Chapter One: The Mysterious Wooden Box

Dragon City.

Young Runfa Era Supermarket.

“This supermarket is ridiculously shabby,” Ye Fan muttered as he opened the door. A cloud of dust rushed into his face, making him cough.

He’d just graduated from university this year. After months of hard work, his boss had gone bankrupt and fled, leaving him with a small shop as compensation for unpaid wages.

But the place was a mess.

“Forget it, let’s clean up first.” With no time for complaints, Ye Fan swept the shop from top to bottom.

Given the current job market, graduation was akin to unemployment. At least his boss had left him this little shop to make a living.

Checking the expiry dates on the goods, he found that almost everything was out of date, except for a few items like instant noodles and bottled water. There was also a pile of assorted snacks, mostly edible.

It was clear these snacks had been stocked recently.

“Incredible—he could afford new stock but not pay his debts!” Ye Fan grumbled as he hauled the snacks out, planning to separate the edible from the expired and toss anything past its time.

Looking around, he couldn’t find a suitable storage spot.

Finally, a peachwood box caught his eye.

“This’ll do for now,” he thought, tossing all the snacks inside, layering them one after another. After a long bout of busy work, he’d finally tidied them up.

“Next, I’ll sort out the instant noodles…” Suddenly, Ye Fan noticed something amiss.

The box was only so big, yet he kept putting things inside and it didn’t fill up.

Could there be a secret compartment behind it? Would he discover some earth-shattering secret and end up endlessly hunted by a mysterious organization?

For a moment, countless detective plotlines flashed through his mind—he even imagined how he’d meet his end.

“Bah! What nonsense for a young man in the new era!” Ye Fan shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He took a closer look at the box.

Even at a glance, it was extraordinary. On its exterior were carvings of phoenixes soaring through the skies, every detail exquisitely vivid.

The box exuded a faint fragrance—part peachwood, part incense—indescribably unique.

After examining it, Ye Fan prepared to take out the contents to see how much space was inside.

“What the—?”

Inside, the box was empty.

Where were his snacks?

Had the box eaten them?

“What kind of weirdness is this?” Ye Fan flipped the box over, scrutinizing it, but saw nothing unusual. The items he’d just put in had vanished without a trace.

And there was no hidden compartment—where could all that stuff have gone?

“Let’s try with an instant noodle packet.” Ye Fan murmured, grabbing a braised beef flavor and tossing it in.

He watched for a while—nothing happened.

“Maybe I’m just tired and misremembering.” Ye Fan tried to reassure himself, but when he glanced at the box again, the instant noodle was gone, and in its place lay a jade pendant.

What was this?

He’d watched enough live antique shows to recognize the pendant was an old piece.

“This is quite something,” Ye Fan muttered.

But even if it was impressive, what happened to his food?

Could storing snacks in the box somehow produce antiques?

Driven by curiosity, Ye Fan focused on the big crate of instant noodles.

The whole crate was too large, so he unpacked it and fed the box packet by packet.

One…two…after more than ten minutes, all the noodles were gone, but nothing else appeared.

“Damn, are you copying the stock market?” Ye Fan slapped his thigh.

He’d just lost everything on the stock market, only to be duped again.

Just as he was about to curse, a sheet of paper appeared in the box.

He unfolded it—a letter of thanks.

“Dear Immortal, I am Li Yaoyao, a sent-down youth in Yang Family Village.

“This year’s harvest has been terrible. The villagers have nothing to eat. We’ve tried everything, and failed. So we can only turn to the Immortal for help.

“Luckily, the Immortal bestowed blessings, and now our villagers are saved!”

“Great Immortal, Yaoyao is endlessly grateful. If ever given the chance, Yaoyao would serve you tirelessly in return for your kindness.

“I have nothing valuable except a jade pendant passed down through my family. I hope the Immortal will accept it.”

What nonsense.

Ye Fan read the letter, still baffled.

According to the letter, the food he’d put in the box was taken by someone called Li Yaoyao, who then saved a village, and in gratitude, gave him her ancestral jade pendant?

Could this be a new trickery from the stock market?

Ye Fan racked his brain, uncertain whether to believe it. The main question was, how had the box made his noodles and snacks disappear, then produced a letter?

It made no sense!

Unable to figure it out, Ye Fan decided to set the box aside and focus on tidying up.

……

1980, Yang Family Village.

For reasons unknown, this year’s harvest was particularly poor. Nothing would grow in the fields.

Every household’s grain reserves were low, and after months, supplies were dangerously depleted. Aside from a few families, the villagers were all starving.

Worse still, the nearby county towns had equally bad harvests.

Scarcity bred value.

This year, grain prices were sky-high; even with ration tickets, it was hard to buy food.

At this moment, in the home of the sent-down youth Li Yaoyao.

Li Yaoyao stared in astonishment at the box before her, which continued to spit out instant noodles and all kinds of snacks.

“Braised beef noodles, chicken soup noodles, spicy beef noodles…”

All sorts of instant noodles piled before her, so unreal she could hardly believe it.

She was educated, and had heard of instant noodles—Western food, often eaten by foreigners. In the eighties, ordinary folk had no access to such things.

Yet her worldview was shaken to its core.

As a model youth of the new era, she was a staunch materialist, but today, by some twist of fate, she’d made a wish to an immortal—and truly received so many provisions.

Her childhood beliefs crumbled softly.

“No matter how, at least the villagers have something to eat!”

She didn’t dwell on where the food came from; what mattered was getting everyone a hot meal as soon as possible.

So, Li Yaoyao found a large sack, stuffed all the instant noodles inside, and dragged it toward the village center.