Chen Ming lowered his head and said in a muffled voice, "Since when do you stick up for someone like Tian Sangsang?"
Chen Ying replied, "I'm not sticking up for Tian Sangsang. I stand by whoever's right. If someone's unreasonable, I just look down on them. And today's incident—don't think for a second that Tian Tian is unaware; that's impossible!"
"How is that impossible?" Chen Ming's expression shifted slightly, his gaze wandering. "Tian Tian isn't that kind of person. Look at how she acted earlier—she genuinely seemed clueless about the whole thing."
"And you believe that? Brother, that's bias! You're letting love blind you!" Chen Ying looked at him worriedly, pouting. "I don't like their family, period."
"I know what you're saying. What their family did today was wrong," Chen Ming admitted, showing his kind-hearted nature. The scene earlier had deeply angered him. "But Tian Tian is Tian Tian; her family is her family. I'm in love with Tian Tian, not her family."
"Brother, what kind of nonsense logic is that? Can't you open your eyes for once?" Chen Ying stomped her foot in frustration. She knew Tian Tian wasn't great, but her brother refused to see it. Saying too much might strain their sibling bond, so she could only fret helplessly!
Since Meng Shuyan was bored at home every day, Tian Sangsang deliberately found something for him to do. Truth be told, it wasn't just Meng Shuyan being bored—children in rural areas who weren't yet in school during this era were all bored. Simply put, there was no electricity, no TV, no entertainment activities. A group of mischievous kids gathered to play wildly, with rarely anyone teaching them proper manners. So, they were already half a step behind city kids from the starting line. Moreover, even when kids started school, they couldn't focus entirely on studying—they still had chores to do at home.
Tian Sangsang went to the Plane to redeem some items, aiming for things practical and down-to-earth. A pencil, an eraser, a fountain pen, a bottle of ink, a Pinyin practice book, and a Calligraphy Grid exercise book for practicing strokes and Chinese characters. When Meng Shuyan saw the items, he couldn't hide his happiness and obediently sat down to practice writing.
Inside the Plane, by the crystal-clear Spiritual Spring, Tian Sangsang sighed for the hundred-and-first time.
"Why am I so dark-skinned? Is this the Queen's curse? Maybe I'm actually Snow White!"
"Whitening, I have to whiten my skin!"
The study was filled with books of every kind and subject—classical texts, folklore and supernatural tales, discussions on illnesses and diagnoses, along with several books on skincare and beauty techniques, all written in classical Chinese. Tian Sangsang skimmed through the contents and got the gist. The ancients valued the power of nature, holding both reverence and fear toward it. Many of their remedies, home remedies, and uses for plants were not to be underestimated. Of course, these whitening methods wouldn't yield quick results—they required long-term perseverance to take effect. And these formulas, passed down through generations, were based on principles everyone understands, though certain materials and plants were often hard to come by.
Tian Sangsang first consulted the "Space User Manual" and found a specific rule stating that the soil within the Plane had a catalyzing effect. In other words, if a plant had certain properties, growing it in this soil would enhance its effects to five times or more what it would achieve in ordinary soil.
She needed whitening methods. Modern commercial whitening products wouldn't work. Those products were only effective for maintaining or mildly enhancing an already fair complexion—they couldn't make a naturally dark-skinned person miraculously pale. Laser whitening wasn't available in this era either, and even if it were, it sounded far too gimmicky!
So, as long as she found flowers with whitening properties, planted them in the Plane soil, and combined them with formulas that utilized the Spiritual Spring, the whitening effects would surely be extraordinary.
Tian Sangsang grabbed some paper and a pen and outlined several steps for achieving her whitening goals:
Step One: Pay attention to diet. Eat more vitamin-C-rich fruits and vegetables like lemons, guavas, hawthorns, and fresh leafy greens.
Step Two: Prioritize rest and sleep. This wasn't an issue in the 80s—there were no smartphones or computers, so late-night habits were rare.
Step Three: Protect skin from the sun when going outdoors. She specifically spent 588 green utility credits to redeem a bottle of sunscreen—not overly expensive, but anything pricier was currently out of reach.
Step Four: The most important—focus on external maintenance.
External maintenance had two components: the area above the neck and the area below. The face could be cared for through cleansing and natural whitening masks. As for the body, it required bathing and post-bath routines. Bathing consisted of two stages: during the bath and after the bath. After bathing, she still needed to apply essential oils with whitening properties.
Flipping through books, Tian Sangsang jotted down a list of necessary materials:
For bathing: Milk and honey were indispensable, but she didn't trust the supermarket versions, which were often artificially produced and not purely natural. If possible, she considered redeeming several cows to raise in the Plane herself—freshly milked, natural and pure. Essential oils could also be used in baths, ideally self-extracted essentials like peach blossom, rose, and jasmine. Wild daisies also had subtle whitening effects, though not for essential oils—they worked better brewed as tea.
For facial masks: Bananas, milk, cucumbers, eggs, pearl powder, lemons, and other ingredients—these could all essentially be made by herself.
Tian Sangsang stepped outside, stretched her sturdy waistline, and took a deep breath of fresh air. The sunshine was warm, clouds lazily floating, mountains lush, waters clear, and the sky like a polished gem. Add a few more creatures flying, chirping, and blooming, and the scene would be even more idyllic.
Her garden still had too few flowers—a mere handful of varieties she'd collected previously: wild daisies, sunflowers, rabbit's ear, and lilac.
On a few bamboo trays scattered in the yard lay drying white daisies, their petals softly curled, looking ready to be gathered. Tian Sangsang had been occupied with this project for days, keeping them at home for tea-making. They were excellent for relieving heat, detoxifying, quenching thirst, soothing the nerves—an unbeatable remedy indeed.
The shimmering Plane could undergo transformations. Tian Sangsang had learned that her green utility credits could redeem items not only from modern times but also from other spatiotemporal dimensions. For instance, the screen currently displayed a catalog with cows, each clearly priced.
The Plane offerings were far too sparse, and her green credits not enough. Tian Sangsang tidied up, grabbed her backpack filled with a kitchen knife, sickle, and hemp rope, deciding to venture deep into the back mountain. Villagers said wild boars roamed the area, but based on her knowledge, they were usually active at night, not daytime. Besides, she had her Plane to retreat to—if there was any sign of danger, she could simply dash back to the safe space.