Anyway, by the time Mother Fa and Father Fa came down from the tree carrying a bright red apple, Mom excitedly announced to Fa Muzhi: They were buying a house—and it was a School District Apartment!

The next day, they weren’t in a rush to leave. They didn’t even bother calling in sick to work or school despite the lack of phone signal—after all, they were buying a house in another city, which meant switching jobs and schools. Taking time off? Who cares!

They quickly negotiated the price with the seller—Mother Fa even got a 100,000 yuan discount for paying cash. Oh, and there was a little hiccup when withdrawing the money—Mother Fa’s bank card didn’t work when she tried to get cash via the tree branch.

But her card was pretty old, so Mother Fa didn’t think much of it. According to the rules at the time, she just had to go to her branch to get a new card.

Mother Fa hesitated for a moment: should she buy a ticket back via Shuzhi from the city where this house was located? Or should she return to her original city via the house she inherited to replace the card?

She didn’t hesitate too long. Decisive as ever, Mother Fa quickly settled on a plan: go via the house she inherited.

They’d simply move their household from their current place to over there. They’d rent a moving truck and drive it themselves!

Though it would be a hassle, it would save a lot of money, Mother Fa thought, staring at the numbers on her calculator.

Indeed, the sole reason Mother Fa chose this plan was cost—renting a truck themselves would save thousands of yuan~

So, just as the Fa family had arrived, they would return the same way. Since food was scarce, they’d spent half a day catching a mountain pheasant to eat while living up in the hills.

“Life here is too inconvenient,” Mother Fa instructed while distributing the chicken among the children. “Remember, next time we come, we’ll bring a whole brood of chicks. At least then we’ll have eggs every day.”

“Mm-hmm.” The one nodding and taking notes was naturally Father Fa, who’d caught the pheasant but didn’t get any chicken.

Of course, Mother Fa didn’t give herself any chicken meat either. The couple ate the apples they’d picked earlier over there themselves ← Duh! They wouldn’t dare give those mysteriously picked apples to the kids! Better to eat them themselves.

As it turned out, though the apples looked red, they tasted slightly astringent and weren’t particularly delicious. Still, aside from the tartness, there were no other issues. Neither parent experienced any adverse effects, though the apples weren’t filling and left them feeling a bit hungry.

Fortunately, they hadn’t been in the mountains long. Hungry and exhausted, they left the deep woods behind. Standing by the roadside again, Father Fa and Mother Fa flagged down a car. Once they got a ride, they’d have something to eat.

Thus, after a bumpy ride, they returned to the city where they’d once lived. Mother Fa and Father Fa swiftly handled matters, including but not limited to: resigning from their jobs, transferring the siblings’ school enrollment records, terminating their lease, buying a car, swapping SIM cards to withdraw cash… Finally, driving a beat-up little pickup truck, they left the city where they’d worked and lived for so long.

Oh, and the truck was bought, not rented—when Mother Fa did the math on the rental cost, she realized buying a used vehicle might actually be cheaper than renting it for a single trip?

After all, this old, seemingly-about-to-be-scrapped truck cost less than their rental fee for one trip~

So, they switched from renting to buying, loaded their kids and belongings, and drove away.

The truck was parked by the mountainside—in this godforsaken… no, in this place where birds pooped everywhere, there were hardly any people around. The truck was beat-up, so they weren’t too worried about it being stolen. Besides, even though it was old, it had a lock. After locking it up, the Fa family diligently began hauling their belongings into the mountains.

To be precise, it was Father Fa leading the three kids in the move. While they were relocating, Mother Fa single-handedly handled the family’s big business through the branches: buying a house.

Holding the freshly printed, still-warm property deed, Mother Fa stood alone in the lobby and wept.

But she didn’t cry for long. Glancing at the deed again, she wiped her tears and smiled.

With the deed in hand, she returned to join her family in settling into their new home here—there was no other choice. The newly purchased School District Apartment over there was only three square meters; housing everyone there was clearly impossible. It was merely borrowed for the school district.

↑

Psychologically, Mother Fa treated that place as an entryway.

On the day the move was fully completed, the Fa family celebrated modestly in their new home.

They didn’t have the energy for a big feast (Mother Fa: nor the money), just simple home-cooked dishes. They opened a bottle of soda for the kids, used wine glasses to clink together, and called it a celebration.

After the “drinks” and meal, Mother Fa let the kids and adults rest thoroughly for two days. Then, when the new Monday arrived, the couple brought their eldest child—Fa Muzhi—to the new home via the tree branch network to enroll in the new school.

Everything matched Mother Fa’s expectations: the school was excellent. Though the campus was a bit dated, it was clean and tidy. The teaching materials were all new, the teachers were dedicated and responsible, and the students seemed very capable.

A perfect School District Apartment.

Watching their eldest son’s back as the teacher led him into the new classroom, the couple smiled with satisfaction.

With their eldest’s enrollment experience as a foundation, they decided to handle the remaining two children’s enrollment in one go, the next day.

However—

Early the next morning, things began to go off the rails. After sending Fa Muzhi to school via the tree branches on his own, the couple took their second and third children to complete their enrollment procedures.

Or rather, everything began revealing its “true nature”—

Mother Fa, who had just pulled Fa Mulin’s hand across the branch, found herself not in their three-square-meter School District Apartment, but in a… cave?!

Outside the cave, ethereal white clouds drifted by—the kind that would leave anyone staring in disbelief!

Following closely behind, Father Fa was just about to grin and give his little daughter a detailed tour of their one-of-a-kind “School District Apartment” when suddenly—

“BOOM!” Like a cannonball, something exploded right in front of the father and daughter.

Gripping his daughter’s small hand, Father Fa looked up to see steel humanoid machines soaring through the sky. Accompanied by stunt-like attacks and defenses, an intense aerial battle raged. At the center of their struggle seemed to be a steel sphere? But whenever this sphere occasionally fell to the ground, the energy waves it unleashed created explosive effects around them.

“Holy crap! Run!” Completely oblivious to what was happening, Father Fa grabbed his daughter’s hand and bolted for their lives.

It was on that very day that Mother Fa’s newly posted curfew notice became obsolete.

Mother Fa, struggling to bring her second child, Fa Mulin, down the mountain, happened upon the Immortal Master conducting a talent search in the village below. By sheer coincidence, he took a liking to Fa Mulin, who had just hacked through the undergrowth to reach the village with his mother.

Mother Fa: !!!

Meanwhile, Father Fa was running around frantically with his daughter, finally escaping the “field” area—yes, he later learned the place he’d just appeared in was a ‘field,’ the training ground for the most popular sport in the Mecha Age: Mecha Soccer.

The location of their School District Apartment had been leveled, creating a natural obstacle-filled terrain perfect for mecha soccer. To his astonishment, the property deed he tremblingly pulled from his briefcase was actually recognized, and he was immediately compensated with a hefty sum of money ← well, in the currency of that era…

And so, Father Fa Vaguely brought his daughter here, vaguely received a hefty demolition compensation, then vaguely toured the property guided by his daughter, and finally vaguely bought a house locally.

Hmm… Still a School District Apartment. Not huge, but easily accommodated five people.

And the corresponding school district was supposedly excellent!

After touring the corresponding school district, Zhizhi’s eyes lit up as she told her Father Fa she would attend this school—it was the school of her dreams, where she would play mecha soccer!

Father Fa: …

In short, thanks to Mother Fa emptying the family savings to buy that School District Apartment, all three siblings got into the top schools in the area.