Qin Ziqi secretly gave a victorious “yes!” in her heart. The first step had gone perfectly. The next step was to sever ties with this family.
Yao Zheng was a deep and calculating man. Ever since Qin Xueman passed away, he had neither been close to his daughter nor mistreated her.
The relationship between father and daughter was like that of two people sharing a rented apartment under the same roof—they maintained a certain distance.
After losing her mother, the original Qin Ziqi had never spent a single cent from Yao Zheng’s pocket again.
It seemed she would have to find a way to cause some trouble and use it to sever ties with the family.
Otherwise, given Yao Zheng’s personality, the only thing he would do was use the original owner’s marriage to gain some benefits.
Back when he had agreed to Qin Ziqi’s marriage to Lu Chenghua, it was because Lu Dingbang had promised that after his son obtained Qin family property, he would split half of it with Yao Zheng.
Otherwise, Lu Dingbang’s position was lower than Yao Zheng’s. How could Yao Zheng have agreed so easily?
“Dingbang, since they’re going to register their marriage tomorrow, shouldn’t the bride price be delivered tomorrow as well?”
Sure enough, that old fox Yao Zheng had definitely calculated everything carefully before agreeing.
Of course, it was also possible that Zhao Xinhua’s pillow talk had been quite effective.
Tao Juxiang secretly rolled her eyes.
She was just a stepdaughter brought into the family, yet she still wanted a large bride price?
But outwardly, she maintained a smile.
“Of course. We prepared it long ago. The bride price is 188 yuan, plus a bicycle and a wristwatch.”
Lu Dingbang also wore an expression as though he had gone through great hardship.
“Brother Yao, you have no idea. To get the bicycle ticket and watch ticket, I practically had to beg everyone I knew.”
Zhao Xinhua, however, was dissatisfied.
“Brother and Sister-in-law, when you discussed Ziqi and Chenghua’s marriage with my Lao Yao before, you said the bride price would be 288 yuan, along with the three big items and one small item.”
Was this because they looked down on the daughter she had given birth to?
Not only had the bride price been reduced by a hundred yuan, but the “three big items and one small item” had been reduced to only two items.
Who was Tao Juxiang?
How could she allow herself to be criticized?
She wore a fake smile, but anyone who wasn’t an idiot could hear the displeasure toward Yao Zhenzhen in her words.
“The bride price we originally agreed on was based on Ziqi having a generous dowry. Both sides have to be equal, don’t they? The Yao family cares about its reputation, but our Lu family cares about ours too, doesn’t it?”
After Zhao Xinhua pinched Yao Zheng twice around the waist, he finally looked at Lu Dingbang.
“Old Lu, our dowry will definitely be substantial as well. The bride price we agreed upon originally wasn’t something only the two of us knew about. Ziqi is a daughter, but Zhenzhen is a daughter too.”
Lu Dingbang couldn’t determine whether Yao Zheng had actually obtained the Qin family assets or how much he had received.
But since Yao Zheng had spoken like this, he clearly had something in his hands.
“That’s our fault. We didn’t think it through. Then let’s make the bride price 288 yuan and include all four of the traditional major household items.”
With the most important matter settled, the three members of the Lu family said their goodbyes and left.
Yao Zhenzhen followed behind Lu Chenghua with a shy expression.
Only after they had left the courtyard and waited for a while, making sure Auntie Zhang next door wasn’t going to come out, did Yao Zhenzhen enter the house with a disappointed expression.
Seeing Qin Ziqi sitting calmly on the sofa, Yao Zhenzhen felt displeased.
“Ziqi, you won’t be angry that Chenghua and I are getting married, will you?”
“Why would I be angry? Wasn’t I the one who made it happen? Otherwise, with your status, do you think you could marry into the Lu family?”
Whenever Qin Ziqi saw Yao Zhenzhen, she couldn’t help thinking of Qin Yu.
They had the same white-lotus act and the same tendency to think highly of themselves while looking down on others.
Qin Ziqi didn’t want to face these three people anymore.
She got up and went upstairs. After returning to her room, she locked the door and took a key from a hidden compartment in the desk drawer.
She opened the wardrobe and pulled out a stack of clothes from the lower-left corner.
Behind them was a safe.
She used the key to open it.
Inside were bundles of ten-yuan bills.
According to the original owner’s memories, there had originally been ten thousand yuan. Over the years, she had gradually taken out some of it to spend, approximately one thousand yuan in total.
There were still nine thousand yuan left.
The several boxes inside had been given to her by Qin Xueman. They contained various pieces of jewelry, jade bracelets, gemstone necklaces, and other valuables.
The top box looked about the right size for holding a ring.
But when Qin Ziqi opened it, there was a jade gourd lying inside.
The jade itself looked like an ordinary material, but Qin Xueman had repeatedly instructed her to keep it safe.
She had said it had been passed down from her grandmother’s mother and absolutely could not be allowed to fall into outsiders’ hands.
Qin Ziqi thought about it.
The jade material wasn’t particularly valuable, yet her mother had treated it with such importance.
Could there be some secret hidden inside this jade gourd?
Could it be like the novels described?
Whenever someone traveled to another world, they were bound to have some kind of spatial dimension?
Back when Qin Ziqi had lived in the orphanage, she and the other children her age had read novels together.
She felt that among the spatial treasures in those transmigration novels, the most useful thing was the spiritual spring water.
As for using the space to store supplies and such, she didn’t think that was particularly important.
After coming here, there wasn’t much she regretted.
The thing she regretted most was her two apartments.
She hadn’t even lived in one of them for very long, while the other was filled with all her precious belongings.
But since she was already here, there was no harm in giving it a try.
If there really was a spiritual spring space, then she would have struck gold.
With that thought, Qin Ziqi found a needle and pricked her index finger. She squeezed out a drop of blood and placed it on the jade gourd.
To her surprise, the drop of blood was slowly absorbed by the jade gourd.
When it had been completely absorbed, Qin Ziqi suddenly felt her vision flash.
In the next moment, she had been transported somewhere else.
Qin Ziqi stood before a stone tablet.
Three large characters were written on it:
Spiritual Spring Well.
There was an explanation beneath it.
Qin Ziqi glanced through it.
Sure enough, the spiritual spring water had effects such as beautifying the skin, strengthening the body, curing illnesses, and eliminating toxins.
Without bothering to look at anything else, Qin Ziqi immediately cupped her hands, scooped up some water, and drank it.
She also splashed some onto the wound on her head.
Not long after drinking it, Qin Ziqi felt her previously exhausted body become refreshed and energized.
The wound that had been aching faintly no longer hurt at all.
She put the bandage back over it.
Even though the wound was already healed, she couldn’t let outsiders know about it.
To the left of the spiritual spring well was a stretch of black soil, divided into neat plots.
Various medicinal herbs were growing there, along with rice and wheat.
There didn’t seem to be much rice or wheat planted, about one mu of each.
As for the medicinal herbs, Qin Ziqi estimated that each variety occupied roughly twenty to thirty mu.
There were large patches of herbs she recognized and many she didn’t.
She actually recognized quite a few besides ginseng and lingzhi, after all, she worked in pharmaceutical research.
But there were also some she wasn’t familiar with.
After all, she was a Western medicine practitioner, not a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner.
What was amazing was that whenever she walked past a plot, there was a wooden sign beside it.
Each sign listed the name and medicinal effects of the herb planted there.
Was this space really so user-friendly?
If the crops were fully grown, could they be harvested automatically?
Qin Ziqi noticed two wooden houses beside the rice and wheat fields.
She walked inside.
They were empty.
Qin Ziqi looked at the rice and wheat and silently thought:
Harvest.
In an instant, the rice and wheat disappeared from the fields.
Inside the wooden houses, several sacks suddenly appeared, filled with harvested crops.
Qin Ziqi opened one of them.
To her surprise, it contained already-milled rice and finely ground flour.
Qin Ziqi was utterly fascinated by this space.
Was this some kind of wish-fulfillment space?
It seemed she could make it do whatever she wanted.
She walked out of the wooden house and returned to the spiritual spring well.
Only then did Qin Ziqi truly freeze in shock.
This… this was…