All night long, Lin Mei remained caught between excitement and anxiety. Even now, she still couldn’t figure out where the space had come from—or when it had appeared.
The only thing different from usual during this period was getting scraped by that electric scooter yesterday and skinning her palm. She gently rubbed the injured hand, which was still red. From all the novels she had read, she had summarized one common rule: spaces usually appeared after blood dripped onto some kind of medium or artifact.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, her eyes lit up. She abruptly raised her left hand and stared fixedly at the ring on her ring finger.
The silver ring looked ordinary. Around the band was a carved vine pattern, though years of wear had nearly rubbed the design away completely. She brought it close and sniffed lightly. There still seemed to be a faint trace of the bloody smell from yesterday’s injury lingering on it.
The blood really had gotten onto the ring yesterday.
Which meant… this ring was the carrier of the space.
She slowly turned the ring with her fingers, her mood growing heavy.
This ring had belonged to her grandmother, who wore it constantly before she passed away. Because she missed her grandmother so deeply, Lin Mei had kept the ring and started wearing it herself, as though it allowed her grandmother to remain by her side.
Lin Mei didn’t know whether it was her grandmother protecting her from the afterlife. Maybe it really was like the novels said—that the apocalypse was approaching, and she had been given a life-saving cheat ability to help her survive the coming world.
She took the frozen dumplings out of the space and discovered that they looked exactly the same as when she had first taken them from the freezer—still frozen solid without the slightest sign of thawing.
That meant the space preserved freshness.
And if it could preserve freshness, then that was incredible.
Lin Mei vigorously rubbed her face several times to make herself look more energetic before washing up and getting ready. Today, she planned to go to the company and ask her manager for annual leave. Ever since her grandmother passed away, she had never taken a vacation, nor used any of her annual leave days. This time, she intended to take an entire month off.
She planned to arrive early, write her leave request, and hand over her work responsibilities. As for the reason for leave… she would simply say her deceased father was critically ill. No one at the company would know whether it was true or not anyway.
The first thing Lin Mei did after arriving at work was fill out the leave request form. Seeing that the manager had already entered his office, she quickly grabbed the form and knocked on the door.
Because she hadn’t slept all night, her dark circles were severe. Her eyes looked dull, and her complexion was waxy and pale. The manager was startled the moment he saw her.
“What happened to you? Are you sick? Why do you look like this?”
Lin Mei lowered her voice, making it sound hoarse and sorrowful.
“My dad is seriously ill. I need to return to my hometown and bring him out for treatment. Manager, I’d like to take a month of annual leave. I haven’t used any leave these past few years. My family really needs me right now… I was wondering if it’s possible.”
The manager thought for a moment before replying, “Company policy says annual leave can only be taken for fifteen days at a time. But your situation is special, and you’ve been with the company for years. I’ll approve it on my side, though it still needs the boss’s signature. I’ll take it to him and explain your situation. Your work performance has always been excellent, so I believe he’ll agree as well.
“Also, take care of yourself. You look completely drained. Today, hand over the important tasks to Zhang Chengcheng and let her handle things this month. Starting tomorrow, you can begin your leave.”
“Thank you, Manager. Thank you so much,” Lin Mei said gratefully.
She had worked under this manager for almost three years. Although he was strict when it came to work, he was genuinely a good person. She was especially grateful that he was willing to help her speak to the boss. Otherwise, she would have worried the leave request might not get approved. Besides, the boss was rarely ever around—like a dragon that only showed its head but never its tail. Who knew how long it would take to even find him for a signature?
After leaving the manager’s office, Lin Mei went to find Zhang Chengcheng. She explained that she was taking annual leave and briefly mentioned that her father was seriously ill, so she needed a month off. She also asked Zhang Chengcheng to help handle her work during that period.
Zhang Chengcheng, true to form, immediately agreed without the slightest hesitation. She was one of Lin Mei’s very few friends. Even after work, the two would occasionally chat on WeChat.
Lin Mei herself was rather solitary. The moment work ended, she usually went straight home and never joined coworkers for dinners or karaoke. Zhang Chengcheng, on the other hand, was lively, cheerful, and extremely talkative—the kind of person who could chat with anyone. They had joined the company in the same year and had always gotten along well.
Sometimes Zhang Chengcheng especially loved sharing little pieces of office gossip with Lin Mei, simply because Lin Mei was good at keeping secrets. So even though Lin Mei kept mostly to herself, she still knew about most happenings in the company.
The day passed quickly amid the work handover between the two of them.
Lin Mei decided that starting today, she would stop delivering food orders for the time being.
The next thing she needed to do was return to her hometown.
Yes. Back to her hometown.