The Mysterious Space

"Am I dead?"

"Where is this place?"

"Is this what it's like after you die?"

Wang Hong was floating in the air. Besides a patch of black soil below, everything else was a hazy white. He reached out to pinch his thigh, trying to prove whether he was alive or dead, but his hand passed right through it. He tried again, and his hand went through his chest and even his head. When he removed his hand, it returned to normal.

"Looks like I'm really dead. I didn't die by the wolves, but by my own hand." He felt a pang of sadness, but also a sense of relief.

Every day was a struggle, just for a bowl of thin porridge mixed with wild vegetables at night. In his twelve years of life, he had barely eaten plain rice a few times. Every day he worked hard just to find food for the next day, so he'd have the strength to find more food. What was the point of living like this for decades more? If only he had a chance to see the outside world and make a name for himself, but there were no "ifs" anymore.

"But what will happen to my younger brother if I'm gone? Can he survive? I'm dead, what can I do! Forget it! Let fate decide life and death, worrying won't help."

"So this is what it's like to be dead. It's completely different from the underworld legends. I haven't seen any other ghosts besides myself."

Wang Hong discovered that in this place, his thoughts could control his flight and even allow him to teleport. He flew around the Mysterious Space for a while before landing on the black soil. "This land is quite fertile, just a bit small, only one mu. (One mu is about 66 square meters) It should be able to grow crops, but it's a shame I'm dead, and there are no seeds here to plant. Alas, all is lost!"

He didn't know how long he stayed inside, maybe a day, maybe three to five days, maybe longer. The initial novelty wore off, and he felt incredibly bored.

Inside, there was nothing but the black soil. No other life, no sounds. The white mist all around was like a wall of fog, and no matter how hard he pushed, it wouldn't budge.

He felt like he was going crazy staying there any longer, it was worse than being in prison. At least in prison, you could see other people, and even if you were beaten every day, it was better than being confined in this dead place. He didn't know how much longer he would be stuck here.

"Is anyone there? Come out and let's chat?"

"Once upon a time, there was a rich man who bought a fine horse that could travel eight hundred li a day. The rich man thought the horse was good, but it ate fifty jin of fodder every day, which wasn't very cost-effective. The rich man had a brilliant idea. The next day, he only fed it forty-eight jin of fodder, the day after that forty-six, decreasing the amount daily. A month later, his horse died. The rich man sighed: Alas! It's just bad luck, the horse had just learned to live without eating grass when it died."

"Hahaha! Let me tell you another one. Once upon a time, there was a monkey..."

Wang Hong told himself stories, chatted, and finally sang loudly.

"I want to go out!"

"Let me out!"

"Let me out!"

Suddenly, he felt a ripple around him, his vision blurred, and he disappeared from the Mysterious Space.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying in the same spot where he had fought the wild wolf. The wolf's corpse lay quietly in a pool of blood not far away. The blood hadn't fully coagulated, indicating that not much time had passed.

"What's going on? Was that a dream?"

"It doesn't feel like a dream, that experience was very real."

As soon as he thought of the Mysterious Space, he appeared inside it again.

"Let me out!" he shouted a few times, and then he was out again.

"Go in!"

"Go out!"

Looking at the black soil before him, he no longer felt any fear. As long as he concentrated his mind, he could enter and exit freely.

Wang Hong was so excited he danced with joy, doing several somersaults in the air. He then bowed in all four directions, thanking all the gods he knew.

He had already proven that things from the outside could be brought in, and things from the inside could be taken out. His carrying basket, his medicine hoe, his hunting knife, and that giant Kudzu Root were all placed on the black soil.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! I finally have a piece of land! I'm going to plant this entire plot with crops, plant sweet potatoes, plant wheat. It's a shame there's no water, I don't know if I can grow rice." No farmer dislikes land, and Wang Hong's family had been tenant farmers for generations, so his love for the land was ingrained. Now that his wish was granted, he was naturally overjoyed.

"It's getting late, I should go back first. It would be troublesome if another wild wolf showed up." He simply bandaged his wound. He threw the wolf's carcass into the Mysterious Space, found a sturdier wooden stick, sharpened one end, and carried it in his hand.

He didn't encounter any more danger on the way home, but his wound ached with every step, making him wince. As he neared home, he entered the Mysterious Space again and took the wolf out of the carrying basket.

"Hey! Er Gouzi, why are you covered in blood?"

"Did you encounter a wild beast? It's good that you're back safely." Village elder Wang Dazhu was returning from the fields, carrying a hoe and swaying unsteadily. He was startled to see Er Gouzi covered in blood.

"At such a young age, to escape from the claws of a wild beast is like smoke rising from your ancestors' graves. You must burn high incense and thank your ancestors properly when you get back."

At his shout, people from the surroundings gathered. It was only when they got closer that they noticed the wolf's head peeking out of the carrying basket. Their jaws dropped. Even an adult wouldn't necessarily be able to hunt a wild wolf one-on-one. Some women even grabbed their sons' ears, "You're both twelve years old, look at Er Gouzi, he can fight wolves in the mountains and catch fish in the water. He can support his two younger brothers. And look at you, all you do is eat. I asked you to dig for wild vegetables, and you ran to the river to play in the water. Yesterday I asked you to collect firewood, and you climbed a tree to get bird eggs, didn't get any eggs, and ripped your clothes."

The other onlookers also discussed it. Normally, when hunting in the mountains, they would go in groups of several people to hunt wild goats, muntjacs, civets, and the like. They would not provoke wild wolves.

Seeing that he was injured and his face was pale, Wang Dazhu didn't say much more. He quickly took the carrying basket and helped carry it home.

After recuperating for two days and using some herbs, the wounds from the wolf's claws began to heal. However, the piece of flesh torn from his left arm would take at least ten more days to recover.

In the past two days, Wang Hong had entered the Mysterious Space several times and transplanted the Solomon's Seal plants, which were only three to five years old, to a corner within the space.

After repeated attempts, he discovered that besides plants, anything with life could not be brought into the Mysterious Space; not even a flea.

Furthermore, the time flow inside was indeed different from the outside. He drew markings with two incense sticks and lit them simultaneously. The incense inside burned out while the incense outside had only just begun to burn. He estimated that the time flow speed inside the Mysterious Space was twenty to thirty times faster than the outside.

"It seems I need to get some seeds and plant the land as soon as possible. A day inside is equivalent to almost a month outside, it's too wasteful."

"Although this trip into the mountains was dangerous, the harvest was also significant: over ten Solomon's Seal plants, tens of jin of Kudzu Root, and a wolf. I'll go to town later to sell them and buy some seeds with the money."

Wang Hong did not tell his younger brother about the Mysterious Space. Firstly, the matter was too bizarre, and secondly, he dared not let anyone else know. If outsiders found out, Wang Hong was sure someone would come with a knife to split open his head in search of the mysterious gemstone. Whether they could find the mysterious gemstone in his head was not his concern; he would look first and find other methods if he couldn't. As for a poor boy with no background or power dying, who would care?

It wasn't that he didn't trust his younger brother, but the best way to keep a secret was to keep it buried, never letting a second person know. If his younger brother knew, would his future wife also need to know? And then her parents and siblings? Everyone has someone they are close and trust. In the end, it might become a secret known to the whole world.