Inherited 100 Million - Chapter 1

The weather wasn’t particularly hot, but the sun was scorching. If you stood under the sun for too long, your exposed skin would sting as if it were being burned. A small river cut through the town, lined by two rows of willows. The willows’ slender leaves drooped from the heat, and Xue Yizhuo felt just as wilted as they did.

Xue Yizhuo was in a hurry. As she walked, the light blue gauze over her white dress billowed. She used a round fan embroidered with lotus flowers and koi to shield herself from the sun, and quickly entered a teahouse by the riverbank.

Xue Yizhuo was a regular here. The moment she walked in, the waiter greeted her, “Still the usual seat, Miss Xue?”

She habitually wanted to nod but remembered something and quickly shook her head. “Still upstairs, but don’t give me a window seat.”

What good could an open window do against the sun? Xue Yizhuo was feeling quite uncomfortable from the heat.

She added, “Bring an extra plate of sushan today.”

The waiter jotted down her request.

Once on the second floor, Xue Yizhuo hid in a shaded spot where she could see downstairs without being hit by the sun. She didn’t care about a young lady’s decorum and, feeling bored, just slumped over the table, looking as listless as she always did.

In the summer, this was Xue Yizhuo’s default state.

She only perked up a bit when the sushan arrived, taking small spoonfuls to eat.

Sushan was the ancient version of ice cream. Normally, this kind of food shouldn’t be found in an ordinary teahouse, as storing ice was difficult in ancient times. But this was a cultivation world.

Xue Yizhuo had arrived in this world a month ago.

She had read some transmigration novels where the heroine might transmigrate into a book or a TV show, but she was different. Xue Yizhuo had transmigrated into a game.

The game was called Huangquan Mirror, a popular PC game developed by her own company.

Xue Yizhuo wasn’t much of a gamer. The gaming company was just one of countless industries she had inherited from her mother and was a minor part of her family’s main real estate business. But that day, during a company inspection, the project manager invited her to try the game, and Xue Yizhuo happily agreed.

She was playing the unreleased new version, which the project manager said wouldn’t be announced for another month. The special version came with a special account, and all its stats were maxed out, set to the game’s limit of 100 million.

Not even the final boss had a health stat of 100 million, let alone the other stats on Xue Yizhuo’s test account.

Xue Yizhuo was unskillfully controlling what was, in effect, the game’s most powerful character, but she couldn’t even make it out of the beginner’s village.

As she was handing in a quest item to an NPC, her vision unexpectedly went black. She slumped forward, hitting her forehead on the keyboard, and immediately lost consciousness. Before she blacked out, her only bewildered thought was—she went to bed at 11 PM and woke up at 8:30 AM, an absolute “salted fish”—how could her body possibly have a problem?

When she opened her eyes again, Xue Yizhuo watched the smiling NPC take the quest item from her hand and instantly understood what had happened.

In broad daylight, under a clear sky, she had transmigrated into the game without any warning!

Holding the two low-grade spirit stones the NPC gave her, Xue Yizhuo stood still and seriously contemplated her life for a moment. Soon, she reached a profound conclusion. As a contented “salted fish,” she would make the best of her situation. If she found a chance to leave, she would. If not, she had no choice but to stay here and live her life.

Xue Yizhuo looked down at her clothes, realizing there were no pockets to put the spirit stones in.

The moment this thought occurred, she had a strange feeling, as if she had access to another space. With a thought, the two low-grade spirit stones were moved into that space.

Isn’t this the in-game inventory?

Xue Yizhuo could feel the space was divided into grids. After she put the spirit stones in, they automatically went into a new grid because her original inventory was already at its limit with 100 million low-grade spirit stones.

She was silent for a moment, then brought up her status panel.

…Sure enough, all her stats were from the test account. Xue Yizhuo noticed the small river nearby, walked over, and saw her face reflected in the water.

It seemed that only her physical body was the same as before.

In the river, Xue Yizhuo saw herself at fifteen years old, the exact age when the player character starts the main quest.

Xue Yizhuo slowly ate her sushan, recalling what she had done over the past few days.

Although her public identity was a CEO, the family business had been passed down for generations, along with her mother’s professionally-built “dream team.” Xue Yizhuo herself was a complete “salted fish.” She was very laid-back, taking her time with everything unless it was a matter of life and death.

Her one virtue was probably that while she wasn’t very efficient, once she started something, she would see it through to the end.

When Xue Yizhuo transmigrated, she also brought the player operating system with her. Over the past month, she had followed the system’s guidance to complete the main quest. Since the quests didn’t unlock all at once, she also wandered around town, triggering several side quests and special encounters while waiting for new tasks.

Xue Yizhuo initially thought she would be stuck in the beginner village, Qingping Town, for a long time. She had even adapted to life there by helping neighbors find their cats and catch their dogs, and had started planning to abandon the quests and live out her life in Qingping Town.

She already had unparalleled wealth and power, so she could skip the years of struggle and go straight to retirement.

But early this morning, a main quest appeared for Xue Yizhuo. She stared at the quest description for a while before accepting it.

The quest description was: [Many people have disappeared from Qingping Town. Go to the teahouse and find out what’s been happening recently.]

There was nothing she could do. Xue Yizhuo wanted to retire in a peaceful and harmonious place.

She didn’t have to actively seek information. Since the system had given her the quest, she knew that just by staying in the teahouse, she would naturally get the information needed to continue.

Xue Yizhuo propped her head up and waited for a bit, then heard the murmuring from the next table.

“You’re not pulling my leg, are you? Lin Er turned into a mummy? B-but I saw him just yesterday morning!”

The other person lowered his voice. “Why would I lie to you? I saw it with my own eyes! All the blood was sucked out of Lin Er’s body, and it happened right next to his wife!”

The first man gasped.

“His wife felt something moving in the room in the middle of the night. When she woke up, she found the blankets next to her were sunken in. She turned her head and saw Lin Er’s face, which looked like it was just skin. Lin Er lives right next to me, you know. When his wife screamed, I thought they had a thief and grabbed my weapon to go help. I never expected to find Lin Er dead!”

“Such a method… such a method…” the man said blankly. “No human could do this. Who did it?”

“Do you still remember Ma Hu?”

“Yes, he was just buried a few days ago.”

“Do you remember what Old Lady Ma said?”

The man’s expression froze.

Xue Yizhuo, who had been eavesdropping, blinked thoughtfully.

She knew about Old Lady Ma; she was the subject of a side quest Xue Yizhuo had triggered.

In fact, few people in Qingping Town didn’t know Old Lady Ma. The town was very small, and Old Lady Ma was a madwoman who was always running away from home. She didn’t harm anyone, but people would quickly get away from her because if you got too close, she would pounce on you and grab you, saying incomprehensible gibberish.

The side quest about Old Lady Ma was triggered when an unsuspecting Xue Yizhuo was caught by her on the street.

Maybe she had heard what the customer was referring to.

Three words popped into Xue Yizhuo’s mind.

“The blood-robed person.”

Old Lady Ma was incoherent, her words jumbled, so everyone thought she was rambling. But if you listened carefully, you could piece together a complete story.

Old Lady Ma’s husband was a merchant who died while traveling, and his body went missing. Old Lady Ma entrusted her young son, Ma Hu, to her in-laws and spent a month searching the merchants’ return route, eventually bringing her husband’s body back.

But not long after burying her husband, Old Lady Ma went mad, endlessly repeating stories of her past with her husband.

Ma Hu resented Old Lady Ma. In his eyes, his mother didn’t care about him; her mad mind was only focused on his long-dead father. But Xue Yizhuo knew that after Ma Hu’s death, Old Lady Ma had grabbed her and tearfully asked where her “Xiao Hu” had gone.

Xue Yizhuo felt sorry for her, and for Ma Hu, and ultimately just felt a sense of pity.

She had spent a day searching Old Lady Ma’s house and finally found the tiger-head shoes she had made for Ma Hu when she was pregnant. She spent another day mending the tattered shoes, during which she heard a lot of her “gibberish.” Xue Yizhuo hadn’t paid much attention before, but now a strange phrase came to mind.

Old Lady Ma had said, “The blood-robed person took my Xiao Hu.”

Xue Yizhuo wasn’t sure if “Blood-robed person” was a title or a name, but she clearly heard the pronunciation.

She had a gut feeling it wasn’t a name.

Just as she was thinking this, she heard the customer who had talked about Lin Er’s death say in a low voice, “She mentioned a blood-robed person—last night, Lin Er’s wife was half-awake, and she thought she saw a person in a blood-red robe in the room!”

The listener felt a chill run down his spine.

Xue Yizhuo subconsciously scooped up the sushan with her spoon, and the spoon clinked crisply against the empty plate.

She had finished it without even realizing.

Xue Yizhuo wanted to ask the waiter for another plate, but looked down and saw him greeting a group of newcomers.

The noise around her had quieted down considerably. Everyone who noticed the people at the door, except those who weren’t paying attention, fell silent.

In the scorching midday heat, it was as if a pure, cold, bright moon had fallen to earth.

Xue Yizhuo lightly tapped her plate.

“…Huh?”

The person at the front of the group seemed to notice her gaze and looked up.

Xue Yizhuo saw a pair of calm eyes, like tranquil, cold autumn water.

As their eyes met, Jun Yu gave her a gentle nod.