It was still early in the morning, right around the start of the workday. Bicycles streamed down the streets, their bells ringing one after another.
Shen Niao boarded a bus bound for Hongxing Department Store, the largest shopping center in Beijing.
With 3,000 yuan in cash and 1,000 yuan worth of ration coupons tucked into her pocket, she entered the store and immediately began shopping.
Matches, candles, soap, face cream, toothpaste, toothbrushes…
Fabric, cloth shoes, rubber shoes, cotton, towels…
Flashlights, batteries, radios, sewing machines, watches, thermoses, enamel basins, enamel mugs…
Anything she thought she might possibly need, she bought.
Next came seasonings.
Bulk soy sauce, vinegar, baijiu, sesame paste, soybean paste…
She bought five ten-jin containers of each and quietly stored them inside her dimensional space.
Then came salt, sugar, cooking oil, fruit preserves, malted milk, and various other pantry staples.
To her surprise, she even found dozens of cans of braised pork.
Perhaps Beijing’s supplies weren’t especially scarce, and because the canned meat was expensive, few people were buying it.
Shen Niao promptly bought every single can.
Not one was left behind.
While transferring everything into the space, she deliberately checked on the steamed bun she had stored earlier.
It was still warm.
That meant the space had a preservation function.
Not only could she stockpile rice, flour, grain, cooking oil, and meat, but she could even buy prepared meals from state-owned restaurants and keep them fresh indefinitely.
To avoid attracting suspicion by purchasing too much from a single place, she visited several more stores, gradually filling one corner of the space until it was packed.
After leaving the department store, Shen Niao headed for Beijing’s largest suburban farmers’ market.
Most of the vendors there were local farmers selling produce from their own fields.
Ration coupons generally weren’t required, but prices were higher.
Money was incredibly valuable these days.
Even after buying all those goods at the department store, she had only spent a little over 600 yuan and just over 200 ration coupons.
The moment she entered the market, she began buying.
Rice.
Millet.
Mung beans.
Red beans.
Black beans.
Soybeans.
Potatoes.
As long as it was edible grain, she bought it.
She also bought out every stall selling chickens and ducks.
When people asked why she was purchasing so much, she simply smiled.
“My family is celebrating a happy occasion.”
She then contacted a nearby village that raised pigs and cattle, ordering two pigs and one cow.
Since Beijing was relatively close to Inner Mongolia, some merchants from there were also selling sheep.
She bought another four sheep.
She requested that all the meat be butchered, cut into portions, and delivered to a location she specified.
Only after the workers had left did she quietly store everything inside her space.
The supplies she had accumulated were enough to sustain one person for two or three years.
Although Yacheng had limited supplies, it wasn’t completely cut off from the outside world.
Since she intended to live there, she couldn’t rely entirely on her dimensional space.
The supplies she stored now were merely insurance—for times when something truly couldn’t be purchased.
They weren’t meant to replace normal daily life altogether.
By the time she finished stockpiling, most of the day had already passed.
Shen Niao boarded another bus, finished the last steamed bun along the way, and eventually arrived in a neighborhood lined with elegant Western-style villas.
The original owner’s home was located here.
After her parents passed away, her uncle’s family had moved in under the pretense of taking care of her.
Her uncle and aunt occupied her parents’ bedroom.
Her cousin took over her room.
Shen Su moved into the guest bedroom.
As for the original Shen Niao…
She had been relegated to the maid’s room downstairs.
In just two years, her uncle had risen from an ordinary clerk to a section chief.
Her aunt had gone from working in a briquette factory to becoming the head of the logistics department.
Her previously unemployed cousin had secured a coveted purchasing job at a state-owned department store.
Even Shen Su had advanced from a neighborhood clinic to the Third Municipal Hospital.
At the same time…
Every antique, jade ornament, and collectible that had once filled the display shelves and study had mysteriously disappeared.
Since everyone else was still at work, Shen Niao entered the original owner’s room.
It was cramped and depressing.
There was only a single bed, a desk, and a suitcase containing a few changes of clothes.
Before her parents died, the original owner had lived a happy life.
She had loving parents, plenty of spending money, and never lacked for anything.
Unfortunately…
That life had ended two years ago.
Fortunately, she had been in her first year of high school at the time and had excellent grades.
Her uncle had worried that forcing her to quit school immediately would invite criticism, so he allowed her to finish high school.
However, on the day of the college entrance examination, she suddenly came down with severe diarrhea and was unable to complete the test.
Books were piled all over and beneath the desk.
On top sat a Little Red Book and several Chairman Mao badges.
Reading the Little Red Book and wearing Chairman Mao badges had become fashionable during that era, and as someone who had graduated only the previous year, the original owner was no exception.
Shen Niao stored all the books and the suitcase inside her space.
Then she walked into her uncle’s bedroom.
Reaching into the wardrobe, she felt around until she pulled out a hidden box perfectly concealed within the woodwork.
The original owner’s maternal grandparents had once been famous wealthy merchants in Shanghai.
During the War of Resistance, they had donated most of their fortune to the country.
The remaining portion had been transferred overseas when Shen Niao’s mother left to study abroad.
The original owner had indeed been innocent and kind.
But she wasn’t foolish.
Her uncle’s family had tried countless times to pry information from her.
She had never revealed a single word.
Opening the hidden box, Shen Niao found more than twenty small gold bars, along with a thick stack of property deeds and various certificates.
According to the original owner’s mother, when she studied overseas, no fewer than thirty large trunks had accompanied her.
The novel also mentioned that before Shen Niao and Wu Chengzu’s family were sent into exile, she secretly hid several gold bars inside the soles of her shoes.
Those few bars had ensured their years in Beidahuang weren’t unbearably miserable.
After China’s economic reforms, Shen Niao and Wu Chengzu traveled abroad.
Using those certificates, they reclaimed several estates.
They also retrieved the trunks stored in an international bank.
Five entire trunks were filled with small gold bars.
The remaining twenty-plus trunks contained priceless jewelry, rare antiques, famous paintings, and ancient manuscripts.
Shen Su believed Wu Chengzu had become the richest man purely through his business talents.
But becoming the richest man wasn’t that simple.
Without the startup capital Shen Niao provided…
And without all those priceless antiques helping him build connections…
It never would have happened.
After putting away the gold bars and certificates, Shen Niao returned the empty box to its hiding place.
Just as she was closing the wardrobe…
A piece of clothing accidentally fell.
Beneath it sat a black lacquered wooden box.
Shen Niao recognized it immediately.
It was the cash box her parents had once used.
Every month, after receiving their salaries, they would casually place the money inside this very box and leave it by the bedroom door.
Whenever Shen Niao needed spending money, she could simply help herself.
After her uncle’s family moved in…
The box had mysteriously disappeared.
Opening it now, she found exactly what she expected.
Several thick bundles of cash and ration coupons.
A rough estimate put the total at no less than 5,000 yuan.
Digging deeper, Shen Niao narrowed her eyes.
There were also receipts documenting the antiques her uncle had used as gifts to curry favor with influential people.
Apparently afraid he might forget, her uncle had carefully recorded everything on a sheet of paper.
Every recipient.
Every gift.
Every detail.
Holding the list, Shen Niao chuckled softly.
She had to admit…
The entire family was astonishingly stupid.
Without the slightest hesitation, she stored the entire box inside her dimensional space.
Just as she was about to leave, she inexplicably paused and looked around the house.
Memories of the original owner’s childhood surfaced one after another.
There had once been a grand piano in the living room.
Her mother used to play it often.
Her father would sit nearby with a cup of tea, quietly listening.
Beside the sofa had stood a gramophone.
In the evenings, her parents would play music and dance together across the room.
The original owner desperately didn’t want her uncle’s family continuing to live in this house.
Shen Niao understood that lingering wish with absolute clarity.
Even though the original owner’s soul had already disappeared.
But…
How could she drive them out?
She possessed the evidence showing her uncle had bribed officials with the family’s antiques.
Unfortunately, the nationwide political purge hadn’t begun yet.
Even if she handed the evidence over now, it would most likely be suppressed.
It wouldn’t achieve its greatest effect.
The original owner’s only wish was simple.
Drive her uncle’s family out of this house as soon as possible.
Shen Niao tried to soothe the body’s lingering resistance.
But the original owner’s remaining will was astonishingly strong.
Just as her thoughts were locked in an internal tug-of-war—
Ring… Ring…
The bicycle bell outside the front gate rang.
“Is Shen Su home? There’s a letter here from Yacheng.”
Shen Niao’s eyes lit up.
Yacheng…
Wasn’t that exactly where Wu Qingchuan was stationed?