Chapter 5: The Fifth Pig

In the afternoon, Li Zhenzhen and the System parted ways. The System continued its quest to find high-altitude areas to re-establish contact with the Main System, while Li Zhenzhen set off in search of supplies.

She gathered the last of the firewood, lit a useless, perfunctory fire for the male lead, and pushed open the door to head out. The cold wind bit at her face like a blade. She pulled her collar tight, flipped up her hood, and recalled the settings of the original story.

Wuhuan Island was home to some forty thousand people, divided into the East and West Islands. The East Island was a saline-alkali wasteland where crops could not grow; between natural disasters and the scourge of war, the impoverished masses eked out a living by gathering firewood and hunting. The West Island, conversely, was the enclave of the nobility. They held dominion over the island’s fisheries, salt mines, and sulfur mines, exporting fish, salt, and gunpowder. They lived in opulence, flowing with wine and meat, spending money as if it were dirt.

...And as luck would have it, the male lead had ended up stranded on the East Island.

Dusk was falling, the sun sinking behind the mountains. Li Zhenzhen had wandered the hills for hours; she hadn't found so much as a scrap of game—even the anthills had been dug up and eaten. The sea was as dark as lacquer. Li Zhenzhen exhaled a puff of cold air and pulled up her operating panel.

The neural network unfolded across her retinas, hovering over her pupils. Two lines of bold, blood-red text slowly appeared on the floating OA homepage. It was the motto of the Space-Time Administration:

*All mortals must die; the dead cannot return.*
*Order is above all; obedience is the truth.*

This message popped up every single time, like a scam advertisement, and the "X" button even danced around to avoid being clicked. Li Zhenzhen had to tap it several times before the window finally vanished. She opened the offline map.

"Wude Maps at your service," a polite, synthetic voice resonated in her mind. "Navigation destination: The Fisherwoman’s House. Address: No. 157, Shibajiawa, Wengjiahe Town, West Island. Please proceed 1,500 meters to the left to reach the ferry and board a vessel."

A pink arrow hovered above her head, pointing forward. Li Zhenzhen endured the ache in her feet and followed the direction of the arrow. Deep, uneven footprints marked the snow.

Fifteen minutes later, she stood at the edge of a cliff formed by a landslide. The pink arrow remained high above the precipice, shaking its triangular head to signal Li Zhenzhen to jump. Li Zhenzhen looked at the sea, a drop of over ten meters, and remained silent for a moment. "Perhaps you should just shut yourself down."

"Certainly," the navigation replied politely.

The soil at the edge of the cliff was fresh, with broken plant roots still visible; the landslide had clearly occurred recently. However, the navigation had not updated in sync. Did this mean that while the connection to the Main System was severed, the mission panel could not update information about this small world in real-time? Li Zhenzhen pondered this.

Fortunately, she wasn't far from the ferry crossing and soon found the path.

Someone was already at the dock. A young nobleman stood by the shore, his back to Li Zhenzhen. He wore a silver-grey fox-fur cloak, and a glimpse of cyan silk robes at his ankles revealed a subtle embroidery of an orchid. Li Zhenzhen stopped behind him, remaining silent as they waited for the boat.

Before long, a crude fishing boat wobbled toward the shore through the mist. A man in his forties stood at the prow, fish scattered messily behind him. Miscellaneous items were piled at the stern, covered by a large straw cape. Upon docking and seeing the two of them, the fisherman jumped off, startled. "What’s this? Another pair of runaway lovers?"

"Another?" Li Zhenzhen asked.

"Just the day before yesterday, a woman from the mine in the next village ran off. She had a kid with her and begged me to take them out to sea. But she didn't have a single coin on her—clearly trying to swindle me. I wasn't having it, so I turned her down."

The fisherman looked at Li Zhenzhen, then at the man, even more bewildered. "Is he your lover? This young master looks so refined, how could he take a fancy to a rough woman like you?"

"I don't know him," Li Zhenzhen replied, accepting the description of herself as "rough" without argument. "Are we sailing now?"

Although the fisherman was the service provider, he possessed the haughty attitude of a client. "Not now. I need to eat, and I need to clear the boat."

"I'll pay extra."

The fisherman looked at her worn-out grass sandals and waved a hand. "Forget it. You look poorer than I am. We poor folk shouldn't make things hard for each other. How much could you possibly add?"

"..." There was no need to be that sharp.

At this, the nobleman in front of Li Zhenzhen said gently, "I offer five taels. Please, take this young lady and myself out to sea now."

His face was elegant and noble, and his offer was generous, but the fisherman remained unmoved. "You’re looking down on me, kind sir. We may be poor, but we have our pride—"

"Gold," the nobleman added.

"Right away, sir!"

Five minutes later, Li Zhenzhen and the man sat opposite each other at an old wooden table on the deck. The fisherman, now deeply grateful, not only wore the smile of a satisfied provider but even served them two bowls of tea. Coarse tea leaves floated at the bottom of the bowls. Li Zhenzhen was barely fastidious about hygiene, but the nobleman across from her didn't mind at all; he produced a handkerchief and slowly wiped the rim of his bamboo bowl.

"Where are you from, miss?" he asked in a gentle tone. "It's such a cold day to be out alone."

"Just wandering," Li Zhenzhen replied.

"Do you have a destination?"

"The West Island."

"I am heading there as well. Would you care to travel together?"

Li Zhenzhen was indifferent. "Fine."

As they spoke, layers of clouds began to gather, with lightning rolling silently in the distance. It was Li Zhenzhen's first time seeing a heavy thunderstorm during a snowfall; perhaps the weather in this cultivation world was just that peculiar.

They ducked into the boat's cabin. The nobleman remarked casually, "I noticed when you were coming down the slope earlier that you seemed to have some difficulty with your gait. The weather in Wufang City is harsh and freezing, which is unfavorable for leg ailments. I happen to know a medical cultivator whose bone-mending techniques are miraculous. If you are willing, I can have him brought here to examine you."

Li Zhenzhen hadn't even noticed this man when she was descending the cliff, but she wasn't surprised by his keen observation. Often, the higher one's status, the more meticulous and even kind one could be—because, having been born with so much, they had no need to fight for petty gains or use small matters to manipulate others. Unlike the lower classes, who had to sell their children or risk their lives for a few pounds of rice, naturally making them appear callous.

But Li Zhenzhen’s mind wasn't on that at all. It took her a moment to realize the man was still waiting for a response.

"No need." She thought for a moment and said the longest sentence she had spoken all day: "I don't have the money to pay for the consultation. Besides, for the five taels of gold you paid for the fare, I can only pay you back one." She added, "In silver."

Half a tael of silver would have been enough for a trip. This one tael was something she had painstakingly saved from the money the System had given her when she first arrived and went to town to buy supplies.

"There is no need to pay me back. It is a pittance; not worth your concern." He held the yellowed cup by his fingertips, placed the wiped cup in front of Li Zhenzhen, and said slowly, "I am Shen Qingchen. May I ask how you are called?"

Li Zhenzhen paused, her brain searching rapidly. This name wasn't in the original story; it seemed he was just a background character.

"My surname is He," Li Zhenzhen replied, her face composed. "He Cuihua."

"..."

Just then, a massive wave struck, and the boat jolted violently. Li Zhenzhen reached out and steadied herself against the gunwale with lightning speed. A bolt of lightning suddenly split the clouds, illuminating the pitch-black sea as if it were broad daylight.

Li Zhenzhen turned her head abruptly.

Where the straw cape had been covering the stern, the jolt had scattered the items, revealing two corpses. One was intact; the other was cut in half. The halved one was a child, sliced open like a pig at the market. The other was a young woman, her skirt torn and her arms twisted at unnatural angles; even in death, she had not loosened her hold on the child.

Li Zhenzhen swore she had just picked a random fisherman; who could have imagined such a turn of events? The fisherman had mentioned a mother and child running away from the mines in the next village... this pair matched perfectly.

Li Zhenzhen calmly took off her coat and tore a strip of cloth to wrap around her wrist. Shen Qingchen stood up as well, shielding Li Zhenzhen behind him.

"Did you kill them?" he asked, his voice chillingly flat.

"...Ah, yes, yes, I killed them. The woman fell into my hands; she just had bad luck. So what if I killed her?"

Seeing that his deeds were exposed, the fisherman stiffened his neck and suddenly pointed at Li Zhenzhen. "If you ask me, it's all this woman's fault!"

Li Zhenzhen was incredulous. "You're the one who killed them, and you blame me?"

"If you hadn't been rushing me, urging me like a vengeful ghost, I would have cleared the boat and none of this would have happened. You wouldn't have seen the bodies, and I wouldn't have had to work tonight... Now I have to kill you both in the middle of the night. Do you have any idea how tired I am?"

The fisherman’s tone sounded genuinely annoyed, like someone who didn't want to work overtime but was suddenly handed a presentation by his boss. Li Zhenzhen felt a strange empathy for that sense of annoyance.

Since they had discovered his secret, these two could not be left alive. Besides, he had killed so many women; which one hadn't begged and pleaded for mercy before dying? Women were supposed to be weaker than men—how could this woman in front of him not show even a flicker of fear?

Incensed by Li Zhenzhen’s steady gaze, the fisherman spat on the deck and threw a punch at them. Shen Qingchen, though attempting to protect Li Zhenzhen, did not dodge as the wind of the punch reached his face; clearly, he had never trained.

Li Zhenzhen shoved him aside with a backhand. The fisherman’s punch missed, and he let out a frustrated grunt before swinging again. Li Zhenzhen ducked. The boat swayed in the wind and waves, and as they struggled, they knocked over the bamboo shelter. The fisherman grabbed Li Zhenzhen by the throat, a look of agony and malice distorting his face. That malice was like a poisonous thorn growing out of his simple, rustic features; he wanted to pull it out, yet he had to rely on it to survive.

"The debt has a creditor; if you must hate someone, hate those cultivators! It’s they who turned this world into such a hell..."

"Even if you’re killed by me, one thing is one thing—our deal came first, the murder second. Your gold is still mine—"

Before he could finish, a thin silver blade slid precisely into his artery through the gap between his muscles and bones. Blood sprayed from the fisherman’s throat.

Shen Qingchen looked up just in time to see this. Thousands of raindrops fell like threads, and blood mixed with rain slid down Li Zhenzhen’s cheek and into her hair. His pupils dilated slightly. His heart skipped a beat.

The fisherman stared at Li Zhenzhen in disbelief, a "gurgling" sound emerging from his throat. Li Zhenzhen counted the seconds until his pulse stopped. But in the next moment, the fisherman’s eyes suddenly began to glaze over. The hatred in his gaze vanished, replaced by a vacant, blank stupor.

"Wufang City... I must go to Wufang City..." he muttered. A packet of instant noodle seasoning was stuck in his windpipe. He seemed no longer aware of where he was, repeating a single command in the pouring rain: "Go to Wufang City... offer the bodies... to the Sect Leader."

Li Zhenzhen: "?"

After muttering these inexplicable words, the fisherman stumbled to his feet. He took barely two steps before collapsing over the gunwale, dead.