Chapter 8.1

“Yes, every 4 s.h.i.+ chen1. So everyday we can harvest three times, or at least twice. Which is to say……”

Cheng Bi Yuan paused and pondered the implications deeply, “If we harvest twice a day, we can get approximately 10 chicken and 10 rabbits. We won’t eat all those ourselves. If we sell them in the market in exchange for money, that would help us out even more.”

“Ye is right. Once we sold these chickens and rabbits, we will be able to hire a doctor to treat ye, and ye will be able to recover faster!” Mrs. Cheng looked at the man who had been bed-ridden for over half a month, she sighed deeply.

Cheng Xiao Xiao was quite aware of the dire financial situation of this family, she said gently, “I agree. Other than the vegetables and meat that we need, we should sell the rest for money. It would make it much easier to buy other goods.”

“That’s great. The market opens in three days. We will sell our produces then!”

The three of them continue to discuss their future plans until the three young children returned home before Cheng Xiao Xiao and Mrs. Cheng left Mr. Cheng’s house to prepare lunch.

After lunch, the three young ones went off to play on their own again. Cheng Xiao Xiao, on the other hand, returned to her own quarters and entered into the dimension.

She looked at her fully grown and fully covered vegetable field and smiled. She had finally came clean to her parents. From now on, she could produce products from the dimension without having to worry about making up excuses.

She had wandered aimlessly next to the pond. Staring at the pond that’s so clear you could see straight to the bottom, she couldn’t help but to smack herself on her forehead. How could she had forgotten to raise fish? This was good stuff. Her family could feast on them, and they could be sold for money.

Without further ado, she ran into her cottage and in front of her screen. She sold all the white radishes in the warehouse and converted the proceeds into fish larva for the pond.

Looking at the in-game currency that she had just blew through a third of them, she couldn’t help but said out loud, “Wouldn’t it be so nice if I spend these in the real world?”

“Replying host: you will be able to take the in-game currency out to the real world when your dimension has reached level 50.”

“What?!” Cheng Xiao Xiao was genuinely surprised, “The dimension can level up?”

Naturally, she had level up her farm when she was playing the game in her past life. She just didn’t expect the dimension could level up as well. The idea of being able to raise high level animals brought sparkles into her eyes.

She swallowed hard, and asked gently, “How do I level up the dimension? What do I need to do?”

“Replying host: host can provide new products or new animals needed by the dimension in exchange for leveling up. Every time the dimension level up, there will be new facilities!”

Was that how it worked?

Add new species to the dimension?

Cheng Xiao Xiao never would have imaged it. This was quite different than the previous version that she had played with, entirely different even. But, this flexibility was only more beneficial to her.

Learning that pleasant surprises would continue to appear in the dimension had made her very happy.

She strolled through the field and the farm one last time and left after she’d confirmed that everything was in good order.

After leaving her room and notifying her parents, she left the house. She wanted to see if she could really transplant new species into the dimension.

Never mind whether she would really level up the dimension, the fact that items in the dimension and the real world could intermix was more of a pleasant surprise to her.

She picked up her pace and couldn’t control the big grin on her face.

Leaving the house, she found a small stream. She could see green moss, a small and steady stream, and her siblings playing by the stream. She stopped and watched them for a while but didn’t go any closer. What could she collect into the dimension? ___

Note:

1.     s.h.i.+ chen – time unit used in ancient China. One s.h.i.+ chen is the equivalent of 2 hours.

Chapter 8.2

Walking and pondering at the same time, she wandered further and further away from home and onto a path to the back of the mountain.

She figured any precious items would be further into the mountain, so she headed subconsciously toward the back of the mountain.

To get to the back of the mountain, she’d need to walk pa.s.s a bamboo forest. A breeze brought over a faint smell of fresh bamboo, Cheng Xiao Xiao couldn’t help but looked up. An entire mountain of green bamboo, slender, tall, and elegant, wavering slightly in the wind. Their leaves vibrating rhythmically in the wind like nature’s melody.

At this moment in time, what she felt was pure exhilaration. All her worries had dissipated along with her fatigue. Inside her heart was a pure and cool world.

Bamboo could be seen all over in the countryside. Not only do they look pretty, their leaves, juice, fruits, fungus, bark, root, and shoots could all be used as herbs. Most people were aware that bamboo shoots were very edible.

She wondered if she should transplant bamboo shoots into the dimension.

Once she thought of this, she got to work right away. Couldn’t hurt, so might as well give it a try.

At a moist area, she discovered a few bamboo shoots. She didn’t have a hoe with her, so she collected a few st.u.r.dier bamboo branches and directly used them to dug out the bamboo shoots.

After lots of effort and dripping in sweat, Cheng Xiao Xiao was able to dug out two bamboo shoots and moved them into the dimension.

“Discovered new species. Dimension has reached level 2!”

Cheng Xiao Xiao, who had just entered the dimension heard the system voice right away. She was taken aback a little. Wiping off some of her sweat on her forehead, she smiled bitterly, “Just level 2? That will take forever to get to level 50!”

“Well, guess I should be glad I leveled up at all. Look like I will have to keep looking for new species to transplant!”

She rested for a little bit, didn’t bother to go see where the bamboo shoots were placed and left the dimension. She left the bamboo forest and wanted to keep looking before it gets dark.

She started looking around the foothills!

No reason to try transplanting commonly-seen species. After all, the dimension already had a pretty large collection.

Perhaps it was too close to home, after searching for a half a day, she did not find anything worthwhile to be transplanted. She leaned against a pine tree and sighed.

Did she just wasted all that time?

It looked to be around 3 – 5 PM, she needed to head back home or it would get unsafe!

She wasn’t happy but she was about to turn around and make another trip tomorrow. After all, it would take a bit of time to get up to level 50.

Hissssss….

She was just about to turn around when she heard a strange noise. She had a bad feeling, it sounded like something was coming toward her.

She grew up in a village. She has instinct in these matters. She looked toward the direction where the noise came from.

Once she was able to locate the origin of the noise, she had goose b.u.mps and felt all her hairs stood on their ends.

Snake!

A snake several meters long appeared in front of her.

A banded krait (Chinese literal meaning – “golden ring snake”)!

It got it’s name from the gold-ring like scales. Top 3 snakes in China, extremely poisonous!

Why was it here?

Cheng Xiao Xiao recognized the snake. Even though it’s extremely poisonous, but it’s photo-sensitive. Normally it curls up with its head under it’s belly the day time. It has a mild temperament and slow in motion, doesn’t usually go after people. It’s only active in the night time when they hunt!

This one almost looked like it was targeting her intentionally!