In a forest that looked like primeval wilderness, a young woman wearing an orange hiking suit and a climbing hat walked slowly.
Wherever she passed, all kinds of plants automatically parted to the sides, and a thick, arm-sized round-leafed vine followed her closely like a bodyguard.
“Little Vine (Xiao Teng), are you sure there’s fertile soil in this direction?”
“Yes, King, I’m sure.”
“Good. Then I’ll need you to help me dig more when the time comes.”
“Yes, yes.”
After discovering yesterday that things might be able to grow in her space, Wen Xian had been excited all night, but it was too late to go outside at the time.
She had gathered a few stones to make a simple stove, pulled out a cast-iron pan, chopsticks, and a bowl, and cooked a small pot of beef-and-mushroom rice using rice, cooking oil, seasonings, dried beef, and mushrooms. Then she made a bowl of soup with fresh wild mustard greens.
Although simple, the results looked quite appealing. The rice had the savory aroma of dried beef, the fresh scent of mushrooms, and a crispy crust from the bottom of the pot. The warm vegetable soup was light and refreshing, a meal that, since the apocalypse began, felt like the most comforting she had eaten.
After dinner, darkness fell completely, and the temperature dropped significantly at night. The vine dragged over a few tree stumps for her to sit near and stoked the fire larger. She spent a moment admiring the rare, beautiful night sky, something seldom seen before the apocalypse, then returned to her space to study the mushrooms.
She confirmed multiple times that they were truly growing and splitting. Even the potatoes and garlic she had collected earlier had sprouted, further confirming that planting was possible in the space.
Amid her excitement, she also noticed some problems. First, the ground in the space was very hard, almost iron-like in texture, so she would need actual soil to plant anything. Second, time flowed in the space, which meant she had to be mindful of the shelf life of her supplies. Third, if plants could grow, microorganisms and bacteria might also proliferate, which would affect exposed water. Without a sealed water source, water would become a major problem.
Bearing these concerns in mind, she got up early the next morning, quickly organized the perishable food, ate a bag of nearly expired bread for breakfast, changed her clothes, and set out.
Guided by the vines, she collected rich, dark soil in various spots, under large trees, in swamps where small streams flowed, and so on. She didn’t even have to dig herself; she just outlined the area, and the vines cleared leaves, pulled weeds, picked out stones, and stirred the soil, giving her one pile after another.
Along the way, she heard several roars from unknown animals. At first, she was startled, but after the vines told her that the creatures were far away, she paid them no mind.
She also found many of her planting targets: edible mushrooms, medicinal herbs such as He Shouwu, Dendrobium, and Panax notoginseng, fruit trees including chestnuts, wild grapevines, and August melons, and wild vegetables like winter bamboo shoots, Chinese toon, fish mint, and plantain herb.
By the time she returned to her temporary base, she was so hungry her chest pressed against her back. She quickly made a bowl of noodles with fresh wild vegetables and ham sausage, then used a knife to open the chestnuts she had collected, added a small pile of charcoal, and roasted them. She boiled a pot of water and brewed a cup of instant coffee.
About ten minutes later, she tasted the sweet, soft roasted chestnuts and the invigorating coffee. Together, they created a surprisingly delightful combination.
The sense of satisfaction made her momentarily feel as if she were simply enjoying a casual outdoor meal.
Just as she was savoring this rare moment of relaxation, a piercing wolf howl suddenly erupted from some unknown corner of the forest, shaking her so that a significant amount of coffee spilled from her cup.
Wen Xian couldn’t help but feel a jolt of fear. She instinctively stood up and looked into the distance, but the sound quickly faded, as if the horrifying scream that had shaken her a moment ago had been nothing but an illusion.
Seemingly sensing her unease, the small vine climbed onto her wrist, slithered along her arm, and rested on her shoulder, obediently offering comfort: “King, don’t be afraid. They’re very far away.”
Wen Xian nodded. She wasn’t too worried about her own safety; it was just that the piercing, mournful scream was unsettling and lingered in her mind.
After a sleepless night, the temperature dropped significantly again the next day, yet the sun still hung in the sky. Wen Xian continued letting the vine lead her in a wild scramble across the mountain.
Along the way, she came across a field of Panax notoginseng that had been artificially planted but had also mutated. Nearly every plant was as tall as she was, covering about half an acre, lush and green. After struggling for a while, she managed to pull up roughly a third of the plants and placed them into her space.
She later collected other medicinal herbs, including lingzhi mushrooms, angelica root, poria, and gastrodia. Having never grown medicine before, she did her best to preserve the roots of all the plants to see if she could cultivate them successfully.
Besides medicinal herbs, most of her harvest consisted of fruit trees: Yunnan olives, coffee, oranges, bananas, and pineapples. Wild vegetables included prickly young shoots, mint, galangal, and shepherd’s purse.
On the third day, besides digging soil, she was fortunate enough to find rare fruit trees such as sugar-apples and guavas, as well as wild vegetables like fiddlehead ferns and water celery. She even stumbled upon a patch of wild strawberries and dug up a good amount.
While digging the water celery, she realized something: water celery usually grows along ditches or water edges, but there was no water in her space. How was she supposed to grow it?
Or maybe she should build a small pond and plant some aquatic crops. In the future, if she encountered crabs, fish, or shrimp, perhaps she could raise them there as well. Wait, she should be able to put animals in the space, right? Otherwise, how had she gotten inside it herself?
On the fourth day, she spent the morning continuing to dig soil and gather mountain crops. After lunch, she walked around the vine thicket, selecting several straight tree trunks roughly the thickness of an adult’s calf. She had the vines continue searching while she returned to the fire.
She found a pair of white, thick-knit gloves and put them on, then pulled out a bundle of nylon rope and a large pair of scissors she had scavenged from a small ethnic clothing shop. She lined up four tree trunks side by side and tied them together securely.
The vine was her best helper. Not only did it fetch many similar tree trunks, but whenever she grew too tired, it would wrap two tendrils around the nylon rope to assist her, completing the work much faster than she could alone.
The vine’s voice was like a child’s, and its temperament matched. Whenever Wen Xian praised it, it would squirm and twist in delight, unbearably cute. By nightfall, the surrounding forest was pitch black, and the fire could only illuminate a three- or four-meter radius, yet with the small vine there, Wen Xian felt neither fear nor loneliness.
She worked steadily until around ten o’clock, finally tying together about twenty wooden logs, each three to five meters long. At the same time, she collected thirty to forty soccer-ball-sized stones.
When she entered her space, it was already packed full. On the right were her collected supplies, the front held the plants, the left and center contained the soil, and at the back were the logs and stones.
Her next task was to stand the logs upright as a foundation, fill in soil, and then place large stones outside the logs to secure them. In this way, a simple plot of farmland, or a planting area, would be completed.
The plan was good, but could she, alone, arrange all of this? Looking at her thin arms and legs, Wen Xian felt like crying.
Then she remembered that she now had her powers. Perhaps she could use her tendrils to roll the logs and stones? But what about the soil? Should she turn her hands into wooden shovels and dig it all in by hand?
She shook her head immediately; if she did that, her hands would be ruined.
Caught in this dilemma, she turned and suddenly had a flash of insight from the mushrooms she had collected first. If she could control these items to store and retrieve them from her space, could she control them directly within the space itself?
Acting on the idea, Wen Xian focused her mind on the logs, using her consciousness to roll them up, and sure enough, the logs stood upright.
Overjoyed, she followed her previous plan: first moving the soil from the left to the center, then transferring two of the five-meter and three-meter logs, followed by a dozen stones.
Up to this point, the work was still manageable. Once done, Wen Xian only felt a bit tired and had a dull headache.
She drank a few sips of water to rest, then stood two five-meter logs upright about two meters apart, placing two three-meter logs on either side of the opening. She positioned the stones, completing a planting plot roughly five meters long, two meters wide, and half a meter high.
Next, she controlled the soil to fill the plot, stopping when it was about 80–90% full. By the time the first planting area was done, she was exhausted.
Sweat soaked her clothes, strands of hair clung to her face. She couldn’t see herself, so she didn’t realize how pale she had become. Her head throbbed in waves, and her vision blurred.
Even the light of the green crystal core above her seemed to dim considerably.