After finishing the meal and feeding the little baby, Xia Wanyue picked up her firewood knife again and headed up the mountain.
In the following days, she often went into the mountains, always managing to hunt some prey to store in her space, while also training her body.
Time in the basement of the space was frozen—whatever went in stayed exactly the same until taken out.
So she didn’t worry about the prey spoiling inside.
She also took the time to make some jerky in the space, so she would have meat to eat on the road without drawing attention.
One day, Xia Wanyue almost ran into a group of masked men.
Luckily, she was quick and hid in the bear hunter’s cave she had discovered earlier. The entrance was well-hidden, covered by grass. From outside, no one would know there was a cave there.
She stayed inside until the group left, then hurried down the mountain.
For several days after that, she avoided the mountains, worried the men might still be around.
During this time, she didn’t interact much with the villagers. Rumors about her were spreading, and she didn’t want to listen to gossip.
Her family lived far from the village and rarely went into town anyway, so she ignored the other villagers—they were just busybodies.
Only Aunt Zhou and Aunt Zhang would exchange a few words with her, and occasionally she would send some of her game to them.
Every few days, Xia Wanyue went into town to stock up. Each time, she bought large amounts of food, indiscriminately buying whatever she could. Her basement became packed with all kinds of supplies.
If she saw anyone selling chickens, ducks, or geese, she would buy some and raise them in her space.
Any livestock she could find, she bought two of each.
Of the 700 taels of silver she had gotten from that person before, she had spent almost half.
She now had about 350 taels left, keeping 50 at home for emergencies.
The rest were stored in her space for when she settled down permanently.
She also kept some ginseng—it was a valuable life-saving item.
And so, a month and a half passed.
One day, Xia Wanyue was organizing items in her space. Once she finished, she stood up, clapped her hands, and prepared to leave—but suddenly, the space shook violently.
Xia Wanyue staggered and, before she could regain her balance, was thrown out of the space.
She was stunned for a moment, realizing she had been ejected.
“What’s going on?”
She muttered in her mind, trying to re-enter the space.
After a long while, she opened her eyes, still in the same place.
“Enter… enter… enter…”
She tried repeatedly, but it didn’t work. Xia Wanyue was dumbfounded.
“This is bad.”
All her supplies were in the space, and at home, she had only a small amount—about 100 jin of grain, totaling just over 400 jin with other food.
Now that she couldn’t access the space, she couldn’t retrieve anything.
The famine was coming, and with the space malfunctioning, what could she do?
That day, Xia Wanyue was restless, trying every hour to enter the space, but it was useless.
The next morning, after giving instructions to her children and tucking the remaining 50 taels of silver and ginseng into her clothes, she went to town again.
Time was critical. With the space inaccessible, she needed to buy more supplies in town and try to leave as soon as possible.
The village wells had already dried up, and the last bit of greenery on the mountains had turned yellow.
The sun was scorching, the earth cracked, and all the crops had withered.
People in both the village and the town were in a state of panic.
Xia Wanyue knew she couldn’t delay any longer.
With three children, she couldn’t leave with the main group and had to depart early.
Human hearts were unpredictable; she needed to get ahead before the number of refugees grew, putting distance between herself and the crowd.
After purchasing her supplies in town, Xia Wanyue returned home in the afternoon, driving a bullock cart. As she passed the village entrance, she caused a stir.
“Well, look at this! Lady Yue is getting rich—she even bought a bullock cart!”
As she entered the village, the older women quickly blocked the cart, crowding around Xia Wanyue and chattering incessantly.
She hadn’t been seen in the village much in the past month and a half, so people had already forgotten the incident when she had struck someone.
Seeing Xia Wanyue with a cart full of goods, they tried to take advantage.
“We’re all neighbors. Tell us, how did you get so wealthy?”
“Lady Yue, you moved out of the Li family. We helped you a lot. If the Li family hadn’t cared about us standing around, you’d have been beaten to death already.”
“Oh my, buying so much grain? Lady Yue, you’re the only adult in your family. How can you eat all this?”
“You see, our family is large, and every household is running out of food and water. Our family is nearly out of grain. Could you spare some for us? We’d be grateful.”
Sun Shuiniu stepped forward and tore open the bag of grain. Seeing the white rice inside, her eyes lit up, and she began stuffing it into her arms.
Slap!
As she grabbed a handful, Xia Wanyue struck her hand with the whip.
A red mark quickly appeared.
“Ah! What are you doing?”
Sun Shuiniu cried out, dropping the rice, and looked angrily at Xia Wanyue.
“Do you even realize what you’re doing? Give me back what’s in your arms.”
“And you all—better stay away from me.”
Xia Wanyue brandished her whip, pointing at the crowd.
“Be careful, this whip doesn’t have eyes.”
The crowd took a step back, startled. A few timid people remembered Xia Wanyue’s previous exploits and shrank behind the others, unwilling to get involved.
A few of the more brazen village women remained, including Sun Shuiniu.
“W-what? Look at my hand! You have so much grain, and I just took a little. We’re neighbors—we help each other. Should I just watch my family starve?”
“Besides, you hit me. Taking this small bit won’t even cover the medical expenses.”
“Return the goods from your cart and give me ten taels of silver, or this isn’t over.”
Xia Wanyue had never seen such shamelessness. She jumped off the cart and walked toward Sun Shuiniu casually, whip in hand.
Sun Shuiniu stepped back nervously, afraid Xia Wanyue would strike her again. The whip hurt terribly on contact.
Yet she was unwilling to retreat completely, still unwilling to give up the loot.