“What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”
Seeing his wife suddenly sit up, Gu Kai rubbed his eyes and sat up as well.
“Gu Kai, I think… my space seems to have expanded!”
The excitement hit her so suddenly that Shen Cong sat on the bed, frozen in place.
She pounded on her husband’s chest: “Quick, go get a tape measure! I have to check!”
“Alright, I’m on it.” Gu Kai snapped fully awake, jumped out of bed without a word, and ran off.
A few minutes later, he returned, holding a steel tape measure.
“It’s grown so much this time! I think it’s several times bigger than before…
Ah, Gu Kai! My space increased by two hundred square meters! The original twenty square meters is still there, right next to this expanded area, like an extra little room.
Ahhh! My space has increased tenfold! It’s now 220 square meters!”
Shen Cong threw down the tape measure and leapt onto her husband from the bed, wrapping her legs around his waist and grinning from ear to ear.
She pounded on his shoulders with both hands, not caring about the force.
Gu Kai grabbed her flailing hands, then pulled her down and pressed a deep kiss to her lips…
Naturally, the couple’s midnight commotion woke the Shen family, who lived on the same floor.
Hearing that their daughter’s space had truly expanded, they were overjoyed.
“First thing tomorrow, call Old Gu! I wonder when he’ll be back?”
“Didn’t he say yesterday that he wanted to wait for that herbal medicine trade fair? Can’t he just come back sooner? We don’t really need to buy all those extremely expensive herbs, do we?”
Seeing his in-laws worried, Gu Kai quickly explained on his father’s behalf: “My dad isn’t waiting for the herbs. He just wants to buy some good seeds. It’s not planting season now, so quality seeds aren’t available on the market. That’s why he wanted to check the trade fair to see if he could find some.”
“Or, tomorrow I can go to the antique market and see if the jade shops have any suitable stones. If they do, I’ll buy some to use right away.”
Perhaps, just as Shen Cong had guessed, the quality of the “essence stone” wasn’t determined by its type, but by the spiritual energy contained within it.
The formation Gu Zhengchu had set up at home before leaving, other jade pieces were fine, but that pair of earrings had already noticeably dulled, their luster faded as if they would shatter with a pinch.
Before Shen Cong’s upgrade, no one had paid much attention.
But now that she had leveled up, everyone instinctively thought—
If the essence stones were a little purer, could the space expand even further?
Where there’s hope, there’s motivation.
The next morning, Gu Kai went out early.
By noon, he returned carrying several jewelry boxes.
“I first went to a jade shop, but I realized jade is a tricky business. Prices for seemingly similar stones can vary by several times.
I didn’t understand it and didn’t dare buy blindly, so I went to the mall instead. On the way, I passed by that pawnshop that used to sell jewelry, our earliest one.”
As her husband explained the origins of the gemstone pendants, bracelets, and rings, Shen Cong could only stare in disbelief.
Life truly unfolds in unexpected ways.
A few days ago, they had sold the family’s jewelry at low prices, and now they were buying it back at high prices from other people’s pawned collections.
Fortunately, the pieces Gu Kai chose looked quite good. The style didn’t matter much; the key was that both the rubies and sapphires were large-looking and of decent grade.
All five pieces together cost 120,000 yuan, which was within their budget.
Compared to expanding the space further, this sum was nothing.
ᘻᘿᓍᘺ
Gu Zhengchu returned to the villa three days later. He had already heard about the upgraded space beforehand, so naturally, he was very pleased.
Upon arriving home, he didn’t rest. He pulled a bag from the small pack he had carried all the way and reset the formation for the entire second floor.
The bag wasn’t very big, but it contained half a sack of jade scraps. The pieces varied in size, the largest was no bigger than a fingernail, and the smallest looked like soybeans.
“Don’t underestimate this bag. It may look small, but all of it is high-quality jade. I was lucky to get it. At Pingchuan’s largest jade factory, they were carving a jade piece for a competition, and that single piece alone is reportedly worth several million!”
“I only managed to get these thanks to some connections through local friends. Normally, ordinary people wouldn’t even get scraps like this. The smallest ones…”
Gu Zhengchu held up a tiny jade fragment, barely bigger than a grain of rice, for everyone to see.
“Pieces like this, apparently, if you set them into necklaces or bracelets, they can still fetch a good price.”
Although he had only been out for a short while, it was clear that when it came to jade, Old Gu had spent a lot of time thinking about it; his knowledge was far greater than before.
And the contents of his bag were truly quality pieces.
Although the items placed at each position looked tiny and fragmented, requiring careful pinching and placement, the spiritual energy they carried was in no way inferior to the gemstones Gu Kai had bought for over a hundred thousand.
In fact, it might even be slightly better.
Ever since he set up the formation, everyone could clearly feel that the air on the second floor seemed fresher than before.
And since Shen Cong had already leveled up, her perception was even clearer.
She immediately noticed her body entering a warm, cozy state, making her particularly sleepy, the same feeling she had experienced the first time she entered the formation.
This gave her even more confidence that her space could be upgraded further.
The day after Gu Zhengchu returned, Lao Zheng and his workers arrived on site.
They had already measured and drawn up the plans beforehand.
Originally, they were supposed to start a couple of days earlier and dig the cellar first, but Shen Jianyi had stopped them.
The Shen family requested that they build the walls first, and only start construction once the walls were completed.
This wasn’t unusual for Lao Zheng’s team.
Many wealthy families build basements not for wine cellars but to store valuable items, and in such cases, the fewer people who know, the better.
They promptly presented a confidentiality agreement, which was signed and stamped, but at the same time, they increased the price by 20,000 yuan.
The reason was simple, once the walls were up, transporting materials and cleaning debris became much more complicated, increasing costs.
Shen Jianyi agreed without hesitation.
Lao Zheng’s team was indeed professional, with complete equipment.
Within two days, the Shen family’s perimeter had a 2.2-meter-high wall erected, enclosing the entire villa along with the previously unused plot of land.
That wall wasn’t built like an ordinary brick wall. They spared no expense, embedding steel rebars as thick as a thumb inside the wall, then pouring concrete, and adding seismic-resistant panels on the outside.
Forget earthquakes, even if a car slammed into it at full speed, it wouldn’t break!
But that wasn’t all. Stainless-steel anti-climb spikes were installed along the top of the wall and on the upper parts of the exterior, along with surveillance cameras.
Fulin’s place had the same setup.
After it was installed, Shen Cong went specifically to check it out.
Her only thought after seeing it, forget about people, not even a mouse could get over this wall.
Once the wall was completed, it wasn’t just the Shen family who was stunned, the whole neighborhood was amazed!
It looked absolutely incredible.
Although there weren’t many households in the neighborhood, it wasn’t just the Shens living there.
After the wall went up, their home instantly became the most famous in the neighborhood. People would occasionally come by to see it, and familiar faces would stop and ask Old Shen, “What exactly are you doing in your house?”
Shen Jianyi always brushed them off, saying his children weren’t home and he didn’t want the three elders living in such a remote area to be alone.
But the wall was truly impressive, so much so that on the afternoon it was finished, Xu Xingxue rode his little electric scooter over again.
This time, he didn’t go straight inside. Instead, he circled the Shen property once, silently examining it for a long while.
Finally, he managed to say, “Uncle… your place is a bit… big, huh!”
Shen Jianyi just smiled but didn’t respond.
After all, when they signed the agreement, it was already clearly stated that they were allowed to build a wall.
Now that it was built, what was there left to say?
To be honest, Shen Jianyi himself felt the whole setup was a little over the top, maybe too conspicuous.
But his daughter and son-in-law always said that safety comes first.
And he realized they were right, if the apocalypse really came, who else could you rely on besides your own family?
This isn’t the city; you can’t count on the government or the army to maintain order. Here, you had to rely on yourself.
With so many secrets at home and strangers all around, if they didn’t take precautions now, all that would be left later was regret.
He used to think the villagers were decent people, that they could look out for each other.
But ever since Xu Xingxue and the others dared to ask ten thousand yuan for that patch of wasteland, Shen Jianyi realized—
When it comes to money, never test human nature.
If something really happens, relying on those people? Better to rely on a solid wall.
So he would rather have people gossip behind his back than make any compromises out of concern for appearances.
“Your Uncle Gu really knows what he’s doing.”
Shen Jianyi smiled. “He’s meticulous. Once he decides to grow medicinal herbs, he takes it very seriously. Look at him, he hasn’t even secured the land yet, and he’s already gone to check out the medicinal herb trade fair to see which herbs are in demand.
Sigh, with all this, don’t even talk about making a profit, if he doesn’t lose all his savings in the process, that’s a blessing in itself!”
Shen Jianyi spoke with a hint of complaint, but it was also a way of explaining things to Xu Xingxue.
Xu Xingxue didn’t feel that Shen Jianyi was brushing him off; he was just constantly amazed.
He muttered in awe, “If Old Director Gu dares to do all this, he must be confident. Let him take his time; if there’s anything the village can help with, we’ll do it. And if this medicinal herb business really takes off, we’ll be counting on Old Director Gu to support it, and make the village prosperous together!”
Xu Xingxue understood clearly, how could an ordinary person compare to the former head of the city’s largest Chinese medicine hospital?
If he dares to take such bold measures, it shows he knows exactly what he’s doing. The crops he grows will definitely sell at good prices!
Otherwise, why be so cautious?
But no matter how careful you are, if you want to make real money, you’ll have to scale up. Small-scale operations won’t yield much.
Yingshui Village is so close; once the old director decides to rent land, their village will definitely be the first choice.
Even if they can’t eat meat, at least they can have some meat broth.
And even just learning a bit along the way will benefit them for life.
Although no one really knew what kind of medicinal herbs Gu Zhengchu planned to grow, just looking at the wall left Xu Xingxue astonished.
It also cemented his decision to maintain good relations with the Shen family and Old Director Gu.
With Xu Xingxue overseeing things in the background, the Shen family’s renovation went extremely smoothly, the cellar was completed quickly, and the fish pond was dug out.
Once the steel-framed house was installed, the bulk of the construction was essentially complete.
At that moment, however, everyone received bad news through their phone notifications, multiple volcanoes erupted in Northern Europe, and the weather changed abruptly!