Chapter 8: Inventory Slots

[Congratulations to the host for opening the beginner's gift pack. You have received cabbage seeds x5, wheat seeds x5, and 1 backpack slot.]

A backpack icon suddenly appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen. The ten packets of vegetable seeds were deposited inside. Fang Mingxi tapped on it and saw the two types of seeds compressed into a single slot, with the number 989 displayed outside.

It was not hard to guess that this number represented the capacity limit of the backpack slots.

Fang Mingxi was initially a bit disappointed that she hadn't received anything particularly powerful, but the sight of the backpack slot swept that feeling away.

It was essentially a storage space. In the future, she could hide valuable items from home in the backpack to prevent them from being tampered with or stolen by malicious people.

The red berries she had picked earlier were still in the panel's basket. Using her mind, she moved them into the backpack.

The basket emptied instantly, and the backpack slot count adjusted to 988.

With the berries transferred and the basket empty, the panel's countdown was still cooling down, but a new progress bar had appeared for the handcart.

Fang Mingxi tapped the progress bar, and "1%" appeared below it.

She pulled her finger back, deep in thought. If items from the forest could be temporarily stored in the basket and then moved to the backpack to increase the handcart's progress bar, did reaching one hundred percent mean she could unlock the cart?

That seemed the only logical conclusion. She had picked about one catty of red berries today; if 1% equated to one catty, she would just need to gather one hundred catties of items.

Closing the panel, Fang Mingxi began planning how to find an excuse to go up the mountain again tomorrow.

For now, the advantage was still on her side. Although He Xi’s luck was heaven-defying, her early-stage gains were limited to earning money and finding food.

As long as she protected her grandparents well and used the mushrooms found in the mountains to make money, surviving the initial period would be no problem.

She suddenly felt that being reborn as a child was a blessing. Nowadays, one needed an introduction letter to travel, and a lone adult was easily targeted.

Being a child meant no one would notice a toddler who hadn't even grown teeth. She could sneak around to sell goods, perhaps even sabotaging He Xi’s business ahead of time.

However, this was just Fang Mingxi's unilateral speculation. Future events would surely deviate; the things she had foreseen through the jade pendant were the original trajectory after the original Fang Mingxi’s death. Now that she had arrived, the butterfly had flapped its wings, and there was no telling if things would still follow that path.

If the original route remained, she would never let the He family off. If not, it would depend on whether the He family crossed her path.

...

At the He residence.

As night fell, the family finished their meal and returned to their respective rooms to prepare for sleep.

Liu Xiuhua took He Xi to wash her feet before carrying her back to the room to sleep.

Just as Liu Xiuhua was about to close the door, her four grandsons, who should have been asleep long ago, squeezed in. They held a basket with a mysterious air and winked at her.

Liu Xiuhua put her hands on her hips. "What are you boys up to now? Your sister is trying to sleep."

He Tian couldn't hold back any longer, covering his mouth and giggling foolishly. "Grandma, guess what we found today?"

He Lei, He Gao, and He Xin also looked expectant. "Grandma, guess what good things we found?"

Liu Xiuhua slowly closed the door and reached out to flick each of them on the forehead. "Guess, guess, guess! You rascal boys, making me guess—did you take your sister up the mountain again?"

He Tian couldn't contain himself, muttering behind his hands, "Grandma, we did go to the mountain, but we dug up ginseng."

"What did you say? What ginseng?" Liu Xiuhua trembled, her face filled with astonishment.

He Gao moved aside the wild grass covering the basket and pulled out two ginseng roots as long as his forearm, still caked with mud.

"Grandma, these two were found by Xixi on the mountain, and this one was found by Xiaotian."

He placed the two roots into Liu Xiuhua's stunned hands, then pulled a third one from the basket—this one shaped remarkably like a human doll.

Holding all three roots, feeling their weight and the scent of damp earth, Liu Xiuhua couldn't recover for a long time.

After a long while, she mechanically turned her eyes from the ginseng in her hands to her grandsons, who were waiting in anticipation. She felt as if she were dreaming.

Ginseng—three roots of it.

A family in the neighboring brigade had recently dug up a single root and were lucky enough to sell it to the county hospital director for over a hundred yuan.

She had heard the other brigade members say that root was only the size of a palm. Now that her family suddenly had three, each larger than the last, Liu Xiuhua felt like she had struck it rich.

She looked out into the courtyard. Her husband was still washing his feet, and her two daughters-in-law were heating water for baths. The small courtyard was packed with various items; with so many people, it felt very crowded.

Thanks to Xixi's father serving in the military, the family's conditions had improved significantly over the years. They had moved out of a mud-brick house that leaked whenever it rained and had used her youngest son's allowance along with the family's savings to build four brick-and-tile rooms.

Liu Xiuhua had two sons, and the He family hadn't separated, so each couple had one room.

The two rooms on the sides were for the sons, the center was the main hall, and the room next to the kitchen belonged to Liu Xiuhua and He Daicai.

With so many children, four rooms were clearly insufficient. She had already discussed with her husband that they would build another room as soon as the next allowance arrived.

Now, with three ginseng roots, she didn't need to wait for the allowance. Selling them would be enough to build not just one, but three or four rooms, with plenty left over.

Liu Xiuhua suppressed her shock, then spoke with a grave face to her grandsons: "Does anyone else know about this? If not, you must keep your mouths shut, or don't blame Grandma for spanking you."

The boys nodded repeatedly.

He Gao: "Don't worry, Grandma. No one saw us when we dug them up. The ones Xixi found were from our second trip when we snuck up there."

He Lei: "That's right, Grandma, absolutely no one saw."

Liu Xiuhua patted their heads approvingly. "Good, you boys are clever. Next time you encounter something like this, come back and tell Grandma or the adults first; otherwise, it could lead to trouble."

Although the people in the brigade were simple-minded and wouldn't usually snatch things from children, this was about ginseng—something that could be sold to supplement the household. She couldn't guarantee that no one would have crooked thoughts.

Still, her family's children were truly lucky to find such treasures. Xixi was truly the family's little lucky star.

They were in the middle of the busy harvest season, so she would find a suitable time to sell the ginseng after things calmed down to avoid drawing attention.

After praising the children, she walked back to the bed and kissed He Xi.

The little girl had just washed her face and smelled lovely; Liu Xiuhua couldn't help but kiss her a few more times.

"Our Xixi is the real hero. When Grandma sells the ginseng, I'll take you all to the commune market."

He Xi felt the warm breath tickling her face and giggled. "Grandma, I want to eat candy."

"Grandma, I want White Rabbit Creamy Candy too."

"Alright."

"Grandma, we'll buy malt extract for Xixi."

"Okay."

"Grandma, I want to sleep next to you tonight..."

"Absolutely not!"