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Just then, Zhao Shiyu happened to catch sight of Zhao Shiying sitting at the stone table in the courtyard, looking utterly dazed and dispirited.
She couldn’t help grinning.
So the book-transmigrator had taken a hit?
And judging by that expression, it wasn’t a light one either.
That’s all it took to break her?
This was only the beginning.
Putting aside the fact that Zhao Shiying would definitely try to steal her future opportunities—and that Zhao Shiyu had no intention of allowing it—there was no way the two of them could ever truly coexist peacefully after everything that had happened.
If merely missing out on her first opportunity had shattered her like this, then there would be plenty more chances for her to break down in the future.
Returning to her bed, Zhao Shiyu focused her thoughts and attempted to enter the space.
And sure enough—
She really got in.
Very satisfying.
That meant if she ever encountered danger—or got caught doing something shady—she could simply hide inside.
Although there wasn’t much usable land at the moment, one glance at that rich black soil was enough to tell her how fertile it was.
She’d have to find some way to get farming tools and plant things inside.
As for staple crops like grain?
She wasn’t interested.
Even if she managed to grow them, this was ancient times.
Without agricultural machinery, harvesting, threshing, husking, and grinding all required an enormous amount of labor.
And with only this much space, the yield wouldn’t be significant anyway.
Most importantly—
She simply couldn’t endure the hardship of actual farming.
Not unless she was forced into it with no other choice.
Vegetables, though…
Those were worth considering.
Or perhaps some rare medicinal herbs.
Or maybe even a fruit tree.
And since her physical body could enter the space, she’d definitely need to build herself a little wooden cabin in there.
Basic furniture too.
A bed.
A table.
Even if she was the only person there, she still wanted a private little room where she could properly rest.
Still, the place was only a hundred square meters.
And right now it was nothing but wild grass and flowers.
There wasn’t really much to look at.
After taking a quick lap around the space, Zhao Shiyu exited.
After some thought, she dragged a wooden chest out from beneath her bed.
Opening it, she took out a small wooden box about the size of two palms.
Inside was the original owner’s carefully saved spending money.
She added the one qian of silver she had just obtained from Zhao Shiying.
Then she counted it.
Three qian of silver.
Plus one hundred and twelve copper coins.
This had all been painstakingly saved little by little from New Year’s money and pocket money over the years.
It might not seem like much, but for an eight-year-old girl, it was already a small fortune.
Of course, that was only because their family was considered a farming-and-scholar household and lived relatively comfortably.
If she’d been born into an ordinary peasant family, an eight-year-old having even eight or ten copper coins would already count as rich.
She stored the small wooden box inside the space.
Then, after another moment’s thought, she grabbed a clean change of clothes and stored that as well.
If she ever got dirty while doing questionable things outside, returning home in filthy clothes would make it far too easy to get caught.
At times like that, she could simply change into the spare outfit inside the space.
Sure, the color wouldn’t match what she’d originally been wearing, but that was still better than walking around covered in dirt.
As for shoes—
She’d need to buy another pair next time she had the chance to visit town.
At the moment, she only owned two pairs, both stored beneath her bed.
Too conspicuous.
Unfortunately, she had no idea what the future plot held.
She had no clue where her next opportunity would appear.
Still—
As the female lead, there was no way she’d only get this one chance.
Lying sprawled across the wooden bed with one leg lazily propped over the other, Zhao Shiyu let her imagination run wild for quite a while.
Only after finally organizing her thoughts did she straighten her clothes and step out of the room.
Zhao Shiying, who had been sitting in the courtyard earlier, was nowhere to be seen.
No idea where she’d gone.
Since she had nothing better to do, Zhao Shiyu grabbed a basket and shovel, then sauntered out of the house and headed straight back toward the small hillside where she had found the Space Stone.
Who cared where the next opportunity would appear—or when?
She was planning to try her luck.
Even if she couldn’t find a major opportunity, surely there’d be smaller ones, right?
Like catching a wild chicken.
Or a rabbit.
Finding a few pheasant eggs would work too.
Or maybe discovering some medicinal herbs she recognized and transplanting them into her space.
Right now, that place was completely empty.
It felt wasteful to leave it occupied by nothing but weeds and flowers.
Even if it was only one hundred square meters, she couldn’t just let it sit idle.
Unfortunately, this stretch of hillside was clearly frequented by too many people.
Aside from wild vegetables, trees, tangled shrubs, and random weeds, there was nothing particularly valuable to be found.
She did spot a few common medicinal herbs.
But they were as abundant as wild vegetables, growing all over the slope.
Not remotely worth transplanting.
As for wild chickens, rabbits, or pheasant eggs—
Not even a shadow of one appeared.
Since it was getting late and lunchtime was approaching, she didn’t dare wander too far.
After hastily yanking up a few handfuls of wild vegetables, she hurried home.
At present, there wasn’t a single edible thing inside her space.
Missing lunch at home meant going hungry all afternoon.
The Zhao family was relatively well-off, so they ate three meals a day.
In fact, at least half the village followed a three-meal schedule.
Only the poorer households made do with two.
As she approached home, she could already see the courtyard gate standing open from a distance.
Thin streams of smoke drifted lazily from above the kitchen.
The moment she stepped inside, before she could even remove the basket from her back, Third Aunt—Madam Zhao Fang—poked her head out from the kitchen.
Seeing that it was Zhao Shiyu, she said nothing and simply withdrew back inside.
Zhao Shiyu didn’t care.
After all, her various aunts and older female relatives had always treated the original owner indifferently.
Or rather—
Under the deeply rooted feudal preference for sons over daughters, none of the girls in the family were especially favored.
Part of the reason was simply that there were too many of them.
There were already eight granddaughters among the younger generation.
Add in fifteen-year-old Zhao Yingniang, who was still unmarried, and that made nine girls total.
As the saying went—
Things are precious when rare.
The same principle applied to people.
Zhao Shiyu took the basket off her back and set it down outside the kitchen door without a word.
Then she turned and headed back to her room.
Zhao Yanjin and Zhao Ningshuang still hadn’t returned from town, so the room remained hers alone for the moment.
She bolted the door from the inside and flopped spread-eagle onto the bed.
This little body of hers was still too weak.
After all the running back and forth she’d done that morning, fatigue was now creeping through every inch of her.
The moment she closed her eyes, drowsiness rushed over her in less than a minute.
Sleeping was out of the question, though.
Lunch hadn’t been served yet.
In the kitchen, Madam Yan casually asked,
“Who came back?”
“The second branch’s Seventh Girl.”
Madam Yan made no further comment, and the matter would have ended there—
until Madam Fang stepped outside and saw the basket Zhao Shiyu had left by the door.
Seeing the two tiny handfuls of wild vegetables inside—not even enough to cover the bottom—her face darkened instantly.
“She couldn’t even carry it the extra few steps into the kitchen?”
Madam Fang muttered unhappily.
“That second branch girl has been spoiled rotten.”
Then, taking another look at the pitiful contents of the basket, her irritation flared.
“Honestly, I’ve never seen anyone this lazy.
She spent the whole morning and only gathered this little?
Who would this even be enough to feed?
It’s not even enough for the chickens!
Just how does Second Sister-in-law raise her children?
Every single one of them is lazier than the last!”