CH 51

Chapter 51 – Old debts

The next day, five children with bruises and swollen noses went to school and were surrounded by a group of curious classmates.

It was not surprising that they were astonished. Mr Zhuang had always been strict in his management and the biggest conflicts in the school were just quarrels. The last fight took place outside the school and were mainly caused by two outsiders – Bai Shan and Er Tou.

It was different this time. Someone asked Bai Er Lang, while others asked Man Bao quietly, “You guys had a fight?”

Man Bao didn’t think fighting was shameful, so she nodded and admitted, “Yes.”

But she also knew it was not good to fight so, she complained first, “They started it, and ambushed us.”

A few of her classmates asked curiously, “Why did you fight?”

Man Bao was dumbfounded, scratched her head and thought, yeah, why did they fight?

So, she turned around and dragged Bai Shan along to look for Bai Er Lang, and asked, “Why did you hit us?”

Last evening, Bai Er Lang was smacked and scolded, and he looked positively sullen this morning. However, after his grandmother and his parents’ re-education, he knew that he can’t fight with Bai Shan again. Otherwise, he would definitely receive more smacking and scolding from his grandmother, father and even from his mother! So, when he heard Man Bao’s question, he looked even more sullen.

He said, “None of your business. I was only targeting him, you got what you deserved for butting in.”

Man Bao looked at him, then at Bai Shan, and snorted at Bai Er Lang.

She and Bai Shan have new grievances, but these have been settled. The most important thing is that after their life and death experience yesterday, she feels their relationship have transformed from being ordinary tablemates to good friends.

So, in the face of Bai Er Lang’s long-standing grievances, Man Bao didn’t hesitate to side with Bai Shan, dragged him back to their desk and quietly advised him, “When will your house be built? I’ll ask my elder brother and second brother to help.”   

She added, “Bai Er Lang is a bad egg. If you live in their house, it might go unnoticed if he bullies you. Furthermore, you are a guest and it’s not good to fight with your host. Just wait until you move out. If he still bullies you then, I will ask my eldest nephew to help you fight back.   

“If my eldest nephew can’t beat him, I still have my fifth and sixth brothers. Let me tell you, my sixth brother is an excellent fighter. No child in the village can beat him.”

Bai Shan also didn’t want to live in his paternal uncle’s house anymore as he found living there very inconvenient. So, he whispered to Man Bao, “My grandmother is choosing a place. I heard my mother say we can move out before the Chinese New Year if everything moves quickly.”

Bai Shan has never built a house before and thinks it would be fast if he can move out before the Chinese New Year, but Man Bao doesn’t think so.

She exclaimed, “That’s too long. Go and ask your grandmother to quickly choose a spot. I’ll talk to my father and get all my older brothers to help you. I have six older brothers. If we get a few people from the village, we will be able to build the house for you in three to five days.”

“So fast?”

“That’s already slow, so slow,” Man Bao said, ” The last time the village chief wanted to build a house for Sanzhu to marry his wife, my eldest brother and the others worked together and built it for him in two days.”

Obviously, Man Bao didn’t know there are different types of houses.

Bai Shan was even more ignorant. He waited impatiently for the end of classes, received his punishment homework from Mr Zhuang and went home.

Mr Zhuang was not blind. Five students appeared with bruises and swollen noses. With just a glance, he knew they fought.

When he asked, he was informed that they were settling the scores privately, and hence, everyone involved was punished with homework.

Bai Er Lang and his two pals received the punishment with a bitter expression, but Man Bao and Bai Shan were very excited, because they felt it was only natural to write characters when one is studying.

Why, this is not a punishment at all to the two enthusiastic kids.

The two went back to home happily. Man Bao was very responsible today. First, she taught Da Tou, Da Ya and the rest of the gang a few Chinese characters and she memorised four sentences from “The Thousand Characters Classic”. Then, she took a break.

She went to the mall again and looked at the tube of green liquid, and coveted, “Keke, you really can’t give me credit to purchase this medicine?”

The system said helplessly, “Host, I can only connect to the mall, but the transaction is completed by a third party. If I have the points, I can buy it and give it to you on credit. In the future, you can just repay me. But the problem is that I don’t have so many points either.”

The system didn’t mind showing Man Bao his points because he didn’t have many.

Keke arrived in Man Bao’s world by accident when he encountered a spatial storm during his journey. When he contacted the main system, the main system said the spatial passage on this side of the interstellar link has not been opened, and it would require many points to open it.

In theory, the points should be paid by the host, but where would his host get the points? Without the points, the passage could not be opened, the things he inputted could not be given to the Encyclopaedia, and Keke could not determine the number of points awarded to himself and to his host.

This is a vicious cycle.

The most terrifying thing is that because the passage cannot be opened, and Keke has spent a lot of energy protecting himself while passing through the storm, he could no longer go back by himself.

So Keke had to use his points to open the passage and then find a nearby host with the highest IQ detected.

At the time it was so dazed that it didn’t even look at Man Bao. It only recognised the soul, so who knew it was a little girl?

A little girl is a little girl. At any rate, it is legal, and the passage is opened. Even if Man Bao can’t afford to pay for that passage, when she dies in the future, the system can be retrieved and wouldn’t be stranded in the interstellar.

For intelligent systems like them, if they can’t generate revenue for the interstellar, they will definitely be disconnected from the main system. Once they are disconnected, it will be no different from death.

So, Keke really doesn’t have any points to help Man Bao. Over the years, the points he has been using to buy sweets to entice Man Bao were out of his own pocket. Of course, Man Bao has repaid him not long ago.

Man Bao has moved from negative equity to positive equity.

Keke is very confident of Man Bao because in a short period of time, she has not only achieved positive growth in assets, but also successfully opened the mall. What does this mean?

It shows that the host is highly flexible. The current dilemma is just because his host is too young, she just needs to grow up.

As for Man Bao’s character, Keke, who grew up with her, thinks he knows her best. Persuasion is better than force when it comes to dealing with Man Bao.

But she has another advantage. She will do anything as long as there are benefits such as things she likes, delicious food, fun stuff, good things for her family, or things that her family urgently needs.

Koko thought he could buy the tube of potion and dangle it like a carrot in front of Man Bao, but that required too many points and there seemed to be no hope in sight, so he said, “Man Bao, the rooster you bought for your mother has already been consumed.

“According to the doctor, your mother’s fundamental problem is anaemia, so she needs to be replenished with nutrients. If you can ensure that she can eat meat every day, your mother’s health should be much better. At least, this method would tide you over until you earn the points to buy the potion.”

When Man Bao heard this, she began to count all her copper plates stored in the system and found that she had enough buy a chicken.

So, she wanted to pass the money to her second brother, and the system reminded her, “Your family might be reluctant to buy a chicken.”

Man Bao stopped in her steps, tilted her head and thought for a while, put the copper plates in her pocket and walked out.