Qin Jiao thought for a moment and said, "There’ll be even more fun things to do when it gets colder. We can go up the mountain to gather nuts and catch wild pheasants and rabbits. When my dad has time, I’ll ask him to take us."

Us.

That single word made the flowers in Shen Yi’s chest flutter and bloom anew, crowding together in a dazzling riot of color.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. "Alright."

After the group returned home, Qin Zhonghui said goodbye to his friend Li Tao and asked Su Yun and Qin Na to help carry all the fish inside.

Most of the fish were placed in a water tank for the time being. When her parents weren’t looking, Qin Jiao carried a small basin into her space. Inside were two small, hand-length fish, thrashing about energetically.

Qin Jiao had experimented with this before. Vegetables placed in the space would stay fresh, though that might have been because they were sprinkled with Spiritual Spring Water.

’Wait, where’s the spring?’

The roughly ten-square-meter space, where Qin Jiao had stored some things, had been nearly full. But now, it actually seemed a little roomier.

’Most importantly, where did the spring in the corner go?!’

With no time to worry about the fact that the space seemed to have gotten larger, Qin Jiao looked around, only to find that a door had appeared on the wall. She pushed it open and discovered another space, five or six square meters in size.

’It’s like a... balcony?’

And the missing spring was right there in the corner of the balcony, its clear water gurgling and bubbling.

Qin Jiao was thrilled. ’So the space can upgrade itself?’

But she didn’t know what had triggered the upgrade. She decided she would review recent events. That way, the next time it upgraded, she could cross-reference what was happening at the same time to figure out the trigger conditions.

Qin Jiao first added some spring water for the two small fish, then set their basin down beside the small balcony. She sat at her desk and began writing down everything that had happened recently in a diary.

As she wrote about Shen Yi saying how happy he was, Qin Jiao didn’t notice the corners of her own mouth slowly curling into a smile.

Qin Jiao didn’t stay in the space for long, worried her parents might come looking for her. Still, she was thrilled to have confirmed that her space could evolve and might even develop other uses in the future.

After leaving the space, she went to the kitchen to help. Since they had so many fish, Qin Zhonghui and the others were planning to make some smoked fish to give to their neighbors.

Even though the neighboring households were all well-off, they were very friendly and had often helped Qin Zhonghui’s family out. A few of them even bought breakfast from them almost every day.

In modern business terms, they were long-term, regular customers.

A bit of smoked fish wasn’t worth much, but it was a good way to build goodwill and make their neighbors feel appreciated.

Qin Jiao reflected that her parents actually had a good head for business. But in her past life, there had been too much family drama for one thing, and for another, they’d never had any startup capital.

She had to help her parents get some startup capital together to open a shop.

Qin Jiao’s past life had been a difficult one, and she’d eventually gotten into online gaming and studying the related tech. But in this era, computers weren’t common yet; there weren’t even any internet cafes.

This made it difficult for Qin Jiao to earn money using a computer.

After all, she didn’t even have a computer.

Another option was investing—buying stocks she knew would later skyrocket in value. ’Well, that’s out for now,’ she thought. Those companies hadn’t even gone public yet. Besides, Qin Jiao didn’t have that kind of money on hand.

She mulled over these problems while helping her mother, and then she heard Su Yun say, "Xiao Jiao, why don’t you take some of this food over to Grandpa Du and his family next door."