Chapter 5: A New Surprise

The most respected person in the village was Uncle Chen Jiu. If it weren’t for him keeping things under control, Tongshu Village would’ve already fallen into chaos.

He had lost his wife in middle age and his son in old age, and now lived alone. Naturally, he had to fetch water himself.

At this moment, he was pushed to the front by the villagers.

Uncle Chen Jiu stood on high ground, patted his water-filled belly, and shouted, “Fellow villagers, with water, we can survive!

“This water was dug out by the Zhao family. We have to remember the contribution of that mother and her two children!”

The villagers responded at once, “Of course! If we don’t remember their kindness, aren’t we just heartless scoundrels?”

“That’s right, that family of three are our lifesavers!”

“Whoever dares to bully them in the future, I, Old Wang the bachelor, will be the first to object!”

Uncle Chen Jiu raised his hand and gestured for everyone to quiet down. “There’s a water shortage everywhere these days. Who knows when this water might dry up? We might as well not sleep tonight—go find anything that can store water and stock up as much as we can.

“We’ve been through disaster long enough. I don’t need to tell you all—when it comes to survival, it’s best to keep the means in our own hands.

“So we must guard this place. For now, no one is allowed to speak of it to outsiders.”

Of course, eventually, outsiders would find out. But if they could keep it secret for a while, that was already something.

There was plenty of wood and grass on the mountain. Soon, two shelters were built near the water pool, where people could rest and sleep.

Some stayed behind to guard the water source. The rest of the villagers brought water back home.

They quietly moved water tanks and other containers from the homes of neighbors who had long since moved away. Once every container that could hold water was full, every household began thinking of sprinkling water in their yards to grow vegetables.

When An’an woke up from a nap, she discovered her energy had increased by 0.53. That had never happened before!

So far, she knew energy could come from the love of the Zhao family trio and from hibernation. But this 0.5—where did it come from?

Ah, who cares? It’s a good thing anyway! Come, energy! More and more energy!

Within three days, the vegetable seeds in the villagers’ yards began sprouting. Those tender green shoots carried everyone’s hopes for survival.

The villagers felt even more grateful to the Zhao family.

An’an gained another 0.5 energy. Mystery solved! Turns out the collective gratitude of the entire village gave her such a huge boost! Because people outside the Zhao family couldn’t give her love-energy.

If she had known earlier, she would’ve accumulated good deeds even sooner!

So An’an used her Heavenly Eye Scan to survey all of Tongshu Village and discovered something hidden in the underground cellar of the village head’s house.

Then, she pestered Qin Ying to carry her outside to play and spent 0.002 energy to collapse the cellar.

Inside were revealed: two bags of wheat, one bag of millet, one bag of soybeans, one bag of corn, and two bags of potatoes—each bag weighed at least a hundred jin (about 110 pounds).

Qin Ying, overjoyed, ran off to inform Uncle Chen Jiu. He took charge, weighed everything, and distributed it according to headcount.

“It’s the growing season now, so let’s keep just a little for food.

“We’ll plant the millet, soybeans, and corn now. In autumn, we’ll sow wheat. In the spring, we’ll plant potatoes. That way, not only will we survive this winter, but we won’t starve in the future either.

“Of course, until the autumn harvest, we’ll have to tighten our belts.”

“As for the seeds, let’s say we borrowed them from the Feng family. I’m just an old man and don’t eat much. I’ll return the bulk.”

The villagers chimed in, “How can we let you suffer? Each person will return what they received. We’ll even add a little extra as interest!”

Uncle Chen Jiu sternly warned, “Before the harvest, no matter how hungry you are, don’t even think about stealing from the stockpile!

“We’ll focus on farming the few most fertile acres in the village. That way, we can guard the fields around the clock. Once the harvest is in, we’ll distribute it by headcount!”

Farming preparations began in full swing.

Once Tongshu Village started drawing water to irrigate, the fact that they had a water source couldn’t be hidden anymore.

However, after a few days of rest, their strength naturally surpassed that of the people from other villages, who had gone without water for far longer. So control of the water source remained firmly in their hands.

That said, they didn’t stop others from coming to fetch water.

After all, in times like these, human nature couldn’t withstand the slightest test. If someone decided to poison the water out of jealousy, they’d have nowhere to cry about it.

So more and more people from neighboring villages came to fetch water.

At first, the villagers of Tongshu were worried the water would dry up. But as time went on, they found that no matter how much was drawn, the pool remained full. So they relaxed.

Under Uncle Chen Jiu’s orders, they dug a bigger, deeper pool below the original one. It also filled up, preventing any bottleneck in water collection.

As soon as the crops sprouted, wild grass and vegetables began growing around the fields. As long as they weren’t poisonous, the villagers picked and ate them all.

The hidden food supplies in the nearby villages were quickly exposed—either by An’an herself or by Zhao Hu and Aunt Zhao, under her direction. If there was nothing to find, she simply “made it appear”—after all, the energy spent could be recovered quickly.

With water to drink and food to eat, cannibalism disappeared entirely in the surrounding villages.

An’an gained another point of energy. Now her energy level had exceeded 5!

At this rate, breaking through to level 10 was just around the corner! And once she did, she could activate the treasure-hunting feature!

To reach that breakthrough, she had an idea…

Once the vegetables in their yard were edible, Qin Ying suggested going up the mountain again. “We adults might be okay with just vegetables, but not An’an!”

Aunt Zhao agreed it made sense and took Zhao Hu and Qin Ying with her into the mountains.

They stopped at the water pool to refill and chatted a bit with the guards.

That was Qin Ying’s idea—constantly reminding the villagers not to forget the well-diggers when they drink the water. It also served as an extra layer of protection for their family.

Then, the three of them took An’an and headed deeper into the mountains.

They rarely encountered anyone along the way—everyone else was guarding their fields and gardens like hawks.

After walking for nearly an hour and a half, they reached a mountain hollow. There was no real path underfoot. If the vegetation had been lush, they would’ve turned back an hour ago.

“Let’s rest for a bit,” Aunt Zhao said as she pulled a sickle from her basket and cleared the dry grass to make a clean patch on the ground. “Drink some water and change An’an’s diaper.”

Once a thick layer of dry grass was laid down, Qin Ying unwrapped An’an and was surprised. “Auntie, she didn’t pee!”

Aunt Zhao beamed. “Little An’an came to repay kindness! She’s so sensible! Hurry and check again!”

Zhao Hu had already gone off to gather firewood, preparing lunch.

An’an obediently handled her business. Hmph! She had been holding it in all this time, okay? If she couldn’t even hold her pee, wouldn’t she be a laughingstock in the whole system world?

She had been well cared for these days—especially by Qin Ying, who, although still a young maiden, was meticulous and gentle. She washed An’an daily, never missing a spot. An’an felt herself becoming white, clean, fragrant, and soft~

She was conscious for less than two hours a day, in bits and pieces.

While awake, she would calculate the timing for giving the three Zhao family members their koi-luck bonuses. The crops they planted sprouted better and looked healthier than anyone else’s.

At this moment, while the three adults were busy, she activated her Heavenly Eye Scan. After reaching energy level 5 and nearing 6, her scan permissions expanded and she could now pull up a terrain map for three miles around.

She quickly locked onto a target, immediately gave the three of them a koi-luck boost, and then began executing her plan..