The most beautiful space

9. The Diary of the Imperial Concubine

After leaving Li Li's house, Su Tong took Kong Kong to the shopping mall. Although there was no explicit rule against pets entering the mall, the security guard still stopped Su Tong. Su Tong held Kong Kong and acted cute for half a minute before the guard finally let her through, amidst the condemning gazes of the onlookers.

Although Su Tong, as the owner, kept her promise and took Kong Kong to pick out dog food, our adorable Kong Kong wasn't spoiled at all. Faced with the dog food counter in the largest shopping mall in this small city, Kong Kong, though smart, wasn't quite literate enough to choose, so she left the decision to Su Tong. However, Su Tong was also raising a dog for the first time and didn't have much experience. In the end, on the recommendation of the saleswoman, she chose a very high-end foreign brand.

Looking at the highest price of that dog food in the store and the overly bright smile of the saleswoman, Su Tong finally declined her suggestion to buy a month's supply and took two bags instead.

After thinking about it, I went to the sports equipment section and bought a hand gripper.

When it came time to pay, Su Tong received a free gift—a pretty dog-decorative bow—because the total price of the dog food she bought exceeded the supermarket's promotional price. Su Tong immediately put it on Kong Kong.

Suddenly, the cuteness index of the empty space increased by several percentage points.

Passing by a pharmacy on the way, Su Tong saw a scale at the door and weighed herself. She was surprised to find that she now weighed only 43.60 kg. Su Tong is 164 cm tall and used to weigh around 94.5 catties, which was considered quite slender. Now, she had lost so much weight in just two weeks of eating normally. No wonder her pants, which were already a size too small, were now a bit too big.

Su Tong squeezed her left wrist with her right hand, and she wondered if it was just her imagination, but the bones in her wrist seemed to have thinned out a bit.

Then she weighed Kongkong again. It turned out that Kongkong only weighed 2.2kg. No wonder Su Tong was still able to carry it with her strength. However, Su Tong always carried it with both hands. Dogs grow fast. Su Tong thought sadly that she didn't know when she would be unable to carry Kongkong anymore.

Back home, I solemnly introduced Kongkong, the adorable little dog "from Li Li's family," to my parents.

Kongkong, dressed in a beautiful white coat with gray fluff and a delicate silver-blue bow around his neck, looked like a handsome little gentleman. Under the scrutiny of Su's parents, he didn't pounce on Su Tong like he would when he was with her, but just stood there quietly, his watery eyes still fixed on Su Tong.

Li Li has always been a tomboy, but surprisingly, she has an exceptional talent for making Chinese pastries. During her period of uncertainty after graduating high school, she spent three months learning the craft from Su's mother, mastering all sorts of buns, pastries, and small desserts, each one exquisitely delicious—you could say she's surpassed her teacher. Su's mother, who had learned to make Chinese pastries in her early years but later became a head chef, always felt she had let down her former master who taught her the craft. It wasn't until she met Li Li, this talented student, that she was able to make up for her regret. This directly led to a period where Su's mother's affection and attention for Li Li almost surpassed that for her own daughter, Su Tong.

Hearing that it was a gift from Li Li, Su's mother, the head of the family, did not object, but she did not show any liking for Kong Kong. She just told Su Tong that if she was going to keep a pet, she should treat it well and not just be interested in it for a moment and then abandon it when she lost interest.

Su's father, loving the house as a whole, also adored Kongkong. With a smile, he patted Kongkong and said, "Its name is Kongkong, right? It's so clever. Once I have a couple of extra classes this week, I'll build it a kennel. We can't let such a cute dog suffer in our home!"

After saying goodbye to her parents, Su Tong said she was going back to her room, but actually took Kong Kong into her spatial dimension.

She had already basically examined the entire space, including the low hills, fields, pond, and attic. The low hills were covered with various fruit trees, and a clear spring flowed down to form a pond. The fields were empty and devoid of crops. The attic was an ordinary wooden building with bedrooms, living room, study, kitchen, toilet, and so on. There was nothing particularly unusual about it.

The current situation is that Su Tong is well aware that the space has side effects on her beauty enhancement, but because of "addiction," she basically has no choice but to continue using it. She used a grip strength meter to test her grip strength. She squeezed with all her might until her hand hurt, and the result was only 12.76. However, Su Tong remembered that the grip strength of an adult woman should generally be between 27 and 31 kilograms. If calculated in this way, her current strength is less than half that of an average girl!

Su Tong felt it was time to thoroughly explore the space. Aside from the attic, everything else seemed untouched by human hands. She searched online for information on ancient dwellings and concluded it was likely from the Tang Dynasty. Furthermore, a cursory observation of the books in the study revealed no works from after the Tang Dynasty. She had a hunch that this space might have had a previous owner from the Tang Dynasty, and that the attic was a remnant from that era.

Although the attic only had two floors and a dozen or so rooms of varying sizes, it was exquisite and beautiful. There was even a music room with various musical instruments such as the guzheng, pipa, yangqin, and flute. The bedroom also had an elegant dressing table and wardrobe, exuding a feminine softness and refinement. Su Tong felt that the original owner must have been a very talented woman.

In ancient times, talented people, regardless of gender, mostly liked to write things to pass down to future generations. That ancestor who obtained this space in the Tang Dynasty must have considered it an extraordinary encounter. Su Tong felt that she might have left behind some words or even a complete record about the space, which could serve as a reference for Su Tong now.

Over the next few days, Su Tong conservatively chose to soak in the space pool for fifteen minutes each day, while thoroughly searching the attic, starting with the study and bedroom where she felt she was most likely to find some information.

The study contained three large bookshelves that reached the ceiling, filled with a rich collection of books, ranging from the works of various philosophers, poems, songs, and essays, to miscellaneous notes, autobiographies, medical books, agricultural books, musical scores, chess scores, novels, and even annotations in beautiful small regular script on most of the books. Su Tong couldn't help but admire the man's extensive knowledge.

On the second day of their exploration, Su Tong found a collection of poems in the bedroom that appeared to be written by the Tang Dynasty owner of the space. The calligraphy on it was elegant and flowing, and many of the poems sounded like the clanging of weapons, which did not seem to be written by a woman. When she turned to the last page, she found that it was signed by Tai Zhen!

Could it be Yang Guifei, the most beautiful woman of the Tang Dynasty?! Isn't she also known as Yang Yuhuan?

Su Tong was completely bewildered. She had never been a big fan of the so-called Four Beauties of Ancient China, except for Xi Shi, who was the furthest removed from modern times. Could it be that the previous owner of this space was Yang Yuhuan, the famous and voluptuous beauty in history, and the protagonist of the legend of her father taking her son's wife?

However, judging from the vast collection of books and the talented poems in the attic, this woman is hardly like the charming palace concubine in history.

This conjecture made Su Tong quite uneasy. Without arousing her parents' suspicion, she quickened her pace of investigation. On the afternoon of the fourth day, she finally found a small, thread-bound book in a small cabinet beneath a Buddha statue in a small, quiet room containing only a meditation cushion and a Buddha statue. Opening the book, the first page contained the content that delighted Su Tong:

"On the afternoon of the 17th of the seventh month in the 21st year of the Kaiyuan era, I fell into a deep sleep due to the heat of summer. When I awoke, I found this blessed place. It was truly a gift from the gods and a stroke of good fortune. I dare not tell anyone about it, so I record it here."

After flipping through the pages, Su Tong found it to be the woman's record of using the space. She was overjoyed, picked up Kong Kong who was playing nearby, and kissed it on the nose several times. "Haha, Kong Kong, I finally found this thing!"