62: Chapter 51 Historical Debt 62: Chapter 51 Historical Debt The next day, the school had five more kids with green noses and swollen faces, and the students all curiously gathered around to watch.
It’s not surprising that they found it odd; Mr.
Zhuang’s management was always strict, and the most serious conflict in the school usually was just verbal spats.
The last fight happened outside the school, and it was mainly caused by two outsiders—Bai Shan and Second Son.
This time was quite different, though.
Some students asked Bai Erlang, while others quietly asked Manbao, “Did you guys get into a fight?”
Manbao didn’t see anything shameful about it and nodded, “We did.”
However, she also knew fighting was bad, and she knew it was best to be the first to report it.
So she said, “They started it first, and even set an ambush!”
That prompted a classmate to ask curiously, “Why did you guys fight?”
Manbao paused, touched her head, and wondered—yeah, why did they fight?
So she turned around, dragging Bai Shan with her to find Bai Erlang, and asked, “Why did you hit us?”
Bai Erlang had been beaten and scolded the night before, and his face couldn’t look sourer.
But after being re-educated by his grandma, dad, and mom, he realized he could no longer fight with Bai Shan in the future.
Otherwise, he would definitely face backlash and punishment from his grandma, his dad, and even his mom.
So, when he heard Manbao’s question, his face turned even sourer.
He said, “What’s it to you?
I was only targeting him.
You deserved it for getting involved.”
Manbao looked at him, then at Bai Shan, and gave Bai Erlang a snort.
She had a recent grudge with Bai Shan, but that had already been resolved.
More importantly, after what they went through together yesterday, she felt their relationship had gone from just deskmates to good friends.
So facing Bai Erlang, with whom she had had a long-standing feud, Manbao unhesitatingly took Bai Shan’s side and pulled him aside to quietly offer some advice, “When is your family going to build the house?
I can get my big brother and second brother to help out.”
She said, “Bai Erlang is a meanie, and if you live with his family, you might be bullied without anyone noticing.
Plus, as a guest, it’s not good to fight with the hosts.
It’ll be better once you move out.
If he bullies you then, I’ll have my great-nephew help you fight back.”
And she added, “If my great-nephew can’t beat him, I’ve still got Fifth Brother and Sixth Brother.
Let me tell you, my Sixth Brother is awesome at fighting—no kid in the whole village can beat him.”
Bai Shan also no longer wanted to live at his uncle’s house, feeling it was very inconvenient, so he whispered to Manbao, “My grandma is choosing a location.
I heard from my mom that if things move quickly, we might be able to move out before the New Year.”
Bai Shan had never seen a house being built and thought moving before the New Year was quite soon, but not Manbao.
She exclaimed, “That long, huh?
Tell your grandma to hurry and choose a place.
I’ll talk to my dad about it.
When the time comes, I’ll get my big brother and them all to help.
I have six brothers, after all.
Just call some more people from the village, and we can build your house in three to five days.”
“Not fast, not fast,” Manbao said, “Last time the village chief needed to build a house for Sanzhu to get married, my big brother and the others pitched in, and they got it built in just two days.”
Obviously, Manbao had no idea that not all houses were the same.
Nor did Bai Shan, who was eagerly waiting for school to end.
He collected the homework he was punished with from Mr.
Zhuang and hurried home.
Zhuang wasn’t blind; seeing five students turn up with bruised and swollen faces, he immediately knew they had been fighting.
After inquiring, he learned it was a private brawl, so he issued another round of punishments.
Bai Erlang and the other two boys received their punishments with bitter faces, but Manbao and Bai Shan were unusually excited because both children felt that studying involved writing anyway.
What kind of punishment was this?
The two of them went home happily.
Manbao was particularly diligent today.
First, she organized Datou, Daya, and the others, teaching them a few characters and reciting four lines of the Thousand Character Classic.
Then she stood by idly.
She checked the marketplace again and saw that green liquid, asking longingly, “Keke, can’t you just give it to me on credit?”
The system, feeling helpless, said, “Host, I can only connect to the marketplace.
Transactions are completed through a third party.
If I had that many points, I could buy it and lend it to you on credit.
Then you could pay me back with points later.
But the problem now is that I don’t have that many points either.”
The system didn’t mind letting Manbao see its own points because there weren’t many to begin with.
It had encountered a space storm during deployment, and that was how it accidentally ended up here.
After contacting the main system, the main system told it that the space channel to this region hadn’t been opened and would cost a substantial number of points to do so.
Logically, these points should have been paid by the host.
But at that time, where would its host get points?
Without points, the channel wouldn’t open, and the things it collected couldn’t be returned to the encyclopedia.
Therefore, the system couldn’t determine the points it and the host should receive.
This nearly turned into a vicious cycle.
The most frightening aspect was that because the channel couldn’t open, and it had already spent a lot of energy preserving itself in the storm, it was no longer able to return on its own.
So Keke had no choice but to spend its own points to open the channel, then parceled itself into the highest IQ person it detected nearby.
At the time, it was so confused that it didn’t even get a good look at Manbao.
It just focused on her soul—how was it to know she was a child?
But a child was still a child, and at least it was a legitimate match.
The channel was opened, and even if Manbao couldn’t pay back the cost of the channel, the system would eventually be reclaimed upon her death and not be lost wandering through space.
For intelligent systems like itself, if they can’t generate revenue for the interstellar community, they will definitely be disconnected from the main system.
Once disconnected, that’s almost as good as being dead.
So, really, it didn’t have points to help Manbao.
The points it had recently scrounged up to tempt Manbao with sugar were squeezed out of every nook and cranny, but of course, Manbao had just paid those back not long ago.
She also celebrated moving from having negative assets to positive ones.
Just like Manbao, Keke had great confidence in her.
Because in a short period of time, she not only achieved positive asset growth but also successfully opened the marketplace.
It meant that her host had significant potential for growth.
The current predicament was only because her host was still too young.
It would be better when she grew up a little more.
As for Manbao’s personality, Keke, who had grown up with her, considered itself to understand her best.
She was the type who would dig in her heels when pushed and step back when persuaded.
But she had one merit: if there was a profit to be made, she would go for it.
That profit had to be something she liked, something delicious, fun, beneficial for her family, or something her family really needed urgently.
Keke thought it might dangle that tube of medicine in front of Manbao but realized the required points were too many, seemingly without end in sight.
So it said, “Manbao, the rooster you bought for your mother has been eaten up.
According to the doctor, your mother’s underlying issue is anemia, so she needs nutritional supplements.
If you can ensure that she eats meat every day, your mother’s health should greatly improve, at least until you earn enough points to buy that medicine.”
Upon hearing this, Manbao started counting out her copper coins from the system, finding that buying a chicken was still possible.
So she was about to take the money to find her second brother when the system reminded her, “Your family might be reluctant to buy a chicken.”
Manbao paused, tilted her head to think, then tucked the coins into her pocket and walked out.