Chapter Eight: Detailed Overview of the Golden Finger

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Yun Shu and Lin Jingshu were not particularly opposed to life as educated youths in the countryside. After all, both of them were wealthy players with cheat systems. Seeing how optimistic and cheerful the two girls were, Jiang Xiucheng and Chen Ming, who had originally been worrying about their families, gradually relaxed as well.

As Yun Shu and Lin Jingshu chatted, the subject turned to the county town. The brigade captain had just explained that a bullock cart traveled between the brigade and the county every day, and they could take it to the county supply cooperative to purchase whatever they needed.

They certainly had to furnish their new home. It was only when something was needed that one regretted not having enough of it. No matter how they arranged things—or how much Yun Shu and Lin Jingshu smuggled out of their cheat systems—they would still need to make this trip to the supply cooperative.

While imagining everything she would need from morning to night, from brushing her teeth and washing her face to eating and sleeping, Yun Shu stuffed building blocks into the two large parcels she had brought with her to make up for the volume. As she pondered what else she might be able to take out, she muttered her “shopping” list under her breath.

Lin Jingshu, the female protagonist who trusted her best friend, and the three male educated youths, who clearly lacked experience in daily life, immediately began copying down her answers at full speed.

“We need a big iron kettle for boiling water, and a thermos, washing powder for laundry, soap, toothpaste, and shampoo. Then there are lunch boxes, hot-water bottles, washboards, matches, pots, bowls, chopsticks, salt, and oil… Oh, and assorted candies, sponge cakes, peach crisps, and baked pastries!”

As she spoke, she abruptly jumped to food. Yun Shu’s thoughts leaped so quickly that several of those taking notes nearly strained their backs. Caught off guard, they all burst out laughing.

With a beaming smile, Lin Jingshu reached over and rubbed the soft, smooth cheek of the new best friend she had just made, then teased Yun Shu playfully.

“So you really are a little glutton! Nothing matters more to you than delicious food—even the chocolate I brought was traded away by you.”

Yun Shu was indignant and protested with a series of little snorts. “And I wonder who ate all my shrimp crisps? Hmph! Don’t tell me you don’t like tasty food.”

In all fairness, the various pastries and candies made from pure grains in this era tasted far better than the artificially enhanced food of the twenty-first century.

…

As they talked, their conversation stirred up everyone’s appetite. Before getting off the train, they had not known when they would next be able to eat, so they had merely put something in their stomachs.

By the time they got off the train and endured the long, exhausting journey that followed, it was already midday. Naturally, they were all tired and hungry. There was no restaurant or anything of the sort in the brigade, but fortunately, each of them still had food in their luggage.

After agreeing to visit the supply cooperative the next day and see what they could buy, they returned to the educated-youth compound and went back to their respective rooms. Yun Shu could also take this opportunity to learn more about her cheat system.

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Although she had been looking for opportunities to understand it, Yun Shu’s knowledge of the system was still far from complete. She had only taken a cursory look at what was included in the beginner’s gift pack. Now that she finally had some time alone, she naturally intended to examine everything carefully, including the system’s attributes.

Yang Yue, who had no food in hand and had not yet gone to the brigade headquarters to collect her supplies, could only eat the few cornmeal buns remaining in her bundle. They were cold and scraped painfully against her throat.

Hiding behind the door, she secretly watched Yun Shu and Lin Jingshu exchanging pastries. Jealousy and resentment quietly began to take root in her heart once more.

…

The cheat was quite simple: a check-in growth system divided into daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly check-ins. It had even thoughtfully added a birthday check-in for Yun Shu.

The daily check-ins consisted mostly of everyday necessities: rice, flour, grain, oil, meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, and other supplies, so that Yun Shu would not starve to death in the countryside despite being unable to distinguish the crops from the weeds.

Weekly check-ins provided pastries, snacks, and various food coupons. Their guiding principle was that a child should never have to go without treats—whatever she wanted to eat, she would have.

Monthly check-ins contained more valuable items, such as ready-made clothes, leather shoes, liberation shoes, woolen overcoats, wool coats, radios, watches, bicycles, and various industrial coupons. Most importantly, they included sanitary pads.

Yearly check-ins were even more precious. In addition to large gift packs of daily necessities, they offered one chance at a lottery. The prizes included skills Yun Shu found particularly appealing, such as speaking with animals, a lucky koi aura, complete mastery of foreign languages, and Lin Daiyu’s ability to uproot a willow tree.

However, including the birthday check-in, there were only two lottery opportunities in the entire year.

All of these skills seemed extremely useful, and Yun Shu wanted every one of them. After all, she had already experienced firsthand how practical the skills produced by the system could be. Take the “God’s-Eye View” she had obtained from the beginner’s gift pack: besides allowing her to see other people’s information panels and their favorability toward her, it could also be used to search for treasures.

By zooming out a little further, she could form a large-scale map in her mind. The entire Fengsheng Brigade would be visible at a glance, densely dotted with tiny points of light. Notes and explanations appeared beside them, clearly indicating where pheasants and rabbits could be found, where tigers and wild boars roamed, and where precious medicinal herbs were growing.

Thus, although she looked forward to the lottery offered by the yearly check-in, she was already perfectly satisfied with what she had gained so far—especially since the beginner’s gift pack had also given her a small personal space.

Apart from being unable to grow crops or raise animals there, the little spiritual spring that strengthened the body and the small villa for storing possessions were more than sufficient.

And this was only what she had received from the check-in system.

…

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The reason the system’s name included the word “growth” was that the items it gave Yun Shu would change according to her identity and social standing.

For example, Yun Shu was currently an educated youth sent to the countryside, so her check-in rewards naturally focused on survival supplies. If she were admitted to university and returned to the city, the items obtained from her check-ins would change accordingly. The same would apply to her future work and lifestyle.

In short, the system would evolve with Yun Shu’s identity, unlocking different sections along the way, much like the stages of a person’s growth throughout life.

After carefully familiarizing herself with the system’s functions and attributes, Yun Shu nodded in satisfaction. There were no compulsory missions, only highly flexible exploration that could be triggered at will. It was extraordinarily humane, almost as though it had been tailor-made for her, allowing her to live freely and comfortably in this era.

Sitting on the heated brick bed in a decidedly unladylike manner and eating soft, fluffy little rolls, Yun Shu sorted the contents of the beginner’s gift pack and stored them in her small personal space.

The entire educated-youth compound grew exceptionally quiet for a while. After the jolting journey, everyone was probably exhausted and needed some time to recover.

—

After a simple lunch, at around two in the afternoon, the two sons of Carpenter Wang delivered the furniture. Yun Shu and Lin Jingshu hurriedly spread reed mats over the heated brick beds to keep out dust. The three male educated youths volunteered to carry the cabinets, arranging the heavy solid-wood furniture according to the girls’ wishes and lifting it onto the beds.

After all, with the lighter pieces weighing several dozen pounds and the heavier ones more than a hundred, it would have been genuinely difficult for the two girls—who possessed no super-strength skills—to move everything themselves.

After half an hour of frantic effort, they finally had everything in place, and their little home began to take shape. Once they went to the county town and found some old newspapers at the waste-recycling station, they could paste a layer over the two walls beside the heated brick bed, effectively preventing the earthen walls from shedding dirt and collecting dust.

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