Chapter 1: Farming Space

The room seemed to tilt, but it wasn't because of any earth tremors. A bone-thin figure hovered beside her, wracked with silent sobs. Her skeletal hand, cold and insistent, shook her with a force that mimicked the phantom quake within. As vision swam from her sudden awakening, the figure solidified - a woman, frail as windblown leaves, tears carving tracks through the dust on her cheeks.

"Jing Huiyuan! Thank heavens, child, you're awake! What would we do without you?" the woman cried, her voice a rasp against the dry air.

Jing Huiyuan. The name echoed strangely in her mind. Suddenly, the memories of the body's original owner flooded into her head. She was no longer just waking up; instead, she was reborn into the skin of this Jing Huiyuan, a name she had also carried in her past life.

This Jing Huiyuan was a girl whose existence had been prematurely terminated by severe hunger. She learned that their family had been expelled from the main family due to her grandmother's demand to sell Jing Huiyuan to a brothel, allowing Jing Rui, the eldest grandson, Jing Huiyuan's cousin, to attend school. Jing Rui was her father's older brother's son and highly favored by the family. Her father, although filial, vehemently disagreed with this and loved his daughter dearly. Their disagreement led to their expulsion from the family, leaving them with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

They built a small hut on the village outskirts near the foot of the mountain. Others avoided their family, unwilling to associate with their misfortune. The family survived on wild vegetables growing around the mountain's base. Jing Cheng, her father, occasionally attempted to hunt in the mountains, which were teeming with wild animals, though difficult to catch without proper tools and skills. Thankfully, Jing Cheng managed to catch a few and sell them for coarse rice in the market. For the past six months, their meals consisted of coarse rice and wild vegetables, eaten twice daily. However, this diet didn't provide enough nutrition for a growing child like Jing Huiyuan, leading to her severe malnourishment and eventual demise.

A grimace flickered across Jing Huiyuan's face, but it was as subtle as a butterfly's flit in the wind. Thankfully, Madam Su Lan, who turned out to be the original owner's mother, was already halfway across the room and missed it. The news of the original Jing Huiyuan's fate, like a bitter pill, sat heavy in her stomach. The air, thin and acrid, seemed to press against her chest, mimicking the suffocating despair that had claimed the girl's life.

Madam Su Lan's movements were slow and measured as she retrieved a clay cup, her every action infused with a quiet grace that belied the hardships etched on her face. Jing Huiyuan watched as her mother carefully filled it, the water dribbling through a hairline crack near the rim, leaving the cup only half-full. Yet, despite the imperfection, it was offered with a tenderness that warmed Jing Huiyuan's heart. For the first time, she truly felt the embrace of a mother's love, a stark contrast to the cold self-reliance that had defined her previous life.

A tiny hand tugged at her sleeve, pulling Jing Huiyuan from her thoughts. Her little brother, barely four years old, stood before her, eyes wide with concern. In his dirt-smudged fingers, he held a chipped clay bowl brimming with a thin, green soup. "Sister," he mumbled, his voice barely a whisper, "You need to eat."

The words, so simple, struck Jing Huiyuan like a fist to the heart. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring the image of her brother. In his round face and mop of unruly hair, she saw a ghost from her past life, another little brother lost to the cruel grip of the apocalypse. This small, fragile being, untouched by that darkness, filled her with a fierce protectiveness she hadn't known she possessed.

Gathering him close, she crushed him to her chest, the surprise of her embrace sending a ripple of giggles through his thin frame. When she pulled back, her own tears mingling with the snot on his cheek, she saw the worry replaced by a shy smile.

He held the bowl to her lips, his small hands unsteady but determined. The soup, made from scavenged greens and gritty rice, was bitter on her tongue, a reflection of their meager existence. Yet, with each spoonful, a warmth bloomed in her chest, fueled not by the meager broth, but by the love radiating from her brother's eyes.

Madam Su Lan's eyes landed on the house's storage, her eyes scanning the near-empty containers where coarse rice once rested. The stark reality of their financial struggle gripped her, leaving an unspoken understanding in the room. With a soft sigh, she suggested, "I think I'll join your father to gather more wild vegetables."

Madam Su Lan knelt beside them, a gentle sadness softening her gaze. "Your sister needs to sleep, and you're strong enough to help me gather greens, aren't you?" she murmured, brushing a stray hair from Jing Yufei's forehead. Her words, though soft, held an unwavering resolve. With a reluctant nod, his hand slipped from Jing Huiyuan's sleeves, leaving a chilling emptiness in its wake.

The quiet house felt like a weight on Jing Huiyuan's chest. But a flicker of hope, stubborn and defiant, refused to be extinguished. They wouldn't starve, not while she had breath in her lungs and strength in her hands.

She inhaled and tightened her fists, feeling the pulse of life within her. The table before her, once a stark symbol of scarcity, became a canvas for her unwritten promise. In her vision, it transformed, no longer depicting hunger but brimming with an abundance of food. It was a scene where no one would go to bed hungry.

In her account of her past life, Jing Huiyuan remembered a harrowing snow apocalypse. She had been betrayed by her best friend upon the revelation of her newfound power, the ability to manipulate space. In this apocalyptic world, there were no zombies or monsters, just relentless, heavy snowfall lasting three months, piling up to eight stories high on their building. Jing Huiyuan, bearing the same name, resided on the ninth floor, her imminent death drawing near. The scarcity of food was dire, as farming proved impossible due to the lack of arable land, resembling an endless expanse like the Atlantic.

Wealthy individuals had stored vast food reserves even before the snow apocalypse, while the underprivileged, including Jing Huiyuan, had to engage in scouting missions to excavate supermarkets buried in the snow for supplies. Unfortunately, the desperation drove many to lose their morality, resorting to cannibalism.

In this harsh world, some people awakened extraordinary powers, such as the ability to create tornadoes or fireballs. Jing Huiyuan, in contrast, possessed only enhanced physical strength, making her relatively ineffective in combat, though she still participated in scouting missions. Others with more advantageous abilities dug through the snow, while those with less practical powers carried supplies back to their vehicles.

Everything changed when Jing Huiyuan awakened her second power—a personal space, about 10 square meters in size, which she could enter and exit at will. Inside this space was a seed machine with an endless supply of seeds. She began farming, although the plants grew no faster than conventional crops. She yearned to share her newfound resource, but with only 10 square meters, the challenge of providing for everyone appeared insurmountable.

Jing Huiyuan chose to keep her space a secret and devised a plan to grow crops within it, intending to share them with everyone while disguising them as regular supermarket vegetables. This way, she was able to help others while keeping herself safe.

Jing Huiyuan's secret endeavor to cultivate crops within her hidden space had been a well-kept secret, and her plants flourished. Everything she planted grew well and were of high quality. She meticulously cared for the vegetables, knowing that their hidden bounty could be a lifeline for everyone in her building in the snow apocalypse.

However, her best friend eventually stumbled upon her secret agricultural sanctuary. Fearful and driven by jealousy, the friend reported Jing Huiyuan's abilities to the authorities, setting in motion a chain of events that would change her life forever. The authorities apprehended her, subjecting her to a series of scientific experiments with the singular goal of extracting her extraordinary power and transferring it to themselves.

Despite the ominous circumstances, Jing Huiyuan maintained her composure, even as the researchers administered an experimental injection. To their surprise, the medicine they introduced into her system triggered a violent anaphylactic reaction. Her body convulsed, and her breathing became labored as her heart raced. In a cruel twist of fate, the very experiment meant to exploit her power lead to a tragic and abrupt end.

In a sudden realization, she questioned whether she still possessed her space. Without hesitation, she closed her eyes and mentally called out, "Space!" As her consciousness dimmed, she experienced a surreal moment of clarity, sensing a strengthening connection to her hidden sanctuary.

Upon regaining awareness, she found herself standing in front of an expansive terrain. She marveled at the transformation of her space, whispering in awe, "Is this... now my space?" She gazed around in wonder, discovering that her space had not only endured but had expanded in size. Yet, only the original 10-square-meter area was lush and green, adorned with the plants she had cultivated earlier, vibrant and ready for harvest. Attempting to walk toward the barren part of her space, she encountered an invisible barrier, akin to glass, that blocked her path.

In an unexpected turn of events, a digital screen materialized before her. As she read the displayed text, it indicated that this inaccessible part of her space could only be unlocked by earning more points. Puzzled by this revelation, she questioned, "So, accumulating points will grant access to all of this? But how can I earn these points?"

The screen responded with fresh text, stating, "To gain points, you need to perform good deeds."

As Jing Huiyuan strolled across her small, fertile plot of land, she noticed that the fruits of the plants from her previous life remained remarkably fresh, showing no signs of decay. Her attention focused on a single tomato plant with a cluster of fruits, each displaying vibrant red hues and numbering around 50. She picked all of them, leaving the plant without fruits. It was then that she observed the next text on the screen.

"Do you wish to delete this plant?" the message inquired. She swiftly chose to decline.

Realizing the implications, she understood that as long as she refrained from deleting it, the plant would continue bearing fruits, providing a steady source of sustenance.

However, before anything else, she turned her gaze to her own body, acknowledging the severe malnourishment that had plagued her. As a 6-year-old child who appeared closer to the age of 4, her bony frame and protruding ribs were stark indicators of her dire condition. She recognized that her first priority should be to ensure her own health, avoiding a fate similar to the original owner of the body.

Her family's condition was no better, and their well-being took precedence. Her memories of her past life, growing up in an orphanage with her blood-related little brother, left her with questions about her parents. The fact that her brother's appearance was identical in this life led her to the conclusion that their parents from her past life must be the same as in her current life. Feeling the love and care from her parents in this life, she speculated that her parents in the past had a reason for leaving them in the orphanage and would not have done that if they had a choice.

With this, she started to eat the tomatoes. She didn't have to clean them as this place has a disinfecting function. She ate around 10 of them, thinking that she should give some to her family too, but that would surely raise suspicions.

Hence she decided that she would go somewhere around the foot of the mountain and pretend she got the tomatoes from there. To prove her story, she planned to uproot the tomato plant from her space and transplant it there. It was resistant against drought and floods, so there should not be any problems.