As soon as she woke up in the morning, Song Suisui thought about yesterday’s troubles, and all her drowsiness instantly vanished.  

With a thought, she checked the download progress bar and saw that it had finished loading.  

Since it was done, why hadn’t it notified her? Song Suisui was a little puzzled.  

So she called out softly, “System, are you there?”  

[FF Farm welcomes its host! Cheers!]

Song Suisui: “…”  

Why were the systems she encountered all so weird?  

What the heck was FF Farm?  

Song Suisui quickly opened FF Farm and saw that the initial level only had four plots of land.  

The friend list, warehouse, fishpond, and ranch looked oddly familiar.  

After a moment’s thought, wasn’t this just like the QQ Farm she played as a kid?  

“Don’t tell me this system expects me to steal crops?”  

[Correct, host! As the first to bind with FF Farm, you’ll receive 100 friends as a gift!]

Next, FF introduced the gameplay and various features of FF Farm.  

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t much different from the old-school QQ Farm mechanics.  

“So this thatched cottage can be upgraded, right?”  

[Of course, but that depends on your efforts, host.]

“Are you also a system from the A77 Star System?”  

FF switched to a sweet, childlike voice: [Yes, that’s right!]

Song Suisui had a million complaints but didn’t know where to start.  

After encountering three systems, she strongly suspected that the A77 Star System was some kind of system wholesale hub—producing all kinds of systems with utterly unoriginal functions!  

But hey, a cheat ability was better than nothing.  

As for this farm, Song Suisui hadn’t yet figured out how to make use of it.  

It was getting late—she had to get to work first!  

She’d think about the rest tonight.  

…  

“Why do you look so down this early in the morning?” Song Tong stepped out of his room and saw Song Suisui listlessly brushing her teeth, looking utterly dejected.  

“Didn’t… sleep… well…” she mumbled through the toothpaste.  

Song Tong chuckled teasingly. “Oh? Since when do you have trouble sleeping?”  

In response, he earned a pair of dramatic eye-rolls from Song Suisui.  

After brushing her teeth, she even snorted at him before strutting off to put away her toothbrush and cup.  

“Tsk—someone’s getting feisty!” Song Tong laughed.  

After breakfast, the family of six headed out to work.  

At the factory, the morning meeting concluded, and Director Zhang assigned Song Suisui to accompany the procurement officer opposite her to the suburbs to buy some fresh ingredients.  

It was early spring, and most seeds had just been planted, so there weren’t many vegetables available in the market. Because of this, the procurement department occasionally had to source ingredients for the cafeteria.  

So Song Suisui followed Brother Zhang to the rural areas under Xinghai City.  

Naturally, they couldn’t go on foot—the factory had a medium-sized truck, perfect for procurement trips.  

This was Song Suisui’s first time riding in a vehicle from this era.  

Though it was just a medium-sized truck, in this day and age, it was considered a luxury in the eyes of ordinary folks.  

Of course, Song Suisui couldn’t squeeze into the passenger seat with Brother Zhang, so she had to climb into the back and sit in the cargo bed.  

Brother Zhang—surname Zhang—was naturally related to Director Zhang.  

Though the others in the office rarely chatted with her, Song Suisui had already learned about everyone in the procurement department from Yu Fengyuan.  

Brother Zhang was Director Zhang’s youngest son, 25 years old, with a fiancée. Rumor had it they were getting married within the year.

The other two were veteran employees—one named Old He, aged 37, and the other named Old Qiao, aged 33. Both were men in the prime of their youth.  

Since Song Suisui was a girl and the others weren’t particularly outgoing, plus the age gap, it was natural they didn’t chat much with her.  

After all, in this era, early marriage and childbearing were the norm. Old He, at his age, could practically be Song Suisui’s father.  

If you asked Song Suisui how riding in a 1970s truck felt, she’d tell you it was so bumpy she nearly threw up her stomach.  

Especially on rough stretches of road—she was practically jolted into the sky! By the time she got off, her legs felt like jelly, and she almost stumbled and fell.  

The villages Brother Zhang took her to for procurement all had established partnerships with the machinery factory. Before setting out, they had already called the village committee to notify them.  

So when they arrived, many villagers were already waiting with their collected wild goods, eggs, and other farm products.  

Brother Zhang put Song Suisui in charge of recording the transactions. She nodded, pulled out a notebook, and began jotting them down one by one.  

After a while, Song Suisui noticed that this village seemed pretty well-off. Though they hadn’t entered the village proper, she could see from a distance that all the houses had tiled roofs—no thatched huts in sight.  

Spring was the perfect season for wild greens, so this procurement run also included a lot of foraged vegetables.  

While Song Suisui was busy recording, a group of young men and women gathered under a big tree nearby, watching the commotion with curiosity.  

“The city’s so nice—look at that girl’s outfit, the style is so pretty!”  

“Her braided hair looks nice too.”  

The girls whispered among themselves about Song Suisui’s clothes and hairstyle, while the boys were more interested in the truck.  

They huddled together, chattering excitedly, their eyes full of admiration for the truck driver.  

Song Suisui was quick and accurate with her calculations, so they wrapped up the procurement in no time. After loading the goods onto the truck, they headed to the next village to continue their purchases.  

They visited three villages in total before finally returning to the factory.  

By the time they got back, it was already past six. Song Suisui packed up her things and hurried home.  

The last bus had already left, so she had no choice but to walk back on her own two feet.  

Since she couldn’t move out, maybe she should buy a bicycle?  

Lost in thought, she stepped out of the machinery factory’s gates—only to hear her eldest brother, Song Bai, call out to her.  

“Suisui.”  

“Big Bro, what are you doing here?”  

“Look at the time—there’s no bus left. Mom sent me to pick you up.”  

Song Suisui grinned, then hopped onto the back of his bicycle.  

“What’s that smell on you? Did you go out today?”  

Song Suisui’s face darkened at his words. She smacked his back and snapped, “Can’t you watch your mouth?”  

“Little Sis, let’s be honest here—you do smell like a mix of all kinds of things. I really can’t say anything nice about it.”  

Song Suisui rolled her eyes. “Then don’t say anything at all.”  

Just thinking about it made her mood sour.  

The truck’s cargo bed had been empty on the way there, but on the return trip, it was packed full—including some live chickens and ducks.  

She had ridden back in that same cargo bed, surrounded by vegetables and poultry. Naturally, the smell had clung to her.  

When she got home, Song Suisui skipped dinner and went straight to the kitchen stove to fetch a bucket of hot water.  

After a nice, relaxing bath, she finally sat down to eat.  

By then, the rest of the Song family had mostly finished their meals.  

“Did you go on a procurement run today?”  

“Mhm—” Song Suisui nodded between bites.  

“Went to the countryside to buy some ingredients.”  

Once they got the gist of it, the family stopped talking to her, letting her eat in peace.