My spirit appeared on the road to exile, and I was treated as an ancestor.

Chapter 25: Should we proceed with the restoration of the antiquities?
[Collected gratitude from Lu Zhou, a member of the Lu clan; Offering Value +10!]

[Collected members of the Lu clan... Offering value +5!]

……

Dozens of messages about increased offerings appeared in quick succession, and a series of notification sounds rang in his ears. For a moment, Gu Xingzhao thought he was dreaming. "System, are you bugged?"

In the past, there were only one or two names here and there, sometimes it was Lu Qing, sometimes it was Lu Xingyan and Lu Xingyao. Today, so many names suddenly popped up and kept ringing, which really confused her.

In response to Gu Xingzhao, there was detailed information about the offerings on the system panel. All 26 members of the Lu family were listed, and their offerings increased in unison, some by 10, some by 5. She counted them, and the offerings that increased tonight amounted to a total of 160!

Including what he already had, Gu Xingzhao now has a total of 210 offerings. Everything he lost a few days ago has now returned in another form.

Waaaaah! 200 offerings can repair an ancient artifact once, she's no longer a pauper.

Seeing the increased offerings, Gu Xingzhao couldn't have been happier with the Lu family members. They were all her precious little ones, and she immediately decided to give them extra chicken legs tomorrow!

Just as she was pondering whether to get something else besides chicken legs, the system spoke up: "[Host, would you like to proceed with the restoration of this antique?]"

The system was referring, without a doubt, to the dress she had brought back from ancient times a few days ago.

Gu Xingzhao: "Is that even a question?"

The system is about to deduct her offerings.

Unexpectedly, Gu Xingzhao lay down on the bed, pulled up the covers, and fell asleep peacefully with the warm offerings he had just received, without mentioning the matter of restoring the antiques at all.

In her dream, she cursed the system from top to bottom and inside to outside countless times, calling it a piece of junk that was a scam. She said if she got scammed again, then there must be something wrong with her brain!

How much is a piece of clothing worth? It's not worth exchanging it with the existing offerings. Now that the supermarket promotion is on track and there's income, she has the patience to wait for an antique that's more valuable than clothing to appear.

I'm currently burdened with debt, so I can't just focus on immediate gains; I need to take a long-term view.

What precious offerings! Shouldn't they be used in a more suitable place?

...

The next morning at dawn, the Lu family, who had a good, warm sleep, were the first to wake up and put away the blankets that had been used to cover them all night.

As Lu Qing folded up the blanket, he was amazed. He never expected that such a thin blanket could have such amazing warmth and wind protection. And the heat pack was still warm!
I was ashamed to admit that I had questioned the blanket last night. How could something given by our ancestors be wrong? It must be the best.

The blanket, when folded up, was only about the size of two palms. Lu Xingyao tied it to his body with a rope, thinking that he would take good care of it, since it contained the magic of his ancestors.

Thinking of this, he glanced at Lu Xingyan, narrowed his eyes, and was secretly pleased. He no longer cared about his third uncle's bottle.

Lu Xingyao's eyes gleamed with undisguised smugness, for everything on his body was a gift from his ancestor!
Lu Qing caught a glimpse of his grandson's undisguised smugness and slapped him hard across the back of the head without holding back. Song Shi saw it and felt a pang of heartache.

After being slapped, Lu Xingyao visibly calmed down. That night was the most restful and comfortable sleep the Lu clan had had in the past two weeks. Because they weren't cold, because they were certain they were under divine protection, and because they had hope for the days to come, everyone was full of energy. Touching the lingering warmth of the hand warmers on their bodies, even their hearts were warm.

The other prisoners woke up one after another. Many of them had been chilled all night and were coughing incessantly from the cold. They ate the coarse bread that had been distributed to them. Seeing that the Lu family had all finished eating and looked ready to leave, they wondered, "Has the Lu family suffered some kind of shock? Why aren't they getting any more sleep today?"

Judging by this, they got up much earlier than usual.

Someone muttered under their breath, "What do you know? They're blessed by the gods now..."

Look how frozen everyone was last night, only the Lu family members are really tough, they didn't utter a sound!

"Nonsense! If they really had divine protection, would they have suffered alongside us all this way?"

What deity would protect an exiled prisoner who has nothing to offer? Are the deities fools?
The majority of people still do not believe that the Lu family is protected by gods.

Only the Liu family, who lived next to the Lu family, knew that the god who protected them had appeared again last night, and who knows what kind of magic he had used. Thinking of this, they couldn't help but feel envious.

Du Hangwu still didn't believe in ghosts and gods, and always felt that the Lu family was practicing some kind of evil or crooked way. Otherwise, how could they all be so energetic after being frozen all night?
That day, because many people caught a cold, their journey was much slower. The sick prisoners were weak, but the young and healthy ones were deliberately slacking off. The officers had sharp eyes and caught one of them, beating him mercilessly. The whips lashed out again and again, leaving the people with torn skin and bloody flesh, and their pitiful pleas for mercy came in waves.

Not to mention the young ones who dared not slack off, even those who had caught a cold dared not delay their pace and forced themselves to keep up with the group.

Du Hangwu was impatient. If they hadn't been ambushed on the way, the group should have arrived in Laiyuan Town by now, according to the original schedule.

It's likely to snow in two days. If we can't get to Laiyuan Town before then, the heavy snow will freeze to death in this desolate mountain gully, far from any village or land.

At times like this, he found the Lu family, who hadn't delayed their journey at all, much more agreeable.

Meanwhile, Gu Xingzhao's modern business is booming. Today's customer traffic is twice as high as yesterday's. There are few businesses in the town, so there are few ways to make money, and even fewer people would do an activity like hers where they could easily lose everything.

Customers come with the intention of getting a good deal and winning a prize. Anyway, they need to buy New Year's goods, so it doesn't matter which store they go to.

If you buy from this supermarket, you'll get a dozen eggs for free and a chance to win a prize. If you win the grand prize, you'll be rolling in money!

Most customers had this mindset, which led to Gu Xingzhao's supermarket becoming the dominant player in the town. People from neighboring towns also came to buy from her. The town's residents shared information, and her supermarket inadvertently stole almost all the customers from the entire town and neighboring towns.

Gu Xingzhao would occasionally give out a prize, and he would give out one whenever he felt that the turnover had reached a certain target.

Aunt Wang was genuinely happy for the supermarket because she saw that business was good. She thought, "And it has to be a college student; you have to use your brain to make money in business."

The owner of the fruit shop next door, however, was not so kind. He was envious and secretly chatted with the customers who came to buy fruit about the supermarket, speaking fluently and casually.

But the supermarket business not only didn't get worse, it got even better, making a fortune every day, which made him extremely envious.

(End of this chapter)