"Pfft, pfft, pfft, what nonsense are you talking about? I'm perfectly fine."
Liu Cuilan straightened up, wiped her face, and immediately white powder started falling down like snowflakes.
"Then just now, what was that?"
"If I didn't do this, your grandma would definitely go on endlessly today."
As she spoke, Liu Cuilan stuffed a cornbread into her hands, "Xiaoxiao, hurry up and eat. Remember to pick up your two brothers from school after you're done. I have to go to work."
She casually grabbed another cornbread and dashed out the door with quick steps.
Su Xiaoxiao was baffled. Wait, why did her mom leave so fast? Wasn't she supposedly sick and could only do the light job of cutting pigweed?
She took a confused bite of the sorghum flour cornbread, and tears fell immediately. Was this cornbread or a rock? She almost chipped her front teeth.
Holding the cornbread, she banged it twice on the table. Great, it could directly be used to drive nails.
Su Xiaoxiao felt hopeless. She was too hungry not to eat, but eating it might just cost her those old teeth.
While she was hesitating, her hand slipped, and the cornbread fell to the ground, rolling off to one side.
As she was about to bend down to pick it up, her vision blurred, and suddenly a high-tech interface appeared in front of her.
"What the heck is this?"
Su Xiaoxiao scratched her head and swiped the interface in the air with her hand.
It seemed like this was a little simulation game called The Sims.
The game interface had a mall feature. Su Xiaoxiao opened it and found all sorts of random stuff inside.
Rice, flour, grain, oil, and even bicycles, televisions, and some bizarre items like...
"Hahaha, is the game's developer nuts? A piece of dog poop for one coin, who in their right mind would buy that?"
As soon as she finished laughing, a big yellow dog suddenly darted through the door crack, eyes gleaming as it fixed on the cornbread on the ground.
"Wait a minute!"
That was her only lunch for the day.
However, the big yellow dog obviously didn't understand human language, and with drool dripping, it eyed the cornbread with eagerness.
Su Xiaoxiao sprang up from her stool in a flash, reaching out to grab back her lunch, but then her finger uncontrollably tapped on something.
The next moment, a line of text appeared on the game's gray and dusty interface: "The piece of dog poop you purchased has been placed in your inventory, thank you for your patronage."
Darn!
Su Xiaoxiao's vision darkened; it turned out she was her own foolish nemesis.
Hopelessly staring at the game interface, what kind of rubbish game was this?
As she stared, suddenly, she noticed something was not quite right.
Originally, there was only a little figure with two messy pigtails on the screen; now, in front of the figure, there was a little yellow dog.
The little yellow dog was staring intently, drooling over the cornbread on the ground.
She remembered very clearly that just now there was only the little figure on the screen.
Looking at the big yellow dog in front of her, then the little yellow dog on the screen, she tentatively snatched the cornbread and threw it outside.
The big yellow dog immediately beamed with excitement and disappeared in a flash.
Looking back at the screen, the little yellow dog was also gone.
Could this game be the world she lived in?
Su Xiaoxiao instantly became excited; if that were true, then anything she bought from the mall would appear in her house, wouldn't it?
She actually had such an awesome cheat code? Truly worthy of her, wealth was just around the corner.
With an excited heart and trembling hands, she tentatively opened the mall and selected the cheapest cornbread, aside from the dog poop.
Then, minutes passed, and nothing happened.
Taking a closer look, darn, the cornbread needed two coins, and she only had one, the other was spent on buying that dog poop just now.
Her vision darkened again, she almost fainted, hopelessly shutting the game interface.
Forget it, she'd better just eat the cornbread and then go pick up her brothers.
Wait a minute, her eyes in a daze lowered, and at the door, the big yellow dog was munching happily on the cornbread.
Good news, the impossibly hard cornbread was also gone, so she could only go hungry to pick up her little brothers.
In the Su family's household, besides her two hardworking and capable older brothers, there were also two mischievous younger brothers, and Su Xiaoxiao was the only girl, also the most pampered one in the family.
They lived in a village called Sujiatun, and in the southeastern corner of the village, there was a primary school called Sujiatun Primary School.
Their home was at the very west end of the village, just about a seven or eight-minute walk from the school.
Her two younger brothers were eight and nine years old. Due to their family's poverty, they were only sent to the first grade this year.
As soon as she reached the school gate, she saw her two brothers from a distance being blocked by a chubby kid.
The chubby kid, with hands on hips, said, "My big brother can butcher pigs, and my second sister can paint."
Su Jianwen wiped his nose defiantly, "My big brother can fix tractors, my second brother knows martial arts, and my third sister is pretty."
Chubby kid: "My big brother and my second sister dare to eat poop."
Su Jianwu: "My big brother, second brother, and even my third sister also dare... "
"No, I don't dare!"
Su Xiaoxiao spoke up just in time to stop her brother's dangerous statement.
The chubby kid, hearing this, became even more smug, "Not only do my big brother and second sister dare to eat poop, but they also dare to eat bugs and toads. Your brothers and sisters don't dare, do they? Nyeh nyeh nyeh..."
Su Xiaoxiao: "..."
Your big brother and second sister are really unlucky to have a brother like you.
Su Jianwu, facing the chubby kid's provocation, couldn't wait to try, "Who said my brother and sister don't dare?"
As he spoke, he shook Su Xiaoxiao's arm vigorously, "Sis, quickly say you dare."
Su Xiaoxiao: I'd rather not, thank you, I'll politely decline.
To avoid the conversation becoming more disgusting, she decisively grabbed one brother in each hand and dragged them home.
The two younger brothers howled lamentably, "Sis, let us go, we must not be cowards."
Su Xiaoxiao couldn't care less, just knowing that if she let them carry on, she would lose face entirely.
Suddenly, Su Xiaoxiao sharply noticed something shiny reflecting sunlight ahead.
That was...
Squinting her eyes, she let go of her two little brats and trotted quickly to pick up the item on the ground.
Woohoo, it turned out to be a penny.
Her tears nearly welled up with excitement; the police weren't wrong, you really could find a penny on the roadside.
Slipping the coin into her pocket, as expected, a ding sounded in her mind immediately.
She swiped open the interface in the air to find, sure enough, the one coin in her wallet turned into two this time.
Su Xiaoxiao was overjoyed. Great, now she could actually exchange for two pieces of dog poop?
Wait, something seemed off.
Never mind, it's not important.
At the same time, the gray and dull game interface suddenly turned colorful.
Was this activated?
Su Xiaoxiao excitedly browsed through the mall, only to sadly find out she still couldn't afford anything but cornbread and dog poop.
And that glaringly bright yellow pile of poop in her inventory was something she couldn't stand at all.
When could this thing ever be removed from her backpack?
As she was pondering, an opportunity presented itself immediately.