Xiaonuan was startled and hurriedly turned to look around everywhere.
However, that small piece of gold, the books, and that token were simply nowhere to be found.
Never mind the books and the token vanishing, but that piece of gold could buy a lot of food. It might even keep her from starving for a entire year. For it to vanish just like that was truly a great pity.
Xiaonuan didn’t have time to overthink; she bolted, wanting to run back in. She wanted to go to the piles of gold and bring another piece back.
Yet the moment she lifted her foot, she suddenly noticed that the Southern Heavenly Gate was closingand at a very fast speed.
Seized with sudden panic, she abandoned all thoughts of grabbing anything and fled right out.
Because her mother had also once said that legend has it someone once went in, saw the gold and silver, and frantically tried to stuff their pockets, getting so absorbed in the moment that they forgot the time, causing the Heavenly Gate to close with them still trapped inside.
In a daze, Xiaonuan followed the heavenly ladder back to her small room and sat back down on the icy brick bed. At that moment, the heavenly ladder slowly retracted back into the sky and then vanished in a flash.
Xiaonuan opened her eyes and found that outside was still pitch black.
She was still looking up at the sky, with tears from her prayer still damp on her cheeks. Was all that just a dream she had?
Yet she clearly remembered eating two fruits that were delicious beyond compare. Thinking of this, she realized she truly wasn’t hungry anymore, nor did she feel the slightest bit cold.
So was it real just now? Did she really go inside the Southern Heavenly Gate?
If it was real, did that piece of gold, the books, and that emerald-green token end up falling back inside the Heavenly Gate after all? What a pity that she didn’t get to keep them!
With this thought, Xiaonuan suddenly found herself standing in an extremely beautiful valley.
The entrance to the valley was an emerald-green U-shape, with four large golden characters inscribed above it: “Portable Space”.
The entire valley was filled with flowers, trees, a stream, and green meadows. Standing on a lawn full of blooming flowers was a house. She walked over and pushed the door open.
The interior wasn’t large, containing a bed, a table, and a chair.
Right there on the table sat the two books and the small piece of gold.
Xiaonuan rushed over and snatched up the piece of gold, seeing that it was indeed the very same one she had dropped. She clutched it tightly in her hand, truly terrified that it might suddenly vanish again.
Gripping the gold tightly, she lowered her head to look at the two books on the table:
One was titled Secrets of Heaven and Earth , and the other was Number One Sword in the World the exact two books she had wanted to bring back while inside the Heavenly Gate.
These two books were here too, but what about that green token? Thinking of this, she suddenly recalled the emerald-green U-shaped entrance of the valley and the large characters at the top: “Portable Space.”
Yet where on earth was this Portable Space? Wasn’t she in her aunt’s small room?
With this thought, Xiaonuan found that she was still sitting in her small room, the icy brick bed reminding her that this was indeed her quarters.
What about that house in the valley just now? As she thought about it, she found herself appearing once again inside the house in the valley.
At this, Xiaonuan understood. She vaguely grasped the meaning of “Portable Space.”
She felt that obtaining this so-called Portable Space inside the Southern Heavenly Gate was essentially equivalent to having her own private warehouse. Whenever she wanted to go in, she would enter instantly; whenever she wanted to come out, she would emerge immediately.
Once she figured this out, her heart bloomed with joy. She popped in and out repeatedly, staying awake almost the entire night.
By the time the sky was turning pale with dawn, she had just fallen asleep when she heard her second aunt shouting at her to get up, stoke the fire, and cook.
Xiaonuan sat up quickly and nimbly put on her ragged cotton jacket.
Every day at this hour, she would be shivering uncontrollably, but today she found she wasn’t cold at all. She remembered the two fruits she ate last night; after eating them, she felt neither thirsty, hungry, cold, nor hotshe felt wonderfully comfortable. Her heart was filled with boundless joy.
Xiaonuan helped her second aunt stoke the fire while her second aunt cooked. Usually, when stoking the fire, Xiaonuan couldn’t snap thicker branches apart. Her second aunt didn’t allow her to jam whole thick branches straight into the stove pit, calling it a waste of firewood. Therefore, she often had to step on the branches with her feet and pull desperately with both hands, and even when she finally managed to snap them, the vibration would leave her palms aching terribly.
Yet today, she found that all the branches snapped effortlessly just by running her hand along them. She quietly tested it many times, and it was the same every timeshe had become possessed of superhuman strength!
This made her even happier. The roaring stove fire reflected off her smooth face, making her look exceptionally pretty and rosy.
After finishing the fire, she lit another stove pit to heat washing water for the rest of the family.
While the others were washing up and eating, she hurried off to feed the pigs, chickens, and ducks.
Once everything was done, she stepped into the kitchen and washed her face using the water the others had already washed with. Although the water was already cold and dirty, it was still better than drawing fresh, freezing well water.
After washing her face, the people eating in the main room were almost finished. Xiaonuan needed to clear away the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen, and only then could she eat some leftovers in the kitchen herself.
Once she finished eating and tidying up the bowls and chopsticks, she had to grab a chopper and head up the mountain to gather firewood.
After gathering the firewood and carrying it back on her back, upon arriving home she immediately had to help her second aunt with other household chores until bedtime.
Ever since her parents passed away a few years ago, this was how she had survived.
She stepped back into the room to see if everyone had finished eating so she could clear away the tableware.
At that moment, her cousin Xiaoju suddenly pointed at her face and said:
“Xia Xiaonuan, you have some nerve! Did you steal my vanishing cream to put on your face?”
Xiaonuan was stunned: “Sister Xiaoju, I didn’t. From the moment I woke up until now, I haven’t even stepped foot into your room.”
For the first time, her second aunt didn’t immediately echo Xiaoju. She looked at Xiaoju, deducing in her heart that Xiaoju was probably just in a bad mood.
“Mom, I’m not making things up! If you don’t believe me, just look at her face!” Xiaoju cried out loudly.
Hearing Xiaoju say this, her second aunt turned to look, and she too was somewhat stunned.
In the past, because of the cold, Xiaonuan would shiver non-stop every morning, and her complexion was extremely pale.
Yet today, her complexion looked fair with a rosy glow, remarkably pretty.
Mind you, in the bitter cold of minus twenty-odd degrees Celsius, could an ill-clad girl who hadn’t even eaten breakfast have such a ruddy complexion?
Could she have really secretly used Xiaoju’s vanishing cream? But even though Xiaoju applied it every day, her own complexion had never looked this rosy!
Her second aunt hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to believe her daughter:
“Xia Xiaonuan, after your parents died, they dumped you on us. We feed you and we clothe youhow could you still steal your sister’s things? Has your conscience been eaten by dogs?”
Frightened, Xiaonuan kept backing away, stammering repeatedly:
“Second Aunt, I didn’t steal Sister Xiaoju’s vanishing cream to use! Think about it, haven’t I been busy without a single second to spare since morning? When would I even have time to steal things?”
“Are you saying this to blame your second uncle and me for making you work? Our family isn’t wealthy, and your cousin still has to study. You should indeed help out with some light, effortless housework! Back then, your mother and father didn’t have you until many years after they married, so they always spoiled you rotten and wouldn’t let you do a lick of work. Now that your parents are both gone, although you can’t live the do-nothing life you did when they were alive, the chores your second aunt asks you to do are the lightest ones in the house. We’ve taken care of you to the absolute best of our ability, treating you even better than your own sisteryou have to admit that, right?”
Her second uncle sat nearby, puffing on his tobacco pipe as he spoke these words.
Xiaonuan nodded continuously: “Yes, Second Uncle, Second Aunt. I have no problem doing chores, but I really didn’t steal Sister Xiaoju’s vanishing cream.”
Standing closest to Xiaonuan, Xiaoju’s younger brother Xiaohu quietly crept up to her and gave her a forceful shove forward:
“Big Sister, why don’t you just smell her face to see if it smells like vanishing cream? Then you’ll know!”