“Hey, hey, hey! I’m talking to you! Why are you spacing out?!” The white fox’s soft, cute voice pulled Su Wan back to her senses.
She lowered her head to look at the white fox, scooped it up, and hugged it into her arms. The fox struggled with all four paws, twisting about. “Human! What are you doing?! Put this venerable one down at once!”
Su Wan really liked fluffy little animals. She had once kept a white cat, but it was later run over by a car and died. From that moment on, she never kept another pet.
Since this white fox was an animal of the space, it had to be some kind of spirit or demon, right? Then she should be able to keep it from now on!
The white fox still didn’t know it had already escaped neither the fate of being “absorbed” by a human, and continued chattering away with its fox mouth.
Su Wan looked around the space. The air inside was extremely fresh. She took several deep breaths and immediately felt refreshed and clear-headed.
“Are you a demon of this space?” Su Wan asked tentatively.
The white fox had just had its belly rubbed against by this human’s face. Even through its white fur, its face could be seen flushed red.
Before, it was embarrassment. Now, it was purely anger.
“You’re the demon! Your whole family are demons! This venerable one is a spiritual being of this space!”
Su Wan patted its head. “Alright, alright, you’re a spiritual being! Since you’re so white, I’ll call you Little White from now on!”
The little white fox immediately bristled. “What kind of lousy name is that! This venerable one is called Hu Bai! What Little White?!”
“Okay, Little White. Can this space store things?” Su Wan set the fox down and walked straight toward the wooden house.
Hu Bai hadn’t expected her to still call it Little White. Huffing angrily, it hopped along behind her.
But how did this human know the space could store things? It eyed Su Wan suspiciously. “Human, how do you know the space can store items?”
Su Wan smiled faintly and didn’t answer.
Of course she knew from Zhao Mengxue in her previous life. Now that the space was in her hands, a huge weight finally lifted from her heart.
Zhao Mengxue—every bit of suffering she endured in her past life! She would definitely make Zhao Mengxue taste it all as well!
After wandering around the space once, Su Wan prepared to leave. Hu Bai looked at her with eager eyes, looking extremely awkward.
Su Wan picked it up. “Are you feeling bored? It’s fine, I’ll come keep you company later. I still have things to do right now.”
Hu Bai turned its head away. “Who needs you to keep me company? Hmph! This venerable one would never feel bored!” Yet one of its paws was hooked tightly onto Su Wan’s sleeve, refusing to let go.
Su Wan smiled and didn’t mind. She set it down and left the space.
Since Gu Huaizhi refused to answer the phone, she decided to go to the army unit first. Anyway, in this life she was sticking to him. No matter what, the child in her belly couldn’t grow up without a father.
Later, during those two years in Beidahuang, Su Wan thought about it again and again. Gu Huaizhi didn’t seem like the kind of person who would cheat during marriage. Back then, Zhao Mengxue’s claim about exchanging the jade pendant for information was surely fake as well.
It was just a scheme to trick her out of the jade pendant. If that was the case, and Gu Huaizhi hadn’t cheated, then why exactly had she been so willful in her past life?
Su Wan sat on the sofa and carefully went over everything that had happened in her previous life, until she finally recalled the scene right before her death.
She didn’t know whether that had been a dying hallucination—had Gu Huaizhi really gone to look for her in her previous life?
Forget it. Thinking so much was useless. Anyway, once she dealt with Zhao Mengxue, she would go find Gu Huaizhi.
Thinking of the space’s storage ability, Su Wan tried sending the fruit on the coffee table into the space. With a thought, the fruit really disappeared. Then, when she thought of the fruit again, it reappeared in her hand.
Since she had decided to follow the army, she planned to exchange all the grain coupons, cloth coupons, and the like into supplies and store them in the space to take with her.
Conditions over there surely wouldn’t be good. She might even have to eat at the communal mess hall, and the food probably wouldn’t taste great.
Since she was going, she naturally had to prepare her rations properly. She also needed to stock up on malted milk powder. Her health had never been great, so drinking more of these nutritional supplements would help nourish the baby in her belly.
Thinking of the child, Su Wan touched her stomach. In her previous life, she only found out she was really pregnant after falling down the stairs. Unfortunately, that fall caused her to lose the baby.
Now that she knew there was a baby belonging to her and Gu Huaizhi in her belly, she would definitely take good care of her body. The bond that couldn’t be continued in her previous life—this time, she would cherish it well!
Su Wan changed into the plainest clothes and called a rickshaw to first go file a report. She needed to apply before going to the southwestern army unit to accompany the troops. The application went very smoothly. After asking a few questions, the staff stamped it.
State-run store.
Su Wan exchanged all her grain coupons for rice. She found a porter and asked him to deliver it to an alley, saying someone would come later to help her take it back. The porter took the money happily and left.
After he left, Su Wan put all the rice into the space, then hurried off to exchange cloth, choosing suitable fabrics for Gu Huaizhi and Gu Xingyao.
She also picked out cloth for herself and the baby in her belly. Not knowing whether it was a boy or a girl, she prepared for both.
Then she went to look at ready-made clothes and bought two new outfits for Gu Huaizhi. Ever since he went to the army, every time she saw him, he was always in uniform.
Although a tall man with long legs looked great in a military uniform, she still wanted to buy him some casual clothes.
She picked two dresses for Gu Xingyao. Thinking about their current strained relationship, Su Wan sighed inwardly—consider it an apology.
She also bought herself several very ordinary outfits—so ordinary that if thrown into a crowd, eight out of ten people would be dressed the same way.
Gu Xingyao was Gu Huaizhi’s younger sister. When Gu Huaizhi went to join the army, Gu Xingyao stayed in Shanghai with Su Wan.
But later, after listening to Zhao Mengxue, Su Wan tried to introduce Gu Xingyao to Zhao Mengxue’s cousin. Gu Xingyao refused and even quarreled with Zhao Mengxue. Su Wan then scolded Gu Xingyao as well.
In a fit of anger, Gu Xingyao ran off to the army to find Gu Huaizhi and never came back.
The two hadn’t seen each other for a year. Gu Huaizhi didn’t have much leave—he could only come back once every six months. Now he had been in the army for two years. During these two years, whenever Su Wan missed him, she would call him.
But Gu Huaizhi, for some reason, worked himself extremely hard. Every time she called, he was out on a mission, never free.
Su Wan was terribly bored alone in Shanghai, so she could only spend every day with Zhao Mengxue.
Whenever she had something on her mind, she would tell Zhao Mengxue, and Zhao Mengxue would often comfort her. Su Wan treated her as her best friend.
Who would have thought that Zhao Mengxue had been jealous of her all along, and in the end stabbed her viciously in the back.
After spending all her coupons, Su Wan went to the black market. In both her past and present lives, this was her first time there.
By then it was already afternoon, and there weren’t many people in the black market, nor many selling goods.
Su Wan walked around once and felt that this black market didn’t look much different from an ordinary street.
“Girl, what are you looking to buy?” an auntie asked when she saw Su Wan wandering about.
Su Wan said, “I—I’m just looking.”
The auntie smiled. “You have to come early here. Before dawn is best—people have already gone back now. And if you want to buy things in the black market, remember not to show your face.”
Only then did Su Wan understand. So that was how it worked. She planned to come again tomorrow—at the very least, she needed to stock up on some meat.
Living in Shanghai, with a maid at home, her meals were always plentiful—she had meat at every meal.
When Su Wan returned home, as expected, Sister Wu had already prepared three dishes and a soup. Seeing Su Wan, she hurried over to take her handbag.
“Miss, where did you go?”
Sister Wu had been hired later. She was the niece introduced by the original Wu Ma. Wu Ma was old, and after Su Wan’s father passed away, she fell seriously ill and returned home to recuperate.
Now there was only this one maid in Su Wan’s household. The butler had gone out doing business with her father back then and had also been shot to death. The two had died in the same place.
That was why, when Gu Huaizhi wanted to join the army, Su Wan had opposed it so strongly—because she was the only one left at home.
Su Wan casually said a few words to dismiss Sister Wu. Sister Wu didn’t stay overnight in the mansion. After dinner, she cleaned up the dishes and left.
Su Wan locked her door and entered the space. Inside, the white fox stood upright like a person, hands on its hips, pointing at Su Wan as it said:
“You bought so many things and didn’t even think to buy some seeds? Don’t you see there’s so much land here?!”
Su Wan looked at it, pulled it into her arms first and rubbed it a few times before saying, “You know how to farm?”
Hu Bai lifted its tail high. “Of course! This venerable one’s powers are immense. Farming is nothing! And the more plants and living creatures there are in the space, the stronger the vitality here will be. Tomorrow you need to buy more seeds, chickens, ducks, and the like, got it?!”
From Hu Bai, Su Wan also learned that the space could preserve items. No matter how long things were stored inside, as long as they were put into the warehouse, whatever state they went in was exactly the state they’d be in when taken out.
She went to bed early and headed to the black market again early the next morning, deliberately wrapping her head in a silk scarf.
As soon as the rickshaw stopped, Su Wan noticed how different the black market was from yesterday. Quite a few people were moving about—sure enough, mornings were when trading was busiest.
Su Wan walked into the black market and saw a woman squatting at a street corner. In her basket were roughly one or two hundred eggs. Su Wan walked over. The woman’s head was also tightly wrapped in a scarf, her voice coming from inside.
“Girl, eggs laid by chickens at home. One yuan per jin. If you take them all, I can make it cheaper.”
Su Wan asked curiously, “How did you manage to stock up so many? Aren’t you afraid they’ll go bad?”
She only learned these things after going to the countryside. Generally speaking, eggs would be sold once you had twenty or thirty; if you stored too many, they could spoil.
The woman lowered her voice. “They’re from several families in the village. I collected them to sell.”
She was quite business-savvy. She definitely hadn’t paid this price to buy them from the villagers. Selling them on the black market, she could earn the difference.
But black market trading also carried risks. Su Wan didn’t hesitate further and bought the entire basket of eggs. It was only two cents cheaper, but she was in a hurry to stock up, so she didn’t fuss over it.
The woman gave her the basket. Su Wan took it to an empty alley and put everything into the space.
She returned to the black market again and happened to run into someone selling meat. Perhaps afraid that a whole pig would be too conspicuous, the meat had already been cut into pieces. Quite a few people were waiting to buy meat, and as soon as someone came selling it, the crowd surged forward.
Su Wan couldn’t squeeze in at all. Many people were asking about the price, so she stood there and waited for someone else to ask before buying.
“How much is pork per jin?”
“Two yuan!” The man placed the meat on a long table and answered briskly.
“Tsk! Why did it go up again? Wasn’t it one yuan nine last time?” someone complained.
The man didn’t care at all. “Do you know how hard it is to get pork now? You’re still being picky? If you buy it all, I can knock off a mao!”
“I’ll take it all!” Su Wan spoke up immediately.
The man turned to look at Su Wan, and many people in the crowd also looked at her.
“Hey, hey! I want two jin! I came first—you have to sell to me!” Someone refused to accept it. After finally waiting for someone to sell pork, how could it all be bought by one person?
Those who had complained about the price earlier all became dissatisfied and started clamoring to buy.