Playing cards?
Gu Chen suddenly remembered.
In his previous life, every time he returned from the city, he would play cards with Wang Lei, Xue Yang and the others.
To be honest, although he worked in the city to earn money,
after all, the cost of living in the city was high.
In fact, there was not much money left in his hands.
As soon as he arrived back, Xue Yang dragged him to his house, saying that there was only one person missing from the game and that he had been waiting for a long time.
Unfortunately, he was having bad luck and lost all the money he had in no time.
Gu Chen had planned to go home, but the others teased him when they saw him leaving.
They said that he couldn't afford to lose.
Gu Chen wanted to save face, so in order to prove that he wasn't someone who couldn't afford to lose,
he gritted his teeth and went home to take the money that Ji Pianran had saved up for the New Year.
That money was supposed to be used to buy clothes and formula for her daughter, Tangtang.
She was two years old and still breastfeeding.
Ji Pianran was weak and had never had much milk.
Tangtang had been forced to start drinking rice porridge when she was less than half a year old, and she had been sick the last time she had done so.
She took Tangtang to the clinic in the county town.
The doctor said that Tangtang was already severely malnourished.
Moreover, children should not be fed with rice porridge and other such things for an extended period of time, because the intestines are not fully developed and intestinal adhesion can easily occur.
Once they get sick, they will have to undergo surgery.
Ji Pianran was terrified.
She gritted her teeth and sold the only valuable bracelet she owned.
She exchanged it for 300 yuan, and prepared to go to the city with Gu Chen when he returned, to buy milk powder and new clothes for the child, so that they could have a reunion for the New Year.
But unexpectedly, he did return, but first went to Xue Yang's house.
Next, he returned home, and while he was taking Tang Tang to Aunt Wang's house at the village entrance to do some odd jobs, he lost all the money he had bought the bracelet for, which was supposed to be used to buy milk powder and clothes for the baby.
This was the incident that made Ji Pianran completely despair.
It was the first day of the New Year.
The family had fried half a catty of pork, which Ji Pianran borrowed from Aunt Wang's house.
The next day, Ji Pianran left without saying goodbye!
Gu Chen's breathing trembled as he thought about this.
He clenched his lips and looked at Ji Pianran.
He spoke after a long while.
'I'm sorry. This kind of nonsense will never happen again. I will definitely live a good life!'
Looking at Gu Chen's lips with toothmarks and slight bleeding,
Ji Pianran's eyes flashed with surprise.
However, she never said anything.
She picked up Tang Tang and pushed open the door to leave.
Gu Chen did not stop them.
He knew better than anyone that apologies were always the most useless thing.
He took a deep breath.
He tried to remember.
In her previous life, Ji Pianran had probably been preparing to leave him at this time.
She had washed all the clothes, sheets and covers in the house.
She even carefully washed and dried the only two quilts they had.
She even bought a few catties of thin noodles and made some steamed buns and flatbreads.
It just so happened that it was Chinese New Year.
So Gu Chen didn't notice the slightest sign that Ji Pianran was leaving.
Now that he thinks about it, every single thing was like a silent farewell.
After thinking about all this, he clenched his fists.
Now, the first thing he had to do
was to do whatever it took to keep Ji Pianran.
He wanted to give Tangtang a complete and happy family!
After organising his thoughts, Gu Chen walked towards the courtyard.
It was time for dinner.
He could smell the meat wafting from the Tian family's house across the street.
Tangtang was drooling in Ji Pianran's arms.
'Mummy, it smells good. Tangtang wants to eat meat,'
Ji Pianran couldn't help but tear up when she saw her daughter's eager eyes.
How could a mother not love her child?
But she really had no other choice.
She wiped away the tears at the corner of her eyes and cooed gently.
'Be a good girl, Tangtang, and have some porridge, okay?'
Tangtang was only two years old, but she was surprisingly sensible.
She nodded, 'Okay, Tangtang will eat porridge with mommy.'
The little girl's voice was young, but her eyes really couldn't hide her longing.
She really wanted to eat meat.
Ji Pianran put down Tangtang in her arms.
She walked towards the kitchen, scooped some rice from the rice container, then scooped some cold water, and reached in to wash it carefully.
After thinking about it, she opened a small bag and grabbed the last handful of millet from inside and threw it in.
The doctor's words were still fresh in her mind, and Ji Bianran was afraid that her child really had intestinal adhesions.
So on the way back, she went out of her way to buy some millet.
But now this is the last handful, and it's really true that after eating the last meal, there is no next meal.
I really don't know where to get the next bag of millet.
At this moment, Gu Chen walked out of the house.
Seeing that Tang Tang was squatting alone in the courtyard, smiling and playing, he walked over with a smile, and took his daughter in his arms.
He looked around and found that Ji Pianran was not there, so he couldn't help but feel a little nervous.
'Tang Tang, where's mommy?' he asked.
'Daddy, mommy is cooking, let me take you to find mommy,'
His daughter's small body felt soft and pliable in his arms, and Gu Chen suddenly felt an unreal sense of happiness.
He nodded, 'Okay.'
He put his daughter on the ground, and the little girl sprinted towards the kitchen.
Gu Chen followed, but saw that there was nothing in the large pot except a little rice porridge.
He looked at Ji Pianran in surprise, his eyes full of disbelief.
'Is this what you're feeding the child?'
Tang Tang is so young, and it's the time when she needs the most nutrition, but she's only eating this. It's nonsense.
Ji Bianran sneered, with an indescribable coldness in her eyes and corners of her mouth.
She knew it all too well.
But didn't he cause all of this?
'Even this is gone,'
Ji Bianran said, and then she hugged her daughter and turned to leave.
Thinking about what had happened over the past three years, she couldn't help but smile wryly.
Why did she like someone like him in the first place?
He obviously didn't like her, so why did he marry her and ruin her life?
Gu Chen looked at the congee in the pot, which was bubbling and boiling.
It was extremely difficult for her to bear.
As soon as she moved, a voice came from her mind.
'Congratulations, host, for returning to 1999 and awakening the Almighty Daddy System. The gift pack has been issued. Please check it carefully. You will be rewarded with god-level cooking skills, a space, a spiritual field, and a spiritual spring.'
Gu Chen was shocked!
System?
In his previous life, Gu Chen had nothing to do alone, working as a waiter in a small restaurant and staying in a rented room.
He had read a lot of novels. He knew exactly what a system was.
He just never thought it would happen to him.
'How do I check it?'
he asked, panicking.
'The host can enter the space by silently reciting the space name. The spiritual field and spiritual spring are inscribed in the space and can be viewed there.'
'What about my god-level cooking skills?'
Since it's free, he wants it all!
Not a single thing is missing!
System: '...'
A wave of heat entered Gu Chen's brain, like hundreds of recipes, stir-frying, pan-frying, and all kinds of cooking methods.
After a moment, Gu Chen shook his head, as if he understood everything.
In the courtyard, Ji Pianran put down Tiantian and started drying the laundry.
Gu Chen walked out with his head bowed.
'I'm going out for a bit, I'll be right back.'
He said, picked up the bamboo basket by the door, and then took the tongs that were lying by the door before leaving.
The tongs were used to hold the coal, and they were still covered in dark stains.
He stuck the tongs into the basket behind him, and pulled open the courtyard gate.
He was going to catch some eels.
To be honest, Gu Chen was actually not very good at cooking in his previous life. He always made do with a quick meal, until Tang Tang became ill. That's when he started to learn how to cook every day, just so that Tang Tang could eat more.
In the month between his anorexia diagnosis and his death, he went through almost every cookbook.
Unfortunately, Tang Tang was still lost.
The little girl Yuan Ben was holding a small wooden doll toy in her hand, and when she saw Gu Chen leave, she turned her face and cried, 'Wow.'
She came down to hug Ji Bianran's legs, her little face full of anxiety.
'Mommy, Daddy's leaving again!'
She was too young to express herself accurately.
But Ji Bianran knew that Gu Chen would be gone for half a year at a time, and the child was afraid that her father would never come back.
But what difference did it make whether he was there or not?
Thinking about this, tears welled up in her eyes.