Nan Yu smiled, walked over to Nan Xing, and squatted down. Reaching out, he ruffled Nan Xing's hair. "Use my name. If she ever dares to treat you badly again, just tell your older brother. I'll deal with her!"
Nan Xing nodded heavily, his eyes shining even brighter as he looked at Nan Yu.
Today, Nan Yu had truly opened Nan Xing's eyes. He had never seen such an imposing older brother before, and it made him admire him to no end.
The seed of adoration was planted on this very day. For the rest of his life, whenever anyone interviewed Nan Xing and asked him whom he admired and looked up to the most, Nan Xing's answer would always be: "My older brother!"
Nan Xing took Nan Chan to the kitchen, and Nan Yu stood up, turning to look at the eldest sister who had been following by his side all along.
"Older sister, remember what I'm telling you now: you cannot marry the person Li Guihua picked out for you. She never had any intention of buying a job for me anyway. She is selling you off just to buy a job for her own younger brother, and even if you get married, that job won't end up in my hands. Besides, I don't want any job; I have my own plans, and I am not going to work in a factory..."
Before he could finish, Nan Zhi anxiously interrupted him.
"Little brother, if marrying me off can let you go work in a factory, I am willing. No matter what that family is like, I am willing..."
One cannot blame Nan Zhi for thinking this way. In this era, having a formal job in a factory was something that made people look up to you. The gold standard of the "iron rice bowl" was exceptionally high back then.
Before Nan Zhi could finish speaking, Nan Yu interrupted her again.
"Older sister, are you not listening to what I'm saying? I said I am not going to the factory. Even if this job were bought, I still wouldn't go. Being a factory worker isn't the only good path in life! Trust me, I will make sure the four of us brothers and sisters live a good life in the shortest time possible. Older sister, you must listen to me. No matter what anyone says to you, you cannot get married. Only when I give my nod of approval can you marry, understand?"
Looking at Nan Yu's utterly serious expression, Nan Zhi finally nodded.
How could Nan Zhi fail to notice the changes in Nan Yu? But his transformation was too sudden and too drastic, which actually made her feel a little frightened. She wasn't afraid that Nan Yu would harm her; rather, she worried that something might have affected Nan Yu himself.
Village folks in this era were still relatively superstitious, and Nan Zhi was afraid her younger brother might have been bewitched by something.
After telling Nan Zhi not to get married, the two siblings stood by the courtyard gate waiting for the barefoot doctor to arrive. Nan Zhi wanted to go inside and check on their father, but Nan Yu wouldn't let her, pulling her back to stand by the gate instead.
If they went to see Nan Dashu now, what else would they get besides a mouthful of curses? Knowing that would be the case, how could Nan Yu possibly let his older sister go inside just to be cursed at?
It just left a bad taste in Nan Yu's mouth to see a crowd still swarming around the unconscious Li Guihua. He genuinely wished Li Guihua would just drop dead already, and he didn't want to see anyone showing her concern. Even though most of the villagers gathered around were just rubbernecking out of curiosity, Nan Yu still didn't want anyone paying attention to Li Guihua. The hatred he held for her could no longer be erased from his heart.
Still, he was only thinking it; he didn't say anything out loud or try to stop the villagers from tending to Li Guihua.
As for Li Guihua's pig-headed son, he only knew how to sit beside her and cry, without even stepping forward to see how his mother was doing. His face was only scraped up from the ground and he'd taken a few kicks from Nan Yu—his legs weren't even broken—yet he simply didn't know to go hurry and find a doctor for Li Guihua.
It just goes to show that the more a person is doted on, the less capable they are of caring for others.
Watching the unconscious Li Guihua, Nan Zhi asked Nan Yu worriedly in a low voice, "Is Li Guihua really going to be alright?"
Nan Yu didn't know what Li Guihua's current condition was either, so he simply told Nan Zhi, "Why bother caring about her? Let whatever happens happen!"
Frowning with a look of absolute determination, Nan Zhi said, "Little brother, if Li Guihua really dies, you must not admit that you're the one who hurt her! Stick to the story that I did it, and I'll pay for her life!"
Hearing Nan Zhi's words, Nan Yu experienced a tumult of emotions, leaving him momentarily speechless. His older sister was always like this—always protecting her younger siblings. Even with her timid personality, she did everything in her utmost capacity to shield them. In his past life, she had believed Li Guihua's nonsense about buying a job for Nan Yu, throwing away her own life in the process.
And not just Nan Zhi—didn't the Nan Yu of the past life fall for it just the same?
Yet the more Nan Zhi protected him now, the guiltier Nan Yu felt, and the more he felt he owed his older sister. In his past life, he had possessed such immense wealth, yet he could never again repay the sister who had always protected him. The ache in Nan Yu's heart right now was unbearable!
With his emotions running high and unable to speak, his eyes merely reddened as he patted Nan Zhi's back, forced a weak smile, and lowered his head.
The moment he lowered his head, he inadvertently caught sight of his own hands, which were flushed red from hitting people. That instantly brought back something he had once heard.
They say people don't feel pain in dreams, but the pain in Nan Yu's hands and feet when he had just beaten those people was entirely real, and the stinging sensation of the skin scraped off his hands was equally authentic. To test it, Nan Yu even pressed down on the bleeding wound on the back of his hand. That sensation was definitely not something one could experience in a dream.
Did that mean... he had truly been reborn?
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than a cold, mechanical voice suddenly rang out in his mind: "The host need not doubt, you have indeed been reborn, reborn back to the year '78."
The sudden voice startled Nan Yu. He glanced sideways at Nan Zhi, who was still peering toward Li Guihua's direction. Only after confirming that his sister couldn't hear the voice did he let out a sigh of relief.
He had known about rebirth and systems in his past life. Although he didn't read web novels or watch TV dramas, he had so many young subordinates at his company, and Nan Yu had heard them chatting about such things. So he wasn't completely clueless; he was just a bit astonished that such an arcane concept as a "system" had actually manifested in his mind.
It was also at this moment that he remembered hearing something about a "New World System" right when he first woke up, except that back then he was locking horns with Nan Dashu and the others, leaving him with zero time to ponder systems or anything of the sort.
"I want to know, am I only getting a second chance for a short period, or do I get to live a whole lifetime over again?"
This question was critically important to Nan Yu, as it would dictate how he lived his life here on out. If he were only given a brief window of time, he would have to arrange his family's future during that span. But if he were living a whole lifetime over again, the things he wanted to do—and was capable of doing—would be limitless.
Since these were two entirely different ways of living, Nan Yu had to find out.
The system didn't waste any words, giving Nan Yu a direct and precise answer: "You are living a whole lifetime over again."