Chapter 146: The Fourth Platform Activation

“Right? You also think it’s time to switch to a new mule or donkey?” Yan Lao’er asked excitedly.

See, this is what it means to be a couple—they think alike.

“No!” Li Xuemei looked at him seriously and said word by word,

“I want to switch to a humanoid mechanical construct—a robot.”

Yan Lao’er: …

“Didn’t we discuss this before? Adding another person would be hard to explain.”

Li Xuemei replied, “That was then, this is now. Back then, we were only surrounded by villagers, so having an extra person was hard to explain. But now, there are so many people around us—it’ll be easy to blend in.”

Yan Lao’er caught on. “You’re talking about those refugees…”

“Mm! Just like how we didn’t want to replace the exploration cat at first, but later changed our minds.”

A soft and lingering cat meow followed. The cat rubbed its head against Li Xuemei, half-closing its eyes in pure contentment.

Yan Lao’er gave it a casual stroke, but the cat simply flicked its tail and ignored him.

“I think now is the perfect time. Refugees fleeing from disasters have left their homes behind. Losing their household registration is normal. Once we reach Guanzhou, we can find a way to get new papers for them—or simply have them sell themselves into our household. Isn’t that how they always do it in dramas? We’ll figure something out.”

Yan Lao’er’s eyebrows shot up in excitement.

“Now that you put it that way… it really makes sense!

I was even thinking about finding a skilled midwife for your delivery, haha! But if we get a robot, we can customize one that takes care of pregnant women, delivers babies, and looks after children. What do they call that? A full-service maternity nanny!

Oh, right—do you want to add postpartum care too? That should be possible, right? We can have our daughter check later. This is a great idea!

Wife, our daughter takes after you—so smart! Hahaha!”

Yan Lao’er gave himself a thumbs-up. Genius!

What a brilliant idea. The more he thought about it, the better it sounded.

Li Xuemei’s voice turned even softer. “If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right. A lone woman showing up wouldn’t make sense. But with a child and a man? A whole family wouldn’t stand out.”

Yan Lao’er was stunned!

His wife’s courage was off the charts!

Sneaking in one person wasn’t enough for her—she wanted to smuggle in an entire family!

“We’re taking a risk no matter what. One person or a few—it makes no difference. Think about it: a family can cover for each other’s identities. It’ll be harder to expose them.” Li Xuemei’s tone was gentle but firm.

Yan Lao’er: … Yes… Perfect! Flawless!

It took him a while to process all this, and Li Xuemei patiently waited.

“Hehehe… Hehehehe…” Yan Lao’er started laughing foolishly.

“Wife, this is a brilliant idea! We can hide this ‘family’ among the refugees and travel together. Later, when we buy a house, we can get one nearby. They can even act as a warehouse for our stuff! Their things are our things!” Yan Lao’er’s eyes gleamed.

“Ah!” He smacked his thigh as if he had lost millions. “Too late, too late! We missed out on the earlier waves of free money!”

Li Xuemei held back her laughter and played along, pretending to be regretful.

When Yan Yu was finally woken up and heard the plan her parents had pieced together—

She was stunned. Absolutely amazed!

“Let me summarize.” Yan Yu pressed her temples, staring blankly ahead. “Stockpile supplies, replace robots… No, to be precise, hoard robots…”

She looked at her parents in a daze, then slowly raised both hands, giving them a double thumbs-up.

“Dad, Mom… Absolute genius!”

“This is next-level thinking!” Yan Yu was thrilled. “Let’s talk about the platform shop first. We’ve already figured out the right way to farm points—replanting trees for resale. Right now, our biggest limitation isn’t money but explaining where our goods come from. A suddenly appearing family perfectly solves this issue!

We don’t have space? They do!

Load up the carts, carry the big bags—robots don’t get tired, don’t need to eat, drink, or sleep…

Oh my god, why did we always try to keep people right under our noses? We were too short-sighted!

Being neighbors works too! Once they have official household registration, they can do so much—buy land, farm, raise livestock, hunt, open shops, do business, trade, sail… Make money! So much money—all ours!

If we stock up on enough robots, we can even build an ocean fleet in the future! Wahahaha! And we won’t even need to worry about safety! Even if the ship sinks, they can just walk across the ocean floor—”

Yan Lao’er quickly cut off his daughter’s spiraling thoughts. If he let her continue, she’d probably blast off into space next.

“Dabao, the priority is getting your mom a full-service maternity robot first.”

Li Xuemei disagreed. “Get a combat model instead.”

Yan Lao’er: …

Yan Yu: …

“Why are you both looking at me like that? We’ve gotten ourselves into serious danger. I still have a few months before giving birth—there’s no rush. Combat models should come first. This world is too unsafe.” Li Xuemei pursed her lips, her expression serious and determined.

Yan Yu nodded slowly. “Mom is right. Nothing else matters if we’re not safe. Even though our cat has a protection function, its small size is too limiting.

But Mom, Dad—if we’re going to bring in a whole family, do we have enough meat?”

Yan Lao’er and Li Xuemei frowned at the same time.

They had collected a good amount of meat, but using it all for trade wasn’t an option—they needed to keep some out in the open.

Considering that, the amount they could trade wasn’t as much as they had hoped.

Yan Yu helpfully suggested, “Mom, this is like collecting trading cards. We don’t have to rush—one at a time. Let’s start with… hmm, a woman first.

For long-term planning, how about a pregnant woman? Around the same stage as you, or a few months earlier. Later, we can go the wet nurse route, chef route… plenty of options.

We can modify the child bit by bit as they grow up. Then we’ll assign them to our family’s Er Bao—see? Instant playmate and bodyguard! Tsk tsk, I envy Er Bao—born into absolute safety!

If the punk uncle is willing to give us a discount, maybe we can add one more—a husband, a son, or a daughter? A buy-one-get-one deal, perhaps?”

“Daughter sounds good.” Yan Lao’er was successfully led astray.

Yan Yu grinned and was about to say more when—

A familiar notification rang in her ears.

【Please confirm that your surroundings are secure.】

“Yes!”

Yan Lao’er and Li Xuemei exchanged a glance. It was here!

Yan Yu’s brow furrowed deeply.

Something was off about the products on the shelves.

And for some reason, the free market icon seemed to be flashing more urgently than before.

After a brief hesitation, she clicked into it.

Jackpot!

It was the punk uncle!

Yan Yu called out in the sweetest voice, “Uncle!”

The man on the other side froze at her enthusiasm. “What’s up, little sister? Miss me already? Got business for me?”

He rubbed his hands together and instinctively glanced at her inventory.

“Holy crap!”

“What did you guys do? Stumble across a wild horse herd and slaughter them all?!”

“Not a single one left alive—brutal!!!”