Chapter 502: Melon-Eating Survival System (1)

Late August 1979, Xifu Hutong, Beijing.

"Old Lady Xie! Old Lady Xie!"

The mailman pushed his bicycle through the southeast corner gate into the Number 8 Dazayuan of Xifu Hutong and shouted toward the Main Room.

Niu Cuifen, who lived in the south unit of the East Side Room, was sitting in front of her door shelling edamame. Seeing this, she said, "It's no use shouting so loud! There's no one home at the Xie Family right now!"

As she spoke, she put the shelled edamame into a bowl, threw away the shells, stood up, and wiped her apron: "Is there a letter for the Xie Family? Give it to me, I'll hand it to the old lady later."

The mailman handed the letter to Niu Cuifen and pedaled his bicycle away to deliver mail to other hutongs.

"Mom, hasn't Xie Yang woken up yet? How many days has it been?"

Niu Cuifen's daughter, Wang Lin, lifted the door curtain and came out from the room, glancing at the middle three rooms of the Main Room: "If she never wakes up, what will the old lady do all by herself?"

"The money Old Lady Xie has in her hands is not insignificant; it's not our family's turn to pity her."

Niu Cuifen muttered, looking down at the letter in her hand.

She had graduated from elementary school, so recognizing a few words on an envelope was naturally no problem: "Hongken Farm, Dongjiang County? Isn't this where Xie Jianbing went to the countryside before? He's already gone, so why is there still a letter sent here? Forget it, just stuff it into the door crack of the old lady's house; who knows when she'll be back."

Niu Cuifen handed the letter to her daughter.

The reason she had taken it from the mailman was simply out of curiosity about who sent it.

The Xie Family didn't know what kind of bad luck they had run into these past few years. First, Old Man Xie suffered a sudden cerebral infarction, then the eldest son, Xie Jianjun, encountered an earthquake in the city where he was on a business trip, and Jianjun's wife rushed over to collect his body only to die in a car accident. Then, this past spring, the youngest son, Xie Jianbing, who had returned to Beijing to visit relatives, sacrificed his life to save a child who had fallen into the water...

In short, in less than ten years, the Xie Family's population plummeted from a relatively prosperous six people to just one old woman and one young girl, the grandmother and granddaughter, depending on each other for survival.

Thinking of the unfortunate events that had happened to the Xie Family over the years, Niu Cuifen couldn't help but sigh.

Wang Lin clutched the letter, walked up the steps to the Main Room, shoved it into the door crack of the middle room, then looked up and surveyed the area a few times. Envious, she returned to her own doorway and whispered to her mother:

"Mom, if Xie Yang also... it would be too extravagant for Old Lady Xie to live in three big rooms all by herself! If only we could swap with them! The beams in the Main Room are so high, unlike the Side Room we live in, where you can reach the eaves just by standing on tiptoe and reaching out."

Niu Cuifen glared at her: "Shut up! Don't just blabber about everything!"

Wang Lin curled her lips: "I'm doing this for our family! Aren't you looking for a partner for my brother? Where will they live when they get married? I don't want to sleep on a door plank anymore. Even if Xie Yang wakes up, do the two of them really need three rooms?"

"That is not something an unmarried girl like you should be pointing fingers at." Niu Cuifen glared at her daughter again.

Was she not covetous of the Xie Family's three large Main Rooms?

Or rather, in this compound, besides the Xie Family, who among the other eight households wasn't covetous?

It was just that she cherished her reputation. Besides, her son and daughter were of age and hadn't found partners yet; what if bad rumors spread and affected her son's marriage or her youngest daughter's prospects? That would be a loss that outweighed the gain.

Seeing that no one was around, Niu Cuifen broke down the logic and explained it to her daughter, telling her not to just stare at these small, petty gains, but to learn to consider the big picture.

Wang Lin curled her lips, unconvinced.

She only knew that their home had only two rooms in total. Although the depth was decent, they used a cabinet to divide the middle and a curtain to pull across, barely managing to use it as four rooms.

After her eldest and second sisters married, she slept in the back half alone, but the soundproofing was truly terrible. When her brother got married, the bridal chamber definitely couldn't be so makeshift. How would they arrange it then? Would they kick her to the dining room to sleep on the floor?

At this moment, in the west unit of the Main Room, diagonally across from the East Side Room, a corner of a bedroom curtain was lifted.

A slender figure hid behind the curtain, her eyes full of curiosity as she quietly observed the compound.

The compound was not small; it used to be the residence of some prince, and this was the second courtyard.

After the wall between this and the first courtyard was sealed off, the residents of the Number 8 Dazayuan relied entirely on the southeast corner gate for entry and exit.

There were nine households living in the courtyard in total, and the one closest to the southeast corner gate was the family of Niu Cuifen, who lived in the south unit of the East Side Room.

Her husband, Wang Guoli, was a worker in the maintenance workshop of the Mechanical Factory.

The couple had three daughters and one son. The two older daughters were already married, and their son, Wang Tao, was 21 years old this year; he had taken over her position at the match factory five years ago, so he didn't have to go to the countryside.

Their youngest daughter, Wang Lin, was 16. Now that the College Entrance Examination had been restored, she didn't want to work and wanted to continue her studies.

Niu Cuifen and her husband thought that if she could get into a university, the state would guarantee her a job assignment after graduation, so they gritted their teeth and agreed to support her continued education; she would start high school in September.

Currently, the four members of the Wang family lived in the two side rooms; by separating the middle with a row of cabinets and pulling a curtain, it became four rooms, so it wasn't exactly too crowded.

But Wang Tao had started looking for a partner; once it was settled, he would get married soon, and once married, there would be children at any time. It would definitely be too cramped then, so it was no wonder they envied the Xie Family.

Looking next door to the Wang family, the north unit of the East Side Room, the five members of Chen Youcai's family also lived in two rooms: his wife, Luo Caifeng, and three sons named Chen Zhiyuan, Chen Zhigang, and Chen Zhijie.

Chen Youcai and Luo Caifeng were both Formal Workers at the Mechanical Factory, but all three sons were still in school.

Growing boys eat their parents into poverty; the Chen family could be said to be the most strapped for cash in this compound.

Past the East Side Room was the Main Courtyard, with a row of seven Main Rooms facing south.

The middle three belonged to the Xie Family, and as mentioned above, now only Old Lady Xie and her granddaughter Xie Yang remained.

The two rooms on the east side were occupied by the retired Uncle Kang and his wife; their children all worked out of town, and occasionally during winter and summer vacations, they would send their grandchildren over to keep the old couple company. The two rooms on the west side were occupied by the three members of Zheng Guangrong's family.

Zheng Guangrong and his wife, Miao Lan, were both Formal Workers at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and they had only one daughter, Zheng Miaomiao, the true "only seedling" of the Zheng family.

Unfortunately, Zheng Miaomiao was a premature baby. Since birth, her constitution had been very weak; she got sick every time the seasons changed, and when it was serious, she had to be hospitalized and put on oxygen.

The Zheng family's savings were all spent on treating their daughter's illness.

Many people whispered behind their backs, asking why the Zheng family didn't have another one. If they had another, not only would it be healthy, but it might even be a son.

But Zheng Guangrong and his wife remained unmoved; over a dozen years later, they still only had this one sickly seedling.

The slender figure behind the curtain swayed. Yes, she was now that "only seedling."

She had transmigrated from the 21st century three days ago. Her original name was also Zheng Miaomiao, a recently retired National Level Shot Put Athlete.

After completing her retirement procedures, she drove her newly bought off-road vehicle, wanting to be like those travel bloggers and take a trip around the country, but unfortunately died in a highway pile-up.

A "Chi Gua Bao Ming System" that claimed to be from an alien galaxy bound itself to her and sent her to this era.