Looking through all the different kinds of novels she had read, which magical artifact didn’t have the function of recognizing its master through blood?
If what she had gotten her hands on had been a bracelet or a jade pendant, she would have pricked her finger and pressed the blood onto it long ago.
The needle at home was quite fine. With a light prick, a large bead of blood welled up. Not daring to waste it, Ren Chaomei immediately pressed her fingertip against the pouch.
Once.
Nothing happened.
“Eh?”
Ren Chaomei gritted her teeth, squeezed out more blood, and tried to press it onto the pouch a second time.
But this time, her finger pressed against empty air.
“Huh?”
“It disappeared! Did it recognize me as its master?!”
For some reason, although Ren Chaomei was startled, she also felt that this was perfectly normal.
She reached out and felt around in the air. Then she closed her eyes and carefully sensed what was there.
Sure enough, she could sense a mysterious space.
Inside were more than a hundred compartments of various sizes. Half of them were empty, while the other half were packed with things.
There was gold, silver, grain, cloth, swords, and many books. After probing through them, Ren Chaomei discovered that all the books were the Four Books and Five Classics once used for the imperial examinations.
It was obvious that the family’s ancestors had deliberately left these things behind as capital for their descendants to rise again.
Unfortunately, the imperial examinations no longer existed, and even the college entrance examinations of the future wouldn’t test any of this.
Ren Chaomei was about to skip the books and take a good look at the gold and silver when she spotted a letter buried among the stacks.
To the younger generation who reads this letter:
I am Zhou Zhiyuan of the Zhou family. This item is called the Treasure Pouch and has been the Zhou family’s heirloom for generations. Only one with strong spiritual energy can activate it. Everything inside the pouch is yours to command. Do not be anxious…
Sure enough, this had been left behind by the Zhou family’s ancestor.
The pouch had originally been stored in the Zhou family ancestral hall.
The Zhou family ancestor had not only left behind treasures, but had also carefully explained how the pouch worked.
The brightest compartment in the space could improve the quality of gold, silver, jade, and precious medicinal herbs. The more valuable the item, the longer it would take.
To speed up the process, other pieces of jade could be fed into it. Those jade pieces didn’t have to be placed inside the compartment—they could simply be piled on the ground.
There was another important piece of information: once the pouch had a master, it could not be dropped or discovered by someone else.
When it was ownerless, even if it was damaged or burned to ashes, the pouch would eventually restore itself after enough time had passed.
These were the experiences accumulated by generations of the Zhou family.
“Even though my surname isn’t Zhou, we used to live in the same village, and the families have intermarried over the years. I have some of their bloodline in me, so this family heirloom is perfectly suited to me.”
She took out the letter, struck a match, and burned it.
From now on, this treasure would be the heirloom of Ren Chaomei.
It had nothing to do with the Zhou family anymore.
Ren Chaomei blew gently on the wound left by the needle and happily lay down on the bed, closing her eyes as she wandered through the space in her mind.
“So shiny~ Why is this gold so shiny~ With this much money, will I even be able to spend it all in this lifetime?”
“The Four Books and Five Classics? Forget it. I don’t need to read those. I don’t want to become some ancient-style scholar.”
“Haha~ There’s so much grain too. I won’t have to fill myself up with watery rice porridge anymore.”
“So thoughtful. The ancestors really were thoughtful.”
Perhaps the Chinese people’s education in enduring hardship was simply too strong, or perhaps human beings naturally had an incredible tolerance for suffering.
Even though her standard of living had plummeted, Ren Chaomei had adapted surprisingly well.
She hadn’t eaten her fill at either lunch or dinner. Every piece of clothing in the wardrobe had patches on it. After fighting with the Wang family yesterday, several parts of her body were bruised and still hurt a little…
Logically speaking, as a modern girl who had been spoiled growing up, she should have found this kind of hardship unbearable.
But Ren Chaomei knew she couldn’t change the situation, so she calmly accepted the reality of not having enough to eat or wear.
She even remained full of energy as she went about being a thorn in the side of the Ren family.
When her stomach had growled with hunger that afternoon, she had silently encouraged herself, telling herself that these hardships were nothing. Going hungry and lacking warm clothes were only temporary. Soon, she would make a fortune and live a good life…
She never expected that dream to come true so quickly.
As expected, sometimes you really had to fight and grab what you wanted.
Wasn’t this good life something she had snatched for herself?
Lying on the bed, Ren Chaomei felt as though she were floating on air. Her eyes were closed, but the smile on her face was exceptionally radiant.
Just as she was about to drift happily into sleep, she suddenly heard Ren Ganying’s panicked scream.
“Ah!”
The scream startled Ren Chaomei back to reality. She sat upright on the bed.
“What are you doing?! You scared me!”
“Where’s my stuff? How did my things disappear? I remember putting them in the box.”
Ren Ganying stared at the empty little box, her face filled with panic.
She searched around the box again and again. Finally, she pointed at Ren Chaomei.
“Was it you?! Did you take it?!”
Ren Chaomei raised an eyebrow.
She had noticed so quickly that it was gone?
But thinking about it, that made sense. With a treasure like this, even if she couldn’t carry it around with her, she would still need to look at it every day to feel reassured.
Just like the five hundred yuan the original Ren Chaomei had lost as a child—she had needed to touch it every day to feel at ease.
Ren Chaomei didn’t want anyone to know that she had a treasure in her possession, but she didn’t deny it either.
Denying it at this point would be completely out of character for her prickly personality and would only make Ren Ganying more suspicious.
“Yes, yes, yes. Anything you lose was taken by me.”
After her sarcastic response, Ren Chaomei mocked her again.
“Crazy. Acting like you’re some rich lady.”
Being needled by Ren Chaomei brought Ren Ganying back to her senses.
Her pouch was gray and dusty, completely inconspicuous. It certainly didn’t look like anything valuable.
She had hidden it in the room for so many years without anything happening, which clearly meant Ren Chaomei didn’t recognize its value.
Ren Ganying took a deep breath and softened her tone.
“That… there was a pouch in my box. It was gray, about half this size. Did you see it?”
Did she see it?
Ren Chaomei closed both eyes and pretended to be blind.
“Did you see it?! Are you deaf?”
Ren Chaomei covered her ears and pretended to be deaf.