Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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With a serious expression, he checked the house carefully first but found that the house was empty. There was no footprint left at the door or by the window, and there was indeed no sign of intrusion.
Besides, he was always alert. Even if he had a fever and was drowsy, it was impossible for him to be completely asleep and not notice someone coming in.
The wooden door was also filled with solid and dense straw, which looked normal, and there was no trace of any deliberate mischief. On the contrary, it could actually block some of the cold wind.
This was unbelievable!
Lu Huan wondered for a moment whether he was still running a fever and was hallucinating, but when he raised his hand and touched his forehead, it was ice cold.
Or maybe – he was really confused due to the fever last night, and climbed out of bed to fix the door in a half-awake state? He had long planned to fix the gap in the wooden door that let in air, but he was too tired recently, so he delayed it for a while.
But no matter how he thought about it, it still didn’t make sense.
Lu Huan stared at the mattress, then at the door that had obviously been repaired. His dark eyes were filled with vigilance and alertness, but he didn’t find anything more suspicious for the time being, so he could only give up for the time being.
He just walked to the closet, took out a sharp dagger made of stone from the bottom of the worn-out clothes, and secretly placed it in the crack of the wall under the bed.
The urging voices of the two servants were heard again outside the door.
Today was the day when the children and families of Ning Wang Mansion had to go to the ancestral temple to worship their ancestors. Lu Huan lived in this shabby courtyard without servants. So, all he could hear in the early morning was the noisy sounds of slaughtering chickens and sheep.
Although he was a bast**d son, he had to go to the ancestral worship ceremony to avoid giving rise to gossip.
Lu Huan washed his face with cold water, allowing the aftereffects of the typhoid fever to fade away a little, before turning around and leaving.
He was already accustomed to the gazes of the servants along the way, so he did not hide or avoid them.
The ground outside the Ning Wang Mansion Ancestral Hall had frozen and it was bitterly cold.
Basta**s were not allowed to enter the ancestral hall, so he could only kneel outside the gate. He had only three or two pieces of clothing, all very thin, patched, and much smaller due to his growing bones. His cuffs and ankles revealed a section of his pale skin, which was wettened by the mud and snow on the ground and turned white in the cold wind.
After a full half hour, two red-lacquered, silver-topped, blue-wool sedan chairs finally arrived and stopped at the main hall of the ancestral hall.
Two young men who were a few years older than Lu Huan came down wearing fancy clothes, stepping on the servant’s back.
The shorter one was Lu Wenxiu. He glanced at Lu Huan and snorted.
He had found an excuse to teach Lu Huan a lesson yesterday, thinking that he would lie in bed and not be able to get up today, but he didn’t expect that this tough guy was actually very strong and he still got up.
As soon as he got off the sedan chair and saw Lu Huan’s straight back, he felt very displeased.
When he stared at Lu Huan, he saw that although the young man was wearing thin clothes and his cheeks were white from the cold, he raised his head and looked back at him without avoiding. He immediately became even more angry and walked over to teach his third brother a lesson as he did yesterday.
But before he could roll up his sleeves and walk over, his eldest brother Lu Yu’an held his shoulders.
“Wenxiu, this is the ancestral hall.” Lu Yu’an shook his head and scolded in a low voice: “Don’t do anything reckless. Go back and do it if you have anything to do.”
Lu Wenxiu threw down his sleeves and glared at Lu Huan fiercely: “We let him go back yesterday, which was really a bargain for him.”
Then a peony-paved sedan chair came along, and a noble lady stepped down from it. She pulled her golden hairpin and fox fur coat tightly around her body, and said to the Lu brothers, “Why don’t you go in quickly?”
After the two brothers entered, Lady Ning turned around and entered the side hall and glanced at Lu Huan outside the ancestral hall.
There was no expression on Lu Huan’s face. He just raised his head and looked back at her indifferently.
Lady Ning Wang had always regarded Lu Huan as a thorn in her side. If this thorn in her side could be removed, she would have done it long ago. But this teenage boy was very tough and tenacious, and so he was still alive today.
Two servants came over with food boxes and distributed food to some guards outside the ancestral hall.
When it was Lu Huan’s turn, Lady Ning raised her hand to stop him.
She said to Lu Huan in a soft voice, “It’s freezing outside. Huan’er, if you don’t eat something, I’m worried that you’ll get hungry. But we can’t eat or drink on the day of worship in the ancestral hall. We are not members of the Lu family, so we don’t have to follow the rules, but you and your two brothers have to set an example. So Huan’er, please bear with it for now and eat when you get back.”
“You two, deliver the Third Young Master’s meal to his residence.”
The two servants bowed and nodded hurriedly, then turned their heads away.
“I’ll ask the kitchen to prepare something you like.” Lady Ning was still maintaining the false image of the mistress in front of outsiders, but the thin young man in front of her obviously didn’t have the patience to flatter her.
Although Lu Huan was starving, his back was straight, his face was cold and expressionless, and he didn’t even bother to respond.
What did he like? Just steamed buns with bran and vegetables.
Mrs. Ning’s face turned a little stiff. She smiled and was supported by her maid into the side hall. After entering, a bit of anger immediately appeared on her face.
The heavy snow swirled and fell, and in a blink of an eye it buried the deep alley outside the ancestral hall. Lu Huan knelt outside the red walls and green tiles, his body and shoulders covered with snow, turning him into a small snowman.
Laughter could be heard from the ancestral hall from time to time.
Outside the ancestral hall, the alley was dead silent and cold.
The young man knelt motionless on the spot, with his eyes lowered, listening to the sharp cold wind whistling in his ears, feeling the endless biting cold, as day after day, for fourteen years, gloom and hatred crept into his heart.
….
Su Xi finished her homework with her classmates. After seeing them off, Father and Mother Su also came over.
As soon as she entered the ward, the aroma of the black chicken soup emanating from the thermos in Mother Su’s hand immediately filled the entire room.
Su Xi was so greedy that she shouted in surprise, “Mom, how did you know I wanted to drink the soup you stewed!”
Mother Su placed the thermos on the bedside, picked up the two snack bags that had fallen next to the trash can and throwing them into the trash can, angrily said, “Didn’t I tell you not to eat snacks? If you eat them, how can you drink the soup I stew?!”
Su Xi, with her leg in a plaster cast, happily moved to the bedside and stared at the thermos impatiently: “My stomach is big enough, I can still drink it!”
Mr. Su was cleaning the ward, while Mrs. Su pulled over a chair and sat down, then she scooped the chicken soup into a bowl and handed it to Su Xi.
She also carefully took a small table and placed it on the bed, asking Su Xi to put the bowl of chicken soup on it to avoid getting burned: “Then drink it all for me.”
After drinking the chicken soup and eating some rice, Su Xi burped and felt warm in his stomach.
Mr. and Mrs. Su chatted with her for a while and then cleaned up for her.
After watching her lie down to sleep and tucking in the quilt for her, the couple tiptoed out of the ward.
Su Xi was a night owl, so of course she couldn’t sleep at this moment. Suddenly she heard her cell phone ringing. She took out the phone from under her pillow and then she remembered that she almost forgot about the little man in the game.
She quickly logged on, and as soon as she opened the game interface, several messages popped up.
It was the reward she got for “repairing the wooden door” and “thin quilt” a few hours ago.
“Congratulations on the initial successful improvement of the material foundation. You will receive +8 gold coins and +1 external environment improvement point!”
External environment improvement points?
Was it the thing that the system said before that accumulating 10 points could be exchanged for a koi?
Su Xi hurriedly turned off the message and was about to study what this thing was when she heard footsteps.
At this time, she had not yet unlocked other interfaces, and the screen could only stay in the dilapidated woodshed of the game character.
The woodshed was empty and the bedding was neatly folded. A day had passed in the game and it was already evening. She wondered what the little man in the game had gone out to do.
No, Su Xi discovered that there seemed to be a simple food box in the woodshed, placed on the closet.
She reached out and poked.
The food box was not steaming, and it looked cold, making one lose appetite. She wondered what was inside.
The footsteps outside the wooden door were getting closer and closer, and three seconds later, the door was pushed open.
The ones who were stealthily poking their heads in was not the little character from Su Xi’s game, but two servants in coarse cloth, with a “Lu Jia” on the left head and a “Lu Yi” on the right head.
Su Xi: …
Wasn’t the naming sense in this game a bit too random?
Lu Jia and Lu Yi were also cartoon paper figures, but it was obvious that they were not in good shape. Their arms were as thick as lotus roots, but their heads and thighs were short.
What were these two people trying to steal? The game character’s house was so poor, what could be stolen?
While Su Xi was confused, she saw Lu Jia walk directly to the food box, stretch out his hand to pick up the food box, and say to Lu Yi with a sly look: “Since it is the food for worship, and the madam specially asked the kitchen to send it over, this kid should eat better than us, right?”
Lu Yi looked so hungry that his mouth was about to drool, but then the two of them opened the food box.
As soon as they opened it, the two paper people were dumbfounded.
Su Xi outside the screen was also dumbfounded.
There was nothing good in the lunch box. It was just some leftovers. A few skinny vegetables, without any color, were hanging on the top, and below them were some dry rice bran and steamed buns.
Before Su Xi had time to feel pity for his game character, she saw Lu Jia reach out and grab a piece of vegetable and put it in his mouth to chew it.
He almost vomited because it was so disgusting: “It’s fu**ing disgusting.”
Seeing him like this, Lu Yi didn’t want to steal food anymore and said angrily: “I thought I could get some delicious food from this kid, but who knew that his food even on the day of worship would be so miserable. He is really living a more miserable life than us.”
Lu Jia said, “Let’s just take it to the kitchen and feed it to the pigs. It’s because that kid ignored us this morning. He obviously looked down on us as servants. Let’s teach him a lesson.”
Lu Yi immediately clapped his hands in agreement: “OK!”
Su Xi’s eyes widened, she was furious. This food was so bad, but they didn’t even leave some for her game character? They even threw it away on purpose?
How deep was the hatred and resentment?!
These two idiots!
She was so furious that she wanted to slam the wooden door in front of the two men, but she was a beat too slow. Before she could close it, the two men had already disappeared into the house.
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