Lu Xinran opened her eyes and found herself standing in a vast, empty stretch of land.
There were small hills, houses, fields, and even spring water.
A thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
Could this be the spiritual-spring space that seemed to be standard equipment in so many period novels?
But at the moment, it was completely empty. It seemed she would have to stock it with supplies herself. Only a distant hillside had something growing on it.
The spiritual springs emitted a faint white mist. There were two of them in total.
Lu Xinran figured that the two spiritual springs probably had different purposes. One was meant for drinking, while the other could be used for daily needs, irrigation, bathing, and so on.
She walked over to one of the springs and noticed that there were actually a few tiny words beside it:
Natural Spiritual Spring: Can heal injuries, detoxify the body, and improve physical health.
Lu Xinran suddenly felt a sharp pain in her forehead.
Earlier, when the original Lu Xinran had fought with Lu Xinglong’s family, she had slammed her head against a pillar and injured herself.
She took out a handkerchief, soaked it in the spiritual spring water, and pressed it against the injured area.
Immediately, she felt a cool, soothing sensation around the wound.
A few minutes later, the pain was completely gone.
She touched her forehead and discovered that the wound had actually healed.
After personally experiencing the effects of the spiritual spring, Lu Xinran was amazed.
It was truly miraculous.
She then explored another area.
The land inside was all rich, fertile black soil. There was also a farm, a fishpond, and a small river.
She gave everything a quick look.
Since she was going to the northwest, she would definitely need to stock up on supplies.
After a while, she touched the red cord around her wrist and silently thought, Out.
When she opened her eyes again, she had already returned to her room.
She looked around.
This was the room she had been staying in since returning to China.
The villa was her grandparents’ old family home, where the entire family lived.
She picked up two jewelry boxes from the dressing table and silently willed them away.
Whoosh!
The boxes immediately disappeared into the space.
She then tried it with a chair.
Sure enough, she could store that too.
So, in other words, this space could store just about anything!
If that was the case, then she couldn’t be blamed for being ruthless.
She was going to take everything that belonged to her.
The spiritual-spring space undoubtedly had many other functions as well. She could slowly investigate them when she had time.
She also needed to find out where her parents had been sent down to.
Right now, she had no one in the country she could rely on. After the political movement intensified, someone with a capitalist-class background like hers would be in an extremely unfavorable position.
Going to the far northwest to lie low for a while might not be a bad idea.
Lu Xinran remembered that her grandparents had secretly left some assets for her family—assets that Lu Xinglong knew nothing about.
But they must have guessed that the old couple had left something behind for her.
That was probably why they had not reported her or had her taken away along with her parents.
They still wanted the inheritance!
After putting everything together, Lu Xinran decided it was time to take action.
She was not going to leave a single cent for this ungrateful family!
With that thought, she quickly changed her clothes.
She glanced at the time.
It was already eight o’clock at night.
That ungrateful family had undoubtedly hidden a considerable amount of money as well.
Lu Xinran quietly slipped out.
She knew from the original novel about the illegal things Lu Xinglong’s family had done. As long as she documented their crimes clearly, the Red Guards would investigate and uncover them without much difficulty.
She knew that they had recently been busy transferring their assets and pulling strings with various people outside. They basically left early and returned late every day.
The money and other assets they had hidden were still at home and had not yet been moved out.
Lu Manling was not home either.
She had plenty of useless rich-kid friends in Shanghai and went out to have fun every day. Perhaps because she was about to leave, she wanted to show off to her friends one last time.
Right now, Lu Xinran was nothing more than a weak and helpless little rabbit in their eyes. They did not take her seriously at all.
They thought she was completely harmless and would never be on guard against her.
Meanwhile, in Lu Xinglong’s room—
Zhao Cuilü was folding clothes.
She had already been gradually packing their belongings over the past few days.
“Honey, do you really think the old man didn’t secretly leave them any inheritance?” she asked thoughtfully.
She had asked Lu Guozheng about it before, and he had said no.
“How could there be nothing? That’s his own biological son! He always claimed that he treated me no differently from his own son. Hmph. Don’t think I don’t know that old bastard has always been wary of me!” Lu Xinglong’s expression was cold and sinister.
“But we’ve asked so many times. We even threatened that girl, and they still insisted there was nothing. She’s their only precious daughter. Surely they wouldn’t be that heartless, would they?” Zhao Cuilü was suspicious.
How terrible had Lu Guozheng and Jiang Qiuhua’s situation been at the time?
Both of them were highly educated intellectuals. How could they not know what was coming?
Their chances of surviving were obviously slim.
Yet even under those circumstances, Lu Guozheng still refused to admit that the old man had left them any assets.
Could it be that he really considered that money more important than his beloved daughter?
“Hmph. I’ll go and pressure them again tomorrow. I’ve already gotten rid of all the old man’s people. I refuse to believe I won’t be able to find it!” Lu Xinglong said confidently, clearly determined to get his hands on it.
“You take Manling and finish the remaining paperwork. I’ve already made arrangements with some people. They’ll help us get everything done. Once that’s settled, we can leave directly,” he reminded her.
They would soon be leaving Shanghai and heading to Xiangshi. There was a great deal of paperwork to take care of, and they had been extremely busy these past few days.
“I know. Don’t worry.”
“But that girl is alone at home. Do you think she might cause trouble?” Zhao Cuilü casually mentioned.
Hearing this, Lu Xinglong snorted dismissively.
“She’s just a weak little girl who couldn’t hurt a fly. She lived overseas among foreigners her whole life and has only been back for a month. She doesn’t even know anyone here. What kind of trouble could she possibly cause?”
“If she didn’t have to take Manling’s place and marry that military officer, with looks like hers, I could have gotten a pretty good price for her.”
His expression turned somewhat lecherous.
Zhao Cuilü immediately smacked his arm and scolded him playfully.
“You can’t mess around with that. He’s a military officer, and his family isn’t someone we can afford to offend. There’s no need to provoke them. That would just be asking for trouble!”
“I was just saying. I’m too busy right now to bother with her.”
Early the next morning, the family of three left the house.
The servants had already been dismissed and sent back to their own homes.
Lu Xinran woke up early.
After confirming that there was no one else in the house, she went straight to the basement.
That was where Lu Xinglong stored the family assets he had collected.
Perhaps the entire family thought she was useless and incapable of causing any trouble.
The basement door was locked.
Lu Xinran retrieved some lock-picking tools from her space.
After two swings of an axe, the lock snapped open.
She had already drunk some spiritual spring water, and she now felt incredibly strong.
Lu Xinran tossed the broken lock aside and pushed open the door.
Inside were several large black boxes.
She counted them.
There were ten boxes in total.
So they had sold off her grandparents’ assets and converted everything into cash.
Who knew how long they had been plotting this?
Holding the axe, she smashed every lock one after another.
Lu Xinran broke open all the locks on the boxes.
Then she opened them one by one.
The moment she saw what was inside, Lu Xinran’s eyes widened in shock.