Chapter 31

On the smelly bus covered in sweat front and back, Su Xiaoqi had a bright smile on her face. The people on either side inexplicably felt the stench lessen somewhat. The curses quieted a bit.

"Dammit, don't crowd me, don't you see there's a young girl back here!"

Su Xiaoqi kept foolishly smiling.

Three level progression system, walking 20,000 steps a day, 0.3 yuan per step, that's 6,000 yuan a day, so 18,000 per month, 180,000, one hundred and eighty thousand.

What does 180,000 represent?

For the villagers of Gumula Village, some people probably don't earn that much in their lifetime.

Su Xiaoqi felt her legs tremble from excitement.

Just then the bus pulled into a stop.

With a crash, Su Xiaoqi was thrown to the front of the bus by inertia.

Though the bus had been quite crowded just before, for some reason, everyone neatly moved aside when she fell. As a result, she accidentally fell right next to the seat she had given up to someone else earlier.

The pregnant woman she had given up her seat for did not expect the young girl to give up her seat, only to get pushed to the back and even fall over from standing.

Seeing she had fallen quite hard, long eyelashes, and very young age. Felt extremely distressed.

She was about to have a child herself, truly hoped she could have a girl as well, and feel as distressed for her.

"Young miss, thank you for giving up your seat for me. If not for you giving up your seat, you wouldn't have fallen. I'm going to the hospital, just two more stops. Otherwise I can stand for a bit, you can have a seat."

Su Xiaoqi waved her hands again and again.

Hearing the pregnant woman's words, everyone else looked approvingly at the young girl.

Such a petite young girl with a huge schoolbag on her back, yet still giving up her seat for others. What a good child.

Of course there were also those who felt the young girl was too silly. If it was their own daughter, they wouldn't bear to have her give up her seat for others. She's still growing!

"I'm getting off at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital stop as well, it's nothing. Just now I was distracted for a moment and accidentally fell." Su Xiaoqi declined. How could she take back the seat she had already given up?

Still, there was an older lady next to her who gave up her seat for Su Xiaoqi, forcibly pulling her over.

"Young miss with such a big schoolbag, you have a seat, have a seat."

Su Xiaoqi felt somewhat dumbfounded as she was pushed into the seat.

She was somehow the one being offered a seat. It felt inexplicably like, doing good deeds wasn't so bad after all. Felt pretty good.

When they arrived at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital stop, Xiaoqi got off. The older lady then reclaimed her seat again. The pregnant lady also slowly made her way off the bus. The bus remained stopped for some time.

Seeing someone had come to get the pregnant lady, Su Xiaoqi didn't go over. She was in a great mood, and headed straight for her aunt's dorm.

But when she passed by the first floor, she seemed to hear crying and clamoring noises.

Downstairs, her aunt had indeed already prepared a meal. There was wind-dried pork, greens, her aunt had also bought some golden needle mushrooms and made a scrambled egg with them. She had also cooked a winter melon pork slice soup, and freshly cooked rice.

Three vegetable dishes, one meat soup. Plentiful fare of meat and vegetables.

The building was lively at dinnertime, quite bustling.

Different from the cries of pain and chaos from the floor above. This was another world. An ordinary living scene.

The rice cooker lid opened, emitting curls of steam. Exceptionally white under the lights.

"Hurry up and eat. Going out for two o'clock later. I still need to go upstairs to help out for a bit afterward." Her aunt said.

Xiaoqi was curious why her aunt was still going to work even on her day off.

"That newlywed groom who got sent in yesterday is in an awful state. The bride straight up called off the wedding and didn't show up at all. Just his old mother taking care of him. Sounds like one of his legs are unusable now, needs to be amputated. His mom has cried until vomiting. I'm going later to clean up." Her aunt spoke with some pity, but it was also commonplace.

After all, the hospital saw all sorts of life and death every day.

Sometimes the heart just became numb like this.

Xiaoqi knew her aunt was referring to the group she had run into on the bus yesterday.

Others’ misfortune sometimes was just a side dish for some people’s meals.

Xiaoqi didn’t say much. She still had to take care of herself first before she could consider anything else.

After eating, her aunt left to work and she washed the dishes.

After waiting for a while, her aunt still hadn’t returned. She continued practicing her writing.

Whenever there was time now, she would take any opportunity to practice.

She didn’t know if it was psychological, but she truly felt her writing was better than before. Always felt she was making progress.

It was 2pm when her aunt finally came back covered in sweat.

“Should I take a shower first before we go?”

“It’s fine, you’re required to rinse off first before entering the pool.” Xiaoqi took a brochure yesterday when she got her membership card. Afterward she had looked up swimming precautions online.

The education she received growing up had always emphasized prudence and carefulness. Even though it was just swimming in a pool, she still prepared conscientiously.

Moreover, she was also bringing her aunt. She didn’t want her efforts to backfire.

Su Simei was quite excited. After getting divorced, she had found work as a caregiver at this hospital. Got one day off per week without any holidays even around New Years. Lived in the dark basement level. Basically no additional social activities. Visiting parents meant getting looked down on by sister-in-law. Her two younger sisters were better off and she was also reluctant to go bother them.

Later, Fu Ge from the village had a daughter coming to No.1 Middle School who started coming to eat at her place. Finally had some company. But students are quite busy, always leaving after eating, rarely going out together.

She didn't expect Xiaoqi to still be willing to stay with her for a period even after graduating high school.

Because there was only one bed in the dorm, she was worried Xiaoqi wouldn't be used to it. At night she specially took on looking after hospitalized patients so she could sleep in the wards most of the time.

They took the bus again at over 2 in the afternoon when the sun was highest.

Fortunately there weren’t many people outdoors this time. The bus was quite empty.

But Xiaoqi still felt taking a taxi would be better. Or a small vehicle.

However her current legitimate income was still too little. Reckless lifestyle inflation was still not good.

Zhang Juan was the prime example. When your capabilities and status don’t match the money you possess, people would become suspicious and even secretly try to uncover the truth. Not to mention others, even Xiaoqi herself harbored doubts about Zhang Juan, staring at her feed pondering for a long time.

Xiaoqi felt she needed to constantly improve herself before she could more rationally possess this money, and more justifiably spend this money.

Aunt and niece arrived at the sports complex.

Xiaoqi’s swimsuit was a gift from the membership card issuer, Little Wu, who had given it to her together in the package with the card.

She took a look at the size, S. Fits her perfectly.

She had never gone swimming before and also didn’t know where to buy swimwear. She was planning to just wear this first.

They first headed to the changing area together.

The swimsuit Xiaoqi received was just the most common kind. Two pieces. Tank style top, shorts bottom. Quite modest other than the exposed waist.

But she was unused to wearing so little. Still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Even when boarding at school, she usually went to shower at her aunt’s ward instead of with classmates.

Seeing all the pale flesh in the changing room, and no one looking at her, she adapted a little.

Then when she saw her aunt walk over after changing, Xiaoqi froze completely.

1.68 meters tall, 150 pounds. Her aunt wasn't the imagined lump of flesh mountain. Unexpectedly quite evenly robust andhusky overall.

Her aunt wore a one piece with seemingly developed muscles, feeling like some warrior.

Come to think of it, her aunt did move medical equipment and things like that at the hospital everyday. She was also frequently called over.

"What are you staring for, help me take the tag off."

Her aunt turned with her back facing Xiaoqi.

Xiaoqi looked at the new tag on the swimsuit. Yeah, new clothes. Take off by hand? Won’t come off right, she couldn’t take off the tags on clothes she bought before.

But with a light tug, it snapped right off.

Forgot...she was a powerful ordinary human now.