Chapter 28

No matter how much you sigh, you still have to do the work.

After lunch, when the officer called for work to begin, Gu Ranyi had no choice but to continue following the male prisoners to move snow and sweep ice. In the end, he could only perform mechanical movements.

This was the first time since his exile that Gu Ran felt the extreme hardship of life, apart from suffering from cold, hunger and scolding.

Whenever she was almost exhausted, she would grit her teeth and encourage herself: the Great Wall was built in this way by the hands and feet of working people, and the pyramids in foreign countries were also built in this way by the hands and feet of working people.

This little bit of hardship is nothing. Now they have to dig their own way to survive with their own hands and feet!

When the night was gradually darkening, the officers shouted that it was time to return to the camp. Gu Ran was extremely grateful that the sun did not set too fast and the days were long.

When they returned to the camp, Aunt Mai Xiang, who lived in the same tent with Gu Ran, and Pei Liuniang made a fire and huddled together to roast food, thinking of nothing else.

Looking at his hands that were swollen and red in the firelight, Gu Ran felt a lump in his throat.

"Hey, mother, it smells so good!"

As they stared at each other in silence, Uncle Mai and Mai Dong came over with their own rations. "Master Li is distributing our rations for tonight. Hurry, hurry."

The dry rations distributed by the officials were calculated based on the number of people, one portion per person. If you were not there, you could not receive the rations.

Gu Ran pulled herself together and dazedly followed the others to line up to collect her own dry food. When she returned to the campfire, Aunt Mai and Mai Xiang's family had already started eating and were chatting animatedly. Seeing her return, they said, "Hey, Second Aunt Gu, you didn't know that we went to look for the rabbit hive you mentioned yesterday."

"What, there's rabbit meat to eat?" Gu Ran was startled and shuddered.

"No, there really are no rabbits in that nest. Well, we made a wasted trip and even got scolded by the official."

"Oh!" Gu Ran responded perfunctorily, absentmindedly chewing on his dry food while roasting by the fire, not really listening to what others said.

Her hands began to itch, a sign of frostbite. She decided to finish her meal early and go into the tent. While they were away, she went to the workroom and smeared some orange peel paste on them as a preventive measure.

After telling Aunt Mai that he was going to sleep first, Gu Ran lay down on the mat, immediately got into the quilt, and then went into the workshop.

There was still some burning charcoal in the workshop. Some time ago, when she was warming herself by the fire at night, she secretly took some burning charcoal into the workshop, lit the charcoal in the fire basket, and then roasted the prepared orange peel paste.

Now all the oranges on the red orange tree have been eaten, leaving only dry and hard pieces of orange peel.

Gu Ran was looking forward to the winter snow melting sooner so that she wouldn't have to worry about catching cold and getting frostbite.

When picking up the porridge in the mortar, Gu Ran heard a gurgling sound from the system and found that the subtitles that usually only displayed [Points 1, Level 1] suddenly changed to [Points 30, Level 1], and an "Update" prompt jumped next to it.

What update?

After Gu Ran followed the prompt, he picked up some orange peel paste and smeared it on his fingers.

As the update prompt opened, what appeared in front of Gu Ran was a deck of playing cards, with the same suits and colors, but all of them were shown on the back. After passing them in front of her like a dealer shuffling the cards, a background of a locker appeared on the talisman drawing table, and then cards floated out one by one from the pile of cards and lined up in front. Gu Ran was thinking that the locker looked familiar. After the cards were arranged, she could see the appearance of the locker clearly, and she couldn't help but compare it with the storage cabinet placed on the right side of the table.

Isn’t this exactly the same as the cabinet I asked someone to build?

The number of consecutive grids is the same.

The locker that serves as the background has a lock on each compartment, and each compartment corresponds to a card.

What's the meaning?

Gu Ran was just wondering when, following the gurgling sound, another line of subtitles appeared next to him: [Host, do you want to draw a card?]

Then there are two options below: [Draw] [Don’t Draw]

A card drawing game?

She didn't need to say anything else, just smoke it.

Gu Ran nodded yes.

The cards corresponding to the twelve slots were suddenly gathered into a stack, and then shuffled at an extremely fast speed, which dazzled Gu Ran.

Then, the reshuffled and reorganized cards were neatly arranged before his eyes.

Guru: [Host, please draw a card. Only one card at a time.]

Twelve cards in four columns of three should be easy enough.

Gu Ran drew one of them without thinking.

The remaining eleven cards quickly returned to the pile of cards in the lower right corner and disappeared, while the card that Gu Ran drew turned over and fell on the table.

Gu Ran quickened his pace, smeared his fingers with orange peel paste, and then went to the table to see what card he had drawn.

The discovery was disappointing.

There was a broken pattern on the card, and it was hard to tell what it was.

With a gurgle, more subtitles appeared.

[Congratulations to the host for drawing the first space card.]

【Each space card corresponds to each space in the space cabinet.】

[The storage cabinet in the host's current space is the space cabinet. ]

[The space cabinet has twelve space grids, each of which corresponds to twelve spaces with different attributes.]

[After the host correctly completes the pattern of each space card, he can obtain the space coordinates of the head in the corresponding space grid.]

[After the host enters the space coordinates in the space grid, he can open the space in the space grid corresponding to the space card. ]

[By opening twelve space grids, the host can now have twelve different uses of space. ]

【Host, come on! 】

So, the storage cabinet she built for herself has now been transformed into a space cabinet by the system?

You can also have twelve spaces with different attributes!

Is there such a good thing in the world?

Wait, thinking about the last life, in order to exchange for an ordinary space, this Gulu system was so stingy that it didn't even want to give me any concessions to increase the special attributes of the space. Now it is so generous that it can reward me with spaces with different attributes after I draw cards and modify patterns?

Can it provide twelve types of space at once?

I don't even have to complete tasks to earn points? How could Guru be so kind!

"If the properties of each spatial grid are different, then are the spaces within the grids the same size?"

[After opening the space grid, can I really have a space with twelve attributes? ]

[As long as the host can repair all twelve space cards, he will naturally have twelve different attributes of space.]

Gu Ran still didn't quite believe it.

"Are the spaces within the twelve spatial grids all the same size?"

The minimum space grid produced by the system starts at ten cubic meters. The specific size of the space depends on the space card pattern after the host repairs it. The space grid serves as the entrance to each space.

Gu Ran looked at the subtitles, then at the points, and suddenly realized something. He asked, "Does it cost me thirty points every time I draw a space card?"

[Thirty points is the minimum requirement for drawing a space card. Each subsequent drawing of a space card requires double the previous points to meet the requirement.]

She knew it was like this!

At first, she thought that she could draw a card once every time she accumulated thirty points, which meant that the next time she could draw a card would be in another thirty days. In this way, she would be able to open all the space slots in her locker in about a year.

Such a big golden finger is simply a godsend.

As a result, Guru told her that the points required for each time of drawing space cards must be doubled based on the previous points. That is to say, the points required for the second time to draw space cards are 60 points, the third time is 120 points, and the fourth time is 240 points...

Converted into days, it would take at least two months to draw a space card for the second time, four months for the third time, and eight months for the fourth time... Later on, you would have to survive for decades to accumulate enough points for drawing cards.

It is impossible to draw the space card twelve times, because the points needed to draw the tenth time alone must ensure that you can live another sixty years on top of the sixty years you have already lived.

Based on the average life expectancy of fifty years in the Great Sheng Dynasty, she would not even live to the age of ten strokes.

Sure enough, where in the world can there be such a big clam jumping on the street!

But don’t expect to open all the cards. As long as you live well, it is still easy to accumulate points and draw the cards in the first few times.

I guess it’s because the harder it is for her to survive at the beginning, the easier it is for her to draw cards. Once she can survive successfully, it becomes more and more difficult to draw cards.

If you want to draw more space cards, you have to work hard to survive in this prosperous dynasty. Is this considered as Gollum's disguised support for yourself to survive?

Gu Ran collected his thoughts, not caring about the orange peel paste he had just wiped off his hands. He pinched his furrowed brows and focused on looking at the incomplete card.

Then I soon figured out what was going on.

After all, she had been engaged in painting for many years and had also specialized in talismans in her previous life. She could see that there were several ways to repair the incomplete part of the card.

"Is there only one correct answer to the pattern on this card?"

[The pattern of the space card is not unique. As long as the pattern repaired by the host matches the corresponding space grid key in the system, the space coordinates can be successfully obtained.]

This gave her a lot of room to maneuver.

Because whether it is repairing ancient paintings or repairing talismans, there are corresponding paths to follow.

For example, in modern restoration of ancient paintings, we can estimate the degree of fading over the years based on the painter's style, usual brushstrokes and color matching, and even the era in which the painter lived and the composition of common pigments used when the ancient paintings were completed. This allows us to perform the most perfect restoration and restore the true appearance of the paintings as originally completed by the painter.

As for talismans, after having a general understanding of runes, the main method is to use the five elements patterns as the main method, and then use talisman patterns and symbols with corresponding functions to repair them. Talisman masters with different ideas often have different talisman effects when repairing talismans.

This is just like the modern restoration of ancient temples. The results will be different if it falls into the hands of different people.

Some people pursue authenticity, so they maintain the original color and style during restoration, while others pursue innovation, overturning the old colors and boldly using their own preferred color schemes, giving the ancient temples a completely different image.

It was just like the incomplete card in front of her.

Because of the missing parts, she saw multiple possibilities, and the Gulu system said that the pattern was not unique. If she chose one of the repair options...

Gu Ran thought about the current predicament he was facing, and it was as if he had seen a clear path through the fog.

She wanted to open a space to store the ice and snow blocks left by the avalanches that blocked the mountain passes, so that she would not have to be driven by officials to dig snow trails every day.