Chapter 2: Slums in the Manor
For Lin Yao, the original owner's memory was like watching a long and depressing movie in his mind, and the original owner's emotions were entangled in it.
Lin Yao, who originally wanted to open it to see what was inside the 'Marriage Contract Exchange Confirmation', was affected by the original owner's emotions and his eyes became blurry. He had no choice but to put down the thing in his hand.
Lin Yao shook his head and looked around, trying to calm himself down. Just then, a beam of light shone in from the west-facing window, bringing some light to the dim room.
When Lin Yao's eyes swept across the room that was less than ten square meters, even he, who had no requirements for accommodation conditions, couldn't help but frown.
He remembered the White Tower rules, which stipulated that guides were given standard rooms:
At least there is a constant temperature system and an independent medical cabin. The walls are soft light panels that can automatically adjust the light, and even the beds are made of biological cotton material that can relieve mental fatigue.
And here... it's so shabby and dilapidated that it's shocking.
Lin Yao propped himself up and sat up. The bed made a creaking sound as if it could not bear the weight, as if it would fall apart at any time.
He raised his hand and ran his fingertips across the wrinkles in the bed sheet. He could clearly feel the unflattened cotton balls inside rubbing against his skin.
He pressed his swollen temples, the memories of the original owner still jostling in his head, and the unknown thing in his wrist was boiling again.
Lin Yao remained motionless and endured it for a while, then opened his eyes, stumbled up from the bed, and turned on the light in the room according to the original owner's memory.
He squinted his eyes. The light was not particularly bright, but it was enough to see what the house looked like. However, the scene that appeared in front of Lin Yao then made him unable to help but start a complaining meeting in his heart.
"No, no, no..."
He stared at the warped synthetic board on the wall, and his fingertips unconsciously poked the yellowed corner. The gray filling fell through the gap and landed on the back of his hand, causing discomfort.
"Is this wall made of expired nutrients? It crumbles when you touch it. Are you playing 'break and break' here?"
His eyes swept over the old wooden boxes lined up in the corner. Those were the original owner's storage boxes. Lin Yao drew an arc on the lid of one of the boxes with his fingertips.
The dust immediately drew a clear trail, and even the floating dust nearby was swirled.
"Wow, this dust is so thick I could make a direct copy of it. It must have been six months since the box was opened. Is there an interstellar beast or expired compressed biscuits hidden inside?"
Lin Yao sighed, and with his fingertips he drew a crooked smile on the dust.
"Okay, now I don't need to buy a drawing board. I can just create abstract art on the box."
He turned around and looked at the window that was mostly covered with rags.
Lin Yao reached out and tugged at the piece of cloth whose original color could not be seen. The cloth was stiff and the edges were as brittle as dead leaves. A few threads fell off when he pulled it.
"I'm not saying anything, is this a dilapidated house or a treasure cave? Is it covered with rags to prevent people outside from seeing the gold mine inside?"
When the curtains were pulled, the gap in the light became wider, and light leaked in from here and hit the ground obliquely, illuminating the dust flying in the air.
"This environment is quite suitable for growing mushrooms. The humidity and temperature are both just right. Maybe some have already started growing under the pile of boxes in the corner."
He moved to the desk with peeling paint and tapped it lightly with his fingers. The mottled red paint fell off like dandruff.
Lin Yao looked at the red paint on his fingers and asked, "Which garbage dump did you pick up this table from? Wasn't the original owner afraid of getting paint on his hands when he wrote?"
Picking up the chipped water cup, he held it up to the light slit and saw an unknown mass lying at the bottom of the cup, with blackened edges.
"What kind of burial object is this! It's older than its original owner, right? If I drink the water in this cup, I'm afraid I'll have to go straight to the medical cabin."
His eyes fell on the pile of books stacked on the desk, and Lin Yao pulled out a book called "Illustrated Guide to Interstellar Plants" and flipped through it.
The pages rustled, and the wind that turned the pages carried a musty smell, as if the book would fall apart at any moment. There were so many tiny holes in the book that even the leaves of the plants in the illustrations had been gnawed away and had their corners chipped.
"Oh my god, is this book meant for bugs to chew on as a snack? The original owner had such a miserable life..." He swallowed his words back halfway through.
Lin Yao carefully put the book back and scratched his head. "Oh, no, I'm not discriminating. I'm really not prejudiced! It's mainly because... these conditions are too outrageous!"
He sat back on the creaking bed, but just as he touched it, the bed board creaked, scaring him so much that he quickly got up.
"Ancestor, please don't collapse. My small body can't withstand such a blow." Lin Yao patted the bed board, with a hint of pleading in his tone.
"I've only seen this kind of bed in those mountain craters where I go up the mountains and down the sea to look for plant seeds! And in those mountain craters where I can't even find a signal!"
Lin Yao put his hands on his hips and walked around the room twice. His eyes swept over the quilt with frayed edges, then glanced at the leaky trash can in the corner, and finally fell on the broken laptop on his wrist with a cracked screen.
Too disconnected. The original owner's living environment is too disconnected from this interstellar society. It's as if society has evolved without this poor little thing. Lin Yao whispered to himself:
"If this optical computer hadn't been able to work, I would have really thought I hadn't traveled to a technologically advanced interstellar world, but had been kidnapped and sold to some mountain village, waiting to be slaughtered like a pig or sheep!"
Lin Yao fiddled with his laptop while shaking his fist at the air, his tone indignant:
"He's a guide after all! Even if it's a lower-level plant-type, it's still a scarce resource, right?
Did they arrange such a place for him because they were afraid he would live too comfortably? Even if the De Lin family went bankrupt, it wouldn't be like this, right?
It's incredible that they could find such a place among the luxuriously decorated family estates, a place that even the Zerg would despise and spit at! "
As he was complaining, perhaps because his emotions were too volatile, there was another fluctuation in his wrist that was hard to ignore. Lin Yao could only take a deep breath to calm down.
This worked the previous few times, but this time the fluctuation on the wrist did not subside. Instead, it fluctuated in one direction. Lin Yao looked in the direction of this force.
It was that row of wooden boxes. A corner of gray-white cloth was exposed in the gap of the rightmost box. It was the guide uniform that the original owner wore most often.
There was a small leaf embroidered on the cuff, but it was now pressed to the bottom of the box, as if it was not to be seen by anyone.
-
Lin Yao stood up and walked over, wanting to take the clothes out of the box.
As soon as my fingers touched the lid of the box, I heard a deliberately quiet sound of footsteps coming from outside the door.
He subconsciously withdrew his hand, quickly lay back on the bed, closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
The door was gently pushed open a crack, and an old voice rang out: "Is Xiaoyao awake? It's time to take your medicine."
It was Uncle Fu, the old steward of the Lin family. In the original owner's memory, this old man was the only person who had good intentions towards him.
Although he never dared to disobey the orders of Delinwei and the Second House, Uncle Fu had done his best within his own capabilities.
When Lin Yao heard the sound, he returned to bed, closed his eyes, and kept his mind on the strategy of "I won't move unless the enemy moves!"
Uncle Fu didn't get a response and the door was pushed open completely.
Lin Yao did not open his eyes, but listened to Uncle Fu's movements. The sound of his footsteps reached Lin Yao's ears clearly, and the sound came from far away and then near. Then the footsteps stopped, and there was a slight sound of the bottom of the bowl colliding with the table.
The footsteps sounded again, this time stopping beside the bed.
His hands hidden in the quilt were clenched tightly, his palms were slightly sweaty, and on his face, Lin Yao tried his best to act out the role of an unconscious human body.
I heard Uncle Fu's sigh, very light, but with unspeakable helplessness. The footsteps gradually faded away and the door was closed again.
After waiting for a while, Lin Yao opened his eyes and looked at the porcelain bowl on the table. The snow-white porcelain bowl looked so noble in this dim environment.
Lin Yao picked up the porcelain bowl, which was half filled with turbid yellow-green liquid that emitted a pungent bitter smell.
"Witch's poison?" This thought popped into Lin Yao's mind!
Then the original owner's memory resurfaced. The medicine was the one he had been taking continuously since the accident that damaged his mental body and reduced his mental strength.
It is also the only resource whose original owner was not deprived by the second house. After all, Delinwei is in good health.
For some reason, after the bitter taste passed through Lin Yao's nose, he put the bowl of medicine back without hesitation.
Lin Yao doesn't like taking medicine, especially this kind of medicine that can kill you as soon as you smell it. And judging from the original owner's memory of treatment, the effect of this medicine is just so-so. After taking it for two years, it feels like it has no effect other than being bitter!
Next to it was an oil paper package, which revealed a whole grain bread. Although it was a bit hard, Lin Yao smelled it and at least it was not rotten.
Let’s continue what we just didn’t finish! Lin Yao put the bread down and walked to the box.
Lin Yao took the clothes out of the box, looked at it from top to bottom, left to right, inside and out, and found nothing unusual.
Then he walked to the window and pulled open the tattered curtain completely, revealing a small, dilapidated yard outside the window.
There was a half-dead green ivy growing on the barren land in the yard. The original owner had secretly transplanted it from outside a year ago and had taken good care of it, treating it as a kind of spiritual sustenance.
At this moment, it was climbing crookedly on the dilapidated fence, but it managed to pull out a few new leaves from the cracked soil.
Lin Yao's heart seemed to be gently hit by something.
He suddenly felt the original owner's strength and the resilience hidden deep in his heart.
Like those plants that grow quietly in the corners, even if they are ignored by the whole world, they never give up their upward power.
Just like the vast amount of knowledge stored in the original owner's mind, all this knowledge is now Lin Yao's life-saving straw, helping him quickly integrate into this unfamiliar environment.
"I will take good care of this green ivy." Lin Yao said softly.
Suddenly a light breeze blew in the yard, blowing up the wilted green ivy. The leaves trembled slightly, as if greeting him, or as if they had already made an agreement.
After looking at the clothes again in the sunlight, there was still nothing special about them. Lin Yao turned around, folded the clothes neatly, and put them in the box.
Looking around this shabby and simple room again, from today on, all this will become a thing of the past.
He wants to take back the things that belonged to the original owner and find out the truth that has been hidden.
He also wanted to let those who had despised and hurt the original owner know that he was never a piece of trash that could be manipulated by others.
When he came to the table, the cold medicine made Lin Yao stay away from it. In the end, this bowl of "witch's poison" ended up in the bathroom. With a "gulp", its career came to an end.
As soon as I put down the bowl, my stomach growled at an inopportune moment.
The original owner had only eaten half a piece of dry and hard compressed biscuit yesterday, and now his stomach was feeling empty.
Lin Yao picked up the whole grain bread in the oil paper bag and took a big bite. It was so dry that it choked him.
He picked up the chipped glass and wanted to get some water, but then he remembered the dirt on the bottom of the glass and frowned in disgust.
"Forget it, just treat it as training for the esophageal muscles. Maybe I can even develop a swan neck."
After chewing the bread, Lin Yao lay back on the creaking bed to think about things. He wrapped the torn quilt around himself, smelled the faint musty smell, and unexpectedly fell asleep.
-
The next morning, Lin Yao was awakened by the grand "empty city plan" in his mind.
He suddenly sat up in bed, and the bed made a series of "creak--creak" protests, as if accusing him of being in a bad mood when waking up.
My stomach felt empty. The rough and whole-grain bread I had yesterday had been digested long ago. Acidity kept rising up, and even my throat felt dry and tight.
"No way..." Lin Yao rubbed his stomach and looked at the time on the computer, his brows twisted into a knot.
It was already past the De Lin family's breakfast time, but there was not a single grain of food in his room. Even Uncle Fu didn't help him smuggle some in.
"Am I participating in the 'Interstellar Fasting Challenge'? The prize for winning is a moldy breadcrumb?"
Lin Yao complained, but in his heart he was speculating. Perhaps because he had pretended not to wake up yesterday, he had given Uncle Fu the wrong signal. So, he was digging a hole for himself? Was he being too clever?
Lin Yao didn't want to give up and wanted to see if there were any stocks left by the original owner in the house.
He walked on the cold floor to the desk and touched the drawer, which was empty.
He squatted down again and rummaged through the old wooden boxes. There was not even a scrap of food inside, only old dust that made him sneeze.
"Not really..." He went to look under the bed again, hoping to find some compressed biscuits that the original owner or Uncle Fu had hidden, but he only found half a dried-up interstellar cockroach shell. "Thank you, did you leave some 'jerky' for me?"
After struggling for a long time, I couldn't find anything to eat or even a sip of water to drink.
The glass with a chipped corner was still sticking out on the desk, and the mass at the bottom of the glass was curled up more than it was yesterday, as if mocking his futility.
"Okay, okay, I'll just starve. You won't die of starvation anyway." Lin Yao gave up struggling and turned around to wash his face to wake himself up.
In the bathroom, looking at the simple washing tools, Lin Yao suddenly remembered that he fell asleep without washing yesterday. Did he really come to a bad environment and his body began to evolve and adapt quickly?
After washing up, my stomach was still rumbling, as if it was waging an endless protest.
Lin Yao scratched his hair irritably and decided to divert his attention. If he wanted to eat again, he was afraid that he would chew on the worm-eaten book.
His eyes swept across the desk and landed on the frayed copy of "Interstellar Plant Atlas".
The cover of the top book is almost falling off. The title of the book is printed in gold-plated font, but unfortunately the gold powder has fallen off to pieces, and only the three words "星际植物" can be barely recognized.
"It's better than nothing. It's better than fighting with my stomach."
He pulled out his book and, between the creaking bed and the chair that looked like it would fall over, chose the former.
After I sat down and just turned the first page, a piece of worm-eaten paper fell down and landed on the back of my hand.
The pages of the book are yellowed and brittle, and the smell of ink mixed with mold hits you in the face, but fortunately the handwriting is still clear.
The first few pages talk about the most basic "Stardust Grass". The illustrations are hand-drawn, and the edges of the leaves are pitted by insects, like a circle of serrated edges on the grass leaves.
Lin Yao's fingertips slid across the dense wormholes, and the original owner's memory suddenly revived.
This book was left by the original owner's mother. His parents died unexpectedly that year, and the original owner was young at the time so he could not inherit the inheritance left by his parents. According to regulations, it needed to be sealed by the family.
I don’t know what the De Lin family was thinking. They were probably really different from ordinary people. Not only were the inheritance of the original owner’s parents sealed, but also their relics. These books and their inheritance and relics were sealed in a special storage room.
Later, the original owner missed his parents very much, so he secretly crawled in through the dog hole, took it out, and hid it under the bed as a reminder. It was also the support that helped the original owner get through rounds of hardships.
"The painting is quite detailed." Lin Yao smacked his lips and read on along with the text.
The original owner's mother's comments were written in green ink, with beautiful handwriting.
Next to the sentence "Stardust grass likes shade", there is a small symbol of a sun with a cross, and next to it is written "Don't believe the illustrations, I've tried it, and it blooms more vigorously if it is exposed to the sun for half an hour."
Lin Yao looked at the crooked little sun and suddenly felt that this book was not so difficult to read.
He flipped back and saw the page with the 'Flame Flower'. There was a dried petal in the annotation, red like solidified blood, and next to it was written, 'Picked near the Zerg nest. The power it contains can temporarily calm the restless sentinels, but the roots are poisonous, so don't touch them directly with your bare hands'.
This book, or rather the annotations by the original owner's mother, was so interesting that Lin Yao's attention was completely attracted, and he even forgot whether he was hungry or not.
He turned the pages one by one, his fingertips brushing over the warm annotations and plant specimens sandwiched between the pages.
There are desert cactus thorns covered in sand; there are dried seaweeds with the salty taste of sea water; and there are leaves with tooth marks on the edges; the annotation reads "Xiao Yao bit it and said he wanted to taste it to see if it's sweet."
"You were quite a tiger when you were little."
Lin Yao couldn't help but laugh, and lightly touched the tooth-marked leaf with his fingertips, as if he could feel the silliness of the child when he chewed the leaf.
At that time, he saw the comment in the original owner's mother's comment that "the plant system is not an auxiliary, it is the power to let life take root."
Lin Yao stared at the sentence and suddenly felt that the emptiness in his stomach seemed to be filled with something. It was not food, but a more solid feeling.
There were footsteps outside the door again, but this time Lin Yao, who was immersed in the world of the book, did not notice.
"Xiao Yao? Are you awake?" Uncle Fu's voice came through the door, with cautious tentativeness.
Uncle Fu didn't get a response, so he pushed the door skillfully. The door was gently pushed open and Uncle Fu walked in carrying a tray.
Seeing Lin Yao sitting on the bed, holding the worm-eaten "Interstellar Plant Atlas" in his hand, a hint of surprise flashed in his cloudy eyes:
"You...are you awake? Does the wound on your head still hurt? Are you dizzy?"
Lin Yao closed the "Illustrated Guide to Interstellar Plants" in his hand, looked at the kind-hearted Uncle Fu, and said that he was fine at the moment.
Uncle Fu glanced at the empty medicine bowl and the disappeared oil-paper bag on the table, wanting to say something but hesitant, but then he breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he placed the tray on the desk, moving gently as if afraid of breaking anything: "That's good, that's good... You were unconscious for five days, which scared me."
He rambled on, his hand secretly wiping the corner of his eye, "As for the young lady... Well, don't take it to heart, she just has that kind of temper."
Lin Yao noticed that there was a bowl of hot porridge and two boiled eggs on the tray. There were a few tender green leaves floating on the porridge, as well as medicine for healing wounds. It was obviously specially prepared.
Uncle Fu said, "You must be starving!" and told Lin Yao to eat quickly while he changed the medicine for him.
Lin Yao agreed to Uncle Fu's arrangement. He picked up the hard-boiled egg, and the shell cracked at the touch, revealing the tender egg white inside. He continued with Uncle Fu's words, "I know, it's cheap to argue with her."
Uncle Fu paused as he applied the medicine to him, as if he had not expected Lin Yao to say such a thing. Then he started moving his hands again, and said with a pleased smile:
"I'm glad you think so, good kid... Eat it while it's hot. I cooked the porridge on the kitchen stove. It might be a little painful to apply the medicine, so bear with it!"
Lin Yao was indeed very hungry. He finished the porridge in just a few mouthfuls and ate two boiled eggs cleanly. As for the pain in the wound that Uncle Fu mentioned, he seemed not to feel it.
Uncle Fu watched him lick the bowl until it was shiny. He stopped short of applying medical tape. His eyes turned red again, and his voice trembled, "Eat slowly. If it's not enough, I'll get you more..."
"That's enough, thank you, Uncle Fu." Lin Yao pushed the bowl back. "You're so thoughtful."
After applying the tape, Uncle Fu packed the things he brought onto the tray and sighed again: "Your recovery is better than anything else. I'll report to the head of the family and tell him that you're awake."
Lin Yao nodded: "Thank you for your help."
-
A while after Uncle Fu left, someone suddenly knocked on Lin Yao's already shaky wooden door. The force was not strong, but it caused wood chips on the door panel to fall down.
Lin Yao looked up from the book when he heard the sound, and saw the crack on the door panel that went from the top to the middle. His eyelids couldn't help but twitch.
"Is this a knock? This is a grudge against the door!" He put down the book and went to open the door.
But the man outside had no patience. Seeing that no one opened the door for him, he knocked twice more. This time he knocked a little harder. The door panel shook and the lock core made a crisp "click" sound, as if it would pop out at any time.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Lin Yao hurried to the door, afraid that if he knocked again, the door would just fall flat on the ground and hit him. "Stop knocking! If you knock again, it will become an open-plan room!"
As soon as he put his hand on the doorknob, he heard an impatient voice from outside: "What are you dawdling for? The head of the family asked you to go to the main hall!"
He is a servant of the Lin family. His tone of voice is as cold as ice. It is estimated that he often bullies the original owner.
Lin Yao rolled his eyes and complained about the other person from head to toe in his mind:
"It's soul-stirring! Doors are like pants, they cover up your private parts! Without a door, wouldn't my shabby room become a live interstellar broadcast?
Anyone who comes can take a look at me, whether I'm wearing clothes or eating bread, everything will be seen!
Lin Yao opened the door carefully, fearing that he would use too much force and bring down the door frame.
The door hinges creaked, as if accusing him of being rude.
Lin Yao was face to face with the servant, who said to him with a look that was neither eye nor nose: "The master of the house asked you to go to the main courtyard!"
After saying that, he turned around and walked out, his steps were so fast and urgent that the wind he brought swept across the door panel and shook off a few pieces of wood chips.
Lin Yao felt sorry for the pieces of wood chips, and at the same time he was thinking that he also had something to ask the head of the De Lin family.
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