Chapter 13: Fleecing the Female Lead’s Cheat Finger

The next day, before dawn even broke, Su Nianzhi was already up.

Today was important.

She and her second brother, Su Zhewu, were going to the county town to sell the deer.

Instead of hitching a ride with the village’s ox cart, Su Zhewu borrowed a flatbed cart. They loaded the deer onto it and covered it up tightly.

Wang Guifang even laid a cushion for Su Nianzhi to sit cross-legged comfortably.

She repeatedly nagged, “Don’t go wandering around when you get to town. Keep your hat and scarf on. Don’t take them off.”

Her daughter was so pretty—she was terrified some bad man would target her.

“Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll take good care of my sister,” Su Zhewu patted his chest, solemnly promising.

Wang Guifang glared at him, “If a single hair on Zhizhi’s head is missing, you better be ready when you get back!”

Su Zhewu: ……

Finally, the nagging ended.

Su Zhewu pushed the flatbed cart out of the village. Yushui Town was about an hour away on foot.

Along the way, Su Nianzhi was in a great mood.

Surrounded by green mountains and clear waters, under blue skies and chirping birds, she felt more relaxed than she had in a long time.

She listened as her second brother chatted about fun places in town.

An hour later, they saw the sign for Yushui Town.

“Zhizhi, I’ll drop you off at the state-run department store. Wait for me there for ten minutes while I go sell the deer,” Su Zhewu said.

Su Nianzhi knew he was heading to the black market.

In the big cities, speculation and profiteering had mostly disappeared by now, but in small towns like theirs, things still weren’t fully open.

People occasionally still got caught.

After all, in places like this, authority was everything—one official rank higher could crush you.

So Su Zhewu was very cautious.

“You go have a look around. Once I’ve sold the deer, I’ll buy you two sets of fabric.”

Su Nianzhi nodded obediently.

She watched him push the cart into a narrow alley.

This was her first time visiting this town.

To be honest—

Everything felt so old and full of vintage charm.

Most stores had “state-run” signs hanging out front.

People wore mostly black and gray; colorful clothes were rare.

It was clearly an underdeveloped era.

She had another goal today.

She wanted to see if she could find any jade.

During the apocalypse, she discovered that pure jade could enhance her spiritual power.

But back then, not only was good jade rare—most of it was contaminated.

This era, however, was different.

Her chances were much better now.

Although many antiques and treasures were lost during the chaos, a good amount of old jade should still be around.

She was here to try her luck.

She had one yuan that Wang Guifang stuffed into her hand, plus the cash and vouchers she scavenged from the Lu family.

One yuan could buy a lot these days—but jade? That was unpredictable.

While she was fretting, she suddenly saw a familiar figure jogging toward her.

“Zhizhi!” Lu Jiajia was panting, holding her waist and red-faced from running.

“Zhizhi, your second brother got caught selling deer! You need to go check on him!”

As she spoke, she grabbed Su Nianzhi’s hand. “Come on, quick!”

Su Nianzhi’s eyes flicked subtly, and she pretended to panic. “Where is my second brother?”

She followed Lu Jiajia hurriedly.

“Jiajia, where exactly is my brother?”

Lu Jiajia rolled her eyes. “We’re almost there.”

She didn’t even know why the system wanted her to stop Su Nianzhi from entering the state-run department store.

But for the sake of a reward, she had no choice but to lie and lure her away.

She didn’t expect it to work so well.

Just as she was feeling smug, her head suddenly began to spin.

Su Nianzhi had mercilessly used her spiritual power to probe the system.

Sure enough, the system had no reaction—it didn’t seem to notice her at all.

With that confirmed, she didn’t hesitate to invade the mysterious light orb in Lu Jiajia’s mind with her spiritual energy.

She directly accessed the system’s interface.

[Mission: Stop Su Nianzhi from entering the state-run department store]
[Reward: Whitening Pill]

Su Nianzhi’s gaze swept across the so-called system panel—Missions, Shop…

Shop?

Without thinking, she infiltrated the “Shop” module.

Inside were all sorts of dazzling goods.

She was shocked.

Why don’t I have this kind of cheat system?!

Everything cost just one yuan!

A whole one-yuan mall!

Sure, in the 1980s, one yuan wasn’t exactly cheap. But cars and motorcycles—for one yuan each?!

If that’s not a bargain, what is?!

Though… the system seemed a bit buggy.

No time to think further.

Su Nianzhi’s lips curled into a faint smile.

Well, since I’m here—I won’t be polite.

She noticed the system’s balance: 1000 yuan.

Heh heh.

Technically, she could just place a massive order for cars and such.

But that would be completely impractical—those items couldn’t be used openly.

Besides, the grayed-out ones couldn’t be bought yet.

So she checked what was available:

What you can buy is the Great Unity, things like malted milk, flour, canned food, as well as sewing machines and radios.

Mostly stuff unique to this era.

Enough thinking.

Directly ordered 1,000 reunion tickets!

That’s one yuan per note.

So she now had 10,000 yuan!

Tsk tsk. What a steal.

Su Nianzhi looked at the rolls of unity that appeared out of thin air.

She stuffed them straight into her coat.

Hmm. Satisfied.

She withdrew her spiritual energy and cut off the link.

She patted her butt and walked away, not leaving a single trace behind.

Lu Jiajia, still dazed, stood frozen in place.

After a long while, she rubbed her temples.

“Huh? Where’s Su Nianzhi?”

She blinked.

“System, where’s Su Nianzhi?”

The system suddenly glitched into a mess of garbled symbols:
#%u0026……￥……*%……#￥%u0026%……

[System error. System error.]

“System? What about my reward? Where’s my Whitening Pill?”

[#……u0026￥……%##%…………￥#%]

“System, you can’t cheat me! I already tricked Su Nianzhi away—she didn’t go to the department store!”

[Host, Su Nianzhi is now in the department store. Due to repeated mission failures, system malfunction occurred. 1000 points deducted! Complete tasks to repay debt.]

Lu Jiajia: ????

She began to panic.

“Then what about my Whitening Pill?”

[System has auto-deducted as repayment!]

[If the host disagrees, I will detach and find a new host.]

Lu Jiajia quickly shook her head, “No no! I’ll do the tasks! System, don’t leave me!”

[Then please work harder. If you fail again, punishments will be initiated.]

The system was also frustrated, constantly scanning itself for bugs—but couldn’t figure out what went wrong.

Even the hidden “service fees” it secretly deducted were gone.

Now Lu Jiajia had to take the fall.

She was devastated—not only did she lose her Whitening Pill, she now owed the system 1000 points.

And each mission only gave her 10 points.

Sob sob sob.

But she’d already tasted the benefits of the system—how could she give it up?

So she clenched her teeth and accepted her fate!