Chapter 503: Chi Gua Bao Ming System (2)

Chi Gua Bao Ming, as the name implies, means extending one's life by watching the drama unfold.

If she hadn't transmigrated here with the Chi Gua Bao Ming System, the original owner would have been gone three days ago.

However, don't be fooled by the fact that she has bound a system; if she wants to live healthily and reach the average human lifespan, she needs to constantly complete tasks.

The task is to eat melons (watch drama).

But not just any melon will extend one's life.

For instance, the sigh-inducing tragedy the mother and daughter Niu Cuifen were just chatting about—regarding how the Xie Family went from six people to two—was judged by the system as an expired melon, and it stubbornly refused to add any lifespan value for her.

In the three days since she transmigrated here, only the moment she first woke up, hearing the original owner's parents sigh as they mentioned that Xie Laotai's granddaughter Xie Yang had fainted from overwork due to working too hard and had been rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, was recognized by the system as a fresh melon, extending her life by 7 days.

Subtracting the 3 days she has already spent, if there are no new melons to eat, she only has 4 days left to live.

That's right, her current lifespan is calculated by the day.

Looking at the eye-catching words "Lifespan Value — 4" on the system interface, Zheng Miaomiao felt like crying but had no tears.

In her previous life, she was a shot put athlete, and her short life was basically spent entirely on her athletic career; such unique interests as watching drama and neighborhood gossip were far removed from her life.

Moreover, this little body—how should she put it—isn't even as thick as her arm in her previous life; she gets heatstroke if she stays in the sun too long, and falls ill if she catches a cold breeze. It is truly the constitution of Lin Meimei.

In the three days since waking up, her body has been so weak that her legs turn to jelly just getting off the kang; she can only perform adaptive activities in the room for now and has no chance to go out and watch drama.

She must be careful not to end up becoming the drama in other people's mouths before she even gets to watch any herself.

Having transmigrated for three days, she has only managed to eat one melon, gaining 7 days of life.

What is she supposed to do next?

"Xiaolian! Xiaolian! Where has that dead girl run off to again? She tries to slack off whenever she's asked to do something."

At this moment, Mother Zhang from the north unit of the West Side Room opened her door and walked out, shouting twice toward the courtyard. Hearing no response from her granddaughter, she grumbled and walked to the public water tap to wash vegetables.

The Zhang family has had only one heir for generations; Mother Zhang's husband, Zhang Baogen, was an only son, and Zhang Baogen also only had one son, Zhang Fuqiang. Zhang Fuqiang currently has only one daughter, Zhang Xiaolian. His wife died in childbirth three months ago, resulting in two deaths in one, and she went to be reincarnated again with the boy in her belly.

However, everyone guesses that by the end of this year at the latest, Zhang Fuqiang will definitely remarry, otherwise the Zhang family line will end.

Unfortunately, this is also an expired melon.

Zheng Miaomiao sighed with regret and shifted her gaze to the Zhang family's neighbor—the south unit of the West Side Room.

That two-room unit is where Grandfather Feng and his wife live.

Grandfather Feng is the oldest person in the Number 8 Compound, so he is the First Uncle of this Dazayuan, and the Second Uncle is Uncle Kang.

Grandfather Feng and his old wife are both retired Formal Workers, and unlike the old couple Uncle Kang, Grandfather Feng's children all live in Beijing and aren't far away; almost every Sunday, they bring their whole families to eat at Grandfather Feng's place.

Don't look at Grandfather Feng and his wife as just retired at home; they are basically never idle.

Their children come to eat on Sundays, but it's not easy to get good food these days, so the old couple has to go queue at the Vegetable Station almost every early morning.

Especially in the days leading up to the weekend, they get up even earlier than the chickens.

Buying pork ribs in line today, buying a Fish in line tomorrow, and queuing the day after to buy Dried Shrimp, Seaweed, and smelly hairtail that don't require ration coupons.

The day after that... oh, it's Sunday! Then they have to get up even earlier to buy the steamed sponge cakes, Twisted Dough Stick, and sugar-coated haws that their grandchildren and great-grandchildren love to eat, then start washing vegetables and cooking.

On Sunday noon, the children bring their kids over to eat a ready-made meal, and after digesting the food, they take the leftovers back to their own small homes.

Leaving the old couple to scrub the pots, wash the dishes, tidy the kitchen, and sweep the dining room.

Tsk!

Zheng Miaomiao gets goosebumps just thinking about this scene.

It seems there are quite a few melons in the Number 8 Compound, but her timing for transmigrating was wrong; it's been three days and it's not yet Sunday, so that group of parasitic children from the Feng family hasn't come to the compound yet.

The remaining two households are the Lu family and the Guo family living in the east and west Ear Rooms.

The Lu family in the East Ear Room consists of the newlyweds Lu Ziwen and Wang Yumei, who married last Mid-Autumn Festival and don't have children yet.

The West Ear Room is occupied by Widow Guo and her daughter.

The old saying often goes, "There is much trouble at a widow's door," and Zheng Miaomiao had hoped to rely on the Widow's melon to extend her life by a few more days, but unfortunately, in the three days since she transmigrated, let alone seeing any movement from Widow Guo's house, she hasn't even seen the faces of the mother and daughter.

They go to work before she wakes up; by the time they return from work, she has already finished eating and is lying on the kang rubbing her belly.

Now she can only try her luck and see which family produces a fresh melon to help her extend her life for a few more days.

"Yo, Auntie, back from the hospital? Has your Yang Yang woken up?"

"Awake, awake, she just still needs to be observed. I'm back to get her a change of clothes."

Xie Laotai walked very quickly with her bound feet, taking out her door key as she walked, answering Niu Cuifen's question along the way.

"Oh right, Auntie, there's a letter for you; I had Linlin stuff it into the crack of your door."

"Then thank you."

Zheng Miaomiao, who had wanted to crawl back onto the kang to rest, felt a surge of energy upon hearing the conversation in the courtyard. She immediately lifted a corner of the curtain, staring outside with bright eyes and pricking up her ears, hoping to catch some fresh drama.

Unfortunately, after only a few sentences, Xie Laotai opened the door and went inside.

She checked the system backend and found that the progress on the "Today's Melon-Eating Task Bar" was still 0, with no progress at all, and she couldn't help but sigh.

Soon, the sound of Xie Laotai locking the door and leaving came from next door.

Zheng Miaomiao looked out through the window and saw the little old lady leaving with a small bundle in her left hand and a bamboo basket in her right.

The bundle likely contained clothes for her granddaughter to change into, and the bamboo basket was covered with a piece of mismatched dark blue cloth; she didn't know what was inside.

"Yang Yang, are you feeling any better? Grandma brought you some Canned Food, sit up and eat a little."

As soon as Xie Laotai arrived at the hospital, she took the canned yellow peaches out of the basket, asked the nurse to help open the can, and took a pair of chopsticks, telling her granddaughter to hold the jar and eat.

Xie Yang had just finished receiving the memories left behind by this body.

This time, she had transmigrated to the year '79—a special juncture when a large number of Educated Youth were returning to the cities, the urban employment situation was grim, and individual businesses had not yet received official recognition.

The original body originally had a very happy and fulfilling home.

Her grandfather was a technical worker at the Mechanical Factory, her grandmother worked in the factory Canteen, her father Xie Jianjun was a technical backbone cultivated by her grandfather, and her mother Fu Ruolan was an Iron Lady who had been named a March 8th Red Banner Holder and served as a Workshop Director.

There was also a younger uncle, Xie Jianbing, who was ten years older than the original body.

It could be said that of the six people in the Xie Family, four were Formal Workers holding iron rice bowls.

Life was lived in such comfort.

However, heaven has unpredictable winds and clouds; Xie Yeye passed away suddenly from a cerebral infarction when the original owner was six years old.

Xie Grandma was devastated and also fell ill, having no choice but to take early medical retirement.

Jianbing had just turned sixteen that year, and urged on by his classmates, he signed up to go to the countryside; full of youthful vigor, he even deliberately chose Dongjiang County in the south, far away from home.

Fortunately, there were still two Formal Workers in the family to support one old person and one young one, and occasionally send some grain, clothing, and money coupons to the younger brother who was an Educated Youth in the countryside, so they managed to get by.

That was until three years ago, when Xie Jianjun went on a business trip to another province, encountered a massive earthquake, and died in a foreign land.

The factory headquarters received the phone call and notified the family; Fu Ruolan, in a state of utter despair, took the factory's vehicle heading to the disaster area to offer condolences to retrieve her husband's remains, but unexpectedly, a car accident occurred on the way, the driver was seriously injured, and Fu Ruolan died on the spot.