Fang Zhiyi didn’t say anything. He just quickly walked away from there.
“Hey, it’s fine for me to earn some pocket money, right?” Fang Zhiyi asked.
Xiaoxiaohei replied, “No problem, as long as you don’t make a big scene.”
“That’s good enough.”
Just as he was talking, Fang Zhiyi suddenly spotted a small figure lingering near his home, as if searching for something.
He quietly moved closer and watched Fang Xiaolian flip over a big rock, then shake her head, looking quite troubled.
“What are you doing?”
Fang Xiaolian was so startled that her whole body jerked. When she turned around and saw it was Fang Zhiyi, the expression on her face was hard to tell—whether it was fear or joy.
“Dad... I...”
Fang Zhiyi noticed the money in her hand. It was several small bills.
“I, I...” Fang Xiaolian grew even more nervous.
Fang Zhiyi just kept looking at her.
“I wanted to buy some pencils, but I found that the pencils in the shop were twenty cents more expensive than the ones at the stall... So I used the money you gave me to buy a few pencils from the stall and brought them to school. Just when a classmate was almost out of pencils, I sold them to her...” She held out the money in her hand to Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi reached out and took it. “So you took the money and then thought about this?”
Fang Xiaolian lowered her head.
She had always envied other kids for having pocket money, but she also knew her family was poor. So the first thing that came to her mind was to earn some pocket money of her own, and once she saved enough, she could replace her old pencil case with a new one.
“Don’t go leaving it around. I’ll keep it for you,” Fang Zhiyi said.
But the look in Fang Xiaolian’s eyes clearly showed she didn’t believe him. Still, she also knew that the money had originally been given to her by her father.
He didn’t explain further. Instead, he turned and led Fang Xiaolian home.
“Back already? Hurry up and do your chores! Studying all day is such a waste of time!” Hu Xiulian barked.
Fang Zhiyi suppressed the urge to slap her, only saying, “From now on, let Xiao Wen handle those chores. Today, a friend of mine offered me some work, and I was thinking of taking this girl along to give it a try.”
“What kind of work?” Hu Xiulian asked, a bit dazed.
Fang Zhiyi said, “Just some manual labor, helping someone move stuff... Or should I take Xiao Wen and Xiao Wu instead?”
Hu Xiulian thought about it—her son was the top student in school; there was no way he was doing manual labor.
“Fine, fine, take her. She’s just dead weight eating for free anyway.”
“She still needs to eat. If she doesn’t eat enough, she won’t do a good job, and they won’t pay up.”
A few days later, Fang Xiaolian sat at the dinner table again. It seemed like the thought of another source of income had put Hu Xiulian in a rare good mood, so she didn’t scold her.
Fang Zhiyi also noticed that Fang’s Mother kept putting food in Wu Xiao’s bowl, telling him to eat more. Liu Wu looked delighted, while Liu Wen, sitting nearby, kept a dark expression throughout.
After the meal, Fang Zhiyi took Fang Xiaolian and headed out.
Fang Xiaolian followed her father, but the path grew wilder and wilder until they finally ended up on the hill behind the village.
“Dad, where... where am I supposed to work?” Her voice started trembling. Was her father going to sell her? She’d heard classmates talk about how some people’s little sisters had been sold off by their families.
“Work my ass,” Fang Zhiyi said, looking up at the sky and sighing. He pulled out a flashlight. “Do your homework first. After that, we’ll work. How did I end up in this situation?”
“Dad, what did you say?”
“I said, hurry up and do your homework! There’ll be work to do later!”
This time, Fang Xiaolian understood. She stood there dumbfounded for a moment, then put down her schoolbag and started busy herself.
After she finished her homework, Fang Xiaolian realized that everything around her had gone pitch black. Behind her, Fang Zhiyi kept the flashlight raised, lighting up her space.
“Dad, I’m done with my homework...”
“Done, huh? Good. Time to start work.” Fang Zhiyi lowered the flashlight, shaking out his stiff arm.
“What kind of work?”
“See that rock over there? Move it over to the other side.”
Even though she was confused, Fang Xiaolian gritted her teeth and tried to lift the rock.
“Wrong stance. Spread your legs, squat down!”
“Don’t just use brute force right away. Power comes from the ground, understand?”
“Wrong move. Put it down!”
Fang Xiaolian was completely baffled. She obeyed dutifully, but her father wasn’t satisfied. He just made her repeat the motion of lifting the rock over and over, occasionally yelling at her.
Still, as she bent over again and again, Fang Xiaolian began to grasp the trick. She started to understand what her father meant by power coming from the ground.
When she lifted the rock once more, Fang Zhiyi nodded.
“Drop it.”
“But, Dad, I was supposed to move it over there...”
Fang Zhiyi, however, shone the flashlight under the rock, poked around a bit, and flipped out a few bugs. “We’re catching bugs.”
“Huh?”
“These bugs can be used for medicine. There are plenty around here.” Fang Zhiyi paused. “If you don’t catch enough, don’t come home.”
Xiaoxiaohei worked hard analyzing nearby medicinal herbs and valuable bugs for Fang Zhiyi, which made things a lot easier. Fang Zhiyi thought, for the first time, that Xiaoxiaohei was actually somewhat useful.
It wasn’t until Fang Xiaolian’s little bag was half full that Fang Zhiyi let her follow him home. Fang Xiaolian was too exhausted to speak. If they were just catching bugs, why did Dad make her move that rock? But she didn’t dare to refuse.
When they got back, Hu Xiulian was cheerfully chatting with her two sons. Seeing Fang Zhiyi return, she came up happily. “Honey, how did it go? Did they take her?”
Fang Zhiyi didn’t say a word. He just pulled out twenty yuan and waved it. “See this?”
Hu Xiulian reached for it, but Fang Zhiyi pulled it back. “What are you doing? I need it for card games tomorrow!”
“You...” Hu Xiulian wanted to curse, but she held back, knowing he might hit her. But when she turned and saw Fang Xiaolian drenched in sweat, she sneered and spoke to her two sons. “See that? You’d better study hard, or you’ll end up doing manual labor like her.”
Liu Wen asked, “Fang Xiaolian, what did you do?”
Fang Xiaolian answered honestly, “Moved rocks.”
“Moving rocks? Suits you just fine.” Liu Wen laughed to himself.
Fang Zhiyi ignored him. He simply turned and urged Fang Xiaolian to wash up and go to sleep.
“Honey, she hasn’t done her chores yet...”
Fang Zhiyi turned around. “What chore is worth twenty yuan for three hours?”
“But...”
“How about you go move rocks tomorrow instead?”
“Forget it.” The look in Fang Zhiyi’s eyes made Hu Xiulian’s skin crawl.
Xiaoxiaohei breathed a sigh of relief watching this. That shrew should count herself lucky. If the host were to go off like in the last world, her head would probably be hanging at the village gate by now.
Fang Zhiyi suddenly remembered something. He whispered a few words to Hu Xiulian, then pulled out ten yuan and handed it to her. Hu Xiulian broke into a smile.
“Ahem, Xiao Wen, you’re growing up now. Do you want some pocket money?”
Liu Wen’s eyes lit up. “Yes.”
"Then you have to help me with some chores. When they're done... I'll give you five bucks!" Hu Xiulian was about to say ten, but on second thought, she figured she needed to keep five for herself.
Liu Wen was stunned for a moment, then immediately grew dissatisfied. "Why should I have to do chores?"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
