Chapter 10

As expected, it wasn’t long before someone came crying and wailing as they ran out of a townsfolk’s house…

Ding Xiaodie exchanged a glance with her mother, Zhang Xiu.

Blood truly runs deep — even though her outer shell had changed, some of her subtle expressions couldn’t escape Zhang Xiu’s eyes.

She immediately understood what her daughter was thinking, so she warned her in a low voice, “Don’t you dare.”

“Mom, I’m just going to the outhouse, that’s all. You stay here with Grandma, I’ll be right back,” Ding Xiaodie said sweetly, shaking her mother’s arm like a spoiled child. Then she stood up, stepped off the porch, and quietly snuck along the side of the house. After walking a few steps and turning a corner, she was on a different street.

Zhang Xiu could only watch her daughter leave helplessly. She had to stay with the old woman, worrying wouldn’t help.

When she turned back, she caught Wang Dafeng glaring at her again. She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly — was there anyone in the world this old woman didn’t glare at?

Right now, it felt like she was fed up with everything and was at war with the entire world.

The street Ding Xiaodie went to was deathly quiet. Broken baskets and cracked pots littered the road, dry leaves rolled along with the wind, and the entire street had a desolate air.

Judging by the scene, it looked like the people of Yangliu Town had fled earlier than the folks from Aozi Village.

Apparently, the two groups the village chief sent out had taken different streets, and wouldn’t be here any time soon.

Seeing that no one was around, Ding Xiaodie ran up to one of the houses and pushed the door open.

This house was a narrow two-story building. Though it had a second floor, the overall footprint was small — the first floor had a front room and a back room, and the tiny backyard had a small kitchen. Her first priority was to check both rooms for any bodies. Once she saw they were empty, she went straight for the back kitchen.

However, after digging through the rice jar, she was thoroughly disappointed. Not only was there no rice, she couldn’t even find half a sweet potato.

Clearly, when the townsfolk of Yangliu fled, they had the same thought process as those from Aozi Village — every family took whatever they could carry.

She then went upstairs to check — two rooms, no bedding, but the beds themselves were still intact.

Perfect. That was good enough.

Even if there wasn’t any food, being able to sleep on a proper bed for a night was still a win.

After rushing around all morning, Ding Xiaodie was now not only hungry but also parched.

She couldn’t help but swallow hard and thought about grabbing a bottle of water from her space. She figured it’d be a good time to bring the empty bottle from yesterday back into the space, too.

She locked the door from the inside on the first floor, sat on a stool, closed her eyes, and focused all her energy on thinking about her “Xiaodie Supermarket Space”:

All you gods and Buddhas out there, please let me into the space already — I’m dying of thirst!

Maybe her willpower was strong enough — the space actually responded and let her in.

It felt like she suddenly missed a step.

And just like that, when Ding Xiaodie opened her eyes again, she was back in that familiar supermarket space — rows and rows of empty shelves stretching into the distance, and just a few lone bottles of mineral water looking awkward and out of place.

Her heart sank halfway.

She thought maybe the space had been giving her a transition period the first time, but no — even now it was still like this. Nothing but drinks.

Seriously? What kind of joke is this?

But there was no time to complain. She quickly placed the empty bottle back on a shelf, grabbed a full one, and twisted off the cap to drink.

Gulp gulp!

A strange noise echoed.

At first, Ding Xiaodie thought it was just the sound of her drinking, but something felt off. She stopped and turned her head.

And saw something incredibly strange.

The empty bottle she had placed on the shelf was being swallowed by it.

The shelf — made of steel frame and wooden planks — was only a few centimeters thick. But now it looked soft and spongey, almost like a cushion. The bottle slowly sank into the wood, and then disappeared entirely.

Nothing dropped from the bottom of the shelf.

A moment later, the shelf returned to normal — as if nothing had happened.

“…What the heck? You’re eating plastic bottles now? Wow, you’re really all about recycling, huh?”

Ding Xiaodie was only stunned for a few seconds. Then she calmed down.

Being a detective meant having a strong mindset. And after everything she had been through — transmigration, a mysterious space — seeing this kind of thing was almost normal now.

Honestly, she probably wouldn’t even flinch if she saw a ghost at this point.

Just then, a red message suddenly flashed across the screen above the counter:

“Good deed of the day: Reward — one pack of QQ gummies.”

Ding Xiaodie: “……”

So bringing back an empty bottle counted as a good deed?

She turned around instinctively, and sure enough — a packet of QQ gummies had appeared on the shelf that had just eaten the bottle.

Well… better than nothing.

She quickly walked over, grabbed the gummies, and picked up two more bottles of water. Then she stood in front of the screen and started complaining:

“Can’t you reward something more useful? Like bread or jerky or something? I mean, you’ve got a hundred-billion-dollar supply space and this is what you’re giving me? A kid’s snack? Really—”

“AH!”

Before she could finish her rant, the space system clearly got mad — and booted her out.

What the heck?!

Last time, she had been lying down when she entered the space, so on the outside it just looked like she was asleep. But now? With the force it used to eject her?

She was thrown straight onto the floor.

“OW! OW OW!”

That hurt! Her skinny little butt felt like it was going to split into four pieces. This damn space…

Not only stingy, but also super temperamental.

Ding Xiaodie sat up, wincing, holding her two bottles of water and one packet of pink QQ gummies.

In her head, the little imaginary her cursed out the ancestors of the Hundred-Billion Supermarket Space System.

Sigh… lesson learned. Next time, don’t try to reason with the space. There’s no winning against it. Better to just play along!

Isn’t there a saying? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

After resting a bit, she went upstairs and found an old but still usable cloth satchel — looked like a kid’s school bag from this era. The color was too faded to tell.

Didn’t matter though. As long as it worked, it was fine.

She folded up the two bottles of water and the QQ gummies, stashed them in the bag, then hid the bag in a wall cavity in one of the upstairs rooms.

Then she headed back out, quickly found her mother on the main street.

“Mom, there’s a house over there with no dead people in it. Let’s go now,” she whispered in her ear.

Zhang Xiu was both surprised and thrilled — the sun was getting hotter, and everyone was clearly struggling with the heat.

The families that the village chief brought over were finding places to stay, but often several families had to share one house.

If they could have a place all to themselves, that would be perfect.

Zhang Xiu quickly helped Wang Dafeng up. “Mom, Xiaodie found a house. Let’s go.”

Wang Dafeng’s triangular eyes widened in shock — was this girl possessed or something? Since when did she get so capable?!