Chapter 9
She is just an ordinary ice sculptor. Her mission since childhood has been to pass on the ice sculpture technology. Why is she suddenly forced to be the savior of some kind?
How could she be responsible for the lives of so many people?
How ridiculous this is!
Cui Youyi's resistance was self-evident. Seeing that the communication had reached an impasse, Wang Jun hurriedly explained: "We are not trying to coerce you into our use. We just hope to reach a cooperation with you."
"Cooperation? How?"
"The master is doing the butchering behind the scenes, and I am the one charging in the front and being the butcher?"
Cui Youyi was amused by the man's shamelessness.
It seems that he just needs to talk, and she, Cui Youyi, will go to the front line, and the sick and disabled children in her Cui family will bear the consequences. It is really a good plan.
Cui Youyi was so emotional that she felt that Wang Jundu looked hateful.
Honestly, if she were to come to Ningguta alone today and use her ancestral skills to save thousands of people from disaster, she would absolutely do it without hesitation. But she also had six lives on her shoulders! How could she just let it go?
"Miss Cui, please listen to me." Wang Jun was not annoyed and still looked like a talkative nerd.
Cui Youyi glanced at Wang Jun sideways, as if to say, "Let's see what you can come up with."
"When Miss Cui first arrived in Ningguta, she was targeted by the Zhou family and involved in a so-called theft case. This was originally a dead end."
"So what?" Cui Youyi silently complained in her heart, he is already dead.
After this complaint, people's mood calmed down a little.
Wang Jun straightened his books that were blown by the wind and continued, "But the girl broke the deadlock with her ice sculpture skills."
"I think the girl should understand the principle that a man is innocent but possesses a treasure. The girl has such superb ice sculpture skills, which in itself is a thorn in the eyes of others in Ningguta."
"Although I don't know who your master is, since you've already offended the Zhou family and need more opportunities to make a name for yourself in Ningguta, why would you refuse our cooperation?"
Wang Jun naturally understood Cui Youyi's concerns. He had the same concerns, but someone had to do some things. He chose to do it on his own initiative, while Cui Youyi was forced to do it by the circumstances.
Cooperation is the best solution for everything.
Cui Youyi felt powerless.
"Actually, we don't need you to do anything extra. You just need to put what you've learned into practice and participate in the ice sculpture competition."
"Do your best and leave the rest to fate." Young people say it is impossible to have no lofty ambitions, but Wang Jun has long been taught a lesson by reality after experiencing the ups and downs of officialdom.
Now he no longer seeks to be granted a title or become a prime minister, but only hopes to do his best to make the people of Ningguta live a better life than they do now.
This noisy ice fighting competition started with a bang but ended abruptly.
The new voting rules have been formulated, and all that remains is for Wang Jun and the others to fight for it. Cui Youyi mechanically registered the information and went home with the ice sculpture competition participation token.
*
At night, Cui Youyi tossed and turned on the kang.
Today is the last day of the system strategy mission. Apart from updating Wang Jun's favorability towards her in the morning, the system has not made any sound. Cui Youyi reasonably suspects that it has crashed.
So was her strategy mission completed or not?
The system didn't specify whether there would be any penalties for failing this mission. Did this mean that all she had to do was get a ticket to the Ice Sculpture Competition...
After thinking for a while, Cui Youyi remembered that she only had four days left to live. She couldn't help but wonder if the system was always loading, wouldn't these four days be a countdown to death?
Alas... Cui Youyi sighed deeply.
Cui Youyi wrapped the quilt tightly around herself and turned over, facing the window through which the light was coming, trying to gain some strength.
But the moonlight that gently shone through the window brought with it a bit of the chill unique to Ningguta.
Soon, Cui Youyi's teeth began to chatter slightly.
She couldn't tell whether her heart was cold or her body was cold, so she had to bury herself deeply in the quilt.
The night is really long, Cui Youyi thought.
She was now like a criminal on the guillotine, quietly waiting for the death sentence, longing in her heart for someone to ride on horseback with an imperial decree of pardon to save her from danger.
She really, really wanted to live...
【Ding, system loading completed! 】
The familiar electronic sound of the system rang out. Cui Youyi had not yet woken up from her daze, but she had already suddenly jumped up from the bed.
The sudden influx of cold air made Cui Youyi shiver and wake up completely.
She wrapped herself in the quilt and huddled in the warmest spot on the kang, hoping for a miracle to happen.
But as time went by, the system became silent again.
Cui Youyi felt like she was about to be driven crazy.
"System, please say something! Don't force me to beg you." The humble host prayed online.
The system is silent.
Cui Youyi punched herself in the face in her heart, and just when she was losing her patience and about to lie down again, the system came back.
【System restart completed.】
Cui Youyi adjusted herself to a comfortable position and waited quietly for what was to come.
【System Task 2 has been refreshed.】
[Monitoring shows that the target character's favorability towards the host has risen to 80%, and their recognition of the host's ice sculpture has risen to 85%, meeting the strategy requirements.]
[Monitoring that the host has successfully registered for the Ice Sculpture Competition and meets the mission requirements.]
【System Task 2 is determined to be completed.】
[Host receives a beginner's gift pack of ice carving tools—an ice chisel, an ice pick, and a carving knife. Bonus ice carving tools: a full set of awl tools, a hand saw for cutting large ice blocks, a full set of protective gear, and two types of ice tongs for moving ice blocks.]
[The reward has been issued, please check it carefully. 】
Cui Youyi: That’s it?
"What about my survival time?" Cui Youyi was a little frantic. "This is the most critical issue!!!"
The system didn't say anything when asked, and Cui Youyi was completely convinced. She had no choice but to fall asleep with a lot of questions in her mind.
As the sun and moon change, the crowing roosters provide wake-up service on time, and even Cui Youyi and her family who live at the end of the village are not immune.
"Little sister." Sister-in-law Liu Shi knocked gently on the door. "Get up and have breakfast."
Yesterday they bought some rice from the village chief's house and agreed to come back today to help renovate the house. Looking at the time, they estimated they would be here soon. If my sister-in-law continued to sleep, it would probably be a bit disturbing.
The sister-in-law won the favor of the locals during the day's competition, and their lives became better. Liu Shi also wanted Cui Youyi to rest for a while, but there was no way to wake her up.
Cui Youyi in the room was so sleepy that she couldn't even open her eyes: "Sister-in-law, I'm not hungry."
Liu Shi: The key issue isn't whether you're hungry or not...
"Little sister, the village chief has arranged for us to repair the house today. It will probably be here soon. You'd better get up and clean it up quickly, otherwise the quilt will be covered in dust."
Cui Youyi dragged her heavy body out of bed, ate her breakfast in a hurry with huge dark circles under her eyes, and went to pack up.
Looking at his lively sister, Cui Jingshuo couldn't help but doubt his life.
It was obvious that he and his sister were both severely beaten, so how come he ended up bedridden? Now he has to be pulled by a cart wherever he goes. It's so embarrassing!
"Brother, sisters-in-law, I won fifty taels of silver in the competition yesterday. Why don't we go to town today while the weather is nice and prepare some winter clothes?"
Cui Jingshuo listened to his little sister's words, feeling both relieved and bittersweet. The cat-like baby he had once cherished had finally grown up, and now he had to work hard to support their lives.
"I'm just worried!" Second sister-in-law Song Ruo spread out the clothes she had sorted out in front of everyone. "Look at these clothes, they're so tattered now, how can they last through the winter? We have to prepare a few more sets of clothes for us and the children. I also hid some small gold and silver items. Let's take them to town and pawn them. We can get some money and have more money when we come back."
"I still have some things left. Let's go to the pawnshop together, and then go shopping separately. It will take us about half an hour to walk to the town, and then we can hire a car to deliver the goods to us." Liu Shi was in charge of the household affairs in the mansion. He had a rough idea of the prices of all kinds of goods, and he was accustomed to making some adjustments.
This was a time when everyone needed to work together, and no one wanted to hide anything. Several people gathered together and quickly took inventory of their family's property.
You wouldn't know until you counted it, and you'd be shocked. The miscellaneous gold and silver jewelry added up to about a hundred taels. Cui Youyi was a little confused. Could this exile hide so much money?
Shouldn't it be the kind of thing where one is so miserable that one can't even survive?
With so much money, one can’t even survive in Ningguta. Is the development of this world so fantastic?
Cui Youyi asked three fatal questions.
"Dear, if it weren't for your intervention, the Cui family wouldn't be alive today! According to the system records, they would all have died tragically!"
Cui Youyi was startled by the sudden sound of the system.
"Why?" Cui Youyi was a little confused.
[Dear, you will know when the time comes! ]
Cui Youyi: ...
With a lot of words in her heart, Cui Youyi and her two sisters-in-law came to the town. However, they were only responsible for shopping today and would not go to the pawnshop to sell jewelry.
Taking a bunch of gold and silver jewelry to a pawnshop is very eye-catching in itself, and the people who run the pawnshop are most likely local wealthy people. Who can guarantee that they have no connection with the Zhou family?
After all, they are still exiles. If they live too well, they will inevitably attract envy. It is best to keep a low profile.
More importantly, no matter how high the prices in Ningguta are, the fifty taels of silver that Cui Youyi earned openly will definitely be enough for them to survive this winter.
Of course, that’s what they thought before buying anything.
"How much is a pound of cotton?" Cui Youyi rubbed her ears, thinking she had heard it wrong.
"Five hundred and sixty coins per catty." The cloth shop boy answered politely.
There are two kinds of cotton here. One is the cotton that local farmers put here for consignment, and the other is the cotton that their cloth shop buys from caravans. But no matter which one, the cloth shop sells it to the outside world at 560 wen per catty.
"The most expensive cotton in the capital is no more than a hundred coins." Liu Shi said in shock.
The three of them decided that to be on the safe side, they would need to make at least five or six ten-kilogram quilts. Taking into account cotton clothes, losses, etc., they would need to buy about 70 kilograms of cotton.
One tael of silver could be exchanged for about a thousand coins, and seventy kilograms of cotton would cost about thirty-nine taels of silver. The fine cotton cloth here was one thousand three hundred coins per piece, so they had to buy at least five or six pieces of cloth.
With this calculation, the fifty taels of silver would basically have to remain in the cloth shop. Cui Youyi really cried, and she hadn't even warmed up to the silver yet.
Fortunately, before they left, they not only took the remaining change at home, but also a gold leaf, and they scraped together enough money.
They bargained with the cloth shop, went to the iron shop to bargain, and then went to the grain shop to do some shopping. After buying all kinds of things, they had very little money left.
Fortunately, I saved up and bought it in the end, otherwise I would have spent so much that I couldn’t even afford to hire a bullock cart to go back.
Cui Youyi sat on the bumpy ox cart and couldn't help complaining.
Prices in Ningguta are so high, yet the prize money for such a grand ice fighting competition is only fifty taels, how stingy!!!
Warning! Warning!
[The host has less than three days to survive! ]
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