Chapter 52: The Greed of Human Nature Is Hard to Let Go

He Yanxin had never shown any greed or prying curiosity toward her space or the wide variety of supplies she owned.

Whenever he needed something, he would simply ask if she had it.

Even during meals, unless she offered, he never asked to eat this or that.

Because of this, Song Yeqing felt much more at ease—perhaps even a bit pleasantly surprised.

To avoid trouble and unexpected situations, Celestial Masters rarely revealed their spatial abilities to ordinary people.

There was a time, years ago, when she and several elders in her family—including her cousins—had followed a trail of yin energy left by a malicious spirit to a remote location.

It was truly impoverished. Within dozens of kilometers, there were only a handful of households.

The Song family decided to split up and search from different directions.

While doing so, she came across a child so poor he didn’t even have clothes—his ribs clearly visible through his skin.

At the time, she was only seventeen, still naïve and lacking a strong sense of danger. Softhearted at the sight, she took the child to a secluded place and retrieved food and clothing from her space to give to him.

She hadn’t expected the child to follow her and see what she was doing. She didn’t think much of it, merely warned him not to tell anyone and even gave him a few more things.

But that child brought the supplies back home and ended up leading a group of villagers into the mountains to find her.

“She gave me these! She can make things appear out of thin air!” the child said, pointing at her, a lollipop she had given still in his mouth.

She was stunned, facing a group of fierce, greedy villagers. All she could do was turn and run.

Sure, she had been training since childhood, practicing martial arts and cultivating her abilities. But at the end of the day, she was still a seventeen-year-old girl—no match for a group of eight or nine grown men. If there were four or fewer, she could’ve handled it.

And besides, many of her talismans only worked on spirits—not humans.

She wasn’t as familiar with the terrain as the villagers were, and they quickly caught up. In the end, she had no choice but to pull out a weapon from her space to defend herself.

She could still remember the looks in their eyes.

Greed. Excitement. Curiosity. Eagerness. Directed at her, at her space, and mixed with fear of the unknown.

Had she not stayed calm and used her emergency distress talisman to summon her elders on the run, things could’ve gone terribly wrong.

One of her uncles, fearing she had encountered a powerful evil spirit, rushed over and fired a warning shot into the sky. Only then did the villagers finally back off.

And then, laughably, someone among them even yelled that they would report it to the authorities.

So they did remember the existence of police after all.

It was a close call, but after that, she became much more comfortable living in places far from people.

Even when traveling to remote rural areas, she preferred not to ask to stay in anyone’s home—even if others were nearby.

After all, her space had everything she needed. Even furniture. She could live in complete solitude for extended periods without a problem.

As these memories crossed her mind, Song Yeqing’s hands didn’t stop moving. She summoned a cabinet from her space that held bowls, utensils, and pre-sorted seasonings.

She took out two large white bowls with blue floral patterns for the noodles and handed He Yanxin a pair of chopsticks.

The pair she was using now had just been cleaned after she finished marinating the meat in the basin earlier.

There was indeed a large amount of meat—it was all the remaining lean pork from her space.

She had cut the meat into strips about five centimeters long and one centimeter thick, seasoned them with salt, ground Sichuan peppercorns, and chili powder, letting them marinate for smoking the next day.

In addition, she had also made a number of flatbreads in advance that were easy to store.

If it were just the two of them traveling with the children, they wouldn’t need to go through the trouble of making smoked meat and flatbreads.

But since they were leaving together with the Wu family, they couldn’t bring out freshly cooked food anymore.

They could only rely on these dry, preserved foods like smoked meat and flatbreads to stave off hunger.

This was also why the two of them had decided to stay at home a few more days to rest and regain their strength before leaving.

If they didn’t recover now, they wouldn’t have the chance to eat well on the road—and who knew if they’d even make it out?

Besides He Yanxin, who was in relatively good condition, both she and the children weren’t physically suited for long-distance travel or sleeping rough.

If they pushed too hard, they’d only end up dragging each other down.

“It’s been getting colder lately,” He Yanxin said, stepping inside with some vegetables. “Where should I put this?” he asked, lifting the bok choy.

Song Yeqing reached out to take it, snapped it in half, and tossed it into the pot to blanch. Then she went to grab the scallions still in his hand.

“There’s water. Don’t touch anything, I’ll cut them.” He Yanxin stepped up to the cutting board, picked up the knife. “How wide should I cut?”

Song Yeqing made a gesture with her thumb and index finger. “This wide.”

These days, whenever He Yanxin was home, he’d help her prep ingredients. He was now fairly adept at chopping scallions.

She scooped the noodles and broth into the bowls, topped them with slices of braised beef and bok choy, then began adding seasonings.

Chili oil, Sichuan pepper oil, garlic oil, chicken powder, salt, and a sprinkle of chopped scallions.

A steaming bowl of beef noodle soup was ready.

“Add more chili for mine, please. It’s too cold—I need something spicy,” He Yanxin said.

He placed the tablet on the table, adjusted the chair, and turned around to get his noodles.

Song Yeqing added an extra spoonful of chili oil to his bowl.

They ate quietly, the only sound in the room coming from the movie playing on the tablet.

When He Yanxin first realized he had transmigrated into a feudal society, he never imagined he’d be able to live like this.

He couldn’t help marveling again at the miracle of Song Yeqing’s space—and he felt incredibly grateful to her.

Because of her, he could use things like a toothbrush, toothpaste, towels, and toilet paper even in ancient times. He could eat delicious, modern food.

He knew perfectly well that although they were posing as a married couple, in reality, they had no real relationship—it was all just a front.

Song Yeqing could have easily left him behind. She didn’t have to share her supplies with him.

Sure, he did give her money, but even so, this kind of generosity was rare.

He had asked how much food they had left, worried they might run out. But Song Yeqing had assured him it was enough to get them out of Qizhou.

Since that was the case, they decided to stock up again only after leaving the province—so they could leave more food behind for others.

Still, he reminded himself he needed to work harder to earn money in the future.

The next morning, He Yanxin went to visit the neighbors.

Since they’d stayed up late, it was only natural that he woke up late, and by the time he got there, Wu Dalang had already gone to the county town.

Unlike Song Yeqing, He Yanxin had a different approach—perhaps he was just better with words?

After some probing, he finally understood why Old Man Wu and Granny Ge didn’t want to leave with them.

It turned out they were worried about being a burden on the road—and also about consuming extra food.

But now that he knew the problem, it was easy to solve.

Still, he didn’t promise anything outrageous, like “I’ll feed you the entire way.” After all, he had been mooching off Song Yeqing this whole time.

Instead, he spoke gently, first appealing to their emotions—reminding them of all the times they had cared for him over the years, how he had no way to repay their kindness.

Then he explained the dangers of staying in Qizhou and shared their plans for leaving.

Finally, he offered twenty taels of silver from his side, saying it was a loan—just to give the two elders some peace of mind.

(End of Chapter)