.
"Mianmian, you did it this afternoon." The system flew to her shoulder and whispered, "It's not that difficult, just tell Zhao Xiaoli not to touch the things she got by luck. Her situation is like the water tank in the yard, which was originally used for cooking and washing clothes. It can be used for a long time, and when it is used up, new water can be poured in to continue using it. But if someone secretly smashes a hole under the water tank, the water in the tank will drain out in a short time, and even the tank will be broken and can no longer be used."
It used the most intuitive way to make Yunmian basically understand the problem, and then said: "Mianmian, the gold in her hand and the money from selling ginseng have not been used up. Next, you have to find a way to make up for her luck in spending the gold and money."
Yun Mian nodded as if she understood, and waited until the system uncle stopped talking about the mission before she lay down on the long bench and looked up at the starry night sky above her head.
The system uncle said that Xiaoli will get a very serious illness in the future because her luck is too good and she will overdraw her luck.
When she first came to this world, Xiaoli squatted in front of the ginseng and said something about her luck being overdrawn.
Yunmian didn’t understand at that time, but now she seems to understand a little.
"It seems that being the protagonist of the world is not that great..." Yun Mian muttered softly as he looked at the twinkling stars.
Even if she becomes the protagonist, she will get sick, die, be unhappy, and be chased around the village with a stick by her mother, just like her.
Now, my only advantage, good luck, has become the cause of my illness and an invisible and intangible death warrant.
In her previous life, Yunmian heard a lot of strange words and stories in the hospital. Some people deliberately dropped money to buy other people's lives, some people went to fortune-telling masters to borrow luck, and even an old lady who lived in the next ward whispered to her mother to take her to a temple or Taoist temple to find a fortune-teller to see if she had been contaminated by some dirt while in the womb.
Now Xiaoli's good luck seems to have turned into a "dirty thing". According to the system uncle, those big fish that Xiaoli caught and the gold and ginseng that she picked up will actually make her seriously ill in the future, and she may even die.
Yunmian sighed gloomily, got down from the stool, picked up a dog and lay on it, rubbing its fur while thinking about how to coax... persuade Xiaoli to give up those good things.
But when Yunmian thought about this, she had to think about the school holidays.
"Mianmian, mom is going to work in the fields. You should be good at home and don't run around, okay?" Yun Jin reminded her while taking off the straw hat hanging on the wall and putting it on her head.
The temperature outside was probably around 36 or 37 degrees Celsius, but Yun Jin was wearing long sleeves and long pants, holding a flat knife that could be used for chopping and cutting, and carrying a handkerchief to wipe sweat as he went out.
The door of the courtyard was closed. Yun Mian was about to go back to the house to continue reading in the light from outside when she noticed that the three grown-up dogs were barking anxiously in one direction.
"What's wrong?" Yun Mian looked over blankly, but saw nothing except the wall of her own house.
The system also realized something was wrong and flew out of the courtyard, not coming back until a long time later.
Its voice was heavy and serious: "Mianmian, the locust plague is coming."
"How could it be?!"
Zhao Xiaoli looked in horror at the dark and moving half of the sky in the distance. After she came to her senses, she ran down from the top of the mountain like crazy, all the way to the direction where the team was harvesting grain.
While running, she kept asking herself questions in her heart.
Is memory really reliable?
Is the world I am reborn into really the original one?
If the answers are all certain, then why did the locust plague arrive several days in advance? !
Obviously because of the rumors about ancestors appearing in dreams to warn people, as well as the drought caused by rising temperatures, the village chief had already taken precautions and notified the brigade. That is why the brigade organized everyone to harvest the crops half a month in advance this time.
But why did the locust plague that was supposed to form half a month later in the previous life suddenly arrive at this moment? !
Didn’t other county and provincial brigades in the surrounding area issue any warnings?
Why? Why did the locust plague come so quickly and just when everyone was preparing to harvest crops today?
Zhao Xiaoli's mind was in a mess. Along the way, she could hear the whistling hot wind in her ears and the rapid breathing in her chest. She thought a lot, but in the end, it was like she was facing a tangled mess. Even if she tried her best to look for it, she couldn't find the thread of the mess.
At the same time, Yunmian was running in the same direction like crazy.
However, Zhao Xiaoli was going to notify the brigade cadres and villagers who were collecting grain, but Yun Mian simply wanted to call her mother back.
"The locusts fly very fast. They are now wreaking havoc on crops in other fields. Once all the plants on those fields and the mountain are eaten up, it will take them only fifteen minutes to fly to Zhaojiagou. Mianmian, you must run faster." The system urged anxiously.
It also doesn't understand why, even though there was so much snow in Zhaojiagou last winter, which should have frozen most of the insect eggs to death, so many grasshoppers still hatched this summer, so that after they matured, they successfully gathered into groups in the autumn, causing a locust disaster.
If we have to find a reason that goes against science, there is only one source - Zhao Xiaoli.
Zhao Xiaoli is the fulcrum of the small world. Her luck is derived from the luck of those around her. She has lived in Zhaojiagou for more than five years, and she started absorbing luck from the moment she was born.
So it was obvious that Zhao Xiaoli had tried her best to use various methods to persuade the village cadres and brigade cadres to believe that there would be a reduction in production this year and therefore to harvest the grain in advance. However, under the trajectory of the axis of destiny, the locust plague that had been brewing for five years was unavoidable in any way.
But... with so many lives lost, how is Zhao Xiaoli going to pay it back in the future?
Even though she had not received any gifts of luck during this period due to Yunmian's intervention, when she was younger, before she was reborn... the luck she had absorbed still had to be paid for with human lives.
Under the urging of the system, Yunmian was running very fast. Behind her were three dogs running at the same time. They sensed the danger earlier than humans, and it was they who gave the warning at the beginning. Only then were Yunmian and the system able to detect the abnormality in the first time.
Her heart was beating very fast. Yun Mian even felt as if she was back in the operating room of her previous life. A doctor wearing a mask was bending over, holding a large medical device against her chest, giving her strong electric shocks again and again.
“Bang—bang—”
She was breathing heavily. The running and the hot wind made the sweat on her head slide into her eyes, irritating her so much that she had to blink desperately, but she didn't dare to stop even for a moment.
This road where she usually ran freely seemed to be stretched longer and longer by an invisible hand. Yun Mian didn't even remember how long she had been running. Just when she was so anxious that she wanted to cry, she finally saw her mother bending over to harvest crops in the field in the dazzling halo.
There were many people in the field, but Yunmian only saw her mother at that moment.
She tried her best to move her heavy legs, but finally she lost strength just as she was about to get close. She stumbled and fell heavily on the dry ground.
"Mianmian? Xiaojin, your Mianmian is here to look for you!"
"Kid, why are you running so fast? Come on, let me help you up. Do you want to drink some water and take a rest?"
"Xiao Jin, your Mian Mian is running away in such a hurry, could it be that there is something urgent?"
A familiar yet unfamiliar voice kept ringing in her ears. Yun Mian swallowed hard, her sore throat aching, and grabbed her mother's wrist tightly in the surprised gaze of everyone.
"Mother……"
She opened her mouth, but her voice became hoarse from the rapid running and the hot air she swallowed: "There are locusts, there are, there are so many... jumping insects, they are flying over here!!"
Her eyes were filled with anxiety and fear, with tears in them. She repeatedly told the astonished crowd about locusts, grasshoppers and springtails, and mentioned the impending disaster many times using various names.
Until Yunjin reached out and picked her up.
"Don't be afraid, Mianmian. Mommy heard it. Don't be afraid." Rough hands kept patting her daughter's thin back. In the silence, Yun Jin raised her voice and said to everyone around her: "Everyone, don't just stand there. No matter whether it's true or not, hurry up and transport the food you just harvested to the team warehouse. Someone else will notify the others to hold on tightly and save as many as possible!"
After her reminder, everyone who had been stunned by the word "locust" came to their senses and followed her command, running hurriedly like a colony of ants just before a rainstorm.
The entire field was filled with the sound of people shouting to inform each other to quickly transport the grain for the harvest.
Yun Jin didn't care about her daughter either. She was squatting and struggling to stand up with a large load of food on her thin shoulders.
Yunmian sat on the edge of the field, staring blankly at them all running towards the food, with no one going home.
"……Why?"
Zhao Xiaoli had arrived when Yun Jin was talking just now. An adult ran to the team to inform them, so she didn't have to make another trip.
At this time, he was sitting on the edge of the field with Yunmian, and he said softly, "Because at this time, food is more important than the lives of all of them."
Zhao Xiaoli had experienced that era, so she knew what it was like for people to starve to death due to lack of food, and she also knew how desperate the days of hunger were.
Yunjin's first reaction was the most correct. She rushed to harvest the crops before the locusts arrived and transported all the harvested crops to the warehouse for storage. The rest of the people worked hard in the fields to harvest the crops.
Only in this way, when famine strikes, can they survive a few more days by relying on the temporarily harvested food.
If you ask these people whether they are afraid of the overwhelming locusts, they are undoubtedly afraid, but no matter how scared they are, it is better than starving to death.
Yunmian tilted her head to look at Zhao Xiaoli, whose face was red from the sun and whose sweat was pouring down her face. She reached out to help her wipe the sweat off her face and said seriously, "Then let's go help everyone."
She didn't know how many lives the food these people had collected at such a high speed could save and how important it was. But her mother had already left with such a big basket on her back, and the rest of the people were also frantically collecting the food. Yun Mian felt that she should be able to help a little.
She came down from the edge of the field, picked up the knife her mother had dropped, and imitated the adults, bending down, reaching out to grab a small handful and cutting it off with force.
In less than ten minutes, even if the two children and the adults tried their best, they could not harvest all the grain, not to mention that there were so many fields in the entire brigade.
So Yunmian and Zhao Xiaoli, in the field, under the protection of the adults, saw with their own eyes the huge and dense swarm of locusts coming towards them.
They flew densely from the distant sky, and in a flash, they fell towards the crowd in a black mass.
It was like the sky above our heads was falling heavily, not giving the humans below a moment to breathe.
It was the first time that Yun Mian saw such a doomsday-like scene. She was protected by the adults, listening to the creepy rustling sounds of flapping wings and gnawing. Many locusts flew through the gaps between people and landed on her and Zhao Xiaoli. Their khaki bodies slowly folded in their wings, and they no longer flew away in large numbers like in the summer when the grass was pushed aside.
Yun Mian pursed her lips, and bravely, with trembling hands, picked off the locusts lying on herself and Zhao Xiaoli, and either stepped on them to death or crushed them with her hands.
She finally understood why Zhao Xiaoli was so unhappy when she saw the locusts in the mountains.
But she was more worried about her mother.
Mom is carrying so much food. What if she gets scared by these horrible bugs?
Just as she was worried, Yun Mian suddenly heard a faint sobbing sound.
She first looked at Zhao Xiaoli. In a dark space, Zhao Xiaoli was clenching her fists and staring at the locusts outside hatefully, but she was not crying.
Is the one crying... an adult?
Yun Mian turned around following the crying sounds, but the crying became more and more frequent, and she could no longer tell who was crying at the beginning.
It seemed like all these uncles, aunts, grandparents were crying.
The sound of locusts eating food could be heard all around, as well as the sobs and curses of the adults. It was the first time that Yunmian felt so many emotions in this locust plague that she had never seen before.
The locusts left quickly. After they left, the uncles, aunts and uncles all looked at the messy field in front of them in a daze.
Some people suddenly burst into tears, some knelt on the ground like crazy, turning over the cracked soil to dig out the remaining food in the cracks, and some people covered their hearts and breathed hard, and in an instant they burst into tears.
Zhao Xiaoli looked at the scene bitterly, took a deep breath, and suddenly felt like a heavy stone was pressing on her heart, which could not be moved no matter what she did.
Clearly before autumn came, clearly on the way here, she had told the unknown being many times that she was willing to bless all the people in Zhaojiagou with luck, and that she was willing to no longer pick up benefits and have wealth and opportunities in the future, and only hoped that everyone could spend this autumn safely, without having to face the locust plague or go hungry.
But why didn’t it work this time?
The last time she made a wish to Yunmian, Yunmian woke up at night. Why didn’t it work when she said the same thing this time?
Not only that, the locust plague arrived a week earlier...
Beside Zhao Xiaoli, Yun Mian stood helplessly in the field where no grain was harvested. In fact, she was not quite clear about what she would face after losing her food, but when she saw the adults kneeling on the ground crying and cursing at God, she felt inexplicably chilled in her heart.
Yunmian took two steps back timidly, no longer looking at them as if avoiding them, but turned and ran in the direction her mother left.
No matter what, no matter how uneasy she was, no matter what suffering she was about to face, as long as she found her mother, she would not be afraid anymore.
Thank you all for your support and nutrient solution. See you tomorrow~
Thanks to the little angel who threw the grenade:
. 1;
Thanks to the little angel who cast the mine:
AmberTeoh, squatting in the pit to urge 1 update;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution:
Cabinet 40 bottles;
Watch the world smoke 30 bottles;
25 bottles of Shuxiang Yayun;
Yogurt frozen 12 bottles;
Sheng! 10 bottles;
Cheese milk cap with instant noodles, 6 bottles of Ying;
5 bottles of Falling Dusk and Scattering Flowers;
The wife I'm pursuing drank 3 bottles of milk today;
Abai, Chunqiu, Camille Tianxiadiyi, Qingmeng, Yu, Shijiu, and Tuizi 1 bottle;
Give the babies a heart~
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