A massive display screen appeared on the wooden wall, showing a dazzling online marketplace.
It contained not only rare items from this era but also many cheap everyday goods.
There were houses, cars, household appliances, pots, bowls, ladles, and basins.
There were quilts, clothes, farming equipment, and tools.
There were also various special medicines and weapons.
Even more absurdly, it sold living creatures that flew in the sky, crawled on land, and swam in the sea.
There seemed to be nothing it did not sell—only things Meng Yao had not yet imagined.
It truly had everything one could possibly need for food, clothing, shelter, and daily life.
However, every button was covered by a gray lock, making it impossible to purchase anything directly.
A new line of text appeared on the wall.
“These items must be purchased using the equivalent amount of currency from this era.”
Did that mean the money she earned in the real world could be used to buy things from the marketplace?
She currently did not have a single cent, so buying anything inside would be extremely difficult.
Besides, every button was still gray. She did not even have purchasing access yet.
This system was so advanced, yet it did not even come with an instruction manual.
While Meng Yao was still puzzled, a bottle of mysterious blue liquid suddenly appeared in her hand.
“This is your welcome gift for activating the System Marketplace for the first time: Super Combat Enhancement Water. Its effects are permanent.”
What an incredible treasure!
The final line displayed on the wall read:
“A fixed monthly payment of 250 yuan has been deposited into your bankbook. The first month’s startup funds have been issued in advance.”
So there was even a fixed salary.
Half of Meng Yao’s worries instantly disappeared. At the very least, she would not starve to death.
Two hundred and fifty?
What an auspicious number.
Suddenly, Meng Yao realized something and shouted into the air,
“Hey! You still haven’t told me how to leave this space!”
Silence answered her.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The thunderous pounding on the door made Meng Yao inexplicably irritated.
She immediately raised the bottle in her hand and drank the liquid in one gulp.
Outside the room, Li Yuqin had rolled up her sleeves and was pounding hard on the door.
“You wretched girl! Don’t think that hiding inside and refusing to answer means today’s matter is over.”
“If you hadn’t run your mouth, the Qi family would never have changed the bride at the last minute. I raised you for nearly twenty years, yet I never knew you were so vicious.”
Standing beside her, Meng Ying added fuel to the fire.
“Mom, I told you long ago that bad roots can only produce bad offspring. She must have inherited it from those adoptive parents of mine who should have died long ago. They were utterly wicked!”
The moment Meng Ying mentioned her biological parents, the violent energy that had just awakened inside Meng Yao began to stir.
Meng Guochun and Yang Ling had endured countless hardships to raise Meng Yao.
Until the day they died, they had never known that Meng Ying was not their biological daughter.
They had truly raised an ungrateful wolf.
Meng Ying was not merely ungrateful.
She was also a vicious, cold-blooded snake.
From beginning to end, she had lied.
The story about her adoptive parents dying in an accidental car crash and revealing before their deaths that she was not their biological child had all been fabricated.
Meng Ying had invented everything because she, too, had been reborn.
Meng Ying had personally revealed this after Meng Yao’s death, when she went to Meng Yao’s grave to trample on and humiliate her.
In Meng Ying’s previous life, Meng Guochun and his wife owned a small pork-processing workshop.
They had fortunately benefited from the economic reforms and supportive policies. Their business flourished, and demand exceeded supply.
Later, the workshop expanded into a pork-processing factory and opened a chain of stores.
Their lives became increasingly prosperous and luxurious.
Once people became successful and noticeable, they naturally attracted jealous eyes.
Several business rivals had long targeted Meng Guochun. They joined forces to suppress and frame him, eventually causing someone’s death.
Those years happened to coincide with a nationwide crackdown on serious crime.
Meng Guochun was ultimately sentenced to death, and the Meng family’s business was forcibly liquidated through bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, Meng Ying had become entangled with the local hooligans and dyed-haired delinquents from the street corner.
As a result, she contracted numerous illnesses.
Yang Ling took her everywhere seeking treatment.
During that time, she accidentally discovered that Meng Ying was not her biological daughter.
Kindhearted Yang Ling never exposed the truth.
Although they were not related by blood, she had personally raised Meng Ying from childhood. To her, Meng Ying was no different from her own daughter.
Therefore, Yang Ling continued dragging the gravely ill Meng Ying from hospital to hospital, kneeling and begging doctors to save her.
In the end, she still failed to save Meng Ying’s life.
Having lost both her family and home, the despairing Yang Ling jumped from the hospital rooftop and ended her life.
Such a kindhearted couple had now become, in Meng Ying’s words, wicked people with rotten blood?
In this life, Meng Ying had been reborn before Meng Guochun became successful.
To prevent the tragedy of her previous life from repeating, she cruelly drugged their food.
While the couple was delivering goods, they became disoriented and died in a traffic accident midway through the journey.
Afterward, Meng Ying pretended to be devastated and went to the public security bureau, putting on a deeply emotional performance.
Even she had not expected that the investigation would accidentally uncover the truth behind the switched identities from years ago—that human traffickers had been responsible.
Her luck had truly been extraordinary.
Perhaps even heaven could no longer tolerate seeing someone like her possess the magical space and enjoy a lifetime of success.
That was why Meng Yao had been given another chance.
When there was still no sound from inside the room, the people outside became frantic.
Without another word, they joined forces and kicked the door open.
At the exact moment the door burst inward, Meng Yao returned.
She had originally feared she would remain trapped inside the space.
Unexpectedly, the moment both her feet stepped out of the wooden cottage, she returned to her bedroom.
She forced herself to remain calm, folded her arms across her chest, leaned against the chair, and stared coldly at the breathless mother and daughter before her.
“We called you for so long, but you didn’t answer. Are you deaf?”
Li Yuqin angrily pointed at Meng Yao’s nose and launched into a tirade.
“An elder is speaking to you, yet you refuse to answer. Have all your manners gone into a dog’s stomach?”
Meng Yao impatiently cleaned her ear with one finger, her expression calm and icy.
“Yes. They went into your stomach.”
“You… you…”
Li Yuqin clutched her heaving chest in shock, too furious to speak.
Meng Ying could not restrain herself.
“How can you speak to Mom like that?”
Meng Yao frowned and laughed mockingly.
“How else should I speak?”
“You violently kicked down my bedroom door, and you think that proves you have manners?”
“The fact that I haven’t thrown you out already is an act of mercy.”
Li Yuqin and Meng Ying stared at her in disbelief.
It was as though Meng Yao had been possessed by something unclean.
Her personality had completely changed, and not a trace remained of the soft, timid girl they had once bullied so easily.
“This is outrageous! I kicked down a door in my own house. Do I need your permission?”
Li Yuqin had not yet adjusted to Meng Yao’s transformation.
She raised her hand to slap her.
However, her arrogant and vicious hand suddenly froze in midair, unable to move.
Meng Yao had seized her thick wrist.
She stared at Li Yuqin with such ferocity that it seemed she might tear her apart in the next second.
Li Yuqin’s eyes widened in terror.
As intense pain shot through her wrist, she hunched over and cried out repeatedly.
“Ouch! Ouch!”
Seeing this, Meng Ying tried to rush forward and help.
“What are you doing?”
“Let go of Mom!”
Meng Yao suddenly released her grip.
Then she swung her hand and delivered a vicious slap across Meng Ying’s face as she charged forward.
This slap was for the deceased Meng Guochun and Yang Ling.
What a heartless and ungrateful creature!
Meng Ying covered her swollen right cheek and collapsed onto the floor.
She glared furiously at Meng Yao and screamed until her voice turned hoarse.
“Meng Yao, have you gone insane?!”
“How dare you hit me?!”
Meng Yao sneered indifferently.
“That’s right. I hit you, you ungrateful dog.”
Meanwhile, Meng Liangcai was still sitting in the living room, troubled by the marriage arrangement.
When he heard the continuous arguing upstairs, his temper grew even worse.
“Arguing, arguing, arguing. There’s never a peaceful day in this house. We truly raised a disaster…”
Still grumbling, he hurried toward Meng Yao’s bedroom.
When he saw the damaged door in front of him, he was just about to curse loudly.
Instead, he suddenly froze in place.