Chapter 2: After a Full Meal, It's Time to Make Money

Wu An plopped onto the ground.

He closed his eyes, then opened them again.

He reached out and grabbed the handle of the water pump.

The words appeared again.

It wasn't an illusion.

"Hey."

"System."

There was no "ding" sound, nor any response.

It seemed he could only figure it out himself.

He saw the floating words right in front of him and tried tapping the Luck Value with his hand.

Introduction: The harder you work, the luckier you get; daily luck is granted to work tools, at midnight your own luck increases or decreases according to performance, and your own luck affects the upper limit of daily luck's fluctuation.

Wu An realized.

Like that.

Indeed, the harder you work, the luckier you get; as long as you work hard, you can continually increase your own luck.

Conversely, if he doesn't work, his own luck will continually decrease.

Now his own luck is 11 points, daily luck is 10 points, which is actually not bad.

Reincarnation again, and a system too!

Why do all good things happen to him?

Was it because he was useless in his past life, so Heaven couldn't stand it?

Lost in thought, he gripped the handle of the manual water pump again.

Add Point.

Luck Value: 11 (9)

Target: Manual Water Pump (+1)

Add Point again.

Luck Value: 11 (8)

Target: Manual Water Pump (+2).

Introduction: This is a manual water pump that needs water priming to produce water; after being imbued with luck, simply pressing it will yield water.

The (+2) turned gray.

The manual water pump has reached its luck limit; it's just an old-fashioned pump, no matter how good the luck, it can only draw water, not produce nectar and ambrosia.

At that moment A Qing ran over, saw him sitting on the ground, tossed the plastic bag in his hand, hurriedly helped him up, and asked, "Brother, what are you doing?"

Wu An said, "I'm so hungry I want to drink some water to stave off hunger."

A Qing said unhappily, "You forgot this broken water pump doesn't work; even with water priming you might not get water out, and now there's no water to prime."

"Wait for me to go next door to borrow some water to prime."

"The sun is blazing; I'll help you go inside first."

Wu An pointed at the pump and said, "No need to borrow; I'll try pumping water."

He grabbed the handle and pressed down.

Accompanied by a creaking sound from the well, some murky water flowed out of the outlet pipe, and the stream quickly cleared.

A Qing exclaimed in delight, "Brother, water's out! Water's out!"

Wu An also laughed.

The golden finger seems not bad.

A Qing had an epiphany, gave Wu An a thumbs-up, and said, "Brother, you fixed this broken water pump!"

"I didn't expect you still have this skill."

"I heard Widow Zhang's water pump is broken; you could go fix it too, maybe you'll make some good money."

Wu An was stunned.

Besides, it's a way to make money.

It's just not a very proper way.

Starting out by going to the widow's house, it's easy to go astray, wasting effort and losing troops.

He filled a ladle with water and, with a "DuangDuangDuang", gulped down the clean water in one go.

The well water is clear and sweet.

Moreover, it's especially cool, making him feel refreshed from head to sole, and he feels much more awake.

He gave the ladle to A Qing.

A Qing also drank a big ladle of water.

After quickly rinsing off, Wu An opened the black plastic bag A Qing brought and saw inside were pickles, dried kelp, and rice.

It can't be eaten as-is; it needs to be cooked first.

He rinsed the pickles several times, then cut the sea bass, made a flower cut, and simply marinated it.

He had A Qing light the fire.

Without a rice cooker, he rinsed the rice, put it in a bowl, placed the sea bass, dried kelp, and pickles on separate plates, then steamed them together in a big pot.

After steaming, the rice gave off a fragrant aroma.

He plated the sea bass, drizzled hot oil over it, and the steamed sea bass was done.

The kelp was simply rinsed, cut into strips with a knife change, tossed with fragrant vinegar and soy sauce, and a cold kelp salad was ready.

Pickled vegetables are the simplest; you can eat them directly.

Wu An and A Qing each held a bowl, eating silently.

After finishing, A Qing rubbed his belly and grinned: 'Brother, I didn't expect you to cook so well.'

This steamed sea bass is really fresh.

The cold sesame seaweed salad you made is even better than my mom's.

The pickled vegetables are steamed just right.

Wu An smiled. Who said A Qing is stupid?

He's actually quite good at complimenting people.

In my previous life, working away from home, I couldn't earn money; wanting to save, I had to cook myself, and over time I learned how to cook.

He looked at the clean dishes and said: 'Hurry up and clean up; I'll take you out to make money.'

A Qing nodded, got up, and took the bowl and chopsticks to wash.

As a result, he soon ran back, shouting: 'Brother, the water pump isn't working again… I… I forgot to leave the priming water.'

Wu An followed him out of the house, touched the water pump, and found its Luck Value was gone.

He added a bit.

After pressing several times, with a 'squeak', water finally came out.

After pressing another bucket of water, the water pump's Luck Value was completely used up.

Wu An suddenly understood.

The added Luck is equivalent to durability.

It decreases with use.

Luck Value: 11 (7)

Daily Luck is limited; don't waste it randomly—use it where it counts.

We need to make money!

As the saying goes, rely on the mountains for food from the mountains, rely on the water for food from the water; since we live in a small seaside fishing village, this first pot of gold must naturally be made by gathering from the sea.

The shovel for gathering seafood and the fishing rod for catching fish should count as tools.

A fishing boat might also be considered a tool.

But now he has nothing, so he can only first take A Qing to the seaside to have a look.

When the boat reaches the bridge, things will straighten out naturally.

For now, I'm not thinking about making a fortune; first we need to solve the food and drink problem.

There's nothing to eat at home, though we have enough water—but we can't just drink cold water to fill our teeth gaps, can we?

Fortunately, in this small seaside fishing village, the sea has everything: snails, shellfish, crabs, big fish and shrimp—everything you could want.

Taking care of food and drink is easy; getting rich isn't hard either!

He glanced around the room.

It's not exactly bare walls; there are two straw hats hanging on the wall.

He pulled the straw hats off the wall, put one on his head, and gave the other to A Qing.

Just as he was about to go out, through the window he saw two sneaky figures behind some coconut trees not far away.

He narrowed his eyes and recognized them as fellow villagers Lin Bin and Lin Hu.

These two are cousins, four or five years older than him, with no steady jobs; they like fishing, occasionally selling fish to pay off debts. Among the village youths, he and A Qing are at the bottom, then come these two.

Oh, that sea bass was stolen from those two.

I guess they returned to the 'crime scene', found the 'corpse' missing, and came here to see what happened.

He shifted his gaze, and with A Qing he went over through the back small door.

No other meaning.

He quietly went over to say hello to them.

That's not excessive, is it?

The two of them circled behind the trees, overhearing Lin Bin and Lin Hu arguing, without even noticing their approach.

"Did you see anyone?"

"Why is there no movement at the Lao Wu Jia?"

"In broad daylight, how did the corpse just disappear?"

"Hu Zi, why don't we call the police?"

"No way!"

"Wu Erzi died while struggling over a fish, but we can't explain this; we'll definitely be extorted for a lot of money."

"Old Wu is a good person……"

"But he lost his son; can he let us off?"

Lin Hu, shouting in anger and frustration, instinctively turned his head—and saw a person with cloth wrapped around his head like a mummy standing opposite the coconut tree, eyes fixed on him, which made him yell 'Ao—' in fright.

Lin Bin was startled by his shout, then suddenly saw Wu An and jumped up: 'Holy shit, a… a ghost!'

Wu An drew out his voice: 'I died so miserably……'

Lin Hu stepped back half a step, stared at Wu An for a moment, then shouted with a ferocious face: 'Mala gebi, you bastard, you weren't actually dead!'

Lin Bin gasped: 'You scared the hell out of me, what are you playing at?'

"You walk without making a sound, sneaking over just to scare people to death!"

He finished speaking.

The two let out a sigh of relief, faces full of relief.

No one died, that's great.