"Xiaoman, where did this come from?" Mother Lin's voice also trembled.

If it was wild game or something, it was possible that Lin Man went out in the middle of the night and got it from somewhere, but these two things could never appear in the seventeen years of the apocalypse, at least not in this small base.

Lin Man hugged her mother's arm. Her mind was also in a mess, but the surprise made her accept such a good news more smoothly. After sorting out the thoughts in her mind, she whispered to her mother Lin: "It's like this, I just had a dream."

Lin Man told her mother her dream without reservation. In this world, her mother is the most trusted and the only person she believes in and relies on. No matter what the secret is, she can and can only share it with her mother.

Mother Lin was stunned for a moment: "You had a dream, and you brought out the food you ate in your dream?"

"I don't know why this happened. It's never happened before."

But now, finding the root cause is not the point, the point is the two foods in front of us.

The mother and daughter looked at the two dishes with their eyes fixed.

In the dim flickering firelight, the two foods were illuminated to a yellowish color. The aroma of meat and the sweet aroma of steamed buns kept wafting out, making the two men's mouths salivate crazily. Their hungry and empty stomachs even began to rebel, gurgling and rolling non-stop.

"Mom, how about we eat them?"

"Okay, eat it." Mother Lin was a little conflicted. She was worried that there would be problems if she ate this bizarre thing. She wanted to try it herself first, but it was too cruel to let her daughter watch. But if she let her daughter eat it too, what if she got sick?

Lin Man had the same idea. The mother and daughter looked at each other and understood each other's thoughts. Lin Man said, "Mom, let's each have half. If we get sick from eating, we'll die together. At least we can die well-fed!"

Mother Lin didn't want to say her daughter was talking nonsense at this time. She hesitated for a moment, then nodded under Lin's expectant gaze: "Okay."

Then the mother and daughter began to share this unexpected delicacy.

The steamed buns are fragrant, fluffy and soft. Just chew them and your mouth will be filled with sweetness. The satisfaction brought by this kind of pasta staple food is incomparable to any amount of wild vegetables.

The chicken thighs are stewed until they are crispy and soft, full of soup, and fall apart when chewed, leaving your mouth full of fragrance.

Lin Man poured a bowl of cold boiled water that he had boiled during the day. With the delicious food, the somewhat bitter boiled water became delicious.

The two of them ate and smiled at each other, especially Lin Man, who was so happy that she couldn't contain herself and chuckled like a little mouse stealing oil. She had hardly ever been so happy in her life.

"Mom, is it delicious?"

"tasty."

"I've never eaten such soft buns, and these chicken legs are so delicious. I wish I could eat them forever."

"Then eat more."

"No, we agreed to split it in half."

Lin Man insisted on eating only half, but the last chicken bone was given to her. She chewed the soft bone and sucked the bone marrow inside. The bone marrow mixed with the soup flowed into her mouth. She opened her eyes wide. The bone was so delicious!

She chewed for a long time, and finally spat out a few pieces of bones that were too hard to chew. She licked her fingers and then washed both of their hands with water from the kettle.

After doing all this, she took out the only mechanical watch in the house without a strap and looked at it. It was just after midnight. The fire in the stove gradually went out, and the room fell into darkness again. Everything was silent. The mother and daughter sat on the bed waiting.

"Mom, I feel so good after eating." In fact, he was not full. A chicken leg and a steamed bun were only half full for two people. However, his stomach had become smaller due to years of hunger. He usually ate all kinds of things. Suddenly having a high-quality meal made Lin Man feel very satisfied.

"Yeah." Obviously, Mother Lin felt the same way.

After a while——

"Mom, does your stomach hurt?"

"No. Are you dizzy? Nauseous?"

"Neither can I."

After a while——

"Xiaoman, are you feeling unwell?"

"No, what about you, Mom?"

"Neither have I."

The pointer on the mechanical watch gradually moved to two o'clock, and Lin Man couldn't help but get angry again. The mother and daughter looked at each other, their faces were normal, they were in good spirits, their eyes were full of excitement, and there was even a greasy sheen on their lips.

They looked at each other in surprise and excitement, and were thrilled by one fact - the chicken legs and steamed buns were really edible!

"It would be nice if I could eat it every day in the future, Mom. How about I try to sleep a little longer and see if I can get some more food out?" Lin Man really looked like a seventeen-year-old girl at this moment.

There was wonder and fantasy in her eyes, and she was looking forward to a miracle to come and rescue her and her mother from the desperate situation, so that they would no longer have to accept the bleakest fate helplessly and despairingly, counting the days until death.

Mother Lin felt her eyes were sore and touched her head: "Then try again."

"Hmm!" Lin Man hugged his mother's waist and yawned, "Mom, I'm so sleepy. Is it a dream calling me?"

Of course, she would feel sleepy after eating. However, Mother Lin didn't know if it was really something in the dream calling her daughter. She patted her daughter's back gently and said, "Then go to sleep. Mom is here with you."

After Lin Man fell asleep, he found himself still sitting at the table. The chicken leg and steamed bun in his hand were gone, but there were still many plates of food in front of him.

She was so excited that she stretched out her hands to grab things. She wanted to eat white rice, sweet and juicy tomatoes, and eggs...

However, she found that she could only hold one thing with one hand.

"Hello, Lin Man." A voice suddenly sounded.

Lin Man's excitement quickly calmed him down. Holding the bowl of rice in one hand and the bowl of tomatoes in the other, he looked up and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am the housekeeper of this space you are in." The clear voice, which was indistinguishable whether it was a man or a woman, continued.

"Butler?" Lin Man looked around. Apart from the table, she couldn't see anything around her as it was covered by a layer of white mist.

"Where is this? Is this my old home?"

"No, because you were thinking about your home when you were dreaming, that's why your imagined home appeared in your dream. You can call this the Dream Space."

Lin Man was disappointed. Both her home and her father appeared in her dream. She thought that these were either heirlooms or treasures left to her by her father. But it turned out that everything in the dream was just her imagination?

"Then why am I here?"

"Because I chose you, do you want these things in front of you?"

Lin Man looked at the table full of delicious food and nodded heavily.

"You should have discovered that you can only take two things from here at a time, and you only have one chance to enter this space a day." said the voice.

Lin Man was a little disappointed that she could only take two things a day, but this was fine. She asked calmly, "What do you need me to do?"

There is no free meal in the world. If you want to get something, you must pay for it. Lin Man, who has lived a life of distribution according to work since childhood, understands this truth very well.

The voice was very pleased with Lin Man's straightforwardness. It said, "I can provide you with ten days of food for free, but within those ten days, you must help me do one thing. If you succeed, I will open up more kinds of food and other items to you, and the number of items you can take away each day will increase to three. If you fail, this space will be closed to you forever."

Lin Man was shocked and sat up straight: "What's the matter, tell me!" She had to accomplish this matter no matter what. This space was the only hope for her and her mother to survive.

The voice was silent for a moment and then said, "I need one hundred cubic meters of soil."

"?" Lin Man was ready to go through fire and water, "Soil? Then, I'll go dig it for you?" The base was surrounded by mountains, so there wouldn't be too much soil. Lin Man was secretly excited and wondered if it was really that simple.

The voice snorted, a hint of arrogance faintly revealed: "Ordinary soil won't work. We need the most fertile soil, the most suitable for planting, free of stones and insects, disinfected, exposed to the sun, and clean."

The voice said many requests in one breath.

Lin Man was stunned for a moment. "Is that so?" she thought quickly. "The soil in our base's plantation is scientifically blended and the best. Can I dig it up for you? Don't worry, I'll pick out all the rocks and bugs, disinfect it, and let it dry in the sun. Or maybe I'll get some for you to check and see if it's up to standard?"

She looked around expectantly at the hazy surroundings, and after a while the voice replied, "Okay, that's all. You can take today's food."

Lin Man looked at the table. There were fifteen dishes in total, all placed in bowls. The portion of each dish was not very large. "Will the things I took appear again in the future?"

"uncertain."

Lin Man picked and chose, and finally gave up the sugar-coated tomatoes with great reluctance. He took the white rice that seemed to be the most filling, and then hesitated between the bowl of vegetable noodles and the bowl of three boiled eggs that were slightly smaller than ordinary eggs.

She really wanted to eat noodles, but it seemed that eggs were more nutritious. She had never been to school, but she knew that rice and noodles were mainly composed of starch, while eggs contained a lot of protein.

Thinking of her mother's deteriorating health, she took the bowl of eggs.

There was no obstacle. As expected, although each hand could only hold one thing, a bowl counted as one item, not an egg.

She glanced around quietly, wondering if she stuffed the egg into the rice, would it also count as just one item?

But she didn't dare do that.

She wrote down each of the remaining food items one by one: "Can I come in at any time of the day?"

"It's up to you. You only get one chance a day. If you pass midnight, you'll automatically give up. You just need to think about it in your mind before entering or leaving."