Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 991 - 971. Yun Duo’s Boldness

Chapter 991: 971. Yun Duo’s Boldness

Yunyun lifted her eyebrows and snapped, "You little brat, you talk like you know it all—hurry up and spill everything, don’t give me any of that fake nonsense... If you don’t, I’m calling home!"

On the other end of the phone, Yun Duo instantly lost her composure and stammered, "So... during the summer break, Dad called me to come home. He said he’d found someone interested and was willing to pay 250,000 to take me away."

Yunyun furrowed her brows tightly and didn’t say a word.

Her silence made Yun Duo’s words flow more smoothly: "Of course, I didn’t agree. I didn’t go home during the summer break. But Dad, you know, is into that Douyin thing? He posted videos of Yunshan and Yunhai, and someone called Shan Yue reached out to him, saying kids like Yunshan and Yunhai could fetch 50,000 each as ’matches’ in China."

"If sent abroad, the price shoots up to 88,000."

Yunyun felt nauseated whenever she thought about it!

In the past, their parents’ business was limited to the local area. Later, with the rise of short videos, their mom and dad started scrolling nonstop every day. Even she occasionally came across content like ’finding a home for the disabled,’ with clearly marked prices: age, conditions, children or not, dowry prices in the tens of thousands... They call it dowry, but it’s actually annotated as ’pay cash, take the person.’

And somehow, lots of people were inquiring! Eventually, their parents’ ’business’ grew, and now they had their sights set on Yunshan and Yunhai.

They’re only 14 years old!

Talking about this made Yun Duo feel sick: "I secretly dug out the contact info of those hot leads and directly reported them."

But this kind of thing isn’t something you can entirely report away. Once their parents are set on making money, even without middlemen, they’ll find their own way. Yunyun racked her brain, but couldn’t figure out a solution—Shannan is vast and sparsely populated, and their parents are always on guard. She couldn’t even find a way to take the two younger ones away.

In the end, she had to resort to drastic measures: "There’s a girl in my dorm who got scammed by a telecom fraud ring. When I was helping her dig into it, I noticed they were using fake job offers to deceive people... My original plan was to infiltrate them myself..."

"Don’t you dare!" Yunyun suddenly raised her voice, "Have you gone stupid from reading too many books?! Those fraudsters are all bad news, and most of them aren’t even in the country—if you get trafficked abroad, like to Shan Yue’s side... whether you even survive is a whole other issue!"

She was so furious her tears nearly fell. She paced in circles on the empty road, wishing Yun Duo were right in front of her so she could smack her a few times and get it out of her system!

Yun Duo was scared too. "Sis! Sis! I didn’t act stupidly! I reported it in advance and made sure the police were involved first. Only then did I pretend to go for a job interview... By the time the police arrived, I hadn’t even gotten to the front of the line!"

In truth, she really was terrified afterward!

When she filed the report, she hadn’t realized how deep it ran. Growing up in that environment, constantly exposed to bits and pieces of gossip, had let her piece together key info without fully understanding the risks.

But who could have known they were already preparing to wrap things up domestically and make the leap abroad? If she had faltered even a little, her bright future would’ve been completely ruined by her own cleverness.

Still... still, if she hadn’t made that move, while she was away at school, Yunshan and Yunhai could have been quietly whisked away, and they’d have no hope of ever reuniting.

Thinking back now, Yun Duo was terrified but didn’t regret it.

Still, she had to comfort Yunyun:

"Strictly speaking, it wasn’t my business. I begged them to do their work and, while handling the case, to bring my little brother and sister over for questioning..."

She couldn’t help but laugh while saying this: "Sis, the money you send me every month—I’ve been saving it. Now I’m staying at the police station, and they’re protecting me like crazy..."

"After this weekend, I’ll be able to go back to school. Yunshan and Yunhai are temporarily placed in a nearby orphanage."

"Once my school’s break starts in half a month, I’ll go find a job. I can take care of them!"

At least in the big city, they can eat their fill—even if it’s better than the sparse meals back home.

"Take care of my ass!" Yunyun fumed:

"You’re still just a student yourself. Take care of yourself first. Send Yunshan and Yunhai to me. I’ll check with the village intermediaries to see if there are places willing to hire kids like them for work."

It’s been two years since she got married, and she knows the ins and outs of the village intermediaries. At least the factories they transfer to are legitimate. It’s tough work, but a month’s pay can get into the thousands.

By then, she or Lao Zheng could take Yunshan and Yunhai to work together for a year, saving up a few tens of thousands, enough to cover school costs later.

Yunyun had her own understanding of survival—Yun Duo can study, and she’s cut out for it; she has to go to college.

As for Yunshan and Yunhai, well, there didn’t seem to be any particular talent there. For now, they should at least finish high school. Later, when they work, it’ll be easier to find jobs.

After all, Lao Zheng is good to her, but leaving her siblings to sponge off of him for free... the subtle dynamics wouldn’t make for a peaceful life!

They’re still young anyway. Losing a year or two won’t matter.

She laid out the arrangement to Yun Duo: "Ask them if this works. Plenty of kids do this—work a year, save five or six thousand, then attend some random junior or senior high school for a couple years, just to get a graduation certificate. Afterward, they can learn a trade or find a job."

"Earn your own money, spend your own money. Then your back straightens up, so does mine."

"Sounds good!" Yun Duo—a pragmatist herself—agreed cheerfully:

People live the lives their families prepare for them.

Kids from rich families start private tutoring and training programs as early as kindergarten, and for them, studying is the absolute priority—it can’t be neglected for even a second.

But for their family? At three or four years old, they already knew how to start fires and wash dishes. With no dependable adults to rely on, if they’re not cut out for studying, what else can they do but work?

In fact, Yun Duo already felt a bit regretful—she’d made it all the way from Shannan to a regular university. Back then, everyone said she’d ’made it big.’

But she only realized the truth after leaving the mountains: these days, college graduates are everywhere, and she has no edge in the job market. And she has three more years to go!

Three years—tuition, living expenses, accommodation fees...

Her sister sends her 600 per month. She relied on student loans and various part-time jobs—she was so tired.

Because she couldn’t wholly focus on her coursework, she didn’t qualify for scholarships. She only received the poverty relief subsidy of 2,000 yuan...

Now Yun Duo couldn’t help but ask: "Sis, what kind of job can someone like me even get after graduating?"

"I’ve studied four years of college here—will my future salary even be higher than others?"

She wasn’t discussing dreams or aspirations, just money—money to find a job where effort equals earnings...

But hearing this, even Yunyun—who still had faith in college degrees—was speechless.

After all, the job market for college graduates is indeed brutal now!

She thought and thought, eventually resorting to feeding her sister a barely cooked motivational speech:

"It should still be worth something. Like, there’s a girl from your brother-in-law’s village—she went to college and started a business back here. Apparently, she could get loans worth millions easily, and she’d just grow some crops, and reporters would come by to interview her..."

This was a world entirely beyond Yunyun’s comprehension. She could only sigh, "See, there’s definitely stuff you haven’t learned from college yet."