The air in the hidden cellar was thick with the scent of damp earth and ancient secrets. Yan held the torch high, the flickering light dancing off the stone walls.
"There is nothing here but dust, Old Madam," Yan whispered, his eyes scanning the empty room.
Su Wan didn't answer. Her modern logical brain was working overtime. She wasn't looking for a chest of gold she was looking for the "heart" of the room. Following the blueprints from her husband's journal, she walked to the center pillar.
There, embedded in the stone, was a small, circular indentation.
"The jade," she breathed.
She reached into her sleeve and pulled out the cracked jade bracelet the one her sons had been trying to steal. She had realized earlier that the "crack" wasn't damage; it was a seam. With a firm twist, the bracelet snapped into two perfect crescents. She pressed them into the stone pillar.
Click.
The stone didn't slide open. Instead, a hum vibrated through her bones. A drop of blood from her scraped finger wounded during the digging smudged against the jade.
Suddenly, the world around her blurred.
"Madam?!" Yan's voice sounded miles away.
Su Wan's vision cleared, and she gasped. She was no longer in a dark cellar. She was standing in a small, misty garden. The air was sweet, vibrant, and felt ten times richer than the air outside. In the center was a clear, bubbling spring, and beside it, a small stone shed.
A pocket dimension? Su Wan's heart raced. I have a hidden space!
She walked toward the shed. Inside, the shelves were empty, but the air felt frozen in time. If I put my perfume ingredients here, they will never spoil. If I hide gold here, Su Ren can never touch it.
But the most important thing was the spring. She dipped a finger into the water and tasted it. It wasn't just water it was a catalyst. It tasted like pure, distilled energy.
With this, my 'Celestial Marrow' perfume won't just smell good, she realized, her eyes widening. It will have healing properties. It will be a miracle drug.
"Madam! Wake up!"
A hand gripped her shoulder. Su Wan blinked, and the garden vanished. She was back in the cold, dark cellar. Yan was looking at her with genuine concern.
"You fainted for a moment," he said.
Su Wan looked at her wrist. The jade bracelet was whole again, but it was glowing with a faint, warm light that only she could see. She felt a connection to it a pull toward that misty garden.
"I didn't faint, Yan," she said, her voice stronger than it had been since she arrived in this world. "I just found our insurance policy."
She looked at the empty cellar. "Lord Wei thinks he wants a map. But what's hidden in the Su family lineage is far more valuable than a piece of paper. Yan, can you find me a copper pot and a bag of common roses?"
"Roses? Madam, we are being hunted by the Black Tiger Pavilion, and you want flowers?"
"I don't want flowers, Yan," Su Wan said, walking toward the cellar stairs with a new spring in her step. "I want to build a monopoly. If the Empress wants to stay young, she's going to have to pay me in more than just gold. She's going to pay me in political protection."
As she climbed back into the light of the ancestral hall, she saw her sons arguing over a bowl of porridge.
"Enjoy your last meal as masters of this house," she muttered to herself. "By tomorrow, you'll be my first employees."
She felt the weight of the jade on her wrist. In her past life, she had a winning lottery ticket and lost everything in a collapse. In this life, she had a ruined family and a secret world.
This time, she thought, I'm not letting go.