Those words lashed at Su Jinxiu like a whip, driving her to work without pause for the next four days.
On the sixth day, she found Ah Kun.
A twenty-six-year-old IT engineer, he lived in one of the cramped “handshake buildings” in the urban village. Three computers were running at once in his tiny apartment, their screens filled with lines of code and torrent downloads. Su Jinxiu had found him through an online data recovery forum.
“Auntie, what kind of data are you looking for?” Ah Kun asked, pushing up his thick, bottle-bottom glasses with a puzzled expression.
Without a word, Su Jinxiu handed him a sheet of paper.
He glanced down—and nearly dropped it.
“PDF textbooks from elementary school through doctoral level… an agricultural research database… complete medical literature… mechanical engineering blueprints… architectural design references… chemical formula databases…” The more he read, the quieter he became. “Auntie… are you trying to build a library?”
“Can ten hard drives hold it all?”
“Ten four-terabyte drives…” He calculated quickly. “Barely.”
“Thirty thousand yuan. I want everything delivered within three days.”
His fingers immediately flew across the keyboard.
“Two days is enough!”
That same afternoon, Su Jinxiu swept through the electronics market, purchasing five laptops, five desktop computers, ten smartphones, twenty portable solar charging panels, and matching battery storage packs.
The shop owner assumed she’d come on behalf of a government office or large company and enthusiastically offered to prepare an official invoice.
Su Jinxiu simply waved him off.
“No need. I’ll pay cash.”
On the seventh day, she stocked up on seasonings.
Five hundred cases each of soy sauce and vinegar.
Five hundred cases each of Sichuan peppercorns and star anise.
Five hundred cases of chili powder.
Five hundred cases of Thirteen-Spice seasoning.
Two hundred cases of tea.
One hundred cases of baijiu.
Two hundred cans of powdered milk.
Five hundred cases of canned food.
One thousand cases of instant noodles.
Five hundred cases of sausage.
Two hundred cases of chocolate.
The wholesale market owner stared at the order form, her jaw hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.
“Big Sis… are you opening a supermarket or getting ready for a war?”
Su Jinxiu calmly handed over her bank card.
“For a war.”
On the morning of the eighth day, Ah Kun delivered the hard drives.
Ten black portable drives, each heavy in her hands.
Inside them were dozens of terabytes—the accumulated knowledge of human civilization.
Su Jinxiu inspected them on the spot, randomly opening folders.
Mathematics, physics, and chemistry textbooks were complete and crystal clear.
Agricultural papers were meticulously categorized.
Medical imaging archives were comprehensive.
There were even thousands of movies and tens of thousands of songs.
“Auntie…” Ah Kun scratched his head. “What exactly are you planning to do?”
Su Jinxiu packed the hard drives into her bag and smiled faintly.
“Change the world.”
He laughed awkwardly, assuming she was joking.
He had no idea…
…that the gray-haired old woman standing before him meant every single word.
That evening, Su Jinxiu arrived at an apartment building in Cuihu Garden, on the eastern side of the city.
She had bought this apartment for her younger brother, Su Jianshe, twelve years ago.
A 120-square-meter home with three bedrooms and two living areas.
She had paid 1.6 million yuan in full.
She still had a spare key.
When she’d bought the apartment, she’d made an extra copy, and Su Jianshe had never bothered asking for it.
She inserted the key into the lock.
Click.
The door opened.
No one was home.
Su Jianshe and his wife had gone on vacation to Hainan the previous week.
The airfare and hotel expenses…
…had been paid with the money Su Jinxiu had “loaned” them just last month.
Standing in the entryway, she slowly surveyed the apartment.
The living room sofa.
She bought it.
The television.
She bought it.
The air conditioner.
She bought it.
Even the Yixing clay tea set sitting on the coffee table…
She had personally brought it back from Yixing.
The refrigerator.
The dishwasher.
The oven.
She bought every one of them.
The solid wood bed.
The latex mattress.
The silk quilt.
All hers.
The computer.
The printer.
The massage chair.
Every last item had come from her own pocket.
And what had Su Jianshe ever given her in return?
“Sis, you’re rich. What’s wrong with buying me a house? It’s not like you can’t afford it.”
“Sis, Mom said you make all that money. If you don’t spend it on family, are you taking it into your coffin?”
“Sis, why are you so stingy? Your company makes tens of millions every year, and I’m only asking for a car. Why do you keep dragging your feet?”
Su Jinxiu closed her eyes and drew a slow, deep breath.
When she opened them again, all emotion had vanished.
Only calm remained.
“Store.”
The sofa disappeared.
“Store.”
The television.
The air conditioner.
The coffee table.
Gone.
“Store.”
“Store.”
“Store.”
“Store.”
Ten minutes later…
The entire 120-square-meter apartment was stripped bare.
Nothing remained except the walls and the floor tiles.
She even removed the showerhead and bathroom heater.
Standing alone in the empty living room, she imagined the expression on Su Jianshe’s face when he returned from his vacation and opened the door.
“Younger Brother…”
she murmured softly,
“…everything I ever owed you in this lifetime has now been repaid.”
She turned around.
Closed the door.
And walked away.
On the night of the ninth day, back in her rented apartment, Su Jinxiu sat before a folding table and opened her notebook for one final inventory.
Total spent on purchased supplies: approximately 56 million yuan.
Estimated value of collected assets: approximately 31 million yuan.
Including:
Total value of supplies stored inside her spatial dimension: approximately 87 million yuan.
Remaining cash: 3.12 million yuan, reserved for emergencies.
She stared quietly at the figure:
87 million.
Her fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop three times.
More than a hundred tons of grain.
Enough to feed an entire village for ten years.
Medicine sufficient to keep a small hospital operating for twenty years.
Agricultural machinery capable of equipping a large-scale farm.
Computers…
Electronics…
And those priceless knowledge archives…
Against the China of 1970…
They represented an overwhelming technological advantage.
She closed the notebook and leaned back in her chair, letting out a long breath.
It was enough.
Day Ten.
Five o’clock in the morning.
Su Jinxiu stood once again atop the unfinished high-rise.
Ten days earlier…
She had stood in this exact spot.
Beneath her feet lay a twenty-three-story drop.
Behind her lay a life filled with nothing but despair.
Today…
The morning breeze stirred her graying hair.
A faint smile rested on her lips.
The city below still slept.
Only scattered lights glimmered in the darkness as dawn slowly brightened the eastern horizon.
She had spent more than forty years fighting for this city.
She remembered where she had opened her very first store.
Who had signed her first million-yuan contract.
How exhilarated she had felt the first time she stood atop Jinxiu Group headquarters and overlooked the entire skyline.
But now…
None of it mattered anymore.
Her phone vibrated.
Ice-blue text appeared on the screen.
【Rebirth Countdown: 12 Hours Remaining. Host, please prepare yourself.】
She put away her phone and walked downstairs.
Back in the rental apartment, she took a shower and changed into clean clothes.
Then—
“Store.”
The folding table disappeared.
The folding chair disappeared.
The electric kettle.
The washbasin.
The towels.
Even the faucet.
Everything vanished into her storage space.
She left the rental apartment even emptier than her brother’s home.
Then she sat cross-legged in the middle of the bare room and slowly closed her eyes.
A picture emerged in her mind.
A dirt road.
Gray-brick houses.
Golden wheat fields stretching endlessly into the distance.
Young women in blue cotton jackets carried buckets suspended from shoulder poles.
Members of the production brigade walked toward the fields with hoes slung over their shoulders.
Then…
A young man in military uniform emerged from the sea of wheat.
Tall.
Lean.
Straight-backed.
His handsome features shone beneath the morning sun, which gilded the insignia on his shoulders with a golden glow.
In his hand was a spotless white handkerchief.
He smiled gently at her.
Gu Zhiheng.
Warmth welled in Su Jinxiu’s eyes.
“This time…”
she whispered,
“I’m the one coming to find you.”
The system notification sounded.
Brilliant ice-blue words illuminated the darkness.
【Initiating Rebirth.】
【Farming Space synchronized and unlocked.】
【May everything go smoothly for the Host.】
The world spun violently.
It felt as though an enormous hand had seized her consciousness and dragged it downward.
Darkness surged from every direction.
It swallowed the city’s skyline.
The white walls of the rented apartment.
The faint glow of her phone’s screen.
Everything…
…vanished.
Time lost all meaning.
Perhaps only a second passed.
Perhaps ten thousand years.
When her consciousness finally gathered itself again, the first thing Su Jinxiu noticed was—
Pain.
Her back ached terribly.
The surface beneath her was hard as stone.
The second sensation—
Cold.
Not the chill of air conditioning.
The damp, bone-deep cold of dawn soaked with dew.
And the third—
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
A rooster crowed loudly.
Su Jinxiu’s eyes flew open.
Above her was a yellowed paper-covered ceiling, its corners draped with cobwebs.
The air carried the earthy scent of soil, firewood, and dried straw.
Beyond the rooster’s crow came the faint sounds of people beginning their day somewhere in the distance…