Life Customization (Whaling) System

[This is a romance novel with two male leads, about two men falling in love. If that isn't to your liking, please leave now. Thank you.]

It was mid-June 1973 in Beijing, the height of summer. The heat made some people even more restless than they already were, especially the young, some of whom visibly had heat blisters at the corners of their mouths.

The heat was one thing, but the more pressing issue was the new round of the campaign to send youths to the countryside.

Once young people graduated and left school, they had to hurry and find jobs. Otherwise, the subdistrict office would come knocking, counting down the days until they had to leave for the countryside.

Those with connections used them to find jobs, those without bought jobs with money, and the last option was to inherit a parent's job.

Of course, Bai Yao didn't need to worry. Apart from those three options, there was another, and he belonged to that group: people who had signed up early to go to the countryside.

Bai Yao knew about this outcome, and unlike others, he didn't make a life-or-death fuss over it. Instead, he continued to get up early in the morning to cook for his biological father, stepmother, and stepbrothers and stepsisters.

Breakfast was plentiful: a big pot of thick cornmeal porridge, with large chunks of sweet potato added to it.

Even in the corridor apartment building where he lived, a breakfast like this was first-rate. Anyone who saw it would be envious.

It was just that Bai Yao wasn't entitled to eat a meal like this.

Of course, he wouldn't eat it anyway. After all, he was about to add some "good stuff" to it.

System, add the super pig feed I bought yesterday, Bai Yao ordered the system in his mind.

The next second, a large portion of feed with a cloyingly sweet smell appeared in the pot. As Bai Yao stirred, it soon blended perfectly into the porridge.

At that moment, the sweet aroma of the pot of cornmeal gruel alone was enough to whet anyone's appetite.

Seeing this, Bai Yao carried the pot home with a happy smile. The "people" in his family were still waiting for him to feed them.

On the way back, Bai Yao didn't forget to greet the neighbors around him, so he could prepare for his plans later.

Once home, Bai Yao resumed his blank expression and portioned out the food. Without waiting to be called, the family swarmed to the table and began eating in great mouthfuls.

As for Bai Yao...

"Xiao Yao, these are the cornmeal buns from last night. It would be such a waste of food not to eat them. Our family can't behave like landlords. Go pour yourself a bowl of cold water and eat them." The young woman spoke gently, but her words were chilling.

"Bai Yao, my mother is right. Look around—who gets to eat without a job these days? You should be grateful." The pretty girl at the table spared him a moment to say this.

As for the other three people eating at the table, none of them spoke.

Bai Yao didn't argue. He didn't want to eat the doctored food either, so he took the cornmeal buns, hard as bricks, and went off to the side.

Everyone was used to this. As though Bai Yao weren't part of the family, they each concentrated on wolfing down the food in their bowls.

But anyone who had eaten sweet potato and cornmeal porridge knew that the porridge was scalding hot, and the sweet potatoes in it were even hotter. A single mouthful could scald a person to tears.

Yet despite how hot the porridge was, the family continued to eat at breakneck speed. Even with snot and tears streaming down their faces from the heat, they couldn't stop.

At this, Bai Yao could only marvel at how amazing the super pig feed he had customized through the system really was. It also reduced the fire of anger in his heart by the tiniest bit.

Soon, breakfast was over. Once full, the family hurried off to work and school, leaving behind a mountain of housework.

After everyone had left, Bai Yao tossed aside the untouched cornmeal buns in his hand and took several eggs he had boiled that morning out of the system space and began eating.

As he ate, he couldn't help going over the memories of this body again.

He couldn't help it; he really couldn't accept the fact all at once.

Transmigration!

And he had transmigrated to the era of his grandparents' generation, at that.

Although he had the much-coveted Beijing household registration, it was only temporary. In half a month, his registration would have to be changed to that of a villager when he went to the countryside.

At the thought, Bai Yao wished he could land a critical hit with every slash and kill the whole family on the spot.

A biological father who was a live-in son-in-law and a phoenix man; a mistress-turned-stepmother who was a snake-scorpion white lotus; a half-brother, a half-sister, and a "real" younger half-brother, all sharing the same father.

Not a single member of this family was any good; their very identities made that clear. Not only did they have to suck the original owner's biological mother dry, they also had to crack his bones and suck out the marrow until nothing was left of him.

Fortunately, even after being manipulated for so many years, the original owner hadn't forgotten his biological mother's dying instructions and hadn't revealed the dowry that belonged to her, the eldest daughter of a capitalist family.

Otherwise, would the original owner have been able to stay in school until he graduated from high school? He probably would have fallen gravely ill and gone to join his mother as soon as he entered middle school.

But after so many years of his body being worn down, hearing that his biological father had taken it upon himself to sign him up for the countryside was still enough to make the original owner pass away in overwhelming grief, allowing the present Bai Yao to transmigrate here.

Compared with the original owner's soft-bun personality, Bai Yao held it in complete contempt.

If he couldn't live well, this family could forget about living well too. If he didn't make them wish they were dead, then his name wasn't Bai Yao.

With the system at his side in particular, he had even more ways to make this family wish they were dead.

Speaking of the system, Bai Yao felt that his system didn't match its name at all.

With the customization system, as long as he paid, he could have it customize anything on the technological side. However, precious items and items beyond the current era cost more. Providing raw materials could also reduce some of the customization fee.

Besides that, it came with an enormous system space.

Bai Yao was quite satisfied with his powerful system.

As long as he had money, he was the boss. Even in this impoverished era, he could still live very well and comfortably.

Take the super pig feed he had used that morning, for example. It was something beyond this era: in seven days, it could put a hundred jin of flesh on a person, and the weight wouldn't come off afterward.

Impressive, right?

Of course, it was expensive too. It had cost him a whole small gold bar.

In monetary terms, a small gold bar weighed about 31.25 grams, and gold currently cost around 8.4 yuan per gram, so it came to roughly 262.5 yuan.

Pork currently cost only eight mao per jin, so one could imagine how much Bai Yao had spent on his revenge.

Of course, Bai Yao didn't care, because he really did have money.

The system had determined that his biological mother's dowry belonged to him, so it provided a remote retrieval service. Last night, just after transmigrating and receiving the memories, he had collected the entire inheritance into the system space without stepping outside.

Then he understood just how "weighty" this inheritance was!

Small gold bars, large gold bars, silver dollars, and all kinds of jade and jewelry were packed in large chests, each big enough to hold a fat, 300-jin pig.

There were two chests each of small gold bars and silver dollars, and one chest each of large gold bars and jade and jewelry.

With an inheritance like that, it was no wonder his father had been unable to stop thinking about it for more than ten years.

He had even planned to make the original owner reveal the whereabouts of the treasure in exchange for a job, so he could avoid going to the countryside.

But now, it had all fallen into Bai Yao's lap.

As the beneficiary who had inherited such a huge fortune from the original owner, Bai Yao decided to take revenge for him. So he didn't feel the slightest heartache over spending one small gold bar.

"You made the original owner eat your leftovers every day, didn't you? You even starved him until he fainted several times. In a few days, when your whole family has grown fat as balls, just think how much attention you'll draw in an era when most people can't even get enough to eat."

Bai Yao smiled happily as he said this.

This wasn't the whole of his revenge; it was merely an appetizer.

The real main course was still to come.

None of this family was any good. After ten years of abusing the original owner, he wouldn't let them off easily.

He would destroy the things this family valued most, one by one, make them wish they were dead, and bring ruin and death upon their family.

But he still had half a month before he went to the countryside, so he had plenty of time for revenge.

For now, though, he had to go out.

Thanks to the gift left by merging with the original owner, his spiritual power could directly cover a range of ten meters, and he could have the system collect anything he "saw" into the system space.

So, before he went to the countryside, he had to go pick up some money.

After all, this was Beijing, and in this era especially, there was no shortage of ownerless treasure hidden from the light of day.

Although he already had lots of money, who would mind having a little more, especially when his system was called the Life Customization (Whaling) System?