Huang Xiaoxiao was jumping around in the snow like a madwoman.
Hearing the noise, the neighbors poked their heads out to see what was happening.
They saw a woman in Major General Zhuo’s yard shouting and celebrating wildly.
“Tsk tsk, it must be that woman from this afternoon.”
“Could she have gone insane?”
“By the way, who exactly is she? What’s her relationship with Major General Zhuo?”
“If they’re not related, they should send her away soon. She’s hurting his image.”
The neighbors gossiped endlessly, their faces full of disdain.
Huang Xiaoxiao couldn’t care less what they thought.
She continued celebrating on her own.
After calming down a little, she tossed the bracelet back into the cauldron, lit the fire, and returned to the house.
“Is dinner ready? Let’s eat.”
She proactively sat at the table, looking obedient as she quietly waited for the other owner of the house to take his seat.
Zhuo Yi stood where he was and silently stared at her for a long time.
Seeing that she had no intention of getting up, he walked over and pulled her to her feet.
???
What did that mean?
Wasn’t he going to let her eat?
Huang Xiaoxiao blinked in confusion and looked at him.
The man remained expressionless.
Was he angry?
Before she could figure it out—
He turned on the faucet, grabbed her hand, and placed it under the running water.
Warm water flowed over her fingers.
She couldn’t feel any cold at all.
Lowering his head, he carefully washed her hands.
The way he did it looked as though he were taking care of a child.
Huang Xiaoxiao’s face immediately grew warm.
So, he just wanted her to wash her hands.
He could have said so.
Instead, he wore such a serious expression that she misunderstood.
…
“Let’s eat.”
After washing up and returning to his seat, Zhuo Yi announced that they could start.
Huang Xiaoxiao lightly patted her cheeks.
They had only washed their hands.
Why did it feel like she had washed her face too?
Her cheeks felt warm and hot.
Zhuo Yi glanced at her calmly and placed a piece of meat into her bowl.
“Thank you.”
Huang Xiaoxiao quickly thanked him.
Then she focused all her attention on that piece of meat.
Her head remained lowered.
She looked just like she had when she first arrived.
A strange atmosphere lingered in the air.
After dinner, Huang Xiaoxiao tossed aside her bowl.
Without caring whether it was rude or not, she hurried out into the yard.
The cold wind hit her face.
Her mind immediately cleared.
That strange feeling she had earlier—the feeling of being about to be devoured—instantly vanished.
The fire in the cauldron had already gone out.
She touched the lid.
It was still warm.
The fire must have died down only recently.
She lifted the lid.
The bracelet lay inside completely intact.
Picking it up, she checked its storage space.
Excellent.
The space had expanded to sixteen square meters.
That meant her guess had been absolutely correct.
Each time she reforged it, the storage space doubled.
She had just reforged it three times.
One times two equals two.
Two times two equals four.
Four times four equals sixteen.
If she reforged it ten times…
Twenty times…
How large would the space become?
Huang Xiaoxiao didn’t even dare imagine it.
Her heart pounded wildly.
Calm down.
Stay calm.
Sure enough, heaven had not abandoned her after all.
After calming herself, Huang Xiaoxiao tossed the bracelet back into the cauldron and continued reforging it.
She would wait until it reached one hundred square meters before showing it to Zhuo Yi.
When the time came, his expression would definitely be priceless.
She began imagining the usually stoic man’s shocked face.
Would he open his mouth wide and let out an astonished “Ah”?
After thinking about it, she realized she couldn’t picture it.
Returning to the house, she didn’t see him anywhere.
Looking upstairs, she noticed the study light was on.
He was probably busy handling work.
She secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Returning to her room, she washed up quickly.
Then she climbed into bed.
She wondered what would happen tonight.
Would it be like last night?
As she thought about it, her face grew warm.
Her eyes became slightly unfocused.
Ring ring ring!
Just then, the communicator beside her bed suddenly rang.
Huang Xiaoxiao snapped back to reality.
She quickly picked it up.
It was her mother calling.
“Hello, Mom?”
“Xiaoxiao, how are you? Zhuo Yi isn’t bullying you, is he?”
Her mother’s concerned voice came through the speaker.
Warmth filled Huang Xiaoxiao’s heart.
How wonderful.
Her mother was still alive.
“Mom, I’m fine. He…”
Her gaze drifted toward the door.
“He treats me very well.”
“That’s good. Your father and brothers were worried you might be getting bullied, so they insisted I call. I told them you’d be fine, but they wouldn’t believe me. Alright, if everything’s okay, I’ll hang up now.”
After only a few sentences, her mother hurriedly ended the call.
Huang Xiaoxiao had so much more she wanted to say, but the words remained trapped in her throat.
Forget it.
Long-distance communication was expensive.
They were probably trying to save money.
She could always find time to visit tomorrow.
It wasn’t very far anyway.
…
By the time Zhuo Yi finished handling his work and returned to the bedroom, the woman was already asleep.
Her rosy cheeks were tucked beneath the blanket.
She looked like a child.
The look in Zhuo Yi’s eyes softened.
A trace of tenderness appeared on his face, a tenderness he had never shown before.
Walking quietly to the bedside, he bent down and gently pinched her soft cheek.
“Little thing.”
“Mmm…”
Feeling something tickling her face, Huang Xiaoxiao waved her hand unhappily and buried her head deeper into the blanket.
Zhuo Yi chuckled softly and turned away.
A short while later, he returned.
He turned off the lights and lifted the blanket.
Then he pulled the woman into his arms.
…
“So comfortable!”
Huang Xiaoxiao had slept exceptionally well.
The first thing she did after waking up was run into the yard.
She opened the cauldron.
Then checked the bracelet’s storage space.
Two hundred and fifty-six square meters!
Good heavens!
This was terrifying.
Huang Xiaoxiao nearly started dancing again.
Fortunately, she possessed remarkable self-control.
And after yesterday’s excitement, she had developed a bit of resistance.
She tossed the bracelet back into the cauldron.
Was 256 square meters enough?
Of course not.
She would quietly work hard and then amaze everyone.
At present, the largest personal storage space in the world was ten thousand square meters.
Her goals weren’t high.
She would settle for twenty thousand square meters first.
To estimate how far she could go, Huang Xiaoxiao started calculating.
One times two equals two.
Two times two equals four.
Four times four equals sixteen.
Sixteen times sixteen equals two hundred and fifty-six.
What was 256 × 256?
She couldn’t calculate it mentally anymore.
So, she took out her communicator and opened the calculator.
256 × 256 = 65,536
65,536???
Afraid she had read it wrong, she counted the digits herself.
“Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands…”
“More than sixty-five thousand!!!”
Sixty-five thousand!
Dear heavens.
Even with her composure, her legs felt weak.
Could this really be true?
Could she actually create a storage space larger than sixty-five thousand square meters?
Huang Xiaoxiao suddenly lacked confidence.
The main reason was that her very first successful creation had already become something this outrageous.
It felt impossible to believe.
“Maybe I should stop.”
“Two hundred square meters is already enough.”
She tried to persuade herself.
But the spiritual power within her body seemed unwilling to listen.
It automatically flowed toward the bottom of the cauldron.
Without her permission, the flames burst into life.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
In the end, Huang Xiaoxiao couldn’t even remember how many times she had reforged it.
When she finally came back to her senses, night had already fallen.
Zhuo Yi stood before her with a deep frown on his face.
“Hehe, you’re back.”
Huang Xiaoxiao gave him a foolish grin.
Then—
Everything went black.
And after that, she remembered nothing at all.