IHOEAYSTTTIW Chapter 94

Chapter 94: A Turn for the Better, A Glimmer of Hope

That locust plague at the end of summer had so many people thinking they wouldn’t survive the winter, but things didn’t seem so bad after all, and now it was New Year’s Eve again.

On this day for family reunions, Lin Yan had given Jin Ju and Yin Xing red envelopes early and let them off work. As for An Tan… after confirming that Lin Yan and Yun Qi had no intention of rebelling, he hadn’t appeared again.

Lin Yan didn’t bother with all that; he lived his life as he saw fit.

With only two people in the house, there was no need to prepare too much for the New Year’s Eve feast—eight dishes and two soups, simple and easy?

Looking at the table full of food, Lin Yan was ready to eat leftovers for three days, but Yun Qi had a strange stubbornness in his bones. He had to eat, even if it meant contorting his face in pain. Under such an atmosphere…

Rolling up his sleeves and working hard, he could even add another dish…

But he couldn’t move anymore, couldn’t eat another bite.

Lin Yan and Yun Qi patted their round bellies, watching the dishes and cups on the table gasping their last breaths.

Lin Yan waved his hand, quickly melting into a puddle on the chair: “I can’t do it anymore, let’s clean up later.”

“I’ll do it…” Yun Qi struggled to stand up, but sat back down, raising the white flag, “Let’s clean up later, I can’t handle it either.”

“You’re not up to it, skinny guy.” Lin Yan patted Yun Qi’s head, teasing him in a lighthearted tone, “We still have to make dumplings later.”

Yun Qi didn’t know what a “skinny guy” was, but he knew to follow Lin Yan’s words: “I can, I can do it, I can finish it all by myself.”

“We’ll talk about it later, let’s watch this first.” Lin Yan handed his cellphone to Yun Qi, opened a downloaded video, and turned the volume up to the maximum.

[Hua Ge’s Ultimate Remix! God of Wealth Goes Clubbing!]

“I wish you prosperity! I wish you a wonderful life!”

The ear-splitting electronic sound mixed with the distorted suona version of the intro exploded from the speaker, the lyrics stretched out by the electronic effects, “The—best—ah—ah—ah—of—all—,” accompanied by the constantly flashing “Happy New Year” comments.

After the song finished, Lin Yan was still not satisfied, and rummaged through his offline library, regretfully finding no other suitable videos.

A cellphone without internet wasn’t much fun, and a New Year’s Eve without the Spring Festival Gala felt like something was missing.

Lin Yan tossed the cellphone aside and slowly helped Yun Qi clear the table, casually chatting: “Do you think there will be fireworks tonight?”

Fireworks were a new word he hadn’t heard before.

Yun Qi thought for a moment, successfully matching Lin Yan’s signal: “Big Brother, are you talking about sparklers? There should be some. If Big Brother likes them, I’ll go out and see if they’re selling any.”

That sounded like trouble.

Lin Yan suppressed the stirrings in his heart, stubbornly making excuses: “Those are for kids like Jin Ju and Yin Xing to play with, I’m not interested at all.”

Yun Qi saw through Lin Yan’s insincerity, put down his chopsticks, and was about to go out.

Lin Yan held Yun Qi down, and to prevent him from running off again, he assigned him a task: “After we clean up, we still have to make dumplings. I need you to help me knead the dough.”

Yun Qi nodded and obediently cleaned up, obediently kneaded the dough.

Too much water, add flour; too much flour, add water. By the time the dough became smooth, the flour was almost gone.

It looked pretty good.

Yun Qi handed the dough to Lin Yan as if asking for credit: “I’ve kneaded it. Big Brother, see if this is soft enough?”

Lin Yan pressed the dough and gave a thumbs up: “Perfect.”

Yun Qi, his face still smeared with flour, instantly became excited, like a puppy praised by its owner. The non-existent tail turned into a propeller, and he volunteered to help Lin Yan chop the filling.

Lin Yan rummaged through the pile of vegetables, regretting that there weren’t many options: “Only cabbage, can we do cabbage and pork?”

Yun Qi nodded furiously: “As long as it’s made by Big Brother, I’ll like it.”

“Your mouth is as sweet as honey.” Lin Yan raised an eyebrow and turned to go into the Kitchen to pick the vegetables.

A strange fluctuation came through the air.

Lin Yan thought it was just the wind blowing in and didn’t pay much attention. He put the cabbage on the cutting board, raised the knife, and was about to chop it down.

[Host, you’re really awesome. Without my help, the mission was actually completed.]

The sudden voice almost made Lin Yan cut his hand.

He gasped, checking his hand with lingering fear, and only after confirming it was unscathed did he grip the knife again, gnashing his teeth: “System? You have the nerve to come back.”

The system knew it was in the wrong and flattered him while acting spoiled.

[I just didn’t have enough energy before. But with the awesome host, the mission was successfully completed. I’m now full of energy and feeling a hundred times better.]

Lin Yan raised his eyebrows, a little surprised: “My mission is complete?”

[Yes, and it was completed very beautifully.]

In Lin Yan’s eyes, this system was an untrustworthy… system. Lin Yan was skeptical and grimaced: “I didn’t do anything, your judgment…”

[Our judgment is never wrong.]

The system looked as if it had suffered a great injustice, swearing and vowing, wishing it could bring out the initial data for Lin Yan to see.

[A thousand-mile dike is destroyed by an ant’s nest. The fall of the Great Zhou was caused by famine. The new Emperor was focused on internal strife, imposing heavy taxes and levies, coupled with natural disasters, the people couldn’t get enough to eat, and could only rise up in rebellion…]

The more Lin Yan heard, the more his head ached, and he quickly called a halt: “So what does this have to do with me?”

The system, interrupted in its spellcasting, felt aggrieved, but could only follow Lin Yan’s words: [Host, you solved the internal strife from the root, and you also solved the food problem.]

Solving the food problem was easy to understand, that was Yun Qi sent the seeds out. As for solving internal strife from the root…

Lin Yan looked out into the outer room, feeling that this development was a bit outrageous.

The method to solve internal strife was to cultivate one’s rival into a love-struck fool? This trope… was extremely clichéd, something that all dog-blood novels loved to use.

Lin Yan automatically skipped the internal strife part and continued to nitpick: “According to this, wouldn’t it have been easier for you to just transport the seeds over here? Why bother tossing me around?”

The system suddenly fell silent, as if it were thinking.

Lin Yan sneered inwardly and continued to stab at the system’s soft spot: “Besides, what does having food have to do with the new Emperor’s heavy taxes and levies?”

The system was silent again for a long time, until Lin Yan became impatient before weakly answering.

[It still has some connection…]

“What connection?”

[Without those ministers who wanted to push Prince An to the throne, the new Emperor wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to make some achievements, right…]

The system’s voice grew softer and softer as it spoke, and when it couldn’t make it up anymore, it hurriedly changed the subject.

[In short, there’s plenty of energy now, and now you can go home!]

A turn for the better, a glimmer of hope; a goal that seemed forever out of reach was now being handed to him.

“Now?” Lin Yan raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.

[Yes, yes, I can start the program now…]

A chaotic electrical noise sounded, the system’s murmurs mixed in with it.

[This thing is so complicated, let me see… how do I operate this?]

[The manual… where did the manual get thrown…]

The flame of hope that had just been ignited was doused with a basin of water, and Lin Yan began to doubt whether he could successfully return home.

The door creaked open.

Yun Qi stood in the doorway, his eyes red, tears welling up in his eyes.

Lin Yan felt a pang of hidden pain in his heart. He reached out to pull Yun Qi, but Yun Qi pushed him away.

Yun Qi looked into Lin Yan’s eyes, sniffed, and tried to maintain his composure, but still couldn’t stop trembling: “Big Brother, just now, that… were you going to leave?”

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