Chapter 13

By the time they returned to Daliushu Village, returned the ox cart, and went back home, it was already the evening hour of xu (around 7-9 p.m.), though it wasn’t too late.

The west room had only two rooms. Normally, Dageng didn’t return home often, so Pear Blossom and Xinghua, the two sisters, lived with their mother in one room, while the other room was shared by Daniu and Erniu. Now that their father was back, the siblings consciously moved to the other room.

There were two beds in the room: one for the sisters and one for Daniu and Erniu. After a full day of activities, the younger siblings immediately fell asleep as soon as they touched the pillow. 

Pear Blossom was the same. However, in the middle of the night, she suddenly heard a “ding” sound in her mind, and a point value appeared.

Pear Blossom instantly became alert and asked, “System, what did I do today that earned me a point?”

The system replied, “I told you before that you now have four attributes: wisdom, physique, reputation, and favor. As long as what you do each day enhances any of these attributes, you will earn points. 

Today, you raced with your father, went to your maternal grandparents’ house, and had a full meal. Both of these activities contributed to enhancing your physique attribute. Now that the day is over, the points are being calculated.”

“I see.”

The system then asked, “Host, which attribute would you like to allocate the point to?”

Pear Blossom thought for a moment and asked, “I understand beauty, reputation, and physique, but what are reputation and favor?”

The system explained, “Reputation is how your moral actions convince others. When you do good deeds, everyone knows your name, and they see you as someone with authority or charisma, wanting to follow your lead.”

“Does that mean everyone wants to be my subordinate?”

The system pondered for a moment before responding, “You could say that.”

“And what about favor?”

The system hesitated before replying, “You’re still young, so you don’t need to understand it fully yet. If you earn points, you can prioritize adding them to the first four attributes. 

However, before you have a solid foundation in wisdom and physique, beauty can be postponed a bit. Beauty can often bring trouble, and you may not be able to protect yourself.”

Pear Blossom nodded, as if understanding, and said, “Then I’ll listen to you.”

“So, host, which attribute will you add this point to?”

“Add it to physical strength. I want to be stronger, so I can protect my mother and my younger siblings.”

The system hesitated, “But I think you should add it to wisdom.”

“That won’t work. Even if I’m smart, I won’t be able to fight others without strength or speed. I’ll add ten points to physical strength first, and later I can add to wisdom.”

The system wanted to persuade her but knew she was stubborn. It couldn’t go against the host’s wishes, so it could only watch as she placed the points. Unfortunately, this time, she made a mistake and added them to the wisdom attribute.

“Host, you clicked on the wrong one again. You added it to wisdom.”

Pear Blossom froze, then became frustrated with her inability to read. “Fine, wisdom it is. Fang Zheng also suggested I add it to wisdom earlier.”

If the system had a physical form, it would definitely be laughing uncontrollably.

“Can’t you change the positions of these attributes? It keeps causing me to click the wrong one.”

“Host, it’s not wise to rely on the positions of the attributes to remember their names. It would be better to learn to recognize the characters. Recognizing characters would increase your wisdom attribute and you could also gain more points.”

Pear Blossom thought this was a good idea. She focused on the two characters for “physical strength” on the panel and said, “Alright, I’ll focus on these two characters for the next few days. Once I can write them, I’ll start on the others.”

The system almost sighed. It wondered how long it would take to complete its task with Pear Blossom taking so long to remember two characters.

But it could only encourage her: “Host, do your best.”

After some more fumbling, Pear Blossom got tired and began to doze off. She tried to recall the two characters “physical strength” in her mind, sometimes clear and sometimes blurry, and drifted back to sleep.

By the time she woke up the next morning, the sun was already high, and Mrs. Xiang (Xiang mother-in-law) was outside grumbling about how lazy she was for not getting up.

Pear Blossom, no longer as anxious as usual, got up slowly. After a quick wash, she saw her father, Xiang Dagen, practicing martial arts in the yard. Excited, she rushed over. The system had told her that anything that helped her attributes would accumulate points. Yesterday, she had earned some energy from racing with her father.

“Father, I want to practice martial arts too. Teach me!”

Xiang Dagen looked at her, instinctively wanting to refuse. Why should a girl be practicing martial arts? But then he remembered the race yesterday, where his daughter had outrun him, and thought for a moment. “Alright, let’s start with the horse stance. I’ll teach you some punching techniques later. You can practice at home when you have time.”

Pear Blossom was delighted and hurried to follow his instructions.

Xiang Dagen demonstrated the correct position for the horse stance, guiding her to follow along and correcting her mistakes. “The horse stance strengthens the lower body muscles. If you practice long enough, your balance will improve, you won’t easily be knocked over, and it will also enhance your reaction speed.”

Pear Blossom asked, “Father, what’s the lower body?”

Xiang Dagen smiled, “The lower body is everything below your waist, including your hips, thighs, knees, calves, and feet.”

Pear Blossom nodded, “I understand, Father.”

Pear Blossom was straightforward and meticulous. When her father said the distance between her feet should be three foot-lengths, she measured it carefully, step by step, without error. Her posture was straight, and she looked very standard.

Xiang Dagen was satisfied. “Not bad, much better than the new recruits in our army. But it’s one thing to get the posture right, you also have to be able to hold it. If you can hold it for the length of an incense stick, it will greatly benefit your body.”

With that, he actually lit an incense stick.

“Alright, I’ll listen to Father.”

Pear Blossom said, then squatted into the horse stance. Daniu, Erniu, and Xinghua saw this and tried it too.

Erniu and Xinghua quickly gave up after just a short while, too exhausted. Daniu was a bit more persistent and managed to keep up with Pear Blossom, but it was clearly tough for him. His legs soon started to shake, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Xiang Dagen looked at his son and daughter and smiled in satisfaction.

His son was only thirteen, and his reactions were similar to most people. His physical strength wasn’t as good, but he had managed to hold the stance quite well for the first time. Xiang Dagen silently decided that he needed to improve his children’s diet.

As for his daughter, she was simply incredible.

Daniu couldn’t last half an incense stick, but Pear Blossom stubbornly held the stance until the incense was gone. Only when Xiang Dagen said the incense had burned out did she relax, collapsing onto the ground with a loud thud.

Xiang Dagen was both surprised and pleased. He rushed over, pulled her up, and made her stand against the wall. He massaged her calves, demonstrating the technique. “After finishing the horse stance, massage your calves and thighs like this. It will prevent soreness in your lower body and improve your physical condition.”

Pear Blossom’s calves were already sore, but after her father’s massage, she felt much better. Now that she was older, her father only gave brief instructions and left her to do it on her own. She turned and waved at Xinghua to help her, but since Xinghua was small and weak, the effect wasn’t much. In the end, Pear Blossom had to do it herself.

After teaching her the horse stance, Xiang Dagen also taught her two punching techniques and how to dodge. Just those few techniques took a whole hour.

Mrs. Xiang watched the family fooling around in the yard and, seeing that no one had paid attention to her all morning, became angry. She picked up a broom and started hitting the family dog, grumbling, “You lazy thing, always staying in the yard instead of doing work!”

Xiang Dagen’s face darkened, and he felt a surge of anger. He turned to Pear Blossom and said, “Keep practicing until you master it. 

Practice for one hour every day. If anyone tells you to stop, you punch them. If anyone disrespects you, I’ll deal with them when I get back.”

“Just like this, a left hook, with the strength of the arm, using the power of the whole body, the fist as a weapon, smashing forward—”

Xiang Dagen said, as his muscular arm slammed hard into an old, withered tree in the yard. 

There was a loud bang, and the entire trunk was shattered, with wood chips flying through the air like petals falling from the sky, scattering everywhere.

Mrs. Xiang, standing nearby, was clearly shocked by the scene. She hadn’t expected the usually docile Xiang Dagen to have such fierce strength. For a moment, she felt a little scared and, trembling, set down her broom and hurried into the house.

Xiang Dagen, noticing this, snorted lightly through his nose.

Pear Blossom looked at Mrs. Xiang’s frightened expression and secretly felt a sense of satisfaction. She also thought that her father had become much stronger since his return. 

In the past, her father had always bowed his head because of filial piety and the bonds of friendship, but when it came to being tough, he wasn’t afraid of anyone.

So, Pear Blossom also began to think of various ideas. She wanted to practice martial arts well, find ways to increase her physical attributes, and show off a bit in front of others. When that time came, no one would dare to bully the people from their main family again.

When her father returned to the military camp, the responsibility of protecting her mother and younger siblings would fall on her. Pear Blossom felt she should make good use of the system, accumulate more points, and max out her physical strength and intelligence.

Right, not only to protect the main family, but also the little widow. Sister Dong was so beautiful, and these villagers kept loitering near her house every few days. In the past, she could only help by yelling at them to leave. 

But in the future, when her body was stronger and she knew some martial arts, she would make sure to beat those people so badly they’d run away crying.