She walked over to the small river and crouched down to wash her hands.
Miraculously, the wound on her hand had stopped bleeding. It no longer hurt, and she could even see that it was already beginning to heal.
Xiao’an laughed happily.
“Spiritual spring water! I have spiritual spring water!”
In her previous life, Xiao’an’s grandfather had been an expert at brewing alcohol. He had run a small distillery in their village.
It wasn’t particularly large, but because all the alcohol was made from pure grains, the business had remained prosperous for many years.
Because of that, their family had built a large house with six main rooms, plus three large side rooms on both the east and west sides. The courtyard was quite spacious.
The interior had been beautifully furnished, with all kinds of household appliances.
Now that her former home had become her portable space, Xiao’an finally experienced what it meant to be overjoyed.
She hurried back inside and went straight to the kitchen, opening the cabinets and searching through them.
Inside were two bags of refined salt, two bags of white sugar, a large bag of MSG, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, chili powder, and even a jar of yeast.
Seeing all these things, Xiao’an was thrilled.
Unfortunately, there were only seasonings and no rice, flour, cooking oil, or other staple foods.
Xiao’an suddenly remembered.
After her grandmother passed away from illness, her second aunt, who lived in the same village, had taken away all the rice, flour, cooking oil, and other food supplies.
On the afternoon of the old woman’s funeral, Xiao’an’s father and second uncle had gotten into a heated argument over the large house, which was supposedly going to be demolished for redevelopment.
They had nearly drawn knives against each other.
Neither of them had cared that the old woman had actually left a will stating that the house belonged to Xiao’an.
That night, an earthquake suddenly struck.
The house collapsed.
Xiao’an transmigrated during that earthquake, traveling from the modern world to ancient times, while her former home became her portable space.
So that was how fate worked.
Perhaps everything in the world really did have its own destiny.
Xiao’an left the kitchen and entered her grandparents’ bedroom.
Inside the bedside cabinet, she discovered a thick notebook recording how to brew different kinds of alcohol, along with various precautions and techniques.
It contained her grandfather’s years of painstaking work.
It was a detailed record of all the experience he had accumulated through years of practice.
Xiao’an picked up the notebook and hugged it tightly against her chest.
She pressed her face against it as tears streamed down her cheeks.
The longing for people she could never see again was like a sharp knife, repeatedly cutting into her heart.
She couldn’t help touching the longevity lock around her neck again.
Only then did her emotions gradually settle.
She carried the notebook back to her own room.
She planned to carefully study the brewing techniques.
Once she survived her current difficulties, she would use her grandfather’s secret recipes to open a small distillery and earn enough money to keep herself fed and clothed.
Unable to find any food, Xiao’an drank a large glass of water.
It was cool and refreshing, instantly washing away her fatigue.
Feeling energized again, Xiao’an hurried over to the mirror.
She wanted to see what she looked like.
Reflected in the mirror was a young, delicate face.
She looked innocent, youthful, and frail, like a little blade of grass that had just sprouted in spring.
Her features were fine and attractive.
The only problem was that she was far too thin.
Her skin and lips were both pale, making it obvious that she was severely malnourished.
Xiao’an was quite satisfied with the original owner’s appearance.
She left the mirror and entered the eastern storage rooms, looking through them one by one.
The first storage room contained several wooden cabinets stacked together.
They were cabinets her grandmother had used many years ago.
Later, when the house had been renovated and furnished with new furniture, her grandmother couldn’t bear to throw away the old cabinets, so they had been moved into the storage room.
There were also many long ropes, most of them looking brand new, as though they had never been used.
In the corner of the second storage room were several bundles of plastic sheeting.
Her grandmother had used them to cover the vegetable beds and make small greenhouses.
The family grew their own vegetables and ate vegetables from their garden all year round.
The third storage room was filled with all kinds of tools.
Anything that could possibly be useful in daily life was there.
There were also two enormous wooden boxes filled with both new and old nails, hinges, and all sorts of other hardware.
Xiao’an’s grandfather had been a practical man.
Even after their family became well-off, he still couldn’t bring himself to throw useful old things away.
Looking at all of it, Xiao’an was filled with emotion.
The three western storage rooms each contained more than a hundred barrels of pure-grain liquor that had already been brewed but had not yet been sold.
They were all labeled.
Most were 68% alcohol, while a smaller portion were 50%.
It was difficult to brew liquor with such a high alcohol content in ancient times, but Xiao’an wasn’t particularly interested in that.
She carried a basin of water and a rag out of the space.
Earlier, she had only been able to sweep away the dust with a broom.
Now that she had water, she carefully wiped down the entire bed.
She propped the door open with a wooden stick so that the wind could blow inside and dry the bed boards more quickly.
It was already past noon, and Xiao’an hadn’t even eaten breakfast.
She was genuinely starving.
She put the basket containing her bedding into the space, took her sickle, and went up the hillside to look for wild vegetables.
After spending half the afternoon digging, she gathered a large handful.
When she returned to the bamboo house, she immediately entered her space.
She washed the wild vegetables thoroughly, then added refined salt, MSG, white sugar, and rice vinegar.
After mixing everything together, she took a bite.
The taste was absolutely delicious.
At that moment, Xiao’an was sincerely grateful that her grandmother had always loved stocking up on things.
After finishing the wild vegetables, she carried her basket out of the space and spread her bedding over the bed.
Now that she had the space, Xiao’an didn’t actually need to sleep in the bamboo house anymore.
But she still had to make it look as though she lived there, otherwise the villagers might become suspicious.
Xiao’an secured the door from the inside, then entered her space.
She took a bath, washed her hair and clothes, climbed into bed, and dreamed of her grandparents.
In the middle of the night, it rained.
Just like the previous two years, the rain wasn’t heavy.
But at least it had finally come.
It would be enough to plant crops.
Xiao’an didn’t realize it had rained until she came out of the space the next morning.
She stood at the entrance of the bamboo house, breathing in the fresh air as she thought about her two mu of farmland.
What should I plant?
The vast majority of villagers planted corn.
Xiao’an had originally planned to plant corn as well.
But she had no seeds.
When the original owner had become desperately hungry, she had cooked and eaten all the corn seeds that had been saved for planting.
Xiao’an still had one tael of silver left from selling her house.
That would be enough to buy corn seeds.
However, there wasn’t a single grain of food at home.
If she didn’t buy some food, she definitely wouldn’t survive until autumn.
After carefully considering the situation, Xiao’an decided to use the remaining one tael of silver to buy food first.
She had to stay alive.
She had already made up her mind.
She would plant sweet melons on her two mu of land.
If this year’s weather was like the previous two years, with drought in spring and flooding in autumn, she still wouldn’t have to worry.
There was an old saying: Drought favors melons, while floods favor dates.
She could plant the melons in spring.
During dry periods, she could use the water from her space to irrigate them.
That would give her an advantage.
The melons would mature earlier and would certainly be sweeter.
If she couldn’t sell them all, she could harvest the remainder and store them in her space, where they wouldn’t spoil.
Having made up her mind, Xiao’an decided to go to the county town.
She would buy some sweet melon seeds and use the remaining money to buy cornmeal.
The bamboo house had no lock.
Although there was nothing inside except her bedding, she still worried that someone might break in and cause trouble.
Xiao’an entered her space and searched through a shallow box in the eastern side room.
She found an old set of door fittings, iron nails, an axe, and a padlock.
She nailed the door fittings into place and locked the door.
Only then did she put the basket on her back and head down the mountain.
Linshi Village was thirty li from the county town.
Xiao’an walked quickly and reached the county in about two hours.
As a modern woman, this was Xiao’an’s first time visiting an ancient county town.
It couldn’t compare with the prosperity of the modern world, but it was still bustling and lively.
As she walked, Xiao’an asked around for a shop that sold seeds.
Following the directions of a kind passerby, she entered a store.
Behind the counter stood a man in his fifties.
He wore a dark bluish-green round-collared brocade robe.
He wasn’t tall and had a thin, small build.
A smile was permanently plastered across his face, his eyes narrowed into slits, and his teeth were unusually small.
For some reason, the moment Xiao’an saw him, she immediately thought of the character Lingli Chong, the clever subordinate of the Golden Horned and Silver Horned Kings from the TV series Journey to the West.
Standing beside him was a young man of about seventeen or eighteen, dressed in simple short clothes.
At a glance, Xiao’an could tell he was the shop assistant.