128: The system is really a dog
“That was before the apocalypse,” Bai Zhan scoffed. “Back then, I was afraid she wouldn’t marry and would be bullied. But now, she walks around like she owns the place; who would dare bully her?”
He glanced at Lei Qian, sneering, “So why do we still have to kowtow to that man? I really don’t understand why Mother likes him so much.”
Bai Wanning remained silent. In truth, she understood her mother’s persistence.
When she was young, Mother Bai was “married” into the family by Bai Qingshi, but she didn’t even have a marriage certificate.
She was a wife in name, but in reality, even outsiders didn’t acknowledge her. Chu Chuxia was the recognized legitimate wife.
That humiliating past left an unhealable scar in her mother’s heart.
She hoped her daughter could marry a respectable man, openly and honorably, not like her, treated as an expendable shadow, exploited, trampled upon, and ultimately denied even a chance to reason.
She was afraid her daughter would also be deceived by a man, give her all, and then be easily abandoned.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Bai Wanning, but she was too aware of how harsh and cruel this world was to women.
Of course, it could also be those deeply ingrained old notions at play—that a woman can only belong to one man.
Bai Wanning just didn’t know how to speak up.
She no longer planned to be with Lei Qian.
He had already awakened and was recovering at an astonishing speed.
Soon, his strength would advance by leaps and bounds, and the number of women who wanted to be with him would only increase.
It wasn’t that she feared Lei Qian would change his mind, but she was too familiar with the feeling of being ostracized and challenged as the “rightful one.”
She and Bai Cai could not become objects of others’ ambition and attack.
Moreover, she and Lei Qian, apart from that one night and a child, had barely truly understood each other.
She watched Lei Qian, who was currently chatting with Mother Bai. Her mother spoke enthusiastically, and he listened very attentively.
Mother Bai always had endless things to say; once she started, it was like a machine gun, rattling on without stopping.
Sure enough, as she spoke, she clapped her hands and asked with a smile, “Xiao Qian, would you like to have lunch with us?”
“No!” Before Lei Qian could answer, Bai Zhan spoke first.
He stood up, his voice very low, afraid of startling his nephews: “Mother, we don’t have enough food. He has money and power; he can go out and find supplies himself and won’t starve. We poor folks, every meal counts. What does it matter if he eats or not?”
Don’t think he didn’t know; this man definitely looked down on his sister.
Otherwise, he had so many opportunities to marry her, so why did he always remain impassive?
Lei Qian felt a bit helpless.
He really didn’t understand what he had done wrong, but for some reason, he always felt that Bai Zhan had been at odds with him from the start, and also with Bai Wanning.
“Brother—”
“I am not your brother.” Bai Zhan interrupted sharply, pushing Lei Qian away and half-dragging, half-kicking him out of the house. “Don’t you dare come near my sister again!” He warned with a raised fist, then slammed the door shut with a “bang.”
“Second child!”
Mother Bai was startled. Before she could say a word, Lei Qian had already been driven out.
“What have you done?”
“What have I done?” Bai Zhan rolled his eyes, turning to Mother Bai and saying, “Mother, we are no longer in the same position as before. It doesn’t matter if that man doesn’t want to be with Wanning; anyway, he has to make up for the mistakes he made in the past.”
Bai Zhan had never had a good impression of the Lei Family and Lei Qian, but he had never voiced it—because he was worried his sister would be bullied.
But now, he no longer needed to bow his head before Lei Qian.
Seeing his mother’s displeasure, he rolled his eyes again and said, “Mother, think about it from another perspective. Lei Qian grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, he’s well-traveled and experienced, and there must have been many women who pursued him. If we don’t see him clearly, what if he really bullies our Wanning someday? We can’t be as subservient as before.”
“But what if he really feels he can bully Wanning?” Mother Bai still worried.
“What if he gets angry?” she asked, even more nervously.
“Then let him be angry.” Bai Jixuan wiped the cake crumbs from his two sons’ mouths and lifted them from their high chairs.
He said to his mother calmly, “We can take care of Wanning ourselves. If such a thing can make him angry, then it’s a good thing that my sister didn’t marry him.”
“Big Brother is right.” Bai Zhan chimed in, “He took advantage of our Wanning; he should give our family an explanation. If he can’t even be worthy of our sister, then what is Wanning still doing in his house?”
Mother Bai was utterly confused.
She had never heard such words in her life.
Her mother often scolded her for being someone who always suffered losses, especially after Bai Qingshi abandoned her. The old woman would scold and spit at her every other day, saying she was useless and couldn’t even keep her own man.
So she completely failed to understand her sons’ logic. In her mind, men never pursued women.
“Mother, listen to my brother.” Bai Wanning looked at her mother’s tightly furrowed brows, which could almost trap a fly, and couldn’t help but feel a mix of amusement and frustration.
She knew her mother would find Bai Zhan’s actions difficult to accept, so she decided to intervene to prevent things from escalating.
Mother Bai sighed, wanting to say something, but at Bai Wanning’s signal, she could only close her mouth.
But after a while, she still couldn’t help but mutter discontentedly, “You’ll regret it sooner or later, just wait and see.”
With that, she snorted and turned to enter the kitchen.
Bai Zhan rolled his eyes, kicked open the door, and said, “If anyone’s going to regret it, it should be him.”
He didn’t believe that his sister couldn’t find a decent man besides Lei Qian.
He turned to Bai Wanning, his tone firm: “Wanning, don’t worry, with us by your side, you don’t need to let that man manipulate you.”
“I know.” Bai Wanning curved her lips slightly and nodded.
She glanced at the doorway and shrugged.
Even if Lei Qian got angry because of this, it had nothing to do with her.
If this could make him retreat in the face of difficulty, then she would be happy to have peace and quiet.
Too lazy to think further, she turned and went upstairs to exchange the previously stored crystal cores with the system.
“Ding, received 400 crystal cores.”
“Current status: 9000 / 100000”
However, even after exchanging so many crystal cores, Bai Wanning found that it was still far from enough to activate the third level of the material exchange system.
She frowned at the system, muttering to herself, “I’ve exchanged so many good things, and it hasn’t even reacted a little? At this rate, when will I ever reach the sixth level?”
“Can’t you at least offer a discount or something?” she fumed.
This system was simply too capitalistic, with outrageously high prices, clearly intending to drain the Host dry!
“The prices of the material exchange system are fixed, my dear Host.”
Bai Wanning: “…”
She glared fiercely at the system screen, then simply turned off the system.
She rolled over onto the bed and closed her eyes—out of sight, out of mind.
Instead of getting angry, it was better to get a good night’s sleep first.