On New Year’s Eve, the girl Xia Xiaonuan sat in her freezing little room, looking up at the pitch-black sky and sighing continuously:
When her mother was alive, she always said that if someone never told a lie for an entire year, they could pray to the heavens for blessings on New Year’s Eve. At that moment, they would see the Southern Heavenly Gate open, and by stepping inside, all their wishes would be granted.
Now, for three consecutive years, she had prayed to the heavens every New Year’s Eve: letting her see the heavenly gate open, and letting her go inside to get some food, because she was so hungry.
Although today was New Year’s Eve, her second uncle and second aunt still did not allow her to sit at the table to eat, giving her only a bowl of dumpling soup as her dinner.
She had looked at her grandmother with pleading eyes, hoping her grandmother would say a word, even if it meant giving her just a single dumpling! When her dad and mom were alive, she had eaten dumplings, and dumplings were so delicious!
But her grandmother turned a blind eye to her plea, simply sitting by the table eating dumplings herself as if Xiaonuan didn’t exist.
Her second aunt yelled at her like chasing away a dog: “You little beast, we are eating. What are you standing here for? Get out!”
Knowing there was no hope and not daring to disobey, she carried her bowl, slowly retreated back to her small room, and drank the dumpling soup in the dark.
The family in the main room ate and drank their fill, cracked melon seeds for a long time, and finally each drank a bowl of saccharin-sweetened water before going off to sleep.
Xiaonuan was so hungry that her stomach felt like it was on fire, feeling extremely uncomfortable.
She sat alone in the dark, looking up at the heavens, begging the heavens over and over again to give her some food, because she felt like she was about to starve to death.
Suddenly, she noticed a trace of light in the sky ahead of her. She opened her eyes wide in shock to look closely, too nervous to even blink.
She saw that the light was growing larger and brighter, until finally, two gigantic doors suddenly opened in the sky, emitting a golden light from within that was both beautiful and dazzling.
Then, a huge golden ladder extended from the door. The ladder slowly slid down from the sky, coming closer and closer to her, until it passed through her window, stopped on the ground right in front of her, and completely stopped moving.
Xiaonuan couldn’t help but stand up, asking herself over and over in her mind:
“Is this ladder the heavenly ladder my mother talked about? Is that gate the Southern Heavenly Gate my mother talked about? If it is, can I go in right now? There must be food inside the heavenly gate. Once I find food, I won’t be hungry anymore, right?”
With these thoughts, she involuntarily stood up and stepped onto the ladder.
As soon as she stepped on it, she instinctively walked up along the ladder. She didn’t feel afraid; she just wanted to get inside quickly and see if there was any food.
When she crossed the last rung of the ladder and stepped right into that door, she couldn’t help crying out in surprise: “Wow, it’s so beautiful in here!”
She saw that inside, it was glittering with gold; countless gold, silver, and jewels were piled as high as mountains, all sparkling with brilliant light, looking extraordinarily gorgeous.
Xiaonuan’s gaze swept past the gold and silver without lingering; she was anxious to find some food because she was truly starving.
Suddenly, she discovered two plates placed on a table, each holding a round fruit that was glowing.
With a surge of joy in her heart, she rushed over quickly. Arriving at the table, she picked up the fruit from the first plate and immediately put it into her mouth.
An indescribable sweetness instantly filled her entire mouth, followed by a warm current slowly sliding down into her stomachit felt wonderfully comfortable.
Soon, she picked up the second fruit and put it into her mouth. It was filled with the same sweetness, a taste that made her feel infatuated beyond words. She didn’t even want to swallow, wishing to let that wonderful flavor linger in her mouth a little longer.
However, these two fruits melted quickly in her mouth, sliding down into her belly after chewing just a few times. Though she hadn’t eaten enough to feel completely full, finishing these two fruits indeed made her no longer hungry, leaving her feeling very comfortable.
Only then did she notice that words were written on the bottoms of the two plates.
Xiaonuan knew a few characters because before her father passed away, he served a tutor in a private school, so her father knew how to read and had taught her some characters as well.
On the bottoms of the two plates were written the words: “Dali Wan” (Pill of Great Strength) and “Tuotai Huangu Wan” (Pill of Rebirth and Cleansing the Marrow).
She didn’t bother wondering what these words meant; she was anxious to look at other things.
She quickly walked over to a mountain of gold, wanting to stuff gold into her pockets. But her cotton-padded jacket was far too ragged; the pockets on her jacket had been ripped off last year by her grandmother to patch her cousin Xiaoju’s cotton trousers. Now her ragged jacket had no pockets at allwhere could she stuff the gold?
After thinking about it, she took off her cotton jacket, used it to wrap up a full armful of gold, and hugged it as she walked toward the exit.
At that moment, she suddenly remembered her mother’s words:
Her mother had once said that someone had once very fortunately entered the Southern Heavenly Gate. Because of greed, that person took too much gold; while inside the heavenly gate, it didn’t feel like much, but after stepping out of the Southern Heavenly Gate, the gold became extremely heavy. Therefore, before that person had walked even half the distance, they were dragged down by the weight of the gold and fell off the heavenly ladder, turning a good thing into a disaster.
Thinking of this, she took the gold out of her jacket and put it back in its original place, then put her cotton jacket back on. After pondering for a moment, she picked up the smallest piece of gold and clutched it in her hand.
She walked toward the exit holding this small piece of gold, thinking in her heart that this piece of gold would probably be enough to buy a lot of food.
Just as she was a step away from walking out of the heavenly gate, she suddenly noticed many books on a shelf by the door.
A wave of joy washed over her; she remembered that when her father was alive, he loved reading books the most, but she didn’t actually know what was inside those books. Now that there were so many books here, could she take a few back to read?
With this thought, she reached out to take a few books from the shelf. The moment she reached out, two books automatically landed in her hands.
Startled, she looked at the covers: one was titled Secrets of Heaven and Earth and the other Number One Sword in the World. She was overjoyed at the time, holding the books and wanting to walk out, but just as she took a step, she suddenly stopped.
If she took the books back, where would she put them?
Her second uncle’s son, Xiaohu, would definitely snatch the books away if he saw them. Her cousin Xiaoju was even more prone to beating and scolding her while grabbing any of her belongings. And then there was her cousin Xiaolong, who was studying in town; he already looked down on her because he went to school in town and knew how to read. If he saw that she also had books, wouldn’t he say she was insulting scholars? Wouldn’t he beat her to death?
Furthermore, her second aunt would ask where the books came from, and if that happened, she wouldn’t even be able to keep this piece of gold.
Thinking of this, she felt deeply discouraged. Though she felt extremely reluctant to part with them, she still wanted to put the books back on the shelf. She decided not to take them back because there was nowhere to put them.
An orphan girl whose parents had both passed awayshe couldn’t even protect herself, so how could she possibly have the ability to protect these two books?
Taking these two books back would inevitably result in them being snatched away or torn to pieces, and the process of them being snatched or torn would certainly be accompanied by a brutal beating.
She stood on her tiptoes, wanting to put the books back on the top of the shelf, when suddenly a jade-green token fell out from one of the books, landing with a pa sound right at Xiaonuan’s feet.
Startled, she picked up the token and took a look. The token was entirely emerald green, and in a circle in the middle, four golden characters were inscribed: Portable Space.
These characters kept jumping and spinning inside the circle while flashing with a beautiful radiance.
Seeing this, Xiaonuan felt a sense of fondness that made her reluctant to let go. She couldn’t help gently stroking those characters with her finger.
However, the instant her finger touched those characters, the token, the books, and the small piece of gold she was tightly gripping in her hand all vanished.