Chapter 7

Chi Yiyi looked at the now empty Chi family home and let out a soft sigh of relief. She had finally waited for this opportunity.

Chi Yiyi first swaggered out of the alley, deliberately greeting people along the way to make sure as many neighbors as possible saw her.

After leaving the alley, she secretly used the space to return to the Chi house.

She first went into the large bedroom where Chi Daqiang and Lin Ru lived. Clothes, quilts, shoes, fruit, snacks—she moved everything into her space in one sweep. That stingy stepmother Lin Ru always hid her snacks and fruit.

Chi Yiyi then searched the room and found a total of 5,000 yuan in cash and some food coupons hidden in different corners. Finally, she even took the bed and wardrobe.

After moving the wardrobe, Chi Yiyi discovered a loose brick. Behind it was a hidden box. Inside the box were ten gold bars (called “little yellow fish”) and a letter.

Time was short, so Chi Yiyi stuffed the entire box into her space.

Before leaving, she glanced at the door panel—though she wanted to take it too, it wasn’t easy to dismantle.

Next door was Chi Bilian’s room. It was spacious, sunny, and had excellent lighting—nothing like the cramped, dark attic room where Chi Yiyi lived.

Chi Bilian had only recently graduated. Lin Ru had bought her a job placement, yet Chi Yiyi found 500 yuan stashed in her room.

Chi Yiyi moved the money and all the items in that room into her space.

The smallest room in the house belonged to Chi Bilian’s younger brother, Chi Junjie, who was still in middle school—but he had hidden away 300 yuan in savings.

Chi Junshu lived in a tiny partitioned space cut out from Chi Junjie’s room. He had dropped out of middle school and was now an apprentice in a machinery factory. Chi Yiyi had even asked Zhou Zixiao for help to get him that job.

Surprisingly, after just over half a year of work, Chi Junshu had managed to save 300 yuan too.

Wow. Chi Yiyi realized that she was the poorest person in the entire Chi family.

Thinking about her past life, where she tried so hard to support Chi Junshu and Chi Daqiang in the Zhou family and ended up betrayed by these two ungrateful people, she got so angry that she emptied the entire Chi house.

She only left a plastic chamber pot in each room—because it was too smelly to keep in her space.

Chi Yiyi returned to her space from the small yard and waited to see the Chi family’s reaction when they came back.

Sure enough, the ten gold bars in the space had disappeared again.

But the space had expanded—doubling in size—and the spiritual spring had gone from a droplet to a fine stream of water. More of the mountain body that nurtured the spring was also exposed.

Chi Yiyi was amazed. She had used even less gold this time and triggered such a huge transformation in the space. She finally saw more hope for the future.

Then she remembered the letter she had taken from Chi Daqiang’s room and grew curious about its contents.

Chi Yiyi picked up the box again. The gold bars were gone—only the letter remained.

The letter paper was yellowed—clearly quite old.

When she opened it, Chi Yiyi was shocked.

She was not Chi Daqiang’s biological daughter. She was actually the granddaughter of Chi Changping, a prominent businessman from Yuecheng.

Chi Daqiang’s ancestors had once been servants in the Chi family, and his first wife, Li Sumei, had been a maid for the Chi household.

The letter explained that Chi Yiyi’s birth mother, Cui Nanxi, died of severe bleeding shortly after giving birth. Her biological father, Chi Jian’an, remarried his first love less than half a month later.

The Cui family was also a respected family in Yuecheng, but after the revolution, they gradually fled to the U.S. So after Cui Nanxi died, no one was left to defend her.

Newborn Chi Yiyi nearly died too, but her grandfather Chi Changping paid a large sum of money to entrust her to the care of Chi Daqiang and his wife.

Chi Yiyi remembered reading a news article in her past life about the Yuecheng Chi family. Twenty years ago, they were framed and exiled to the northeast to farm. Three years from now, when society would open up again, Chi Jian’an, being bold, skilled, and business-savvy, would quickly rebuild the family’s fortune in Yangcheng with his new wife.

No wonder Chi Bilian had suddenly gotten rich in 1990—she must’ve used this letter to go to Yangcheng and claim money from the Chi family.

Chi Jian’an may have felt a slight sense of guilt toward his first wife’s daughter, but not much. With the wealth he had at the time, giving Chi Bilian some hush money was like tossing bones to a dog. He didn’t even bother to verify if she was really his daughter.

Chi Yiyi felt it was all deeply ironic. She wasn’t Chi Daqiang’s real daughter, but her biological father didn’t love her either.

The only one who seemed to care for her was her biological grandfather. At that time, the Chi family was already facing hardship, yet Chi Changping gave Chi Daqiang dozens of gold bars and this letter—proof that he recognized and intended to someday reclaim his granddaughter.

Sadly, Chi Changping died in the northeast.

But maybe he wasn’t dead just yet.

Chi Yiyi sighed. She wondered if this upcoming trip to the countryside would offer her a chance to contact the grandfather who cared about her.

Not long after reading the letter, she heard a noise outside the space.

It was Chi Junjie coming home from school for lunch.

“Ahhh!”

Chi Junjie screamed in shock when he opened the door and saw the Chi home completely emptied out.

Soon, curious and kind neighbors began to gather.

“Oh my, Junjie, did your family move out?”

“Move? This house was assigned to Director Chi by the factory! Looks more like they were robbed.”

Chi Junjie burst into tears. “We were robbed! Uncles, aunties—please call the police!”

At that moment, Chi Daqiang returned with Lin Ru, whom he had gone out to fetch. Chi Junshu was also with them.

“What happened?!”

Chi Daqiang pushed through the crowd.

One neighbor turned and said, “Director Chi, better go take a look—your house was robbed.”

What?

Chi Daqiang and Lin Ru were stunned. Then they pushed through the crowd and rushed inside.

“AHHH!”

Lin Ru screamed at the sight of the empty house and nearly fainted on the spot.

Chi Daqiang, furious, slapped her hard to wake her up.

Lin Ru snapped out of it, but Chi Daqiang furiously scolded her.

“You damn woman! If I hadn’t gone out to find you, would our house have been robbed?!”

An elderly neighbor quickly stepped forward to stop him. “Director Chi, don’t get so worked up. Your son Junjie already called the police. They’ll be here soon.”

Chi Junshu, still holding out hope, rushed into his tiny room to check—but his heart sank.

“Dad, it’s all gone. Everything’s gone.”