Chapter 11: The Foundation of One’s Character Begins to Take Shape

On the mountain, Xiao Weiguo chopped bamboo while simultaneously storing it into his space. Soon, a pile of bamboo appeared on the empty ground within. With a flicker, he entered the space and, using his mind, processed all the bamboo, crafting three fenced enclosures—just enough to use up that one plot of land.

He planned to raise chickens, rabbits, and pigs in these three pens respectively. Later, he could wander the mountainside to search for a rabbit warren. If he could find just one male and one female rabbit, it would be as good as having several hundred in no time. Rabbits, after all, bred with astonishing speed—so long as food was plentiful.

Unfortunately, after cutting the bamboo, Xiao Weiguo scoured the mountains but caught no rabbits. He did find a few warrens and saw traces of rabbits, but they were over a meter away—too far to pull them directly into his space. He hadn’t yet tried drawing living creatures from a greater distance, but reckoned it should work for something like a rabbit, since he'd already succeeded with heavy fish.

Turning back toward the village, he decided to deal with the chicks first. Instead of returning to his grandparents’ house, he went to Uncle Dashan’s next door, arriving just as someone was carrying a basket out of the house. Xiao Weiguo’s heart settled; it seemed Uncle Dashan had hatched chicks again this year.

He entered and called out, “Uncle Dashan, how many chicks did you hatch this year? How do you want to trade them? I’ll take some in a bit.”

“Oh, it’s Weiguo! These are the last of them, sold in pairs—one male, one female—for fifteen cents a pair. How many pairs do you want?” Uncle Dashan replied, puffing on his long-stemmed pipe.

“Just two pairs. Let’s see how they grow—keep the best pair in the end,” Xiao Weiguo said, handing over thirty cents and choosing two pairs of chicks, which he put into his bag and headed out.

At the gate of Uncle Dashan’s yard, he caught sight of Dashan’s youngest son, Little Stone, playing with something—reddish, three or four of them. Xiao Weiguo paused.

He called out, “Little Stone, what are you playing with?”

“Brother Weiguo, Grandpa brought back some baby rabbits from the mountain. Grandpa said they’re useless, so he gave them to me. They’re so ugly!” Little Stone replied.

“Let me see,” said Xiao Weiguo, bending down for a closer look. The rabbits included both male and female, but they were so tiny he wasn’t sure they’d survive.

“Just right—Weijun also likes rabbits. How about I trade you two pieces of sorghum candy for a pair to give him?” Xiao Weiguo offered, taking out two candies and handing them to Little Stone.

“Sure!” Little Stone agreed instantly, delighted by the candy. For a child, sweets were far more precious than a fleeting plaything.

Xiao Weiguo picked out a male and a female rabbit, cradled them, and left the yard. This outing had been fruitful—he’d secured both chicks and rabbits. Now, only a pig was missing for his little farm.

He mentally transferred the two chicks and two rabbits into their respective enclosures in the space, leaving them be for the time being.

Back home, he said to his grandmother, “Grandma, I noticed we don’t have any chickens. I got two from Uncle Dashan and left them in the yard. Didn’t we used to raise chickens? What happened to them?”

“It was your second uncle—he drank with friends and, finding nothing to go with the drinks, secretly took my chickens,” his grandmother complained. “I thought they’d gone missing and searched all day in the village. That unfilial son! My dear boy, don’t be like your second uncle or your father—one wicked, one foolish. It’s a pity about my eldest son. He left and never returned.”

Xiao Weiguo quickly tried to comfort her. “Don’t cry, Grandma. Don’t worry, I won’t be like either of them. I’ll live rightly. By the way, what did my uncle leave for?”

“Who knows? He left only a letter, and didn’t explain much in it. He’s been gone over ten years without a word. Maybe he died in some godforsaken place. My poor Ping’an!” Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke, and she began to sob.

Xiao Weiguo gently helped her to a seat and did his best to console her. When she’d calmed down, he asked, “Grandma, those chicks are so tiny—what should I feed them?”

“Just give them some cornmeal porridge,” she replied.

Eager to feed the chicks in his space, Xiao Weiguo said, “Grandma, I’ll rest a while in my room. Call me when it’s time to cook—I’ll help you light the stove.”

“No need, child. This old lady can still manage. Go and rest; I’ll call you at mealtime. By the way, I didn’t see you come back with any bamboo poles?”

In his haste, Xiao Weiguo had forgotten about that. “I looked for a long time but didn’t find any suitable ones, so I didn’t cut any, Grandma,” he replied. Truth be told, with his current abilities, he had no use for a fishing pole at all, and had forgotten about it entirely.

On his way to his room, Xiao Weiguo passed by the kitchen, grabbed a handful of cornmeal, closed the door behind him, and slipped into his space.

What he saw inside astonished him. The chicks and rabbits he’d just placed in the enclosures were already noticeably larger, and the baby rabbits had grown fur. The crops, too, had changed greatly—seedlings had shot up by several centimeters. The entire space, once dominated by dark hues, now gleamed with a mix of black and green, brimming with vitality.

“It makes sense for wheat to grow, but how are the chicks and rabbits growing so fast? Can this space accelerate animal growth?” he mused. “But why haven’t the fish in the pond grown?”

Observing closely, he saw the chicks pecking eagerly at the soil, the rabbits too. Suddenly, he understood—the secret lay in the earth itself. It was truly miraculous.

Still, they couldn’t live on dirt alone. Xiao Weiguo mixed the cornmeal into a gruel and fed it to the chicks, then scooped some duckweed from the pond for the rabbits. Then he exited the space.

After two days of work, Xiao Weiguo had finally laid the foundations of his space. From now on, all he had to do was wait for the harvest. There remained one crucial matter—to determine the precise time acceleration ratio inside the space.

Evidently, the acceleration was immune to him as the master—he hadn’t sensed any time passing more quickly. Otherwise, a few trips into the space would cost him years of his life.

It was astonishing that chicks and rabbits could grow just by eating the soil. Lying on his bed, pondering the wonders of his space, he was suddenly interrupted by Xiao Weijun’s anxious voice: “Big Brother! Big Brother! Something’s wrong!”