After the Salted Fish Transmigrated into a Book, He Discovered the Whole Family were Villains - Chapter 5

Jian Chengxi came out carrying a suitcase full of clothes and asked the system to navigate him to a place where he could pawn them.

The system wasn’t very useful most of the time, but it made a decent living map. It quickly directed Jian Chengxi to a mushroom-shaped little house, the only pawn shop in the dungeon.

There were a lot of people outside the shop.

After inspecting his suitcase, the manager glanced at the clothes inside and showed a look of distaste. He said, “Mr. Jian, we can’t accept these clothes.”

Jian Chengxi asked in confusion, “Why not?”

He just wanted to sell the items off as quickly as possible.

Jian Chengxi picked up one of the garments and held it up, trying to show it off. “Isn’t this one pretty nice? And it’s still in good condition too. Just take it, won’t you? I’ve got two hungry kids at home. Could you please just do me a favor?”

The manager let out a helpless sigh. “It’s not that I don’t want to help you. We just don’t have the money to take in clothes right now. Times are hard, and the war up front is getting worse. Ever since the archangel clan was suddenly wiped out over a decade ago and the divine tree withered, our planet has lost the blessings and protection of the divine tree. Since then, beastkin have started going berserk from spiritual contamination, and the alien Zerg took the chance to launch a full-scale invasion. I’ve even heard rumors lately that another alien race has been hovering outside our planet, getting ready to attack us!”

Jian Chengxi asked, “Doesn’t that mean we’re in serious danger?”

“Exactly!” the manager said with a troubled expression. “But what can we do? I really do want to help you, Mr. Jian, but my own family’s struggling too. My elderly mother is bedridden, my wife and kid are seriously ill, and I’ve got a bad leg myself. Other than running this little business, I can only rely on welfare to get by. Just taking it one day at a time!”

Jian Chengxi paused for a moment. “You can get welfare?”

The manager glanced at him and said, “If your household’s in serious hardship, you can apply for it at the dungeon’s administrative office…”

Then—

He saw a light suddenly spark in Jian Chengxi’s eyes. Grabbing his suitcase, he dashed outside. “Thanks, I got it!”

…

The streets of the underground city.

The administrative office sat at the very center of the underground city, built around a thousand-year-old tree. The tree’s branches were lush and sprawling, and people came and went frequently. In modern terms, it was similar to a village committee office.

Jian Chengxi held his daughter’s hand and carried his son on his back.

Li Sui­sui looked nervously at the main hall ahead. The eyes of the passersby all fell on the three of them, filled with curiosity and scrutiny. She leaned closer to Jian Chengxi. “Daddy…”

Jian Chengxi looked down and reassured her gently, “It’s alright, Sui­sui, don’t be scared. We’re just here to take care of some paperwork. As long as we fill out the forms and apply for assistance, we’ll be able to get money for food.”

Li Sui­sui nodded obediently.

She exchanged a glance with her brother. Neither of them knew what strange plan their dad was up to this time.

The family stepped inside.

The person receiving them was an elderly woman who looked to be up in age.

As she saw Jian Chengxi, the old woman flipped through the papers on her desk. “What are you here for?”

Jian Chengxi replied, “We want to apply for social assistance.”

“Social assistance?” The old woman’s gaze fell on Jian Chengxi and the children. When she noticed how ragged their clothes were, she sighed and said, “No, that won’t work.”

Jian Chengxi’s eyes widened. “Why not?”

The old woman adjusted her glasses and said, “Social assistance is only for families in extreme hardship.”

Jian Chengxi immediately leaned in and said, “We’re in serious trouble! How are we not struggling? You can come to our home and see for yourself. There are enough spiderwebs to wrap around the room a few times! There’s not a single grain of rice left! Just look at how skinny my kids are! My son’s leg is still injured and we desperately need money for his treatment! How is that not hardship?”

…

The old woman remained unmoved. “But you’re still a healthy adult, aren’t you?”

Jian Chengxi was at a loss for words.

“As long as you have your hands and feet, you can take care of two kids.” The old woman waved him off. “You don’t meet the qualifications for social assistance.”

Jian Chengxi was stunned. He hadn’t expected that applying for social aid would require him to find a way to cripple himself.

But when it came to actually hurting himself… he just couldn’t bring himself to do it!

Li Suisui looked at the stern-faced woman and tugged nervously at Jian Chengxi’s hand.

Jian Chengxi patted his daughter’s head gently to comfort her. He was deeply conflicted. He had just arrived in this world, and had no money at all. If he couldn’t get any aid, life would be even tougher.

The old woman urged them, “Stop wasting time here. Move along!”

Jian Chengxi had no choice but to take the kids and leave.

But just as he turned around, his eyes landed on a poster listing the qualifications for social assistance hanging on a nearby wall. At the very bottom, there was a line of small print: “Family members of martyrs or individuals with significant contributions to society may apply for social assistance.”

The old woman picked up her teacup, ready to take a sip.

Suddenly—

Jian Chengxi turned around, and his entire demeanor had changed. The timid man from earlier was gone. He strode up to the desk and slapped his hand down. “I want to apply for social assistance.”

The old woman’s teacup shook. “Didn’t I already tell you, you don’t qualify?”

Jian Chengxi took a deep breath and said, “My husband was a martyr.”

The old woman froze. “Huh?”

Jian Chengxi was going all in for the sake of that aid money. His chest heaved, his eyes slowly turned red, suddenly he dropped to a squat and hugged the kids tightly. The performance kicked in instantly, “My husband joined the military three years ago. He left too early, leaving us—an abandoned wife and two helpless children—with no one to rely on. These two kids are all he left behind in this life. Poor man died on the battlefield and now, not only have we lost our pillar of support, we can’t even qualify for social assistance…”

The room fell silent.

The old woman stared at him, dumbfounded.

Li Suisui and Li Chen: “……”

Dad’s really throwing everything he’s got into this fake love story just to run off with his lover.

…

Cosmic Wormhole

A vast, boundless void. In the pitch-black wormhole, daylight never penetrated.

Meteors fell from time to time with deafening roars. Danger lurked in every direction, and the ground was split into jagged, broken plates.

Li Lingfeng lay behind a massive boulder, traces of green bl00d from Zerg soldiers still splattered across his silver armor. His face, cold and sharp like a blade, was expressionless in its solitude. Slowly, he opened his eyes—those eyes were devoid of emotion, frighteningly cold and merciless.

All around him were shattered ruins and the corpses of countless Zerg.

The man endured the searing agony that surged through his body from the beast clan’s berserk state. The pain was so intense no one else could have withstood it. Yet his expression remained eerily calm.

Li Lingfeng slowly raised his hand and saw the time displayed on his info screen. A faint, cruel smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

He hadn’t expected it—he had been reborn.

In his previous life, he served the Empire with unwavering loyalty. It took him five full years to finally destroy the wormhole and return home, burning with pride and honor.

But what awaited him was betrayal. His wife had cheated and run off with another man. His two children, disabled, had suffered endless humiliation and torment in the slums of the underground city until they were barely human. The Emperor, fearing his strength, turned on him after using him to eliminate political enemies, switching out his medicine and causing him to lose control and die in a berserk rage.

He was a decorated war hero, a marshal of unmatched merit.

Yet he failed to protect his own children and died at the hands of the very ruler he had served.

Fate seemed to be playing a cruel joke as he had been reborn into the past.

It was now Star Year 39, two years before the complete eradication of the Zerg in his previous life. But with the knowledge he now possessed, he wouldn’t need nearly that long.

A subordinate came running up, his voice carrying over, “General!”

Li Lingfeng pulled himself out of his thoughts and glanced over. “Speak.”

The subordinate, panting, reported, “We’ve finished the sweep. The Zerg in the north have been almost completely wiped out. What’s left must be the Zerg King deep in the southern part of the wormhole. As long as we take it down, we can open the black hole and go home!”

Li Lingfeng nodded coolly and said, “The Zerg’s main base isn’t in the south. Keep heading north.”

Everyone froze, confused.

Li Lingfeng swept his gaze over them and said quietly, “It’s just a diversion. The ones attacking us are only drone soldiers. Their goal is to lure us south.”

The deputy commander’s heart pounded with excitement. “Then that means, we’re close to their real nest. If we can find it, we can destroy the Zerg King and finally go home!”

The moment those words left his mouth, everyone was overcome with emotion.

It had been three years. When they were first sucked in, they all thought they would never survive. Yet now, the day of their return might finally be here.

The deputy sat down beside him and said, “It’s been three whole years. We’ve been completely cut off from the outside world and we don’t even know how things are back home.”

Another soldier chimed in, “Yeah, exactly.”

In the barren wasteland of the wormhole, missing their loved ones was the last remaining hope that kept them going.

Everyone began talking over one another.

The deputy glanced at Li Lingfeng, assuming he must also be missing his family. He leaned over to comfort him, “General, I’m sure Madam misses you a lot too. When you go back this time and he sees the military honors you’ve earned, he’ll be overjoyed!”

Li Lingfeng curled his lips slightly, a trace of mockery flashing in his eyes.

Jian Chengxi, missing him?

If he was still the man from his past life, still hopelessly in love with his wife, maybe he would have believed it. But now, he no longer harbored any foolish hopes.

Most likely, at this very moment, Jian Chengxi was off having a secret rendezvous with that so-called lover.

The deputy, sitting beside Li Lingfeng, kept flipping open the communicator on his wrist, sighing. “We can only receive messages from the home planet, but the signal interference from the Zerg black hole makes it impossible to send anything back. My wife’s been sending me pictures of the kids these past few years and they’ve grown so much. I just want to go back and hold them again.”

Li Lingfeng thought of his children and pressed his lips together. His hand, resting at his side, unconsciously clenched into a fist.

The deputy whispered, “General, Madam must have sent you photos too, right? He’s an elf after all and is already naturally beautiful. It’s only been three years, so I bet he hasn’t changed much…”

Li Lingfeng shot him a cold glance that sent a chill down the deputy’s spine. Knowing that look all too well as a sign of impending fury, the deputy immediately shut his mouth and scurried off, not daring to provoke this living devil any further.

All around him, the soldiers were bubbling with joy at the thought of finally being able to return and see their loved ones again.

But inside Li Lingfeng, there was only a dead silence. These past years, there’s not even a photo. Jian Chengxi hadn’t sent a single message, not even a perfunctory check-in.

Damn it.

Did he really care that little about him?

Forget it. He already knew what kind of person he was.

There was nothing left to be disappointed about.

Li Lingfeng’s eyes were dark and cold. As he brooded, his communication terminal suddenly chimed. He froze. That sound—it wasn’t just any signal. It was a direct transmission from the Empire. If it was from the Empire, it could only be from Jian Chengxi.

Could it be…

Was there still a place for him in Jian Chengxi’s heart?

Li Lingfeng lowered his head. The silver armor across his shoulders glinted coldly. This bloodthirsty god of war slowly opened the terminal, a flicker of anticipation in his eyes even he hadn’t noticed. Then he saw the message panel:

【Citizen ID 9087, Li Lingfeng: Greetings. Your registered family member has filed a Certificate of Death Confirmation on your behalf. After procedural review, the application has been approved. Effective immediately, your family is eligible for low-income support benefits as follows: xxxxx】

“……”