The village chief said, "Haitang is the divine maiden for this sacrifice. By custom, she must live for six days as a bride. Since there's a bride, of course we also need a bridegroom..."
As the only female player, Sun Qi asked, "Chief, could you not be so strict about gender?"
Her words drew a burst of laughter from the villagers present, and the chief said awkwardly, "That might not work."
The chief cleared his throat and returned to the point: "The bride and bridegroom will live in the house beside the San Niang Temple, and every morning they must burn incense to San Niang together. But there is one thing to note: you are not truly husband and wife, and you must not consummate the marriage."
When the chief finished, the villagers all began to tease again. Haitang covered her face with both hands, shaking her head continuously, and between her fingers a patch of rosy red showed.
The chief cut off the commotion: "Now, who among you is willing to become the bridegroom? Of course, in the end it is Haitang who chooses."
Li Si asked, "Chief, what does the bridegroom have to do?"
The chief answered, "Nothing. Haitang is very hardworking and can do all the housework."
Li Si immediately said, "I'm willing," and raised his hand.
Glasses Zhang San and crew-cut Zhao Liu both raised their hands, which made Ding Shi, who didn't raise his hand, the odd one out, and everyone couldn't help looking at Ding Shi. Ding Shi said apologetically, "I already have a fiancée, and she's a real she-lion."
The villagers didn't understand. "What's a she-lion?"
It occurred to him that the film hadn't been released yet at that time. Ding Shi explained, "Fierce temper, won't put up with any nonsense."
A woman laughed. "It means she's a jealous one."
Everyone laughed heartily, and the atmosphere was very friendly.
The real reason: Ding Shi had always believed the adage "there is no such thing as a free lunch." The bridegroom's role was too good—each day he only had to burn a stick of incense, and he could coast along doing nothing, with such a pretty young girl by his side as a nanny. Not to mention anything else, with Haitang's graceful figure and beautiful face, he could eat a few extra bites of food.
The chief said, "Haitang, it's your turn to choose."
Haitang lowered her hands, blushing, swept her gaze over the group, and her eyes suddenly fixed on Glasses Zhang San's face. Handsome features, refined and scholarly, with a smile on his face—completely different from the village's crude roughnecks. In an instant she felt her heart flutter. Without hesitation, Haitang pointed at Glasses Zhang San, then continued to cover her face, shy.
A system notification appeared for Zhang San: You have become the bridegroom of Haitang in Taoyuan Village. Side quest complete.
Zhang San gave Haitang a faint smile. Haitang showed all the bashfulness of a young girl, and responded with a slight nod.
The chief gestured for everyone to look at the second villager, a woman around ninety: "Grandma Wang's health is poor. She needs an honorary grandson or honorary granddaughter to help handle some matters."
Li Si asked again, "What are some matters?"
The chief said, "Grandma Wang's son and his family are all in the county town. Her son is a big leader at the bus station, and his wife contracted the bus station's cafeteria. As the honorary grandson, you must deliver a jar of pickled vegetables to the minibus driver every day, and the driver will transfer it."
No one raised a hand. The reason was that Grandma Wang was too old; everyone was reluctant to live with an elderly person they had no relation to.
A villager reminded them, "Grandma Wang's house has meat to eat every day."
The chief explained: each day the minibus travels from the county town to Taoyuan Village, and then from Taoyuan Village back to the county town. The daughter-in-law who contracted the bus station cafeteria had to get up early to buy ingredients, and each day she would cut one or two jin of meat and ask the driver to bring it to Taoyuan Village. The driver would then bring Taoyuan Village's pickled vegetables back to the bus station and hand them to the daughter-in-law.
As soon as meat was mentioned, Ding Shi and the others immediately thought of the steamed buns that were as hard as stone and needed to be chewed dozens of times before they could be swallowed. Everyone except Ding Shi shot their hands up.
This time Ding Shi's reason for refusing was simple: he didn't like living with an unrelated old person, and he didn't want to eat food cooked by such an old person. Moreover, there was discrimination and disdain involved: he believed women of that age had poor hygiene habits, and she might use a bamboo strip in the outhouse one moment and then tear chicken apart with her bare hands the next.
Grandma Wang, smiling, looked around for a while, pointed at Zhao Liu, and Zhao Liu obtained the identity of honorary grandson.
Now only Li Si, Ding Shi, and Sun Qi remained without an identity.
The chief raised the cane in his hand and said, "My legs aren't good, and the village has many big matters. I need someone to run errands for me. So I need an assistant."
Li Si asked, "What does the assistant need to do?"
The chief answered, "Whatever needs to be done, that's what you do."
Li Si and Sun Qi exchanged a glance, and neither of them moved. Ding Shi raised his hand, and the chief nodded: "Good, you'll do."
The reason Ding Shi chose this: he couldn't stay cooped up, and he was happy to have a legitimate excuse to wander around the village. Moreover, compared to Zhang San and Zhao Liu, he had after all put in some labor.
The most crucial point: the bridegroom and honorary grandson roles corresponding to Haitang and Grandma Wang had not mentioned money. Although the chief hadn't mentioned money either, based on Ding Shi's understanding of rural areas at that time, as the village chief's henchman, making a little money wouldn't be a problem. Others had an ID card; he not only had an ID card, but also an identity.
The chief continued handing out identity badges: "Our village has recently been busy with the sacrifice, leaving the night patrol short-handed. I wonder who is willing to join the night patrol?"
Every night at 11, the night patrol players must patrol along their routes. Their work was similar to a night watchman's, except they didn't have to beat the watch, and they had certain fire-prevention and theft-prevention duties.
When Li Si heard this, he cursed inwardly—the first two identities had been coasting along. Starting from Ding Shi's identity, the players' work content began to become concrete. Compared to Ding Shi's flexible work, the night patrol's work began to have set times, set locations, set tasks, and carried certain responsibilities.
Thinking of this, Li Si immediately raised his hand: "I'm a man. Night patrol is a job more suited to me." After saying that, he gave Sun Qi a friendly nod.
Sun Qi nodded in thanks: "Thank you."
Li Si obtained the identity of night patrol officer. The chief looked at Sun Qi and said, "Girl, our village has an elementary school that faces many difficulties. The first difficulty: many parents have been in arrears on tuition. The teachers face pressure from their superiors, so they can only pass that pressure on to the children—telling them to go home and get money during class, but the children still can't get the money, and they don't dare go to school. The second difficulty: some parents favor sons over daughters. The older girls have to cook and wash clothes for their families every day, and after school they have to chop firewood and cut pig grass. They not only can't focus on their studies, but also arrive late every morning and leave early in the middle of the day. Even worse, some carry their younger siblings on their backs to school."
The chief said, "I hope that as a volunteer for the school, you can help the school solve these problems."
As soon as the chief finished speaking, seven tasks were issued to Sun Qi all at once. After a hurried glance, Sun Qi nearly lost her footing—the problems of the dropout children were all very thorny problems.
Sun Qi now regretted it immensely, and instinctively asked, "Chief, can I change my identity?"
The chief nodded: "Of course. As long as both parties agree, there is still a chance to change identities now."
Sun Qi looked at everyone. She first passed on the bridegroom identity; because she was timid, she couldn't do the night patrol work. That left only Ding Shi's village chief assistant and Zhao Liu's honorary grandson. Obviously, being a grandson was the most relaxing identity.
Zhao Liu saw Sun Qi looking at him and waved his hands repeatedly, refusing first. Sun Qi helplessly looked at Ding Shi. Ding Shi didn't care—as the second-in-command of the city's largest criminal organization, whether handling internal or external problems, it was all his main business.
Erya hasn't been to school for three days. Ask why she's not going to school, and what conditions would make her willing to go to school. Because she has to look after her younger brother, she has no time to go to school. For Ding Shi, this was easy; in an instant he came up with three solutions.
One: hire a nanny. Two: persuade the parents to look after the brother. Three: get rid of the brother. Ding Shi leaned toward the second one—after all, to give birth without raising is not to be a parent; looking after children is originally the parents' duty. Of course, even if he couldn't talk them around, Ding Shi wouldn't actually get rid of the brother. At most he'd break one of the parents' legs, so that they could stay home and look after the children, and even cover all the housework.
At this moment Haitang spoke up: "Sister, the village chief's assistant work is very hard."
Ding Shi looked at Haitang. Haitang gave a shy smile, turned her face away, and didn't look at Ding Shi. Ding Shi was speechless—could it be that rural areas at that time already had the famous line, "The attic has gone dark"?
Sun Qi said helplessly, "Fine, I'll be the volunteer."
Chapter 4