Chapter 8: Educating My Parents

"Big Brother, you get some good rest, I’m heading back to my room." Yan Lao’er was anxious to return to his room to report the situation to his wife and daughter.

No need to harvest wheat tomorrow, how happy!

As for fleeing from famine, that was definitely a plot point from the book, but he still needed to confirm it with his daughter. Why did it feel a bit different?

"Stand still!" How could Yan Huaiwen let him go so easily? The wheat in the fields didn't need harvesting, but there were other matters. In short, he could no longer allow him to slack off.

"Tomorrow, you go to Doctor Cui’s house, borrow his donkey cart, and go to town with me."

"To pick up my eldest nephew? I can go by myself, and I don't need the donkey cart. Don't worry, Big Brother, I'll leave at the crack of dawn and have my nephew back by noon."

He still had an outstanding tab at Doctor Cui’s.

He begged his brother not to move; he was too embarrassed to borrow a cart from the man before clearing his previous debt.

It was just too shameful!

Yan Huaiwen said, "Besides asking for leave for Xiangheng, I also need to go to the academy in person to resign from my teaching position."

Yan Lao’er:...

This was a powerful reason. He couldn't argue further and had to bite the bullet and agree.

"Take this and settle the medicine bill." Yan Huaiwen laboriously fished out a worn-out money pouch. After a moment of thought, he still didn't feel comfortable giving it all away. He handed over half, then pulled it back, fished out a small piece of broken silver, and handed it to his spendthrift younger brother.

Yan Lao’er subconsciously weighed it in his hand.

It was very light; he had no idea how much it was.

Seeing his action, Yan Huaiwen’s face darkened immediately. Was he complaining it was too little?

He turned his body away, refusing to look at him.

Yan Lao’er blinked. Was Big Brother worried that he, as the younger brother, would lose face?

Asking his brother for money... it was a bit shameful, but not something he couldn't overcome.

Old Yan, what a good man!

He tiptoed out and closed the door carefully.

Pondering the tasks for tomorrow and his own troublesome younger brother, Yan Huaiwen felt a rare moment of clarity.

Before his eyes, the image of his second brother’s diligent care over these past few days kept appearing, along with the sight of his brother’s panic and helplessness when he, the head of the household, had collapsed...

Think of him, a First Rank official at court, managing so many subordinates.

He could manage officials full of schemes, so why couldn't he manage his own younger brother who was lazy and idle?!

Not only must he manage him, he must teach him!

Previously, he had been single-mindedly focused on his career and had truly neglected this brother, raising him to be content with just getting by, waiting for his big brother to pass the imperial exams so they could live a good life. Once separated from him, the boy couldn't stand on his own, and so...

Since he had been given a chance to start over, he would definitely teach this brother well. Since studying wasn't his forte, he would put more effort into practical affairs.

...

"Look, this is silver!" Yan Lao’er displayed the small piece of broken silver to let his wife and daughter see it. This was ancient money; its purity was far from the silver jewelry in shopping malls.

Although the family of three had changed bodies, their strong willpower overcame the inertia of their new physical forms.

Not used to sleeping early, they were very tired, yet they couldn't sleep soundly.

The mother and daughter had been dozing for a while, and when they heard movement, they opened their eyes.

By the pale moonlight, they saw clearly what was in his hand.

Yan Yu grabbed it with her small hand, turned it over and over to look at it, and asked her father, "How much does this weigh?"

"I don't know," Yan Lao’er answered truthfully.

"You really asked Big Brother for money?" Li Xuemei asked him.

"How could I!" Yan Lao’er quickly denied. "Big Brother gave it to me voluntarily. He told me to settle the medicine bill at Doctor Cui’s tomorrow, said he wanted to borrow his donkey cart to go to town, resign from his job at the academy, and then bring our eldest nephew home."

"Oh right, daughter," he recounted what his brother had said about inviting the village chief over. "Is it the village head's youngest son who is going to come and bully your Big Sister Daya?"

This was where Yan Lao’er felt something was wrong. Was the timeline a bit chaotic?

According to Old Yan, they would be leaving soon.

"That's not right!" Yan Yu counted on her fingers. "First the family separation, then the famine... After the separation, Big Sister Daya was home alone, which gave the bad guys an opportunity." She nodded seriously, confirming that was how it was written in the book.

"Then what's going on? It's different from the book now!" Yan Lao’er muttered.

Li Xuemei thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that because of our arrival, the plot has changed?"

Yan Yu and her father had identical expressions—completely bewildered.

What had their arrival changed? They were still poor, and the debt collectors would definitely come on time.

Once Old Yan found out his good-for-nothing brother was gambling, he would still be angry enough to separate the family.

"Could it be because we took such good care of Uncle, he recovered earlier than in the book, so the plan to flee the famine was moved up?" Yan Yu guessed.

"Alright, stop guessing." Li Xuemei felt that if they kept thinking like this, the three of them wouldn't sleep tonight. This father-daughter duo was singing in harmony, and they could imagine a whole book by themselves. "I don't think you two are sleepy either. Let's discuss the poverty alleviation platform. This platform doesn't open regularly, and no one knows when the next time will be. We must seize the opportunity and try to solve our most urgent needs this time!"

"Today is May 18th. After midnight tomorrow, it will be May 20th, which is 6/18!" Yan Yu cheered.

An exciting day! Happy shopping—no, happy swapping!

"So we must hurry and think about what we can take out to trade." Li Xuemei said calmly, "Then take advantage of the fact that we have a whole day tomorrow to collect as much as possible. It said 'limited by energy' and 'prepare in advance,' so it's very likely that the opening time won't be long, perhaps even very short."

The father and daughter pondered.

No flaws in that logic! The possibility was extremely high!

"Let's analyze it point by point," Teacher Li Xuemei, the rigorous one, went online. "'Aims to help compatriots who have left their motherland due to force majeure, to overcome difficulties and weather the storm together.' The meaning is very simple: no matter where we are, the motherland will not forget us and will help us live a stable life."

"But the focus is in the parentheses: transmigration, rebirth, transmigrating into a book, doomsday natural disasters, spiritual energy recovery, etc... Xiaoyu, you explain to us first what these all mean."

Yan Yu looked at her serious mother, feeling as if she had returned to school, the moment she was called upon by a teacher to answer a question.

"You already know about transmigrating into a book. Transmigration is traveling through time and space, from one world to another. Uh, that's about how to understand it." Yan Yu found herself at a loss for words. She understood it all clearly when reading, but when asked to summarize, she really didn't know how to describe such a complex situation in short language.

"Rebirth is also very simple; it's just living a life over again."

"Doomsday natural disasters correspond to the doomsday theories in various prophecies: extreme environments, high heat, extreme cold, etc., the collapse of order, rampant viruses, zombies, mutant beasts, invasive alien species... in short, the living environment is extremely harsh."

"Spiritual energy recovery... the application of spiritual energy is too broad. Basically, it's a normal world, and after spiritual energy recovers, either myths descend, immortals and gods appear, or species evolve, or strange stories become reality. Oh right, it's also possible that interdimensional spaces open up, and there's a war with another world..."

You guys can't guess what the first skill I arranged for Papa Yan is o(*￣︶￣*)o Revealed in the next chapter, hehe~~

(End of chapter)