Chapter 40 Found something missing from the space…

Xie Yu immediately fell silent. He hadn’t considered this thoroughly enough. He originally thought that since Xie Jianguo married Chang Meili, Chang Suisui wouldn’t have to worry about the marriage anymore. After all, Xie Jianguo was the one at fault. But he didn’t expect Zhao Xiulan to set her sights on him instead. He could agree to cancel the marriage to suit Chang Suisui’s wishes, but after hearing Qian Weimin just now, if she kept breaking off engagements with others, even if it wasn’t her fault, her reputation would still suffer.

Xie Yu clenched his fists tightly and finally seemed to make up his mind. It looked like he could only wait until he saw Chang Suisui in the evening and have a serious talk with her…

At noon, the sun was at its peak. In the courtyard, dappled shadows lay under a few old locust trees. Chang Suisui sat beneath one of the trees, casually adding firewood to the stove. The kitchen of the youth work station was originally just a simple hut made with straw. Fortunately, the old locust trees brought some coolness to this humble setting.

Chang Suisui had returned earlier than usual today, intending to cook for the other youths. Taking advantage of the empty kitchen, she stewed all the pork she brought from Chang Meili’s space into braised pork, planning to bring some as an extra dish to Xie Yu’s house in the evening. Since she had decided she wanted this man, naturally, she wanted to keep him well-fed and plump.

However, the strong aroma of the braised pork soon filled the entire kitchen. She transferred the pork into a clay pot, covered it, wrapped it with a clean towel, and placed it in the basket for carrying food. After ensuring the meal was packed, she began preparing food for the other youths.

She washed the yellow bean sprouts clean, blanched them in boiling water until about 70% cooked, then drained them. She brushed some oil along the edges of the pan, sautéed scallions, ginger, garlic, and star anise until fragrant, then added the bean sprouts, stir-frying for a minute. She casually threw in some soaked sweet potato noodles, added a spoonful of soy sauce, a spoonful of sugar, half a spoon of salt, stir-fried it all over high heat for another minute until evenly mixed, then took it off the heat.

At this moment, Chang Meili, who had been standing by the fence for a while, stared in astonishment at Chang Suisui’s deft cooking skills, her eyes full of disbelief. In her memory, her uncle and aunt doted on Chang Suisui, never allowing her to step into the kitchen. Both she and Chang Suisui were girls, yet Chang Suisui acted like a delicate young lady who didn’t even know which way the kitchen door faced. She had been jealous of Chang Suisui since childhood, which was why she had tried so hard to isolate her when they were sent down to the countryside.

But now… with a furrowed brow, Chang Meili felt a strange unease growing inside her. Thinking about Chang Suisui’s recent abnormal behavior, she wondered if some evil spirit had possessed her.

With this thought in mind, Chang Meili slowly pushed open the fence gate and approached Chang Suisui. “Cousin, why have you suddenly gotten so good at cooking?” she asked tentatively, her tone laced with barely concealed caution.

Chang Suisui did not stop stirring the food. She only glanced at her briefly, a faint, subtle cold smile curling on her lips. “People always change, don’t they, my dear cousin?”

Chang Meili’s suspicion deepened when Chang Suisui didn’t answer directly. Swallowing nervously, she tried probing again, “I remember when we were kids, you didn’t even dare to go near the fire, and now you can make such a wonderful meal—it’s really impressive. By the way, cousin… do you still remember when we went fishing by the river and you slipped into the water, and I pulled you out?”

A silent smirk tugged at the corner of Chang Suisui’s mouth. Apparently, her newfound cooking skills made Chang Meili suspicious. She sensed there was more to Chang Meili’s words and instead of answering, she countered, “Oh, you remember childhood things so clearly? Then you shouldn’t forget that you still owe me 200 yuan.”

There was a teasing tone in Chang Suisui’s voice, a half-smile that was more ironic than friendly.

Chang Meili hadn’t expected this sudden mention of money. Her face immediately darkened. “I’ll get it for you right now! It’s only 200 yuan, what’s the big deal about reminding me?”

She said this angrily, turned around, and went back to her room. Then, with a bang, she shut the door. Her anger simmered inside her. As soon as the door was locked, she slipped into her space. But after searching for a long time, she couldn’t find the money.

Even more chilling was that she found the items inside the space seemed far fewer than she remembered!

Chang Meili’s heart sank sharply, her face instantly drained of color. An unprecedented wave of fear and unease surged over her like a tide.

The jade bracelet linked to the space originally belonged to Chang Suisui. In her previous life, Chang Suisui had used this space jade bracelet to secure a foothold in the Xie family. Chang Meili only knew this because when Xie Jianguo visited her in prison, he gave her some spiritual spring water. At that time, she was broken and desolate, with no will to live. But Xie Jianguo didn’t care—he was willing to give her a final dignity.

It was then she learned that Chang Suisui’s parents had given her the jade bracelet as part of her dowry. Chang Suisui only started wearing it after marriage. So after rebirth, Chang Meili immediately stole the bracelet and made it her own.

She didn’t expect that aside from the spiritual spring, the bracelet contained a large amount of food—rice, flour, meat, eggs, all in the thousands of pounds—and none of it spoiled.

When she first got the space, she was ecstatic and never paid attention to whether the items inside were decreasing. Even when the spiritual spring was missing, she didn’t consider that aspect.

But now it seemed the items inside the space were slowly diminishing over time. What was the rule governing this?

Had Chang Suisui experienced the same thing when she used the space?

Chang Meili didn’t have time to think further when someone knocked on the door. Voices of other youths came from outside.

“Come eat! We have to work this afternoon!”

Chang Meili hurried out of the space, still not fully recovered from her anxiety. She opened the door and saw Li Chunhua standing there. The other party seemed surprised to find her in the room and immediately frowned.

“Why are you alone in the room, locking the door?”

Chang Meili glanced at Li Chunhua, not wanting to argue, so she casually replied, “My clothes got dirty, I’m changing.”

But no sooner had she spoken than Li Chunhua gave her a strange look.

Chang Meili’s face darkened instantly. “What are you looking at?”

Li Chunhua rolled her eyes. “I’m just looking at the fact that even after you changed, your clothes are still dirty. Did you not wash your clothes properly?”

Chang Meili’s expression twisted with disgust. She strode out directly, shooting Li Chunhua a fierce glare before leaving.

Before she could take two steps, she was stopped again—