Chapter 2: The Jade Bracelet Space Connects to Another's Space

Just after returning home and locking the door, Lin Meng collapsed in pain onto the ground.

But before she could even touch the ground, she felt a wave of dizziness and found herself in a mysterious space.

The square, enclosed space had no doors or windows, yet it was brightly lit; aside from some strange miscellaneous items on the floor, there was nothing else.

Lin Meng picked up the object by her foot, only to find it was a half-molded, hard loaf of bread that smelled terribly pungent; she immediately tossed it away in disgust.

After calming down, Lin Meng gradually realized she might possess a personal space.

The bracelet her grandfather had given her in a dream turned out to be a spatial magic artifact?

Lin Meng never dared to dream that such a tremendous fortune would actually fall upon her.

Without time to think it over, another wave of dizziness struck, and she found herself back in the real courtyard.

She lifted her sleeve to look; the jade bracelet was indeed gone, but her wrist now bore a tattoo-like ring that encircled it completely, thin and not noticeable unless examined closely.

After a moment's thought, Lin Meng focused her mind on entering the space, and in the blink of an eye she was back inside it.

After several consecutive tries, the operation of entering and exiting the space became increasingly proficient, and once she adapted she no longer felt dizzy.

Overjoyed, Lin Meng cleared out all the strange junk from the space and then began trying to store items inside it.

This operation was even simpler than she had imagined; whatever she thought of could be realized instantly.

She first stored the large fish-rearing water tank from the courtyard, then the rattan chair used for lounging, the bunch of rotten grapes she had just cleaned up but not yet thrown away, and finally a basket of chicken feed.

When she wanted to try a few more times, however, she felt her head swimming and her spirit drained, so Lin Meng stopped.

It seemed that storing items in the space, or retrieving them from it, both consumed mental energy.

Having just acquired the space, her mental energy was insufficient, so she could not operate it too frequently.

After lying down at home for a while, seeing that mealtime was approaching, Lin Meng immediately set out for the town to buy what her grandfather needed.

Grandfather had cried poor the previous night, saying he could barely keep the pot boiling, and urged her to be sure to burn more paper money for him.

Thinking of how her grandfather had no descendants to look after him in the netherworld, and that even after death he would have to wear patched clothes, which drove him to come to her in a dream, Lin Meng felt a pang of sorrow.

Fortunately, her grandfather still knew to come to her in a dream to discuss things; if he had encountered a stubborn sort, his descendants would surely have suffered misfortune.

Lin Meng also knew that if the paper money were burned too late, the consequences would be unthinkable.

White Ridge Town lay five kilometers from their village; Lin Meng rode her little donkey there, it was not far, and she soon arrived in town, finding a shop that sold funeral wreaths.

Upon entering, she said:

"Boss, I want to buy paper money."

Recently it has been the off-season for funerals, business is poor, and the boss was worrying about making money when he saw a young lady who seemed well-off walk in, specifically asking for paper money, and he immediately greeted her with a smile.

"Little sis, buying paper money? What kind do you want?"

Lin Meng didn't care about the varieties, she simply said: "As long as it works, I just need to ensure that after burning it, my relatives underground can receive it, and that it be worth something."

Upon hearing this, the boss was delighted; he thought she was quite superstitious.

He immediately took out several kinds of paper money, rubbed his hands together, and said:

"Little sis, take a look—silver ingots and gold ingots like these are quite valuable; burning them will surely please the ancestors."

"There's also this spirit money, available in all denominations, currently fashionable; tossing out ten-thousand-unit spirit money makes the ancestors look really impressive."

"The remaining round paper with square holes is just simply cut; it's not worth much money."

Lin Meng hadn't expected buying paper money to involve so many varieties, and not knowing which kind her grandfather preferred, she waved her hand broadly.

"Give me a bit of each of these; tell me how much it will cost."

The boss grinned broadly, then held up two fingers: "All together, that's two thousand."

Lin Meng widened her eyes in surprise; so expensive—money for the dead is really easy to make!

Nevertheless, she paid promptly, but as she was leaving the boss called her back.

"Little sis, why not buy some funeral wreaths too? Or fancy cars and beautiful women to burn?"

Lin Meng halted her steps, recalling how last night her grandfather had complained; the place he seemed to be in looked truly dilapidated, as bare as four walls.

But after a moment's thought, she realized she didn't know the situation there, so burning the money for her grandfather should suffice.

Moreover, she had her own motives; her grandfather had given her such a great gift, and he certainly had a hand in it.

If she were to provide him with everything he needed all at once, what would she do if he stopped coming?

Having finally obtained the feeling that the old Lin family had someone in the netherworld, she naturally could not let this connection be severed so easily.

Thus she declined the boss's kind offer.

"For now I don't need them; how about you give me a business card instead? I expect I'll still need to buy from you."

The boss, with a strange expression, shoved a few business cards into Lin Meng's hands; after she left, he muttered to himself.

"What a strange person—does her family have frequent deaths? She might be a middleman."

Good grief, even this line of work has become so cutthroat nowadays?

Carrying several large bags of paper money, Lin Meng could barely move.

Fortunately, White Ridge Town usually has little foot traffic and few surveillance cameras; she found a deserted corner, quickly stored the paper money in her space, and then hurried home.

Ye Heng had just finished dealing with a batch of mutant zombies; new and old wounds tormented him, and having been separated from his teammates, he had gone three days and nights without sleep, his whole body on the verge of collapsing.

He rested briefly in a concealed ruin, both hungry and thirsty, his vision dimming.

He licked his dry, chapped lips, then extended his mental power into the space, intending to retrieve that moldy loaf of bread to stave off hunger.

The next second, he was dumbfounded.

Originally the space had been empty, but suddenly many things he had never seen appeared; upon closer inspection, each one shocked him.

A clean water source, a huge tank full to the brim! Inside it even swam several plump fish!

And there was a bag of fruit he had never seen before; judging by how plump the grains were, it was absolutely the highest-quality fruit he had ever encountered!

Besides that, there was a large bag of powdery substance; he took a pinch, cupped it in his palm, sniffed it, and his eyes widened as his breathing grew rapid.

It was flour ground from grain!

Ye Heng was so excited in an instant that he almost cried out.

In the Wasteland era, how long has it been since these outcasts who cannot live in the evolution special zone have seen such fine food?

At this moment, Ye Heng was extremely excited, seeing so many "top-grade goods" in the space, almost moved to tears by joy.

He scooped some water from the fish tank and drank a few mouthfuls; although it was fish-raising water, it tasted without any polluted rot, obviously a purified clean water source!

He then took a small bunch of grapes, carefully stuffing each one into his mouth to chew.

With a sweet-sour taste and a hint of astringency, it was the most delicious food he had eaten in over twenty years of life!

At this moment, Ye Heng felt that heaven must be pitying him, finally bestowing a blessing upon him.

Suddenly, he saw several more bags of stuff appear in the corner.

Upon opening them, his brows furrowed.

These are…… the paper money burned for the dead during the civilized era before the catastrophe?

Where did these come from? How could they suddenly appear in his personal space?

After thinking, Ye Heng threw all these paper money of unknown origin out of the space.

These things are useless; they no longer believe in gods, and folk rituals like offerings have long been abandoned.

The paper money is useless, takes up space, and is even a bit unlucky; it cannot stay in his space.

Lin Meng still didn't know that the paper money offered to her grandfather was gone……