Inside the crowded kitchen, a slender figure was bustling happily, like a diligent little bee.
In no time, an inviting aroma wafted out of the kitchen.
Xu Lin picked up a piece of the egg with chopsticks and savored it with her eyes half-closed, a satisfied smile spread across her tiny, palm-sized face.
Delicious. It's so delicious that she consumed several mouthfuls in succession.
Seeing that half of the eggs in the pot were gone, she waved her hand, a handful of yellow sand emanating from her palm to fall into the pot.
Xu Lin picked up the spatula and swiftly flipped it over a dozen times.
Once the yellow sand and the golden-brown eggs had fused, she cheerfully transferred it onto a plate.
Well done. Dinner was ready. She picked up the plate and headed to the parlor.
"Hello, hello, dinner, everyone, dinner time."
Xu Lin stood in front of the dining table in the parlor and called out. The tone and cadence were somewhat reminiscent of her calling for chickens and dogs.
Shortly after, a few people came out of the room, ignoring Xu Lin standing at the corner of the table, and swiftly sat down. Smelling the aroma, their fingers twitched in anticipation.
Xu Lin looked at the seated individuals, a thick hatred flashing deep in her eyes.
Yes, hatred. The hatred that Xu Lin held for this family was etched into her bones and infused into her soul.
Even after a thousand passages through time, she had not forgotten the slightest bit.
In her previous life, she had slaved away for this large family.
At a tender age, because of the saying "an elder sister is as good as a mother", she began to do housework when she was not even five, and she stepped on a stool to cook meals when she was six.
In the beginning, she was hit until her skin was flayed open, scolded for wasting food due to her unpalatable meals.
It was Guhua Auntie from next door who could not bear to watch this, and discreetly guided her a few times; only then, she learned how to cook.
Initially, her family was unwilling to let her go to school. It was the neighborhood committee's aunty who could not stand it. After persuading her family multiple times, they finally sent her to school when she was twelve.
Her teacher disliked her original unpleasant name and renamed her as Xu Lin. She was a smart student, and finished elementary school in merely two years.
However, she only finished elementary school and then dropped out. It wasn't because she failed to pass the entrance exam for middle school, but because her younger sister Xu Nuan took her place.
Xu Nuan disliked studying from a young age. Although she started school years earlier than Xu Lin, while Xu Lin was accepted into middle school, Xu Nuan was still stuck in the fourth grade.
Never scoring higher than twenty points on any subject.
Without taking Xu Lin's opportunity to study, Xu Nuan would never have hope to enter middle school in her entire life.
After dropping out, besides doing housework, Xu Lin also took up the job of gluing boxes to earn money as a seamstress, always busy from dawn till dusk.
Xu Lin asked herself if her contribution towards this house was enough.
If they had a bit of conscience, even if they did not love her, they would have married her off to a decent family.
It would be okay even if they took all the betrothal money.
But it wasn't like that with Xu Family. They deliberately delayed her marriage to when she was twenty-eight, so she could work and earn more money for the family.
No, it wasn't considered marriage – it should be called selling. She was sold to an old, handicapped man living deep in the mountains.
That old cripple is a domestic abuser, who beat three wives to death, including Xu Lin, who was married to him for less than a year before she was brutally beaten to death.
After her death, Xu Lin was restless and her spirit wandered around the world, eventually drifting back to the Xu family.
From the lips of the Xu family, she learned that she wasn't their biological child but the real daughter who was secretly swapped out.
The true daughter of the Xu family is now enjoying luxury and wealth under her identity.
Most importantly, her biological parents know about her existence.
Just because her leg was broken by Xu's father, making her a cripple, the family dispelled the idea of acknowledging their biological daughter.
The daughter they took by mistake was now being raised as their own, not caring about her death.
At that moment, Xu Lin harbored intense hatred, which attracted the attention of the "system for cannon fodder reversal."
The system informed her that if she completes a thousand missions from different dimensions, she would be granted a chance to reincarnate.
Xu Lin, determined to reincarnate, traveled through different worlds with the system,
She reincarnated as one cannon fodder after another, braving all adversities to learn various skills for revenge.
She suffered a great deal to complete the revenge mission and was finally given the chance to reincarnate.
At the moment of her reincarnation, the system unbound itself and went on to look for a new host, nevertheless, it left a space for Xu Lin.
This space is equivalent to ten acres of land in size, equipped with a spiritual spring and has the capacity for farming and raising living creatures.
In it, there is also a courtyard house she built during an ancient dimensional journey, combined with a large warehouse equipped with a time pause array.
The things kept in the warehouse are in a state of suspended time, never to decay.
Apart from this, the skills she learnt from different dimensions have also left a portion for her, giving Xu Lin some self-defense capabilities after her rebirth.
With her eyes closed, Xu Lin suppresses her churning thoughts and sits down in the corner of the table.
"Why did you make so much porridge, you wasteful wretch? Don't you know that food is scarce these days? Do you want to eat it all in one meal and then starve the whole family to death? Tell me, how can someone your age be so heartless? We'd be better off in the Xu family raising a pig rather than you; a pig is even worth more than you are."
Grumbling and cursing while serving rice, this is the Granny Xu's daily routine; no matter how much food is cooked, there must be a bout of scolding.
It's as if without a round of criticism, the meal won't go down her throat.
Xu Lin, with her half-lidded peach blossom eyes, shows no signs of emotion on her numb face, as though she has long been accustomed to such insults.
Xu Lin's parents and siblings in the Xu Family express contempt and disdain with their eyes, none of them stepping forward to defend her.
Soon, Granny Xu finished doling out the porridge.
Granny Xu's bowl of porridge was the thickest, while Xu Lin's was the thinnest and most watery. It was so thin, it could reflect a man's face, without a single grain of rice.
Xu Lin appeared as though she hadn't noticed the disparity, blankly looking at the table surface.
Granny Xu was the first to start eating, the others at the table followed suit immediately. The meal was like a battlefield, with the afterimages of chopsticks littered all over the table.
Ah! Granny Xu covered her mouth, her eyes twitching in pain.
She wanted to spit it out, but couldn't bring herself to waste the egg; wanting to swallow it, yet the grittiness bothered her.
In the middle of her dilemma, the dining table was filled with the sound of 'ptui ptui ptui'.
Ah, 'ptui ptui ptui'....
"What the heck is this? How can scrambled eggs be gritty?" 'Father Xu slammed down his chopsticks, continuing to spit, feeling as if he had taken a mouthful of sand.
"You useless wench, just how many eggshells did you break into this?”
'Mother Xu spat the egg into her palm, cursing as she poked around in the egg, apparently attempting to find the shell pieces.
Her brother, Xu Kun, spat out the egg and raised his hand to slap Xu Lin. Yet she dodged it just in time.
His hand hit the edge of the table instead, causing Xu Kun to grip his hand in pain and howl, feeling as if his palm was about to break.
"You loss-item, who let you dodge?" Xu Kun cursed in his rage.
For a moment, the room was filled with a cacophony of curses, rebukes and complaints. It was lively, yet not a single person spoke in Xu Lin's favor.
"You worthless girl, what can you even do? You can't even make scrambled eggs properly. There's...there's sand in this egg."
Mother Xu stared at the egg in her palm in disbelief, and so did everyone else. There was sand in the egg, and that sounded strangely odd to them.
Soon, everyone's gaze was fixated on Xu Lin, with Mother Xu angrily asking: "You worthless girl, admit it, did you deliberately put sand in this?"
Blinking her innocent eyes, Xu Lin would definitely not admit that she did it on
purpose. She replied timidly, sounding like a mosquito:
"I didn't, I swear, I didn't. Maybe...perhaps...it's possible that the chicken that laid the eggs was raised on sand?"
