This program was produced by Tomato Listening.
The woman who had nearly been killed by gold in Episode 46 rubbed her head. The bump on one side still hurt quite a bit.
Lin Yuzhu wondered whether she was unlucky or lucky.
It was precisely because of the bump on her head that she no longer regretted taking that bag. She had been so angry after getting hit by it that she had directly taken it into her space. Now, though, it was a windfall from heaven, and she was quite tempted.
Lin Yuzhu secretly thought to herself.
Just then, the system gave the host a friendly reminder: You have a Risk-Avoidance Checklist. Please check it.
Then, in an utterly shameless move, it conjured a light screen before her eyes.
Lin Yuzhu's mind filled with black lines. To put it bluntly, the system was just greedy for money.
Huge red letters on the screen warned her that if she did not pay Contribution Points this time, the system would no longer provide risk-avoidance services.
The system had a detection function that could detect dangerous items and judge whether people were good or bad based on their appearance and aura.
The system had a rating standard for every risk-avoidance scenario. When it detected vicious criminals, it would issue a warning. Earlier, the first two people they encountered had both been hiding knives on themselves, so the system had automatically activated its risk detection.
After the rating system successfully helped Lin Yuzhu avoid danger, it calculated the level of risk avoidance and charged according to that level.
You could refuse to pay, but you had better think carefully about whether you would need this service in the future.
Lin Yuzhu held her forehead. Pay, then. As she mourned the Contribution Points she had lost, she was also glad she had taken a perfectly safe stroll around the edge of a cliff.
Thinking about it now, she felt a little scared. If she had run into those two groups of criminals and gotten caught up in it, what consequences would a girl like her have faced? She did not even dare imagine it.
With the ill-gotten gains she had snagged from that huge criminal showdown, Lin Yuzhu no longer felt quite so guilty about taking the bag. Rubbing the bump on her head, she decided she could not have been hit for nothing. The alley was unsafe today, so she could not sell the grain.
With nothing better to do, Lin Yuzhu decided to take a stroll around the Scrap Station.
It was rather strange. Every time she thought about borrowing newspapers from Zhou Nan, she would remember it one moment and forget it the next. As a result, she still had not borrowed any. It was quite mysterious. Forget it—she might as well go take a look at the Scrap Station.
When she had gone to get textbooks before, she had thought it best to avoid the female lead. Now that she only wanted some old newspapers, there was no need to worry about that.
If the female lead could still come up with something over this, Lin Yuzhu could do nothing about it.
Nowadays, every household saved old newspapers. They either used them to paper walls, line ceilings, or wipe themselves in the toilet.
Old newspapers that newspaper offices could not sell were generally sent to the Scrap Station for recycling. Clever households spent a little money to buy them, while less clever ones relied on saving them themselves.
When Lin Yuzhu arrived at the Scrap Station, she did not see the male or female lead, but she did see Zhou Nan. The old man guarding the scrap was leisurely dozing in a rocking chair.
Zhou Nan was picking through a pile of books in the yard. Even amid such a messy heap of scrap, her immortal-like bearing was not tainted by the slightest speck of dust.
Lin Yuzhu was truly impressed. If she had that kind of aura, she would shoot straight up to goddess level.
Lin Yuzhu walked over to the old man and sweetly asked, "Grandpa, I'd like to buy some old newspapers."
The old man lazily opened his eyes and glanced at her, then pointed toward a small room beside him. "There are some in there. Help yourself. Two jiao per stack."
After saying that, he resumed his nap, utterly at ease.
Lin Yuzhu went inside and saw stacks upon stacks of newspapers piled on the floor. After flipping through them, she found that each stack consisted of whole newspaper pages arranged together. If she wanted to pick one sheet from every edition, she would have to go through them one by one.
So she ran back to the old man and said, "Grandpa, I want to buy old newspapers from different editions to take home and read."
This time, the old man did not even open his eyes. He slowly said, "Still two jiao per stack. Take your time picking them out, just don't mess them up."
"Okay, thank you, Grandpa."
After saying that, Lin Yuzhu saw that the old man had no intention of responding further, so she returned to the room, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to get to work. This was going to be quite a project.
Zhou Nan also came inside, several books in her hands. Seeing Lin Yuzhu in the room, she realized that the young woman who had just entered was Lin Yuzhu. She stepped forward and asked, "Here to buy old newspapers?"
Everyone at the Educated Youth Dormitory knew Zhou Nan loved reading books and newspapers. Every time she came into town, she visited the Scrap Station.
Lin Yuzhu wondered what was going on between the female lead and the second male lead now. She was terribly curious.
Their goals were similar, so they worked together to pick out the newspapers, choosing two copies from each edition. It took them quite a while to finish. Combined, their newspapers did not even make a full stack—at most, half a stack.
Lin Yuzhu blinked, thought for a moment, and asked Zhou Nan, "Do you want to take some more duplicate old newspapers?"
She just felt it would be a loss to pay the full price for so little.
Zhou Nan wondered what she would need duplicate old newspapers for, then suddenly thought of the Educated Youth Dormitory. Most of the educated youths used waste paper to deal with toilet matters. Her face gradually turned red, and she shook her head. Lin Yuzhu had only asked casually.
Lin Yuzhu had no idea why Zhou Nan was blushing.
Sometimes, boys' thoughts were hard to guess too. With such a tiny stack of newspapers, paying separately was clearly not worth it.
In the spirit of thrift, Lin Yuzhu quietly said, "Let's put our newspapers together when we pay. I'll see if I can bargain with that old man."
Zhou Nan nodded.
Lin Yuzhu felt there was a reason the female lead had not chosen the second male lead. No matter how handsome someone was or how pleasant her voice sounded, what was the point if she never spoke? Her personality was a little too dull!
Without wasting words, she took the newspapers and went to find the old man at the entrance.
Lin Yuzhu chirped, "Grandpa, I picked out some old newspapers. Look, this isn't even half a stack. Could you make it a little cheaper?"
The old man opened his eyes and looked them over, then slowly said, "Girl, even this little stack counts as one stack, two jiao. No bargaining. If you bought these from the newspaper office, they'd cost more than two jiao!"
Lin Yuzhu smiled sweetly and said in a soft voice, "Oh, Grandpa, you can probably tell from our accents that we aren't locals. To be honest, we're educated youths sent to the countryside. We're far from home, with no relatives around us. Reading books and newspapers is about the only hobby we have left, but we don't have the money to buy new ones properly, so we can only dig up old ones to read."
All the money we have on us went toward buying rations.
"Mm, please take pity on us and charge us a little less, okay?"
The old man seemed to soften. He looked up at the two young women before him, nodded, and said, "Fine. I'll charge you one jiao for these newspapers."
Lin Yuzhu hurriedly thanked him, praising him until his heart felt thoroughly pleased.
Seeing that the old man was in a good mood, she took the opportunity to pull out the few books in Zhou Nan's arms and bargain over those too.
The old man could not hold out and let them save a few jiao.
Zhou Nan stood beside her with her eyes wide, finding it all rather novel.
After the two paid and left the Scrap Station, Lin Yuzhu stood where she was, divided the newspapers between them, and handed one share to Zhou Nan. "Five fen. Being handsome doesn't mean you don't have to pay."
Zhou Nan hurriedly took five fen from her pocket and handed it over.
Just as Lin Yuzhu accepted the money, she noticed someone approaching. Turning her head, she saw familiar faces—Zhao Xianglan and Zhang Yanqiu.
Lin Yuzhu thought things were getting lively. She had not seen the male and female leads at the Scrap Station, but she had run into two female supporting characters instead.
Zhang Yanqiu's gaze drifted back and forth between the two of them, and a strange curve formed at the corner of her lips.
When Zhao Xianglan saw Lin Yuzhu, her expression clearly stiffened, but she quickly returned to normal.
Seeing Lin Yuzhu look over, she asked with a bright smile, "Educated Youth Lin likes reading newspapers too?"
The smile on her face did not reach her eyes. Lin Yuzhu immediately realized that Zhao Xianglan was testing her.
What a cursed connection. Look at these female supporting characters—every last one of them was nearly losing her mind over a man. Time to go, time to go.
"Mm, there's usually nothing much to read, so I thought I'd get some old newspapers."
One did not slap a smiling face.
Lin Yuzhu replied with a cheerful smile as well.
Zhao Xianglan forced an unnatural smile. She did not quite believe her, thinking it was merely an excuse. Why had she never seen Lin Yuzhu like newspapers before? Could it be that Lin Yuzhu was interested in Zhou Nan too?
At that thought, Zhao Xianglan's heart tightened. Looking at the delicate Lin Yuzhu before her, she felt increasingly upset.
"You really do have such refined leisure. Unlike us, we're exhausted to death after a day of work. Where would we find the mood to read newspapers?"
Comrade Zhou Nan, who supposedly had such refined leisure, was innocently caught in the crossfire. She did not understand what the other woman meant. Was Zhao Xianglan mocking her for earning too few work points, or calling her lazy?
Lin Yuzhu raised an eyebrow, too lazy to deal with people blinded by love, and happily asked, "What are you two here for?"
Zhao Xianglan was speechless. She had come looking for a chance to get close to Zhou Nan. She knew Zhou Nan came to the Scrap Station every time she visited town. Today, Zhao Xianglan had originally planned to get some old newspapers herself as a pretense, but after blurting that out, she realized just how inappropriate her earlier words had been. Her face stiffened even more.
Lin Yuzhu felt women's thoughts were hard to guess too. She had only casually asked a question, so why did Zhao Xianglan look so unnatural?
"When there are more people, there are never enough stools to sit on. I thought I'd come to the Scrap Station and see whether there was anything we could take back and make use of."
Zhao Xianglan was awkward for a moment, then immediately spoke in a gentle and generous manner.
Lin Yuzhu deeply admired her. She could even come up with such a reason for approaching someone.
"Splitting the cost comes with risks, little sister. Comrade Zhou, could you stay and help us carry things back later?"
Zhao Xianglan felt that her reason was perfect. It made her seem generous and proper while also keeping Zhou Nan tied down.
Lin Yuzhu grinned at them. "Then you two get busy. I'll head off first."
After slipping out of that place of trouble, Lin Yuzhu looked at her shadow on the ground. Mm, the State-Run Restaurant should be open by now.
When she arrived at the State-Run Restaurant, she saw a crowd standing in line beside the steamers. Lin Yuzhu thought they were lining up to buy steamed buns, but when she drew closer and caught the rich aroma of meat, she nearly drooled. Without another word, she joined the queue. When she reached the middle of it, a chubby hand stopped her. At a glance, she recognized him—the fat man she had met at the restaurant yesterday.
Lin Yuzhu thought, What kind of life does this fat man live? Did he grow up in the restaurant?
Before you continue