Chapter 39: Tracking

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Tracking

After speaking, Tian Tian covered her mouth.

If ordinary educated youths just worked honestly, they definitely couldn’t live such a wealthy life. Sister Yu Yuan looked so frail and delicate; who would have thought she could be so bold!

They were different from the local villagers. At worst, the villagers would spend a few days in jail and then come back to continue farming. But for them, they might never be able to return to the city.

"You could have just said that a distant relative helped you out! Why did you tell the truth?" Tian Tian stomped her foot in anger. "How could you just blurt it out like that without even making up an excuse?"

Words like ’heartbroken’ and ’deeply disappointed’ weren’t enough to describe Tian Tian’s current mood.

Deng Yuyuan threw her hands up in a helpless gesture. "Alright, alright. Then just tell everyone that a relative helped me out. Wouldn’t that work?"

Tian Tian looked into Deng Yuyuan’s smiling, affectionate eyes. Even her charm offensive was useless. Furious, Tian Tian snapped playfully, "Sister Yu Yuan, you’re teasing me again!"

Deng Yuyuan had just finished fooling the young people at the Knowledge Youth Institute with this full-of-holes excuse about a rich relative when the village chief arrived secretively with envelopes. Everyone received a thousand yuan and a letter of introduction.

With the letter of introduction, each person could seek help from the Shen Group once if they encountered difficulties.

Great. Now, the ones who needed to hide things were the entire Knowledge Youth Institute, and no one bothered to question Deng Yuyuan anymore.

The village chief told them to figure out a way to hide the money themselves. He got a share, too. He was the only one handling the funds, and to the outside world, he would only claim that everyone received one hundred yuan and a letter.

One hundred yuan was enough for the youths at the Knowledge Youth Institute to openly live comfortably.

The village chief then said to Deng Yuyuan, "Granny Zhang has already been taught a lesson. To avoid ruining her son’s job, she won’t easily cause trouble for you. Zhang Jiahua still has some feelings for you, but I heard he’s applying for a transfer just to hide from Granny Zhang.

"What about you? What are your plans for the future? Are you just going to live your life taking care of your child, or should I introduce some young talents to you?"

He asked casually, as if just chatting about everyday matters.

Deng Yuyuan casually replied, "Tuantuan is too young, so I’m not considering these things. We’ll talk about it after returning to the city. If I can’t find a good person, I’ll just stay with her for the rest of my life."

Deng Yuyuan absolutely didn’t want to find another man to marry, but there was no need to show her true feelings here and declare that she would never marry again. Dragging it out with outsiders indefinitely was fine enough.

The village chief understood perfectly in his heart. She was disheartened and didn’t want to marry anymore. His son’s chances were slim. Fortunately, his youngest son was young. Even if he hit a brick wall, he could still start another relationship. Let him hit the wall himself.

Deng Yuyuan enjoyed two months of peaceful days. Her farming game leveled up to Level 10, unlocking chickens and ducks, and she received another bottle of low-level body repair potion. Combined with her daily exercise and the game’s cheat-like benefits, her strength was now comparable to an adult man’s. Sprinting a kilometer was a piece of cake, and even a long-distance round trip run from the village to the town only left her temples slightly damp with sweat.

[Actually, the biggest effect of the low-level body repair potion is to improve fertility, not to help you break through your physical limits. You are the first host to use it for this purpose.]

Deng Yuyuan untied the homemade sandbags bound to her legs and washed her face with cold water. "Only with a healthy uterus can hormones be secreted properly, and only then can the body be strong.

"With the village chief in the village, I naturally have nothing to worry about. But when I go out to work in the future, the world is chaotic. A strong fist can solve most troubles."

Deng Yuyuan lowered her head. "It’s always more reassuring when you hold the power in your own hands."

[Even fitness bloggers aren’t as ruthless as you.]

"After all, sometimes their goal in working out is to pursue a beautiful, strong physique, while I’m doing it to survive."

She parted the bushes and ducked into a hidden cave, redeeming a chicken and some lotus leaves from the farming game to make Beggar’s Chicken.

It wasn’t her first time doing this. The narrow cave was fully stocked with tools and spices. There was also a solar-powered flashlight she bought for a hefty price from the farm’s store to provide illumination. In order to buy the flashlight, she even had to sign a dimensional protection agreement—she couldn’t easily reveal it in front of others unless she researched it herself or imported solar-powered gadgets from abroad.

The cave’s location was concealed, and Deng Yuyuan was always worried that lighting a fire and candles inside would lead to a lack of oxygen. To be on the safe side, she chose safe technological gadgets.

She now went to the black market to sell raw materials and processed food. The latter yielded higher profits. She was hardly short of money, but the buying and selling took up too much of her time.

A person’s energy was limited. She spent her mornings on the mountain, had lunch in town, and went back in the afternoons to learn wood carving, review the high school textbooks of this era, and take care of Tuantuan. She also had to grind the farming game for several hours every day. The farm store had listed some books, which were scientific works from her original century and the one following it. Deng Yuyuan was full of curiosity and couldn’t wait to buy them to study, but unfortunately, she didn’t have the time.

After the Beggar’s Chicken was cooked, she cracked one open first, tearing the bird in half. She placed one half in front of a wooden plaque and held the other half to eat herself.

The wooden plaque was a homemade memorial tablet for the original owner of her body. There was no name written on it. Since no one worshipped the original owner, she had to do it herself.

"Hey, do you AI customer service reps have physical bodies?" Deng Yuyuan asked curiously.

There was no response in her mind, but she didn’t mind. She cleaned up the clay pieces, picked up the remaining half of the chicken wrapped in a lotus leaf, and followed the path around to the village entrance before jogging to the town.

As usual, she first ducked into an alley to put on her disguise, then went to her stall, where a crowd had already gathered.

It seemed she had good luck today, and her goods would sell out quickly. In the past, if the market patrols came to chase them away, people wouldn’t gather, making it very hard to sell anything. Sometimes she even had to knock on doors to find customers.

Some people bought from her to resell to their neighbors at a higher price, but Deng Yuyuan didn’t care. As long as her own share was sold, that was fine.

An hour later, she packed up her bamboo basket, bought some grain, cloth, and meat ration coupons, and left, hunching her back.

Today, there was still a tail following behind her. Deng Yuyuan skillfully stepped on some stones, grabbed a branch, and vaulted over the wall, shaking off the group of people behind her before keeping her head down and walking forward.

After her business took off, people had come to try and strike up conversations with her. Deng Yuyuan ignored them all, only occasionally teaming up with the older sister who had helped her in the beginning to sell goods.

In the black market, the most important thing was to stay on guard against others. As long as no one could lock onto her true identity, there were infinite possibilities. The people who sought to cooperate with her might also be plotting to double-cross and rob her. Deng Yuyuan didn’t dare take the gamble; she just needed to shake them off.

Anyway, they didn’t have the guts to intercept her inside the black market.

This time seemed a bit different. Hearing the sound of dust and gravel hitting the ground and the friction of clothing, Deng Yuyuan knew without looking back that the people behind her had caught up.

She simply threw down her basket and ran forward with all her might. She didn’t forget to maintain her hunched posture, occasionally staggering her steps to pretend she was running out of energy.

She would never drop her persona as a poor old woman, even if it killed her!!!