Want to make money? ?

At this moment, his plain noodles were also ready. After the proprietress scooped out the noodles, she specifically added an extra egg.

Zhao Dongchuan nodded, said thank you, and in a flash, quickly slurped down a bowl of hot soup noodles.

While Zhao Dongchuan was eating, the mother and daughter were already packing up their tools. It seemed they planned to close their stall and go home. Evidently, after the incident just now, they were still shaken and did not intend to continue selling tonight.

When Zhao Dongchuan finished his noodles and tried to pay, the proprietress firmly refused to accept the money.

"Today's matter, I have to thank you!" Although the proprietress didn't know how Zhao Dongchuan had tricked the two thugs, he had indeed helped them.

Zhao Dongchuan was helping them in this way, so they, in return, naturally couldn't accept his noodle money. Although the woman hadn't read much, she knew how to repay kindness.

"I just couldn't stand by and do nothing. Chairman Mao taught us to help the weak at all times!" Zhao Dongchuan said, waving his hand.

Everything was packed up, and the mother and daughter pushed their belongings on a handcart. Seeing their faltering steps, Zhao Dongchuan felt a pang of compassion. Anyway, he had nothing else to do, so he might as well help.

So Zhao Dongchuan lent a hand, helping to push the cart, and the little girl smiled gratefully.

"Big brother, you are a good person." Children do not engage in pretense; they are not so worldly and expressed her gratitude very sincerely.

The little girl's family lived on East Gate Street, deep in an alley, near the old East Gate bridge.

Not far away was the bus station, where many people from various counties in the Huangyuan region lived.

Perhaps because he had helped them, they didn't hide anything. After a conversation along the way, Zhao Dongchuan also learned some things.

The little girl's name was Cao Yuan, and her mother was Li Huiying.

Their family originally came from Yangou Village in Beiguan. Cao Yuan's father worked in the mountains for the production team to earn work points, while Li Huiying took care of the child and also worked, earning half a work point. Since they had separated from the main family, the family of three managed to get by.

Last year, their man saved some money and borrowed some more, wanting to renovate a plot of land. So he hired a few people to first dig several earth-cave dwellings, then prepared to connect stone entrances.

To save a few pennies, he personally helped out on his days off, but was tragically crushed to death by a collapsing pile of earth.

Their family's fortunes immediately declined; not only did they lose their pillar of support, but they also accumulated a mountain of debt.

For the sake of her child, the mother grit her teeth and endured. To repay the money borrowed from relatives as quickly as possible, the mother and daughter thought about secretly doing a small business, hoping to earn more money to pay off the debts. So, with the help of their family, they set up a stall.

The place they currently lived in was privately rented for two yuan a month. If it weren't for the fact that the two locations were too far apart, making it inconvenient to set up a stall, they wouldn't have been willing to spend that money on rent.

In those days, doing business was risky, but it earned more money than farming for work points. They calculated the accounts and still felt that renting a house was appropriate.

After learning about their situation, Zhao Dongchuan couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.

"Ding, system mission triggered. Mission content: Help Cao Yuan and her mother pay off their external debts (they need to be self-reliant). Mission duration: 2 months. Mission reward: 5 gacha chances. Mission failure: No penalty. Completion progress: 0/1."

As a crisp sound echoed in his mind, Zhao Dongchuan's face was blank.

Holy cow, a mission was actually triggered! This, this system is inhumane. These two mother and daughter never appeared in the original work; they are absolute background characters.

As expected of a background character system.

Although Zhao Dongchuan complained about the system, being able to trigger a mission was indeed a pleasant surprise for him. This broken system hadn't made a sound in a long time. If he couldn't still see the system interface and the item bar, he would have thought the system had crashed.

To help Cao Yuan and her mother pay off their external debts, he couldn't just give them money; they had to be self-reliant. Zhao Dongchuan helped push the cart while silently pondering a solution.

Soon they arrived in front of a dilapidated cave dwelling. This was Cao Yuan's temporary home, with somesundries scattered haphazardly in the courtyard.

Cao Yuan's mother warmly invited Zhao Dongchuan in for tea. For the sake of the mission, Zhao Dongchuan didn't refuse and smoothly stayed, drinking a cup of tea.

While chatting idly with Cao Yuan's mother, Zhao Dongchuan was thinking about the mission. Cao Yuan at this time brought out a bag of brown sugar and made him a cup of brown sugar water.

Zhao Dongchuan suggested that they temporarily avoid setting up their stall in front of the cinema, to prevent people from seeking revenge.

Through Zhao Dongchuan's subtle probing, he roughly learned that Cao Yuan's family owed a total of 200 yuan in external debt.

200 yuan in external debt, to be repaid within 2 months, meant an average daily net profit of about 4 yuan. A bowl of noodles probably earned 5 cents, so they would need to sell 80 bowls a day.

Zhao Dongchuan pondered while drinking the brown sugar water.

It was already a bit late. The streetlights would turn off at 9 PM, so he had to hurry back. If the dormitory closed, he might end up sleeping on the streets.

Zhao Dongchuan got up, preparing to leave, saying he would come to see them when he had time, and then, under Cao Yuan's somewhat reluctant gaze, he bid farewell and departed.

Since he didn't have a watch, he wasn't sure what time it was, so he could only walk quickly, trying not to return too late.

Following his memory, Zhao Dongchuan returned to the Cultural Center dormitory.

The old doorman was currently drooping his head, a bit sleepy-eyed. Seeing Zhao Dongchuan return, he didn't ask much. They had met a few times and knew this was the newly hired staff member.

Zhao Dongchuan returned to his dormitory and began to wash up. After taking a cold shower, he felt much more relaxed. He then started doing practice questions; he had fallen behind for several days and hadn't properly done any.

He went to his desk, turned on the lamp, opened a physics practice book, took out the system pen from his space, and Zhao Dongchuan began to do the questions.

He lost all sense of time. By the time Zhao Dongchuan finished more than twenty questions, the clock on the wall already pointed to midnight.

Zhao Dongchuan let out a long sigh, and the guilt he felt from falling behind on his studies gradually dissipated.

Zhao Dongchuan put down his book, rubbed his temples, and poured himself a cup of tea.

He thought about how to complete the mission while drinking tea, but even after finishing the tea, Zhao Dongchuan had no ideas.

"I'm not thinking about it anymore. Sleep. Tomorrow, I'll deal with it."

Zhao Dongchuan simply stopped thinking, took off his clothes, and slept on the lower bunk he had tidied up earlier in the day.

Zhao Dongchuan closed his eyes and fell asleep shortly after.

The next day, driven by his biological clock, Zhao Dongchuan woke up early. As usual, he washed up, exercised, ate breakfast, and continued to do practice questions.

It was almost 8 o'clock when Zhao Dongchuan entered the Cultural Center, found the personnel department he had visited yesterday, and, amidst the warm greetings of the personnel aunt, received his already processed and stamped work permit.