But the only regret was that Lin Mo had made many promises to his wife, which he still hadn't fulfilled.
For example, taking her to travel around the world,
and buying a small apartment in the city for their family of three, where they wouldn't be chased away by the second landlord.
However, Li Jinwen had never complained about these.
Before long,
the small living room was filled with the aroma of food.
"It smells so good."
"Wife's cooking skills are really getting better and better."
Praise is necessary in life.
To maintain a harmonious family, praising the lady of the house must be integrated into daily life.
"Daddy will give you this to eat."
"Xiaoxiao, you can't be picky, okay!"
"Wu... I don't like this, give it to Daddy, Daddy likes carrots the most."
"Okay, I'll eat it, I'll eat whatever you don't like."
"You're just spoiling her, what if she becomes malnourished in the future? Xiaoxiao, when do you see Mom and Dad being picky?"
"But... but the things you adults buy are all what you like!"
"Haha..."
The atmosphere was very harmonious.
After dinner, Li Jinwen took Lin Xiaoxiao to bathe, while Lin Mo was responsible for washing the dishes and mopping the floor.
There were no clear divisions of labor between the couple in everyday life; whoever was available did the household chores.
Even Lin Xiaoxiao often did things within her ability.
This kind of life was very ordinary,
but it was also unattainable for many people.
In this world, everyone envies others while being envied by others.
"Goodnight, Daddy. Goodnight, Mommy."
"Goodnight, Xiaoxiao."
"Goodnight."
....
By the time everything was done, it was almost close to midnight, and after Lin Mo and Li Jinwen had washed up, they lay on the bed in the bedroom.
The room was not big.
Apart from a bed, there was hardly anything but a walkway left.
But because there were two people relying on each other, the small room felt especially warm.
Li Jinwen snuggled in Lin Mo's arms and after thinking for a while, said, "By the way, husband, Xiaoxiao has a parent-teacher meeting tomorrow, and I want to take this opportunity to talk to their principal again."
"We can't let our daughter be bullied every day, right?"
Mentioning this, Lin Mo also frowned.
Previously, when Lin Xiaoxiao came home, her school uniform often had various stains, and at first, Lin Mo didn't care, thinking it was just the kids getting dirty while playing.
But after asking his daughter, he learned that it was a boy in her class who deliberately smeared it with colored oil pens.
Lin Mo had gone to the school about this,
and he found out that it wasn't just Lin Xiaoxiao being bullied; a few other kids from out of town often came home covered in colorful ink stains as well.
Since the boy's parents worked at the local Six Fan Gate, and besides being a prankster, the boy didn't do much else offensive, the school's handling of the matter was very ambiguous.
After several attempts to reason with them, there were no results.
Lin Mo also considered transferring his daughter to another school.
But for migrant workers, having a school for their children to attend was already a great fortune.
Changing schools was nearly impossible.
Lin Mo sighed and consoled her, "I understand, let's go to sleep now, and we will talk about it after waking up tomorrow."
```
"Maybe other parents would first go to the principal, and then see how things go,"
Getting my daughter to school is a big issue.
With the constant threat of being ordered to leave the school, every action must be taken with great caution.
This is the helplessness of outsiders, like children raised by a stepmother.
"Mm."
Li Jinwen replied softly, knowing all too well the helplessness involved. Then, cradling Lin Mo's strong body, she slowly drifted off to sleep.
But Lin Mo tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
Even without a teacher's urging, he often suffered from insomnia due to overwhelming stress.
Lin Mo could never forget the time he took Li Jinwen to view apartments, and she stood in the showroom kitchen, imagining herself as the lady of the house.
It was truly heartbreaking.
If they could own a small apartment in the big city, just thirty or forty square meters, they could live a somewhat decent life.
At least their daughter wouldn't be discriminated against because of her status as an outsider.
But...
How terrifying are the housing prices in Rakshasa City?
Even if he didn't eat or drink and had no health issues, earning a huge sum of a thousand yuan a day, Lin Mo would need to have started his efforts before the founding of the nation just to scrape together enough.
"Entering primary school might be easy, but what about a few years from now, when it's time for junior high? What then?"
"Will any school accept her?"
"Or should I take her back to that hometown which has hardly any young people left?"
A sense of powerlessness surged within Lin Mo.
He had been working so hard, yet he couldn't change anything!
This feeling was just too unbearable!
Why must society be so damn cruel!
[Ding.]
Suddenly, just then.
An abrupt electronic chime rang out in Lin Mo's mind.
[Daily Intelligence System binding in progress... Binding successful.]
[Generating daily intelligence... Daily intelligence generation complete.]
"Intelligence System?"
Lin Mo was stunned for a moment, slightly confused. However, before he could react, a transparent template appeared, suspended in mid-air before his eyes.
On the left was his personal 3D color painting, resembling a character model from a video game.
On the right was a red frame containing many pieces of intelligence information, listed in standard small-script font.
.....
[Today's Intelligence]
[1. You visited Future Star Primary School today and obtained relevant intelligence—Lin Xiaoxiao was bullied by her classmate Zhang Ziyue at school, who insulted her as a country bumpkin from outside the city, unworthy of attending school with him.]
[2. You met your neighbor Wang Youcai today and obtained relevant intelligence—Wang Youcai secretly used his retirement pension to tip 10,000 yuan to a beauty in a live stream chat room, using the nickname: Black Chicken!]
[3. You saw Li Jinwen today and obtained relevant intelligence—Li Jinwen talked to her parents on the phone today; her parents are very dissatisfied with your current situation and are strongly urging Li Jinwen to bring Lin Xiaoxiao back home for schooling.]
[4. Wang Chong called you today and obtained relevant intelligence—Wang Chong lost 120,000 yuan on an online gambling platform this afternoon and is trying to borrow money from relatives and friends.]
[5. You passed by Earth Garden Community today and obtained relevant intelligence—Li Xiaoru from apartment 1402 in building 5 of Earth Garden Community has lost her pet dog and is offering a 30,000 yuan reward for finding it.]
[6. You passed by Modeng Street today and obtained relevant intelligence—Your colleague Zhang Tiancheng is currently spending money at Red Romantic Foot Bath Shop, and the police will conduct a sudden anti-prostitution check on the shop tonight.]
[7. You brushed past the principal of Qiming Star Primary School today and obtained relevant intelligence—Principal Liu Hongmei of Qiming Star Primary School is involved with Coach Li of Aile Fitness Center; their last date was Wednesday night at nine o'clock, at the Home Inn on Development Road.]
[8. You watched international news today and obtained relevant intelligence—Victory Bird will launch a ground offensive against Hamas on October 27.]
[9. You saw the community property manager at the hospital today and obtained relevant intelligence—Property manager Liu Erhe took his son Liu Bao for a circumcision at North City's First City Hospital yesterday and used a half-price discount on a second procedure.]
[10. You passed by the intersection of Jiefang Road and Development Road in North City District today and obtained relevant intelligence—Li Xiaoru's dog is trapped under a manhole cover at that location.]
```
```
"Intelligence... System?!"
Lin Mo stared at the data panel that had suddenly appeared before his eyes, his first reaction was that he was hallucinating.
His brain also seemed to have crashed.
He was stunned for a long time.
Only then did he tentatively close his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and when he opened his eyes again, the data panel was still there.
He rubbed his eyes,
but the data panel did not disappear.
In his spare time, Lin Mo also watched some anime and read novels, so the existence of a system was not unfamiliar to him.
But he had never imagined that something so beyond reality would happen to him!
It was absurd!
Could he be dreaming?!
"Calm down..."
"First, let's see what's written on it!"
"Maybe I'm just too tired and hallucinating, or maybe it's because of too much stress, I have some kind of mental issue!"
Having reached the age of thirty and living his life at the bottom of society, Lin Mo had prudence etched into his bones.
To some, this meant he lacked boldness, wasn't daring enough, lived too cautiously, with typical poor man's thinking.
But there was no choice,
not everyone has the capital to squander.
Lin Mo was already 30 years old, with the burden of his parents' future retirement, his daughter's schooling, and the family's daily expenses weighing on him.
He had to be extremely careful to bear the heavy burdens of life!
Therefore, rather than the surprise of acquiring a system, Lin Mo was more afraid of developing some kind of mental illness.
Because that would drag down his wife and child.
After reading the 10 pieces of intelligence on the data panel several times, Lin Mo's breathing gradually became heavier, and he tried to sort out his somewhat chaotic thoughts.
"The content written on it is indeed about the people I encountered today, or the places I went to."
"Now, there are three methods to verify the authenticity of the Intelligence System."
"The first is to wake up my daughter and ask her if she was bullied by her classmates today, the second is to wake up my wife and ask her if she made a call to the family."
Lin Mo pondered for a moment and felt that both of these methods were not very appropriate.
They were both already asleep, and waking them up to ask these questions would be too strange.
Asking tomorrow would accomplish the same thing.
But Lin Mo's current mood wouldn't allow him to wait until tomorrow!
So there was only the third method left!
Having made up his mind, Lin Mo glanced at his wife, who was sound asleep, and quietly got out of bed, carefully stepping out of the living room.
He first found a pack of cigarettes that had been put away a long time ago from the living room cabinet, then, taking his phone with him, he opened the door and entered the dark hallway.
Click.
The faint glow of the flame shone on Lin Mo's face, which was a mixture of nervousness, fear, and excitement.
"Hu..."
Lin Mo took a deep drag of his cigarette, opened his mobile phone's contacts, found the number saved as "Elder Zhang," hesitated for half a minute, and then made the call.
Beep... beep beep...
The ringback tone of the phone synced with Lin Mo's heartbeat, involuntarily causing him to grip the phone a bit harder.
Whether he was about to possess the legendary secret power or come up empty-handed would all come down to this call.
The first call went unanswered.
Lin Mo lit another cigarette.
And made the second call.
After waiting a full twenty seconds or so, the call finally connected, and a man's voice came through: "Lin? What's up, calling me in the middle of the night?"
Elder Zhang was Zhang Tiancheng.
According to the intelligence report, he should be at the Red Romantic Foot Bath Shop on Modeng Street, and the police were going to raid Modeng Street tonight.
"Hu..."
```
Lin Mo took a deep drag on his cigarette and feigned calm as he spoke, "Got something I wanna talk to you about, where you at now?"
"I'm at home, yeah."
At home?!
Lin Mo's brows furrowed slightly, his mood plummeting from the clouds to the depths of a valley.
Was he really hallucinating?
Lin Mo clenched his teeth, unwilling to accept it, and pressed further, "For real? Don't you have an old flame on Modeng Street, not keeping her company?"
"No, I'm home sleeping." Zhang Tiancheng sounded very certain, and then added mysteriously, "What's up, Elder Lin, you got plans?"
"I've told you long ago that a man should live a bit more carefree, keep the red flag standing at home, but let the colored flags flutter outside, that's the...."
"You're getting off track, what's the matter, Elder Lin? If it's about borrowing money, just spit it out. I don't have much, but I can manage to pull out a thousand or two."
It seemed that this so-called Intelligence System was not very accurate.
Lin Mo had completely given up and casually said, "It's nothing, not about borrowing money. While I was resisting the urge today, I overheard someone talking about the cops planning to raid Modeng Street for vice in the next few days."
"I remember you like to hang out there, so just a heads-up, don't get caught."
"Damn, really?" Zhang Tiancheng's tone tightened instantly, and after a few seconds of silence, he said, "No big deal if they raid for vice, the Red Romantic Foot Bath Shop's owner has connections upstairs, the cops won't touch them."
"You're really not on Modeng Street?"
"Really not!"
"Alright then, hit the hay early."
Just as Lin Mo was about to hang up the phone, disappointed, suddenly, he heard the loud sound of a door being kicked in, followed by the fierce voices of two or three men.
"Freeze, police!"
"Don't move!"
"Who are you on the phone with? Hang it up now!"
"Officer, is getting a foot massage illegal now?"
Beep...beep beep....
The call was disconnected.
Ah, this...
Lin Mo stared at his phone screen, unsure whether to mourn for his colleague or to be relieved.
[Thanks, Black Chicken~~~]
Just then, footsteps and a woman's coquettish voice came from downstairs.
Huh?
Lin looked down the stairs to see, under the faint light of his phone, the nearly eighty-year-old Mr. Wang Youcai ascend with a triumphant smile on his face.
The next second,
their eyes met, and the air fell into an eerie silence.
"Oh my..."
Wang Youcai silently turned off the phone volume, pretending to be startled and asked, "Lin, you scared me! What are you doing up so late and not sleeping?"
"Uh..." Lin Mo shook the cigarette in his hand and said, "Just needed a nicotine fix, sneaked out for a quick smoke."
Having said that,
Lin Mo looked at Wang Youcai, catching him off guard with a question, "And you, enjoying some PK action?"
Among the ten pieces of information he had, there was something about Wang Youcai, and since he'd had this chance encounter, Lin Mo wasn't going to miss the opportunity to verify it.
Upon hearing Lin Mo's words, Wang Youcai's old face turned red at a visible rate, and he quickened his pace, muttering as he walked, "What PK? I accidentally clicked on that, don't talk nonsense!"
As he spoke, he fumbled to quit the live stream on his phone screen.
Whether it was an accidental click, Lin Mo didn't know,
but he thought that Wang Youcai's speed at operating TikTok was not inferior to that of a younger person like him.
As they brushed past each other, Lin Mo didn't say much else.
They lived across from each other, and their communication was not frequent, though Lin Mo would often help fix an appliance or install a light bulb for them. Their relationship wasn't particularly close.
Just as Wang Youcai was opening the door to enter his house, he paused for a moment and said with a sigh, "Lin, I really envy you young folks. Back in my day, marriages were arranged and we didn't even know what our wives looked like before the wedding night. It's not like now, you all date freely."
After that,
Wang Youcai closed his door.
In the dark corridor, Lin Mo was left alone with his lips twitching more stubbornly than an AK47...
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