After the original owner fainted, Xu Cui heard the noise. Although she immediately took the person to the clinic, the original owner remained unconscious until she opened her eyes this morning and became the current Cheng Ruyi.
Although she didn't know whether the original owner's soul had been reincarnated or gone somewhere else, since the soul in this body was Cheng Ruyi from the modern era, and she couldn't go back to the past, she could only continue living like this for the time being.
"There's no use thinking about it. Since I'm here, I might as well make the best of it. Don't worry, now that I'm using your body, I'll take good care of your family for you. And if I find a way to leave in the future, I will definitely not continue to occupy your body!" Ruyi secretly made up her mind.
"Mother, are you awake?" A knock came at the door, and a teenage girl stepped in. Her delicate face was full of worry, and her brows were furrowed into a deep frown.
The little girl was naturally the eldest daughter, Cheng Yun'an. She quickly walked to the bedside, handed over a cup of steaming water, and asked worriedly, "Mother, are you feeling better? Is anything bothering you?"
Before Cheng Ruyi could reply, a group of people rushed in, and a pink and tender little baby came into view. The baby stared at her with teary eyes and uttered the soft word "Mother" before tears streamed down her face.
Looking at the human cub with pigtails in front of her, Ruyi suddenly felt that she resembled her own cat somewhat. Her heart softened, and she naturally reached out to affectionately stroke the little girl's head, wipe away her tears, and pinch her cheek, saying gently, "Mommy feels much better, don't cry, don't cry~~"
Although Cheng Yan, who was not good with words, was standing by the door, he kept repeating, "It's good that you're awake, it's good that you're awake..." with tears glistening in his eyes.
Xu Cui and Cheng Yunping both had red eyes and kept wiping the corners of their eyes with their sleeves.
Everyone's eyes were filled with deep concern. Cheng Ruyi couldn't help but think of her past life, when she was struggling alone in a big city, and suddenly left before she could properly take care of her parents back home. She wondered how they were doing now...
Overwhelmed by a mix of emotions—loneliness, guilt, grievance, gratitude, and more—my head started spinning again, and I drifted off to sleep.
Cheng Ruyi woke up again because she was hungry. It was already dark outside, and the faint aroma of food could be smelled through the window, so it was probably dinnertime.
Ruyi tried to get out of bed and found that apart from a slight headache and unsteady steps, there was nothing seriously wrong. She carefully pushed open the door and walked towards the main room she remembered.
The Cheng family's house was a typical small courtyard house with three main rooms. The middle room was the main hall where the family ate and chatted. The original owner lived on the left side of the main hall, while Cheng Yan's room was naturally on the right side. The three main rooms were not small, each about 20 square meters.
There are two smaller wing rooms on the east and west sides of the courtyard. One of the east wing rooms is where Cheng Yunping and his wife and their son live, and the other is the Cheng family's timber warehouse. The west wing room closest to the main house is where the Yun'an and Yunle sisters live, and the other room is where Xu Cui lives.
Behind the main house is a small backyard. In the left corner is a simple outhouse built of wooden planks, and in the middle is a small vegetable garden with various common vegetables planted sparsely, obviously not well taken care of.
To the right is the kitchen, and next to the door is a chicken coop lined with thick straw, in which two hens are kept. The original owner bought them specially after her daughter-in-law became pregnant. Although it is not difficult to buy eggs in the county town, it is more nutritious and convenient to eat fresh eggs every day. However, she never expected that her unintentional act would become a precious food for a long time to come.
There is a side door next to the kitchen door. There is no well in the Cheng family's yard, but there is a public well just around the corner after going out the side door, and there is a small river after going through an alley, so it is very convenient to fetch water.
There is an osmanthus tree planted in the corner of the front yard. It is quite old and has many branches and leaves.
Passing through the main gate in the middle of the front yard, you can reach Cheng's furniture shop. The shop is not large and is filled with various kinds of wood and ordinary everyday furniture, which looks a bit messy. Although the shop is not on the main street, it has been doing business with the neighborhood for decades, so it has not had any impact.
It's early February now, and the weather is still very cold, with the lowest temperature estimated to be several degrees below zero. In the early morning, you can see a thin layer of frost on the ground in the yard.
The original owner had no geographical knowledge whatsoever; she rarely even left the county town.
Cheng Ruyi guessed that the location of Huaishan County was probably similar to the central plains region of her previous life, provided that this place was still Earth.
Distracted by her thoughts as she walked, she didn't notice the threshold and tripped, nearly knocking over the wooden frame by the door. Upon hearing the noise, everyone in the main room turned to look at the doorway, and the atmosphere suddenly became somewhat awkward...
"Uh...that..." Cheng Ruyi was about to say something.
Cheng Yun'an had already gotten up and walked over to help her to a chair, asking with concern, "Mother, why are you awake? Are you hungry?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Cui also stood up. "Ruyi, I've kept your food warm in the kitchen. Please sit down and wait a moment, I'll bring it to you right away!" As soon as she finished speaking, she walked out of the main room.
When Ruyi came to her senses, she realized that there was only a lonely plate of green vegetables on the huge table, a bowl of thin millet porridge in front of each person, and a small pancake in their hand.
In the original owner's remaining memories, although the borders of the Da Yue Dynasty were often at war, the foundation left by the previous dynasty was very good. Therefore, the social productivity of Da Yue was not low. The staple food of ordinary people in the county town was rice or noodles. The poorer ones ate millet mixed with other foods. Chicken, duck, fish and pork were common dishes. Although mutton, beef and venison were scarce and expensive, they could still be eaten occasionally.
As ordinary people in the county town, the Cheng family had no problem with having enough to eat and wear. That's why Ruyi was surprised to see dinner on the table. It seemed that the family's food reserves were not very good.
The twenty taels of silver spent last year to avoid military service was almost half of the Cheng family's savings. Later, Yunping's wedding and Xiaoman's pregnancy cost another ten taels.
In the past few days, the price of grain in the city has skyrocketed. The price of new rice has soared from 20 wen per liter to 60 wen per liter. The original owner had taken his last savings of 10 taels of silver and thought he could buy as much grain as possible. As a result, not only did he not buy any grain, but he also lost his purse and disappeared.
Seeing his daughter staring blankly at the food, Cheng Yan lowered his head and pondered for a moment before comforting her, "Ruyi, you don't need to worry too much. You were unconscious for a whole day, and the neighbors brought you some food when they came to visit. I'll figure out the rest. The most important thing is that you're alright!"
Cheng Yunle chimed in with his childish voice, "Mommy, Mommy, I'm small, I can get full with very little food, I'm easy to raise!"
Ruyi felt the warmth of her family and smiled as she patted her youngest daughter's head.
At this moment, Xu Cui also came in carrying a large tray and shouted loudly, "Come, come, eat while it's hot! You haven't eaten all day, you must be starving!"
The tray was laden with a generous spread: a large bowl of thick white porridge, a dish of stir-fried vegetables with cured meat, and a bowl of golden-yellow steamed egg custard.
Looking at the stark contrast between the two sets of food, Cheng Ruyi sighed, "I'm still a little dizzy and don't have much of an appetite right now. You can share the other two dishes, except for the congee."
After saying that, he raised his hand to stop Xu Cui, who was about to say something more, and turned to Cheng Yunping to ask, "Has your wife eaten? These eggs were originally bought for her to nourish her body. There's not much meat these days, so eggs are absolutely essential!"
Lin Xiaoman is currently in her room recovering from childbirth. Her meals are brought directly to her room. If she doesn't get enough to eat and doesn't get enough nutrition, she will not only develop health problems but it will also affect her milk supply.
Cheng Yunping, whether out of habit of obeying his mother or out of consideration for his wife, did not object and silently nodded, but did not make a move.
Seeing her family members sitting like wooden figures without lifting a finger, Ruyi had no choice but to do it herself, giving each person a bite of meat and eggs, and then having Yunping take the remaining half bowl of eggs to his wife's room.
No one said anything more, and dinner ended hastily in a somber atmosphere.
After the meal, Cheng Ruyi went to the kitchen to check and found that there was indeed not much rice and wheat flour, about thirty or forty catties each. There was even less millet, less than twenty catties. There were two pieces of cured pork, six sausages, and some cabbage and radishes. Fortunately, it had only been a short time since the New Year, and even though they had eaten quite a lot during this period, they still had some left.
Under normal circumstances, this amount of food could last the Cheng family for half a month, and if they were careful, it could barely last a month. However, it was unknown how long the lockdown would last, since wars can be long or short.
Actually, it's not fair to blame the Cheng family for having little food. In this city, almost no one has the habit of storing food. At most, they would store about a month's worth of staple food. This is because it is very convenient to buy things in the city. There is a market at both the east and west ends, and there are countless grocery stores, grain stores, and butcher shops on the streets!
After a simple dinner, Ruyi returned to her room, pondering how to get through this difficult time.
Tomorrow is the last day before the lockdown. I must buy food no matter what. The original owner still has three taels of silver and a few hundred coins. If that's not enough, there are some jewelry pieces. Anyway, I must go out again tomorrow and try to buy whatever I can find.
In short, there's always a way out, especially since she has a cheat code!
Yes, since there's even time travel involved, then a cheat-like ability is also a must, except that Cheng Ruyi's cheat-like ability is a little strange...
"system."
After silently uttering those two words in my mind, a semi-transparent interface with an ink-wash style appeared before my eyes.
On the left side of the interface, the four characters "Check-in System" were written in a flowing, elegant style. Below that was an introduction to the system rules written in small regular script. After carefully reading it, Cheng Ruyi understood its general meaning.
Similar to modern mobile games, many games offer a "sign-in for rewards" feature to encourage users to log in daily. However, the sign-in system in front of us seems to have been detached from a game; there are only sign-in rewards, but no game content.
Moreover, prizes are not awarded every day. Instead, a calendar month is divided into the first, middle, and last ten days of the month. You can receive a "gift pack for the first/middle/last ten days" after each ten-day period of check-in. If you choose not to receive the gift pack and continue to check in for a full month, you can receive a "monthly gift pack". This pattern continues with "quarterly gift packs" and "annual gift packs".
There was no explanation as to what was inside the gift pack.
On the right side of the interface is a perpetual calendar, which displays the February calendar. The first ten days of the calendar are glowing faintly, and the first nine days are circled in red, presumably to indicate that the check-in has been successful. The remaining dates are grayed out.
The previous nine days' check-ins had already been completed, but Cheng Ruyi only just transmigrated today. Therefore, the previous check-ins were all done by the original owner, which means that this cheat ability actually belonged to the original owner.
I just don't know why, even though the original owner's soul is gone, this sign-in system is still there. Could it be that it was bound to the body instead of the soul?
Furthermore, Cheng Ruyi searched through the original owner's memories but couldn't find the memories of when she obtained this system. Was it erased by someone?
Why make something so mysterious when it's supposed to be a cheat ability...?
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