Lin Muyan stared wide-eyed at the little ball of light before her. How marvelous, how had something like this popped right out of the ground?
The comments called it a space. Was it the kind of space she was picturing?
Curious, Lin Muyan reached out a hand, and the instant her fingertips touched the little orb, it darted into her body, giving her a fright.
Fortunately she felt no discomfort, and the comments were quick to explain the phenomenon.
【The space has entered her body. It’s only a tiny one-square-meter space, but it’s a personal space, once the apocalypse hits, that’s the most useful esper ability [1] a supernatural power that people “awaken”, the central power system of this world jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620857_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620857_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); there is!】
【You know what, say what you will, this wretched green tea really does have a bit of fortune on her side. Didn’t Jiaojiao only dig up her own space about a month after the apocalypse?】
【I can’t take it, this wretched green tea’s getting the sweet end of the deal again…】
Watching the comments, Lin Muyan felt a private jolt of alarm. They’d brought up the apocalypse again, and now even something as miraculous as a space had appeared. Was the apocalypse really coming?
Just then, Lin Muyan suddenly sensed a separate space inside her mind, an upright, rectangular space, one square meter in footprint just as they’d said, but a full five meters tall.
She gave it a try: she couldn’t enter the space herself, but at a single thought, the wooden shovel in her hand vanished, and reappeared inside it.
Lin Muyan couldn’t help but grow excited. What a convenient ability, truly an essential esper power for the apocalypse!
From now on she could keep important things in the space, safe from theft. So Lin Muyan promptly tucked the gold nugget from her bag inside as well.
Just then she noticed the comments mentioning other important details about the space.
【Time inside this White Space is completely frozen, perfect for storing food. Whatever you put in, however long it sits, it comes out exactly the same, never spoiling at all. So enviable.】
【Anyone who has a space like this in the apocalypse is an absolute lucky devil, now I want one too.】
Another wave of delighted surprise washed over Lin Muyan. Time frozen still? That really was heaven-defying. This was her secret, one she could tell no one, at least for now.
Looking at the little pit she’d dug in the concrete, Lin Muyan thought a moment, then took out the shovel again and kept digging beside it.
This time the wooden shovel struck the ground with a clatter and wouldn’t budge it.
So it was only when there was something to be dug up that the shovel could ignore how hard the ground was.
With that thought, Lin Muyan’s eyes flicked sideways, and she watched the comments without a flicker of expression, to see whether they’d keep feeding her crucial information.
Sure enough, it came soon enough.
【Ha, what a dimwit, does she really think the Golden Shovel digs without limit? Greedy thing. The Golden Shovel only refreshes once every three hours, at most you get eight digs a day, and what you turn up is completely random.】
【This time it’s just dumb luck that she dug up the White Space. I curse her to dig up nothing but garbage from now on.】
【Couldn’t agree more! The Golden Shovel clearly belongs to Jiaojiao, yet she uses it with such a clear conscience, utterly shameless. She always loves seizing what’s other people’s. She stole twenty years of young-miss status, and now she’s grabbed such an important golden finger too. What a vile creature!】
The comments’ hostility toward Lin Muyan was as fierce as ever, as if every one of them bore her the grudge of a murdered father.
For the sake of the useful information they provided, Lin Muyan let it slide.
She’d be the bigger person and forgive their venomous tongues…
After setting an alarm for the next treasure-digging window, Lin Muyan felt a little tired and climbed into bed.
The bedroom her birth parents had prepared for her lacked nothing, a desk and computer, air conditioning and a TV, even an electric blanket under the mattress pad. Compared to Lin Xiaonuan’s pitiful little partitioned corner next door, it was leagues better.
Lying in the soft bedding, Lin Muyan felt, of all things, a twinge of guilt. She was the older sister, the one who ought to yield to the younger, yet her birth parents, afraid the comedown would be too much for her, had given her the best anyway.
Thinking it over, Lin Muyan drifted off to sleep. When she woke, the alarm was ringing, and a chirping chatter had started up outside the room, Lin Xiaonuan must be home from school.
She didn’t go out right away, but took out the little wooden shovel.
This time she crawled under the bed and dug. A pit opened in the concrete, and out rolled a bottle of cola, the large size.
Lin Muyan felt a wave of disappointment. She’d thought she might dig up something good again, three whole hours of anticipation, and all she got was a bottle of cola. The stuff was unhealthy in quantity, and she’d never liked it to begin with.
Who’d have guessed, the comments came undone all over again.
【How does this wretched green tea get such crazy luck? It’s actually Stamina Cola, and a 2.5-liter one at that, oh my god!】
【Tsk, this is bad, very bad. Why do I get the feeling that, at this rate, the Golden Shovel is never making it back into Jiaojiao’s hands? She’s already seen exactly how miraculous the shovel is, how would she ever hand it back so easily?】
【Bite your tongue! It won’t happen. Jiaojiao has the protagonist’s halo, she’s brilliant and resourceful. We have to believe in her!】
A wave of Jiaojiao-worship swept across the whole screen, and it nearly killed Lin Muyan with laughter.
These comments were a riot. With the little shovel tucked away in her White Space, who could ever snatch it from her?
Besides, the thing was hers to begin with, it was never Shen Jiaojiao’s at all.
Then Lin Muyan stored the Stamina Cola in her space. According to the comments, this wasn’t ordinary cola, drinking it should restore one’s stamina. She’d find a chance to test it next time.
Right now she’d just had a good sleep and didn’t need a stamina boost.
Just then a soft rustling came from the little room next door, Lin Muyan guessed Lin Xiaonuan had come in.
She tidied herself up, drew open the curtains, and turned to open the partition door.
The next second a small figure came tumbling in. Clearly she’d been pressed against the door eavesdropping, when it swung open all at once, Lin Xiaonuan, caught off guard, sprawled gloriously onto her knees right in front of Lin Muyan.
“Owww~”
Lin Xiaonuan scrambled up at once, small in stature but big on attitude, planted her hands on her hips, and glared fiercely at Lin Muyan.
“So you’re my real big sister? Lin Muyan?”
Lin Muyan noticed that Lin Xiaonuan didn’t look like her, she took after their father, but she had big, adorable eyes and a small mouth, delicate features, plainly well cared for, all rosy-cheeked with a touch of baby fat.
At a glance she found the little one endearing, and a smile rose to her face.
“That’s right, I’m your big sister. Lin Xiaonuan?”
Lin Xiaonuan let out a little grunt, turned her face away awkwardly, and muttered under her breath.
“I’ll give you an eight for now. You’re pretty and you’ve got a good figure. Mom and Dad said you suffered out there? Doesn’t look like it to me. I hear that Shen family is super rich, how come you were willing to come back?”
“Did the Shens not want you anymore?”
Lin Xiaonuan was only ten, but small as she was, she was sly beyond her years [2] 人小鬼大, a child far more cunning and worldly than their age suggests jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620857_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620857_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, quick and full of mischief, and she knew a great deal.
Lin Muyan gave a faint smile and answered softly, “Mm. They didn’t want me anymore.”
A sting rose in Lin Xiaonuan’s nose, and she suddenly blurted out a cheeky line.
“The nerve of them, daring to look down on my sister?”
“They don’t want you? Well, I want you, and so do Mom and Dad. And Big Brother, Big Brother’s the gentlest of all, he’ll want you too. Don’t go crying now, you’ve got us.”
At those words, a sharp sting hit Lin Muyan’s nose, and at last she couldn’t hold back the first tear she’d shed since coming home.
Her little sister was just too sweet, standing up for her like this.
So even after leaving the Shens, she could still feel warmth, and it seemed purer, more real, than any she’d felt in the Shen household.
References[+]