I'm Trapped in the Block

Chapter 347: Chapter 344: Family Rules

”This is the price.”

The little girl had known from a very young age that everything came with a price.

Because that was what her family had taught her.

Or rather, there was a rule in her house that served as a constant reminder: everything and anything had a price.

Those Blocks were not just her toys; they were also ”currency.”

The little girl had to pay currency to use anything in the house.

She had to pay the household robot a chef’s fee for her meals, submit a monthly rent payment to her mother, and settle the water and electricity bills for her baths and appliance usage at the end of each month.

All of these had to be paid for with Blocks.

In turn, she had to help clean the yard or do other chores to earn Blocks. This was how she survived.

The little girl never thought there was anything wrong with this. She had asked many of her classmates, and they all told her they also did chores at home in exchange for an allowance.

It was just that in her house, the form of this ”allowance” was a bit peculiar.

This upbringing molded her personality, making her consider the cost of every action.

However, there was one thing in the little girl’s house that didn’t require payment.

Her mother playing with her.

Her mother had once told her, ”If I play with you, you have to pay me. If you play with me, I have to pay you. So it all just cancels out.”

The little girl quickly understood this logic.

Because of this, she had also proposed a ”transaction” to her father.

She offered to pay a certain amount of Blocks for him to play with her.

But her father told her, ”You can’t afford my fee.”

Indeed, her father’s time was incredibly valuable. The Blocks the little girl had saved for so long were nothing to him.

The price wasn’t high enough.

”Mom, how many Blocks do I have to pay for Dad to play with me?” she had once asked her mother.

But her mother fell silent, unable to give her a precise answer.

”As long as you save enough, I’m sure you can get Dad to play with you,” her mother said gently, stroking the little girl’s head.

So the little girl could only do her best to save up Blocks.

As she grew older, the little girl noticed that she was earning more and more Blocks for her labor. When she asked her mother about it, the answer was: ”Your value has increased.”

Her time was becoming more valuable, and in turn, the number of Blocks she needed also grew.

The little girl was, of course, very happy, because this meant she could save up Blocks faster than ever before.

She could also eat more delicious food and try using the expensive appliances in the house.

Everything seemed to be getting better.

”So, I can’t just take Auntie Lin Nian’s favorite thing for no reason without paying the price,” the little girl explained, looking seriously at the Young Lady before her.

Lin Nian was stunned for a long time before she could process the little girl’s strange story.

”Is this a rule in your family?” she asked quizzically, holding the Block.

”Yes.” The little girl didn’t think her family rule was particularly special.

”What do you do if you run out of Blocks to pay for food?”

”That only happened when I was very little. I’m very wealthy now,” the little girl said, pulling a handful of Blocks from her pocket and shaking them in front of Lin Nian.

Lin Nian stared at the glittering Blocks and fell silent for a long moment.

The little girl continued with her story.

”When I first started elementary school, I thought the outside world was the same as my home, that everything required a price...”

Back then, because she didn’t have enough Blocks to pay the ”accompaniment fee,” the little girl walked to school all by herself.

In an age where transportation was commonplace and nearly every family owned a vehicle, the little girl was the only child who arrived at school alone, unaccompanied by a parent and not using any form of transport.

She walked from the suburbs into the city, climbed the towering skyway overpass, and arrived at the elementary school’s entrance.

Weaving through the dense crowd, she headed straight for the payment office.

’You can’t go to school if you don’t have money.’

She had already exchanged some of her Blocks for the outside world’s common currency in advance. This was her tuition fee.

The teacher at the payment office looked curiously at this little girl who had come to pay her tuition alone.

”Little one, where are your parents?”

”At home. This is the tuition fee,” the little girl replied coolly, standing on her tiptoes to place her small, watch-wearing hand on the desk.

Seeing the little girl straining like that, the teacher quickly scanned her watch with the payment device.

”All paid up. Do you need a teacher to show you to your classroom?”

Looking at the adorable little girl, the teacher couldn’t help but feel a sense of affection.

”No, thank you.”

The little girl maintained her cold expression but was very polite. After declining the teacher’s offer, she walked toward her classroom alone.

’Taking me to the classroom would probably cost something, right?’ the little girl thought. She didn’t want to waste her Blocks on unnecessary things.

She followed the class assignment list and found the classroom on her own.

The classroom was already in an uproar. Parents were at loggerheads over seating arrangements. Though they saved face by not shouting, the air was thick with tension.

The parents were clustered at the front of the room, none of them willing to give an inch, all wanting their own child to sit in the very front.

The little girl glanced at them and walked directly to the back row.

’A seat here probably isn’t too expensive.’

She stuffed her schoolbag into the desk, sat down, and gazed out the window at her new school.

Because she didn’t have enough Blocks to pay for a closer school, she had to choose a public school that was very far from her home. The long journey meant she had to wake up extremely early.

But on the bright side, the school seemed quite nice.

At the front of the classroom, the parents were still at a standoff, refusing to budge. One parent even plopped right down into a seat, completely ignoring the disapproving words from those around them, giving off the air of a single soldier holding a pass against an army.

This only made the tension heavier. Some of the more hot-tempered parents even dropped their passive-aggressive remarks and started cursing outright.

’Here we go again.’

The little girl took out her Blocks and started playing with them on her desk.

’It’s so noisy. If only I could hide inside.’

As she was building a house with her Blocks, a few small faces appeared in the reflective metal surfaces.

Unbeknownst to her, a few other children had gathered around. They stared at the Blocks with curiosity, holding their breath as they watched the little girl stack them higher and higher.

The little girl hated the feeling of being watched. With a sweep of her small hand, the Blocks tumbled back into her bag.

”Why’d you stop building?” a child beside her asked.

”Yeah, keep going! I want to see how high you can stack them.”

The children all started talking at once, which only made the little girl more uncomfortable.

Then, a chubby little boy pulled a snack from his pocket and placed it on the little girl’s desk.

”You must be tired from building. This is really yummy. You’ll have more energy after you eat it.”