Su Qinghua, who was in hiding, now had to figure out where to sleep. Should she ’check in’ the hospital again? Anyway, her body certainly was still in pain and had bruises all over.
She considered just staying at an inn, but that’d require her hukou or household registration. She had it on hand, but what if that family reported her missing? It also wouldn’t do good for her pitiful image if she were found in the inn instead.
She went to the hospital with the attire she had last night, looking pitiable as always. She claimed to still be in pain, and she ran away lest she got beaten up again and the wounds get worse.
It was true, anyway, and the doctors and nurses’ hearts broke for her, and she got herself in one of the wards with no one else. They also gave her enough prescriptions and medicine with discounted prices.
If she got traced here somehow, she could at least strengthen her case.
For dinner, she asked the kitchen to cook her food using her own ingredients, in exchange she’d leave behind a third of what she gave.
When the cook saw the quality of her crops and the fact that she was brought there by a well-liked nurse, they allowed it to happen. Anyway, it was just a matter of an added plate.
These were still first-generation crops, but her own plants would give her much better recovery effects than they did to others. It was estimated that after this, she would be more or less recovered.
Like before, after she made sure no one would make rounds, she closed the curtains and covered her body and pillow with the covers before disappearing into her space.
The space hadn’t increased by much yet, so she could only choose a few to plant first, and in small quantities at that. The primary goal for today was to plant as many varieties as she could to increase the size of her space.
She really needed it larger; The items she bought had already consumed quite a bit of space!
With a few new crops, by the time she woke up the next day, there would hopefully be a pleasant surprise.
She went out of her space and back to her hospital bed. She finally closed her eyes, not caring whether the family was looking for her or not. She just felt a very good sense of accomplishment from all the planting.
She would later find that the family hadn’t reported her missing at all, primarily because people from the neighborhood had seen her drag her body along the alley. It was just that they lost track of her soon after.
The family had taken for granted that, considering the way they raised her, as long as she were still alive, they were confident she’d return soon.
They had no idea that the ’slave’ they had taken for granted had long flown away.
...
The next day, Su Qinghua woke up feeling much better than before. Thanks to the food from last night, she could now move around like a healthy teenager, though she didn’t look like it yet because she was still so thin.
She stretched her arms, feeling refreshed, and then jumped down from the bed to answer the call of nature.
After finishing all her physiological tasks, she stayed inside the bathroom to enter her space.
Her space had now jumped to six meters by six meters in area and a ceiling height of three meters! It could now take in small trees~ The jump was rather large, so she went around to see what had changed.
Out of her large collection, the crops she planted now had seven varieties: Potatoes, beans, chilli pepper, soybean, peanut, wheat, and chinese cabbages.
The potatoes and beans now had second-generation varieties, and this was sired from the very, very first crops that grew out of her space. The new variety combined with the new level were the cause of the large jump in size.
She had expected them to mature later at night— since the higher the level, the longer the maturity rate— but it seemed like planting more varieties or the space upgrade itself had expedited the growth of the plants already inside, creating a landslide effect.
She had no complaints about this. After harvesting all the second-generation varieties, she replanted a portion of them and then saved the rest for her personal consumption. She also planted new seeds to create new first-generation ones to sell outside, allowing her to own different levels of the same crop.
Speaking of variety, the current selection was satisfying both for the sale and also for her own consumption.
The chilli pepper was there to improve all her meals. Soybean had so many uses and could be used to make tofu, soy milk, soy sauce, and so on.
Peanuts had excellent yield for a small area and also had high calorie and fat content, while wheat was a staple that could be used for many things, like noodles, dumplings, and mantou. Finally, the cabbage was fast-growing, nutritious, and an excellent source of fiber.
The crops were still not ready for harvest yet, but they had all grown well. This was fine because the Black Market wasn’t open every day anyway. She planted just the right amount of seeds. For some areas, she opted to plant the second generation eyes and pods so they would not mature too early.
Her space did not have preservation functions, so she couldn’t exactly stockpile too many things in her situation.
Time in her space ran normally, so they would go bad eventually if the crop had poor shelf life. At best, shelf life was extended a bit because she didn’t have to worry about bacteria and pests in the space, and also due to the fact that her crops had higher quality than those outside.
Hence, if she wanted fresh produce to sell, she needed to time it well. Otherwise, she’d have to process them in order for them not to go to waste.
She also set aside one square meter to serve as a nursery for higher-quality crops. She then set aside another two square meters for the things she bought, which was a fraction of the space, but who told her to have so many things? Things would be much more organized if she had a cabinet or any surface that could maximize the storage space.
She used these second-generation crops for her breakfast today, leaving a few catties of the level 1 crops to the cook as payment. She even bought a few more catties for her personal use.
Food using upgraded crops was truly delicious, and eating level 2 ones added a feeling of warmth in the stomach that spread out to all her limbs, making her feel especially comfortable.
After this, she checked out while pretending to be weak, and then went away, heading to the site of the first exam.
Who’d have thought that she’d encounter something interesting on the way there?
"THIEF! THIEF!!!"
She turned in the direction of the sound, seeing a man rushing over in her direction, holding a bulky canvas bag.
"STOP HIM! PLEASE!" the woman cried. "That’s the only food my whole family has! PLEASE!!"
Some men around tried to rush over, but the man was swift and agile. It reminded Su Qinghua of the western sport she had seen in her later years, something called Rugby or something.
Anyway, none of the good samaritans were able to stop the man, and he continued barreling in her direction.
The man didn’t bother with her at all, as if she were just a small obstacle he could easily push away.
Everyone else could see the size contrast, and the women covered their eyes in terror, while the other men either tried to go to them—though they were too far—or had a frozen response and were just standing there with pale faces.
Others were too far but were active enough to yell at her, warning her to clear the way.
"Little girl! Don’t block the way!"
"Get out of there!"
"KYAAA!"
"Nooo—"
BANG!
However, instead of the tragic sight that people were expecting, they saw the thief on the ground instead.
"..."
"..."