After those servants completely moved out, the entire place instantly quieted down.

This was almost the most peaceful moment Lu Huan had experienced in more than ten years — between heaven and earth, there was only the sound of falling snow.

He couldn’t help but take a deep breath, and the tension between his brows relaxed quite a bit.

After changing into a clean, dry robe, Lu Huan didn’t rest even for a moment. He found a hoe in the corner of the woodshed, then walked around the entire area that the old madam had rewarded him, inspecting carefully. Finally, he stopped on an empty patch of land behind the bamboo grove.

The snow there was soft, and faint shoots and bamboo sprouts could be seen poking through — a sign that the soil was suitable for planting.

It was winter now, so there was no way to plant anything yet, but he could at least start clearing the land…

Lu Huan moved swiftly. In less than an hour, he had already turned the soil once.

Then he went to a few other woodsheds that had been vacated after the servants left, tore down the fences and railings there with brute force, carried them back to the newly cleared field, and set them up.

If he turned the soil every few days, it would be more suitable for planting next year.

The vegetables he grew could be eaten himself, or sold — either way, his future livelihood would no longer be a problem. To make a living by his own hands was far better than being restricted everywhere as before.

After finishing that, he deftly bundled up the leftover fences and encircled his own woodshed with them, making a small chicken coop. Then, using whatever materials were at hand, he dismantled wood from other empty sheds and, combined with straw, built a warm nest for hens to resist the winter cold — all done without a moment’s hesitation.

Outside the screen, Su Xi was cheering for him. Quick, buy some hens back! It’s time to eat more eggs and get your strength up!

Not far away was a small kitchen for the servants. It used to be where the night-duty servants cooked their late-night snacks. After the old madam had given this courtyard to him, even the back-kitchen servants had to move out.

Although the small kitchen was simple and far inferior to Prince Ning’s grand back kitchen, the stove and firewood and everything else were still fully in place.

A thin layer of sweat formed on Lu Huan’s forehead, but he didn’t rest even for a moment. Picking up his tools again, he tidied up the small kitchen in no time.

By the time he finished, the sky was already growing dark. Still, he didn’t stop — taking the three taels of silver he had just received, he strode quickly toward the side gate of Prince Ning’s manor.

Obviously, he planned to go to the marketplace to buy some tools and perhaps chickens and ducks.

Outside the screen, Su Xi bit into her bun, watching with rapt attention!

In the time it took her to eat breakfast, the little stick-figure chibi of her “Zai Zai” ran busily around the screen — here and there, working nonstop.

The fence was set up as quickly as a city wall rising; the soil was turned even softer; the snow-covered ground was full of little footprints going back and forth.

Su Xi was utterly amazed!

— Wuwuwu, how can my Zai Zai be this amazing! Not only diligent but incredibly efficient, working fast and without complaint — what a capable little life he leads!

Why watch Li Ziqi’s livestream anymore? From now on, just watch her little Zai Zai farming instead!

Su Xi really wanted to follow him and see what the ancient market outside Prince Ning’s manor looked like. She was dying of curiosity — would there be street performers, sugar figurine vendors, lantern stalls, and such?

But since that area wasn’t unlocked yet, she could only watch as the game avatar disappeared beyond the borders of the estate.

“Every time, the points I accumulate can only unlock one area. When will I ever unlock everything?!” Su Xi muttered, wiping her hands with a tissue, still unsatisfied.

The system replied: “Please continue completing main quests. As the difficulty increases, the reward points will also increase accordingly.”

Su Xi casually asked, “What’s the next main quest?”

The system popped up a message: “Please accept Main Quest 2 (Beginner): Help the protagonist achieve a grain yield of 2,000 kilograms and successfully befriend the richest man in the capital, Wan Sanqian, obtaining his support.”

“Difficulty: four stars. Gold reward: 100. Points reward: 8.”

Wait—

What the hell??? Su Xi, a liberal arts student with extremely poor math skills, immediately opened BaiDu to check how much yield two thousand kilograms actually was.

One glance—she nearly fainted.

“The game avatar is just one person! You expect him to farm alone on this kind of barren land until he produces two thousand kilograms of grain? How long would that take? Is he still supposed to become an emperor or not?”

The system replied mechanically, “That is why the difficulty is four stars.”

“And this game is set in ancient times, isn’t it? No excavators, no modern tools, barely any fertilizer varieties discovered yet. If other merchants can produce several hundred kilograms per mu, it’s already enough to shock the capital—yet you want me to reach two thousand kilograms?!”

The system repeated like a broken record, “That is why the difficulty is four stars.”

Su Xi asked suspiciously, “How many stars are there in total? Don’t tell me it’s out of ten?”

The system went silent for a moment before answering, “A total of one hundred stars.”

Su Xi: “……………………???”

This game was seriously insane. This was only the second main quest, and she couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of missions awaited her later.

Still, she began to feel a bit fired up.

It was obvious that everyone inside Prince Ning’s manor was an enemy—only the old madam could be considered the Zai Zai’s source of support.

But the old madam had a cold temperament; at best, she’d offer some help or benefits, but she could never fully side with him or protect him outright.

If her Zai Zai wanted to become strong, he’d have to rely on people outside Prince Ning’s manor—or rather, slowly recruit followers and build his own forces.

In simpler terms—he needed to start collecting little brothers.

Just imagine: if the richest man in the capital, Wan Sanqian, became her Zai Zai’s little brother, what kind of expressions would those people in Prince Ning’s manor have?

Su Xi looked up Wan Sanqian’s profile and found that this so-called richest man of the capital had quite the impressive network—he had connections with officials of every rank, from the prime minister to the ministers of Rites and Justice.

Rumor had it he was wealthier than the national treasury itself—rich enough to rival the country.

Money makes the ghosts grind the mill; the same truth applied in this game.

So, the next step would be… to help her Zai Zai develop some new kind of rice unknown to ancient times? One that would take the entire capital by storm?

The system: “……” The girl’s thought process was admirable.

But there was no rush—everything had to proceed one step at a time.

Prince Ning’s manor probably wouldn’t stay peaceful for long. Although Lu Wenxiu had been punished with a month of closed-door reflection, Lady Ning was still scheming ways to harm the game character.

She had to stay alert.

As Su Xi idly waited for the little avatar to return, the hospital ward door suddenly swung open.

Her best friend and deskmate, Gu Qin, poked her head in, smiling as she waved a bag of snacks. “Su Xixi, we came to see you!”

Su Xi’s face lit up in surprise. “You guys came?”

She’d been playing the game nonstop in the hospital—though her Zai Zai was adorable, she was about to go stir-crazy. She really needed to see some living people.

“Because we missed you, of course. We had a math exam today, it was super hard. The homeroom teacher even told us to bring you a copy of the test paper,” Gu Qin said, walking in and sitting down by the bed. She spread out the snack bag in front of Su Xi. “I brought you chips.”

Su Xi didn’t hold back; she tore open the bag. “Thanks.”

Huo Jingchuan followed Gu Qin in, holding a small wallet in his hand.

Su Xi asked, “What’s that?”

“You said on the phone the other day that you were short on money, right?” Huo Jingchuan raised his eyebrows. “A few of us chipped in from our allowance, but it’s not much—just a little over a thousand. See if it can help you through for now.”

He and Gu Qin had assumed Su Xi had run into bad luck again—maybe she broke something in a store or knocked over a display and had to pay for the damages.

After all, things like that happened to her constantly.

The two of them had practically watched Su Xi grow up unlucky. From things that were absurdly inexplicable at first, to the point that now they’d become completely calm about it.

“You guys—” Su Xi looked at Gu Qin, then at Huo Jingchuan. Her nose stung, and for a while she couldn’t say anything.

She hadn’t expected that just because she’d casually mentioned being short on cash during a phone call, her two friends would actually scrape together money for her.

A thousand yuan wasn’t a small sum for high school students.

These two probably snuck some from home and then squeezed the rest out of other classmates’ lunch money.

“It’s not like we’re not letting you pay us back. Once your leg’s healed, you can work part-time on the weekends and return it,” Gu Qin said.

“Yeah.” Huo Jingchuan smirked. “Or you could just go after that rich pretty boy from the science class, Yin Yao. If you manage to bag him, you’ll never have to worry about money again.”

The lump of emotion that had just welled up in Su Xi’s chest instantly evaporated.

She grabbed a pack of jelly and chucked it at him. “Shut up.”

Holding the small wallet with its thousand-some yuan inside, Su Xi didn’t actually plan to take it.

Mainly because—even if she did, it was just a drop in the bucket. Her family was currently ten thousand yuan in debt.

Wait—

Su Xi suddenly remembered something. Hadn’t she bought a lottery ticket a few days ago? And wasn’t the drawing today?

She abruptly jumped off the bed on one leg and said to Gu Qin, “Gu Qin, help me downstairs. I bought a lottery ticket three days ago. The results come out today, I need to check it!”

“What the heck?” Gu Qin laughed, pushing Su Xi’s forehead. “Have you been in the hospital so long that you’ve gone silly? Everyone buys lottery tickets, but with your cursed luck? Not a chance.”

Su Xi didn’t really believe it herself, but something about that game felt mysterious.

She had even asked the nurses if they wanted to play it too, but when they opened their phones to search the App Store, the game didn’t exist. In other words, it appeared only on her phone.

What did that even mean? It was way too weird.

Besides, better to believe it than not—when you’re broke, you cling to every sliver of hope.

She grabbed Gu Qin’s arm and hopped down the stairs on one leg.

Huo Jingchuan followed after them, holding a pack of Little Raccoon crispy noodles, watching Su Xi like she was crazy. But since she was so fired up and insisted on making a fuss, he decided to humor her. “Stop hopping around, I’ll carry you.”

The two girls and one boy left the hospital ward and walked to the lottery shop just outside the hospital entrance.

Inside, a group of regular players were staring nervously at the screen, waiting for the draw to begin.

Huo Jingchuan carried Su Xi into the shop through the small crowd. Su Xi fished out the lottery ticket she’d bought a few days ago and handed it to the shop owner.

On one hand, she thought she must be insane—to actually believe what a game system had told her. But on the other hand, her heart was pounding so hard it almost leapt out of her throat.

She called out nervously, “Boss, please check this number.”

The shop owner pointed at the screen on the wall. “The winning numbers will be out in a moment.”

He glanced up from beneath his glasses, giving her a casual once-over before taking the ticket. “First time buying a lottery ticket, huh? You’re so nervous your palms are drenched in sweat.”

“Let me tell you, little girl, stay calm. The odds of winning are too low—don’t go wasting all your pocket money on this—”

His words suddenly stopped short.

The boss’s pupils shrank sharply. He froze like a statue, staring dead at the string of numbers on the screen, then looked down at Su Xi’s ticket again—his face went slack, like he’d just been struck by lightning.

He looked back at the screen. “Holy— You— Little girl, you—”

Clatter. The pack of Little Raccoon noodles in Huo Jingchuan’s hand slipped and scattered all over the floor.

He’d casually glanced at the ticket earlier and memorized the numbers.

What the— Su Xixi’s ticket numbers were identical to the first-prize winning numbers on the screen!

And the first prize was—three million???

His eyes nearly popped out of his head.

The world had gone mad… Su Xi actually won the lottery? Had she saved up sixteen years of misfortune just to cash it all in at once?!

The other lottery players in the shop realized what had happened and turned toward Su Xi in shock.

Su Xi stood there, barely keeping her balance, blood rushing to her head.

Had she seen it wrong… or was she dreaming?

Three million???

Aaaaah—three million!!! She’d never seen that much money in her life! How could anyone even spend that all?!

Her mind was in chaos. And the first thought that flashed through her head was—

Wait. Could she finally… top up for her little Zai Zai?!