Fang Zhiyi walked over and stretched out his hand. "Sis, give me some money."
Fang Wanyun, holding a handful of loose change and feeling excited, instinctively took a step back. "What do you need money for?"
Fang Zhiyi smiled wryly and pointed to a few small-time thugs not far away. "To pay these guys their wages."
Fang Wanyun glanced over. Indeed, they owed a lot to those guys today. When there were many people around, they would boast loudly in the crowd; when it was just a few, they’d gather around pretending to browse. Thinking about her earlier reaction, Fang Wanyun smiled sheepishly and stuffed all the money into Fang Zhiyi’s hand.
"You keep it all. I’m just here to help you out today." She paused, "Don’t laugh at me, but I actually thought you were..."
Fang Zhiyi chuckled, "You thought I was going gambling, right?"
Fang Wanyun blushed and looked down.
Fang Zhiyi stopped joking and waved his hand. A few of the small-time thugs came running over eagerly.
"Brother Fang!"
Fang Zhiyi praised them, "Not bad! Not bad at all! You’ve got potential! Stick with me, and I promise you’ll have enough to eat and drink!"
The group grinned foolishly. Honestly, after following Fang Zhiyi for the past two or three days, they had managed to earn a bit of pocket money—not much, but still something.
"Keep going and collect scraps of thread, bits of fabric, buttons, that kind of stuff. Remember, collect, not rob or steal!" Fang Zhiyi’s expression turned serious.
The others nodded.
Little Shanzi, the leader, looked at Fang Zhiyi as he walked away, then turned to his friends. "Let’s go, get to work!"
"Shanzi, work again? So tiring..." someone groaned.
Little Shanzi shot him a glance. "If you don’t want to work, fine, but don’t expect to get paid tomorrow." He paused, "And don’t scream when you get beaten up."
On the way back, Fang Wanyun looked at her younger brother with curiosity. She always thought he bullied her and never really had his act together. But today... maybe she had misunderstood him?
"Little brother, I haven’t seen those friends of yours before..." Fang Wanyun tried to make conversation.
Fang Zhiyi waved his hand dismissively. "Those guys? I just met them a couple of days ago."
"Huh?"
"When I came out of the scrap yard, those guys blocked me. Could I just let them boss me around?" Fang Zhiyi said casually. "I gave them a little talk about the bright future ahead, and they decided to follow me."
Fang Wanyun seemed to half-understand. After a moment, she said, "Little brother, don’t get mixed up with that. You still need to keep your feet on the ground."
Fang Zhiyi nodded. "Of course, you have to keep your feet on the ground!" he muttered to himself, *but not me.*
At dinner, the Fang family looked at the two large bags of scraps Fang Zhiyi had dragged home.
Old Fang stood up and walked over, opened one of the bags, and examined the contents. He tilted his head, thinking for a while, then glanced at his two younger children whispering together. In the end, he didn’t say anything. As long as this kid didn’t go gambling, that was enough.
Li Cuixia, still sarcastic, said, "Oh, making big money now, huh?"
Fang Zhiyi looked up at her.
Li Cuixia was still quite young, with striking features, but her personality was off-putting. In the original storyline, after her eldest brother broke his leg, Li Cuixia, though grumbling constantly, still shouldered the family’s heavy burdens. However, she aged rapidly from the stress.
“Sister-in-law.”
Li Cuixia was taken aback.
“W-what did you just call me?”
“Sister-in-law?” Fang Zhiyi’s face lit up with a broad smile, her eyes nearly closed in delight.
Li Cuixia jolted. “Fang Dingbang, Fang Dingbang!”
Eldest Brother Fang snapped back to his senses. “If you have something to say, just say it!”
“Your brother is possessed!”
“Pah, pah, pah!” Fang’s Mother hurried over. “Don’t say such nonsense! No one’s possessed!”
Li Cuixia looked frightened. “He called me sister-in-law!”
Fang Zhiyi shrugged. “What’s the problem? Sister-in-law.”
A collective gasp swept through the Fang family.
Fang’s Mother even reached out to grab Fang Zhiyi’s chin, turning her face over and over in disbelief.
Fang Zhiyi smiled wryly, understanding their reaction. Ever since Li Cuixia married into the Fang family, Fang Zhiyi had never treated her kindly. Unlike the others who indulged her, Li Cuixia never coddled her, so she never called her “sister-in-law.” Even when asking her for money, she’d only say “hey.”
“That’s definitely the third brother,” Fang Zhiyi said.
“I was too reckless before,” she continued, “but I promise I’ll change. You’ve all seen it—I haven’t been idle these past few days.”
The Fang family members all nodded; they had noticed Fang Zhiyi’s efforts recently.
What she did next surprised them even more. She pulled out a handful of coins from her pocket and slapped them down on the table.
“Wow, a pile of coins and you’re acting like it’s a fortune,” Little Hei teased.
Fang Zhiyi wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest.
“This is the money I earned from selling handmade goods yesterday, plus what Second Sister made from those little crafts today.”
Old Fang looked up at his daughter, understanding Fang Wanyun’s honesty. Fang Wanyun nodded repeatedly.
“After paying a few helpers and accounting for these small sums collected today, the rest is pure profit. Count it yourselves.”
Fang’s Mother hesitated for a moment, then began to count the money.
Fang Zhiyi smiled and looked at her sister-in-law. “Sister-in-law?”
Li Cuixia snapped back to reality, answering awkwardly, “Uh-huh.”
“Relying on just Second Sister to do this is too slow. Could you help out? I remember you’re pretty good at knitting.”
Li Cuixia was stunned. “Me?”
Fang Zhiyi nodded. “Yes, fifty yuan?”
Li Cuixia’s expression grew strange; she still doubted Fang Zhiyi’s motives, especially hearing how accurately he quoted her wages. She couldn’t help but feel suspicious.
Fang Zhiyi ignored this. “Here’s today’s profit. Take a look and see how much there is.”
Everyone waited as Fang’s Mother finished counting.
“Thirty-four!” The amount wasn’t large, but it was quickly counted.
Fang Zhiyi stood up. “See? Thirty-four in one day, and that’s with only Second Sister working. If someone helps out, tomorrow it’ll be sixty. Sixty in one day!”
At these words, the Fang family was stunned. Sixty a day? That’s over a thousand a month!
Seeing their expressions, Fang Zhiyi smiled and said, "We'll sell here for two days, then move to places with more foot traffic. After that, we'll hire people to work on a piece-rate basis, then distribute our products to various shops. Next, we'll recruit more workers, collect materials, build a factory, and eventually, start our own company!"
He waved his hand with a commanding air.
The Fang family stared at him in a daze.
After a long moment, Fang Dingbang stood up and reached out to touch Fang Zhiyi's forehead. "Third brother, you’re not running a fever, are you?"
"I think it’s doable," said Fang's Mother, who had always supported Fang Zhiyi. Now, seeing her son quit gambling and show the ability to make money, she didn’t ask for much—just that he live a decent life. "Mom’s got your back!"
Old Fang and the eldest brother still hadn’t voiced their opinions, but Fang Wanyun hesitated. "Little brother, I... I still have to work."
Fang Zhiyi looked at her and said, "Second sister, you should quit that job. You work yourself to the bone and barely make thirty bucks a month."
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
host is extracting the Celestial Bone of the Destiny's Female Lead! The Destiny's Great Villain System has successfully bound!] Mo Tianxiao: "Destiny's Great Villain? Me?" Looking at the radiant Celestial Bone in his hand and the beautiful woman lying on the bed, Mo Tianxiao felt somewhat confused. How could he, a law-abiding citizen, become a villain? Mo Tianxiao: "Fine, villain it is then. With the system here, even a Chosen One isn't unbeatable." [Ding! Detected 18,653 Chosen Ones in this world. Please seize the destiny of all protagonists to become the true Destiny's Great Villain!] Mo Tianxiao: "Seize how many?! What kind of lousy great villain is this? I'm a perfectly good citizen!"
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
Explosive Plot Song Gua crossed over into another world, bringing along a whole crew of his doppelgangers—all of them mischief-makers. This was a world where everyone could choose a class. Song Gua became a "Bondweaver," capable of borrowing power, while his doppelgangers took on a wide variety of classes, covering just about everything. The number of doppelgangers grew day by day, each one a talented individual with a charming way of speaking. Under Song Gua's brilliant leadership, they would "greet" each other daily and engage in friendly "sparring," pulling off one major scheme after another on Earth. Sometimes they were bandits—stealing bosses, plundering mines, snatching resources. Sometimes they were saviors—descending like divine warriors to face world bosses threatening to massacre cities. Sometimes they even went undercover, infiltrating various major factions to stir up trouble from within, keeping their enemies constantly on edge. To prevent their doppelganger abilities from being exposed, Song Gua made them wear masks with mahjong tile patterns and don Taoist robes in various colors. "Remember, in front of outsiders, call me 'The Dice.'" "Got it! Boss!" "Not 'Boss'—it's 'The Dice.' Think about the vibe, pay attention to the vibe." "Yes! Boss!" "For crying out loud..." From then on, whenever they appeared, they would have their own theme song playing: ~Hey~ paying respects at the mountain stronghold at night~ whose arm is draped over whose shoulder~ gather your courage and follow along...
