In the early years, the outskirts of An City were vast stretches of farmland, with many villages scattered around. In recent years, this area became a key focus of urban redevelopment. Quite a few villagers took their demolition compensation and went to the city to buy apartments.
That large-scale demolition back then did not include resettlement housing, so the compensation payouts were especially high. In the end, among the expropriated land, a particularly well-located tract was designated for the construction of several residential communities.
Take Old Cheng’s family in their villa complex as an example. They were originally villagers from this suburban rural area. Thanks to good luck, after their house and farmland were requisitioned, they received a substantial compensation payout, which allowed them to buy a villa in what is now Qingshui Mountain Estate.
However, there were many villages in the suburbs, and some inevitably were not included in the demolition plans.
Today, Lin Su and the others planned to ride electric bikes and visit those villages that had not been listed for demolition, hoping to make some discoveries.
But after riding their electric bikes through two villages, they found nothing unusual. Instead, they ended up carrying quite a few locally produced specialties that they had purchased at high prices.
After all, when outsiders enter a village, without a proper reason, it’s easy to be driven away.
“This is the last village in this direction. If there’s nothing unusual here, let’s head back first.”
They had set out at eight in the evening, and it was already past midnight now. If they went on to one more village, it would definitely be two or three in the morning. Getting home would take more time, and they couldn’t afford to be delayed on the road, ending up caught by sunrise would mean instant death in the sunlight.
Lin Su’s words were agreed upon by the other three.
They rode in a formation of three rows: Wen Shiyun in the lead, He Rongxuan bringing up the rear, with the two women riding side by side in the middle.
Riding electric bikes like this along a village road was actually quite eye-catching.
They soon reached the village. It was another ordinary village, except that most of the houses here were single-story. The conditions were not as good as in the two villages they had visited earlier.
At a glance, Wen Shiyun spotted several mud-brick houses not far from the village entrance. Behind the mud-brick houses was a large, pitch-black area. With no streetlights in the village, it was hard to see clearly.
A light bulb was lit at the entrance of one of the mud-brick houses, and they could see an elderly woman sitting there, mending clothes.
“I’ll go over with Qingfei to ask around. You check the surroundings.”
By now, the four of them had developed a tacit understanding and quickly split up their tasks.
“Ma’am, we live in the residential area up ahead. We wanted to ask whether there’s any food for sale in your village?”
Apparently, many people had been coming to the countryside to buy food lately, and the old woman was quite practiced. “There’s a little, but the prices are awfully high!”
This sounded promising to Lin Su, so she continued: “It’s normal for things to be expensive. We live in the residential area, no fields, no farmland. There’s barely any food left at home. At this point, what use is money? Ma’am, for the sake of our sincerity, could you help us out and get some food for us?”
Hearing that Lin Su didn’t care about the price, the old woman got excited.
Cheerfully, she set aside her sewing and darted into the house. In less than two minutes, she came back carrying a basket.
At that moment, Lin Su’s attention was drawn to the pile of things behind the house.
Seeing this, He Qingfei acted smartly: “How much? We can pay right now…”
She spoke while subtly blocking the old woman’s view, giving Lin Su more space to move.
Taking advantage of this, Lin Su used the light from her phone to shine toward the back of the house. And what she saw was astonishing…
Meanwhile, Wen Shiyun and He Rongxuan had quickly returned on their bikes. They, too, had made some new discoveries.
After regrouping, the four of them paid the old woman and, carrying the basket of sweet potatoes, were about to start the electric bikes when shouts rang out from the village entrance.
In less than five minutes, over ten men, young and middle-aged, came into view. Each carried wooden sticks or iron rods on their shoulders, laughing and chatting as they walked into the village.
Wen Shiyun and He Rongxuan, who were already familiar with the village situation, immediately signaled Lin Su and He Qingfei. The four of them throttled the electric bikes to maximum speed, and before the group of men could react, they were gone in a flash.
The lead man, having regained his senses, walked up to the old woman: “Grandma Jiu, what were those people just now doing in the village?”
The old woman, called Grandma Jiu, laughed cheerfully: “Da Long is back! Those young people just now came from the city to buy things.”
Hearing they were from the city, the man named Da Long relaxed. However, his words were firm: “From now on, the village won’t sell anything to outsiders. If outsiders come, Grandma Jiu, you notify the village…”
This conversation was completely unknown to Lin Su and the others, who were already far away.
Once they had left the village and slowed down, Lin Su turned to Wen Shiyun: “Shiyun, don’t you think some of those people looked familiar?”
Especially the leader—Lin Su felt he must be one of the people who came to steal from their residential area that night.
Wen Shiyun had been present that night too, so he recognized them immediately.
“Let’s talk about it after we get home.”
Back at home, with the air conditioning on and sipping cold mung bean soup, Lin Su finally voiced her suspicion.
“You mean that group just now came to steal from us. But… shouldn’t they have been detained?”
Even attempting to break in to steal, even if unsuccessful, would normally be punished. Moreover, he’d heard that in the high-rise area, these people had brazenly robbed with knives.
He Rongxuan was the first to feel puzzled by Lin Su’s words. Although he hadn’t been at the scene when the arrests happened, he had heard how it unfolded. Naturally, he found it very strange that these people had been released.
Father Lin and Father Wen had quietly come over at some point. Listening to the young people’s discussion, they couldn’t help but interject: “I heard that the detention centers are overflowing right now. There isn’t enough food or water for the inmates. Those who were released are probably the ones who didn’t commit any outright robberies.”
While the young people could understand the reasoning, hearing it said aloud still made them uneasy.
At that moment, Wen Shiyun said, “When Rongxuan and I were riding around the village, we noticed that only elderly people, children, and women were out and about. The men seemed to be nowhere in sight. Right then, we felt something was off with this village. And seeing those people appear at the village entrance confirmed it. The question is, what gave them the confidence to act like that?”
Normally, when people are arrested once and then released, they would feel some hesitation. Even if they wanted to cause trouble again, they wouldn’t dare to act so openly.
But tonight, seeing them, each one wore an air of superiority, as if they were the rulers of the world.
Wen Shiyun, who had a particularly sharp sense of people, immediately realized there must be deeper issues in that village.
“Oh, right,” he added. “I heard that Old Cheng has some familial ties with one family in this village.”
“Just as I thought…”
After listening to the information from Wen Shiyun and He Rongxuan and combining it with her own observations, Lin Su finally became convinced that her previous suspicions about the village were very likely true.
However, if her suspicions were correct, then the world was even stranger than she had imagined.
Her mind racing with countless thoughts, Lin Su pondered for a long time. Once the He siblings left, she immediately pulled Wen Shiyun aside and shared her suspicion.
“Shiyun, do you think it’s possible that there’s a third person in this world who possesses a space?”
Even saying this aloud, Lin Su still found it hard to believe. But given the circumstances and all the information she had, this was the only conclusion she could reach.
Knowing Lin Su’s personality, Wen Shiyun immediately asked, “What did you discover?”
Lin Su nodded, relaxing back into the sofa: “Remember that village? Behind the old lady’s house, there was that big pile of stuff. Do you know what it was?”
Wen Shiyun shook his head and handed her the water cup from the table.
Thinking about it now, Lin Su still found it incredible: “Most of that pile were convenience store shelves!”
Naturally, someone who ran supermarkets would be very familiar with store shelves. And since she had shone her phone’s light on them, she could even see the convenience store labels on the shelves. These were the same convenience stores that had previously been emptied out.
Previously, many stores on the commercial street had been emptied out, and both she and Wen Shiyun had assumed it was Cheng Jiajia. After all, only she and Cheng Jiajia had access to a space. And since she herself hadn’t done anything like that, it was natural to conclude that Cheng Jiajia had started the zero-cost shopping spree.
But now, seeing that pile of convenience store shelves, Lin Su had enough information to suspect that a third person with a space had appeared in this world.
Wen Shiyun immediately realized this after hearing Lin Su: “So there really is a third person with a space. And that person is one of the people from that village.”
Lin Su nodded. Only this conclusion could connect all the pieces of information together, no matter how absurd it seemed.
“Now that there’s a third person with a space… could there be a fourth?”
This was the question on both Lin Su and Wen Shiyun’s minds. After all, the entire Green River Star region was so vast. If they could encounter one or two, there could very well be others in places they hadn’t been yet, other people who also had a space.
To test this theory, Lin Su quickly came up with a good idea.
The next day, after sunset, the residents of the villa district followed their usual habit of coming out of their homes to move around.
“Old Lin, was what you said in the group yesterday true?”
Yesterday, after discussing with her family, Lin Su had asked Father Lin to hint in the villa district’s chat group that they could provide some supplies to neighbors, though he had been deliberately vague. Now that people could go out, everyone was eager to come ask.
Father Lin cheerfully said, “I can’t go into all the details, but our Susu is smart, she got some supplies together. If you want some, there’s no surplus, but we can share a little of what we have.”
Upon hearing this, the neighbors all thought it over for themselves.
Someone like the shrewd Lai Huaming whispered to his wife, Liu Meilin, “I knew the Lin family must be hiding supplies. But for them to just openly say it like this… isn’t that a bit foolish?”
Liu Meilin nudged him with her elbow, “They’re being selfless. What are you talking about?”
The other neighbors all looked grateful, and words of praise flowed as freely as if they were free of charge. As for Old Cheng, standing off to the side, he wore a contemplative expression.
Lin Su naturally noticed Old Cheng’s reaction. Seeing that he had taken the bait, she felt reassured.
Since they said they’d share some of the supplies, it was only natural that it would happen.
With the list of goods obtained after some haggling, Lin Su and Wen Shiyun rode together to pick up the supplies.
Seeing Old Cheng following not far behind, Lin Su and Wen Shiyun could barely hold back their laughter.
But that was exactly their intention, let Old Cheng follow, then relay information to the others. By the time the person with a space found out, there was no way they’d pass up a warehouse stocked with supplies.
Then they could catch them in the act.
The warehouse they went to was a private one Lin Su had deliberately set up beforehand. Most of the supplies inside had been transferred directly from the supermarket, so it was very convenient for them to locate what they needed.
Once they arrived and closed the door, Old Cheng behind them could see nothing.
However, every time the warehouse door opened or closed, Old Cheng caught glimpses of its contents.
A warehouse full of supplies, anyone who missed out would be a fool.
He didn’t know what method Da Long’s group would use to move the supplies, but all he had to do was provide them with information, just like the time they came to the community to steal.
That incident had made Old Cheng think they were incredibly stupid, getting caught by the police! But he wanted revenge on the community. After all, they had called in Director Wu, which led to his precious son being taken, now with his fate unknown.
Old Cheng picked up his phone and called Da Long, then quietly slipped away.
Of course, he didn’t see the operations Lin Su carried out inside the warehouse.