After Shen Zhixia finished speaking, she returned to her room without looking back and locked the door behind her.
Then she leaned against the door and silently counted. Sure enough, when she reached three, a knock sounded…
The moment the door opened, Li Yuelan threw the bracelet inside.
“Here. You actually took a broken bracelet for a treasure.”
She had inspected it inside and out just now. It was nothing more than an ordinary silver bracelet. Even if she took it out to sell, it would not fetch much money. Only a fool like Shen Zhixia would treat it as a treasure.
Shen Zhixia picked up the bracelet with a beaming smile. Of course, she would not tell Li Yuelan that this bracelet was actually a gigantic treasure-hiding space.
She shut the door and eagerly bit her finger until it bled, then dripped the blood onto the bracelet.
As long as she bound herself to the space inside the bracelet beforehand, even if Shen Wanqing shamelessly stole the bracelet later, all she would get would be an ordinary silver bracelet.
As soon as the blood touched the bracelet, it visibly seeped into it.
Shen Zhixia rubbed her finger and waited nervously for the space to open.
But… one minute, two minutes… ten minutes passed, and the bracelet remained completely still.
Not even a glimmer of light appeared.
Why couldn’t she bind herself to it? Had someone already bound themselves to the bracelet?
Shen Zhixia examined the bracelet carefully. It was spotless. Apart from the blood she had just dripped onto it, which had become a tiny red spot on the bracelet, there was nothing else.
It probably had not been bound to anyone. Otherwise, Li Yuelan would not have returned the bracelet to her so easily.
Then which step had gone wrong?
Biting her fingernail, she carefully recalled the details of how Shen Wanqing had bound herself to the space in the novel.
Finally… amid a mass of unrelated plot details, she remembered that when Shen Wanqing had bound herself to the space, she seemed to have come to the house and searched for some of her hair. She had also used Shen Zhixia’s blood.
Could it be… that opening the space also required bloodline verification?
Thinking of this, Shen Zhixia quickly plucked out a strand of hair, wound it around the bracelet, and dripped her blood onto it again.
This time, the instant the blood touched the bracelet, a flash of silver light appeared before her eyes. When she opened them again, she was already standing inside a vast space.
Shen Zhixia walked around the space once.
There was only one thought in her mind: Big. It was truly enormous.
The space contained not only more than a hundred mu of land, but also an entire mountain. All kinds of fruit trees grew all over it. A small stream flowed down from the mountain, winding around the whole stretch of land, with all kinds of fish and shrimp swimming through its waters.
Besides that, there was a small, two-story wooden house. Shen Zhixia estimated that it covered more than five hundred square meters.
The entire first floor was empty, so she went straight upstairs. The moment she reached the second floor, she saw pairs of all kinds of supplies, along with antiques, calligraphy, and paintings. There were even two chests of little yellow fish gold bars.
Shen Zhixia searched the place and found a letter in a cabinet in the corner.
Written on the envelope were the words: “To my granddaughter Xiaxia, to be opened personally.”
When she opened the letter, she discovered that it had been left for her by her maternal grandfather.
The contents of the letter were simple. It explained that the space had actually come from another world and that he had obtained it by chance. Opening the space required the bloodline he had authenticated. The antiques, calligraphy, paintings, and gold bars inside were the inheritance he had left for her.
Some of the antiques and gold bars could be donated to the country in the future, to be used in the construction of the nation.
After reading the letter, Shen Zhixia carefully put it away and locked it back in the cabinet before leaving the wooden house.
She also understood why Shen Wanqing had gone to such lengths to obtain her blood and hair in order to open the space. It turned out that her maternal grandfather had done this to protect these treasures from falling into the hands of others.
Unfortunately… in the novel, the original Shen Zhixia never knew until the day she died that her maternal grandfather had left her an immense fortune.
In front of the wooden house was a well so clear that its bottom could be seen. Shen Zhixia’s heart leaped with joy. She knew that this was the secret treasure Shen Wanqing later used in the novel to win people over and curry favor with powerful figures—the spirit spring water.
She fetched a wooden bucket and drew up a bucket of water. After taking a sip, she indeed felt much more refreshed all over. Even the wound on her finger from biting it had rapidly healed.
As expected, it was a wonderful thing.
She looked around once more and, after confirming that she had finished inspecting everything, left the space.
Her maternal grandfather’s letter had said that the space could also store objects. With a thought, she located the five hundred yuan she had obtained. The next moment, she watched the money disappear. She then searched through the room for quite a while and found several grain coupons and cloth coupons, which she also stored in the space.
Just as she was thinking about what else she could put away, she heard Li Yuelan’s angry voice from outside.
“You dead girl, are you hiding in there hatching eggs? Come out quickly and go buy things with me. Your father has already gone to find Director Lin.”
Shen Zhixia casually picked up the bamboo basket beside the door, pulled the door open, and walked out. Looking at Li Yuelan, she asked in a frightened voice,
“Mom, could you give me the household register? Fu Siyu has been missing for so long—he must be dead. The army should be sending compensation and a condolence payment. I want to go to the bank and check.
“And Fu Siyu and I still haven’t divorced. We also need to send a telegram to his unit to mention the divorce. Otherwise, if I marry Director Lin, you’ll be charged with the crime of disrupting a military marriage. When that happens…”
Hearing Shen Zhixia ask for the household register, Li Yuelan scrutinized her suspiciously. But when she heard the words “disrupting a military marriage,” she finally remembered that this little brat had already registered her marriage with Fu Siyu.
Reluctantly, she went back to her room and brought out the household register. “I’ll go with you later. Don’t even think about trying anything.”
Shen Zhixia nodded. As long as she had the household register, she would have a chance to transfer her household registration away at any time and obtain the necessary certificate as well. The most important thing now was to send a telegram to Fu Siyu and have him meet her at the train station when the time came.
In the novel, Fu Siyu had cut off contact with his family because he had gone on a confidential mission. Judging by the timing, he should be returning within the next couple of days.
In the novel, the moment Fu Siyu returned, he wrote to his family, asking Shen Zhixia to join him with the army. But by then, Shen Zhixia had already married someone else, and that letter ultimately never reached her hands.
They first went to the post office to send a telegram to Fu Siyu’s unit. When Li Yuelan heard the telegraph operator say that each character cost three and a half fen, while the address and recipient’s name cost an additional five fen per character, she immediately objected, cursing that they were robbing people.
“Mom, how about I just write a letter and mail it instead? I’m applying for a divorce anyway. It doesn’t matter whether it happens sooner or later.”
Shen Zhixia smiled apologetically at the telegraph operator. “Could you please give me a sheet of paper and a pen?” Then she said to Li Yuelan, who was still angry, “Mom, could you go to the supply cooperative and buy some snacks for children? Once I’ve mailed the letter, we can go to Director Lin’s house together…”
Li Yuelan gave her a look that said, You’re finally acting sensibly. “Then I’ll go buy the things. Don’t write too much. Don’t waste paper—a single sheet costs one fen.”
After seeing Li Yuelan leave, Shen Zhixia returned the paper to the telegraph operator and said, “I want to send a telegram. Urgent.”
After spending the huge sum of one yuan to successfully send the telegram, Shen Zhixia took out the household register she had slipped from Li Yuelan’s possession when Li Yuelan was not paying attention and headed toward the neighborhood office.
When the people at the neighborhood office heard that she wanted to join her husband with the army, they checked her identity documents and marriage certificate. After confirming that there were no problems, they quickly issued her a letter of introduction.
Afterward, Shen Zhixia went to the train station and bought a ticket for that evening’s train to Northwest Xin Province.
Only after taking care of all these matters did Shen Zhixia’s taut heart finally relax.
Afraid that Li Yuelan would become suspicious because she had been gone for so long, Shen Zhixia reluctantly took two jin of pork, one fish, and three chi of blue cotton cloth from the space. After thinking about it, she took out a bottle of liquor as well.
When Shen Zhixia was almost at the supply cooperative with the items in hand, Li Yuelan, her face full of fury, rushed over from the side and raised her hand to strike Shen Zhixia. Shen Zhixia immediately dodged to the side.
Li Yuelan had not expected Shen Zhixia to evade her. She had put too much force into the blow and fell straight onto her face.