Chapter 23

Gu Zhenqi followed where Ruido pointed and was shocked to see, just a short distance away, a flock of wild chickens gathered around a small pond, drinking water.

Gu Zhenqi had already tested the range of her spatial storage powers before. In an instant, she silently chanted in her mind, “Collect!”

In the next second, the wild chickens vanished into thin air!

Ruido rubbed her little eyes in disbelief. She looked again and confirmed that the chickens had truly disappeared without a trace.

She looked up at Gu Zhenqi, her big eyes misting with worry, afraid her mother would think she was lying.

Ruido, feeling a bit aggrieved, hurried to explain herself, “Mommy, there… there really were wild chickens there just now!”

Gu Zhenqi crouched down and gently rubbed her head, coaxing her softly, “Ruido baby is the best! Mommy already collected them all!”

“I’ll give some to your grandma, grandpa, and uncles later! And the rest, when we get home, Mommy will make roast chicken, stewed chicken, braised chicken, and fried chicken for you. Sound good?”

As soon as the two little foodies heard the word “eat,” they perked right up. Fei’an also came running over at that moment.

The two little heads nodded excitedly in front of her, and Gu Zhenqi’s heart turned to mush.

She took two candies from her space and placed one in each of their little mouths.

“My sweethearts! Let’s keep going. Your grandma, grandpa, and uncles must be missing you so much!”

—-

When Gu Zhenqi arrived at her family’s home, everyone was out working in the fields.

She pushed open the main gate, and all the old memories rushed back, vivid and clear. Everything before her eyes looked so familiar, so dear.

Familiar enough that, countless times in the middle of the night, she had dreamed of this place—woken up yearning to return to its warmth.

Tears streamed down her face in large droplets. Ruido noticed immediately and tried to tiptoe to wipe her mother’s tears.

“Mommy, why are you crying? Ruido will wipe your tears.”

Gu Zhenqi was pulled out of her memories at once. Looking at her two children before her, she felt as if she were living a dream.

She touched her cheek and realized it was soaked. She quickly wiped her tears away, crouched down, and hugged Ruido and Fei’an tightly to her chest.

The warmth of this embrace helped her distinguish, once and for all, between her past and present life.

“Ruido, Fei’an, Mommy will never lose you again! I’ll never let you go. Even if Mommy gets confused in this life, I’ll still love you so, so much!”

Ruido and Fei’an wrapped their little arms around her neck and, in their soft, childish voices, said, “We’ll always be with Mommy. We’ll love Mommy very much!”

Mother and children stayed in that embrace under the sunshine for over ten minutes, sweating all over.

Once Gu Zhenqi calmed herself, she realized all three of them had soaked through their clothes with sweat.

She quickly stood up, blaming herself for being careless again. She silently cursed that she really wasn’t doing a good job—still not a qualified mother!

She found the main room key in a crack near the windowsill and opened the door.

First, she changed the kids into clean clothes and gave them snacks, fruit, and two glasses of freshly squeezed watermelon juice.

With the kids settled, Gu Zhenqi began pulling out gifts from her space for her parents, eldest brother, second brother, third brother, and their wives and kids.

Soon the kang bed was nearly covered with presents. She wanted to take out even more, but if she did too much at once, her family would surely bombard her with questions and try to refuse the gifts.

There would be plenty of chances in the future. She had already planned to visit her family every now and then—leaving a little something each time.

Not too flashy, but still thoughtful and natural.

“Ruido, Fei’an, you two play here for a bit. Mommy’s going to cook lunch for Grandma, Grandpa, and your uncles and aunts.”

The two little ones nodded obediently. As she turned to leave, Ruido tugged on her sleeve and gave her a sweet smile, waving her hand.

Gu Zhenqi bent down. Ruido and Fei’an looked at each other, then each gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Mommy, you’ve worked hard!” Ruido said sweetly.

“Mommy, thank you!” Fei’an added thoughtfully.

Gu Zhenqi smiled tenderly at them. “With you two by my side, no matter how hard it is, Mommy will never feel tired.”

She left the children some toys to play with and went to prepare lunch.

In the kitchen—

When Gu Zhenqi opened the food cupboard and grain jar, her heart sank.

There were less than five pounds of cornmeal, under ten sweet potatoes, a bit of dried cabbage, and only a handful of millet in the rice jar.

That’s it?

Why was it so different from what she remembered?

She dug deep into her memory, trying to recall.

Then it hit her—before she got married, her mom never let her into the kitchen.

She had always eaten the best food, while her parents and three older brothers had much poorer meals.

Whenever she tried to share with them, they always refused. Over time, she got used to being pampered.

It wasn’t until this moment that she realized: the good food she had been eating… was all carefully saved up by her family for her.

No wonder her mom always stopped her from entering the kitchen.

No wonder they often ate in secret when she wasn’t around.

Turns out…

She had always been the one cherished and loved above all!

She had been blessed but never truly understood that blessing until now.

Such deep love—she could never repay it, not even over multiple lifetimes.

Her tears blurred her vision as she began to take out food from her space:

30 lbs of rice, 30 lbs of white flour, 50 lbs of cornmeal, 15 lbs of noodles, 50 lbs of sweet potatoes, 200 eggs, 5 lbs of pork, 6 wild chickens, fresh vegetables, fruits, cured meat, dried vegetables…

In no time, the kitchen was completely transformed—every surface was packed.

Looking at her work, Gu Zhenqi felt pleased. Her only regret was not being able to take out even better things.

She swiftly lit the stove, boiled water, butchered and plucked the chickens, steamed buns and rice, stewed chicken and ribs…

Braised pork, stir-fried pork with chili, tomato and eggs, sauerkraut with vermicelli and meat, garlic shoots with cured meat, steamed cured meat, cold cucumber salad, stir-fried baby bok choy, braised pig’s knuckle, stir-fried beef strips, wild chicken stew…

In under two hours, Gu Zhenqi had whipped up more than ten dishes in a bustling kitchen.

She lifted out steaming white buns from the pot and put in 50 large pork buns to steam next. In another pot, she started simmering wild chicken soup.

The weather was sweltering. After a full morning of farm work under the blazing sun, people would feel as if a whole layer of skin had been peeled off.

Sweat pouring down was no exaggeration.

With all the cooking done, and before anyone came back, she pulled out a 30-lb chilled watermelon from her space, sliced it into thick wedges, and placed them on a large iron tray.

At that moment—

The Gu family, returning home from work, stared at the thick smoke coming from their chimney, their faces full of confusion.

They looked at each other—everyone was here, so who could it be?

Gu Zhenqi’s eldest sister-in-law was bewildered:
“Who’s… cooking in our house? Don’t tell me it’s like in those old legends—some fairy stepped out of a painting to clean and cook for us?”