Summer in the south, the sun glaring down, making the air unseasonably stuffy.

At the front of Li Family Village, a group of farming women sit under the shade of the Giant Poplar, their sleeves rolled up, shirts unbuttoned, and ice poles stuffed in their mouths.

One fat woman sighs with pleasure: "So comfortable, so very comfortable. Thank you, Li Zhongnan. But this thing is too hard; I can barely bite into it..."

She bats her eyelids at the young man lounging on the hammock beside her.

"Ahem, Auntie Cui Hua, it's just ice lollies I bought!" Li Zhongnan looks at her yellow, chive-stuffed teeth, and two hundred plus pounds of flesh, feeling waves of revulsion.

Auntie Cui Hua giggles: "Oh, look at your blushing face, so cute. Okay, okay, I won't tease you. So, scholar, are you planning to collect junk all your life?"

"What's wrong with collecting junk? I'm self-employed! I don't have to live in a basement, don't have to crowd into buses, don't have to put up with my boss's moods. It's so comfortable and carefree. Forget it, you wouldn't understand!" Li Zhongnan sneers.

Auntie Cui Hua snorts dismissingly: "Oh, come on, you're starting a business? Just how much can you make doing this?"

"Who says I can't make money? You wouldn't believe it, but next year, I will make a million!" Li Zhongnan exclaims. Admittedly, he can't make a million collecting junk in this place, but once he moves his business to the County Town, things will be different. Moreover, he's not your typical junk collector.

"I really don't believe it!"

Auntie Cui Hua rolls her eyes at him, "If you manage to make a million, I'll marry my daughter off to you."

"What! That little brat, has she even hit puberty yet?"

Li Zhongnan feels a sudden wave of embarrassment.

Auntie Cui Hua retorts: "What do you mean, not yet there yet? You haven't tried sneaking a peek have you! My girl's not that young anymore, she'll graduate from elementary school soon! Forget about a million, just give us ten or eighteen thousand for the betrothal gift!" The old woman is quite serious now. She's been thinking about it, there's really no need for a girl to be too educated, having an elementary school diploma is enough. This young man is rough and robust, it would be a blessing if she could get her daughter married off to him, at least she wouldn't be a widow. Besides, he used to be the top scholar in the college entrance exam in Peacehaven County, in old times he would have been considered the pride and joy of his family. Although he did only last two years in college before getting expelled, but at least he's a college student. Using their resources wisely, it's way better than letting her daughter go out to work and come back pregnant after just a year or two, not even knowing who the father is.

"Alright, you're pretty tough!"

Li Zhongnan concedes defeat and decides to keep his mouth shut.

An eighty or ninety-year-old man with a hunchback slowly strolls by, carrying two big sacks on his back. Li Zhongnan's face lights up and he steps forward to greet him: "Uncle Debiao, how was the harvest today?"

"Not bad, let's see how much I can get for it!" The old man wipes his sweat, panting heavily. The bottles and rusty iron he collected are dumped onto the ground, and with a smile, he bends down to sort and organize everything.

Li Zhongnan jogs back home to fetch an iron scale: "The market's not great these days; plastic bottles are selling for six mao per jin, wastepaper for two mao per jin, iron for one yuan per jin, copper for one yuan twenty ..."

"But a few days ago ..."

"A few days ago was a few days ago, now is now. This is the price, take it, or leave it." Li Zhongnan turns his back and starts walking away. The old man can barely ride a bicycle and there's only this Recycling Station in the nearby villages. Where else could he go?

"Okay, I'll take it."

"Great!"

Li Zhongnan grins mischievously as he starts to work, not forgetting to short-change the man a bit, "three jins of plastic bottles, five jins of wastepaper, twelve jins of scrap iron… That adds up to twenty-eight yuan! Uncle Debiao, all your sons have graduated, each one earning a few thousand a month, why are you still doing this in your old age?"

Li Debiao glares at him: "What's it to you? Just because you, a junk collector looks down on me, a junk gatherer?"

Right, he shuts up.

"It's just... my eldest son is about to get married, his future wife is from the city, she insists on buying a house. That's several million! I'm this old, I have time on my hands, why not earn a bit more to contribute to their down payment." Li Debiao explains with a proud smile. As it's a matter of family pride for his son to be marrying a city girl.

"What about your second and third sons? When they get married, will you still have to give them money?"

Li Zhongnan pulls out three big round bills: "Here, thirty. The extra two yuan is for you to buy ice poles and cool down in this hot weather." This cunning merchant feels a twinge of sympathy, it seems parents do have it hard. You raise your kids, pay for their schooling, then pay for their wedding, pay for their mistresses…

Poor parents all over the world.

He hauls the junk back into his yard and quickly closes the gate.

With a wide sweep of his hand, Li Zhongnan makes the pile of junk disappear into thin air and reappear in an unsurprisingly vast Metal Space.

In his mind, a transparent info box emerges, bearing four golden characters: 'Recycling Center'. Beneath it are three options: Sell, Repair, Purchase. The "Purchase" option is still greyed out, not yet activated.

Junk items are automatically sorted.

Plastic bottles {grey}: Recyclable material, two hundred kg/1 gold coin.

Books {white}: Recyclable material, one hundred kg/1 gold coin.

Scrap iron {black}: Recyclable material, one hundred and fifty kg/1 gold coin.

Damaged jade pendulum {green}: Recyclable item of value, can be repaired.

Green?

Li Zhongnan picks up the jade pendant and grins, his eyes filled with anticipation.

The Recycling System has been active for two months now. On testing it many times, he found that theoretically, any item could be restored to its original state using the system's repair function. However, the value of many items is not substantial - a pen, a book, a piece of paper, they might be unusable due to damage but after spending gold coins to repair them, they cannot be sold for much.