Better to Have It Yourself Than Rely on Anyone Else

Ming Jiu had first heard that saying when she was fifteen.

By then, she had gotten a slight taste of the rules of adulthood and thought the adult world was full of invisible, terrifying bloodshed and scheming—

Her dad was a perfect example, and he had even been on the losing side. There was plenty to dig into.

So after listening to Dad Zuo's account, Ming Jiu really could not hold back her laughter.

From then on, Ming Jiu understood that only a small fraction of adults were seriously engaged in all that "bloodshed and scheming." Most people—no, the overwhelming majority—were just a ragtag crew.

Zuo Zhenrong and her dad were among them. The script for those two brothers was damn well a nonsensical comedy.

Unloved Zuo Zhenrong inherited Old Master Zuo's company and 99.9 percent of his assets. Unloved Zuo Zhenrong had been the Zuo Family's undisputed heir since childhood—even Dad Zuo's birth had not changed that.

So here was the question—why did Zuo Zhenrong think he was unloved?

Because Old Master Zuo treasured his second wife deeply. After his second marriage, he became gentle at home and smiled constantly. The way he treated his second wife was completely different from how he had treated Zuo Zhenrong's mother.

Dad Zuo had been doted on since childhood. He could study whatever he wanted, and even a small painting award was enough for Old Master Zuo to celebrate and reward him. Meanwhile, Zuo Zhenrong could only "be forced" to receive even stricter elite education...

No matter how hard he worked or how driven he was, he could not get a single word of praise from Old Master Zuo.

Dad Zuo had been born amid Old Master Zuo's boundless expectations. Zuo Zhenrong had not. He was merely the product of a business marriage.

Ming Jiu had only one comment on that: Oh, how terribly wronged he must have felt.

As for which son Old Master Zuo truly loved more, Ming Jiu did not particularly want to dwell on it.

Dad Zuo was fairly open-minded and had long stopped agonizing over whether he was loved. He had no especially extravagant hobbies. Though the money Old Master Zuo gave him could not compare to what Zuo Zhenrong received, it was enough for him, his wife, and his children to live well. He was content with that.

Ming Jiu had asked whether he felt sad. Dad Zuo had merely smiled and said he had more important things to do—paint, teach children to paint, cook delicious food for his wife and daughters, take his wife and daughters sightseeing...

He simply did not have the spare time to feel sad over an old man.

Thinking of this, Ming Jiu turned over and clicked her tongue.

No wonder her dad could not accomplish anything major. Just look at Zuo Zhenrong's perseverance and time management.

At the company, he was the chairman. At home, he was the pillar holding everything up. He bustled around every day, yet still managed to squeeze out time to keep a mistress and an illegitimate son, reflect on the regret of lacking paternal love, and intercept Old Master Zuo's will while he was at it.

Of course, Ming Jiu had also learned about the mistress and illegitimate son from that novel after her death. Neither in her previous life nor this one had she been close to the Zuo Family, so she had never had the chance to learn such secret gossip.

In the novel, at the end of the second year of the natural disasters, after a series of moves by Zuo Junhao, the Zuo Family not only did not fade into obscurity amid the turmoil but instead rose to even greater heights.

The taller the tree, the stronger the wind, so the mistress directly showed up at their door with her child.

Zuo Junhao naturally sided with his biological mother. The once fairly united extended family descended into chaos for a while.

However, after one heart-to-heart talk between father and son, Zuo Junhao left his mother's camp and became neutral. Not only did he tacitly accept the existence of his stepmother and younger half-brother, but he also persuaded his own mother to accept them. Thus, Zuo Zhenrong embraced women on both sides, and his family was happy and complete.

Ming Jiu could not help sighing. That saying online was absolutely true—boys could never truly empathize with their mothers.

As for Zuo Zhenrong... all she could say was that some people were truly born lucky.

Ming Jiu felt that she could not stand watching any longer. The way this family lived made her feel more suffocated the more she looked at them. She really wanted to give them some trouble.

No sooner said than done.

Ming Jiu took out the storage box containing her laptop, charged it, and turned it on. She casually made a note in her phone's memo app, then waited for the system to come back online once it was done.

As her phone vibrated to mark the end of the one-hour countdown, the system's electronic voice sounded in Ming Jiu's mind.

[Fusion successful. Rewards will now be issued.]

A light screen popped up. A rotating metal box appeared on the screen, and Ming Jiu silently said, "Open."

[Congratulations, Host. Reward: Planting Fields ×4 (modification requires 10 minutes). Reward: 50%-Off Coupon ×3.]

[How much? What discount? How many coupons?]

System: [50% off. Three coupons.]

A flash of golden light seemed to pass before Ming Jiu's eyes.

Half-price coupons!

What did half price mean?!

A bottle of Gene Optimization Potion cost 8,000 gold coins. With her current savings, she could buy two bottles at once and still have enough gold coins left to rapidly develop her farm!

Buy them. Buy them right now. One Gene Optimization Potion for her, and one for her sister!

The greatest safeguard for surviving three years of natural disasters was secured!

She would use the remaining half-price coupon on an ability potion. Ability potions cost 80,000 gold coins a bottle—one discounted bottle and one at full price would be 120,000 gold coins altogether. She refused to believe she could not save up 120,000 gold coins in three years.

Still, just in case.

[Sis System, do the half-price coupons have an expiration date?]

As she spoke, Ming Jiu had already opened the system shop.

System: [No. The Host may use them at any time.]

[Reminder: The optimal age range for using Gene Optimization Potion is 15–50 years old. Using it early may disrupt bodily functions and affect development.]

[The system recommends that the Host first use the rewards to develop herself, as well as—]

The system shop popped up a product description: [Safe House].

[For use with an enclosed space of no more than 100 square meters. Includes a security alarm system, concealment function, oxygen supply function, water purification function, and natural-disaster response functions. Movable (each move consumes at least one Energy Box). Activating the above functions consumes energy. Price: 50,000 gold coins.]

Good stuff, and urgently needed. Fifty thousand gold coins would be difficult, but with a half-price coupon, it was not impossible to go for it.

It could be used in any enclosed room under 100 square meters and could even be moved when necessary—the functions were just too good. Even if every house was destroyed during a major earthquake, she could use the Safe House in an RV or a mobile villa!

Come to think of it, why had she never seen something this useful in the system shop in her previous life?

Forget it. Back then, she had struggled desperately and pinched every penny, only barely saving enough for one gene potion after more than three years. Even if the shop had carried a Safe House, she could not have afforded it.

Ming Jiu wrote down RV and mobile villa in her memo app.

Now that she had a large storage space, she needed to stockpile boldly.

One discount coupon would be used on the system Safe House, and the rest would be used to purchase Gene Optimization Potion and Ability Awakening Potion.

Ming Jiu planned to use both potions on herself.

Xiao Rong was only ten this year. She still had five years to go before she could take the potion, and Ming Jiu could not possibly leave the chance to gain strength until then.

Based on the information about mental domains and mental power that the system had revealed, intentionally or otherwise, that afternoon, Ming Jiu could conclude that the possibility of her naturally awakening a mental-type ability was extremely high.

The prerequisite was that she successfully modified her body after using the gene potion.

Even so, she still wanted to prepare an additional Ability Awakening Potion for herself—she also wanted a plant-type ability.

The reason Zuo Junhao had gone to such lengths to run a plantation in her previous life was to provide a cover for his space that could grow crops. Ming Jiu planned to copy the original male lead's homework directly.

But she was not management material, nor did she have the inclination or time to run a plantation. A plant-type ability was more reliable.

Better to have it yourself than rely on anyone else.