Chapter 2

Chapter 2: So Moved—The Fruit Here Doesn’t Bite Since she had accepted the original host’s body, she naturally had to accept the original host’s family as well. Su Tang might not be good at many things, but when it came to killing and setting fires, she was an absolute professional. In order to assimilate into this family as quickly as possible, she decided to show them a little sincerity. Madam Liu was startled by Su Tang’s sudden movement. Her eyes rolled back, and she was about to faint, but fortunately, Su Zhe was behind her and caught her in time. Su Hao’an stared at Su Tang in disbelief. Then he suddenly stepped forward and pulled her tightly into his arms. “Little Sister, you’re still alive! This is wonderful!” He had known it. His little sister had a hard head and wouldn’t get into trouble so easily. The other three brothers squeezed over as well. Because Su Hao’an was holding her too tightly, all they could do was grab Su Tang’s hands and feet while chattering over one another about how delighted they were. Su Tang’s face was squeezed into a grimace. Weren’t they supposed to go out and chop people up? If they had so much energy, couldn’t they use it somewhere else instead of on her? Marquis Anle’s Residence was plunged into tremendous jubilation. Their Fourth Sister had actually stopped being an idiot after getting injured. She was occasionally a little deranged, though. But that wasn’t important. After all, Fourth Sister had been an imbecile since the day she was born. The fact that she could now communicate normally was already a blessing from their ancestors. As for everything else, they could teach her slowly… probably! It wasn’t that they lacked confidence in Fourth Sister. It was just that most of the time, Fourth Sister didn’t look entirely normal… Su Tang propped her chin on one hand and sat listlessly in the dilapidated courtyard of Marquis Anle’s Residence. Her body swayed unconsciously, and the stone stool beneath her scraped against the ground with a creak, creak. She had been in this world for three days, and she finally understood the situation at Marquis Anle’s Residence. From the original host’s memories, Su Tang already knew that the residence was not particularly wealthy. But she had never imagined that this family had already fallen into such dire straits. And it all began with Su Zhe’s father, the former Marquis Anle. The ancestors of Marquis Anle had followed Emperor Taizu in conquering the realm. After Emperor Taizu ascended the throne, the first Marquis Anle had been the first to voluntarily surrender his military authority. Emperor Taizu was overjoyed and bestowed upon him a hereditary title that would never be revoked. It had been passed down to the present day. The current Marquis Anle, Su Zhe—the original host’s father—had originally been born to a concubine. His ability to inherit the title was largely thanks to the former Marquis’s wife, Madam Xia. When the old marquis was alive, he had been a hopeless romantic. At a flower-viewing banquet, he fell in love with a maidservant; while listening to a singer at a teahouse, he fell in love with the songstress; while eating a bowl of noodles by the roadside, he fell in love with the widow ladling out the sauce. His heart fluttered eight times a second, and he ultimately died of heart failure. The old madam of the marquis’s residence, Madam Xia, was a ruthless woman who had devoted herself to household infighting. She was especially skilled at causing miscarriages. The couple had worked together with astonishing efficiency. Within ten years of their marriage, the marquis’s residence had brought dozens of beautiful concubines and bedchamber attendants through its gates, yet under Madam Xia’s watch, not a single one managed to carry a child to term. Her methods were evident enough. Later, after failing to conceive for ten years, Madam Xia realized that she had committed too many killings. She simply opened up a new path, allowing the residence’s concubines and bedchamber attendants to bear children, while swearing that she would ruin every one of the sons born to concubines. Unfortunately, the results were not particularly obvious, because the old marquis was already incapable of fathering much of anything. Madam Xia exhausted every possible scheme and finally managed to give birth to a sickly child herself. She had thought that her bitter days had finally come to an end. She never expected that the old marquis, whose body had been hollowed out by alcohol and women, would suddenly keel over and die. Instead, that benefited another bedchamber attendant who had become pregnant just before or after Madam Xia. To accumulate blessings for her own son, Madam Xia kept the son born to a concubine—Su Zhe, the original host’s father—and devoted herself to raising him into a wastrel. Originally, everything had proceeded smoothly. But Madam Xia’s son died of illness at the age of seventeen, allowing Su Zhe to pick up the title for free. Madam Xia had always harbored resentment toward Su Zhe. Her support for him taking the title had merely been to preserve her position as the old madam of the marquis’s residence. Naturally, she had no intention of treating the original host’s family sincerely. Apart from the original host, Marquis Anle’s Residence had four other children. Unfortunately, Madam Xia had deliberately raised every one of them to be useless. Su Zhe himself had been raised into a wastrel. He possessed only a title and no official position, and he had married Liu Pianran, a concubine-born daughter of the Court of Judicial Review’s chief official who had been raised into a delicate little white flower. Neither of them had received proper discipline while growing up, so naturally, they had no idea how to discipline their own children. Under Madam Xia’s deliberate guidance, Eldest Brother Su Hao’an became aggressive and fond of fighting; Second Brother Su Haoqi became vicious and gloomy; Third Brother Su Haoyu became addicted to drinking and gambling; and Fifth Younger Brother Su Haochen became weak and incompetent. Add in the original host, a lovesick fool, and this family truly had all Five Poisons. Su Zhe had only a title and no official position. His mother had passed away early and left him no money. The marquis’s residence had originally possessed some family wealth, but Madam Xia kept a tight grip on all of it. She would rather subsidize her own maternal family than let Su Zhe benefit from even a single coin. To prevent Su Zhe from coveting it, Madam Xia had moved to the Hot Springs Estate long ago, claiming that she did not want to disturb Su Zhe and Madam Liu’s peaceful life. Speaking of Madam Liu, she was another little bitter melon. Back then, Madam Xia’s son had been frail and unable to arrange a marriage. Madam Xia also had no intention of finding Su Zhe a better wife, so she chose a concubine-born daughter from the household of the Court of Judicial Review’s chief official. After all, a son born to a concubine and a daughter born to a concubine were a match made in heaven. Liu Pianran was disliked by her principal mother and had deliberately been raised into an innocent, coquettish little white flower. Whenever anything happened, she could neither take charge nor handle it, and could only cry and whimper. This suited Madam Xia perfectly. Who could have guessed that she would become the marquis’s wife only a year after marrying into the family? But being the marquis’s wife was truly a stifling experience. Su Zhe could only receive eighty taels of silver in monthly salary from the imperial court. However, Great Xia had regulations: the residences of all marquises and officials had to be kept in good repair. No crumbling walls or broken tiles could be allowed to disgrace the national prestige of Great Xia. Marquis Anle’s Residence occupied a considerable area. Each month, simply maintaining the estate cost more than forty taels of silver, leaving only a little over thirty taels for the entire family’s living expenses. Madam Liu never held back when it came to her family. She had even voluntarily handed over her dowry to help cover household expenses. But as a daughter born to a concubine, she had not possessed much to begin with, and even after subsidizing the household, she could not contribute very much. Fortunately, she had thick skin. Every so often, she would drag Su Zhe to her maternal family’s home to mooch off them. Su Zhe was shameless and never considered face to be particularly important. Relying on his identity as Marquis Anle, every time he visited the Liu family, he would eat his fill and take things home with him, infuriating the mistress of the Liu household half to death. Even so, the family’s life remained painfully tight. Still, this family truly doted on the original host. At home, the original host wore brocade, while everyone else wore cotton clothes. The original host received two new outfits each season. Madam Xia could add three new outfits each year. As for everyone else, they replaced their clothes only when they wore out. The clothes Fifth Younger Brother Su Haochen wore had been passed down from his older brothers. There were even several patches on his undergarments. The original host had two maidservants by her side, along with snacks, candied fruits, dried fruits, and other sweet treats to nibble on. Everyone else had only one servant to attend to their daily needs. It was clear just how much this family doted on the original host. Seeing that no one was nearby, Su Tang stretched out a hand to the side. One of the branches of the large peach tree in the courtyard rapidly grew toward her. A delicate pink peach blossom bloomed on the branch. In the space of a moment, the petals fell, a fruit formed and grew, and before long, it had become a fresh, plump peach. The leaves rubbed against one another, constantly rustling. At the same time, a coquettish whisper reached Su Tang’s ears. “Very delicious, oh! My peaches are very delicious!” This was the Special Wood-Type Ability. As long as she used her ability, she could communicate with plants without any obstacles. Su Tang plucked the peach and took a bite. She was so moved that she nearly burst into tears. The fruit here didn’t bite people! This heaven-sent fortune had finally come to her! How could there be such delicious fruit in the apocalypse? No, it wasn’t that the apocalypse had no delicious fruit. It was that all the fruit in the apocalypse had mutated. Unless it fell to the ground and died completely, even touching it would make it bite off a piece of your flesh. Su Tang devoured the peach in two or three bites, then asked the peach tree, “Do you know where there’s a lot of silver?”