Ning Lu and Yan Bingqin headed straight to the Yan family home.
Now that Yan Shengli was in prison, Yan Bingqin only wanted to retrieve what rightfully belonged to her.
“Sister-in-law, before I got married, I had a jade pendant. It was hanging around my neck when my adoptive parents found me. I’d like to keep it in case I ever have a chance to find my biological parents. Could you help me find it?”
When she was very young, Yan Shengli had stolen the pendant.
Later, her adoptive parents had intervened, but Yan Shengli pretended he had lost it. In private, he threatened Yan Bingqin, demanding favors from her in exchange for returning it.
Through twists of fate and many years passing, she had never seen the pendant again.
Yan Shengli’s wife looked at Yan Bingqin with a complicated expression full of resentment.
In her eyes, Yan Shengli might have been lustful, but what man wasn’t?
The real person to blame, she believed, was Yan Bingqin, that flirtatious woman.
Now her family’s breadwinner was in jail, and the entire family had been humiliated.
Holding a broom, she swept the yard while cursing loudly:
“I’ve never seen any jade pendant! Shameless woman! Seducing men and then sending your adoptive parents’ son to prison! Ungrateful and heartless!”
Her voice was loud enough that neighbors began peeking out to watch.
Growing more arrogant, she continued:
“Everyone, take a good look! This is why you shouldn’t adopt children. You raise them only to end up with enemies! If my father-in-law knew this would happen, he never would have adopted her!”
Her son Huzi shifted uncomfortably.
“Mom, maybe we should just give Auntie the pendant. We…”
Before he could finish, his mother threw down the broom.
“What? You’re my son! Are you going to join those ungrateful bastards and betray our Yan family too?”
Ning Lu had no patience for arguments.
Rolling up her sleeves, she strode over, grabbed Yan’s wife by the thigh and shoulder, and suddenly spun her around in circles.
The woman immediately screamed.
“What are you doing?! Put me down! Ahhh!”
Ning Lu ignored her and kept spinning.
One circle.
Five circles.
Ten circles.
Only when she herself began feeling dizzy did she finally stop.
Yan’s wife staggered and immediately collapsed to the ground, vomiting.
Ning Lu grinned.
“Are you giving us the pendant or not? If not, I’ll make sure you throw up your heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys today.”
She hadn’t hit her.
She was just “playing” with her.
Still dizzy and nauseated, Yan’s wife hadn’t even recovered enough to curse before Ning Lu picked her up and spun her again.
Kicking and struggling was useless.
In the end, she lay sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, having emptied her stomach completely.
“Give… give it to her…”
Her son immediately ran inside, retrieved the pendant, and handed it to Yan Bingqin.
“Auntie, here. The pendant has been in my mom’s sewing box all along.”
Yan Bingqin looked at him and smiled softly.
“Thank you, Huzi.”
Embarrassed, Huzi scratched his head.
“My parents… they’re not very good people. Auntie, I’m sorry.”
Seeing such a decent child from that family, even Ning Lu sighed.
A bad bamboo can still produce a good shoot.
After getting the pendant, the mother and daughter didn’t stay long.
They quickly started the journey home.
Yan Village was quite far from Ning Village.
Walking took nearly an hour and a half.
Fortunately, after weeks of proper nutrition, both women felt stronger than ever.
Though they worked up a sweat, their spirits remained high.
Along the way, they rested beneath the shade of a tree.
Yan Bingqin handed the pendant to Ning Lu.
“I’m getting older, and my memory isn’t as good as it used to be. You keep it.
If one day you happen to meet your grandparents and they recognize it, then perhaps it was fate.”
Since her mother insisted, Ning Lu accepted it.
After resting, they continued home.
When they arrived, Ning Lu told Yan Bingqin to rest while she prepared dinner.
Yan Bingqin knew her daughter planned to cook one of those filling but weight-loss-friendly meals that she herself didn’t know how to make.
So she didn’t interfere and instead began organizing their luggage.
After all, they planned to leave and join the military family compound in just half a month.
Ning Lu entered the kitchen intending to make a vegetable porridge with boiled eggs and corn.
Simple, healthy, and satisfying.
She washed the vegetables.
While cleaning a cucumber, one of its sharp prickles pierced her finger.
Blood immediately welled up.
Instinctively, she wiped it on her clothes.
At that moment, a flash of red light appeared.
The jade pendant inside her clothing suddenly began glowing.
Ning Lu’s eyes widened.
She had already died once and even seen ghosts in her previous life, so she wasn’t easily frightened.
Quickly, she pulled out the pendant.
The blood from her finger was rapidly absorbed into it.
The jade gradually turned transparent.
In the next instant, she found herself standing inside a vast space.
It looked like a paradise crafted by nature itself.
Mist drifted through green mountains and crystal-clear waters.
Not far away, a magnificent waterfall cascaded down the mountainside, glittering like a silver galaxy.
Below it lay a clear emerald pool.
Along the shore stretched endless orchards.
Some trees were covered in blossoms, petals dancing through the air like a dream.
Others were heavy with ripe fruit.
Every fruit looked plump, colorful, and mouthwateringly delicious.
Ning Lu was instantly captivated.
Like the Monkey King entering the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, she rushed forward and picked a peach.
The ripe peach glowed with a tempting pink hue and released a sweet fragrance.
After rinsing it in the pool, she took a bite.
Juice burst into her mouth.
The rich sweetness spread through every nerve in her body, filling her with pure happiness.
Nearby were golden apricots.
Large Autumn Moon pears.
Dark red cherries hanging heavily from branches.
Round crimson apples.
Golden fragrant oranges.
Rows upon rows of grapevines carried purple, green, white, and red grapes.
Every kind of fruit imaginable seemed to exist there.
And every single one tasted incredible.
Ning Lu was so happy she nearly fainted.
Was this Heaven’s compensation for dying once?
Excited, she sampled almost every fruit she could find.
After eating until she was stuffed, she happily followed a path deeper into the orchard.
Soon she discovered vast vegetable gardens.
Eggplants.
Peppers.
Tomatoes.
Watermelons.
Cucumbers.
Green beans.
Potatoes.
Everything imaginable was growing there.
Each field contained vegetables at the perfect stage for harvesting.
Eagerly, Ning Lu filled her shirt with fruit and hurried toward the exit.
She wanted her mother to taste them too.
After all, the fruits were unbelievably delicious, and the pendant had originally belonged to her mother.
But the moment she used her thoughts to return to the kitchen—
Everything vanished.
Her hands were empty.
For a moment she wondered whether she was hallucinating.
But with another thought, she reentered the mysterious space.
Another thought, and she returned.
After repeating the process several times, she reached a conclusion.
She could enter the space.
She could eat inside it.
But she could not bring the fruits or vegetables out.
Ning Lu hurried into the bedroom.
“Mom, that pendant… I just used it and… &&**￥#…”
Yan Bingqin looked up from packing clothes.
Confused, she asked:
“Lu Lu, what’s wrong?”
Ning Lu discovered something shocking.
Whenever she tried to talk about the space, no sound came out.
She could not describe it at all.
Forced to give up, she smiled.
“Nothing, Mom. I was just wondering whether you want some peppers in dinner.”
Yan Bingqin smiled gently.
“A little is fine.”
Back in the kitchen, Ning Lu continued experimenting.
Eventually she figured out several rules.
The space allowed only her to enter and consume food inside.
She could not bring fruits or vegetables directly out of it.
However, she could store objects from the real world inside and retrieve them whenever she wanted.
After cooking dinner, she ate with her mother.
Then she tried something else.
She attempted to remove vegetable seedlings from the space.
To her surprise, that worked.
She planted several young greens in the vegetable patch outside their house.
Meanwhile, Yan Bingqin finished packing everything they intended to bring.
She found Ning Lu and said:
“Lu Lu, we need to start asking around and see who wants to buy the house.
The homestead, farmland, and house all need to be sold.
We also need the village chief to handle the land transfer paperwork.
Once we get the necessary documents, we can finally set off.”