Picked Up the Female Lead When She Was Young (GL) - Chapter 18

At lunchtime the next day, Jiang Wan brought up the events of the previous evening.

“Tianhang told me you were in the kitchen last night, Shuangshuang. Don’t do that again; it’s too dangerous, okay?”

Although her son said his Sister Shuangshuang did a great job and nothing went wrong, Jiang Wan worried about the knives in the kitchen and how dangerous it was to let a child handle them. If something were to happen, she would feel guilty for the rest of her life, so she had to forbid it outright.

Knowing that Jiang Wan was worried, and being an adult herself, Xia Wanshuang could sympathize and fully understood Jiang Wan’s decision. If it were her, she would stop it, too. So, she didn’t argue and just nodded obediently.

The matter was settled, but Xia Wanshuang thought she had found a lucrative way to make money—to grow and expand her ice jelly business. Instead, the plan was aborted on the second day, a stillbirth.

“Owner, are you really out?”

“Truly out. Those fruits, well, they don’t sell very well. I picked them myself and just put them out. After you bought yours, I had a few left, and my family took them to make some liangfen for themselves,” the owner said while sorting fruit. He hadn’t expected the child to come back for more.

“If you want to make that liangfen, you can go check the market. I think they sell a kind of powder for it, but I’m not sure.”

Xia Wanshuang naturally knew about the commercial product, but the taste would inevitably be different from the handmade liangfen and definitely inferior.

“Owner, will you sell them again in the future?”

“No, I won’t. I don’t grow that fruit tree, and it’s something that grows in the mountains. I just picked a bag when I went there last time, and I’m not going back now.”

The owner shook his head and suggested Xia Wanshuang try looking in the department store.

Xia Wanshuang actually wanted to pay the owner to help her gather the fruit, but considering her current funds, she could only give up on the idea dispiritedly. She thanked the owner and walked away feeling deeply disappointed.

[System]: Host, what do we do now? QAQ

Xia Wanshuang looked up at the bright sun, feeling a little lost.

She felt that life was always like this: just when a person’s hope ignited, it was suddenly extinguished.

It was like the hundred thousand yuan on the card or this sudden supply cut-off.

Reality always went against her expectations. It seemed many difficulties and thorny issues awaited her. The path ahead was long, with no end in sight.

“I’ll think of something else. I’ll find a way. If not, we’ll just make something different,” Xia Wanshuang murmured, speaking to the system as much as to herself.

Xia Wanshuang visited a few more fruit stalls, the wet market, and the supermarket, but she couldn’t find the fruit. Her heart sank on the walk home.

The system dared not speak, unsure of what would be appropriate to say.

It was a new system, without the experience of its predecessors or much advanced wisdom. It could only stand by helplessly, feeling a sense of guilt for being the cause of the problem.

If it hadn’t randomly time-traveled to the wrong era, the host wouldn’t have to work so hard for survival.

Xia Wanshuang trudged home with heavy steps. She didn’t even buy the usual strawberries and oranges.

“Sister, you were gone for a long time.”

“Yeah.”

Xia Wanshuang was tired and didn’t feel like talking much. She gave Zhou Qinglang a weary smile and returned to the room.

“Langlang, I’m going to take a nap.”

“Okay.”

Zhou Qinglang wanted to ask something but held back when she saw how exhausted Xia Wanshuang looked.

She had to go to class in the afternoon as usual. Xia Wanshuang’s thoughts were a mess, and she was zoning out for most of the class.

The summer air was humid, the fan creaked overhead, and the small classroom felt stuffy. The teacher’s voice was making her drowsy, and the third-grade material held no interest for Xia Wanshuang.

She even wondered if she should somehow cultivate a reputation as a prodigy and skip straight to junior high or high school, get reported on TV, and receive a sponsorship.

[System]: I think that’s a great idea!

[Xia Wanshuang]: I was just thinking out loud, don’t take it seriously.

Setting aside whether it was feasible, there were countless smart people in the world, and Xia Wanshuang didn’t consider herself to be among the elite.

Besides, she was a liberal arts graduate. She had received her teaching certificate during her internship, graduated, started teaching junior high Chinese for a few years. She believed her literary knowledge was adequate but still insufficient. Even if she skipped grades, she’d be good at Chinese, English, and History, but she wouldn’t necessarily excel at Math, Physics, and Chemistry, which were like three great mountains blocking her path to academic success.

Moreover, Xia Wanshuang wasn’t someone who enjoyed being in the spotlight. From childhood to her death, she had experienced great highs and lows. In her youth, she enjoyed the fame and glory that some people never attain in a lifetime, and she also fell to her lowest point, working silently just to get by.

[System]: Shuangshuang, let’s just try it. Maybe it will actually work.

[Xia Wanshuang]: You forgot. I don’t like to rely on others for my life.

If she had that intention, she would have just relied on Aunt Jiang.

It came down to the same principle: a debt of gratitude is the hardest to repay.

Asking Aunt Jiang for help would just be help, but a stranger’s sponsorship would be charity, and she didn’t know what price might be hidden behind that charity.

Xia Wanshuang wasn’t trying to maliciously speculate about people’s actions; she was just stating a harsh reality.

It was like the dark secret hidden in the orphanage in the plot. Xia Wanshuang held the plot in her hand and knew what was going on, but what could she do? She had no evidence, no resources. What could a child do?

The system fell silent, only sighing.

Xia Wanshuang looked at the dense foliage outside the window. After a few seconds, she brought her gaze back to the textbook.

She placed her hands on the desk, clenching and unclenching her fists.

Her hands were small, thin, and childlike. Xia Wanshuang looked at the lines on her palm and suddenly curled her lips into a slight smile.

She felt no intense emotion, only a sense that since she could be resurrected, there was no problem she couldn’t overcome.

Actually, it would be fine to buy that substitute product. That kind of ice jelly only requires mixing the powder with water, which is less labor-intensive, saves time, and solves her immediate problem. But for some reason, Xia Wanshuang was unwilling.

She would rather make something else than look for that substitute. Xia Wanshuang couldn’t explain why. It wasn’t fastidiousness or so-called perfectionism—she just didn’t want to.

Xia Wanshuang was already thinking about what else she could make. Many ideas were racing through her mind, but they were all constrained by her age.

After school, Xia Wanshuang told Zhao Tianhang to go on ahead while she went to buy some things.

Zhao Tianhang knew Xia Wanshuang was busy, so he didn’t leave immediately and offered a few words of caution.

As Zhao Tianhang walked away, Xia Wanshuang’s gaze was filled with fondness for his retreating figure.

“See? My son is so cute, sensible, and thoughtful.”

He’s truly a little angel on earth.

[System]: …………

The system was speechless.

Everything is a mess anyway. Whatever. As a novice system, it was self-aware enough not to speak, but there were still some things it had to say.

[System]: Shuangshuang, don’t get too emotionally involved. We will eventually leave.

[System]: Actually, in a normal process, after the first world, you wouldn’t have this “immersion” benefit. You might play a completely different person with a different name, appearance, and background.

[System]: This is to remind the host that they are just passing through.

[System]: That’s why I’m worried about you.

This was where an AI differed from a human. The system might cry and laugh, but they knew clearly where the boundary between the story and reality lay, using their own existence to remind the person playing the role that this was not the end.

“System, I understand.”

Xia Wanshuang felt no unhappiness. She walked forward, aiming for a fruit stall she hadn’t visited yet.

Coming with excitement, leaving when the excitement is spent. That’s all there is to it.

Having read so much poetry and literature, Xia Wanshuang felt a sense of detachment.

It was a good thing the system only asked her to play a passerby. If she were asked to play a heart-stealing thief, Xia Wanshuang wouldn’t be able to handle it and would rather die peacefully.

Xia Wanshuang checked a few places but still couldn’t find the ice jelly fruit, so she had no choice but to head home.

Zhou Qinglang had been waiting for a very long time, growing anxious, but she didn’t dare to run off and look for Xia Wanshuang, afraid Xia Wanshuang would return and not find her.

So, she just stood at the stairwell, peering out through the main entrance, waiting for Xia Wanshuang to return.

As soon as she caught sight of Xia Wanshuang, she quickly ran back home, stood by the peephole, and watched. Only when Xia Wanshuang was in view did she open the door, smiling brightly at her.

“Sister, you’re back! I knew it had to be you outside the door.”

Zhou Qinglang’s eyes curved in a cute smile, which brightened Xia Wanshuang’s low spirits. She walked in and pinched her cheek.

“Really? You’re so smart.”

“Of course! Sister and I are telepathic!”