Chapter 12: Sleeping on the Street
The news that the Lu family was planning to build a new house sent a wave of excitement through all of Mushroom Village.
Soon, the area outside the Lu family’s front door was piled high with various cuts of timber and stacks of roof tiles. The villagers flocked to the site to lend a hand—some helped haul heavy materials, others pitched in with the actual construction, and some simply brought over bundles of firewood and fresh vegetables from their gardens.
As for Lu Yunxi…
She was currently entirely occupied with transporting building supplies.
The five-year-old was pushing a small wooden cart with everything she had, trundling materials from the village perimeter back to her front door. With a massive heave, she tipped the cart, dumping the heavy load onto the ground before wiping a thick layer of sweat from her brow.
“So, how is it? Is that cart easy to handle?” her father asked, strolling over. “I built that one specifically to match your height and size!”
Yunxi shot her father a heavily strained smile, barely managing to squeeze out two words through her teeth: “Very good!”
A custom-made cart?! In her previous life, she had earned an obscene amount of money but had never once bothered to order anything custom-made. Yet here she was in ancient times, enjoying the luxury of a bespoke item. She felt truly… honored!
“Keep at it, you’re doing great!” Seeing her standing frozen in place, her father patted her shoulder encouragingly before walking away.
Yunxi didn’t even have the energy to roll her eyes at him. To conserve what little stamina she had left, she stopped talking entirely, gripped the handles of her custom cart, and went right back to work.
To understand how a five-year-old child ended up performing hard labor, one had to look back to the day before construction officially began.
Her father had argued his case with absolute, shameless confidence: “Xi’er, you are a member of this family. You’re going to have your own room in this new house in the future. Shouldn’t you contribute a bit of effort toward building it?”
Yunxi had been stunned. Of course she was willing to help, but what could a toddler realistically do?
“And it’s really not that difficult,” her father had continued smooth-talkingly. “For a prodigy who managed to slay a field mouse on her very first try, this is just a little bit tiring. Look at your friends in the village—they’re all watching you. Do you really have the nerve to sit back and say you can’t handle the job?”
I am literally five years old! she had screamed internally.
“Most importantly, you can look at it as a form of exercise. You get to help the family and build up your body at the exact same time. Two birds with one stone! Isn’t that fantastic?!”
“I see.”
And that was how Yunxi had been systematically swindled into manual labor, leading to her current miserable state.
Of course, she hadn’t agreed solely because of her father’s twisted logic. More than anything, she desperately wanted the new house finished as quickly as possible for a very simple reason—their old house had already been completely demolished!
Tearing down the flimsy old cabin had taken no time at all, but constructing a proper three-entry courtyard mansion was a lengthy process. As a result, the Lu family of three was currently, literally, sleeping on the street!
Her mother had tried to put a positive spin on things, smiling as she pointed out that they could gaze at the vast starry sky, calling the experience incredibly romantic.
Yunxi, however, felt absolutely miserable.
They were sleeping out in the open under nothing but blankets. If a tiger decided to wander down from the mountains in the dead of night and swallow them whole, they wouldn’t even know what hit them!
Time flew by, and three months passed in the blink of an eye. The Lu family’s sprawling new residence was finally complete.
After a thorough cleaning, landscaping the courtyard, and hosting a celebratory banquet with plenty of wine for the helpful neighbors, the hectic chapter of their lives drew to a close. The family finally returned to their peaceful routine.
That afternoon, taking advantage of a rare moment of downtime, Yunxi eagerly pulled up her system interface to check her status.
The moment her eyes landed on her Strength stat, she nearly lost her mind with joy. It had skyrocketed to 58!
Wow! A jump that massive in just three months!
It turned out that hauling bricks really was the ultimate shortcut to building physical strength. Of course, even though she now knew the secret to rapid stat growth, she vowed that she would never help build another house for as long as she lived.
Later that day, Yunxi was outside squatting in a firm horse stance.
Her expression was deadpan and serious, but a single look at her glazed-over, wandering eyes revealed that her mind had long since drifted to another dimension.
“Xiaoxi?!” Li Daya’s surprised voice shattered her daydream as she strolled past the courtyard. “What in the world are you doing?”
Yunxi snapped back to reality. She was technically supposed to be practicing the Lu Family Archery Technique, which strictly required her to keep her eyes locked onto a single target, but she had completely zoned out.
At this point, she was too embarrassed to claim she was training. Anyone with working eyes could tell she was just spaced out.
She quickly shifted her posture, trying to play it cool. “Oh, nothing. I was just squatting down to admire the scenery. What brings you over? Weren’t you supposed to be learning how to dance from Grandma Wang today?”
“Yes! But I took a break to come find you!” Speaking of the lessons, Daya’s eyes lit up with intense excitement. “Grandma Wang’s dancing is absolutely beautiful, Xiaoxi! Don’t you want to come and learn with us?”
Grandma Wang, it turned out, had been a celebrated lead dancer in a prestigious dance troupe in her youth, eventually becoming a grandmaster of the art. Now that she was elderly, her body wasn’t nearly as flexible as it used to be, but she was still remarkably strong. Wanting to pass her lifelong knowledge down to the village girls, she had sent her top apprentice, Li Daya, to recruit some students.
Naturally, Daya’s first instinct was to invite her best friend.
Hearing the offer, Yunxi cringed internally. I just spent three agonizing months moving heavy bricks, and I finally managed to secure half a day of free time to relax. If I sign up for dance classes now… I’d have to be a total idiot!
Her eyelid twitched slightly as she quickly formulated a polite rejection. “Daya, I’m so happy you thought of me! Really, I am. But I have to focus on learning how to hunt from my father right now, so I don’t have the time or energy to learn anything else.”
Daya’s face fell slightly. “Aw, that’s such a shame. You have no idea, Grandma Wang’s choreography is spectacular, and…”
She stopped mid-sentence, suddenly freezing up. She threw a furtive, paranoid glance in every direction to make absolutely sure they were completely alone. Once she was satisfied, she leaned in close, pressing her lips right against Yunxi’s ear.
“Xiaoxi, you haven’t actually seen that dance yet, right? It’s seriously mesmerizing. Give me a few days, and I’ll sneak you in to watch a performance!”
Yunxi found her hyper-mysterious, secretive behavior incredibly amusing. Not taking it seriously at all, she simply gave a casual nod. “Sure, sounds like a plan.”
A few days later…
Lu Yunxi ultimately couldn’t resist Li Daya’s persistent invitations and found herself standing inside Grandma Wang’s courtyard.
However, the moment she stepped through the front gate, the dancing girls immediately slammed the heavy courtyard doors shut. They went on to bolt the main entrance of the house and even tightly sealed every single window, shutting out the rest of the world.
Watching this sequence of events play out, Yunxi’s eyelid twitched violently.
They’re acting so incredibly sketchy. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I just stumbled into a pyramid scheme meeting!
Yunxi followed the crowd of girls deeper into the innermost room of the house. A cluster of oil lamps lined the edges of the space, casting a warm, bright glow across the room.
The girls quickly filed into an adjacent room obscured by a thick curtain. When they emerged back into the lamplight a few moments later, having changed into their dance attire, Yunxi was completely flabbergasted.
Their outfits weren’t the traditional robes with long, flowing sleeves that she had anticipated. Instead, they were wearing crop tops that left their navels completely exposed! While this kind of clothing was completely ordinary in the modern world, seeing it worn so openly in an ancient setting was profoundly jarring.
What shocked her even more, however, was the actual choreography. The routine was completely different from the classical dances with fluttering silk sleeves she had pictured in her mind.
Everyone in the room was doing belly dancing!
Grandma Wang, who was leading the formation, shifted her stance with practiced ease. Her toned, firm abdomen began to undulate in perfect rhythm, moving with incredible flexibility and grace.
Despite her advanced age, she didn’t look frail in the slightest; her movements were remarkably fluid. Even so, Grandma Wang herself didn’t seem entirely satisfied with her performance, her brow furrowing slightly as she pushed through the steps.
The younger girls dancing beside her moved with even more uninhibited grace. Their routine was sultry, high-energy, and radiated an exotic, captivating beauty.
Yunxi stood rooted to the spot like a statue, her eyes practically popping out of her head.
Noticing her friend’s frozen posture, Li Daya quickly reached out and tugged at her arm.
“Xiaoxi, what are you daydreaming for? Hurry up and join in!”
Seeing that Yunxi still wasn’t moving, Daya leaned in closer and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “This dance isn’t like the ones people perform outside for the public to gawk at! It’s a private routine meant to be practiced strictly at home. If you do it regularly, it works wonders for your figure! Just look at my master—she still looks beautiful, doesn’t she?”
Yunxi forced herself to snap out of her daze. Nodding dumbly, she stepped forward and blended into the crowd, attempting to mimic their belly dancing movements.
However, while her hands and feet went through the motions mechanically, her mind had completely drifted away from the dance itself.
