Bright red drops of blood slowly dripped from Yan Sisi’s fingertip as she squeezed it. The moment the blood touched the wooden bracelet, a faint green light flashed, and the red droplet instantly disappeared.
Was the space about to open?
Yan Sisi waited for a while, but when the bracelet showed no special reaction, the excitement she had felt moments ago vanished immediately. Could it be that this bracelet could only be activated by the female lead?
The thought made her heart tighten uncontrollably. She simply could not accept the possibility that she might not be able to open the space. Unwilling to give up, she widened the wound and continued dripping more blood onto the bracelet.
A long time passed, so long that Yan Sisi had no idea how much blood she had already dripped. Suddenly, her vision went black, and the next moment she appeared in a completely unfamiliar place.
Yan Sisi looked at everything before her with excitement. She didn’t expect that she had truly opened the space. If that was the case, then perhaps the events from her dream could also be changed.
Suppressing the excitement in her heart, Yan Sisi walked toward the ancient tree that had immediately drawn all her attention. Half of the tree was withered while the other half was lush and green. The most eye-catching part was a green fruit hanging at the very top of the tree. It was shaped like a gourd, with the bottom part gray in color. She couldn’t tell whether it had withered from lack of nourishment or if that was its original color.
Yan Sisi turned her head to look at the milky-white well not far away, then glanced at the dried ancient tree beside her. She returned to the kitchen, took a gourd ladle, and went back to the well, drawing five full scoops of water to pour onto the ancient tree.
When she raised her head to look at the tree, it seemed as if it swayed slightly. Yan Sisi rubbed her eyes and looked again, but the tree remained completely still. She must have seen it wrong just now.
Only after watering it did she take the time to observe her surroundings carefully. The space was roughly the size of two rooms. The otherwise empty area contained only the well she had drawn water from and the ancient tree in the middle. The ground was covered with black, fertile soil without even a single blade of grass. At the edges of the space drifted a faint white mist, making it impossible to see what lay beyond.
Curious, Yan Sisi walked toward it. Before she could even reach the mist, she felt an invisible barrier blocking her. When she patted it with her hand, it felt as though she were hitting cold glass.
Since she couldn’t get through, she could only turn back to continue studying the well, wondering whether the water inside had other uses.
When Yan Sisi leaned over to look into the well, her hand instinctively rested on its rim. A cold chill instantly spread through her entire body. Three characters appeared on the jade stone along the edge of the well. Although she couldn’t read them, their meaning surfaced directly in her mind: the well was called the Spirit Spring Well. The water inside could accelerate the growth of plants and animals, and it could also heal injuries and neutralize poison.
Yan Sisi stood up in astonishment. The water could speed up growth and even heal wounds and detoxify, could this be the space of an immortal? Otherwise, how could such miraculous water exist? In the book, the space her cousin opened was described only as a ten-square-meter storage space where objects could be kept, and people couldn’t enter it at all.
But the one she had opened contained an ancient tree and this magical Spirit Spring water. Could it be different depending on the person?
Since the well was extraordinary, then the ancient tree growing at the center must also be something special. Yan Sisi walked over and placed her hand on the tree. Instantly, a line of words appeared in her mind: Plants required.
There seemed to be seeds in the kitchen at home. As soon as the thought arose, Yan Sisi was back outside the space. She quickly ran to the kitchen, rummaged through the cabinet, took out the family’s corn seeds, and returned to the space.
But seeds alone wouldn’t be enough. If the ancient tree required plants, then the seeds must need to be planted. Just as Yan Sisi had the thought of planting them, she saw the seeds in her palm begin to sway slightly.
She stopped thinking about it, and the seeds immediately became motionless again in her hand.
What was going on?
She had only been thinking about planting the seeds just now, so why had they started moving? As soon as that thought appeared, the seeds shook even more violently than before. Could it be that she could control them with her mind?
Yan Sisi cautiously imagined in her mind that the seeds would fly up. After trembling in her hand for a moment, the seeds rose neatly into the air. Then she imagined them being planted in the soil, and the floating seeds immediately shot into the dirt in unison, each one spaced about half a meter apart.
Excited, Yan Sisi touched her head. Could she really control them with her thoughts? This space was truly amazing!
After planting the seeds, she used her mind to draw water from the well and pour it over the seeds she had just planted. Then she watched them closely, wanting to see whether the Spirit Spring water could actually promote plant growth.
She waited for a while, but nothing happened.
Disappointed, Yan Sisi stood up. She didn’t dare drink the Spirit Spring water anymore either. Originally, she had planned to test the water’s healing effects on herself, but now it seemed like it might just be a lie.
The moment Yan Sisi left the space, she felt slightly dizzy. Looking down, she saw black soil all over the floor, soil she had tracked in earlier. She hurriedly forced herself to stay upright while finding a broom and dustpan to sweep it up. In her mind she reminded herself that next time she left the space, she must clean her shoes first. Otherwise, if her mother noticed, she wouldn’t know how to explain it.
After cleaning everything, she climbed onto the bed despite her dizziness. The moment her head touched the cloth pillow, she fell asleep.
She slept through the night without dreaming. The next morning, Yan Sisi was awakened by the loud rumbling of her hungry stomach.
Still groggy, she walked out of her room, holding her stomach as she headed toward the kitchen. At a glance she saw her mother there. “Mom, you’re back?”
Seeing her daughter looking listless, Mother Yan quickly scooped a bowl of plain rice porridge and handed it to her. “Didn’t you heat up dinner last night? Here, go eat something. I also bought a few fried dough sticks for you, they’re on the table.”
Yan Sisi took the bowl and went back to the table. She set the steaming porridge down with a thump and picked up her chopsticks to stir it so it would cool faster, blowing on it from time to time. Before long, the scalding porridge had cooled considerably.
The warm porridge slid down her throat into her stomach, which had been empty all night. Heat immediately spread from her stomach through her whole body, and Yan Sisi suddenly felt much more awake.
She drank porridge while eating the fried dough sticks. The crispy youtiao paired with the soft, sticky porridge felt incredibly comforting. As she ate, she looked toward the kitchen. “Mom, how’s Dad?”
Mother Yan quickly finished her own breakfast in the kitchen and began packing food for Father Yan into an aluminum lunchbox. Afraid her daughter would worry, she spoke in a calm tone. “Much better. The doctor said if there’s no problem after a few more days of observation, he can come home.”
Hearing this, Yan Sisi let out a sigh of relief. Still, since she hadn’t seen him in person, she couldn’t help feeling uneasy. She quickly finished the last mouthful of porridge and said to her mother as she came out of the kitchen, “Mom, are you taking food to Dad? I want to go too.”
Mother Yan set the lunchbox on the table, ignored the daughter trailing beside her, and walked toward the bedroom she shared with her husband. She refused firmly, “Your injury hasn’t healed yet. Stay home and rest.”
Unwilling to give up, Yan Sisi followed behind. “Mom, I’m much better now. Just let me go!”
Standing at the doorway and clutching the doorframe, she watched her mother take out a biscuit tin from the cabinet and remove some money from it. In her memory, there used to be a lot of money in that box, why did it look like there was much less now? Had the family spent it all on treating her and her father?
Seeing that her mother put the money away and still ignored her, Yan Sisi rolled her eyes and pretended to be weak. “Mom… what if those people from yesterday come back again? I’m scared.”
Mother Yan had just put away the money box when she heard her daughter say that, and she did feel a little uneasy. If that family forced their way in, it really wouldn’t be safe for her daughter to stay home alone.
When Yan Sisi saw her mother pause for a moment, she immediately sensed an opportunity. She quickly turned around, grabbed the lunchbox from the table before her mother could react, and walked straight outside while asking, “Mom, which hospital is Dad in?”
Mother Yan hurried after her and locked the door behind them, calling out nervously, “Don’t walk so fast, be careful.”
After walking for about half an hour, Yan Sisi finally saw the hospital gate. In her dream, after she fell into the water, her mother had kept everything from her, and she only learned that her father was injured after he returned home. This time, she didn’t know why her mother hadn’t hidden it from her.
Looking at the familiar hospital in front of her, Yan Sisi also felt a hint of unfamiliarity. The gate was made of iron bars with rust on them. Above it hung four red characters reading “People’s Hospital (人民醫院).” Inside stood two-story tiled buildings. The doors were made of wood, and broken glass shards could still be seen embedded along the window frames on the outer walls.
Smelling the disinfectant in the air, Yan Sisi tightly grabbed her mother’s clothes and followed behind her through the bustling crowd. After climbing up to the second floor and winding around the corridor for a while, they finally stopped in front of a hospital ward.
Walking behind her mother, Yan Sisi saw her stop. “Mom, are we here?”
As she spoke, she leaned her head inside the room and immediately saw her father, Yan Aiguo, sitting on the innermost hospital bed chatting with the patient beside him. Looking at her smiling father, it felt as though she hadn’t seen him in a long time. She ran over like the wind and asked, “Dad, why is your head injured too?”
“Hey, daughter, why are you here?” The smile on Yan Aiguo’s face froze instantly. He looked at Mother Yan who had followed behind and complained, “Didn’t I tell you not to let her know? Her head is still injured.”
“Comrade Old Yan, something this serious happened to you and you still wanted to hide it from me.” Yan Sisi unhappily placed the lunchbox on the nearby table and looked straight at her father, whose head was also wrapped in bandages like hers.
Facing his daughter’s questioning, Father Yan chuckled awkwardly and stiffly changed the subject. Pointing to the patient beside him, he said, “Come, this is my daughter Sisi.”
“Daughter, call him Grandpa Gu.”
Knowing her father was trying to change the subject, Yan Sisi didn’t press further. She politely greeted the elderly man beside the bed. He had graying hair, looked energetic, and appeared to be only in his fifties. In a soft voice she said, “Hello, Grandpa Gu.”
“Oh, hello, Sisi.” Gu Shengrong, who had been pulled into the conversation to change the topic, looked at the well-behaved girl in front of him and praised her with a smile. “[1]“Xiao” (小) means “little” or “young” jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2004902_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2004902_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Xiao Yan, your daughter is very lovely.”
She even spoke gently and politely. He wondered if she already had someone she liked, later he might ask Comrade Xiao Yan about it.
“Of course. My daughter takes after me, how could she be anything but good?” Hearing someone praise his daughter, Father Yan raised his eyebrows proudly and replied with a compliment of his own. “Your grandson looks quite good too.”
Mother Yan opened the lunchbox and handed it to Father Yan, interrupting their mutual flattery. “Hurry up and eat. It won’t taste good once it gets cold.”
“Uncle Gu, have you eaten?”
“I have. My grandson brought me food early this morning. I’ll go out for a walk to digest it, you all talk.” After saying that, Gu Shengrong leaned on his cane and slowly walked out of the ward.
Seeing Grandpa Gu from the neighboring bed leave, Yan Sisi sat beside her father’s bed and watched him eat. In a soft voice she asked, “Dad, how did someone end up throwing a sack over you and beating you? Did you report it to the police?”
Father Yan took a sip of porridge and replied, “Yes, we reported it. The police already came to the hospital to ask about what happened.”
He had thought about it for a long time while in the hospital but still couldn’t figure out who he might have offended enough for someone to specifically ambush him like that.
“Dad, tell me exactly what happened that day. Maybe we can find some clues.” Yan Sisi frowned as she spoke. In her dream, she only knew that her father had been deliberately beaten and injured, and the culprit was never found in the end. This time, no matter what, she had to find the person who hurt her father.
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