At 8:00 p.m., Tang Yuan dragged her exhausted body back to the design institute, driving one of the institute’s vehicles. All she had to do was park it in her designated parking space.
After turning off the engine, she couldn’t help letting out a long sigh. She had originally wanted to sit in the car for a while, but then thought better of it. She had been tired all day, and if she sat down, she probably wouldn’t want to get back up again. So she simply opened the door and got out.
“Hey, Xiao Tang, why are you so late today?” The security guard had heard the noise and came out to take a look. When he saw that it was someone he knew, he stopped to chat.
Tang Yuan sighed listlessly before answering, “Don’t even ask. The client wants the basement changed. The construction team downstairs says they can’t build it according to the client’s requirements. So I got to the construction site at nine this morning and spent the entire day going over the site with them. I also have to finish the revised drawings and hand them over within two days. I’m so exhausted I don’t even feel like eating.”
“Oh, did you have dinner? I bought some noodles at the supermarket during the day. If you want, go back, put some vegetables in them, and cook yourself a bowl.”
“No need, Uncle Zhang. There’s still food in the refrigerator in my car. I’ll just eat something when I get back. I still have to work overtime. I’ll try to finish the drawings as soon as possible!”
Tang Yuan thanked the security guard for his kindness, exchanged a few more words with him, and then turned around and left.
The parking lot wasn’t very large, and she could see the end at a glance. Tang Yuan walked past several parking spaces and headed straight toward the enormous black vehicle parked at the very back of the lot beside the pond.
It was a Mercedes-Benz Unimog motorhome, completely painted in charcoal black. At that moment, it sat quietly in its parking space like some enormous beast. It was extraordinarily large. Compared with the cars parked beside it, the difference was practically that between a grandfather and a grandson.
This was Tang Yuan’s vehicle.
It was also her home.
Tang Yuan was thirty-one years old that year. She was a designer at an architectural design institute. After graduating from graduate school, she had joined the institute. Several years had passed, and she had gone from being a newcomer to an experienced veteran of the workplace.
She lowered the folding steps, opened the door, and climbed inside. She skillfully switched on the lights, and in an instant, the entire interior lit up, revealing everything inside.
This was a modified motorhome. Immediately inside the door was a sink, and right beside it was a countertop. There was a small refrigerator beneath the counter. This was the kitchen area.
Behind it was a separated bathroom. Connected to the bathroom was a row of cabinets for storing clothes.
At the very back was a bed measuring 1.8 by 2 meters. Tang Yuan had spread her favorite four-piece bedding set over it. Although the motorhome wasn’t very large, it had everything she needed and had been arranged by Tang Yuan to feel exceptionally warm and cozy.
It was October, and autumn had already arrived. The daytime was still fairly comfortable, but the mornings and evenings had begun to turn chilly.
Tang Yuan had spent the entire day at the construction site, where there was dust everywhere. She felt grimy and disheveled, so she decided to take a shower first.
By the time she finished showering and came out, it was already 9:00 p.m. Her stomach was growling loudly with hunger. After an exhausting day, she really didn’t feel like cooking. She just wanted something ready-made to eat.
So she checked the space with her mind and directly took out a portion of potato-braised chicken that she had prepared earlier, along with a bowl of rice. She sat down at the table and began eating.
Yes, that’s right.
Tang Yuan had a space.
And speaking of this space, it was quite a long story.
Tang Yuan was born in the 1990s in a county under a coastal city in northern Jiangsu. As far back as she could remember, her parents were constantly arguing over trivial matters in their daily lives. When she was four years old, the two of them finally couldn’t go on living together and divorced.
At first, Tang Yuan stayed with her mother. But a year later, her mother remarried, and her stepfather’s family was unwilling to raise her. In the end, her mother had no choice but to send Tang Yuan back to her father.
Then, without even looking back, her mother went off to pursue her own happiness.
By then, Tang Yuan’s father had also remarried. Her stepmother was already pregnant, and when she was three months along, they had consulted someone they knew, who told them she was carrying a boy.
Because of Tang Yuan’s return, her stepmother and father had several heated arguments. Her father was afraid that something might happen to the baby in his stepmother’s belly, so he wanted to send Tang Yuan back to her mother.
And so, six-year-old Tang Yuan became like a ball being kicked back and forth.
Neither of her parents wanted her.
Her grandparents had died young, leaving Tang Yuan as a pitiful child whom nobody wanted. The villagers saw everything that happened. Everyone said the poor girl had a miserable fate, and they cursed her parents for being heartless enough to abandon their own biological child.
It was at this time that Tang Yuan’s paternal grandaunt, who lived in a neighboring household, could no longer bear to watch.
She brought Tang Yuan home and raised her.
Speaking of this grandaunt, she was a pitiful person herself. She had lost her husband at a young age. She had once become pregnant, but because she was overwhelmed with grief, she miscarried. She never remarried afterward, remaining a widow for the rest of her life and never having another child.
In her old age, she happened to encounter Tang Yuan, the little girl whom nobody wanted, and took her home to raise.
Since most of the people in the village shared the surname Tang and descended from the same ancestor, the villagers were willing to help the unfortunate grandmother and granddaughter whenever they could. Their life together was actually quite peaceful.
That continued until Tang Yuan’s second year of university, when something happened.
Her grandaunt took a fall and never got back on her feet. She lay in the hospital for two days before passing away.
At the time, Tang Yuan was only nineteen years old. She cried as though her heart were being torn apart. With the help of her uncles and other relatives, she was at least able to give her grandaunt a proper burial.
Then, two months after her grandaunt’s death, two major things happened.
The first was that Tang Yuan accidentally dropped and broke the jade pendant her grandaunt had left for her.
And then she discovered that there was a space hidden inside it.
At that moment, Tang Yuan didn’t even have time to feel heartbroken over the broken jade pendant. She hurriedly began exploring this legendary space.
In the end, she discovered that it was a storage space.
She couldn’t calculate its exact area, but she estimated that it was roughly the size of five or six football fields.
And time inside it was completely static.
Tang Yuan remembered that she had seen her grandaunt wearing the jade pendant around her neck ever since she was little. She had never once seen her take it off.
She had never expected it to contain such an incredible treasure.
Thinking about how her grandaunt had raised her all those years, Tang Yuan felt even more heartbroken. Before she had even had the chance to earn enough money to repay her grandaunt and let her enjoy a good life, the old woman had already passed away—yet she had left Tang Yuan such an extraordinary treasure.
But before Tang Yuan could grieve for more than a few days, she discovered something else.
A couple of days earlier, she had taken shelter from the rain in a lottery shop and casually bought a lottery ticket.
Unexpectedly, she had won the grand prize.
Thirty million yuan.
After paying personal income tax and donating one million yuan, she still had twenty-three million yuan left in her hands.
Tang Yuan hadn’t even been excited for two days before suddenly coming to her senses.
A mysterious space appearing out of nowhere, followed by winning a huge lottery jackpot…
No matter how she looked at it, something seemed wrong!
Tang Yuan had read plenty of novels.
Wasn’t this exactly the standard combination for a time-travel story?
Traveling to ancient times, the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s—or perhaps even the apocalypse…
Good heavens!
Every single one of those possibilities was terrifying enough.
Besides, she was just a girl who hadn’t even finished university at the time. If she really ended up in one of those worlds, would she even be able to survive?
So, was obtaining both a space and a huge lottery prize some kind of divine arrangement?
Tang Yuan thought about it for two days before finally figuring it out.
She had money.
She had a space.
So why not start stockpiling supplies!