Do Not Mock the Poverty of the Middle-Aged!

[You chose 1.]

[In a dark, damp cave, you felt your way forward through the darkness.]

[At first it was extremely narrow, barely wide enough for a person to pass. After walking several thousand steps, the view suddenly opened up.]

[The light ahead brightened greatly, and you emerged from this natural tunnel between two mountains.]

[After getting your bearings, you continued toward White Cloud County Town.]

[The next day, you arrived at White Cloud County Town.]

[On the street, you saw a convoy of government constables. Xu Hu, Xu Linglong, and other bandit leaders were being escorted in prison carts.]

[They were severely wounded and barely clinging to life.]

[The bandit lackeys had long since become corpses in the wilderness, not even worthy of being dragged back for questioning.]

[You did not look any further and quietly slipped back into the crowd.]

[You had escorted Third Sister when she got married, so you still remembered where her home was in the county town.]

["Why has it been sealed off?"]

[Third Sister's small courtyard had been plastered with white seals bearing the words: Sealed by the White Cloud County Yamen, Baling Commandery, Qingzhou, Dagan.]

[You climbed onto the wall and saw that the place had long been emptied out, leaving only fallen leaves scattered across the ground.]

[You found some nearby neighbors and asked around.]

["You mean Shen Qingshan? Oh my, that murderous fiend killed ten households in a single night. He was beheaded at Caishikou last month. The county magistrate sentenced his nine clans to exile. Who are you to him?"]

["I... I probably don't count as one of his nine clans..."]

Chen Yi: "?"

What was going on??

How had Shen Qingshan become a murderer?

Chen Yi clearly remembered that Third Brother-in-law was a dignified, upright, extraordinary man.

Moreover, he was a government constable, a demon slayer of the county town's Monster Slaying Division.

There had to be some injustice behind this, right?

"So that means Third Sister was exiled?"

According to the simulation's timeline, Shen Qingshan would be beheaded a year later.

He wondered whether the case had already happened yet.

"She's my only relative. I can't just stand by and do nothing..."

Unfortunately, all he could do now was worry helplessly.

Chen Yi could barely protect himself, and he had no idea when he would escape the Black Stone Gang's control.

[You did not know how Dagan calculated its nine clans.]

[To be safe, you gave yourself a new name: Chen Dong.]

[To make a living, you became a waiter at Yuelai Inn in the county town.]

[The proprietress was a widow with a kind heart. She took very good care of workers like you, fed you until you were full, and did not make things difficult for you in your daily work.]

[Some guests, however, would lash out and beat or curse lowly commoners like you at the slightest disagreement.]

[Especially certain Martial Artists, who considered themselves superior and looked down on ordinary people.]

[Third year, age twenty.]

[Beginning Term extraction...]

[Extraction successful!]

["Husbandly Charm" (White): You always inadvertently exude the aura of a husband, slightly improving your appeal to women.]

[Adjust Term?]

[Yes/No]

[You used "Husbandly Charm" to replace "The Beauty of Ji Ni".]

[A Martial Artist caused a huge scene at Yuelai Inn because the tofu pudding was savory.]

[He broke your arm. Bare-chested, you let the warmhearted proprietress help bandage you.]

["Ah Dong, don't hold a grudge. Ordinary people like us have to keep our heads down before Martial Artists. The fact that we can stay alive is already smoke rising from our ancestors' graves."]

[You said indignantly.]

["Heng! Do not mock the poverty of the young! Sooner or later, I, Chen Dong, will stand atop the peak of the Martial Dao and grind even the Great Dao to dust!"]

[The proprietress gave you a coquettish smack.]

["You can't even find yourself a wife, yet you're saying things like that..."]

[The two of you met each other's eyes. For some reason, perhaps Husbandly Charm had taken effect, you fell for each other at a glance and saw the heat and urgency in one another's eyes.]

[That night, disregarding your injuries, you and the proprietress blazed together like dry kindling meeting fire, burning through from front to back.]

[Later, you married the proprietress and transformed into the owner of Yuelai Inn.]

[In an instant, your life rose from the bottom rung of society to the gentry class.]

[Sure enough, living off a woman let you take fewer detours!]

"Who says White Terms are useless? I'm the first one to disagree! I wonder what the proprietress looks like..."

Chen Yi thought blissfully.

The simulation continued, unfolding year by year.

Suddenly, Chen Yi's eyes lit up.

Amid the simulation text—white words on a black background—a streak of green had appeared!

It was not that he had been cuckolded.

His Term had turned green!

[Tenth year, age twenty-seven.]

(Liu Zi won't list Terms that aren't useful, but that doesn't mean none were drawn~)

[After many years of marriage, you and the proprietress remained as loving as ever. During the day, you treated each other with the respect due honored guests; at night, you blazed like dry kindling and fire.]

[With a bit of modern management and scientific knowledge, you and the proprietress made the inn flourish.]

[Unfortunately, as lowly commoners, there were some things you could only endure passively.]

[Such as theft, robbery, Martial Artists dining and dashing, the government's exorbitant taxes and levies, and so on.]

[Still, compared to most commoners, your lives were already far better.]

[The only regret was that it was difficult for you to have children.]

[The proprietress often murmured that it would be wonderful to have a child.]

[Whenever she had spare time, she would sit doing needlework, holding the tiger-head shoes she had sewn stitch by stitch as she stared blankly into space.]

[You comforted her, saying that such matters depended on fate, and that having a child also depended on the bond between parent and child.]

[Eleventh year, age twenty-eight.]

[Beginning Term extraction...]

[Extraction successful!]

["The Older the More Fortunate" (Green): Beginning at age sixty, whenever you extract Terms at every multiple of ten years, you are guaranteed to obtain a rare Term. That extraction will also slightly increase the probability of obtaining Terms of rare quality or above.]

[Adjust Term?]

[Yes/No]

After being white for so many years, it had finally turned green!

But in terms of probability, this draw was extraordinarily lucky too. After all, the current chance of a rare Term was only 0.9%.

"This Term can be equipped when I reach sixty. A guaranteed rare one isn't bad."

In the simulations that followed,

Chen Yi saw just how difficult life was for an ordinary man in a world where Martial Artists ran rampant, demons and monsters brought calamity, and war raged year after year.

The second half of his life rivaled Fugui's in To Live—he endured countless hardships, each one a tear-stained bitterness.

[Thirteenth year, age thirty.]

[This year, you and the proprietress finally conceived a child.]

[The proprietress wept tears of joy, and you were happy for her as well.]

[Fourteenth year, age thirty-one.]

[It was a boy.]

[Yuelai Inn held a three-day open feast, inviting all the townsfolk of the entire county town.]

["Father of my child, you're being far too extravagant. We may have earned some money these past years, but there are always so many risks."]

["Hahaha! Rather than let thieves steal it or let the county magistrate take it away under one pretext or another, I'd rather trade it for some happiness! Besides, my son, Chen Dong's son, has been born. How could I not announce it to the whole town?"]

["Ah Dong, you're getting carried away again. We're only ordinary people."]

["Do not mock the poverty of the middle-aged. I, Chen Dong, am no creature meant to remain trapped in a pond!"]

[Sixteenth year, age thirty-three.]

[Your second daughter was born.]

[You once again held an open feast for three days.]

[Twentieth year, age thirty-seven.]

[You had both a son and a daughter, property at home, and a comfortable life.]

[Gradually, you nearly forgot that you were inside a simulation. Everything felt so real, so happy.]