C4 Chapter 4

Wan Qiqi suddenly saw a translucent panel appear in front of her. The wild water fennel in her hand was highlighted in color.

“Ding! Natural wild water fennel weighs less than 0.04 pounds. Unable to sell!”

“...” Wan Qiqi rolled her eyes.

But she quickly realized—did she just get one of those legendary cheat abilities?

To test whether it was real, she looked at the color-marked wild water fennel by the river, walked over, and pulled up two more stalks.

“Ding! Natural wild water fennel: 0.11 pounds. Value: 2 copper coins. Sell?”

“Yes!”

The moment Wan Qiqi answered, the wild water fennel in her hand vanished into thin air, and a new message popped up on the panel in front of her.

“Received 2 copper coins. Open the shop?”

A shop?

“Yes!” Wan Qiqi was curious. What could a system shop even sell? And what could 2 copper coins buy?

The page flipped, revealing a marketplace interface. In the top-left corner was a copper-coin icon with the number “2” beside it.

Wan Qiqi glanced through it. The shop looked like an online marketplace, with all kinds of categories and clearly marked prices.

After searching for a while, she finally found items she could afford in the prepared-food section: two plain steamed buns, or one small meat bun.

Wan Qiqi chose the first option. The meat bun looked tiny—no way it would fill her up.

When two buns appeared in her hands, Wan Qiqi still felt like she had to be dreaming.

But real or not, she was eating first!

She ate too fast and nearly choked. She had to pull more water fennel to trade for a bottle of water before she could catch her breath.

With food and water in her system, Wan Qiqi’s stomach finally settled, and her strength slowly started to return. Still, something felt off inside—every so often, she’d cough.

She remembered stories she’d seen: people rescued from drowning who later died from a lung infection.

Now that she basically understood how the shop worked, she immediately locked onto the 23-coin antibiotics in the marketplace. First things first—she needed to stay alive.

By September, it wasn’t really water fennel season anymore. The wild plants had already flowered and tasted awful, so the villagers would rather head into the hills to dig up other wild greens.

Before long, Wan Qiqi had a big handful of wild water fennel in her hands.

She’d drifted farther and farther from the riverbank, and the churning water was getting closer and closer.

Just then, a shrill woman’s voice tore through the air.

“Who’s the lowlife picking wild celery? Don’t you know that stuff can kill you!”

Wan Qiqi thought, Who’s sticking their nose in my business? Did they really think she couldn’t tell wild celery from water fennel?

She looked up. A heavyset woman stood at the edge of the bank with her hands on her hips, every bit the neighborhood shrew looking for a fight.

“Oh, would you look at that! The Chen family’s eldest daughter-in-law—still alive, huh!”

Her tone dripped with sarcasm, loud enough like she wanted the whole world to hear.

Wan Qiqi quickly dug through her memories for who it was—though she didn’t really need to. One thought and she knew.

It was Mrs. Zhao, the woman who lived next door to the Chen family. She and Wan Qiqi had never gotten along, always bickering over the pettiest nonsense.

Back then, the old Wan Qiqi had come from a family with a bit of standing, had seen more of the world, and had a sharper tongue. More than once, she’d left Mrs. Zhao too embarrassed to talk back.

This time, though—Wan Qiqi getting thrown out after going back to her parents’ place, then falling into the river and nearly drowning—Mrs. Zhao had finally gotten her satisfaction.

If anything, she hated that Wan Qiqi hadn’t drowned. One less menace, and the village could’ve had some peace and quiet.

Now that she’d spotted her, she couldn’t help taking the chance to lay into her and vent.

With that, Mrs. Zhao cupped her hands and hollered, “Come look! The Chen family’s eldest daughter-in-law is pure evil—she didn’t die, and now she’s picking poisonous wild celery to take back and kill the Chen family!”

At first, the villagers who’d been gathered around the Chen family’s courtyard heard the shouting and came out of their houses, craning their necks to watch the show.

A few even wandered down to the riverbank, gossip already flying.

“That vicious woman, Wan Qiqi—the Chen family saved her, and she’s still thinking about poisoning them. Disgusting!”

“What *won’t* she do? She’s probably thinking if she can’t have a good life, then the Chen family shouldn’t either.”

“Ugh. Who knows what the Chen family did to deserve marrying a venomous woman like that.”

...

Am I eating your food? Why are you all up in my business?

Wan Qiqi couldn’t understand it—these people could barely afford to eat, yet they still had the time and energy to meddle in someone else’s affairs.

So this is what small-town folks are like: always running their mouths.

Wan Qiqi straightened up and glanced at the people on the bank. She climbed up from the river’s edge and tossed the wild water fennel at Mrs. Zhao’s feet. “Mrs. Zhao, you’ve been alive for over twenty years—are you seriously telling me you can’t tell water fennel from wild celery?”