After closing the door, Lin Xiaxia eagerly used her mind to take out the two small wooden chests and placed them on the bed.
Both chests were locked with brass locks that gleamed with an aged, antique luster.
She found a piece of wire and carefully inserted it into the keyhole. After gently fiddling with it a few times, she heard a soft click.
The lock opened.
When she lifted the lid, the sight inside made her hold her breath.
The chest on the left contained more than a dozen gold bars, neatly arranged in rows and gleaming brilliantly. The chest on the right held several pairs of jade bracelets, jade pendants, and an assortment of jewelry. The jade was translucent and warm to the touch. One glance was enough to tell that none of these pieces were ordinary.
Lin Xiaxia quickly covered her mouth to keep herself from crying out.
Across both of her lifetimes, she had never seen so many valuable things!
She took a gold bar from the wooden chest. It felt heavy in her hand.
Imitating what she had seen on television, she tentatively brought it to her mouth and bit down. Her teeth immediately left a faint mark on its surface.
“It really is pure gold!”
Her heart burned with excitement.
She was rich!
Suddenly remembering that she could recharge the system, her eyes lit up.
Now that she had gold bars, couldn’t she use them to top up her balance?
She immediately summoned the system interface with her mind and opened the recharge page. Without hesitation, she selected the option to recharge with gold.
The instant her fingertip touched the option on the screen, the gold bar in her hand vanished into thin air.
Immediately afterward, the numbers in the balance box at the upper-right corner began rapidly changing before finally coming to a stop.
[Recharge successful. Gold bar: 100 grams. Conversion rate: 1,000 yuan per gram. Current balance updated.]
Looking at her newly increased balance, Lin Xiaxia’s eyes sparkled like stars.
“I have money now! I can finally buy things without worrying!”
Although educated youths received subsidies when they were sent to the countryside, she knew perfectly well that the small allowance would never be enough.
Bedding, grain, cooking oil, thick winter clothes… She needed to prepare everything in advance. Otherwise, once she reached that bitterly cold place, she would be the one suffering.
She immediately opened the system shop and quickly scrolled through the available items.
She chose the thickest quilt she could find, along with a pure cotton quilt cover that looked warm and comfortable.
She bought fifty jin each of rice and flour, then added several containers of rapeseed oil. That should be enough to last her quite a while.
She also bought plenty of cotton. Once she reached the countryside, she could ask someone to help make her a thick padded coat. She stocked up on everyday necessities as well—soap, toothpaste, and even a sewing kit.
As more and more items filled her shopping cart, Lin Xiaxia felt increasingly reassured.
She had originally thought she would need to carefully calculate every expense, but unexpectedly, the prices in the system shop were quite reasonable. Even after buying such a large amount of supplies, she had only spent a portion of her coins.
“Confirm payment.”
She pressed the button without hesitation.
The next second, a neatly arranged pile of supplies appeared inside her storage space. The quilts were folded into tidy squares, the rice and flour were packed in sealed bags, and bundles of fluffy cotton were stacked to one side.
Just looking at everything filled her with satisfaction.
With these supplies, no matter how distant or difficult the place she was sent to, she now had the confidence to live well.
In this life, she wouldn’t merely survive.
She would live better than anyone else.
She left the remaining gold and jewelry untouched. After carefully closing the two wooden chests, she stored them in the deepest part of her storage space. Only then did she finally relax.
Suddenly, an idea flashed through her mind.
Since the detection function was so useful, why not take advantage of the two days she still had in the city and try it somewhere else?
Once the thought occurred to her, she immediately acted on it.
After quickly tidying herself up, she quietly slipped out of the Xue family residence.
Asking for directions along the way, she headed straight for one of the city’s most famous historical sites, which had since been converted into a public park.
By the time she arrived, dusk was approaching.
The ticket attendant at the entrance initially refused to let her in, saying the park would be closing soon.
Lin Xiaxia’s eyes darted thoughtfully. She pulled out the few fruit candies remaining in her pocket and handed them over, putting on a timid, pleading expression.
“Sir, I’m leaving for the countryside tomorrow. I don’t know when I’ll ever get the chance to come back, so I just wanted to take one last look around. Could you please make an exception?”
The ticket attendant glanced at the brightly wrapped candies, then at her sincere expression. Finally, he waved his hand and allowed her to buy a ticket.
“Be quick. Don’t stay too long. We’ll be clearing everyone out soon.”
“Thank you!”
Lin Xiaxia hurriedly thanked him before rushing into the park.
There were still quite a few people inside. Most were strolling beside the lake or playing with their children on the lawns. The setting sun cast long shadows from the pavilions and buildings across the grounds.
She passed through several courtyards and entered a cluster of old buildings with gray tiles and blue-gray brick walls. Artificial rock formations dotted the grounds, while winding covered corridors connected the different structures.
Although the colorful paintings on the pillars had faded and peeled with age, traces of their former elegance and splendor were still clearly visible.
As soon as Lin Xiaxia entered the park, she secretly activated the scanning function.
A translucent blue screen appeared before her eyes.
She scanned her surroundings as she walked, but the screen remained completely quiet.
That changed the moment she entered the former residence.
A dazzling red light suddenly erupted on the screen, flashing so brightly that it was almost blinding.
“There really is something here!”
Lin Xiaxia’s heart jumped.
Suppressing her excitement, she pretended to be an ordinary visitor and slowly wandered around the room.
This era was different from later generations. Many antiques and old furnishings were still displayed in their original locations. Visitors could admire them from close range and could even touch things such as the railings of elaborately carved wooden beds.
The red marker on the scanner remained firmly fixed on an ornate wooden bed in the corner.
Lin Xiaxia approached it and lightly ran her fingertips over the patterns carved into its frame while carefully probing it with her mind.
Sure enough, there was a small, inconspicuous hidden compartment beneath the bed boards.
When she was certain no one was watching, she quickly extended her mental power through the wooden boards and transferred the contents of the hidden compartment directly into her storage space.
Inside were several gold ingots wrapped in oiled paper. They were surprisingly heavy, weighing nearly half a jin altogether.
Yet even after she took the gold ingots, the red marker on the scanner remained brightly lit.
It had not weakened in the slightest.
Lin Xiaxia frowned and began searching the room more carefully.
Her gaze swept across the pillars beside the wall before suddenly stopping.
One of the pillars was decorated with intricately carved flowering branches. At the very top was a lifelike magnolia blossom. Its petals spread naturally outward, and even the delicate veins had been meticulously carved.
She turned toward the pillar beside it.
That one was completely smooth.
There were no carvings at all.
“Something’s not right…”
Lin Xiaxia became suspicious.
Chinese architecture had always placed great importance on symmetry and matching pairs. Why would only one pillar have such an elaborate carving?
There had to be something unusual about that magnolia flower.
Pretending to examine the faded marks on the pillar, she slowly moved closer to the carved one. After confirming from the corner of her eye that no one was nearby, she rose onto her tiptoes and gently pressed one of the magnolia petals.
The instant her fingertip touched the cool wooden petal, she felt it shift slightly.
The petal could actually be pressed inward!
Click.
The faint sound was almost completely drowned out by the wind.
At the same moment, a quiet mechanical noise came from behind her.
Lin Xiaxia abruptly spun around.
The seemingly solid wall in the inner room was slowly sliding to one side.
Behind it was a pitch-black entrance barely wide enough for a single person to pass through.
A stale, dusty scent that had been sealed away for countless years drifted out from the darkness.
“My goodness… There’s actually a secret chamber!”
Lin Xiaxia covered her mouth in astonishment, her eyes widening.
She had heard elderly people tell stories about secret chambers hidden inside old residences, but she had always assumed they were nothing more than legends.
She never imagined she would actually discover one herself.
She quickly glanced outside.
The last rays of the setting sun streamed diagonally through the window lattice. There was no one else in the room, and the only sound was the faint rustling of the window paper in the breeze.
Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Xiaxia lowered herself and slipped into the secret chamber.