Jiang Ting, having never truly experienced the harsh realities of the world, had no idea how sinister a man’s schemes could be.
She spent a miserable afternoon jumping and hopping along with the fitness videos, drenching a whole set of clothes in sweat. She only felt a bit tired that day, but the next morning, her entire body was so sore that she couldn’t even roll out of bed.
By the time she dragged her legs—which were trembling like overcooked noodles—through her morning wash, she felt like even walking to the door to pick up a delivery was a Herculean task.
Having no other choice, she decided to pull something from the stash of delicacies in her Space. At worst, she’d just hide the trash back in the Space until she had a chance to throw it away.
She found that she couldn’t retrieve items from the Space without a clear mental target. Thus, her consciousness entered the Space. While she was originally looking for something to eat, she discovered that the Space had expanded again since the last time!
It had doubled in size!
Jiang Ting’s ability to judge spatial dimensions was average at best, and without any large reference objects, she had long ago lost track of the exact measurements. But this time, she could tell at a glance that the Space had nearly doubled.
Her mental projection flew freely around the Space, feeling a bit exhausted after just one lap.
Jiang Ting marveled to herself: Just how big is this? Is it as big as a football field? The ceiling seems higher, too! How much stuff can this hold? Three giant supermarkets wouldn’t be enough to fill it!
Even though she might not be able to fill this Space in her entire lifetime, it gave her a mysterious sense of having “leveled up.”
Being prone to overactive imagination, Jiang Ting wondered: Could it be that my physical fitness improved after exercising, which caused the Space to expand?
At the thought of this, the soreness in her body seemed to lessen.
Jiang Ting fantasized about the Space eventually becoming like those evolving “Sumeru Mustard Seed” spaces in cultivation novels, complete with mountains, water, and animals. Suddenly, her body felt flooded with strength. She pushed past her physical limits and forced herself to do another hour of aerobics, only collapsing onto the living room sofa once she truly couldn’t support herself any longer.
The next morning, Jiang Ting eagerly entered the Space to check.
It hadn’t grown.
She continued exercising and checked again the following day.
Still no expansion.
Jiang Ting tapped her knuckles against the dark green jade bead, fuming, “Are you playing with me?!”
The jade bead was just a bead; it gave no reaction.
Jiang Ting declared: “I’m done! I’m not training anymore!”
Then, during her lunch chat with Cong Yixing, he said: Babe, I accidentally touched your stomach while I was sleeping last night, and it actually scared me awake! How did it get so much smaller!
“Really?” The corners of Jiang Ting’s mouth were harder to suppress than a kickback from an AK-47.
Muttering to herself, she lifted her shirt to look and felt around. It did feel a bit smaller.
The very next afternoon, Jiang Ting was back on her yoga mat at the scheduled time, jumping along to her workout. She chanted internally: Consistency is key. Hard work pays off. Keep going, Xiao Jiang!
Meanwhile, Cong Yixing finished some work and headed to the company breakroom. While waiting for his cup to fill, he checked his phone. Seeing no new messages at the top of his chat list, he thought with some uncertainty: That tactic should have worked, right?
The weekend was their agreed-upon “fresh air” time.
In the past, Jiang Ting would find all sorts of reasons to refuse to leave the house, such as “You’ve worked hard all week, you should rest for two days,” or “I still have several videos I haven’t edited yet, let’s go next time,” or “It’s not that I don’t want to go, it’s just that the weather is bad today and I can’t help it.”
Cong Yixing had expected Jiang Ting to find another excuse to stay in this time. Who would have thought that he would be the one woken up by Jiang Ting early in the morning!
Jiang Ting stood by the bed, looking at him with a face full of joy. “Look at me! What’s different today?”
The “Deadly Question”?
Cong Yixing dithered for a moment, then quickly said, “You’re thinner. Much thinner.”
“Hmm?” Jiang Ting’s gaze was suspicious. “You’re not just saying that, are you?”
Faced with a test so early in the morning, Cong Yixing’s brain went into high gear, processing at top speed until he finally found the answer: “Babe, can you fit into that outfit now?”
“Bingo! Didn’t expect that, did you? I’ve lost so much weight!”
Cong Yixing breathed a massive sigh of relief.
He played along: “Yeah! You bought that a size too small on purpose back then, saying you’d wear it once you got thinner. I even teased you about it. I didn’t expect to be proven wrong so soon!”
Already happy, Jiang Ting was even more delighted by Cong Yixing’s praise. The two of them packed up and prepared to head out.
Cong Yixing stood at the door, one hand on the frame, glancing at Jiang Ting. “Checklist: Phone, tissues, sunscreen, touch-up powder, lipstick, sun mask, sunglasses.”
Jiang Ting did a frantic check, then said solemnly, “Confirmed!” Then she countered: “House keys, car keys, sunglasses, sun hat, tissues, hair tie, folding umbrella, sun sleeves, water bottle?”
Cong Yixing: “Got them all. Plus some liquid herbal heatstroke medicine.”
Jiang Ting turned first: “Destination: Mo Mountain. Let’s go!”
The trip, originally planned for two days and one night, ended early.
Yu City was situated on a plain. As the saying goes online: any pile of dirt that qualifies as a “mountain” becomes a tourist attraction here.
Although Mo Mountain was small, it was one of the few mountains near the city center.
After days of high temperatures, the weekend had finally arrived. Most people had only two choices for an outing: the mountains or the water.
This made Mo Mountain incredibly crowded over the weekend.
To use a famous internet phrase: There were so many people.
The mountain wasn’t big to begin with, and it was packed. The trails were shoulder-to-shoulder. The temperature, which was supposed to be several degrees lower than the city, felt like it had been raised by several degrees just from the collective body heat of the crowd.
Jiang Ting had only been exercising for a few days, so her physical stamina hadn’t noticeably improved. She climbed and climbed through the throng, but before they even reached the halfway point, she was spent. She flat-out refused to go any further.
Having no other choice, Cong Yixing half-carried and half-supported her back down the mountain. Famished, the two of them found a local farmhouse restaurant to eat.
There were too many people there, too.
Perhaps the chefs were overwhelmed, but the quality of the food was simply indescribable. Even someone like Cong Yixing, who had a good appetite and wasn’t a picky eater, found it hard to swallow, let alone Jiang Ting.
After barely filling up halfway at lunch, they looked for a place to rest, only to find that all the hotels at the foot of the mountain were fully booked.
Because he hadn’t been sure if Jiang Ting would be willing to come, Cong Yixing hadn’t booked a hotel in advance. With no other options, they could only find a guesthouse with an extremely low online rating.
The guesthouse certainly lived up to its poor reviews. The environment was terrible, the room’s hygiene was questionable, and the equipment was ancient. The air conditioner sounded like it was on its last breath, wheezing out a half-dead, dusty-smelling breeze.
Jiang Ting didn’t sleep well all night. She endured it until dawn, and without even eating breakfast, she urged Cong Yixing to head back.
Cong Yixing drove for over three hours on an empty stomach. When they finally reached the city area, Jiang Ting—who had been dozing in the passenger seat the whole way—finally regained her energy. She shouted, “I want to feast! I’m going to eat ten pounds of food!”
Jiang Ting directed Cong Yixing to a very famous old bun shop in Yu City.
There was no parking in this area, so Cong Yixing pulled over to the side of the road with his hazard lights flashing. Jiang Ting charged toward Mo’s Bun Shop with an aggressive momentum.
There was usually a long line at this shop, but luckily it was already past nine o’clock. The upside was that there was no line; the downside was that several flavors were already sold out.
In the end, Jiang Ting bought four of each remaining flavor, totaling twenty buns.
This shop was famous for its huge buns—thin skins and generous fillings. Each one was bigger than half of Jiang Ting’s palm!
The buns were packed in brown paper bags. As Jiang Ting held them in her arms, the hot aroma kept wafting into her nose. The smell of the flour and the filling intertwined. Jiang Ting couldn’t resist; with a flick of her mind through the paper bag, half of the buns were whisked into her Space.
After becoming more practiced, she didn’t need to directly touch objects to move them into the jade bead’s Space. She could move things within a one-meter radius of her body at will.
Jiang Ting walked back feeling smug. This is great. Next time I want to eat these, I can just take them from the Space. I won’t have to hire a delivery runner!
This shop was very far from her rental, well outside the normal delivery range. Usually, if she wanted them, she had to come in person or pay for a long-distance runner, which wasn’t cost-effective at all!
Thinking this, Jiang Ting felt like she should have bought more. She opened the car door, sat inside, and said to Cong Yixing, “Maybe I should have bought more to keep in the freezer. I could just heat them up when I want to eat.”
Cong Yixing reminded her: “The freezer is full!”
He added, “Why are you holding them like that? Isn’t it hot? Look at you, you’ve only been out for a few minutes and your forehead is covered in sweat. Here, wipe it off.”
Jiang Ting twisted around to carefully place the buns on the back seat, then turned back to fasten her seatbelt before taking the tissue Cong Yixing offered.
She flipped down the car’s vanity mirror and saw that both her cheeks were flushed from the heat. She couldn’t help but complain, “This ghostly weather is so hot. I’m never going outside again until it gets cold!”
Cong Yixing felt bad for her too. Realizing that his poor planning had resulted in her having zero fun on this trip, he said guiltily, “If you don’t want to go out, then don’t. But you have to keep exercising at home. No slacking off.”
Jiang Ting: “Don’t say such cold words while making that ‘Fine, I’ll listen to you because I have no choice’ face, okay?”
The buns were still hot when they got home. After washing her hands, Jiang Ting couldn’t wait to open the brown paper bag.
Inside, the plump white buns were stacked one on top of another. She took one out and measured it against her palm; it really was bigger than half of her hand!
The surface of the bun’s skin was translucent where the juices from the filling had seeped through. It looked oily and incredibly enticing.
Jiang Ting tore open a vegetarian bun, revealing green chives, yellow eggs, and soy-colored vermicelli, all accented by crispy bits of pork lard cracklings.
She took a bite. The chives were crisp, the eggs were soft, and the vermicelli was springy. Mixed with the savory aroma of the lard cracklings, the texture was rich and the seasoning was savory. It made her want a second bite before she had even swallowed the first.
Like a starving ghost reincarnated, Jiang Ting polished off two large buns. Her stomach felt full and satisfied; she felt so happy she could almost cry.
She gulped down half a cup of water and looked at Cong Yixing—who was currently eating his third bun—with a look of envy. “It must be nice to still have room for more.”
Cong Yixing was eating a meat bun. The skin was thin and the filling was plentiful. With one bite, the meat juices flowed out from the opening. The skin, soaked in those juices, was delicious enough to eat on its own, let alone with the filling.
Because the ingredients were fresh and substantial, the scallion and meat filling had formed a giant meatball after steaming. It was twice as large as a beef ball you’d find in a hot pot.
As Jiang Ting watched him, she felt like her stomach wasn’t quite as full anymore. She blinked. “I didn’t get to have a meat bun just now. What a loss!”
With a slight press of his slender fingers, Cong Yixing squeezed the meatball out through the opening he had bitten. He held it to Jiang Ting’s mouth and said, “Take a bite.”
“I really shouldn’t.” Jiang Ting offered a half-hearted, fake polite refusal before immediately biting off more than half of the meatball. After biting, she instantly covered her mouth and looked at Cong Yixing guiltily, observing his expression.
But Cong Yixing didn’t look angry at all. He nonchalantly finished the rest of the bun in a few bites.
Seeing Jiang Ting acting sneaky like a little mouse stealing food, he gave a light laugh.
“We’ll eat the rest for dinner. If you like the meat, I’ll take out all the meatballs for you to eat, and I’ll just eat the skins.”
Like a drama queen, Jiang Ting cupped her face with both hands and wore a silly, infatuated grin. “Cong Yixing is way too good to his girlfriend. I’m so jealous; I want to find a boyfriend like that too!”
Cong Yixing cooperated by showing a look of disdain, pretending to be a passerby. “I suggest you stop dreaming. How many men like that are there in the world?”
Then he dropped the act and reminded her, “Don’t cup your face. Both your hands are covered in grease.”
Jiang Ting: “…”