"Ms. Jin, if there are no problems, please sign these documents."
Jin Qianqian didn't come back to her senses for a long while. It was only after repeated reminders from the lawyer and the manager that she mechanically picked up the pen they provided and completed the final procedures with a quick SCRATCH SCRATCH.
Once everyone had left, Jin Qianqian stared intently at the documents on the desk. She had only found out today that she actually had a great-aunt living all alone in some foreign corner of the world. They had never even met, yet the woman had left her such a massive fortune. It was a pity that she had only just learned of this relative's existence, yet didn't even get to meet her.
What puzzled her the most was the wooden box in front of her. Listening to the lawyer relay the details just now, she learned that this was left behind by the ancestors of the Mi family (her grandmother's maiden family). Now, she was the only bloodline left in the entire Mi family. The will had specifically instructed her to keep it safe and pass it down.
Such a dull, grayish wooden box felt incredibly light in her hands. Even a random piece of bamboo picked up from the streets would probably weigh more than it. It was no wonder the lawyer and manager hadn't thought much of this heirloom either, glossing over it with just a few fleeting words. On the contrary, they had described the shares and real estate in great detail.
Moreover, she had heard of fingerprint locks, chip locks, and password locks, but she had never heard of needing blood to unlock something. She figured everyone else thought the same, assuming the old lady had read too many novels and set up this little farce to tease her descendant at the very end.
Looking at the small circle in the center of the wooden box, Jin Qianqian pursed her lips. Finally, she mustered her courage and took out a spare sewing needle from the drawer. Staring at the glinting white tip of the needle, Jin Qianqian didn't forget to disinfect it with iodine before closing her eyes and pricking herself.
She squeezed out two small drops of blood forcefully, but they only covered less than half of the little circle. Steeling her heart, she gritted her teeth and pricked herself twice more. This time, the blood drops were finally a bit larger, slowly filling up the entire small circle.
Looking at the wooden box that showed no reaction whatsoever, Jin Qianqian couldn't help but laugh at herself in mockery. Her great-aunt must have read too many fantasy novels; she was just pulling her leg. And as an atheist, she had actually believed it.
Standing by the bay window and looking at the bustling traffic below, she reflected on her rather bumpy fate. She had just graduated from high school and had joyfully joined a group of classmates for a relaxing trip, only for her grandfather to suddenly pass away from a stroke. Her parents, rushing back for the funeral, had then perished in a plane crash. Just like that, a perfectly good family had shattered completely.
This series of back-to-back bad news had nearly caused her to break down. Fortunately, her relatives and friends were quite dependable, guiding her hand-in-hand to systematically handle the funeral arrangements. During that time, she took a year off from school. It took a great deal of effort to emerge from that grief, gritting her teeth to complete her four-year degree. Guarding this house left by her parents, she endured one lonely holiday after another.
Jin Qianqian rubbed her arms, her eyes—which hadn't been wet for a long time—growing misty once again.
She had no idea that the small wooden box she had casually tossed onto the desk was faintly glowing with a white light, which was gradually dimming.
Crack!
Jin Qianqian heard the sound and glanced back. She was the only person in the entire house—where did the noise come from? Sweeping her gaze across the room, she noticed that the small wooden box sitting on the desk seemed a bit different. Not daring to touch it, she bent down for a closer look. Then, picking up a fruit knife from the table, she pried open the already slightly splitting box.
A quaint ring appeared before her as the lid of the box opened. Looking at the bizarre floral vine engraved on it, a question flashed through Jin Qianqian's mind. "Is there really such a floral vine in this world?" she wondered. Leaves of so many different colors appearing on a single vine just didn't make any sense no matter how she looked at it.
By the time she reacted again, the ring was already in her hand. Blood was unexpectedly flowing continuously from the pinhole she had pricked earlier, surging straight into the ring. Watching this fantastical scene, Jin Qianqian panicked and tried to fling the ring off her hand. But the ring seemed glued to her; no matter how much she moved, it remained tightly attached to her finger.
The colors on the ring grew increasingly vibrant, flashing with a faint, eerie glow. Before she could even figure out what was happening, the ring transformed into a streak of light and shot directly into the center of her brow.
Jin Qianqian touched her bare forehead and quickly ran to the bathroom. There wasn't a single scratch on her smooth skin. Clutching her wildly beating chest, her hands began to tremble.
"No way. What the hell?"
Recalling the novels about cultivating immortality and slaying demons that had been so popular over the years, Jin Qianqian's first reaction was to suspect body possession, malevolent spirits, and the like.
"Who are you? Don't scare me! What great-aunt? This is all a conspiracy, isn't it!" Jin Qianqian shouted into the empty air, but aside from her own voice, the entire house was dead silent.
It took a long while for her to steady her nerves. She quickly poured herself a cup of warm water, which slowly helped her calm down.
"Where did this ring go?" she wondered.
The moment this doubt arose in Jin Qianqian's mind, she suddenly found herself standing in an empty, circular hall. Surrounding this hall was a ring of doors in various colors. Looking at these familiar colors, Jin Qianqian formed a guess.
"No way. Do I really have such good luck?" Looking around, she muttered softly, "But what are these doors for?"
Jin Qianqian still lacked the courage to push those doors open. She simply thought about leaving, and when she opened her eyes again, she was already back in her living room. Curiously gripping the water cup she had just been holding, she silently thought about going in. Instantly, both she and the water cup appeared in that same hall again.
"Is this a legendary pocket dimension?" Jin Qianqian slumped directly onto the floor of the hall. She stroked the pristine white jade beneath her. Seeing that there were no seams and that it was a single, unspliced piece, she was even more astounded. It was too extravagant. If not for the cold, smooth touch, she would have assumed it was all a hallucination.
She bit the back of her hand hard. "It's real."
In and out, out and in. Jin Qianqian played around for the better part of the day before finally turning her gaze toward the doors. Red, green, blue, black, white, and purple—six doors of different colors stood there, forming a circle around the forty or fifty square meter hall. These doors were all quaint and antique, especially the doornails on them, which paired exceptionally harmoniously with their respective colors.
A trace of curiosity welling up inside her, Jin Qianqian stood up and spun around in place, finally choosing her favorite color—purple. Grasping the door ring on it, she tried pushing it in and pulling it out, but the heavy door wouldn't budge an inch.
Refusing to give up, she went down the line, trying the white, black, blue, and green doors one by one. It wasn't until she reached the final red door that it slowly opened as she pushed against it.
Startled, Jin Qianqian let go of the door ring and took two steps back. After waiting a long while with no movement, she carefully peeked her head inside.