Chapter 9.1: Instigation

After breakfast, Lu Zhengting left for work at the Production Brigade.

Lin Wan needed to prepare for the upcoming competition, so she continued gathering medicinal herbs and studying the medical manual.

As Lin Wan walked out, Lu Mingliang followed her. “Xiao Liang, stay home. I’m going to cut grass,” Lin Wan said.

“Third Aunt, I’ll help you!” Lu Mingliang looked up at her.

Lin Wan nodded. “Alright.” She took his small hand. “Why do you always argue with your grandma? Doesn’t it hurt when she hits you?”

“Third Aunt, you argue with her too!” the boy pointed out.

Lin Wan laughed. “But I can beat her in a fight. You can’t.”

“Just wait until I grow up!” he declared.

“When you’re older, she’ll make your dad beat you instead,” Lin Wan replied.

Lu Mingliang’s face fell. His father always obeyed his grandma, beating his mother and him whenever she ordered it.

Lin Wan patted his head. “From now on, Third Aunt and Third Uncle will protect you.”

Lu Mingliang shook his head. “Grandma hit Third Uncle and made him deaf.”

Lin Wan paused, surprised. “I thought Third Uncle’s deafness was from an illness?”

Lu Mingliang whispered, “No, I heard Dad and Mom say it was from the beating.” He waved his small hand, mimicking the blows, and made bang, bang, bang sounds.

Lin Wan’s heart clenched. This detail hadn’t been mentioned in the original plot. Perhaps because Old Madam Lu was a background character, lacking depth, or perhaps because Lin Wan’s arrival had made the world more real, giving each person their own life beyond the script.

If that were true, Old Madam Lu was truly wicked! Lin Wan mentally added another mark against her, vowing to investigate thoroughly later.

—

Throughout the morning, Lin Wan took Lu Mingliang to dig up various medicinal herbs. These herbs were essentially just wild grasses, abundant across the mountains and fields, though their medicinal properties varied. Dandelions, tribulus terrestris, achyranthes japonica, trichosanthes kirilowii, and many others were all medicinal herbs that Lin Wan needed to collect for 39, her “little darling,” to absorb.

999: [“So bitter, so awful! But for Host and Xiao Tingting, Xiao Jiu is trying hard~~”]

Lin Wan: “……” You’re such a drama queen.

She was intensely curious about what the System had been like when it was fully functional and overwhelmingly powerful. Had it spoken with a cold, mechanical voice?

As the sun rose, Lin Wan wove a straw hat for Lu Mingliang. Seeing this, the other children cutting grass ran over, clamoring for their own hats.

Lin Wan told them to gather willow branches or wildflowers and grasses, and she would help them weave the hats. She also asked them to dig up perennial medicinal herbs whenever they had time, promising to pay them for their efforts. The children happily agreed.

Lin Wan also had 39 absorb the medicinal properties of the wild grasses they collected. This had a significant benefit: even if the children accidentally cut poisonous or livestock-incompatible grasses, 39’s absorption of their medicinal properties rendered them harmless. The livestock could eat them without getting diarrhea.

This gave Lin Wan an idea. She could go gather those brightly colored poisonous mushrooms! If ingested, these mushrooms were truly deadly, their medicinal potency incredibly strong. Yet, for the System’s insatiable need for medicinal energy, they seemed to have no adverse effects.

Lin Wan teased the System in a hushed tone, “39, should I get you a few bottles of pesticides to try?”

The System whimpered, [“Waaah, Host, are you trying to poison Xiao Jiu? Xiao Jiu doesn’t like those cheap chemicals! They’re toxic!”]

Lin Wan: “…Alright, alright, I’ll get you purely wild ones!”

As Lin Wan dug up medical herbs, she studied traditional Chinese medicine. In the countryside, doctors relied on herbal remedies since medical technology and pharmaceuticals were scarce, and Western medicine was rare and costly. Villagers often endured minor illnesses, only seeking care when symptoms became unbearable, letting small problems grow into serious conditions.

Lin Wan found it much more convenient to use medicinal herbs growing right outside her door.

While gathering herbs, she meticulously recorded each type, categorizing them by name and documenting the medicinal properties of their various parts. Her knowledge in this area was even more comprehensive and detailed than that of a trained doctor.

At noon, as she walked Mingliang home, she made another trip to the livestock yard at the brigade headquarters. The yard was filled with dried grass and wild weeds. Embracing the principle of “better to kill a thousand by mistake than let one escape,” Lin Wan had 39 absorb everything.

999 whined in a melodramatic tone, [“Waaah, Xiao Jiu is so depraved! Stealing pig feed and cow fodder? Ha! How toxic!”]

Lin Wan retorted, “To you, everything in the world is the same. Don’t get so caught up in playing human that you can’t escape the role.”

She delivered the grass to the livestock yard and earned three work points. Some of the grass wasn’t palatable to the pigs, and feeding them too much grass wasn’t good for fattening them up.

As they passed the brigade headquarters, Lu Mingliang exclaimed excitedly, “My Third Uncle!”

Lu Zhengting sat beneath a sycamore tree, a riot of vibrant roses blooming behind him. The deep shadows of the tree and the vivid colors of the flowers created a picturesque scene, worthy of a painting.

Lin Wan paused to admire the sight, praising without reservation, “Your third uncle is unfairly handsome!” His voice was equally captivating—deep and resonant, yet gentle and warm.

Lu Mingliang was about to ask what “unfairly handsome” meant when Lin Wan had already walked over. Was he waiting for her?

Lu Zhengting handed her a worn notebook.

Lin Wan took it and examined it. It was Doctor Jin’s notes! “Thank you so much!” she exclaimed, her bright apricot eyes curving into crescents.

“It’s nothing,” Lu Zhengting replied.

“You don’t need to be so formal with me.” His expression remained cool, but his voice carried a hint of warmth that spread to his eyes, making his voice even more pleasant to hear. Because he couldn’t hear, his speech relied on instinct, his voice flowing directly from his heart.

Lin Wan’s ears tingled at his words. Unable to resist teasing him, she said, “Your voice is the most charming I’ve ever heard! Oh my, my ears might actually be pregnant!”

She flashed that mischievous, secretly amused look again!

He found himself unconsciously staring at her rosy lips, even when she wasn’t speaking. Sometimes she would chuckle to herself, as if she held some secret he couldn’t fathom, especially after teasing him.

His voice is charming? he thought, pleased. Pregnant ears?

Her playful nature left him both helpless and delighted. A ticklish sensation stirred in his heart, an itch he couldn’t quite scratch, yet he craved to see that look again, as if addicted.

Besides giving her the notebook, he also wanted to wait and walk home with her. He worried that if she went alone, Old Madam Lu might complain to the family, causing her trouble. He justified this by reasoning that even though they were only pretending to be married, she had been kind to him, so he naturally should protect her.

The three of them walked home together.

When they arrived, they discovered that Old Madam Lu hadn’t cooked dinner.

Old Madam Lu didn’t work in the fields; she stayed home, ostensibly to care for the children, cook, and do housework. But she didn’t feed the pigs, sweep the courtyard, or even wash the dishes—her granddaughter did all that. It was a mystery what housework she actually did.

Today, after arguing with Lin Wan, she stormed off to the terraced fields to complain to her husband, only to be ridiculed by the men working there. “We’re busy working!” they scoffed. “Who has time to deal with women’s squabbles? What a disgrace!” After all, they had known her since their youth and knew her true nature: she was the one who bullied others, no daughter-in-law or son would dare to cross her.

Seeing no one would intervene—and even being pressured by the men to keep her husband from going home—she returned in a huff, lying down and refusing to cook, feigning illness. She planned to wait for her husband to return and then demand they beat Lin Wan!

Lu Zhengting offered to cook, noting that the others wouldn’t be back from work for a while, so there was still plenty of time.

Lin Wan pressed him down. “Let me handle this! Give me a chance to show off my skills. Kids, come help me make dinner!”

Lu Mingliang, Gua’er, and Qian’er immediately responded.

Old Madam Lu lay on a tattered mat in the courtyard, seething. “You’ve ruined all the rations,” she grumbled. “What are we going to eat?”

Lin Wan replied, “Simple. We’ll stew some vegetables, make some coarse grain buns, or pan-fry some dumplings. What’s so hard about that?”

There were vegetables in the family’s private garden. Though they weren’t growing well, a handful would be enough for a simple meal, even with soup.

Seeing Lin Wan start cooking, Old Madam Lu panicked, fearing she’d sabotage the meal. She rushed into the kitchen to stop her.

Lin Wan deliberately provoked her further. “Old Madam, you’re sick. You should rest. I’m afraid you’ll accuse me of bullying you later—I don’t want to be seen as an unfilial daughter-in-law. Don’t worry, I’m eating here too. I won’t deliberately break the pots and bowls; if I did, I’d have nothing to use either, right?”

The last time she’d smashed a few dishes, Old Madam Lu had been heartbroken, since she considered all the family’s money her own.

Seeing Lin Wan’s sincerity, Old Madam Lu relaxed slightly. But unwilling to let her cook smoothly, she grabbed the salt and soy sauce and retreated to the east room, where she lay down on the kang bed, determined to keep them out of reach.

Lu Bao’er, always mimicking her grandmother, followed her into the east room and hid on the kang as well.

Lin Wan completely ignored them. “Let them hide!” she thought. She closed the door and had Gua’er tie it shut with a hemp rope, deliberately taunting the old woman. “Cooking can be smoky—don’t choke on the fumes.”

Lying on the kang, Old Madam Lu soon smelled the aroma of hot oil rising from below. A sizzling sound followed—Lin Wan was actually stir-frying vegetables!

“My soybean oil!” Old Madam Lu howled, leaping off the bed.

But the door was securely tied shut.

The old woman stomped her feet and wailed inside the room. “Damn you! My oil! Lin Wan, you wicked daughter-in-law, you vicious woman, you spendthrift…”