Chapter 4: Meeting a Fellow Countryman in a Foreign Land
by LhaoziYan Cizhou (Cultivation Bookstore): “A fellow countryman! I’m from Blue Star too! I used to be a professional esports player. On the very day I retired, I got into a car accident. After being brought back to life, I thought I’d been blessed with incredible luck. Who would’ve thought that stupid system would assign me a bookstore? But I’ve never liked reading since I was a kid. I get sleepy the moment I open a book! And that stupid system refuses to let me change shops. It even mocks me, telling me to read more books. It’s enough to drive me insane!”
Song Jiu (Game World Wandering Merchant): “[Crying] We should’ve switched places! Before transmigrating, I was a top student. But after transmigrating, I’ve been wandering around the game world every single day looking for customers. The problem is, I’m socially anxious! Who understands my suffering?! Now I don’t dare stay up late anymore. I go to sleep as soon as it’s bedtime.”
Xia Houlan (Western Fantasy Nail Salon): “None of you have suffered as much as I have!!! At least you were still human after being resurrected and transmigrating. I transmigrated directly into another body! I nearly suffocated inside an eggshell! After struggling through all kinds of hardships just to survive and grow up, that damn shop system finally showed up. And the moment it arrived, it bound me to a nail salon.”
Ge Jiangfang (Interstellar Restaurant): “…We never talked about this before. I didn’t realize all of you had such rough experiences. I simply woke up one day and discovered that both I and the restaurant chain under my name had appeared in an interstellar world. Nothing particularly dramatic happened. I just continued running the business I was already familiar with.”
Xia Houlan (Western Fantasy Nail Salon): “All right, Old Jiang, you can shut up now. I don’t want to hear it.”
Yan Cizhou (Cultivation Bookstore): “All right, Old Jiang, you can shut up now. I don’t want to hear it.”
Song Jiu (Game World Wandering Merchant): “All right, Old Jiang, you can shut up now. I don’t want to hear it.”
Humans really were creatures of imitation. Once one person started repeating something, everyone else followed.
It sounded as though everyone had gone through quite a lot of hardship, but their experiences were also rather extraordinary.
So many unlucky souls had somehow ended up in the same group. What a strange twist of fate!
At least Lu Weiran had Mushroom, who seemed to be the surprise gift pack, as compensation. The little fellow had come with her to this other world and continued keeping her company.
However, based on everyone’s experiences, Lu Weiran had confirmed one thing:
Running a business was extremely difficult, and raising one’s shop level was no easy task.
Almost everyone had explained how they had transmigrated and how they had ended up running their respective shops.
Seeing this, Xie Yushan put down her little shovel, bit her finger, and began trying to recall her own experience.
How had she ended up here?
But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember.
Her head felt as though someone had smashed a watermelon against it. Whenever she tried to recall anything, the pain became so intense that it felt like her head was about to split open.
Yet the more she struggled to remember, the more desperately she wanted to.
Her memories were shrouded in a murky gray fog, as though something were deliberately preventing her from recalling them.
Muddy… damp…
Cold… merciless…
Xie Yushan had a persistent feeling that she had forgotten something important.
Something even more important than her own life.
Xie Yushan (Strange World Farm): “So you all remember? My head hurts so much. Why can’t I remember? Sob… I can’t remember. Mommy, my head hurts so much! …It hurts! It really hurts! Blow on it for me…”
By the end, her words had become completely incoherent.
Although the messages appeared as text on the screen, everyone could almost hear Xie Yushan’s agonized cries.
Everyone froze.
The group chat fell completely silent, as though the system had crashed.
They wished they could crawl through the network connecting the Shopkeepers’ Group and appear right in front of Xie Yushan, wrap her in a warm, comforting hug, and gently blow on her aching head.
Lu Weiran (Desert Inn): “If you can’t remember, then don’t force yourself to. Trust Big Sis. White Rabbit Creamy Candy is delicious! Eat some candy, and your head won’t hurt anymore.”
The other members of the Shopkeepers’ Group also hurried to comfort her.
Xia Houlan (Western Fantasy Nail Salon): “Oh~ sweetheart, don’t cry. If you cry, Big Sis is going to cry too.”
Ge Jiangfang (Interstellar Restaurant): “It’s okay if you can’t remember. There’s no need to force yourself. Let’s just stop thinking about it.”
Song Jiu (Game World Wandering Merchant): “[Gently blowing on her head]”
Yan Cizhou began regretting why he had suddenly brought up the subject in the first place.
Other than giving everyone an opportunity to vent their frustrations, the conversation had accomplished nothing. Worse, it had made Xie Yushan cry.
Feeling that he had done something wrong, he could only timidly send a short message to the group:
“Don’t cry.”
Xie Yushan’s head hurt terribly. She repeatedly patted it with her little hands, messing up her small braids.
Beside her lay the White Rabbit Creamy Candy that Lu Weiran had sent.
Looking at the somewhat familiar White Rabbit candy…
“Eat candy… If I eat candy, it won’t hurt anymore…”
Xie Yushan’s little face scrunched up in pain. As she spoke, she quickly peeled off the candy wrapper.
Her small, fair hand picked up the candy and popped it into her mouth.
The sweet taste of the candy spread throughout her mouth. It was so familiar, like the taste of her mother’s love.
“It hurts! It hurts!! It hurts!!!”
The candy’s effect was negligible. If anything, her headache became even worse.
The candy tasted so familiar. It seemed that her mother had bought it for her before.
Xie Yushan began remembering scattered fragments of the past.
With a White Rabbit Creamy Candy in her mouth, she bounced along as she walked, looking up at the person beside her.
A young woman was holding her hand. The woman’s hand was large enough to completely envelop her little one.
The woman would gently remind Xie Yushan, “You can only have one candy a day. You mustn’t eat too many, or you’ll get cavities. Be a good girl and listen to Mommy, okay?”
The candy was sweet, her little hand was warm, and her heart felt warm and sweet too.
Xie Yushan clutched her head and rolled around on the ground, letting out a silent scream of agony.
“Who is she?”
“She calls me her baby. Is she my mommy?”
“Why can’t I see her face clearly?”
Her little hands kept pounding against her head.
Once, twice, and again.
Under the repeated pounding, the stubborn layer of gray fog in her mind slowly began to fade.
A flash of light appeared. A sealed memory suddenly surged back into her mind like a bolt of lightning.
Xie Yushan (Strange World Farm): “Sob, sob… I think I remember now! Mommy was holding me when she flew with me to Grandma’s farm. I remember what Mommy and Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma, and Grandpa and Grandma on Mommy’s side looked like!”
Xie Yushan had finally remembered what her family looked like.
Even as she writhed on the ground with an excruciating headache, a sweet smile appeared on her face.
Not wanting the uncles, brothers, and sisters in the group to worry about her, Xie Yushan decided to be a little naughty for once.
She told a small lie.
Xie Yushan (Strange World Farm): “Thank you for the White Rabbit Creamy Candy, Big Sister Weiran! Thank you, Uncle, brothers, and sisters, for worrying about me. I’ve remembered everything now! Pain, pain, go away! My head doesn’t hurt anymore!”
Far away in the desert, Lu Weiran finally let out a huge sigh of relief.
She rather liked this little girl who had praised her cool appearance and sent her a little red flower the moment they met.
The other group members also breathed a sigh of relief.
Especially with the system announcement stating that a decrease in group membership meant death still fresh in their minds.
They had finally realized that any member of the group could die!
There was nothing they could do to help Xie Yushan.
But every single one of them was deeply worried about her safety.
They stared intently at the number beside Shopkeepers’ Group (6), afraid that even the slightest change to the number six might occur.
Fortunately, it had all been a false alarm.
But in the very next second—
The profile picture of Xie Yushan riding a cow and waving her whip suddenly went dark.
Then it disappeared.
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