Chapter 176
“Why can’t I watch it?” Tang Yu’an asked curiously. “The folder clearly says it’s study material!”
Zhou Qi was speechless.
While the folder was labeled as study material, the videos inside were absolutely not that kind of content.
He hesitated, a blush creeping up his ears, and finally stammered, “It’s… it’s for adults. We’re not at that stage yet.”
In truth, Zhou Qi wasn’t sure if even adults should watch it—he knew this type of content was generally prohibited.
Tang Yu’an scrutinized him suspiciously. “You can’t watch it either?”
Zhou Qi froze for a moment, then nodded.
He was a little curious himself, but since he had already told Tang Yu’an they couldn’t watch it, he had to lead by example and not sneak a peek.
Tang Yu’an pouted in dissatisfaction but reluctantly accepted the explanation.
“Fine… but I feel so cheated. You’re older than me, so I have to wait two years and eleven months longer than you to watch it!” he grumbled, clearly unhappy.
Zhou Qi was thinking about how to comfort him when Tang Yu’an suddenly lit up with excitement.
“Brother Qi, you said the time flow in this dimension and the alternate dimension is different. So, if you stay here and I go to the alternate dimension for three years, when I come back…”
Tang Yu’an’s eyes sparkled. “Won’t we be the same age by then?”
Technically, that was true, but…
Zhou Qi pressed his lips together and looked at Tang Yu’an intently. “Would you really want to leave me for that long?”
His gaze was so focused that it stunned Tang Yu’an, who rarely saw this side of Zhou Qi.
Zhou Qi had almost forgotten about the accidental “kiss” during the emergency. To Tang Yu’an, it was just a life-saving measure. They’d done things far more intimate when they were younger, so why did things feel different now?
He’d occasionally pondered this question, and every time, the image of Tang Yu’an risking his life to save him would surface in his mind.
After losing his grandmother, Zhou Qi had felt like a wandering ghost, unsure of his place in the world. He had believed no one would ever care for him as selflessly as she had.
But Tang Yu’an’s actions proved him wrong.
Zhou Qi had felt shy about that “kiss,” which forced him to confront his feelings. What truly changed everything, however, was Tang Yu’an’s unwavering determination to save him—his refusal to let him go, no matter the cost.
For a boy just entering adolescence, with no prior experience in relationships, how could Zhou Qi not develop feelings for someone who treated him like that?
But he knew Tang Yu’an only saw him as family—a brother. So he buried his feelings, content as long as Tang Yu’an stayed by his side and needed him.
Hearing Tang Yu’an talk about leaving for three years, Zhou Qi’s heartstrings were tugged. Even though time flowed differently in the alternate dimension, three years was still three real years. The changes they had undergone in just seven months were already significant—how much more could happen in three years?
Zhou Qi couldn’t bear the thought of such a long absence in Tang Yu’an’s life.
Seeing the subtle hurt in Zhou Qi’s expression, Tang Yu’an hesitated. He thought about what Zhou Qi had said and lowered his head, feeling a little dejected. “Fine, I wouldn’t want to leave you for that long.”
He realized he couldn’t bear to spend even a single day apart from Zhou Qi.
Besides, the idea of spending three years alone in an alternate dimension sounded terrifying. He’d probably go crazy after just a few days.
Zhou Qi let out a small sigh of relief.
“Let’s just go with the flow, okay? You know the story of the farmer who tried to help his crops grow by pulling them, right?” Zhou Qi said, patting Tang Yu’an’s head. “My height is going to stop growing soon, but you’ve still got several years to catch up. You’ll definitely grow taller.”
He knew Tang Yu’an’s obsession with growing up stemmed from wanting to close the gap between them.
Tang Yu’an gave a reluctant hum, flopping onto the couch. But moments later, he sprang back up and hugged Zhou Qi’s arm.
“I won’t go to the alternate dimension alone, but you have to promise me something!” Tang Yu’an said.
“What is it?” Zhou Qi asked, looking down at him.
As long as it wasn’t too outrageous, he didn’t see any reason to refuse.
Then, the boy grinned mischievously and said, “Those study materials that only adults can watch—you have to wait for me to grow up so we can watch them together!”
Tang Yu’an seemed extremely pleased with himself, as if he had come up with the perfect solution. He practically glowed with pride, his metaphorical tail wagging with excitement.
Zhou Qi: …
Zhou Qi: … (//o////o//)
He turned his face away, stammering, “A-are you sure about that?”
Tang Yu’an paused, then asked, “Is there a problem with waiting to watch them?”
“Probably not…”
“Then we’ll watch them together later!”
Tang Yu’an clung to Zhou Qi’s arm and said with a playful pout, “You better not sneak a look without me, Brother Qi!”
Zhou Qi cleared his throat awkwardly. “Alright… fine.”
Unable to bear the awkwardness any longer, he quickly changed the subject. “You should go take a shower now. We’ll check the drifting bottles later.”
“Got it!” Tang Yu’an happily agreed and went off to shower.
During their seven months in the alternate dimension, he had only been able to use purification magic to clean his body. While it kept him clean, it wasn’t the same as taking an actual shower, and it left him feeling off. Now that they were back, with plenty of points to spare, he was eager to enjoy the luxury of a proper shower.
As Tang Yu’an dashed to the bathroom, Zhou Qi let out a sigh of relief.
He reopened the smart device and locked the folder labeled Study Materials to prevent any accidental openings. As for the other videos…
The USB drive’s previous owner had thoughtfully included descriptions and ratings for the files. The other folders seemed harmless enough at first glance. However, to be cautious, Zhou Qi asked the smart device if it could categorize the videos based on their metadata and content.
“Analyzing and categorizing files based on provided metadata and content analysis… Categorization complete. Please review.”
The smart device, being highly advanced, had not only organized the files but also summarized their themes and tags. A categorized list appeared on the screen.
Zhou Qi reviewed the list and grouped the gory, violent, and horror-themed videos into one folder. The adult content, unsurprisingly, was all within the Study Materials folder.
The USB drive’s owner had indeed been meticulous.
Next, Zhou Qi selected family-friendly fairy tales and comedies centered on themes of love and friendship. He created a new folder named Community Room for these films.
He planned to play these movies in the settlement’s community room.
The residents had very few entertainment options—even bicycles had caused a huge stir—so these films would undoubtedly captivate them. As they engaged with the movies, they would also be subtly influenced by the positive values conveyed in the stories. Zhou Qi saw this as an excellent way to instill moral and family-oriented ideals.
After organizing the videos, Zhou Qi took out the super printer to create marriage certificates. Now that the smart device could take photos, they could purchase a printer for the settlement to print photos and attach them to the certificates.
This would enhance the sense of ceremony while also preventing fraud in case future benefits were tied to marriage certificates.
However, Zhou Qi decided to rename the document to Family Book, similar to a household registration booklet. The primary goal was to encourage the formation of families. It wouldn’t just be for married couples—families like Grandma Guo and Kang Kang, or Shi Tou and Xiao Cao, could also receive a Family Book.
As families grew, members could be added to the booklet.
Certificates for marriage and birth could be introduced later when the settlement was more developed. For now, they would focus on implementing practical systems.
When Tang Yu’an finished his shower, Zhou Qi shared his idea.
“That’s a great idea!” Tang Yu’an said, nodding enthusiastically. “This way, lots of people can register, and we can establish many families right away.”
Excited, Tang Yu’an opened the alternate dimension marketplace and started browsing for printers. However, he didn’t make a purchase immediately; he bookmarked the item, intending to wait for the next Weekly Sale refresh.
After all, the weekly sale often offered surprising deals.
Zhou Qi didn’t argue. Based on past experience, the sale might indeed feature the printer they needed.
When Zhou Qi came out of the shower, he found Tang Yu’an had already purchased a medium-grade Spirit-Gathering Grass for 100 points.
“We should plant this in the alternate dimension,” Tang Yu’an said.
The alternate dimension’s high energy concentration and proximity to a forest could help the grass thrive. If it blossomed and bore fruit, they could cultivate more Spirit-Gathering Grass in the future.
After storing the plant in the personal warehouse, they climbed to the attic to check the drifting bottles.
The daily bottle limit was three, and today was no different.
Tang Yu’an reached for the glowing bottles. The first one was from Little Hai Lan.
The familiar voice of the young girl echoed in the attic.
“Great and merciful Mysterious Merchant, why haven’t you appeared for so long? If I’ve done something wrong, please send me your guidance!”
Tang Yu’an scratched his head, unsure how to respond. After a moment of hesitation, he spoke up. “I’m here.”
“Mysterious Merchant! You’re finally back!” Little Hai Lan’s voice was filled with joy and a hint of tears.
“Why were you gone for so long? Did I do something wrong?” she asked anxiously.
“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Tang Yu’an quickly reassured her. “Your father is now one of my employees. Since you don’t need as much help anymore, I won’t appear in your dreams as often.”
This was true. With only three bottle interactions allowed daily, even without travel interruptions, they needed to prioritize other wishers.
Currently, it seemed that Gan Lin’s situation required the most attention.
“I see.” Little Hai Lan’s voice carried a trace of understanding.
Little Hai Lan let out a noticeable sigh of relief and then asked, “Daddy said you’re helping others in need, right?”
“Yes, that’s one way to put it,” Tang Yu’an replied.
“Then I understand. You truly are kind and great! I hope more people can be as lucky as me and receive your help. I’ll pray for you every day and hope you can visit me whenever you have time.”
Tang Yu’an quickly agreed, then asked about her and Hai Jing’s recent situation.
By now, Hai Jing’s household likely had around three to four thousand pounds of sea salt stored.
“We’ve built a big new house! It’s two stories tall. Daddy put everything on the first floor and even dug a cellar…”
With better organization, they no longer had things scattered everywhere, leaving room to move around.
Over the past week, the fishing village had been peaceful. Since Hai Jing began selling brown rice, the villagers went out to sea less frequently, and there hadn’t been any new fatalities.
“Daddy said that when he gets his wages, he’ll have more points to exchange for rice, so everyone will have enough to eat without needing to go out to sea!”
Little Hai Lan’s voice was filled with happiness as she said this.
With enough to eat, people wouldn’t have to risk their lives at sea, and her friends wouldn’t lose their parents.
Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but smile at her words.
He knew that Hai Jing was skillfully maximizing the system’s rules. Each villager could only exchange up to 200 grams of brown rice daily, and Hai Jing could earn about 70 points a day from the villagers.
However, 200 grams of brown rice was far from sufficient for an adult. When Hai Jing received his wages—5% personal points and 10% inventory points—he would have more flexibility to help the villagers.
Given his current rate of earning points, Hai Jing’s inventory points alone could reach tens of thousands.
This reminded Tang Yu’an to set aside some points for payroll to avoid any embarrassing shortfalls during payout time.
“What would you like to exchange for today?” Tang Yu’an asked.
“I… I want milk,” Little Hai Lan said, swallowing a little. “Daddy wants low-temperature fabric.”
“All with sea salt?” Tang Yu’an clarified.
“Yes!” Little Hai Lan nodded eagerly. “Let’s exchange it all!”
Tang Yu’an helped her select items. Since he hadn’t restocked his low-temperature fabric during their time in the alternate dimension, the inventory was limited. He could only provide ten 2.4×2 sheets.
In addition to 5,000 points’ worth of staples, he also purchased dried squid, scallops, dried cuttlefish, and shrimp shells, which totaled another 5,000 points.
Considering that Hai Jing was learning to write, Tang Yu’an also bought a batch of pencils and notebooks for him.
Additional items like soap, mosquito coils, matches, detergent, and thermos cups brought the total to over 5,000 points.
In the end, the entire transaction cost about 20,000 points.
Looking at the mountain of goods stacked in front of him, Tang Yu’an finally felt the weight of spending 20,000 points. It was a lot!
But why did his points seem to disappear so quickly?
Shaking his head, he completed the transaction, delivering all the goods to Little Hai Lan. As the trade concluded, a system notification popped up:
[You’ve completed a profitable transaction with a dream wisher: Points +70,050, EXP +6, Dream Shard +1.]
[You have received 1,834 kilos of sea salt.]
After deducting the 20,000-point cost of goods, Tang Yu’an had profited over 48,000 points from this transaction!
With his points balance now surpassing 450,000, Tang Yu’an happily pulled out another drifting bottle.
This one belonged to Xiao Risheng.
However, perhaps because Tang Yu’an hadn’t appeared in a while—and with Lan Yunqing becoming an employee—Xiao Risheng wasn’t in the warehouse tonight but had returned to his parents.
As a result, he didn’t have much Lanhu Leaf available for trade.
Unlike Little Hai Lan, who was Hai Jing’s daughter and had the authority to manage household goods, Xiao Risheng didn’t have the same privileges.
Tang Yu’an didn’t mind. Lan Yunqing had already brought in tens of thousands of points, so Xiao Risheng’s line wasn’t crucial.
Moreover, they still had nearly 9,000 pieces of Lanhu Leaf, which would take time to process into low- and normal-temperature fabrics.
Instead, Tang Yu’an used the time to chat with Xiao Risheng and learn about recent developments in Lanhu Town.
Lan Yunqing exchanged Lanhu Leaves daily at the grain store, usually ending after trading 500 to 600 pieces. Despite the cap of 100 grams of brown rice per leaf, the line of villagers remained long. Many considered it an honor to personally hand their leaves to the lord.
Encouraged by Lan Yunqing, more villagers had begun planting brown rice. With Lanhu Town’s abundance of wood-element ability users, they had managed to cultivate some crops successfully. However, due to the high water requirements for rice, Lan Yunqing recently introduced wheat as a secondary crop.
The town’s diet was slowly diversifying, though it would take time to scale up production.
Most of this information came from Zhou Qi’s analysis of Xiao Risheng’s comments and Lan Yunqing’s transaction records. Xiao Risheng was too young to articulate much himself.
In the end, Tang Yu’an traded a bag of candy for one Lanhu Leaf, concluding their interaction.
The third bottle belonged to Lu Yan.
His messages had become increasingly clear, and once again, he requested healing potions.
The mutated blueberries and strawberries Tang Yu’an had obtained from Lu Yan, with their excellent detoxifying properties, had proven invaluable in the alternate dimension.
By now, the supplies from Lu Yan had mostly been used up, so it was time to restock. Tang Yu’an happily traded three drops of mid-grade healing potion for 2.5 kilos of strawberries. With that, they used up their remaining daily bottle chances.
“We didn’t get Gan Lin’s bottle today,” Tang Yu’an said regretfully.
He had planned to remind Gan Lin to dig more wells while the floodwaters still hadn’t receded, so they could transfer more water over.
But it seemed Gan Lin hadn’t been sleeping—or perhaps sleeping didn’t always guarantee a drifting bottle.
“We’ll see if it comes up next time,” Zhou Qi reassured him.
“Yeah, okay!”
As Zhou Qi began tidying up, Tang Yu’an quickly joined in to help. Afterward, they summoned their four pets and prepared to return to the alternate dimension.
Standing on the teleportation array, they soon appeared in the fourth branch of the Peace Grocery Store in the alternate dimension.
They had left their original dimension at around 10 a.m., and now, returning at 9 p.m., more than half a month had passed in the alternate dimension.
Outside, everything was covered in snow, with the accumulation nearly burying their small cabin.
Seeing the heavy snow, Tang Yu’an had no desire to venture outside. All he wanted was to curl up inside and sleep.
Zhou Qi, meanwhile, used the smart device to synchronize their calendar, setting the time conversion rate so that 1 second in the alternate dimension equaled 30 seconds in their original dimension. This allowed them to track how much time had passed back home.
He began preparing the cabin, placing heating stones in the corners and using regular-temperature fabric to seal the room. Finally, the cabin was warm enough to be comfortable.
Once everything was ready, they crawled into their blankets to rest. Wang Cai and Yin Bi, not wanting to miss out, also curled up to sleep beside them—Wang Cai reverting to its lucky cat form to save space.
Meanwhile, Yuan Bao and Black Pearl took one look at the cramped cabin, glanced at the snowy landscape outside, and promptly dashed through the teleportation array back to the spacious Store No. 1.
When Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi woke up, eight hours had passed in the alternate dimension, but only 16 minutes had gone by in their original world.
“The time difference is insane!” Tang Yu’an exclaimed.
Feeling well-rested, they got to work, bringing over the golden AI and the super printer to produce regular- and low-temperature fabric. Then, they started their lessons. When studying became tiring, they took a break to watch some films.
Zhou Qi had already screened the videos once, but since the AI’s filters weren’t foolproof, he decided to review them again. Tang Yu’an, on the other hand, was purely watching for fun.
“I love watching TV!” Tang Yu’an declared. Having spent nearly nine months in the alternate dimension without any entertainment, even watching movies felt like a luxury.
Before the first movie, Zhou Qi fried sweet potato and potato slices as snacks. The experience of watching movies with snacks felt even better.
They chose a comedy film as their first watch. From the film’s visuals, it was clear that the pre-apocalypse civilization in this world resembled their own, and the comedy style was quite familiar too.
Tang Yu’an laughed out loud at the beginning of the movie, but as it delved into family themes, he ended up crying just as hard. Even Zhou Qi’s eyes turned red.
The two boys hugged each other and sobbed, alarming Yin Bi and Wang Cai, who spun in circles trying to comfort them. In the end, Yin Bi broke the cabin door open, letting in a blast of cold air. It bit Tang Yu’an’s sleeve, tugging him outside until he and Zhou Qi finally left the cabin.
Wang Cai shifted back into its dog form and started frolicking in the snow with Yin Bi. Their antics lifted Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi’s spirits, and before long, they were happily having a snowball fight.
After venting their emotions, they returned to the cabin to watch more movies. This time, they avoided family-centric films and opted for animated movies and thought-provoking sci-fi instead.
The duo spent ten days in the alternate dimension. By the time they returned to the Peace Grocery Store at around 6 a.m. in their original dimension, the Weekly Sale interface had refreshed as expected.
[Weekly Sale (Remaining Refresh Time: 6 Days)]
[Mining Robot (3/3): 6,888 points each]
[Solar-Powered Printer (1/1): 16,888 points each]
[Printer Ink (5/5): 8,888 points per set]
[Advanced Household Robot (1/1): 16,688 points each]
[Void Stone (1/1): 48,888 points each]
Looking at the refreshed sale items, Zhou Qi was left speechless.
Not only did they successfully secure a printer, but the sale also conveniently included ink. It seemed the system was being unusually considerate. 🙂
