Chapter 2 Daily Intelligence System

[System Binding Complete]

Listening to the voice beside my ear, a transparent panel appeared before me.

[Daily Intelligence Updated (Level 1)]

[1. Yesterday at Yu's Treasure House gambling with dice, obtained intel: The dice at Yu's Treasure House are filled with mercury, allowing the opponent to control the outcome at will.]

[2. Yesterday, passing by the back hill, obtained intel: This morning, a rabbit crashed into a tree at Black Bear Gully and died.]

[3. Saw Lai San yesterday, obtained intel: Yu's Treasure House's Young Master, Yu Sanliu, has his eye on your wife, and is discussing with Ma Liu how to deceive you into the gambling house and win Su Yunjin over.]

[4. Saw Su Yunrui today, obtained intel: Su Yunrui is very scared of you, had a nightmare last night about you hitting her sister, but didn't dare to cry out.]

[5. Met Su Yunjin today, obtained intel: Su Yunjin has developed a death wish, three days ago she exchanged her mother's left-behind hairpin for a pack of arsenic and a pound of rice.]

Looking at the transparent panel before me, Chen Jie swallowed hard.

Lifting his head, he looked at Su Yunjin, who was watching him, and to his surprise, she started to avoid his gaze, not daring to make eye contact.

Arsenic!

Chen Jie recalled the last bit of intel about arsenic.

Could it have been put into this bowl of porridge?

Chen Jie slowly set down the porridge bowl, and then looked at Su Yunjin, "Wife, I remember we can't even afford cornmeal at home, where did this rice come from?"

Hearing this, Su Yunjin paused slightly.

"I, I pawned my hairpin," she said with an obscured expression. "You were right, we can't even afford to eat, what's the point of keeping that broken hairpin..."

Chen Jie remembered that his predecessor, desperate from gambling losses, had once thought about taking Su Yunjin's hairpin, but back then Su Yunjin would rather take a beating than give it to Chen Jie because that hairpin was the only thing her mother had left her.

But now she had actually pawned it, in exchange for arsenic, what level of despair must she have reached to do such a thing!

Chen Jie spoke again, "The hairpin, you exchanged it just for some rice? Didn't exchange it for something else?"

Su Yunjin's expression tensed up, and she became somewhat panicked, "No, nothing else."

"Really? I seem to have heard that you also bought a pack of arsenic?"

"Wife, you haven't put any drugs in this porridge, have you?"

Boom!

Chen Jie's words exploded in Su Yunjin's mind, how could he know!

No, it's impossible!

At that moment, Su Yunjin began to tremble slightly, a display of fear to the extreme. Seeing Su Yunjin like this, Chen Jie confirmed, there was indeed poison in the porridge!

Chen Jie thought, and suddenly saw Su Yunjin raise her head abruptly, her eyes filled with despair.

Her plan had failed, so easily failed.

She had no way out anymore!

Yesterday, Chen Jie had lost the family's last three acres of good land, which was the family's last hope. Later, he even considered selling his sister into a brothel, a place that would ruin his sister's life forever.

Being married to the beast Chen Jiusi, her own life was already ruined, but she didn't want her sister's life to be destroyed too.

Her life had come to this, but her sister was still young, she should have a brighter future.

She couldn't let this scum destroy her sister's life.

But she couldn't beat this scum, nor escape from his control, she couldn't just watch Chen Jie destroy her sister.

And so, she thought of the arsenic she had bought for herself, but now she intended to poison this scum to death instead.

However, everything had been exposed now, and there was no longer any light in her life.

She could imagine what came next; surely, it would be a brutal beating from Chen Jie, and maybe he would beat her to death. As for Ruirui, she feared the girl would be sold to a brothel and become the plaything of others, living a life akin to a dog's.

No, no!

A hint of madness suddenly appeared in Su Yunjin's eyes. She quickly snatched the rice porridge beside Chen Jie and roared, "Ruirui, eat the porridge fast!"

After saying this, she opened her mouth to gulp down the porridge.

If she couldn't poison this beast, then she would poison herself. She'd had enough of this life; she didn't want to live anymore.

Perhaps after death, there would be no beatings, no cursing.

Hearing Su Yunjin's words, Su Yunrui looked at Chen Jie with fright and reached for the ladle in the clay pot.

Chen Jie, seeing this, roared, "Put it down, don't eat!"

Then, he knocked the bowl of porridge from Su Yunjin's hands to the ground. Su Yunjin was shocked while Chen Jie lunged at Su Yunrui. The little girl was about to shovel a heaping spoonful of porridge into her mouth.

Chen Jie was horrified. If she ate that, she would be poisoned on the spot.

Su Yunjin, seeing the shattered bowl on the ground, went insane. "If I'm alive, you beat me; now I'm dying and you still won't let me, what exactly do you want?"

Then, seeing Chen Jie preventing Su Yunrui from eating the porridge, she mustered strength from somewhere and charged at Chen Jie, embracing him around the waist and yelling, "Ruirui, eat, eat fast!"

As she spoke, tears began to flow uncontrollably from her eyes.

She absolutely couldn't stand by and watch her sister be sold into a brothel. If it came to it, she would rather her sister die!

Death would be a release, freeing them from this filthy world and this devil.

"Ruirui, eat, eat fast!"

Embracing Chen Jie in a frenzy, Su Yunjin cried out. Chen Jie, now also in a panic, shouted at Little Douding, "Don't eat, put the spoon down!"

"Chen Jiusi, what exactly do you want?"

Su Yunjin, completely unable to contain herself anymore, bellowed at Chen Jie.

Chen Jie, taken aback by the yelling, was rendered speechless as Su Yunjin hysterically cried out, "What do you want, what do you want to do to us? I'm begging you, just let us die, let us die!"

"Let us die! Wuu..."

Su Yunjin collapsed onto the floor in tearful despair while Chen Jie was similarly frozen, unsure of how to respond.

Little Douding, witnessing her sister's cries and looking at her own rice spoon, wailed as she threw down the spoon and cried out, "Wuu, Brother-in-law, Ruirui will stop eating, please don't hit my sister, don't hit my sister, Ruirui will listen to you, Ruirui will do anything you say, wuu..."

Suddenly, the whole room filled with crying, and as Chen Jie listened to the sobs around him, a wave of pity rose in his heart.

Look what you've pushed them to.

"Ai~"

Chen Jie sighed to himself. This matter had started because of his past self, and now that he had taken his place, the resolution depended solely on him—the bell must be untied by the person who tied it.

Thinking this, Chen Jie looked down at Su Yunjin, who was crumbling on the ground, sobbing inconsolably. She should have been a gentle and knowledgeable lady from a scholarly family, but she had been tortured so severely by his past self that she had been stripped of a layer of skin.

His past self truly deserved to die!

Feelings stirred within him, Chen Jie sighed and decided to console the woman.

Not for any other reason than the slight pity in his heart...

Gently stroking the woman's hair, he met her puzzled gaze and said:

"Stop crying!"