Soon, it was Shen Ruyi’s monthly day off.
This month’s wages had already been given, so Shen Ruyi left the residence wearing her low-ranking maid’s gray, simple clothes, carrying ten taels of silver and three thousand copper coins.
The matron guarding the back gate was quite surprised to see Shen Ruyi leaving, even forgetting to collect the usual tip for tea. She probably knew some of Er Ya’s reputation.
Shen Ruyi decided to maintain her poor-girl persona and pretended not to notice.
Before figuring out her future, she resolutely didn’t want to spend a single extra coin.
The main purpose of leaving the residence this time was to go to the grain store to buy some easy-to-manage seeds and then to the medicine shop to see if there were any good medicinal seeds.
Shen Ruyi planned to plant one plot with grains and the other with medicinal herbs in her space.
Since the space provided land, she obviously intended to plant it.
Perhaps because of the transmigration, Shen Ruyi constantly felt a sense of crisis, urgently wanting to stock up on supplies.
Whether it was a natural instinct or a premonition, she didn’t know.
Either way, with space available, she had to store things—this was her style.
“Brother, may I ask if you have any easy-to-grow grain seeds? Could you recommend some?”
Shen Ruyi observed a bit in the grain shop and chose this clerk because he seemed the friendliest.
“The easiest to grow are imperial wheat, sweet potatoes, and potatoes. These have high yields and don’t need special soil,” the clerk said while showing samples.
Fortunately, Shen Ruyi grew up on the Jianghan Plain, where they also called potatoes “yangyu,” so she didn’t make a scene upon seeing them.
At this point, she realized she didn’t know what dynasty she had transmigrated into.
Seeing the clerk display corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, could it already be the late Ming? How unlucky could that be?
A chaotic era treats people worse than dogs, and the next several hundred years of the Qing dynasty wouldn’t treat Han people as humans either.
Of course, these weren’t things a low-ranking maid without freedom needed to worry about right now.
After learning how to plant, Shen Ruyi bought a few pounds of each seed to try.
Next, she went to a smaller medicine shop. Passing several larger shops earlier, she noticed the clerks looked down on ordinary people.
This smaller shop only had a doctor and an apprentice, but both were friendly, and the customers were ordinary people, so it probably wouldn’t be too expensive.
“Brother, do you have medicinal herb seeds that are easy to grow?” Shen Ruyi quickly asked while the apprentice had a moment to breathe.
Not knowing what to call people in this era, she decided on “brother.”
Her current body was small and weak-looking; even if she called him wrong, it didn’t matter.
“Schisandra, honeysuckle, and He Shou Wu are all good choices. We have seeds here. Do you want to try planting them?”
The apprentice kept busy weighing herbs, answering without any curiosity.
“I’ve heard of a rare medicinal herb, ginseng. Do you have seeds for that?”
The apprentice paused, looked at her, and raised his head.
“Ginseng? That’s not easy to grow. Our region isn’t cold enough; it’s difficult to survive. Almost no one succeeds in growing it,” he explained patiently.
“Do you have some in the shop? I’d like to try a few,” Shen Ruyi said, her eyes sparkling.
“Wait a moment,” the apprentice said, lifting the curtain and going into the back yard.
After a while, he returned with a small package. Opening it, he said, “These are ginseng seeds. Fifty wen each. How many would you like?”
Shen Ruyi looked at the paper package, which contained a dozen or so bright red, semicircular seeds.
These should be ginseng seeds, right? Don’t ginseng seeds usually have red tassels? This clerk has been so helpful; he probably isn’t lying.
After some thought, she took out two hundred wen and bought four seeds.
She also bought the He Shou Wu seeds the clerk recommended and asked if they had Sanqi seeds, buying two of those as well.
The shop had little experience with planting medicinal herbs; Shen Ruyi had her eye on the well in her space.
It had cured her fever and appeared in her planting space—it must have some magical effect.
Whether or not it had magic, she decided to try. The amount she bought was small, and she could afford the cost of trial and error.
After buying grain and medicinal seeds, she wandered around the streets.
By now, she had discovered that the small room in her space froze time: whatever she placed there remained unchanged. Perfect for storage.
As the space’s owner, she could only physically stay there for half an hour at most; the rest of the time, she could control it mentally.
She walked through the streets, buying food and storing it in the space where no one could see.
Eventually, she reached the market area.
She saw a butcher stall slaughtering pigs. The blood was still hot and flowing, not yet coagulated.
“Shopkeeper, how much for a bucket of pig blood?”
“Twenty copper coins for a full bucket. If you wait for it to coagulate, it’ll cost more.”
“I need to go back urgently. I don’t have anything to store it in. How much with the bucket?” Shen Ruyi asked quickly, worried the blood would solidify if delayed.
“Twenty-five wen,” the butcher said, eyeing the old wooden bucket that had been used for years. Seeing her small frame, he only charged a token amount.
Shen Ruyi estimated the pig wasn’t big—about ten or so pounds including the blood and bucket.
Although small, she had done heavy labor as a low-ranking maid. Lifting ten pounds was no problem.
After paying, she carried the bucket into a quiet alley she had noticed earlier.
Once inside, she checked around—no one was there.
She stored the still-hot pig blood into her space. Using her mental control, she confirmed it remained in liquid form, and its heat was instantly frozen.
Why go through all this trouble for fresh blood? It would definitely have a great use later.
On the way back, she passed a clothing store, buying two modest outfits for future outings.
After finishing her errands, she returned to the residence.
After the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather became hotter.
Shen Ruyi, tired of the stuffy room, found a small hole in the rockery in the garden to take a short rest.
“Guo Ping, the Third Young Master hasn’t been eating well lately. This can’t go on. We have to think of a solution…”