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Chapter 5: The Space Upgraded Again
“So that’s how it is. Dad, you’ve worked hard. I’m full now, I’ll head back to sleep.”
Jiang Tangtang said this knowing full well that no one in this family dared to mess with her right now. More than that, it was to avoid raising suspicions. She wanted to stage a scene of peaceful coexistence with them.
Now that the act was done, there was no point continuing dinner. She might as well return to her room and wait.
So she put down her chopsticks and went upstairs by herself.
Unfortunately, the people downstairs couldn’t help themselves. She hadn’t even reached her room when Lu Mianmian started badmouthing her again.
At such a time, Lu Zhicai didn’t dare let her offend anyone. Seeing that she wouldn’t shut up, he slapped her across the face. The room finally quieted down.
That slap was loud—Jiang Tangtang heard it clearly even from upstairs.
She let out a cold snort, pulled the blanket over herself, and kept an ear on the sounds below.
Soon, the house went quiet—everyone had gone to sleep.
Once she was certain the others were deep asleep, Jiang Tangtang quietly got out of bed.
Tiptoeing, she opened her door and crept downstairs. She paused at the stairway, confirmed no one was around, then climbed to the window. After opening it, she climbed out.
She didn’t dare use the main door—it was made of iron and could easily make noise if mishandled, which might alert others.
For safety, she chose the window. It wasn’t high, and the bedrooms were far away. Outside was a patch of grass, so even if she jumped, it wouldn’t make a sound. Quietly, she slipped away.
It was already dark. No one was on the road—only half a moon hung in the sky.
Touching the Hetian jade bracelet on her wrist, she gave herself a mental pep talk and quickly ran along the same path Aunt Wang had taken her earlier. She returned to the large pit.
Luckily, she had a good memory. Even in the dark, she could follow the marks she’d made and locate the spot.
To hide their things, the residents of that alley had gone to great lengths to find such a location.
At the edge of the pit, Jiang Tangtang pulled a shovel out from her storage space and recognized the same tree she’d seen during the day.
The soil at the tree’s base clearly showed signs of recent backfilling. She began to dig. After less than thirty centimeters, she saw a burlap sack.
“Knew it was here.”
She dragged one sack out, patted off the dirt, and squatted down to find a name.
As expected, just like what she’d seen earlier, the side of the sack had three characters scrawled in black ink: “Lu Zhicai.”
Overjoyed to have found it, Jiang Tangtang opened the sack. Inside were familiar porcelain vases and calligraphy from their study.
Without hesitation, she stuffed it into her storage space and kept digging.
Each time she dug out a sack, she’d check the name and toss it into her space. Altogether, there were six sacks. She didn’t even have time to inspect them—they all went into storage.
Once she finished, she sat down in the grass, exhausted, to rest for a bit.
When her breathing returned to normal, she got ready to refill the pit and leave quickly.
Just as she was about to shovel dirt back in, she spotted another familiar name at the bottom of the pit—one that immediately piqued her interest.
She tossed the shovel aside, jumped into the pit, and dragged the sack out to look closely.
Sure enough, the name “Liu Xianming” was written on it.
This Liu guy was the father of Liu Wenjing, her scummy sister’s fake “good” bestie.
Memories surged up again. In her past life, after being framed and abducted by her sister, Liu Wenjing had the audacity to say it was all her own bad luck. Later, she even mocked her for having a child out of wedlock, calling it a bastard.
Thinking of it made Jiang Tangtang so angry she stomped her foot.
Since they were so heartless, there was no need to leave anything behind for them. She stuffed all the Liu family’s antique-filled sacks into her space too.
After placing the last sack inside, her bracelet glowed again.
Since she had already seen this happen once during the day, she understood—the space was upgrading again.
Sure enough, the upgrade interface appeared just like before.
“Notification: Stored goods exceed 1 million in value. Space upgrade available!”
“Upgrade Level: Level 4.”
Last time it had only gone up to Level 2. She hadn’t expected to skip Level 3 and jump straight to Level 4.
Delighted, she confidently pressed “Confirm.”
With two experiences under her belt, Jiang Tangtang had a basic understanding of the space upgrade rules—every time the total value of stored goods increased by a zero, it would level up once.
Still, she felt a bit regretful. These antiques were only part of her family’s collection. Their basement had been packed with even more, but those had already disappeared when she returned.
She had no idea where her scheming father had hidden them.
If she could gather all of them, the total value would easily be in the tens of millions.
But her father was too sly. He knew not to put all his eggs in one basket and had hidden things all over. She had tried to search before, but found nothing.
Thinking of this, she sighed, picked up the shovel again, and began filling the pit.
She had to cover it up. Once the heat died down, she’d be back to dig more and keep upgrading her space.
When the pit was finally refilled, she was utterly exhausted and gasping for breath. She entered her space to drink a cup of water.
Then she touched her bracelet again to bring up the upgrade screen.
Like before, a countdown appeared, showing the time needed for the upgrade.
She hadn’t checked earlier due to being busy, but now she saw it clearly:
“System upgrading. Time remaining: 110 minutes. Please wait…”
Familiar numbers ticked down above.
Looks like the upgrade wouldn’t finish tonight. Wiping away sweat, Jiang Tangtang exited the space and walked slowly home.
The road was hard to walk, and it was muddy from too many people stepping on it. Before going back in, she entered her space to change into clean clothes and checked everything to make sure no trace was left.
Then she opened the slightly ajar window and climbed back inside.
She carefully made her way upstairs, returned to her room, and finally lay down to sleep.
After an exhausting day and night, she passed out the moment she closed her eyes.
At dawn the next day, Jiang Tangtang woke up.
The first thing she did was check on her space’s upgrade progress. Touching the bracelet, she entered the space immediately.
And was completely stunned by what she saw.
Yesterday, it had just been a small room. Today, it had turned into a three-story mini mansion!
And the exterior was absolutely gorgeous.
Even just standing at the gate, she could see the carved stone lintel, the thick black iron gates inlaid with vine patterns, and beyond that, the granite-paved grounds. Looking up, the sloped Western-style roof was covered in gray tiles. There was even a garden in the courtyard—it was stunning!
“The upgrade looks amazing!”
Even though her current home was already a small villa, she couldn’t help but marvel.
This house was more beautiful than any she’d ever seen. The entire design had a majestic quality she loved.
She quickly ran to the second-floor balcony and opened the glass doors.
From the stone balustrade, she saw two mu of farmland appear in front of the building. On the right, there was a small pasture, and some platforms nearby—though they were too far away to see clearly.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she rushed to the nearest platform.
It turned out to be an operation console. On the left was a farming guidebook.
She picked it up and flipped through.
From the book, she learned that different crops had different growing times.
You could shorten the time by watering or buying fertilizer.
However, spending money would deduct funds from the space’s balance, and that would affect future upgrades—so it needed to be used carefully.
The good news: once upgraded, the space never downgrades.
There was also a price list at the back of the manual. She skimmed through it—items were reasonably priced, not too expensive.
If farming worked like this, then the pasture probably did too.
She decided to finish studying this part before checking that side. After finishing the manual, she opened the drawer under the console.
There was plenty of space inside. It held many seed packets, apparently part of the rewards for reaching Level 4.
She pulled a packet out. A green label read: Cabbage seeds. Another packet said: Licorice root seeds.
She nodded in approval.
“So there’s not just fruit and veggie seeds—there’s medicinal herbs too!”
After weighing her options, she selected several types of herb seeds, poured them into the machine’s seed inlet, and carefully pressed the fertilize button.
As soon as she did, the two fields in front of her changed dramatically.
The seeds were automatically sown and covered with soil!
She didn’t even need to lift a finger after pressing the button!
Amazed, Jiang Tangtang’s jaw dropped. It was incredible.
This space was a treasure!
After planting herbs, she dashed to the pasture operation console and grabbed the corresponding manual.
It explained that she could currently only raise chickens, but future upgrades would unlock more animals and expand the pasture. Animals would also be grouped by type.
Even if it was just chickens, she was excited to start. She pressed the raise button—and soon heard chickens clucking.
She looked out over her pasture, her heart full of joy.
After reading both manuals, she finally understood:
Yesterday’s Level 4 referred to the entire space.
Level 1 was just a void.
At Level 2, a small house appeared.
At Level 3, a field appeared.
At Level 4, a pasture appeared.
So right now, her space was: