1 Chapter 1: Unquestioning Filial Piety 1

"This is a big deal. How could a stone on the mountain end up falling and hit Liu-zi head so coincidentally?

"What kind of nonsense is that? Didn't you see that the blood that splashed all over the place? Liu-zi is already lost consciousness, and I am not sure if he can be saved or not. You looked at his wife, who is still crying so silently. If worse comes to worst, her days will become even harder from now on."

"Her days don't necessarily have to be bad, right? If he dies, she can still go back to her family's house. She might even meet a more kind-hearted in-law. Her days might even be much better than now."

"Hey, this kind of thing can't be said so casually. Be careful. If that Jiang old couple heard this, they might come after you."

—–

Jiang Liu listened to the lingering sounds of arguments around him. He endured a headache as he slowly opened his eyes. What greeted his eyes were several black and skinny yellow faces.

"Woke up! Liu-zi already woke up!"

Seeing him opening his eyes, the farmer with some paramedical training who was about to paste some plant and ash on Jiang Liu's head immediately shouted.

[T/N: They were also known as a barefooted doctor, a paramedical worker with basic medical training working in a rural district in China.]

"He already woke up. I estimated that it was only skin trauma and nothing else. There should not be any big problem."

When the farmer with the paramedical training initially saw the blood flowing down from Jiang Liu's head, he was shocked. He was only a barefoot doctor. So far, he only dealt with the villagers' minor wounds and pain. He had never encountered this kind of substantial injury.

Therefore, he planned to use the ash to stop the bleeding before asking the team leader to send Jiang Liu to the county hospital. He never thought the other party would immediately wake up.

According to this barefoot doctor's knowledge, the wound should not be a big problem since Jiang Liu had already woken up. Even though there was still lots of blood coming out, but with proper nourishment, he should be back on his feet soon enough.

[Please read at the original website, or you can at least support me with some ko-fi]

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"Liu-zi, can you recognize me?"

Seeing Jiang Liu looking so confused, the doctor quickly took a step forward as his whole face magnified in Jiang Liu's eyes before directly touching his [Jiang Liu] face.

I don't know, of course, I don't know anyone here, ah!

Jiang Liu wanted to answer as such when he suddenly realized not a long time ago, a silicon-based creature known as the [Righteous father's system: 001] had bound him. Now, he was no longer his old self.

It was said that the life of Jiang Liu was full of rich experiences.

When he was three years old, the metal framework dropped accidentally on the construction site killed his father. The contractor who had no conscience just compensated them with 20,000 yuan. And then, at the age of five, his mother finally couldn't stand the life of poverty and widowhood, eventually took all the money at home and ran away with another man.

In this way, Jiang Liu became an orphan. He then lived a bitter life with his only grandfather while relying on the relatives' pity and the neighbouring villagers.

At fourteen, his only relatives finally left him. Jiang Liu then sold the old house and used the money to give his grandfather a funeral. After that, he took the remaining cash, carrying a small bag, and stepped into the big dye tank called society.

He didn't have many qualifications since his education stopped at junior high school. Because of that, he could only pursue the same career as his father, who died early.

In the construction site, he saw the life of the people at the bottom of society. He learned how to be thick-skinned while keeping his mouth sweet. He knew how to tie the steel bars, pour the concrete, does the masonry plastering, and even the auto repairman's mechanics skill at the construction site.

Ten years later, he was already a veteran. He formed a small team based on his connections. Subsequently, his income started to go up after being a contractor.

According to Jiang Liu's life plan, since he was already making lots of money, he should be putting the task of searching for a wife on the list. For him, as long as he had enough money, a wife, and a son, then his life was settled.

Unfortunately, he could not wait until he saved enough money to ride on his dream. The small project that he was contracted with ended up having an accident. A worker got drunk after construction hours. Due to the lack of safety measures, he fell from the dozen-story high building and lost his life. The relatives and friends of that man rushed over from the countryside to ask for compensation. During the tumble, Jiang Liu finally got unlucky. He fell into the raised sharp stone and became a ghost.

During the last moment, Jiang Liu also regretted that he had spent his life like a miser for the sake of saving money. He didn't know for whose purpose that he had become such a scrooge. If he knew that he would end up this way, he would better spend his money drinking, eating, and doing all those stuff that had never been done before.

Just as he was ready to accept his death, his consciousness was taken to an outside space. A little guy named Righteous father's system: 001 appeared in front of him. Without giving him any choice, it directly bounded him as its host.

Despite all that, Jiang Liu himself did not have any intention to resist it. Although binding himself to the system meant that he needed to go to the other world to perform tasks or get the reward for every success and punished for all failure, it was still better to be alive than dead.

Jiang Liu had no great sentiment. He only knew that his consciousness was still there. He was still alive. After all, whether he would be happy in his next life was uncertain, right?

Therefore, Jiang Liu felt that it was good to be selected by 001. He had overcome many big winds and waves in his early years, and he even recently died. Therefore, is there anything that he needs to be afraid of? Isn't it just performing some tasks?

Now, looking at the situation, he had come to the first mission world.

It's just that he had yet to absorb the memory left by his original body. Therefore, if he rashly responded to others, it would likely attract people's doubts. It's just that the original body seemed to have been wounded and just woke up. Therefore, Jiang Liu closed his eyes and fell back. While lying on the wooden frame, he pretended to faint.

"Hey, how did you suddenly go dead again? Didn't you just return to the light?"

The smile turned stiff as he said something unlucky while in panic.

"Hey–"

Although the village doctor was not reliable, people on the team were convinced of his medical skills. Therefore, when he said those words, most people believed that Jiang Liu had met his demise. The black and thin older woman sat softly on the ground and cried.

"My Liu-zi, my son!"

Miao Caifeng, who was the mother of this body, started to cry loudly.

"I blame you for this misfortune. Since you entered the door, there is nothing good has happened to us. After so many years, you still haven't given my son a child. If something happened to him, then you must die with him. You're the messenger of death. You are the one who got him killed. How come that you are not dead instead of him?"

Miao Caifeng cried before she stood up and rushed to a woman who was squatted on the ground. She reached for her hair while her other hand hit the woman's body.

The woman seemed to feel no pain. Her eyes looked straight at the man with the bloodied head on her bed. There was sorrow in her eyes.

"Miao-shenzi, stop fighting. Your son is not necessarily dead. If you broke your daughter-in-law, then who will take care of our son?"

"That's right, Miao-shenzi. The stone smashed Liu-zi, and no one wished for it to happen. This has nothing to do with Xu Xiuxiu."

Everyone tried to diffuse the fight, but even then, Xu Xiuxiu already looked so miserable. The nails scratched on her face, and her arms looked red and scarred. Her hair was even worse than the chicken coop.

The villagers knew the kind of treatment that Xu Xiuxiu had to face while living with the Jiang family. The Jiang old couple finally had a pair of dragon and phoenix at their old age. As for their eldest son, they could not wait to work him like an ox. This son also knew how to be obedient. Not only did he work like an ox, but he also forced his wife to work with him while also taking care of Jiang's house.

In Jiang's family, that couple was the one who worked the most yet ate the least. Even then, from time to time, they could hear Miao-shenzi scolding the daughter-in-law, Xu Xiuxiu, as an embarrassment. As everyone said, for Xu Xiuxiu to marry into Jiang's family was likened to marrying into a wolf nest.

But what was the solution? Xu Xiuxiu's mother had died early. Because of that, her mother couldn't let her live a good life. Now that her maternal family was not here to support her, she couldn't even complain about the hurt she faced and was forced to do everything in the house.

"Leader, I can't cure this injury. Let's send him to the county hospital. It's better to be fast. Else, I am afraid that his blood will drain out."

The opening by the village doctor gave the captain a big idea.

"If you go to the county hospital to see a doctor, how much will it cost? Our family does not have that kind of money."

Miao Caifeng struggled to reach her daughter-in-law, suddenly yelled at the people on the side.

Perhaps she felt that her reaction was a bit cold as a mother; she quickly added.

"Our house was disrepair recently, so we had used our money to repair it. We even welcome this unfortunate woman in."

She looked sorrowful as she sat down and started to cry once again.

Everyone was like, you look at me, and I look at you, as they looked around.

Just looking at Miao Caifeng's crying, they thought that even if she was heartless, she should have some feelings for her eldest son. Yet, when the village doctor said they needed to send their son to the county hospital to save his life, the old lady had refused it profusely. The Jiang couple has been working all these years to earn the work points. Therefore, how could they lose even a penny? In her final analysis, Miao Caifeng felt that it was unnecessary to spend money on this son.

"Liu-zi's accident was also related to his work with the dam. I will ask the upper office to reimburse half of it. As for the rest, I heard that the hospital in the county has some regulations. You can first treat the disease and then pay the cost of treatment. As for peasants who do not have money in their hands, they will deduct it from the work points every month until they paid it off."

Big Guan was, after all, the team leader. Jiang Liu got injured while working to repair the dam. If he doesn't care about the people in his team, they might be feeling alarmed over it.

"Cure! Must let him be safe."

A loud female voice broke the quiet atmosphere.

Xu Xiuxiu stepped forward before kneeling and begging Big Guan.

"Leader's uncle, please, I beg you to open the strip. Whether or not you can save Jiang Liu, we will remember your kindness. According to the leader's uncle, let's deduct it from the work points for the treatment's cost. As long as I am alive, I promised to pay off the debt."

Xu Xiuxiu had thought about it. Despite their hard work, all those benefits they should receive have never reached their husbands and wives' hands. Even though Jiang Liu was blinded by filial piety, he does not habitually hit his wife like many men in the country. Once Jiang Liu dead, she will inevitably be forced to remarry by her family. As a woman who could not conceive for a decade, her choice to remarriage might bring even more disaster to herself.

In contrast to this, it was better to send Jiang Liu to see a doctor. When the brigade owed the hospital money, her mother-in-law could not force her to remarry. Also, the team might not even agree to it.

Her life amounted to that, and Xu Xiuxiu's face was so heavy that she felt there was no point even to get angry.

"If the leader is willing to owe them money, then it's okay for us."

When Miao Caifeng initially heard the words of her daughter-in-law, her face suddenly turned ugly. Her daughter-in-law seemed to imply that she, as a mother, would stop her son from seeing a doctor. So she could only grudgingly agree.

But that was the county hospital. Who knows how much money they will spend on treating that injury. Miao Caifeng was afraid that this would become a debt to the whole family, dragging the younger son, Jiang Juan, and her daughter, Jiang Hua.

Everyone also guessed her careful thoughts. Looking at the silent old Jiang, everyone's heart was getting more disdainful of this bias couple.

"Then quickly put him on the oxcart."

Big Guan no longer delays. He quickly called his son to drive the oxcart. He then took some money and meal tickets before following Xu Xiuxiu to sit on the oxcart.

Jiang Chuangen and Miao Caifeng seemed to be afraid of going to the hospital. They were worried that they might get forced to fork out their own money, so they decisively moved to the side.

When Big Guan saw their action, he let his son quickly drive the oxcart and no longer wait for the partial Jiang old couple.

"My family is bitter. Blame me for being a useless mother. My heart, ah, it's like being cut by a knife."

Even if the oxcart has gone far, the people on the oxcart could still hear Miao Caifeng wailing at them. She was acting as if she was afraid that some people would not know that she felt "painful" over her decision.

The people on the cart were worried; therefore, no one saw a sardonic smile that appeared on Jiang Liu's face, which should have been in a [coma].