Chapter 83: Where Can You Find a Good Woman Like Me

The old woman broke the bowl, then, putting on a display of utter heartbreak, began to weep again, as though unable to decide whether she mourned the loss of the egg custard or the absence of the long-desired grandson. The man, meanwhile, pointed at his wife, who had just given birth and was still lying in bed, and unleashed a torrent of abuse.

"You bring nothing but misfortune!"

"How could I have been so blind as to marry someone as cursed as you!"

"What do you think?"

He Luo Jade Tome asked.

"What do I think about what?" Xu Nuo replied, a smile in her eyes, her hands gently cradling the child in her arms.

"You will encounter every hardship that life can offer," said the Jade Tome.

It was easy enough to imagine getting everything one desired: just fulfill every longing, and all is well. But what if the opposite were true, and every path was fraught with misfortune and difficulty?

"In this world, gaining something is far more difficult than losing it. Yet here, the opposite is true. With a single thought, whatever you desire can be brought before you," continued the Jade Tome. "But you have chosen another path." Its voice grew distant, almost dreamlike. "If you can break free from this fate of endless loss, then you will be able to leave this place and return to the real world."

…

When the familiar figure appeared upon the jade-like pages, Lu Chiyuan's pupils widened involuntarily. He stared, transfixed. "She chose the trial?"

"As you can see. She won't be coming out… What are you planning to do?"

In the blink of an eye, the Jade Tome was in Lu Chiyuan’s hand. His gaze was stubborn. "I want to go in."

Xu Qingyin sneered coldly. "Fool's talk."

Lu Chiyuan replied, "If I don't try, how will I know?"

Xu Qingyin did nothing to stop him as he acted.

.

Back in the book, after hearing the Jade Tome's explanation, Xu Nuo, expressionless, gently placed the child on the bed.

"What are you doing? You're just a frail woman who has just given birth. For the child's sake, you should endure—"

"Endure my foot." Xu Nuo grabbed a three-legged stool and swung it directly at the man who was still cursing her.

He never expected his wife to act like this; caught off guard, he took the blow full in the face.

"Aaah!"

She had shown no mercy; her newly-introduced husband lasted less than an hour before collapsing to the floor.

"You! You cursed wretch, you dare to hit me!" The old woman was startled, watching Xu Nuo advance upon her. "You dare? You dare strike me? I’m your mother-in-law!"

"Such wickedness—daughter-in-law attacking her husband and mother-in-law! Call the constables! Is no one going to do anything?"

Xu Nuo paid no heed to the old woman's threats and brought the stool down again.

Having witnessed her son take a hit, the old woman was prepared this time and managed to dodge. Xu Nuo, however, already exhausted from the exertion, swayed unsteadily, and the stool fell from her grasp, leaving her looking thoroughly spent.

Seeing this, the old woman regained her confidence and snatched up a stool, intent on striking back.

Xu Nuo dodged aside and slapped the old woman hard across the face.

"Smack—smack—"

She struck the left cheek, then the right, leaving the old woman's wrinkled face bright red and comical, like a monkey’s behind.

“You’re rebelling! This is rebellion!” the old woman screamed, running for the door. But it was too late—Xu Nuo threw herself on her, and though she was weak, she still outweighed the old woman.

The woman nearly suffocated under the weight, tears streaming down her face. "Oh, what a curse, marrying a shrew like you!"

Xu Nuo, mustering her strength, tied up the struggling old woman with a sash, then bound the unconscious man tightly as well, before searching the room.

The Jade Tome watched, stunned. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for a knife," Xu Nuo answered tersely.

The Jade Tome’s voice trembled, "What for?"

007 also repeated anxiously, "Host, what do you need a knife for?"

"To clear the level quickly," said Xu Nuo. "In my many years of gaming, I’ve found that these kinds of challenges can’t be solved by conventional means—"

"Found it." Xu Nuo finally located a rusty kitchen knife in the kitchen.

"Mother… Mother…" At this moment, a tightly closed door creaked open and three small faces peeked out, gazing fearfully at their mother—who, covered in blood and holding a knife, looked cold and unfeeling.

"Good girls," Xu Nuo was charmed by her three daughters’ anxious stares, and smiled tenderly at them. Terrified, they retreated behind the door.

Xu Nuo returned to the chaotic birthing room. Without hesitation, she brought the knife down first on the old woman, who was still cursing.

The Jade Tome was speechless.

Her worthless husband soon followed, sent to the next world with a single stroke.

007: [……]

Xu Nuo slumped onto the bed, wiped the sweat from her brow, and said, "Done. Next level."

The Jade Tome was silent for a long moment.

"What, did I not do well enough? Don’t tell me I haven’t passed," Xu Nuo said.

"You… you’ve cleared half," the Jade Tome managed to say.

It would conjure up the most difficult trials from a person’s life, based on their identity. Xu Nuo, as a mortal woman, naturally experienced the hardships most likely to befall such a woman: marrying the wrong man, a cruel mother-in-law, pressure to bear a son. Each of these could be fatal blows to an ordinary woman. Others had taken the test before, but none had ever cleared half of it in less than an hour—most simply endured, and eventually prevailed through sheer persistence.

Only Xu Nuo could do something so outrageous: eliminating two sources of pain in one fell swoop, instantly completing half the trial.

"What’s left for the other half?" Xu Nuo asked, wrinkling her nose at the smell of blood. "Wasn’t this supposed to be a romance game? What’s with all this dreary family drama?"

She told 007, "Make sure to tweak this before the official launch. People come here for romance, not pointless domestic squabbles—it’s really off-putting."

007 answered with difficulty: [Your suggestion is great, host, but you weren’t supposed to experience any of this. This was meant to be the male lead’s plotline.]

And what on earth did you do before, to handle a knife so skillfully and decisively?!

Xu Nuo thought of something else and asked, "By the way, what was the original plot? What about Lu Chiyuan—"

At that moment, the Jade Tome spoke up. "You’ve only dealt with this mother and son; the rest of the troubles remain. And having killed them, you’ll face the threat of prison, not to mention four young daughters to raise…"

Xu Nuo fell silent, then calmly told 007, "When I get out, I’d like to have a word with your game designers."

007 shuddered: No, I’m afraid you’ll knife the designers too.

"I have another suggestion," Xu Nuo said, adapting quickly to the survival-game twist. "Add a few handsome, romanceable male characters to this scenario. The ones from before looked promising…"

As she talked, urgent footsteps sounded outside the door. Instantly silent, she gripped the kitchen knife tightly.

Smelling blood, Lu Chiyuan quickened his pace, and without thinking, kicked open the door. Suddenly, he felt a chill at his neck and reacted instantly.

"It’s me." Xu Nuo looked calmly at the sword tip pointing at her eyes and lowered her knife.

"Miss Xu." Lu Chiyuan looked at her: she wore coarse linen, was spattered with blood, and radiated an unfriendly aura. Though she appeared battered, she was unhurt.

Xu Nuo also studied him. He now looked like a young man, still wore his unremarkable mask, and his presence was as imposing as ever.

Xu Nuo asked the system, "Is this really Lu Chiyuan, or just a projection from the Jade Tome?"

007 gave no answer.

Lu Chiyuan entered, glanced at the two corpses, but said nothing. Xu Nuo explained the situation briefly.

"…We have to resolve all the difficulties before we can leave," she said, spreading her hands helplessly. "No one’s life is free from regrets."

Then she asked, "How did you get in, and why do you look like this?"

"I came to help you," Lu Chiyuan replied, silently cleaning up the blood. "I don’t know why I’m grown up; I entered and was like this."

Xu Nuo directed, "Don’t destroy the evidence yet; make it look like an accident."

Unlike Xu Nuo, who entered as a mortal, Lu Chiyuan retained his cultivation and abilities, so with his help, the birthing room was soon cleaned.

That spring, the wife of the Zhang family at the village entrance bore another baby girl, and that very day, Zhang Dalang and his mother drowned while fishing in the river for her nourishment. White cloth hung over the Zhang family’s door that night.

Lu Chiyuan’s arrival was a help, but not entirely positive. As the Jade Tome put it, both of them now had to pass through their own trials to leave.

"What is your trial?" Xu Nuo asked as they sat at a table laden with fragrant food. Xu Nuo, now dressed in clean clothes, cradled the newborn in her arms, flanked by three little girls, chatting with this man who had suddenly appeared in their home.

"I don’t know," Lu Chiyuan replied, genuine confusion in his eyes. "Since I arrived, I haven’t encountered any personal challenges."

"Well, we’ll take it as it comes," Xu Nuo said. She wasn’t in a hurry, but 007 had been silent for most of the day. She wasn’t sure if it was due to some accident or if the system was sulking, but unease gnawed at her.

Her instincts told her it wasn’t just 007’s absence, but she couldn’t pinpoint any other reason.

Lu Chiyuan habitually lifted his chopsticks to serve her food, only to meet several pairs of anxious eyes.

The mask, the unfamiliar gaze—startled, the little girls huddled close to their mother.

"Mama!"

Several pairs of small hands clutched at Xu Nuo’s sleeve, forcing her to set down her spoon. "What is it, darlings?"

The girls exchanged glances, until finally the eldest, not yet ten, gathered her courage. "Mama, who is this?"

"He’s a big brother who came to help us. You may call him Brother Lu."

"Brother Lu… Hello, Brother Lu."

Except for his own childhood, Lu Chiyuan had never interacted with children. Awkwardly, he raised his hand and gently patted the little girl’s head. "…Hello."

Xu Nuo beamed. "Aren’t they adorable, my little ones?"

"Mm." Lu Chiyuan looked away, uncomfortable.

Xu Nuo filled her daughters’ bowls with meat. "Try Brother Lu’s cooking."

Children are easily distracted, and the aroma of meat soon drew their attention. With two family members gone, the house’s formerly tense atmosphere gradually thawed, and dinner was warm and lively.

After the meal, new problems arose. "I have no money," Xu Nuo said.

Lu Chiyuan checked his storage space. "I didn’t bring any either." In this mortal world conjured by the Jade Tome, their belongings couldn’t be traded for money.

The newborn needed milk, but Xu Nuo—though nominally the mother—hadn’t truly experienced childbirth and couldn’t nurse. The old woman’s stash of eggs for the grandson wouldn’t last long.

The cheap husband and mother-in-law’s funerals could be handled simply, but there were still three small children to support—a heavy burden.

Xu Nuo muttered, "Wasn’t this supposed to be a romance game?"

[You never seemed to treat it as one to begin with.]

"Little Seven, you’re finally back." Xu Nuo was delighted. "Do you know what it’s been like without you?"

007’s childish electronic voice sounded weary beyond its years. [My dearest host, a bug occurred earlier, and I was forced offline.]

"Is it fixed now?"

[No.]

"What will happen then?"

[The plot is out of control.]

"Is that all?"

Don’t take a plot out of control so lightly! 007 wanted to shake its host by the shoulders and beg her to take this seriously, but then remembered that this host, who never respected the storyline and delighted in chaos, was behaving exactly as usual.

But as a diligent system, it had to warn her of the seriousness.

[This kind of plot loss of control is different from what you’ve experienced before…] It wasn’t due to host interference, but other, uncontrollable factors. In short, the current situation was unpredictable, unstoppable, and unchangeable.

007’s tone was bleak. [I tried to report to the main system…]

"Can you restart?" Xu Nuo asked.

[No, we’ve lost contact with the central control system.] 007 nearly sobbed. [We’re completely cut off, no help from heaven or earth.]

Xu Nuo considered. "Why did this bug appear out of nowhere? Was that previous map also the result of a bug?"

007 grew nervous. [Maybe, probably.]

"So you’re not the one ‘cheating’ then," Xu Nuo said coolly.

[Me? Cheat? I would never do something so unprofessional! It’s just a bug, just an accident.]

"Is that so?" Xu Nuo’s voice was meaningful. "That flying sword you let me borrow in the last world, and those quests you let me complete ahead of time…"

[You must be misremembering, QAQ]

"Don’t use emojis to play cute."

[Whimper, whimper.]

"Tell me the truth. What’s really going on?"

It was time for an accounting. 007 hemmed and hawed, but couldn’t get past its host’s intimidation and confessed.

[Actually… I used a little tech, tweaked some data. I don’t usually do this, only when necessary, and always for your sake…] 007 was nearly in tears. [But what I did shouldn’t have caused such a big bug.]

Xu Nuo was unmoved by the system’s dramatic performance. "Honestly, what did you change?"

007 grudgingly admitted: [A little about the character settings. The original work was actually a male-oriented novel. The tech team had a friend of mine…] The system explained: the original novel was not a romance, but to boost performance, two friends in the system had reworked it into a romance game, with small tweaks here and there.

Maybe it was this lack of official safety checks that created such a huge loophole.

Boldness born of skill—Xu Nuo couldn’t help giving them a thumbs up. Then another question occurred to her: "Will our conversation just now be broadcast live?"

007 sounded a bit proud: [No, due to the bug, the live feed is also malfunctioning.]

To avoid being distracted by endless comments, Xu Nuo often turned off the barrage. She now switched it back on, only to find the screen utterly empty—the usual chaos of commentary gone.

She couldn’t see the number of viewers, nor the room’s ranking, nor any changes to the gifts page.

Xu Nuo remained calm. "This counts as a workplace accident. Can I apply for compensation?"

[That’s hard to say, host. For now, let’s focus on contacting the outside world.]

"There’s still the important issue," Xu Nuo said. "I’m trapped in the Jade Tome, and who knows when I’ll get out. Looks like I need to hurry up."

[Then I’ll keep trying to contact headquarters,] 007 said weakly.

.

Dongtian Sect.

Several days had passed since Xu Nuo and the servant disciple escaped, yet there was still not a trace of them. The matter, neither too big nor too small, hung over the sect like a storm cloud.

Investigation revealed that the high-grade immortal artifact in Xu Nuo’s possession was not sect property. How could a mortal possess such a thing except by the hand of her ancestor, the reclusive Cloud Veil Immortal? Clearly, she was not as unimportant to her ancestor as she appeared; otherwise, how could they explain her cold reception upon joining, her ostracism by fellow disciples, the false accusation of theft, and her subsequent disappearance, her fate unknown?

Cloud Veil Immortal was the sect’s most senior and powerful member, a figure of unparalleled status, protector of the sect for centuries.

Yet they had neglected the last mortal scion of her blood, resulting in her disappearance. Who among them could bear this responsibility?

"Wait!" The vice sect leader stroked his beard and suddenly slapped his thigh. "I’ve got it!"

"What are you shouting about, old man? What did you figure out?"

"We’ve searched everywhere and found no trace—they must still be in the sect."

"And why do you say that?"

They had turned the sect upside down; if the missing pair were still within, surely they would have been discovered by now.

The vice sect leader pronounced, "The ancient secret realm."

A shiver ran through the crowd. "They entered the secret realm?"

But that place was strictly forbidden—so few had entered in all these years. How could anyone think of such a place?

"They must be there. Where else could they hide?" The vice sect leader was either confident or desperate; every other possibility had been exhausted.

"But who could open the realm?"

It was one thing to suggest it, quite another to carry it out.

The atmosphere grew heavy once more.

The vice sect leader rubbed his brow. "Why despair? If none of us can do it, surely Cloud Veil Immortal can?"

Having lost the Immortal’s last blood relative, they all felt guilty at the very mention of her name. Who would dare trouble her to clean up their mess?

"In any case, it’s our only option now," the vice sect leader declared. Delay would only worsen matters, and no one dared object.

.

With the river waters still cold in early spring, Xu Nuo clapped the water from her hands, then breathed warm air onto her palms.

"Mama! Mama, Brother Lu caught lots of fish—we get fish soup again tonight!"

The eldest girl laughed with pure joy.

"Shameless, isn’t she—her own man dead less than a week and already she’s found a new one."

"Aunt Zhao, I agree. Who knows what trick she used to reel in such a sturdy, capable man? And yet that cursed woman has him wrapped around her finger. Just look at her, popping out nothing but worthless girls, and even brought misfortune to her husband and mother-in-law. How unlucky."

"Didn’t you see that man’s mask? Must be hideous under there. Otherwise, with his strength and skills, why would he stick to that unlucky woman?"

A group of women washed clothes on the opposite bank, whispering low enough to think themselves discreet, but not escaping the sharp ears of Xu Nuo and her perceptive eldest daughter.

The girl’s face fell immediately, her lips trembling as she struggled not to cry—angry and aggrieved, but too timid to argue with the women.

At first she had tried to argue, but only ended up more embarrassed and ashamed.

Xu Nuo comforted her gently. "Never mind them. Tonight, we’ll have something delicious—Brother Lu is making braised fish."

Seeing her mother so unbothered, the girl felt even more aggrieved on her behalf. She knew, of course, that there was nothing improper between her mother and Brother Lu.

But unable to hold it in, she poured out her heart at home.

Xu Nuo sighed inwardly. If only things weren’t so proper between her and Lu Chiyuan. This man’s affection meter was stubbornly stuck at ten—the same as when they started.

Three times a day, she asked the system if the bug was preventing affection updates.

007 felt its professionalism insulted and assured her every time that there was no issue: if it couldn’t detect affection changes, it might as well go join the “hopeless romantic” department.

Xu Nuo reluctantly believed it, which only meant her progress was abysmally slow.

"Why doesn’t he fall for me?" she wondered.

007 quipped, [Perhaps because most normal men wouldn’t be attracted to a woman who’s borne four children and personally knifed her husband.]

Xu Nuo frowned in mock misery. "He doesn’t love me?"

[He does not.]

"But he treats me so well!" Xu Nuo recounted, blissfully, "He fishes for me, makes soup, chops wood, hunts, cooks, helps me with the children…"

"If he does all that, how could it not be love? I don’t believe it. He must just be shy."

007 refused to play along. [Maybe he’s just repaying a debt.]

Xu Nuo, lost in her own romantic fantasy, insisted, "I don’t believe it. He must love me."

007 sighed. A closed environment could indeed change a person. Its host, who never cared about the target’s feelings and relished chaos, was now obsessed with whether he loved her. Looking back on all the times it had tiptoed around her antics, 007 wasn’t sure if this was good or bad—at least she wasn’t causing trouble for now!

Life in the Jade Tome was peaceful. Xu Nuo thought it would last, but the Jade Tome itself spoke up, saying she had already overcome nearly all of her hardships.

"So soon?" Xu Nuo was incredulous. "But I haven’t done anything."

The Jade Tome sounded listless. "That’s got little to do with what you do."

On the surface, she seemed serene and indifferent to the villagers’ gossip, but she’d turned around and had Lu Chiyuan curse those who slandered her—one bad word, one day of bad luck. Her children were angelic, never causing trouble, and her only job was to feed them.

With Lu Chiyuan doing all the dirty and hard work, she was left with nothing to do but care for the baby.

Seeing her own progress nearly complete, Xu Nuo asked Lu Chiyuan, "How’s your trial going?"

"Almost done," he replied.

"Almost? How much is left? We can’t keep playing house and raising kids forever. I’d feel bad putting you to so much trouble."

007 interjected, [Host, do you even know what guilt is?]

"Don’t make me sound like some heartless boss. I care about him: I teach him cultivation techniques, oversee his training, make him exercise daily. Where else will you find a woman as good as me?"

007 could stand it no longer. [Shameless.]

Xu Nuo accepted the insult without flinching. "To me, that’s a compliment."