Chapter 1 The Last Sweet Potato Peel
Winter of 1960, Linjiagou, northern Henan.
The wind was like a knife, seeping into the cracks of the broken cave dwelling and cutting painfully into people's faces.
It wasn't completely dark yet, but the cave dwelling was already so dark that you couldn't see anyone.
Lin Jianguo leaned against the headboard, his crippled leg, which had been severely injured on the battlefield, was now aching as if insects were crawling into the cracks of his bones.
He gritted his teeth and didn't say a word, but his face, so thin it was unrecognizable, was frighteningly pale.
On the small, rickety square table in the middle of the kang (a heated brick bed), there was a chipped black pottery bowl.
Inside the bowl, half a sweet potato lay all alone.
The sweet potatoes were only the size of a fist, with wrinkled skin and blackened areas, looking like they had little moisture.
But this was the Lin family's last food supply.
"Da Bao, Zhao Di, come here."
Lin Jianguo's voice was terribly hoarse, as if he had a handful of sand in his throat.
Six-year-old Lin Dabao was huddled in the corner of the kang (a heated brick bed), hugging his three-year-old sister Lin Zhaodi for warmth.
Hearing his father call, Da Bao quickly let go of his hand and pushed his younger sister towards his father.
Zhao Di was too small; she was wrapped in a tattered cotton-padded jacket that had been altered from a small size by a Dabao brand, with her wrists, which were as thin as hemp sticks, peeking out from the cuffs.
Her little face was sallow, only her eyes were frighteningly large, dark, and revealed a pitiful innocence.
"Dad, I'm not hungry."
Da Bao swallowed hard, but his eyes were fixed on the half sweet potato, unable to look away.
Zhao Di followed suit, saying in her childish voice, "Zhao Di's tummy isn't hungry, Daddy eat."
As soon as she finished speaking, her little belly gave a loud "rumbling" sound, so loud that it echoed in the quiet cave.
The little girl was startled and quickly covered her stomach with both hands, as if that would suppress the sound.
Lin Jianguo's heart clenched, the pain worse than his leg injury.
He was a soldier who had crawled through piles of corpses and had never blinked when facing enemy machine guns.
But now, seeing his two children starving to the bone, he, as their father, can't even get them a full meal.
That feeling of helplessness was more painful than being shot in the body.
"Dad has already eaten. He ate big white steamed buns at the commune canteen and he's stuffed."
Lin Jianguo forced a smile that looked more like a grimace and broke the half sweet potato in half.
The larger half was handed to Da Bao, and the smaller half was stuffed into Zhao Di's hand.
"Eat quickly, then you can go to sleep. You won't be cold when you're asleep."
The sweet potato was ice-cold and as hard as a rock.
Zhao Di held the sweet potato, reluctant to take a bite, and instead raised it to Lin Jianguo's mouth.
"Daddy is lying. Daddy's tummy is growling too. Daddy, eat."
The little girl's eyes were so pure that they brought tears to Lin Jianguo's eyes.
He turned his head away, hardened his heart, and roared, "Eat what I tell you to eat! Stop talking nonsense! If you don't eat, throw it out to feed the dogs!"
After shouting that, Lin Jianguo felt a sudden darkness before his eyes and the world spinning around him.
That stubborn energy seemed to have been drained away in an instant.
Prolonged hunger, coupled with a high fever caused by an infection in his leg, finally broke this tough man.
A muffled "bang" was heard.
Lin Jianguo's body swayed and he fell straight down on the kang (a heated brick bed).
"father!"
Da Bao was terrified. The sweet potato in his hand rolled to the ground, and he rushed over to shake Lin Jianguo frantically.
"Dad, what's wrong? Don't scare me, Dad!"
Zhao Di was still clutching the half-eaten sweet potato tightly in her hand, and was stunned by the commotion.
She looked at her father, his eyes closed, his face ashen, just like the old beggar who had been dead for several days at the village entrance.
A tremendous fear instantly gripped her little mind.
"Brother, is Father asleep?"
Zhao Di crawled over and touched Lin Jianguo's face with her icy little hands.
It's so hot.
Dad's face is so hot, but his hands are so cold.
Da Bao is a few years older and more sensible, and by now his face is covered in snot and tears from crying.
"Dad didn't sleep, Dad fainted from hunger... Waaah, Auntie next door said that if a person doesn't eat, he will starve to death and never wake up again."
starve?
Zhao Di didn't understand what death was, but she knew that dying meant being buried in a mound of earth like her mother, never being able to hold Zhao Di again, and never being able to braid Zhao Di's hair again.
don't want!
Zhao Di doesn't want her father to die!
The little girl suddenly stuffed the sweet potato in her hand into her mouth, took a big bite, and then spat it out, trying to feed it to Lin Jianguo.
But Lin Jianguo clenched his teeth and couldn't get the food in at all.
"Brother, Father can't eat..."
Zhao Di burst into tears, tears streaming down her face.
Da Bao wiped away his tears and said desperately, "We need porridge, we need something hot... but we don't have a single grain of rice left, and the water tank is frozen solid."
Something hot? Food?
Zhao Di suddenly remembered that she had overheard the village women gossiping under the wall a couple of days ago.
They said there was a kind of soil on the back mountain called Guanyin soil, which was white and soft, and eating it would fill you up and keep you alive.
Although eating and not being able to poop will cause me to bloat and die, it's still better than starving to death now.
Zhao Di's brain, no bigger than a walnut kernel, was now filled with only this one thought.
Go dig!
Dig up that white soil and give it to Dad to eat. If Dad eats it, he will wake up!
The little girl glanced at her brother, who was still crying and shaking his father, and quietly slid off the kang (a heated brick bed).
Her tattered cloth shoes had long since exposed her big toes, and as soon as she stepped on the ground, the cold air would rush up from the soles of her feet.
Zhao Di shivered, tightened her drafty little cotton-padded jacket, and took short steps out of the cave.
The wind outside is getting stronger.
The snowflakes, like torn cotton wool, rained down from all directions.
It was completely dark, and the whole world was a pale, white expanse.
Zhao Di was only three years old, and she wasn't even as tall as the snow-covered area.
She trudged through the snow, each step requiring all her strength.
The wind was so strong she couldn't open her eyes, and her little face turned red from the cold, quickly turning bluish-purple.
"Find TuTu...save Dad..."
The little girl mumbled incoherently, her small body swaying in the strong wind, like a withered blade of grass that could break at any moment.
The back mountain of Linjiagou is not far from the village, but for a three-year-old child, it is like the ends of the earth.
Zhao Di fell down and got up.
He fell down again, then got up again.
My palm was cut by a stone buried in the snow, and blood seeped out, staining a small patch of snow red, only to be instantly covered by new snowflakes.
She couldn't feel the pain because her hands and feet were already numb from the cold.
All she knew was that she had to keep moving forward, to go to the back of the mountain, to dig up the soil that could save her life.
Finally, she climbed up a small hill.
The place ahead is where the adults say there is Guanyin soil.
But the wind was too strong here, and Zhao Di's light and frail body couldn't stand up at all.
A gust of wind, carrying snowflakes, suddenly rushed over.
"ah--"
Zhao Di cried out in surprise, her foot slipped, and she rolled down the steep hillside like a small ball.
The world spun around.
His body crashed into rocks and tree roots, finally falling heavily into a sheltered snowdrift.
Zhao Di felt pain all over her body, especially her head, which felt dizzy.
My eyelids feel so heavy, like I'm wearing two huge weights.
I'm so sleepy.
Does falling asleep mean you won't be hungry anymore? Or cold anymore?
But Dad hasn't even tasted the soil yet...
Just as Zhao Di's consciousness was about to sink into darkness.
In the sky, a strange streak of light suddenly pierced the dark night.
The light seemed out of place in this era, carrying a cold, technological blue glow that crashed straight down upon the barren mountain.
It landed squarely on Zhao Di, who was lying in the snowdrift.
"Sizzle sizzle sizzle—"
A crackling sound of electricity broke the silence of the snowy night.
Immediately afterwards, a completely emotionless, mechanical synthesized voice suddenly exploded in the depths of Zhao Di's mind.
[Warning! Landing failed due to spacetime turbulence!]
[System energy depleted, urgently searching for host...]
[One unique life form detected.]
[Forced binding in progress... Binding successful!]
[Ding! The "Civilization Reconstruction and Technological Advancement Assistance System - 2050 Tactical Edition" has been activated.]
The voice paused for a second, seemingly during a data scan.
The next moment, the originally cold mechanical voice suddenly became sharp, even carrying a hint of extremely human collapse.
[Checking host aptitude...]
[Intelligence: Undeveloped?]
[Physical condition: Near death?]
[Knowledge Base: Zero?]
[Age: 3 years old?!]
Holy crap!
If the system had a physical form, it would probably be kneeling on the ground by now.
[It's over! This high-level game is ruined!]
This system is designed to assist top scientists in rebuilding human civilization, not to babysit children!
[This isn't a host! This is clearly a cub that hasn't been weaned yet!]
And this cub is starving to death!
Zhao Di couldn't understand what was going on in her head at all.
She felt a warm, comforting current suddenly spread from her forehead throughout her entire body.
The feeling of almost freezing disappeared, replaced by a comfort I had never experienced before.
She struggled to open her eyes, her long eyelashes still covered in shards of ice.
There were no gods or immortals in sight, only endless snow and wind.
"Uncle...who are you?"
Zhao Di asked herself a question in her heart.
She was too young to distinguish whether the sound came from her ears or came from her head.
The system was frantically calculating self-rescue plans when it heard this childish voice, and the entire code froze for a moment.
I'm from 2050... never mind, you wouldn't understand anyway.
The system sighed in despair (if it could sigh).
[Host's vital signs are extremely low, hunger level 99%. If energy is not replenished immediately, the host will die, and this system will also be destroyed.]
[Damn it! We have to keep this brat alive!]
The system grumbled as it brought up the task panel.
All those high-end tasks, such as "building nuclear fusion reactors" and "analyzing quantum mechanics," have been turned gray.
It could only grit its teeth and use the last bit of reserve energy to issue what seemed to be the greatest mission at that moment.
[Ding! Urgent newbie quest issued!]
Mission objective: Survive.
[Task objective: Find any edible carbohydrates.]
[Task Reward: New Player Deluxe Gift Pack (containing high-calorie food).]
Zhao Di blinked groggily.
"Exploring water...combining...what's that?"
"Is it edible? Is it tasty?"
system:【……】
The system sensed that its CPU was about to burn out.
It had to downgrade the task difficulty again, projecting a huge, glowing red arrow directly onto Zhao Di's retina.
See that arrow? Climb that way! There's food there!
Upon hearing the word "food".
Zhao Di, who was on the verge of death, suddenly burst forth with an astonishing light in her dim eyes.
That's the instinct for survival in living beings.
It is also the most primal desire for food.
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