The woodshed was crammed with chopped firewood and miscellaneous junk. In one corner lay an old, broken door panel with a thin quilt spread over it.
That was her so-called bed.
Lin Wanqiu didn’t lie down. Instead, she sat quietly in the darkness, gazing at the moonlight spilling through the window.
From the main room came the clatter of bowls and chopsticks, followed by Wang Guihua’s voice.
“Baogen, eat a little more. You’ll need your strength for the medical examination tomorrow.”
“Mom, I want meat,” Lin Baogen complained.
“Tomorrow, sweetheart. Once your examination is over, I’ll cook some for you!”
“Mom, you poured Sister’s porridge back into the pot, didn’t you? Can I have another bowl?” Lin Zhaodi asked.
“Go ahead, help yourself. She wasn’t going to eat it anyway.”
Lin Wanqiu closed her eyes and drew a long, steady breath.
Gradually, the voices faded. The dishes were cleared away, and Wang Guihua finally retired to her room.
Lin Wanqiu waited patiently.
Only when the moon hung high overhead and the entire household had fallen into a deep sleep did she quietly push open the woodshed door.
Silvery moonlight washed over the little courtyard, bathing everything in a pale glow.
Moving as silently as a shadow, Lin Wanqiu crept toward the main room and listened carefully.
From inside came the unmistakable sound of Wang Guihua and Lin Daqiang snoring.
Satisfied that they were asleep, she turned toward the kitchen.
The kitchen door was slightly ajar. She slipped inside and glanced around.
At first sight, the stove appeared bare, but Lin Wanqiu knew exactly where the family kept its food.
She approached the cupboard and carefully opened its doors.
Sure enough, tucked away at the very back beneath a piece of cloth was a large bundle of cured pork.
There were at least five or six jin of meat, roughly five to seven pounds, tied together with string.
Without hesitation, Lin Wanqiu transferred the entire bundle into her spatial storage.
Next, she moved toward the rice jar and lifted its lid.
Hidden at the bottom was a cloth-wrapped package.
She opened it and found more than thirty eggs nestled inside.
Into the space they went.
There was also half a sack of white flour in the cupboard, weighing approximately twenty jin.
She took that too.
In the corner lay a pile of sweet potatoes and regular potatoes, weighing another thirty or forty jin altogether.
Gone.
Lin Wanqiu moved through the kitchen like a silent whirlwind, sweeping everything edible or valuable into her spiritual space.
Rice, flour, cooking oil, salt, jars of pickled vegetables, even the small container of lard Wang Guihua had painstakingly saved over the years.
Not a single thing was spared.
Once she finished, Lin Wanqiu quietly left the kitchen and headed toward Wang Guihua’s bedroom.
She remembered that her mother kept a wooden box containing the family’s savings.
Aside from the three hundred yuan in bride-price money Wang Guihua had received, the box should also contain the wages Lin Wanqiu had handed over throughout the years, along with whatever money Wang Guihua had managed to save herself.
The bedroom door was slightly open.
Lin Wanqiu gently pushed it wider.
Moonlight streamed through the doorway, revealing Wang Guihua and Lin Daqiang sleeping soundly on their bed.
Holding her breath, she tiptoed toward the wardrobe.
It was an old-fashioned wooden cabinet secured with a small padlock.
But Lin Wanqiu knew where the key was hidden.
Under Wang Guihua’s pillow.
She approached the bed.
Wang Guihua was lying on her side with her back turned, her breathing deep and even.
Very carefully, Lin Wanqiu reached beneath the pillow and felt around until her fingers closed over a small ring of keys.
She slowly pulled them free.
Her hands trembled slightly.
It wasn’t fear.
It was the nervous anticipation of someone preparing to deliver the final blow.
Returning to the wardrobe, she tried one key, then another.
On the second attempt, the lock clicked open.
Inside were several neatly folded pieces of old clothing.
Beneath them sat the familiar wooden box.
Lin Wanqiu took it out and lifted the lid.
Just as she expected, it was filled with money.
Stacks of banknotes, some large denominations and others small, had been arranged and tied into tidy bundles.
Right on top lay three hundred yuan in crisp, new bills.
Chen Zhigang’s bride price.
Beneath that were more banknotes of various denominations, carefully sorted and bound together.
Lin Wanqiu didn’t bother counting them.
She simply sent the entire wooden box into her space.
Several pieces of fabric were also stored inside the wardrobe. Wang Guihua had been saving them to make new clothes for Lin Baogen and Lin Zhaodi.
She took those as well.
In one corner sat a small metal box containing various ration coupons, including grain coupons, cloth coupons, and sugar coupons.
Those disappeared into her space too.
Like an autumn wind stripping leaves from the trees, Lin Wanqiu swept away everything of value that she could find.
Finally, she gently closed the wardrobe and returned the keys to their hiding place beneath Wang Guihua’s pillow.
Moonlight fell across the sleeping woman’s face.
Lin Wanqiu stood beside the bed, staring down at her.
This was the woman she had called Mother for more than twenty years.
At that moment, Wang Guihua looked so ordinary, so unremarkable.
There was nothing in her sleeping face to suggest that she was capable of such heartless cruelty.
Lin Wanqiu watched her for a long time.
Then Wang Guihua suddenly smacked her lips and muttered in her sleep.
“That damned little bastard… How dare she cut ties with us? Just wait until Baogen gets married. I’ll make sure that wretched girl never has a peaceful day again!”
Lin Wanqiu froze.
She stared at Wang Guihua, who was still sleeping soundly, completely unaware of the venom she had just spilled.
A sharp, unbearable grief tore through Lin Wanqiu’s heart.
Even in her dreams, this woman was plotting ways to ruin her daughter’s life.
So that was how much her mother hated her.
Lin Wanqiu’s lips trembled before she let out a quiet, bitter laugh.
“Fine. Very well. So that’s how it is.”
Her gaze gradually turned cold.
“It seems I’ve still been far too merciful to all of you.”
She had originally intended to take only the food, money, and valuables.
But now?
Why should she leave them anything at all?
Standing in the middle of the bedroom, Lin Wanqiu raised her hand.
In an instant, everything around her vanished into her space.
The wardrobe.
The tables.
The chairs.
Every piece of furniture in the room disappeared.
The only thing she left behind was the bed on which Wang Guihua and Lin Daqiang were sleeping.
Next, she entered the room shared by Lin Baogen and Lin Zhaodi.
She did exactly the same thing.
Everything went into her space except the bed beneath the two sleeping siblings.
Then came the main room.
She emptied it completely.
Every table, chair, cabinet, and household item disappeared without a trace.
She returned to the kitchen and swept away every remaining pot, bowl, ladle, and utensil.
Then she emptied the woodshed.
Even the firewood and miscellaneous junk were taken.
Before long, there was practically nothing left in the house.
Finally, Lin Wanqiu stepped into the courtyard and looked around the place where she had spent twenty years of her life.
Her expression was calm, but her eyes carried a sadness that had long since hardened into resolve.
“I used to want nothing more than a little affection from this family,” she murmured.
“Even the smallest bit of kindness would have been enough.”
She paused, remembering the countless times she had swallowed her grievances, endured their insults, and sacrificed her own happiness in the desperate hope that one day they might finally treat her like family.
“But I don’t want any of that anymore.”
Her voice grew colder.
“Lin Daqiang. Wang Guihua. Lin Zhaodi. Lin Baogen.”
She repeated each name slowly, determined never to forget.
“I hope you enjoy the wonderful gift I’ve prepared for you.”
With those words, Lin Wanqiu waved her hand.
The walls vanished.
The roof beams disappeared.
Then the entire roof was gone.
Doors, windows, and every remaining part of the house were instantly absorbed into her space.
She didn’t stop there.
The kitchen, the woodshed, and everything else in the courtyard disappeared as well.
Even the surrounding courtyard walls were taken.
In the blink of an eye, the once-familiar family home had been stripped down to bare ground.
All that remained in the vast, empty courtyard were three beds.
And sleeping peacefully on those beds were the bloodsuckers who had spent years draining her dry.
They had taken everything they could from her.
Now it was her turn.
Lin Wanqiu turned around and left without making a sound.
Chen Zhigang had already drunk the chicken soup laced with Suoyang herb. Thanks to its effects, he would never be able to touch another woman for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, Zhang Tiezhu was preparing to marry Lin Zhaodi.
Her precious younger sister.
The same sister who had mocked her, humiliated her, and drugged her in her previous life.
What a perfect match they would make.
And that was only the beginning.
Soon, Wang Guihua would wake up and discover that everything she owned had vanished.
When Chen Zhigang realized his bride had run away, he would undoubtedly come demanding the return of his bride price.
Then Old Madam Sun would arrive to propose marriage between Zhang Tiezhu and Lin Zhaodi.
One disaster after another was already waiting for them.
The gears of revenge had begun to turn.
And now that they were moving, no one could stop them.
“Hahaha!”
Lin Wanqiu suddenly burst into laughter as she walked down the deserted road.
The sound carried through the stillness of the night.
“What a wonderful show this is going to be!”
She could hardly wait to see what would happen next.
By the time she returned, everything would finally come to a conclusion.
In the past, Lin Wanqiu had always been terrified of the dark.
As a child, she had dreaded walking alone at night, imagining all sorts of frightening things lurking beyond the reach of the moonlight.
But tonight, she felt no fear at all.
She walked beneath the moonlit sky, following the road that led toward the county town.
Her steps were steady, and her heart felt lighter than it had in years.
This time, she would live for herself.
She would never again allow herself to be dragged into that filthy swamp of suffering and despair.
By the time Lin Wanqiu reached the county town, the sky was just beginning to brighten.
A faint gray light spread across the horizon.
It was the hour when the black market was beginning to open for business.
Lin Wanqiu had been planning to take inventory of everything she had collected when she suddenly felt a familiar warmth spreading from the birthmark on her body.
The sensation was faint but unmistakable.
Her eyes widened.
Could it be?
Had her space upgraded again?
Unable to contain her curiosity, Lin Wanqiu immediately entered her spiritual spring space.
The moment she stepped inside, she noticed something different.
The rich black soil had expanded once again.
What had previously been a smaller patch of fertile land now stretched across eight mu, an area of more than an acre.
Beside the spiritual spring, a new well had appeared.
And the little thatched cottage had changed.
It was now a two-room structure.
Above the doorway of one of the rooms hung a wooden plaque bearing three ancient-looking characters.
The inscription read:
Medicine Workshop.
A new function had been unlocked!
Lin Wanqiu eagerly stepped inside to investigate.
The room contained a variety of equipment used for preparing and processing medicinal herbs.
There was a stone mortar and pestle, a medicine-grinding wheel, earthenware medicine jars, bamboo sieves, a traditional balance scale, and simple drying racks.
Everything needed for basic herbal medicine preparation was neatly arranged and ready for use.
With these tools, she could clean, grind, dry, weigh, and process medicinal ingredients.
Lin Wanqiu examined the workshop with growing excitement.
A thought gradually formed in her mind.
“It seems this space upgrades whenever I manage to let go of another burden in my heart.”
She couldn’t be completely certain, but the pattern was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Each time she freed herself from something that had tormented her in the past, her spiritual spring space seemed to grow stronger.
If that was truly the case, what other remarkable functions might it unlock in the future?
The possibilities filled her with anticipation.
After thoroughly inspecting the medicine workshop, Lin Wanqiu finally turned her attention to the mountain of belongings she had collected from the Lin family home.
Cured pork.
Eggs.
Rice, flour, grain, and cooking oil.
Fabric.
Money.
And, of course, the wooden box containing Wang Guihua’s precious savings.
Lin Wanqiu retrieved the box and opened it.
This time, she began counting the money carefully.
The three hundred yuan from Chen Zhigang’s bride price was still sitting on top.
Beneath it were the wages she had handed over throughout the years, along with Wang Guihua’s own savings.
As she counted the banknotes, her expression gradually changed.
One bundle after another passed through her fingers.
By the time she finished, the total had exceeded two thousand yuan!
More than two thousand yuan!
For an ordinary rural household, that was an astonishing amount of money.
And that wasn’t all.
Inside the box were two silver bracelets and a gold ring.
There were also several dozen grain and cloth ration coupons.
Lin Wanqiu stared at the collection for a moment.
So Wang Guihua had never been as poor as she pretended.
She had plenty of money tucked away.
Yet despite having so much saved, she had continued scheming to take every last cent of Lin Wanqiu’s wages.
She had even been willing to sell her daughter for another three hundred yuan in bride price.
And when Lin Wanqiu returned home, that same woman couldn’t bear to give her more than half a bowl of watery porridge.
How utterly ridiculous.
Lin Wanqiu felt a cold smile spread across her face.
At least now she knew exactly how much her years of sacrifice had been worth to that family.
As for the pots, bowls, kitchen utensils, tables, chairs, benches, and other miscellaneous household items she had collected, she had no intention of keeping them.
She would take everything to the black market and sell it.
There was no reason to let any of it go to waste.