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After eating Liu Shuning’s noodles, everyone worked even harder. What was expected to take another half day was actually completed before nightfall—they had already finished building the toilet.
Liu Shuning was quite satisfied with the newly built toilet. Though it wasn’t as good as the one back at the Liu residence, it was pretty much on par with urban toilets.
Tomorrow, she planned to ask Monkey if he was available to accompany her on a trip to Harbin. Now that the house was done, it was time to bring out her furniture.
Unfortunately, since she wasn’t a member of the military, the logistics department wouldn’t lend her a car. Otherwise, she could have just driven herself and wouldn’t need to trouble anyone else.
Shanghai – The Liu Residence
“What are you people doing here? Why are you barging into the Liu residence?” Sixth Concubine was startled by the intruders. These men looked fierce and brutish—definitely not decent folk.
Right now, only Sixth and Seventh Concubine lived in the Liu residence. Ten days ago, they had woken up to find that everyone else in the household had vanished. Only the three concubines remained.
Two days ago, Third Concubine left to join her daughter. Sixth and Seventh Concubine, with no children of their own, were left behind.
“This Liu residence has already been sold by Madam Liu. It now belongs to our Chen family. I’ll give you three days. If you’re not gone by then, you’ll be staying here as our wives!” the leader said, leering at Sixth Concubine. If it weren’t for her being Liu Zhixiong’s concubine, he would’ve dragged her back to his house tonight to consummate the marriage.
Master Liu sure was heartless—to abandon such a beautiful woman.
Sixth Concubine was both frightened and furious. Her body trembled as she pointed at the man and cursed, “Get out! I’d rather wander the streets than become your wife.”
“Oh, don’t be mad, pretty lady. That Liu old man may not love you, but I do!”
“Get lost! As far as possible!” Sixth Concubine took advantage of the moment they let their guard down, rushed back into her room, and slammed the door shut.
The leader wanted to knock again, but one of his men pulled him back.
“Boss, now’s not the time. The Chen and Liu families are related by marriage. If Old Master Chen finds out you bullied a Liu woman, we’ll be in serious trouble.”
“Hmph, fine. I’ll let the little beauty off for now. Once they leave the Liu residence, she won’t escape me.” He glanced back at the tightly shut door and gave a sinister smile. Little beauty, just wait.
Sixth Concubine was terrified. As soon as she was back in her room, she began packing. She was going back to her hometown—she was done with this place.
Next door, Seventh Concubine had also hidden when she heard the intruders. Once they left, she hurried over.
“Lingling, open the door! It’s me!”
Only after confirming it was Seventh Concubine did Sixth Concubine open the door. “Xiao Qi, that was terrifying! Let’s pack and get out of Shanghai now. Madam Liu has already sold the Liu residence.”
“Alright, wait a moment. I’ll go with you to your hometown.” Seventh Concubine had no family left—nowhere to go back to.
Years ago, they had performed together at the Yihong Courtyard before being bought out by Liu Zhixiong and brought into the Liu residence. Over the years, they had relied on each other. Since they couldn’t bear children, even if they were favored, Madam Liu never gave them a hard time.
“Then hurry. We need to leave before dark.”
Sixth Concubine feared that despicable man would sneak in after dark. They needed to go as soon as possible.
“Okay, I’ll be quick. Wait for me in your room.”
Back in her own room, Seventh Concubine quickly packed as well. Since they were traveling, she didn’t bring much—just some regular clothes and a few valuable pieces of jewelry.
She left the larger items behind—too conspicuous. It was safer to travel light, especially as two women.
—
That evening, two small figures carrying bundles slipped quietly out the back gate of the Liu residence.
Shortly after their departure, the man who had taken a liking to Sixth Concubine climbed over the wall into the residence.
—
In the Northeast Military District, Liu Shuning had no idea what had happened at the Liu residence. She was lying in bed, chatting with her system.
“System, why did you choose me? Is it because I’m so cosmically beautiful that you noticed me among billions of people?”
[Host, your shamelessness is beyond the great city walls. Your audacity is truly out of this world.]
“System, can you even talk properly? Want me to file a complaint against you?”
[Host, I’m just telling the truth. Please accept it with grace.]
“Hmph, you’re no fun at all. No wonder you’re still a lonely single system.”
[Host, please mind your words. This system is pure data and incapable of romance.]
“Forget it. Talking to you is a waste of breath. Let’s just sign in—sign in!”
[Sign-in successful. Host has received: 10 jin of premium oil, 10 jin of fine salt, a deluxe seasoning pack, 10 copper pots, 10 kettles, and 10 clay pots.]
Wow! Copper pots! When it starts snowing, hotpot is going to be amazing.
Liu Shuning was getting hungrier just thinking about it.
Seeing that Ruibao was still sound asleep, she shoop! popped into her space.
In the cozy farmhouse courtyard, she ate two meat buns before getting on with other tasks.
The sweet potato vines in her space had already matured. For the past few days, she’d been using them to feed the pigs.
Sweet potato vines were great—they regrew quickly after being cut. Now that she had some spare time, she planned to enter the space regularly to harvest them.
Her pigs had huge appetites. They ate a large amount of sweet potato vines every day.
After a few days of feeding, her pigs had finally fattened up and no longer looked skinny and pitiful.
After feeding them the harvested vines, she distributed buckets of corn kernels to the chickens, ducks, and geese.
This was her daily routine. She was genuinely worried that if she ever forgot, her dozens of precious animals would starve to death.
Every time she entered the space, she had to work—and it was tiring. But hey, that’s just her life. A hardworking soul.
From her recent observations, she’d concluded that the system was a total cheapskate. The rewards almost never included food or fruit—it was clearly trying to push her to farm.
Although she’d collected quite a bit of food from the Liu residence, thinking about the upcoming three-year famine, she couldn’t help but want to fill the entire space with crops.
Her universal hoe was very handy. It made work so efficient that she dug up a whole acre of land in under an hour.
Adding today’s acre, she had already tilled three acres. One acre was planted with sweet potatoes, another with potatoes, and the third—today’s—was for corn.
She had never planted corn before, so she just dug random holes and dropped in the corn kernels. Whether or not they’d grow was a mystery. If they didn’t, she’d just have to ask for help and replant.
Still, she felt confident. With such a powerful space, if even she couldn’t grow corn after digging holes, then clearly the space was at fault.
Once she finished planting the acre of corn, she still had time left, so she brought out the fruit tree saplings she had been rewarded and planted them too.
Planting fruit trees was even easier. With the universal hoe, it was one swing per hole. In less than an hour, she had them all planted.
She had a lot of watermelon and strawberry seedlings. She only planted a small portion of them for now. Her favorite was strawberries, so she planted the most of those—about a whole acre, nearly 200 plants.
When Liu Shuning exited the space, Ruibao was still sleeping in the exact same position. She checked her watch—only half an hour had passed.
Inside the space, ten hours was equal to just one hour outside. If she weren’t worried about Ruibao waking up in the middle of the night, she would’ve stayed inside to rest longer.
She changed into a clean set of clothes, lay down next to Ruibao, and soon fell asleep.