While the entire Pei Residence was in chaos, Su Qingran, wearing an ordinary, forgettable face, was living the good life.
To Su Qingran, money was merely a worldly possession. Letting it sit around served no purpose. It was far better to turn it into food supplies.
So, on the very next day after obtaining her dowry, she began stockpiling provisions.
To avoid attracting suspicion, she bought grain and flour from different shops, choosing one store every few streets. Each time, she purchased only one shi at a time.
One shi was roughly 120 catties—about 60 kilograms (132 pounds) in modern measurements.
Buying from store to store like this wasn’t particularly noticeable.
Her shelter had six underground levels, but she was too lazy to move things downstairs for now, so everything was simply piled onto the first floor.
Looking at the rice and flour finally filling her space, Su Qingran’s little face flushed with excitement.
For many days, she stayed at the inn near the Pei Residence.
Every day she watched Pei family servants rushing in and out frantically, desperately searching for her.
Just watching them run around in circles made her feel anxious on Pei Xingzhou’s behalf.
Has that man still not realized his treasury has been emptied?
She had considered sneaking into the Pei Residence again through her space.
But security had obviously tightened recently, so she reluctantly gave up the idea.
“Waiter, the usual. Same dishes as yesterday,” Su Qingran called out while sitting in the inn’s dining hall.
“Right away!”
The waiter responded cheerfully.
After relaying the order to the kitchen, the innkeeper couldn’t help smiling as he asked:
“That guest again? Ordered a whole table of food?”
The waiter nodded happily.
“Yes.”
“He’s a wealthy customer. Make sure we treat him well and don’t neglect him.”
The innkeeper was all smiles.
After all, this guest had stayed only a few days and had already spent more than ten taels of silver at the inn.
Almost all of it had gone toward food.
“Bring it up to my room,” Su Qingran said when she noticed the dining hall becoming crowded.
“Of course, sir.”
Once the dishes were delivered, Su Qingran immediately tore off a drumstick from the fragrant roast chicken and started eating.
Naturally, she couldn’t finish an entire table of food by herself.
The leftovers weren’t wasted, though.
Everything went directly into her space.
Over the past several days, she had become a complete hoarding maniac, buying hundreds of steamed buns and mantou every day.
Life couldn’t have been more comfortable.
Eat, sleep, wake up, eat again.
And occasionally watch the daily drama unfolding at the Pei Residence.
It was wonderfully entertaining.
Unfortunately, good times never lasted forever.
Life had once again proven that people shouldn’t stick their noses into other people’s business.
One day, feeling bored, Su Qingran decided to visit the market and see if there was anything else she could plant in her spiritual farmland.
A week had passed.
The wheat seedlings she had planted earlier were growing exceptionally well and had even begun producing grain.
Just as she suspected—
There was no way the spiritual farmland couldn’t grow crops.
Now she had become much smarter.
She carried a basket everywhere she went.
Anything she bought went into the basket first, then was quietly transferred into her space.
With a cloth covering the basket, nobody noticed anything unusual.
After finishing her shopping, she was heading back toward the inn.
As she passed the entrance to the alley where she had killed those two men before, her footsteps paused unconsciously.
Come to think of it, after killing them, the authorities hadn’t investigated at all.
No one had searched for the murderer.
She had no idea that someone had cleaned up the aftermath for her.
Instead, she assumed the Great Ming Dynasty’s government had become completely ineffective.
The political situation was growing increasingly unstable.
Who knew when chaos might erupt?
She needed to stockpile even more food.
Having experienced the hopelessness of starvation during the apocalypse, nothing was more important to Su Qingran than food.
Just as she was thinking this—
Sounds of fighting suddenly erupted from inside the alley.
“Tsk.”
She shouldn’t have stopped.
Su Qingran had absolutely no intention of meddling.
She immediately turned to walk around the alley.
Unexpectedly, one of the black-clad men being chased suddenly appeared before her and grabbed her arm.
Then he started running while dragging her along.
What the hell?
Why are you dragging me?
Do we even know each other?
For the first time in her life, Su Qingran experienced ancient martial arts lightness skills.
Honestly, it felt even more useful than her space.
In the blink of an eye, the masked man had carried her beneath the shade of a tree far away.
Su Qingran was already preparing to pull a handgun from her space.
The man’s martial arts were clearly far beyond her abilities.
Modern weapons would be the safest solution.
But before she could act—
The man suddenly collapsed toward her.
Blood poured from his mouth.
“How unlucky. If you’re going to die, then die. Why spit blood all over me?”
Su Qingran looked disgusted.
Seriously, what had she done to deserve this?
This was exactly why people shouldn’t be idle.
Why had she paused at that alley entrance?
“Save… save me…”
After uttering those words, the masked man lost consciousness completely.
No matter how much she called out to him, he wouldn’t wake up.
Su Qingran stared at him with obvious displeasure.
Then she heard voices approaching.
“They should be nearby. Search!”
There was no time to think.
She immediately dragged the unconscious man into her space.
It was obvious he was being hunted by government soldiers.
Su Qingran had no desire whatsoever to become entangled in whatever trouble he had brought with him.
The two of them appeared beside the spiritual spring.
Looking at the huge burden she had just rescued, Su Qingran sighed.
“If you’ve got something valuable enough to buy your life, I’ll save you.”
“Otherwise, I’ll dump you somewhere in the wilderness.”
As she spoke, she began searching his body.
Soon, her fingers touched something solid.
“Hm?”
Gold.
It appeared to be some kind of gold token.
She couldn’t recognize what it represented, but gold was gold.
And gold meant money.
“Well, lucky for you. I found something valuable.”
“I, Su Qingran, keep my promises. This piece of gold is worth one life.”
Muttering to herself, she filled a cup with spiritual spring water and prepared to feed it to him.
Looking at the mask covering his face, she clicked her tongue.
She had almost forgotten about it.
Without thinking much about it, she pulled off the man’s mask.
The moment she saw his face, her eyes widened in shock.
She knew this man.
Not only she knew him.
Probably very few people in the Great Ming Dynasty didn’t.
He was Xie Yun—the legendary God of War.
The general who had won multiple wars against neighboring kingdoms and earned unparalleled military achievements.
Xie Yun always wore a mask on the battlefield.
The reason was simple:
Despite being the empire’s greatest general, he possessed a face so stunningly beautiful that many claimed it surpassed that of women.
Looking at him now, Su Qingran felt the rumors were somewhat exaggerated.
His features were indeed strikingly beautiful and almost demonic in their perfection.
But calling him feminine?
She disagreed.
The sharpness and authority in his eyes made it obvious that he was a man.
She recognized him because he had once visited her grandfather, and they had met briefly.
The original owner of the body had never liked excessively handsome men, so she had never bothered learning much about him.
But…
How could the Great Ming Dynasty’s illustrious Grand General—
The nation’s celebrated God of War—
Be hunted down by government soldiers?