A sweet potato as thick as three adult fingers was Ye Yun's dinner that night. After he finished eating, he searched the thatched hut before dark, only to find a change of clothes and nothing else. The phone, spare change, and everything else he'd had on him before were gone. Ye Yun was speechless.
"This system is obviously here to rip me off. Why call it the 'Myriad Worlds Auxiliary System'? They might as well call it the 'Myriad Worlds Scamming System'..." After grumbling about the system for a while, Ye Yun lay down on the pile of straw. Fortunately, it was dry and soft enough. Otherwise, he really wouldn't have known how to get through the night.
Lying on the soft straw, Ye Yun thought about how to get out of his predicament. In the end, he realized there was no solution. He was simply too young—only six—and couldn't even leave the village. From the original story, where only Zhang Xiaofan and Lin Jingyu survived in Cao Miao Village, it was clear that Pu Zhi, driven mad by his inner demons, had lost all compassion. There was no way a village had no children, and he wouldn't have spared Ye Yun while killing all the others. If Ye Yun wanted to survive, he could only do what Zhang Xiaofan did in the original story and earn Pu Zhi's favor. But Ye Yun didn't have the protagonist's luck, and the slightest mistake could get him killed by Cang Song, who would come to seize the Bloodthirsty Bead.
Though Ye Yun had the soul of a young man, his body was still that of a small child, and his energy was limited. He soon fell asleep from exhaustion. Meanwhile, an old monk in a filthy, tattered kasaya, his face deeply lined with wrinkles, silently descended into Cao Miao Village.
The next morning, Ye Yun woke to the repeated bleating of sheep. He muttered a few curses, rolled over, and went back to sleep. But only seconds later, he sprang up from the straw like a startled rabbit. It had finally hit him: he was no longer in his old world, and this wasn't his cramped rented room.
Once he'd come to, Ye Yun looked around the tiny, impossibly shabby hut and couldn't help sighing. "So I really am no longer in my old world!"
After letting out that heartfelt sigh, Ye Yun scrambled to his feet. For the sake of his own life, he needed to get moving. Besides, perhaps because the system had remade his body, he'd found himself getting hungry unusually easily. People in ancient times didn't have the habit of eating breakfast, so if he waited for the old man, he wouldn't get anything to eat until almost noon.
There were no toothbrushes or anything like that in this era, which saved him the trouble of brushing his teeth. He simply took a ladle to a water jar near the door, splashed water on his face, rinsed his mouth, and that was that.
He hadn't had time to look around last night, but now Li Yun noticed that his hut stood in a large courtyard. Besides his little detached hut, there was also a large wooden house. The buildings formed something like the character pin, and a few vegetables grew in front of the house. Their vivid green made them look especially appealing. Behind the courtyard rose a mountain, and the place was somewhat secluded.
Ye Yun carefully surveyed his surroundings, memorizing the layout, then opened the courtyard gate woven from bamboo and stepped outside. He wanted to walk around the village and get a feel for the situation, to see how far the plot had progressed. He didn't want to die without even knowing what had happened.
Cao Miao Village wasn't very big, with only a dozen or twenty households. Ye Yun spent half an hour walking around the whole village. During that time, he happened to see Zhang Xiaofan and Lin Jingyu laughing and running toward Grass Temple. A while later, they ran back out in a panic.
The sight startled Ye Yun. According to the plot, that very night Zhang Xiaofan would worry about Pu Zhi's injuries and bring him medicine. On the way, he'd run into a black-clad man disguised as Cang Song, who would abduct him. Zhang Xiaofan would follow them and be knocked unconscious by the shockwaves from Pu Zhi and Cang Song's fight. In the end, Pu Zhi would pass his power on to Zhang Xiaofan and massacre Cao Miao Village. In other words, Pu Zhi would destroy the village that very night.
"&*%￥#" Ye Yun cursed under his breath and headed back. He remembered seeing a haystack nearby, with birds pecking at the grain when he'd passed it. He decided to look for some grains there, make a trap to catch birds for food, and then take some to Pu Zhi as well. He couldn't afford to worry about whether Pu Zhi was a monk who abstained from meat.
The people of ancient times really, really, really treasured food. Ye Yun searched through the haystack for nearly half an hour before he found three ears of grain. He was at a loss for words, but for the sake of his life, he could only endure his hunger and keep searching carefully.
A few minutes later, Ye Yun found another ear. Looking at the haystack he'd scattered everywhere, he turned his attention to another one and quickly went over to search it. Just as he found his fifth ear of grain, a clear voice came from behind him and startled him.
"Little Yun, what are you looking for? It looks like fun."
Startled by the sudden voice, Ye Yun was a little annoyed. But when he turned around with a scowl, he saw someone he hadn't expected at all: the young Zhang Xiaofan. Lin Jingyu was beside him, watching Ye Yun with a curious expression.
Ye Yun hadn't known how to get acquainted with the two of them, but now they'd come right to him. He put on an innocent smile and said, "I'm looking for ears of grain. I can use them to catch sparrows. Do you want to join me?"
"Catch sparrows? Can we really catch any? Little Yun'er, don't try to fool me." Lin Jingyu didn't believe him, but Ye Yun had clearly piqued his interest.
"Little Yun'er is good and doesn't lie. Liars are bad dogs." To win Zhang Xiaofan and Lin Jingyu's trust, Ye Yun was willing to do anything—even act cute, shameless as it was.
Zhang Xiaofan and Lin Jingyu were fooled by Ye Yun's innocent face. They joined him with smiles, and with their help, the number of ears of grain quickly increased. Soon they had twenty. Figuring that was probably enough, Ye Yun stopped searching and said brightly, "All right, that's enough grain. Let's find some other things to make a trap, then we can catch sparrows."
Zhang Xiaofan and Lin Jingyu stopped what they were doing and looked at him in confusion. Ye Yun explained seriously, "We need a long rope and a big, tightly woven bamboo basket. Then we can catch sparrows."
The trap Ye Yun had in mind was very, very simple. He would put the ears of grain on the ground, then prop up the big bamboo basket with a stick tied to a rope. When the birds came to eat the grain, he would pull the rope and trap them under the basket.
It wasn't that Ye Yun didn't know better methods. First, he was still too small to build a trap, even if he had a good idea. Second, he had no proper tools—in fact, he had no tools at all. Third, time was running short. Besides, all he needed was to make an impression on Pu Zhi and earn a little goodwill; he didn't need anything elaborate.
Zhang Xiaofan and Lin Jingyu were amazed by Ye Yun's plan. Imagining that they'd soon catch a whole flock of sparrows, they excitedly ran home to fetch the things he'd asked for and returned soon afterward.
Before you continue