Zhang Ergou's Counterattack Life

"Beep~"

"Player is entering the game..."

Game Background Introduction:

Niu Family Village is a small village located in the remote mountainous area southwest of the Da Qian Kingdom. It is named Niu Family Village because it is situated on a large mountain shaped like an ox. The village has sixty-three households, a population of four hundred and twenty-one, and eight hundred and fifty-two mu of cultivated land. Of this, four hundred and seventy-eight mu belong to Village Chief Li Shou Zheng's family. As an outsider, Zhang San Niu only has two mu of barren land on the high ground north of the village, plus a thatched cottage with holes on all sides. As Zhang San Niu's second son, Zhang Ergou, you were unfortunately born into this family...

"Wah~ Wah!"

Struggling to open his eyes, Zhou Ming's first sensation was cold, a bone-chilling cold.

Glancing down slightly, his infant self was only wrapped in a thin layer of hemp cloth, with several finger-sized holes in it.

"Gui Hua, let's abandon this child. We already have A'Da. We can't afford two children," a middle-aged man beside him said with a worried expression.

Zhou Ming's heart sank, and he immediately stopped crying. Abandon? Damn it, I just came out! You want to abandon me?

How is this game supposed to be played?

Tears like rolling beads streamed from the eyes of the thin woman holding the infant in her arms, hitting Zhou Ming's face. She sobbed, "Husband, A'Da is only two years old. It's still uncertain if he'll grow up. Little Ergou is also a boy. When he's older, he can work for the family and add to your descendants. Let's keep him."

The middle-aged man pondered for a while, then silently nodded. He picked up a large pottery bowl with a chipped edge that was placed by the doorstep and handed it to the thin woman. "Gui Hua, eat this bowl of noodles. There are two eggs in it. After you finish, feed Little Ergou some milk."

The woman rolled up her sleeves and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. She held the infant in her arms tighter, took the pottery bowl, and began to eat in large mouthfuls.

The middle-aged man sighed, picked up the hoe placed to the side, and walked towards the mountain with a slightly hunched back.

Three days later, after a brief discussion, the middle-aged couple named Zhou Ming — Zhang Ergou. The reason was that Zhou Ming's two-year-old brother was named Zhang Da Gou, so they simply followed suit.

In the blink of an eye, three years passed.

At the entrance and alleys of Niu Family Village, there was an extra little kid running around with a bare bottom.

When he was tired of running, the little kid plopped down on the large millstone at the village entrance and silently opened the game panel in his mind—

Player Character: Zhang Ergou Property: 0 Status: 0 Reputation: 0 Partner: 0 Descendants: 0 Lifespan: 3 Overall Achievement: 3

He closed the panel helplessly, looking up at the sky speechlessly. Zhou Ming felt like crying without tears.

Three years had passed. Due to long-term malnutrition, he had only just learned to walk. In between, he had caught colds several times. If he hadn't been tough, he would have almost had a game over early.

"How the hell is this game supposed to be played? It's so difficult from the start. Forget about 500 achievement points, getting 50 points would be good!"

Zhou Ming couldn't stop complaining. If he were the protagonist in other novels, he would have been dominating ordinary geniuses at three, rising powerfully and conquering a region at six, and sweeping the entire map by sixteen, having to consider changing instances. How did he end up so miserable?

Looking up at his small arms and legs again, Zhou Ming suppressed his unrealistic thoughts.

Currently, he couldn't even lift a hoe, and a bout of influenza could take his life. Defying the heavens? Save it.

"Bad news, bad news! Zhang San Niu's eldest son is drowning!"

"Quick, go to the river to save him!"

"Zhang San Niu, your son is drowning!"

"Quick, go call Zhang San Niu!"

A commotion suddenly came from the small river at the head of the village. Several villagers shouted in panic.

Zhou Ming's heart skipped a beat. He moved his small legs and ran towards the river. Soon, he saw the child with a round belly, lying motionless on the bank – his older brother, Zhang Da Gou.

"A'Da, Da Gou, my son! Why didn't you listen? I told you not to go to the river to catch fish and shrimp, but you insisted on going!" His mother, Gui Hua, held the stiff body of Da Gou and cried heartbrokenly. His father, Zhang San Niu, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, was stunned when he saw this scene. The hoe on his shoulder fell powerlessly to the ground.

Two days later, life returned to normal, except for a small grave on the mountainside north of the village.

Zhou Ming was somewhat surprised to find that after his brother left, the four portions of food that were prepared for each meal at home became three portions, which were slightly more in quantity. To protect the only remaining son, Zhou Ming was often able to eat his fill, and his brother's clothes were altered and put on him...

At the age of five, Zhou Ming, who had received good care, could carry a small hoe and work in the fields. Occasionally, he could also go up the mountain to dig out bird nests, or go to the field ridges to dig up sweet grass roots that tasted like sugarcane. Sometimes, if he was lucky enough to pick up a wild pheasant injured by a hunter, it became one of his few opportunities to supplement his nutrition.

At the age of six, his mother, Gui Hua, became pregnant again.

This cast a shadow over this poor family, whose conditions had originally improved somewhat.

After ten months of pregnancy, the baby was born with a cry. Zhou Ming smiled happily; he had a cute little sister.

But one night, a fierce quarrel woke Zhou Ming, who was sound asleep.

"Husband, please don't abandon her. It's okay if we suffer a bit and are tired. She's just a newborn baby!" The woman pleaded bitterly.

"This child is born for others anyway. Why raise her so big for nothing? Doesn't Ergou need to eat and wear clothes?" The man's voice was incredibly resolute.

"But... but, she's the flesh that fell from my body, I can't bear it!" The woman wailed.

"Do you think I can bear it? But one more mouth means one more burden. Our two mu of land can't support so many people!" The man also cried out.

"Can't I just eat less and use less?" The woman gritted her teeth and said.

"No, you still have to help me support this family!"

The man shook his hand, snatched the baby girl from the woman's arms, broke free from the woman's desperate pulling, and ran out of the house without looking back.

Beside them, Zhou Ming, who was secretly watching all this, stared blankly at the thatched roof, but found that he couldn't muster the courage to get up and stop all this from happening.

Yes, the output of two mu of barren land made the family's conditions so poor that they could at most support three people.

Of course, his father, Zhang San Niu, could also become a tenant farmer for Village Chief Li Shou Zheng, renting one or two mu of good land. Although it would be tiring, the family's conditions would always improve somewhat, even if the rent was as high as an unbearable seventy percent.

However, Village Chief Li Shou Zheng was not a philanthropist. Seventy percent of the rent did not refer to seventy percent of the random yield of the land's crops each year, but rather that regardless of drought or flood, as long as the tenant farmer rented this land, they had to pay seventy percent of the yield in a normal year, even if the tenant farmer had to sell his wife, children, and young daughters.

It was precisely because of this consideration that no matter how difficult the family was, Zhang San Niu never thought of renting land from Village Chief Li Shou Zheng.

Early the next morning, the tired father returned with dew all over him and sat weakly at the doorstep. His mother, Gui Hua, got out of bed and prepared breakfast for the family of three as usual.

In the blink of an eye, another five years passed.

His mother, Gui Hua, passed away. After a severe cold depleted the family's meager savings, she breathed her last.

When he was thirteen, his father, Zhang San Niu, also passed away. Perhaps from overwork, or perhaps from missing his mother too much, he too breathed his last.

Leaving him all alone.

With both parents gone, Zhou Ming breathed a sigh of relief. He had been in this game for so long, wanting to achieve something, but he hadn't been able to. He wanted to invent and create, but he had completely forgotten the chemical equations for steelmaking, iron smelting, glassmaking, and cement production. Of course, he could figure them out through trial and error, but with only a dilapidated thatched hut and two mu of barren land, where would he find the resources for such money-burning research?

If inventing and creating wasn't an option, then farming it was. As a university graduate, he understood the three essential elements of farming: water, fertilizer, and temperature. Coupled with scientific breeding, rational close planting, regular weeding, and scientific pest control, it would be difficult not to achieve high yields.

Thus, on his two mu of barren land, Zhou Ming conducted a series of experiments. For the first two years, he harvested almost nothing, nearly starving himself to death. In the following two years, he saw initial results, with land output increasing by 10%.

In the fifth year, when Zhou Ming was eighteen, thanks to proper farming methods and favorable weather, his two mu of barren land unexpectedly yielded a bumper harvest for the first time. The output was even greater than the most fertile irrigated land owned by Village Chief Li Shou Zheng, causing a sensation throughout the village.

Zhou Ming could now walk with his head held high. Some matchmakers, at the behest of interested parties, began to visit Zhou Ming's home to inquire about his situation.

Everything was developing in a positive direction. Zhou Ming also planned to build a better wooden house within two years, save a little money, marry a decent-looking wife, and have three sons and two daughters. His life would then be quite complete.

However, one day after being invited to dinner at a childhood friend's house, unable to resist the earnest pleas, the soft-hearted Zhou Ming agreed to teach him his secret farming techniques.

One told ten, ten told a hundred. Soon, villagers from all over the village invited Zhou Ming over. Entertained with good wine and meat, they all earnestly requested him to share some farming experience. Zhou Ming agreed to each request.

Late one night a few days later, the door to Zhou Ming's house was kicked open with a crash. Several mysterious figures rushed into the house, raised the knives, axes, clubs, and sticks in their hands, and viciously hacked at the figure on the bed.

Not until the bloody, mangled figure on the ground made no sound did the mysterious figures light a fire. After watching the dilapidated thatched hut burn to ashes, they swaggered away.