She scratched her little head, blinking innocently. Her big, round eyes were full of confusion.

[System, do you finally have a malfunction?]

She knew it, how could this lousy system have no problem when it couldn’t even contact its higher-ups?

The System faltered. It wanted to refute, but what if Xiao Qingya’s words were right? As a precaution, it wanted to check and immediately excused itself.

[I will check...]

With that, the System disappeared.

Xiao Qingya became a little worried about it, praying it wouldn’t have anything wrong. The System already made sure that there was no quest regarding the kidnapping incident since it wasn’t in the plot.

So, where do these points come from? It was a lot too. Definitely worth several small missions.

"You finally know to come back!" An unpleasant, almost shrill voice of a woman cut through the room as soon as Xiao Fenghao lit the oil lamp.

The old woman still had a trace of sleepiness and her face was extremely grumpy, as if someone owed her money.

"You already have so many children, why don’t you take care of them instead of fussing over one lost child?!" Chen Huayun angrily lectured. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Xiao Qingya took off the small hood covering her face and stared at Chen Huayun with her grape-like eyes.

"Mobilizing the whole village like that, such a disgrace and embarrassment. You are also wasting–" Chen Huayun’s words were stuck in her throat and she froze when she met Xiao Qingya’s lively eyes.

Her shocked gaze and choked face looked funny in Xiao Qingya’s eyes. She found it interesting. Could it be that Chen Huayun was the person who had colluded with the child traffickers?

Selling off your own grandchild, how ruthless can this woman be?

Xiao Qingya’s pondering was cut off by Chen Huayun’s next words.

"You... you! How did you get her back?" Chen Huayun’s eyes were wide, full of disbelief. She took a deep breath, her eyes flitted around the room uneasily.

It was Xiao Fenghao who retorted to her first. "Grandmother doesn’t seem very happy seeing our Little Ya back?"

Chen Huayun’s pupils constricted, especially with Zhou Wenzhi’s scrutiny. She felt under a lot of pressure, uneasy.

Nevertheless, she didn’t want to soften her demeanor. Lest they think she was weak! The old woman coughed a little, and with her hands on her waist, she began to scold them again.

Glaring at Xiao Qingya, she raised her voice. "You, naughty little girl, you made your parents and the whole village busy with worry. Where did you run off to?"

Zhou Wenzhi couldn’t bear it anymore. He had told his wife to return home before they set off to the yamen yesterday, and she dared not to listen to him. Instead, she was making trouble in their eldest daughter’s home!

"That’s enough, Chen Huayun," he sternly interrupted. "Let’s go home. It’s already night time and you are still making a ruckus."

He grabbed Chen Huayun’s wrist and started dragging her out amidst her protest. On the way out, he didn’t forget to stuff some money into Little Ya’s hands, knowing Zhou Anran would refuse if he had given it to her.

After all, he had known his wife’s personality. She was always so restless.

Xiao Yuxi closed the door after their grandparents left, cursing something under her mouth. Xiao Yuyan, who was standing close to her, was a little stumped when she heard ’old hag’ and ’old witch’, but deep down, she agreed with her twin sister.

It was really an eventful day, and after they cooked a simple dinner, the family members went to rest.

Xiao Yuyan wanted to sleep with their mother and Xiao Qingya. Xiao Yuxi didn’t let her. Before she could take a step into the room, Xiao Yuxi already dragged her into their room.

The younger girl’s strength was much weaker than Xiao Yuxi and soon, she could only let herself be dragged away.

Inside the room, Xiao Qingya was still trying to call the System in an anxious tone. [System, where are you? Come back. It’s fine even if you have something wrong with you...]

Since her emotions were all over the place, and the fact that she had slept a lot during the day, she couldn’t immediately fall asleep.

Zhou Anran was caressing her fluffy hair, trying to coax her to sleep. After she bathed her daughter, she applied herbal paste on her scratches.

On top of the scratches, she also found more red marks on her neck. Her heart ached just by seeing it. So, she took some herbal herbs from the home garden and made a herbal paste to help with the pain and recovery.

She didn’t want her fair and tender daughter to have scar marks on her skin at such a young age.

When Zhou Anran heard Xiao Qingya calling for the System, she subconsciously slowed down her hand. The little one had been calling for the System for a while without receiving any response.

"Little Ya can’t sleep?" Zhou Anran asked gently.

Xiao Qingya looked up at her mother, blinking cutely. She would sleep after the System return or she wouldn’t have any peace for the entire night.

Fortunately, she soon heard the familiar chatterbox System’s return.

It sounded smug and proud.

[Little Ya, how can you slander me like this? I didn’t malfunction. I even ran a check on my program a hundred times to be sure, and there isn’t a single problem.]

Xiao Qingya twitched her mouth.

[So, you didn’t hear me calling you because you were busy checking for a hundred times...?]

This lousy system was really unbelievable.

[Of course.]

The System ignored Xiao Qingya’s speechless expression. It was like a dog that was wagging its tail now, proud and happy.

After all, it had returned with good news for its host!

[I have some good news for you, Little Ya. Do you want to hear them?]

She almost couldn’t help from rolling her eyes. The System didn’t even need to ask. [Quick, tell me. What is it?]