I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

Before she could even look, the two had already caught up, and Zhao Ningning darted into the space.

The woman and her son followed the drag marks to the water's edge, but seeing that the drag marks disappeared into the water and there were no footprints indicating they had gone back, Shuanzi panicked: "Mom! Did they jump into the water and leave?!"

"Impossible!" the woman exclaimed without hesitation. "How could a mere maidservant with an unconscious boy possibly walk through the water!"

"It's definitely still nearby!"

The woman said firmly, and then she looked down at the muddy drag marks on the ground.

After reading it, the woman angrily cursed, "That brat dared to lie to us! Shuanzi! They haven't gone far! They might still be behind us!"

Although she didn't know how the girl walked back without leaving any footprints, she could tell that the drag marks on the ground were much fainter than before.

In other words, halfway through, this brat replaced the person she was dragging with something else.

The unconscious man is still on his way! Judging from that girl's attitude of being willing to go through all the trouble of dragging him away, as long as we find the unconscious boy, we can blackmail that girl into handing over the oilcloth!

"Mother! What do you mean they're still behind? Didn't they go into the water?" Shuanzi didn't understand; he clearly saw the marks disappear into the water!

"These drag marks are just a trick by that brat. Let's go back and find the unconscious boy. I'm not afraid that girl won't hand over the tarpaulin to keep us dry!" The woman was afraid that the little girl would notice something was wrong, so she hurriedly walked back the way she came.

Zhao Ningning, who listened to the entire conversation in the space, was extremely anxious.

She can hand over the playmat, but what about her brother! Her brother can't enter the space, and the umbrella canopy is too small; it would need to be hand-sewn to serve as a canopy.

After they left, Zhao Ningning flashed out of the space. In the hazy environment outside the space, Zhao Ningning noticed that the system had just popped up a notification box.

[System: Congratulations, host, for unlocking a new area: Zhao Qi's Room!]

Her brother's room was unlocked! Zhao Ningning was slightly happy for a moment. She closed the panel and prepared to hurry back to find her brother.

Unexpectedly, there was a system notification below the pop-up window.

[System: Congratulations, host, you have unlocked new privileges! You can now invite the room owner to your space.]

Zhao Ningning: !

If I understand correctly, she can bring her brother into the space now, right?

—There's hope!

Braving the rain, Zhao Ningning took a detour and arrived at the ditch where her brother had been hiding, before the mother and son.

Holding her brother's hand, Zhao Ningning silently chanted: Go!

The next second, the raindrops overhead disappeared, and the familiar lights of the elevator lobby appeared.

Zhao Ningning was still holding Zhao Qi's hand.

"It's a success! It's a success!" Zhao Ningning was overjoyed.

Outside of space.

"Mother! There are footprints here!"

Shuanzi pointed to the ground.

Hearing the footprints, the woman rushed over to look. She compared the sizes and realized they belonged to the girl who had just run away.

The footprints didn't have much water, indicating that the owner of the footprints had just walked past this spot not long ago.

"Chase!"

The two followed the footprints to a depression.

The mud stains at the bottom of the pit were messy, clearly indicating that something had been placed there just now.

The footprints disappeared here.

The woman frowned and looked around.

There were no trees or any shelter in this area; as far as the eye could see, there wasn't a single place to hide.

"Where did they go! Where did they go!" the woman muttered, following the footprints as she walked further away.

Once they were out of sight, Zhao Ningning felt relieved and turned to check on her brother.

Zhao Qi still had a fever, but thankfully he wasn't wet from the rain.

They dragged him home, and he had no trouble getting through. He could go to any area that Zhao Ningning had previously opened up.

After placing the person on the living room carpet, Zhao Ningning went to get the previous bedding and laid it on the floor. After laying it down, Zhao Ningning pushed Zhao Qi onto it.

Finally, Zhao Ningning covered him with the summer blanket she had previously used in her space, and only then did she have time to catch her breath.

She first went to the kitchen to get a drink and drank it. After drinking, Zhao Ningning came back to take Zhao Qi's temperature.

Good news, the body temperature did not rise.

The bad news is, it's still 38 degrees Celsius.

Zhao Ningning took a quick shower, wrapped her hair up, and went to cook.

She took out a frying pan, first prepared a small bowl of flour water, and then took out a bag of raw fried dumplings from the freezer while turning on the heat.

Once the pan is hot, put the pan-fried dumplings in, pour in the flour water, and cover it with the lid.

During this break, Zhao Ningning prepared a chili vinegar for herself. When the dumplings were almost cooked, she poured a layer of oil along the edge of the pan.

Heat up the porridge while you're at it.

After a while of splattering oil in the pan, when the lid was lifted again, the golden-yellow ice flowers under the fried dumplings looked incredibly tempting.

The porridge is ready.

Zhao Ningning ladled out two bowls and set them aside to cool, then went to eat the fried dumplings herself.

After eating the hot and fragrant pan-fried dumplings, Zhao Ningning squinted and looked out through the glass sliding door of the kitchen.

My brother is sleeping peacefully.

After quickly finishing her dumplings, Zhao Ningning took the porridge, which had cooled down considerably, to feed her brother.

After he finished the porridge, Zhao Ningning gave him fever-reducing medicine.

I glanced outside briefly; it was already dark.

It's still raining.

Zhao Ningning sighed. It seemed that the rain wouldn't stop until the flood disaster was over.

She let her hair down, went to the sink to find a clean cloth, brought over a basin of hot water and placed it next to her brother, then used the hot water to wipe his face and neck.

It had been about two hours since he took his medicine, so Zhao Ningning took her brother's temperature.

Seeing that the temperature had finally dropped to thirty-seven degrees, Zhao Ningning felt relieved.

The fever has finally broken!

Before going to bed, Zhao Ningning took her brother's temperature again.

Still no fever.

Fearing that the living room was too dark and she wouldn't be able to see her brother in time if something happened, Zhao Ningning deliberately turned on the light in the entryway.

After doing all this, Zhao Ningning went to sleep with peace of mind.

In the middle of the night, she got up and took her brother's temperature again.

If you don't have a fever in the middle of the night, you generally won't have a fever the next day.

When Zhao Ningning opened her eyes again the next day, she saw her brother, who had been lying on the ground, sitting on the ground in a daze.

"elder brother!"

Zhao Ningning jumped off the sofa and went to her brother's side.

Zhao Qi touched the back of his head, which was still a little sore, and asked, "Little sister, am I dreaming?"

Was it a dream of traveling back to ancient times, or a dream of returning to my modern home?

Zhao Ningning held his hand: "Brother! We got caught in a mudslide and were separated from Dad, do you remember?"

Zhao Qi nodded. "I remember."

"When I woke up, we were on a slope..." Zhao Ningning told Zhao Qi what happened after she woke up, and also told him about his access to the space.

Zhao Qi also told Zhao Ningning what happened while she was unconscious.

It turned out that Zhao Ningning was knocked unconscious by a piece of wood that night. Zhao Qi grabbed her hand and slid into the rushing water along with the mudslide.

After entering the water, he tried his best to pull Zhao Ningning to the surface. Then Zhao Qi found a piece of driftwood to hold onto, and let Zhao Ningning lie on it.

The two were pushed backward by the swift current. Zhao Qi tried his best to steady Mu Tou and his sister and find a way to get to the shore.

Drifting from night to day, taking advantage of the good light, Zhao Qi finally saw a raised slope downstream, with a dead tree next to it.

If you can swim to that area, you should be able to be stopped by the dead tree.

Zhao Qi paddled hard, leading his sister forward.

Halfway through his swim, he was suddenly struck on the back of the head by a force.

Before losing consciousness, Zhao Qi subconsciously pushed his sister toward the shore.

After hearing this, Zhao Ningning was terrified.

She and her brother almost lost their lives here!

"Luckily you have a space, and luckily I have permission to come in now, otherwise I'd still be standing outside in the rain right now," Zhao Qi said with a wry smile.

A mudslide separated the two of them from their parents.

The only consolation is that there's space for one person on each side, so at least there's no need to worry about food.

"It's okay, we'll catch up with you again once you're feeling better." Zhao Ningning recalled for a moment and said, "Didn't we say before that if we got lost, we'd just wait in the next county?"

"It's perfect that you can enter the space now. We can travel during the day, cook when we get hungry, and stay here at night without having to take night shifts."

Zhao Qi nodded.

"Oh right! Your room is unlocked too, go back and check!" Zhao Ningning stood up. "I'll go heat up the steamed buns so we can eat!"

Zhao Qi got up as well. He hadn't eaten much in the past two days, and he swayed weakly for a moment before saying, "Let me do it, I'll cook for you."

"Brother's porridge is so delicious!" Zhao Ningning stayed by his side, worried that he would get tired, and helped him out.

It's best to eat porridge in the morning. Zhao Qi took out the clay pot used for cooking porridge, added water, and placed it on the gas stove.

Wash the rice and pour it in along with the spices.

Zhao Ningning had already peeled the preserved eggs, and Zhao Qi took them over to wash and cut them into pieces for later use.

I also sliced ​​a few pieces of ginger and added them to the pot.

Minced meat is readily available; just take it out of the freezer and thaw it.

Once the rice is almost cooked, add the minced meat and cook it together with the preserved egg. It's incredibly fragrant even without adding any other seasonings.

Zhao Ningning stood by the pot and sniffed it intensely.

Zhao Qi found it amusing.

While the porridge was cooking, he took out a bag of steamed buns from the freezer.

Zhao Qi put the steamed buns in the steamer to heat them up, then told Ningning to keep an eye on the pot while he went to wash up.

There was a small table in the kitchen. After the porridge was ready, Zhao Qi wouldn't let Ningning take it. He took it himself and served each of them a bowl.

Zhao Ningning took a sip and exclaimed with delight, "Brother! Your porridge is so delicious!"

Zhao Qi smiled and said, "Eat quickly, then we'll continue our journey."

Zhao Ningning: "Aren't you going to take a rest?"

He shook his head. "We've been swept downstream so far that we don't know how far. We need to leave early, or we won't be able to catch up with Mom and Dad."

One more thing, it's raining now, so we definitely can't take the route we planned before. The mountain road is difficult to travel and we have to take detours, so it's better to set off earlier.

Zhao Ningning nodded and slowly drank the porridge.

It wasn't that she wasn't in a hurry, but the porridge was too hot to handle!

While waiting for the porridge to cool down, Zhao Qi went for a walk around his room.

It's been over a year since I've been back, and this place is still pretty much the same as before.

Seeing that his computer power was still on, Zhao Qi's eyes lit up. He walked over, sat down, and turned on the computer.

With a press of the keyboard, the computer screen, which had been off, immediately lit up. Zhao Qi entered the password and, sure enough, there was no network connection in the lower right corner.

But he wasn't worried; his hard drive was 10TB, filled with all sorts of random data he'd downloaded before.

Most of the materials and videos are tutorials related to handicrafts, as well as some scanned copies of books.

As long as the computer works, Zhao Qi turned it off and went to find his phone on the bedside table.

The phone is turned on, but there is no network connection.

Fortunately, all the other functions that didn't require an internet connection worked. Zhao Qi put his phone in his pocket and went to find his mechanical watch.

This mechanical watch was something their parents insisted on buying for them when they went on a trip. Each of the four family members had one. Later, when Zhao Qi went to university, he switched to a digital watch, and this one was left unused.

Both the electronic watch and the mechanical watch were taken out, and Zhao Qi took them out so that Ningning could choose one to wear.

This makes it convenient to check the time from outside the space.

Zhao Ningning chose a mechanical watch.

After the meal, Zhao Qi asked Zhao Ningning to check his wound, which was somewhat red.

After re-disinfecting and bandaging, and having tidied up, Zhao Ningning and Zhao Qi each left the space with an umbrella.

It's still raining outside. The mother and son from yesterday searched around several times but couldn't find anyone, so they left cursing and swearing.

Zhao Qi determined the direction and led Ningning north.

Behind them was a raging flood, and ahead lay an endless mountain range.

Zhao Qi led Ningning forward with their heads down. The rain continued, and they walked straight until noon.

Looking at the time, it was already eleven o'clock. They had walked for three hours straight. Zhao Ningning wiped the sweat from her brow and asked, "Brother, are you tired? Let's go back and rest for a bit?"

Zhao Qi nodded, and Zhao Ningning flashed back to her spatial dimension.

After waiting for a while, Zhao Ningning didn't see her brother follow her, so she stared wide-eyed out of the space.

Zhao Qi is still outside.

She went outside and asked, "Why aren't you going home?"

Zhao Qi shrugged helplessly, "I just tried it, and there was absolutely no response."

Zhao Ningning thought for a moment, then took his hand, intending to take her brother back. This time, the two of them successfully returned to the space.

"It seems I need your 'invitation' to come in," Zhao Qi said.

When they first discovered that people could enter Ningning's space, they tried everything, only to find that the "No permission to enter" message appeared when Ningning was holding their hand.

"Then let's not stray too far apart when we're walking. If anything happens, I'll pull you to safety." After understanding this, Zhao Ningning let go of her brother.

The two ate a little something and then rested on the sofa for a while.

They set off again in the afternoon. The rain continued and the mountain road was difficult to walk. They didn't reach the mountainside until dark.

Zhao Ningning pulled him back to the space to rest.

Since there was a long rest time in the evening, Zhao used the ingredients in the refrigerator and freezer to make a tomato and potato stew with beef brisket for his sister.

He made a little extra so he could save it for lunch tomorrow.

That way, we won't have to eat steamed buns or dumplings for lunch.

After eating her fill, Zhao Ningning happily rolled onto the sofa to rest.

Zhao Qi took out his laptop and called Zhao Ningning to watch a movie together.

"Brother! You even downloaded a movie on the computer!" Zhao Ningning's eyes widened.

"I downloaded this when I was bored on the high-speed train or plane, and it had a lot of storage space so I didn't delete it." Zhao Qi pulled up the list. "These are probably all things you've already seen. See if there's anything you'd like to watch?"