Burdened by Debt

A few hundred yuan was spent buying three sets of summer clothes for the Heroine, inside and out. It was then that Cheng Yun learned—

The Heroine was a D-cup!

The Heroine was truly unpretentious. It didn't matter if Cheng Yun told the store clerk she was his girlfriend or a distant relative with a mental issue; she didn't get angry no matter how Cheng Yun treated her. At most, she would blush slightly and meekly agree.

Cheng Yun was young and handsome, dressed brightly. Even with a somewhat dejected aura, he didn't arouse suspicion in the female clerks.

Throughout the entire process, the Heroine was almost in a dreamlike state.

Only when Cheng Yun paid did the Heroine show a shocked expression, while mentally calculating how many bowls of beef noodles she had just spent.

After leaving the last Sanfu Department Store, the Heroine had already changed out of Cheng Yun's clothes.

She was now wearing a pure black t-shirt and high-waisted denim shorts. The t-shirt was somewhat form-fitting, highlighting her taut, strong waist and ample chest, an outfit that made her feel a little ashamed. Below the denim shorts were a pair of straight, shapely legs, shod in flat women's sandals. These shoes seemed to be called Roman sandals, and they felt better than flip-flops. Except for the skin above her neck, the rest of her body was snow-white and tender, indicating she usually kept herself completely covered—

If people in this world didn't dress like this, Heroine Yin wouldn't have worn them!

It was then that Cheng Yun noticed how good the Heroine's figure was, completely that of a top beauty... scaled down. Without any reference points, one would never guess she was less than 1.6 meters tall!

Hmm, her figure was even better than Cheng Yan's! ...No, no, they were about the same.

Her hair wasn't pure black, nor was it the blonde of Westerners, but slightly yellowish, like Chinese black hair that had been dyed, falling naturally. If you looked at her from the right, without seeing the knife scar on her left cheek, she would be a very alluring, miniature version of a great beauty. That is, if she wasn't holding a knife.

On the way back, the Heroine carried several bags in each hand. The bags were light, but her heart was heavy.

Her debts were mountainous!

They quickly returned to the hotel. According to Yu Dian, Cheng Yan had gone out to buy groceries. Cheng Yun quickly took the Heroine upstairs while he had the chance and said to her, "You'll stay here for now. I'll arrange a room for you later."

"Okay," the Heroine nodded heavily.

"Let me tell you about the appliances and facilities in this room and how to use them. Around noon, you'll go down to room 202 to have lunch with Old Mage. I'll have lunch prepared for you all," Cheng Yun said as he walked to the window and pulled open the curtains. The morning sun poured in through the floor-to-ceiling window, filling the living room. "After that, if you're tired in the afternoon, you can sleep in my room first. If you don't mind."

"I don't mind, I don't mind!" the Heroine quickly replied. The carpet was so soft, she could sleep on the floor!

"Alright, follow me then." Cheng Yun led the way to the bedroom and stood at the doorway, pointing to a row of switches. "These are the switches for the bedroom lights. Because it's a hotel, there are quite a few light fixtures. You just need to press the corresponding button, and a light will turn on. Like this..."

"Click!" Cheng Yun pressed a button, and the dim bedroom was illuminated by a warm yellow main light.

The Heroine trembled, staring at the light on the bedroom ceiling in shock. "Wh-what's going on!"

"Watch carefully!" Cheng Yun's tone became slightly heavier. "What you need to do now is learn how to use it, not understand it. Don't be like a curious baby. You'll naturally understand the principles after you've been here for a while."

"Oh." The Heroine had already intuitively understood the meaning of the term 'curious baby'.

Cheng Yun felt he didn't need to explain in too much detail, so he walked straight into the bathroom after speaking. "Next, I'll teach you how to use the sink, toilet, and shower facilities in our world."

The Heroine still stood behind him, her eyes gleaming with intense curiosity. She reached out towards the wall, pressing the light switch, turning it on and off repeatedly...

Click, click, click...

"Ahem!" Cheng Yun stood at the bathroom door!

"Oh, coming, coming." The Heroine quickly walked towards him, her gaze fixed on the switch on the wall, then lightning-fast, she flipped on all the lights in the bathroom, grinning.

Cheng Yun felt speechless.

He glanced into the bathroom, and the Heroine was stunned. "Wow!! Even an emperor wouldn't enjoy this much..."

A large double bathtub, a washbasin, a vase on the vanity, small decorative items on the wall, white, gold, and other simple colors clashed here. The entire bathroom was spotless.

"Look at this..." Cheng Yun said as he turned on the faucet of the washbasin. A stream of white water spurted out with a swish. "Like this, the water comes out. Press it again, and it turns off. If you push it to the red side, you get hot water, and to the right..."

It took Cheng Yun about half an hour to teach the Heroine how to use all the facilities in the bathroom, a process that left him feeling exhausted.

At this point, the Heroine was still excitedly playing with the showerhead in the bathroom...

He walked back to the bed and sat down, then glanced over, catching sight of the clothes the Heroine had changed out of earlier and her personal belongings.

A set of hemp cloth clothes, which no one had worn in China for hundreds of years, was neatly folded. Beside the clothes lay a short sword, two daggers, and four slender throwing knives, a packet wrapped in yellow paper, and a small bamboo tube stoppered with a wooden plug. Cheng Yun couldn't help but be curious and quietly picked it up. He saw that the yellow paper contained a large bag of white powder, likely lime or a similar substance. The bamboo tube was filled with red chili oil.

"She really is a dangerous person!" He twitched the corner of his mouth, then glanced at the bathroom. The dangerous individual was still in the bathroom, playing with the showerhead, turning it on and off to rinse her feet.

After a long time, Cheng Yun couldn't stand it anymore and shouted into the bathroom, "Are you done playing yet!"

"Huh?" The Heroine poked her head out.

"What do you want to eat for lunch? Have you decided? If I have time, I'll cook for you. If not, I'll order takeout."

"What takeout?"

"I asked what you want to eat for lunch?"

"I... I'm fine with anything, I'm not picky. I can eat anything!" the Heroine said magnanimously, waving her hand. She added, "Let's eat something cheap. Just buy some cabbage and vegetable scraps to get by!"

"Where am I supposed to find cabbage scraps for you..." Cheng Yun was speechless.

"You don't have any? Then maybe some thin porridge or steamed buns... I'm really not picky!" The Heroine showed a conflicted expression. "If not, I can go a meal or two without eating! ...Well, the noodles this morning were quite oily, they'll keep me full."

"..."

Cheng Yun didn't want to communicate with her any further. After teaching her to recognize the clock on the wall, he told her to go down to find Old Mage for lunch when it was time, and then he directly locked her in the room.

At this moment, Cheng Yan was sitting on the sofa playing with her mobile phone. Seeing him come down, she was slightly taken aback and said, "I've already bought the groceries. They're in the fridge. If you need anything else, tell me now, and I'll go buy it. It'll be leftovers later."

Cheng Yun opened the refrigerator and took a look. The girl had indeed bought a lot, with all sorts of dishes filling half the fridge.

He couldn't help but chuckle, "Are you craving some meat, or do you think my cooking skills have gotten rusty and you want me to practice?"

Cheng Yan's expression was a little unnatural, and she didn't answer his question.

"Hmm?" Cheng Yun keenly noticed her odd behavior, frowning, "What's wrong? You seem off!"

"I'm fine, don't say that."

"So you are acting a bit strange." Cheng Yun clearly noticed that her tone and way of answering were different from usual, but he couldn't figure out why she was being so secretive.

"You should start cooking! It's already eleven." Cheng Yan glanced at her watch, "I want to eat curry beef brisket. I've already bought the curry and put it in the fridge. I also want taro chicken, and I bought bird's eye chilies, add a lot."

"Then you can come help me."

Cheng Yan hesitated for a moment, put down her mobile phone, and stood up, saying, "Okay."

Cheng Yun felt even more that something was wrong.

Normally, Cheng Yan would only come to the kitchen to help him when she was in a very good mood or when he was really too busy to handle everything, and she certainly wouldn't agree so readily as she did today.

The two started busy themselves in the kitchen. While cutting vegetables, Cheng Yun asked Cheng Yan a few questions with a frown, but she vaguely brushed them off. Cheng Yun then focused on cooking and didn't ask further.

Considering there were two starving transmigrants in the hotel, he specifically made larger portions. Then, just as the dishes were about to be served, he made an excuse to send Cheng Yan away and secretly served a portion to the Old Mage and Heroine Yin, preparing to take it to them.

Initially, Cheng Yun thought that no matter what, Cheng Yan should have been surprised and asked, "Huh? Why did the dishes get so much smaller after cooking?" Cheng Yun had even planned to use excuses like 'food shrinks' to fool the silly girl. However, Cheng Yan was distracted the entire time and didn't ask him at all.

Soon, the three of them sat down at the coffee table in the first-floor lobby.

Facing her favorite curry beef, Cheng Yan still didn't eat very attentively, lost in thought. It was a bit like how Cheng Yun was when he got bad grades as a child and was afraid of being beaten by Professor An.

Meanwhile, in room 202, the atmosphere was completely different.

On the small table embedded in the wall sat a pot of curry beef, a pot of taro chicken, half a plate of hot and sour napa cabbage, and a bowl of sweet potato white rice. Sitting beside them were the Old Mage and a drooling wild Heroine.

"Gulp!" Heroine Yin swallowed, resisting the urge to grab the food and eat it directly. "Old Mage, you're called Old Mage, right? I heard the Station Master call you that. Do you eat like this every meal here?"

"Something like that," the Old Mage chuckled. "The dishes are basically different every day."

"But there's almost always meat and white rice!" The Heroine seemed to have understood something. It turned out that the Station Master didn't care about things like cabbage stems and cornmeal buns at all.

"Something like that."

"Wow! The Station Master lives so well..." Heroine Yin was full of emotion. "If I had known, I would have shattered the void sooner! The rumors in the martial world are true!"

"What rumors?" The Old Mage was quite curious.

"The Upper Realm has white rice with every meal!"

"Oh," the Old Mage nodded. "As civilization develops to a certain extent, material wealth will definitely become more abundant. People in this country should have no shortage of rice."

As he spoke, the Old Mage thought of the young lady at the front desk who had come a few days ago and suddenly fell silent.

He immediately added, "Very few exceptions."

"So happy!" The Heroine was already holding chopsticks, picking up a piece of beef and putting it in her mouth. Because the soup was thick and hot, she let out a muffled sound from being burned, constantly inhaling, but she was unwilling to spit it out.

Then she took a hearty bite of rice.

"It's so delicious! This is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life, sob..." The Heroine's eyes welled up with tears. "Before this, I only ate stir-fried dishes and white rice at the same time when my parents were still alive, and that was during the autumn festival... If I had white rice to eat every meal, why would I bother with the martial world? I'd just stay home and eat white rice every day!"

The Old Mage smiled and slowly began to eat as well.

"Sigh!" The Heroine stopped lamenting and began to shovel rice into her mouth, finishing a bowl quickly.

The Old Mage was clearly letting her have her fill, only eating a symbolic amount. Virtually all the remaining food was eaten by her, including the soup from the hot and sour napa cabbage and the chopped chilies and garlic cloves, which she ate clean.

Heroine Yin burped ungracefully, stretched, and wore an expression of enjoyment. "So good..."

She suddenly froze, her words cut off, and her expression turned grave.

The Old Mage asked, "What's wrong?"

Heroine Yin was stunned for a long time, then turned to the Old Mage and asked, "Senior, these dishes cost money, right? How much is your living expense per meal here?"

"I'm not sure, I'd have to ask the Station Master." The Old Mage smiled slightly, not telling her that he didn't pay.

"So much meat, it must be very expensive?"

"It's alright." The Old Mage glanced at the empty plates on the table. "According to the prices in this place, these three dishes would cost around a hundred yuan in an outside restaurant."

"Heavens!" The Heroine's eyes widened, and she quickly started counting on her fingers again. "A hundred yuan, and I ate it all. I'll definitely have to pay the bulk of the meal cost, doesn't that mean I ate ten bowls of beef noodles in one meal!"

"Let's split it," the Old Mage kindly offered.

"That's still seven... no, eight... no, six... six bowls of beef noodles!" Heroine Yin felt that from now on, she would just eat beef noodles!

"Heroine, don't think like that," the Old Mage said. "The prices in a region with a stable situation are definitely related to the average income. Since people here can afford such food, it means they can easily earn money for food. As long as you 'work and live frugally' as the Station Master said, eating won't be a problem."

"Is that so?" The Heroine blinked. "Don't lie to me, I may not have studied much, but I'm fierce!"

"I would never deceive a Heroine."

"Alright, I'll believe you for now," the Heroine said, still preoccupied.

Afterward, the Old Mage calmly cast a spell, and the bowls and chopsticks were immediately as clean as new. Then he sat on his chair and reached out to poke the air, bringing out that floating screen.

Unfamiliar handwriting quickly appeared—

"The people of this world classify this country's culture as 'guilt culture.' The characteristics of 'guilt culture' are... I actually think it shares similarities with the culture of the Great Thousand Continent..."

"Correspondingly, in the western part of this world, there is 'sin culture'..."

The Heroine stared blankly at the screen, displaying text she completely couldn't understand. She couldn't help but ask, "Old senior, is this strange artifact of yours also from this world...?"

"No, this is an invention from my world," the Old Mage said with a smile, not pausing his work on the screen.

"Then what are you doing?"

"I'm recording what I see and hear in this world, writing it down. When I return to my original world, these notes might inspire many juniors."

"Can it be eaten?"

"No."

"Oh." The Heroine, not yet having escaped her base desires, immediately lost interest. "Do you have paper or a pen? I want to record what happened to me in this world too."

"Oh?" The Old Mage looked at her with some surprise, then produced snow-white paper and a quill pen from somewhere.

The Heroine spread the paper on the small table, buried her head, and began to write diligently. However, her handwriting was crooked: "Beef noodles eight coins, braised egg one and a half, fried egg one and a half, clothes seven hundred and sixty... Damn, how can it be so much!"

The Old Mage quietly withdrew his gaze and continued his own work.

"There's a peculiar creature in this world called a tardigrade. It can... I conducted simple research and tests on it, including magical strikes, conduction, and modification, in the absence of experimental equipment..."

Cheng Yan made an excuse and slipped away after dinner. The young girl Yu Dian, as usual, volunteered to wash the dishes. Cheng Yun couldn't refuse her, so he went upstairs to find the Old Mage and Heroine Yin.

Just then, the Heroine had finished calculating her expenses and was meticulously checking them four or five times, counting on her fingers.

How she wished she had made a mistake, but in the end, she had to accept the heavy truth—

She had only been here for half a day and had already incurred a debt of eight hundred and twenty-one coins to the Station Master!

"A Heroine is a person of principle," the Old Mage said with a smile. "Unlike the rangers in my kingdom when I was young; they would do anything for a bit of money."

"Alas, we have no choice," the Heroine frowned, her face full of melancholy. "People of the martial world are all unfortunate. Commoners are afraid to deal with us, and the powerful and influential find us distasteful and avoid us. The government sees us as trouble and wishes we were all dead. Even when we meet others from the martial world, we might fight over a few dozen coins, a job that can fill our stomachs, or a bit of face. If we don't follow the rules, how can we survive..."

Cheng Yun entered the room just as she finished speaking. He said nothing, offering no opinion.

Where is there not a martial world? Where are there no rules?

The Old Mage just smiled and said, "Those who act and live according to the rules always fare better."

Then, he looked at Cheng Yun with a half-smile, "Do you have a question for me?"

"Yes," Cheng Yun nodded, his expression somewhat solemn.

I wanted to write two chapters to post, alas, I'm too lazy to split them