Chapter 21: Fight
But in a moment, Jiang Youtao remembered that the book also described the illness that Lin Wenrong suffered when he was a child.
It was just in Lin Wenrong's narration, in those few words, that he had a very clear impression of this illness. Zhao Chunhua held the money and did not let him see a doctor. His father had not returned home yet. It was his brother who begged Gu Nianwei to let him see a doctor.
Because the number of words was too short, Jiang Youtao didn't remember it for a while. Now that she encounter this scene, she remembers it.
According to what was written in the book, when Lin Wenrong fell ill this time, Gu Nianwei not only took care of him, but also took care of him in the hospital for several days.
Therefore, after Gu Nianwei married Lin Jianzhong, Lin Wenrong was the first to accept Gu Nianwei, and he has always acted as Gu Nianwei's intimate companion. When Gu Nianwei suffered various grievances in the Lin family, it was his company and protection that made Gu Nianwei feel better.
Among Lin Jianzhong's three sons, Gu Nianwei treated Lin Wenrong the best and treated him the best. She gave him everything good and cared about him in every way.
However, Lin Wenrong was indeed the offspring of Lin Jianzhong, and even though Gu Nianwei was being sincere to him, it was not enough to warm his blood.
He called her "Mom" in front of others, but he looked down on her in his heart. In his opinion, everything that belonged to Gu Nianwei should be his. Whenever Gu Nianwei gave even a little bit of it to others, he would feel uncomfortable and act like he was hurt and jealous. Every time this happened, Gu Nianwei would compromise and give him more things.
After discovering that Lin Jianzhong had cheated on her, his first reaction was not to tell Gu Nianwei and stand up for her, but to use this to blackmail Lin Jianzhong in order to gain more benefits for himself.
After all, Lin Jianzhong's property is limited, but he has three sons. His two elder brothers are already adults, and he is still young. If he doesn't plan for himself, what will he get in the end?
Lin Wenrong was only eighteen years old at that time. He perfectly inherited the selfishness and hypocrisy of the Lin family, and he hid his hypocrisy even deeper.
Gu Nianwei treated him wholeheartedly, but in the end, she was hurt the most by him.
Last time in the county town, she prevented Gu Nianwei and Lin Jianzhong from having the opportunity to improve their relationship. This time, she severed the bond between Gu Nianwei and Lin Wenrong.
This is, after all, a novel about a stepmother, with the emphasis placed on the word "stepmother", and everything revolves around how a stepmother raises children.
This can also explain why the awakening progress only moved forward by 5% after preventing Gu Nianwei from improving her relationship with Lin Jianzhong, but the awakening progress suddenly jumped to 20% after preventing Gu Nianwei from paying for Lin Wenrong.
The melon-eating system originally wanted to show off its intelligence to the host: Oh, what should I do if the host is too smart? It makes the host look like a loser...
After Jiang Youtao analyzed the situation, he found the problem: [ Tongzi, can you explain to me why I can get one melon coin when the awakening progress is 0.5, but only five melon coins when the awakening progress reaches five, and only ten melon coins when the awakening progress reaches 20%? ]
The importance of melon coins is self-evident. If you want to make purchases in the system mall, you must use it. Nothing else will work.
According to normal logic, shouldn't the faster the progress bar, the more melon coins you get? Why is it the opposite in the melon eating system?
She discovered it last time, but she didn't seek justice. She planned to take another look, but the more progress the bar had, the fewer melon coins she had. If this continued, there would be no point for her to continue playing.
For Jiang Youtao now, melon coins is her life. If the melon-eating system dares to deduct her melon coins in private, it will kill her!
Gu Nianwei was staring at the rain in a daze. Jiang Youtao turned on the system screen and searched carefully.
The core code of the melon-eating system was thrown into chaos by Jiang Youtao's questioning, and it was a little scared to see Jiang Youtao not waiting for its reply but searching on the light screen.
It asked cautiously with a trembling voice: [ Host, what are you looking for? ]
[ Finding the report button. I'm going to sue you for embezzling the reward I deserve. ] Jiang Youtao has been with the artificial idiot, the melon-eating system, for quite some time. As soon as she heard the emotional electronic voice of the melon-eating system, she knew that the thing must be guilty.
Then the one who withheld her melon coins must be the system.
Jiang Youtao calculated carefully that 0.5 awakening progress could get her 1 melon coin, so 5 progresses would get her 10. She got five last time, and the system deducted half of it.
This time the progress was twenty, and she could get 40 melon coins. However, Jiang Youtao only got ten, and the remaining 30 went into the system's pocket.
This is even more cruel than the capitalists.
Jiang Youtao decided to quit. Why did she work so hard but only get a small portion of the reward? Isn't this just like the blood contracts of the entertainment industry in later generations?
She work hard outside and very busy every day, but when she ask about her salary, it's only 20 or 30 yuan a day, not including food and accommodation.
Jiang Youtao has been a corporate slave in modern times for three or four years and has signed quite a few labor contracts, but this is the first time she has seen one so harsh, and it happened without her knowledge.
Jiang Youtao was very angry and she decided to complain about this crappy system.
She just couldn't believe that a garbage system like this that didn't even have a penalty mechanism wouldn't have a report button!
Seeing that Jiang Youtao had a cold expression and was serious about it, the melon-eating system became scared.
It is the first generation of the Melon Eating System, and Jiang Youtao is the first and only host in their Melon Eating System department. It is now in the critical debugging period. If it is complained, not only will it be destroyed, but the Melon Eating System department will be banned, and it will become a shame in the system world.
At the same time, the title of "Melon-eating System" will never be activated, and the task of monitoring the small world will be done by a new department.
The melon-eating system got scared, and it slid 365 degrees to its knees in front of Jiang Youtao: [ Host, please forgive me once, I will never dare to do it again, and I will immediately return the melon coins I withheld from you. ]
As the electronic sound of the melon-eating system sounded, the 35 melon coins that were deducted were successfully recharged into system mall's wallet.
My goodness, she worked so hard to complete the task and only got 17 melon coins, but the system directly gave her 35, which was more than half of hers. Jiang Youtao was so angry that she laughed.
She remained unmoved.
This action of the melon-eating system completely annoyed her.
This feeling is like she works hard for her boss, working like a horse day and night, and the boss should have paid her 4,000 yuan, but in the end she only got 1,000 yuan, and the boss even lied to her that her salary was only 1,000 yuan.
Just thinking about it, Jiang Youtao felt like her heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys were all on fire.
How can the system just spit out what it eats? Isn't that just lifting it up high and then putting it down gently? Is there any substantial loss to the melon-eating system? Has she gained any substantial benefits? Those melon coins originally belonged to her!
The melon-eating system really cried: [ Host, I really know I was wrong. I promise that this is the only time I have done such an immoral thing. In the future, I will definitely turn over a new leaf and become a good system that serves the host wholeheartedly. ]
Jiang Youtao doesn't believe a word. The artificial little idiot looks quite idiotic, but it is actually quite petty. It even got caught with deducting her reward. It should never be forgiven easily.
At this time, Jiang Youtao finally found the two ant-sized words "Report" in an unknown corner.
My goodness, if she hadn't looked carefully, she would have definitely overlooked these one word.
She was stereotyping, isn't this artificial little idiot quite smart when he's smart?
She magnified the word "report", and the melon-eating system immediately started crying.
Jiang Youtao's hand was getting closer and closer to the word "Report". The melon-eating system could no longer hold back: [ Host, can I compensate you for your losses? ]
[ I worked hard to save up twenty melon coins. I'll give them all to you. No one will be kept. Is that okay? ] The Melon-Eating System was so excited when it saw its fifty-plus melon coins just now, but now it feels so sad to see the empty account.
What is the most painful thing in this world? You think you have got it, but you suddenly lose it.
The sadness of the melon-eating system is as heavy as the rain outside today.
Jiang Youtao sighed, thinking that the melon-eating system was quite rich. She thought she had gotten all the benefits from the novice gift pack, but it turned out that this thing still had a trick up its sleeve?
Jiang Youtao learned another lesson from today's incident. As a person, you should not be too considerate of others. Otherwise, if you are not careful, you will be the one who gets hurt.
Jiang Youtao stretched her hand forward again, and the melon-eating system was about to do splits: [ Host, I will use my authority to send you a Mid-Autumn Festival snack package, with food, drinks and daily necessities!!! ]
The annual Mid-Autumn Festival is only one month away, and it's time to prepare mooncakes.
The commune also expressed its gratitude to these educated youth who had left home by giving each of them two mooncakes.
Jiang Youtao didn't like to eat this stuff before, but after traveling through time, she was really craving for it. In addition to mooncakes, she also particularly wanted snacks.
When she think of snacks, the first things that come to her mind are spicy noodles, milk tea, and popcorn.
The melon-eating system caught this thought and immediately said: [ Yes, yes, yes, we have all of these. ]
Jiang Youtao sighed in her heart and decided to quit while she was ahead: [ Okay, I'll forgive you this time. But there won't be a next time. If there is a next time, I will definitely report you. Anyway, whether you are here or not, I will still eat this melon. ]
There are many gossips in the countryside. You can point to any person and talk about that person's special gossip for half an hour.
She was quite happy about traveling back to the 1970s except that the living conditions became a little harder.
Besides, there are some rules for plucking the wool. You can't just plucking it all at once. You have to leave some seeds and wait for the next time, right?
The melon-eating system cried with joy, and swore to the sky that it would never do such a thing again. It also sold out the person who taught it this method.
It turns out that the systems have a forum specifically for them to communicate. Many systems are active in this forum every day, and some senior systems who like to teach others will share their experiences in the forum.
There are those who teach how to get along peacefully with the host and complete tasks happily, and there are also those who teach the system how to control the host and turn the host into someone who is obedient to the system.
After reading the first post, it was deeply touched and felt that it learned a lot of new knowledge. But after reading the second post, it was directly opened to the new door of using the watermelon eating system.
Can you control the host?
The heart of the melon-eating system was perfectly touched at once.
It was eager to learn from experience, and after two days of repeated research, it began to tamper with the melon coins. After all, apart from the melon coins, it had no use for the other rewards given to Jiang Youtao.
With melon coins, it can communicate with other systems, and it can buy its own skins in the system's dedicated mall.
It took a fancy to a red skin with Wangzai Milk printed on it. It was so beautiful that many systems were wearing it. It looked very energetic and happy when wearing it. It really wanted to have it.
But it needed sixty melon coins, so it successfully deducted Jiang Youtao's melon coins the first time. After Jiang Youtao left without noticing, it became bolder and directly deducted three quarters of the melon coins the second time.
It has planned everything out, and when the host asks about it, it will reply as it said in the post: [ Host, it is so bad, I learned bad things from reading its posts. It has taught me that if the host asks about it, just say that the task rewards are random, and the amount of rewards depends on luck. If the rewards are small, you can only blame yourself for having bad luck. ]
The melon-eating system was filled with righteous indignation. It now hated that post deeply, because many people in that post followed the method in the post, and their success rate was very high, but it was the only one that failed.
The melon-eating system felt that it could not allow that system to continue floating on the homepage. It wanted to make it impossible for those systems that wanted to turn over and become the masters to find a way to turn over!
[ Host, lend me two melon coins, I will report that post. Posts like this must not be left, isn't this provoking the relationship between the system and the host? Just like us, if you weren't firm, we would be torn apart. ] The emotions in the little electronic voice of the melon-eating system were so rich that they were about to overflow.
Jiang Youtao let out a sigh.
Suddenly she remembered a video she had seen on a short video platform in her previous life. It was about a house catching fire, and the children took the opportunity to throw their summer homework into the fire, which was then found by firefighters. The interview with the firefighters afterwards was even more hilarious.
That probably means that if I get caught in the rain, I have to tear up your umbrella.
Jiang Youtao felt that this artificial little idiot was sometimes quite to her liking, so she agreed, and the melon-eating system carefully transferred two melon coins from Jiang Youtao's account.
After that, it disappeared without a trace. Jiang Youtao guessed that it went to report.
Jiang Youtao's negotiation with the system seemed to take a long time, but in fact it took less than ten minutes.
After listening to the sound of rain quietly for a while, Gu Nianwei finally calmed down a little.
She looked at Jiang Youtao and said to her, "When we build the house, let's leave the porch a little bigger. If it rains, we can drink tea and chat in the porch."
Following Gu Nianwei's words, Jiang Youtao's mind had already emerged with the scene of the two of them drinking tea and listening to the rain. That scene deeply moved her.
Who among the impetuous office workers living in the 21st century does not yearn for such a leisurely life?
"Okay, I heard that it snows in the north in winter. When it snows, we can cook and drink in the hallway."
They both laughed.
Li Yunying came back at this time.
Jiang Youtao and Gu Nianwei hurried over to greet them.
Jiang Youtao asked Li Yunying, who was wiping her hands and taking off her shoes, "Sister Yunying, what's the situation over there?"
Li Yunying took the time to answer: "I took Lin Wenping directly to find the captain. When we passed by Aunt Wei Hong's house, I called Aunt Wei Hong again. When we rushed to Lin's house, Lin Wenrong was already convulsing from the fever. Zhao Chunhua was holding a bowl of water soaked in soot from the bottom of the pot for him to drink."
"The team leader and Aunt Wei Hong asked him to take the child to the hospital, but she said it was a waste of money and that children should not be so delicate. She also said that pot ash is herbal frost that can cure all diseases." Li Yunying knew that Zhao Chunhua was ignorant, but she didn't know she was this so ignorant.
"This person is also very powerful. I remember that at the beginning of spring, her second son's grandson also had a fever, and she rushed to the hospital at that time. Why didn't she say that she would give her second son's grandson some ash from the bottom of the pot to drink?" In the end, doesn't she still dislike and don't care about Lin Wenrong?
Zhang Huihui was also very angry after hearing this. She then asked: "What happened next?"
"Aunt Weihong took Lin Wenrong home. The team leader rode his bike to the commune clinic."
"We have done everything we can now. We should just do our best and leave the rest to fate." It was raining so heavily today and Lin Wenrong was carried out again. The clinic was so far away. Who knows what the situation was.
Li Yunying only hopes that Lin Wenrong is in better health and can survive this time.
Li Yunying said to Gu Nianwei, "Weiwei, you were right not to go. You don't even know how Zhao Chunhua pestered Aunt Wei Hong when she wanted to take Lin Wenrong away. She slapped Aunt Wei Hong when she wanted to take the child away. Aunt Wei Hong is her sister-in-law. If it was someone like us who has no relationship with her, I don't know what she would do."
This time, after hearing about Lin Wenrong's situation, Gu Nianwei's feeling of heartache and wishing she could replace him faded a lot, and she didn't even need to suppress it before it disappeared.
Gu Nianwei heaved a sigh of relief: "I was not thoughtful enough just now. I saw that the child came to me for help, and he looked so pitiful, so I wanted to help him."
Li Yunying and Zhang Huihui nodded. They had no doubts about what Gu Nianwei said. Gu Nianwei had always liked children. In the eyes of children, Gu Nianwei was also the best educated youth.
The Lin brothers simply received more favor from her.
Originally, the matter should have ended here, but there happened to be troublemakers like Zhao Yonglan at the educated youth point.
"I don't think so. I've heard from people that Aunt Wei Hong is planning to make you her niece-in-law. I've heard from people that Aunt Wei Hong's nephew is very good and is an officer. If you marry him, you won't have to worry about your future. Soldiers have very good benefits. Weiwei, come and tell us secretly, are you trying to please his son in advance?"
Zhao Yonglan said the last sentence with a lewd smile on her face: "Don't be shy, men and women should get married when they are old enough. What's wrong with thinking about yourself? If you ask me, Weiwei, you didn't do a good job in this matter. There is nothing to please these step-sons. Just ignore them. When you get married and control the man, won't you still have the final say in the family?"
There are women who have remarried in Zhao Yonglan's yard. Those women are very powerful. They hold the men tightly in their hands and are lukewarm to the children left behind by their parents. They are fine as long as they don't starve or freeze to death.
Once they have their own children, the ones they had before become completely yesterday's news. All the good things are given to their own children. The same is true for fathers. As long as it is not excessive, he will not interfere.
Zhao Yonglan even thought that Gu Nianwei was a fool for trying to please several children. She had no scheming or tricks at all. What was the point of trying to please those little brats? She wasn't going to live with those three children when she got married.
She should get along well with Aunt Wei Hong and ask her to say a few good words in front of her nephew. Isn't this better than anything else?
The expressions of everyone, including Gu Nianwei, did not look better, and Zhang Huihui even pulled Zhao Yonglan's sleeve several times.
Zhao Yonglan thought she was annoying and slapped her twice. Her annoying mouth opened and closed, and the words coming out of it became more and more unpleasant. Zhang Huihui glanced at Gu Nianwei's increasingly ugly face and decided to ignored Zhao Yonglan.
Zhao Yonglan wouldn't listen to her anyway.
Gu Nianwei narrowed her eyes: "Zhao Yonglan, what do you mean by that? Who do you think wants to be a stepmother?"
Zhao Yonglan put her hand over her mouth and said, "Weiwei, you are being disrespectful. You are keeping this secret from me when it has spread all over the village. I have heard that Aunt Weihong is buying wedding supplies for Lin Jianzhong. If you hadn't agreed, how could they have bought anything?"
"Bullshit, when did I agree to be someone's stepmother? Tell me clearly, who spread this rumor? I want to ask them how they knew something I didn't even know." Gu Nianwei knew how important reputation was to a girl in this era. She had always paid attention to this aspect of her business.
She never imagined that one day she would be the subject of such outrageous news.
Zhao Yonglan heard this from the women in her group. She couldn't even recognize all the people now. Where could she find someone to confront with Gu Nianwei?
"Everyone in the village is talking about it. What can I do? Besides, flies don't bite cracked eggs, and a single slap won't make a sound. Otherwise, why would they spread such gossip about you instead of others?"
After Zhao Yonglan finished speaking, Gu Nianwei slapped her in the face: "One slap doesn't make a sound? Zhao Yonglan, tell me, does this slap make a sound?"
Zhao Yonglan had never been beaten like this since she was a child. Gu Nianwei's slap stunned her. When she came to her senses, she touched her face, screamed, and rushed towards Gu Nianwei with her eyes closed.
"You hit me, you dare to hit me." She was obviously no match for Gu Nianwei and was subdued by Gu Nianwei again.
Gu Nianwei didn't hit her, but Zhao Yonglan was furious: "Zhang Huihui, Zhang Huihui, what do you do for a living? Can't you see that I'm being bullied? Why are you still standing there?"
Zhang Huihui hesitated for two seconds, and finally walked towards Gu Nianwei.
As was mentioned before, Zhao Yonglan's parents are her parents' immediate superiors. If Zhao Yonglan was beaten and she didn't help, when the news got back, her parents would be implicated again.
Just after taking two steps, she was stopped by Jiang Youtao. She looked at Jiang Youtao and saw her half-smiley face: "Let them solve their own problems. Outsiders should not interfere. Okay?"
The heroic image of Jiang Youtao fighting with Liu Erhua instantly flooded into Zhang Huihui's mind, and Zhang Huihui stood still.