Chapter 5: Some Gear Is Better Left Alone

The next morning, the moment the alarm rang, Zhai Da sprang out of bed immediately. In his entire life, he had never gotten up this quickly—except once when he was working like a beast of burden and blacked out at a company party, only to wake up in the accountant lady’s rented room.

He was afraid she might want to settle accounts with him.

Of course, he later discovered there were cameras in the room. Both of them had been drunk and spent the whole night playing “finger catching.”

As Zhai Da pushed open the door, the strong aroma of corn greeted him. On the table were two boiled corns and two eggs.

Perhaps it was because his body felt younger after being reborn, his appetite was stronger. Looking at the large corns and eggs together, he found them oddly pleasing to the eye.

By the time Yu Xiaoli finished fixing her hair and came out, he had almost finished eating.

Yu Xiaoli asked, “Is it good?”

“Delicious!” he replied.

“Have you ever wondered why everything comes in pairs?”

Zhai Da was speechless.

Yu Xiaoli rolled her eyes. If he didn’t eat breakfast, it was fine—she was middle-aged, and her waistline was expanding faster than her wrinkles.

But at his age, he looked like a starving ghost reincarnated. The doctor had said that fainting in the exam room might be due to malnutrition.

Thinking of this, Yu Xiaoli took a ten-yuan note from her wallet and handed it to Zhai Da. “This is your pocket money for next week.”

Zhai Da was incredulous. “Are we rich now?”

He remembered that in high school, his weekly pocket money was fifty yuan. The school cafeteria meals were paid from a card, but other expenses like bus fare, small study supplies, snacks, and occasional meals out came from that fifty yuan.

Rounded up, it meant they were absolutely poor. If he wanted to buy extra things, like magazines or CDs, he had to starve himself.

He never dared to buy a new copy of Men’s Health because his old one was already yellowed.

Now, the weekly amount had doubled to a hundred yuan, or four hundred yuan a month. Compared to others at school, it was quite generous.

Still, this brought some pressure to Zhai Da.

After all, Yu Xiaoli’s salary was only nineteen hundred yuan. After deducting food, daily necessities, utilities, and occasional personal expenses, she still had to save for Zhai Da’s tuition, miscellaneous fees, and tutoring books.

Mothers always want the best for their children but can only give what little they have.

Recently, because Zhai Da’s grades were not ideal, Yu Xiaoli had considered hiring a tutor. But after he fainted once during the exam, she gave up on that idea and accepted his academic performance as it was.

She wasn’t the kind of mother who pushed her child relentlessly; she could accept if Zhai Da didn’t do well, didn’t get into college, or even ended up working in a factory like she did.

But she couldn’t accept any more problems happening to her son.

Life was all about comparisons.

Compared to mental illness or idleness, factory work was stable employment!

Giving Zhai Da double the pocket money was also to make his life easier and brighten his mood.

“Here, take it. You’re a big boy now, so you’re bound to have some strange expenses.”

“Mom, you better be clear about what you mean by ‘strange expenses’.”

“Just take it and spend it. From now on, it’s always a hundred a week.”

“Are you sure? Is there no other place at home that needs money?”

“I was saving it for your college, but it looks like you’re going to save us a lot of money instead.”

Zhai Da was speechless. Mom, you’re really funny. You should get an award for ‘Clown Love Letters.’

Just yesterday, he was telling himself to take it easy this life and not rush to make money. But today, thinking about the family’s original financial situation, Zhai Da considered adding “initial income improvement” to his to-do list.

After all, earning a little money could also ease his mother’s burden.

Of course, it still had to come after the system and studying. The college entrance exam was only three months away; he couldn’t lose sight of the main goal.

That day, Zhai Da didn’t have to go to school, and Yu Xiaoli didn’t mind. Once she accepted it, she was fine with him spending money however he wanted or going to internet cafes. But Zhai Da wanted to spend more time with her, so he offered to give her a ride to and from work on his bicycle.

He could then leisurely ride around the county town on his old bike and pick her up after work.

Yu Xiaoli found it a bit odd but saw no reason to refuse. After all, who wants to pedal a bike themselves when it can move on its own?

After leaving the neighborhood, Zhai Da took a slight detour of a few dozen meters and bought a few steamed buns and soy milk at a breakfast stall—two sets—and handed them to Yu Xiaoli.

He reminded her, “Skipping breakfast is bad for your health. Take this to the factory. I got one too because I wasn’t full earlier.”

Yu Xiaoli rolled her eyes. “Hurry up, I’m going to be late.”

But the smile on her lips was hard to hide, and her heart felt warm.

She sensed this child had grown up overnight.

The wool spinning factory had relocated several times and was now in the industrial zone far from the county center.

Once a pillar of Dongyang’s thriving industry, it had withered to a pathetic state where weeds grew taller than the grass.

First, it transitioned from military to civilian control, then became self-financing, and later was eliminated by market forces. Its history was long and full of struggles. Over the years, it had dabbled in parts manufacturing, hardware plating, shoes, socks, and other miscellaneous goods.

At one point, it proudly called itself the “Sanyi Wool Spinning Group.”

But after multiple rounds of mismanagement, asset stripping, debt restructuring, and leadership interference, all that remained was a “garment factory” — a low-barrier, pure exploitation of cheap labor, and quite small in scale.

When you find yourself going downhill, don’t be afraid—you will just keep going downhill. From then until before Zhai Da’s rebirth, Sanyi Wool Spinning would decline year after year.

To make a poor analogy, even if in his past life Zhai Da won the lottery, he could have bought the Sanyi Wool Spinning.

That would have meant inheriting a heap of broken equipment, worthless old factory buildings, and hundreds of retired workers barely clinging on.

The early glory days—like the wool spinning high school Zhai Da attended—had long been taken over by the county and retained only its name. After more than ten years of management, it had become a key high school in Dongyang County.

Of course, that was only relative to the other two mediocre high schools in the county, which were hopelessly bad.

Yu Xiaoli had been working in the garment factory, the only remaining part of the wool spinning mill, for twenty years. Her current position was pattern maker.

Riding the bicycle farther and farther, they headed toward the industrial zone, where large trucks grew noticeably more frequent and dust billowed.

“What are your plans today? I heard kids these days all play ‘C something S’... why don’t you try it?”

“CS is outdated now. It’s all about Audition and QQ Speed.”

“Dancing’s good; it exercises your body. Driving’s no good—you don’t have a license…”

“Uh… I don’t play games. I’m just going to stroll around the county.”

Zhai Da’s gaming addiction had faded naturally over time. The girls in the games became more realistic, but the boy had long since lost interest.

As they chatted, when only two intersections away from the wool spinning factory, Zhai Da suddenly braked sharply.

Yu Xiaoli asked, puzzled, “What’s wrong?”

Zhai Da didn’t answer but cautiously looked ahead at a large old elm tree by the roadside.

The tree was so thick that neither could wrap their arms around it. Its bark was cracked and darkened, a greenish black unlike the usual street trees. It hadn’t been transplanted but had stood there all along, spared during road construction.

“Discovered rare green item: ‘Execution Elm.’ An old prison once stood here; executions were always carried out under this tree. Many people’s last sight was the elm’s canopy.”

“Status: Not owned, not activated.”

“Effects: Increased accidental incident probability in range by 50%, corpse decay rate under the tree increased by 300%, ???.”

“Unlock task: Unknown.”

“Not yet activated. Requires host to obtain ownership. After acquiring this high-rarity item, all effects and unlock tasks are revealed.”

“Note: Are you really sure you want to activate it?”

Zhai Da swallowed hard.

So... special items that could be converted into equipment included things like this?

He glanced to the side and saw a warning sign: “High accident area, please drive carefully.”

The roadside guardrails were battered and crooked, apparently hit many times...

Although according to the system, before conversion, the item was just a special object without any supernatural power, and the warning sign might be a coincidence...

Still, inexplicably, Zhai Da felt a chill rush down his neck early in the morning.

Decisively, he veered right, taking a detour.

“What’s wrong, little Da? Why the detour?”

“I just saw a pretty girl on the right; I’m going to catch up and have a look!”