Xiao’an went to Zhu Cui’s house, picked up the basket containing her belongings, grabbed a sickle, and started walking away.
As a young woman traveling alone, she needed something to protect herself.
Zhu Cui came running after her, tears streaming down her face.
“Xiao’an, where are you going? Do you have somewhere to stay?”
She began sobbing.
“Poor girl. Don’t leave. Stay at our house. The weather is getting warmer now. I’ll have your Uncle Wang sleep in the pigsty.
“You’re all alone. I can’t just leave you to fend for yourself.”
This was the same woman who had threatened to catch the cat and stew it for meat, yet despite living through a time of hunger and scarcity, she still had such a kind heart.
Tears immediately streamed down Xiao’an’s face.
Zhu Cui’s husband, Wang Dashan, also came rushing out after them. In his deep, booming voice, he said,
“Xiao’an, listen to your auntie and stay at our place. It’s getting warmer every day. I’ll put a pile of dry grass in the pigsty and sleep there. I won’t be cold at all.”
Then he added,
“We haven’t raised pigs for several years, so there isn’t even any smell in the pigsty.”
Xiao’an wiped the tears from her face. She reached out and held Zhu Cui by the shoulders, looking at both her and Wang Dashan.
“Uncle, Auntie, my grandfather built a bamboo house halfway up the mountain two years ago. I’ll stay there for the time being.
“Don’t worry. Once summer is over, I’ll definitely have earned enough money. Then I’ll come back to the village and buy another house.”
Zhu Cui frowned worriedly.
“You’re just a young girl. What if something happens to you while you’re living alone in that bamboo house?”
Xiao’an smiled reassuringly.
“Auntie, did you forget? Both my grandfather and grandmother knew martial arts. I practiced with them since I was little. Three or five people wouldn’t be able to beat me.”
She raised the sickle in her hand for Zhu Cui to see.
“And I have this, too.”
The original owner’s great-grandfather and great-grandmother had both been professional escort guards who made their living protecting people and transporting goods. It was a dangerous profession in which they constantly risked their lives.
Later, something terrible happened. After surviving the ordeal, the original owner’s great-grandfather came to a realization.
He warned his children and grandchildren never to continue in the escort business, because it was an occupation where death was always just around the corner.
However, he insisted that the family’s martial arts tradition should never be abandoned.
It could strengthen the body, and more importantly, it could be used for self-defense.
It was a precious family skill.
The original owner’s grandparents had practiced martial arts their entire lives, and the original owner had trained alongside them since childhood.
A young woman who knew martial arts was indeed someone most people would hesitate to bully.
“But if you live halfway up the mountain, how will you get water?”
Xiao’an smiled and reassured her.
“I can gather wild vegetables during the day and come back to the village to fetch water. I don’t have any grain anyway, so there’s no need to wash rice. I’ll be fine for now.
“Uncle, Auntie, don’t worry about me. I’ll definitely live well. I’ll make something of myself.”
With that, Xiao’an put the basket on her back and left.
After entering the eastern mountain, she followed the winding path upward.
Before long, she saw the bamboo house.
It stood quietly halfway up the mountain, as though waiting for Xiao’an to arrive from below.
The bamboo house faced east with its back against the mountain.
Bamboo surrounded it on all four sides, woven tightly together.
The lower sections of the bamboo walls had been reinforced with stones stacked about a meter high. The stones had been coated with several layers of yellow mud, making the structure extremely sturdy.
The roof was also made of bamboo. Even the eaves had been coated with several layers of mud, ensuring that rain could not leak inside.
When Xiao’an reached the house, she put down her basket and gently pushed open the bamboo door.
Inside, there was nothing except a single bed.
Sunlight filtered through the tiny gaps between the bamboo, leaving the room dim and silent.
Xiao’an muttered to herself,
“Having a place like this is already pretty good.”
She took a deep breath, grabbed her sickle, and went into the bamboo grove to cut some bamboo leaves.
She twisted them together into a broom and swept the dust from the little bamboo house and the bed.
After putting down the broom, Xiao’an went to pick up her basket. She wanted to take out her quilt and spread it over the bed.
She wasn’t paying attention.
The sickle lying horizontally across the top of the basket suddenly scraped across the index finger of her right hand.
Blood immediately began pouring from the wound.
There was no medicine and no water.
Xiao’an instinctively grabbed her injured finger with her left hand.
Now both hands were covered in blood, and she didn’t even have anything to wipe them with.
Suddenly, Xiao’an’s emotions completely collapsed.
She sat down on a stone and burst into tears.
When the pain and despair became unbearable, Xiao’an slipped her left hand inside her collar and touched the longevity lock hanging around her neck.
This longevity lock was the only thing that had followed her from her previous life into this world.
Just like the original owner, Xiao’an had been raised by her grandmother.
In her previous life, her mother had died giving birth to her.
Only a month later, her father abandoned the baby Xiao’an in the countryside, then returned to the city with his new lover to enjoy his life.
His behavior perfectly demonstrated the saying: When there’s a stepmother, there’s often a heartless father.
Fortunately, Xiao’an’s grandparents loved her dearly.
When she was one hundred days old, her grandmother bought her this silver longevity lock at a market in town.
The elderly vendor who sold it had a long white beard.
He told Xiao’an’s grandmother that the longevity lock had changed hands many times.
Whenever it was sold, the previous owner would tell the new owner a mysterious legend about it.
According to the legend, once the longevity lock came into contact with its owner’s blood, it could grant that person one wish.
However, the person had to be its true owner.
As for who the true owner was, no one had ever known.
Some people had bought the longevity lock and dripped their own blood onto it, but nothing had happened.
Many people had tried the same thing, yet it had never worked.
Eventually, people stopped experimenting with it, but the legend continued to be passed down along with the longevity lock.
Xiao’an’s grandmother never believed the story. She thought it was simply a sales gimmick invented by the vendor.
After buying the longevity lock, she put it around Xiao’an’s neck.
Xiao’an wore it from childhood until she grew up.
Her grandmother also told her the legend as a story.
Whenever Xiao’an was sad, she would unconsciously touch the longevity lock.
It seemed to possess some kind of mysterious power that could soothe her emotions and help her calm down.
Xiao’an’s grandfather passed away first.
Her grandmother died the following year.
On the night of her grandmother’s funeral, an earthquake struck, and Xiao’an transmigrated into this world.
She had crossed over with only her soul, yet what puzzled her was that the mysterious longevity lock had somehow followed her too.
It was still hanging around her neck.
At that moment, Xiao’an tightly held the longevity lock.
In this completely hopeless situation, she choked out,
“Grandma, I miss home!”
After saying that, she became even more emotional.
She sat on the stone, tears and mucus streaming down her face.
Suddenly, Xiao’an sensed that something was wrong.
Why had the wind suddenly stopped?
She raised her head.
Then her eyes widened in shock.
The place where she was sitting was no longer the mountain.
It was her home from her previous life.
Her bedroom.
“Oh my God!”
Xiao’an was so shocked that she completely forgot to cry.
She cried out loudly,
“I really came back home?!”
She stood up and stared at the familiar surroundings.
Tears of joy filled her eyes.
“I’m back. I’m really back!”
She kept repeating those words.
After quite some time, Xiao’an finally managed to calm herself down.
Then she remembered the legend her grandmother had once told her about the longevity lock.
Xiao’an opened her hand and looked at it.
The wound from the sickle was still bleeding.
She quickly pulled the longevity lock out from beneath her collar and looked down.
The longevity lock was stained with her blood.
At that moment, Xiao’an understood.
When she had held the longevity lock earlier, she had said:
I want to go home.
The longevity lock had granted her wish and brought her home.
That meant she was undoubtedly the longevity lock’s true owner.
Xiao’an’s heart began pounding.
Since she had returned to the home from her previous life, did that mean she had actually returned to the modern world?
She hurried out of the house and pushed open the front door.
Outside the door was a stretch of land covering roughly half a mu.
Beside the land was a small river.
The water was crystal clear, flowing gently along its course.
Mountains could be seen in the distance.
In her previous life, the area outside her home had been filled with her neighbors’ houses.
It certainly hadn’t looked anything like this.
Xiao’an understood.
Her home had become a portable personal space.
She could enter it whenever she wanted, but once she left, she would return to the ancient world.
She could not actually return to modern society.
Xiao’an smiled.
Even if she could never return to her former life, having a personal space of her own was already a wonderful thing.