Chapter 01
“I knew she was no good. Always hunched over like someone had ripped the spine right out of her.”
“Exactly. That whole family’s rotten. That Shen Meng loved stirring up trouble and spreading gossip. Good thing she finally fell into the river and drowned. And look at her husband now—tsk tsk. He used to be such a decent man, but she dragged him down into this mess.”
“And their kids too—bah, not a single one turned out right. The eldest steals chickens and dogs all day, gets into fights, even harasses young wives. The second one’s even worse, got arrested for illegal profiteering, and still dared curse out his fourth aunt. A damned little bastard, struck by heaven. Poor little Niu though, married off to an old man old enough to be her grandfather. And the youngest… such a pitiful child. So sick, and they wouldn’t even hire a doctor. Died so young. Ah…”
“Hehehe, maybe she liked it. Listen to you old hens running your mouths.”
The noise made Shen Meng stare at the blurry scene before her. Deep down she knew she was dreaming, yet when she looked at the disheveled man collapsed on the ground, her chest tightened painfully. Hearing the crowd talk about what had happened to the three children hurt her even more, an ache so deep it was almost unbearable.
She wanted to step closer, wanted to see the man’s face clearly, wanted to understand why she kept having these bizarre, surreal dreams.
Shen Meng dug her nails hard into her palm, trying to force herself awake enough to think clearly. Finally she managed to take a step forward. Just as the man lifted his head, she suddenly heard someone calling out.
“Wife… Xiaomeng… my son… where’s my daughter? Where’s my daughter…”
Huff!!!
Shen Meng jolted upright in bed. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and let out a long breath. Picking up her phone, she saw it was only three-thirty in the morning.
She collapsed back onto the bed. After tossing and turning several times, she still couldn’t fall asleep. The broken dream refused to continue, and in frustration she punched the mattress.
Since she couldn’t sleep anyway, she got up and began writing down everything she had just dreamed.
Ever since the serious car accident half a year ago, she had constantly dreamed of strange scenes. At first it was a woman who looked exactly like her locking the door and abusing children. Then came backroom gossip and malicious slander. Later, the woman’s reputation was ruined after being exposed, while the children—scarred by the abuse they suffered growing up—slowly developed twisted personalities.
Things only got worse after that. The man who had always protected her suffered a head injury and was sent home. Once a radiant, admired soldier, he became a fool everyone mocked and bullied.
Shen Meng instinctively felt these dreams couldn’t be meaningless.
Half a year ago, during that accident, the speeding car had clipped her and sent her flying straight into a tricycle piled with scrap metal. A steel rod had pierced through her abdomen. The medical team fought for three days and three nights before finally saving her life.
That accident left her permanently unable to have children.
She had been depressed for a very long time afterward. It wasn’t that she had necessarily wanted marriage or children, but that didn’t mean she wanted the right to choose taken away from her.
Ever since learning she could never bear children, even puppies looked unbearably adorable to her.
Still, not everything had been tragic. Despite her terrible luck, she had somehow gained a spatial storage dimension.
Unfortunately, her body never fully recovered, so even though she was thrilled about the space, she hadn’t had much energy to make use of it.
Holding a pen, Shen Meng scribbled thoughts across the page—from her dreams, to the accident, to the portable space she could enter and leave at will. Suddenly, realization hit her.
She might be in serious trouble.
None of this looked like a good sign.
A chill ran through her body as she hurriedly began calculating her savings.
Most of the money she had earned over the years had gone into buying this house near the suburbs. Right now, the money in her account consisted of 1.8 million yuan in accident compensation, plus another 1.6 million from her company as慰问金 and settlement payments.
Adding in her car, she could probably get another hundred thousand or so secondhand.
Gritting her teeth, Shen Meng still refused to include the house in her calculations.
She had worked herself to the bone for that apartment—late nights, endless drinking sessions with clients, scraping together every cent to buy it. She had only lived there for two years.
Now the housing market was terrible. She’d bought it for 3.75 million yuan, but if she sold it now, she’d be lucky to get 3 million.
Shen Meng couldn’t bear it!!!
She shook her head violently, forcing herself to abandon the thought. What did it matter if she couldn’t bear it? If she really ended up disappearing one day and living in the world from her dreams, then every time she thought about an empty house she could never live in again, she’d die from regret.
Early the next morning, after breakfast and a quick cleanup, Shen Meng grabbed her property deed and paperwork and rushed to a real estate agency. Although her apartment was in a remote area, it was part of a good residential complex, and a new subway station had just been built nearby. She estimated the price shouldn’t be too bad.
The problem was that she needed cash immediately.
What if she suddenly disappeared one day? If she truly ended up living in that dream world, she didn’t want her house eventually benefiting some random stranger.
After entrusting the agency to list the property, she hurried off to stockpile supplies.
Near the agency was the largest wholesale market in the area.
Her space contained ten mu of farmland—about one and a half acres—and besides the land there was only a pond. Nothing else. It wasn’t nearly as magical as she’d imagined. Still, the temperature inside remained constant. Once her health improved slightly, she had gone in and stayed there for a while. It wasn’t dry at all, just frighteningly empty.
At the market, Shen Meng first bought seeds: wheat, corn, sesame, soybeans, black beans, and all sorts of grain crops. Then came vegetable seeds—green beans, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, cabbage, radishes, leafy greens. As long as the store carried it, she practically bought them out.
She had no farming experience and was afraid of killing everything she planted. Better to buy extra and give herself room for mistakes.
After purchasing the seeds, she moved on to farming tools. Whenever she didn’t understand something, she asked for demonstrations or instruction manuals. The shop owner looked at the delicate, pretty Shen Meng and frowned.
“Miss, you don’t look like someone who works the fields. Why buy all this stuff?”
Shen Meng smiled.
“You don’t know? Our company is collaborating with an agricultural university. We’re buying these as donations for students. If you’ve got any high-tech equipment that doesn’t require much effort, include those too. Some executives from our company want to experience farming themselves. Afterward we’ll donate everything to the school.”
The owner’s eyes lit up. He knew a big spender had arrived.
He immediately pulled out promotional catalogs from partner manufacturers: automatic harvesters, automatic threshers, automatic seeders, automatic rice transplanters…
Shen Meng’s eyes lit up even brighter.
Her space had ten mu of land. If she had to work it all with just a hoe, it would kill half of her. With machines like these, life would become far easier.
“Alright, boss. Give me your lowest price. And flour mills, noodle machines—anything you’ve got, I want two of each. Include all the spare parts too. And make sure you issue invoices, okay? Don’t cheat me, or my bosses won’t approve reimbursement.”
The shop owner nodded so enthusiastically he looked like a lucky waving cat, grinning from ear to ear.
