Lin Shengxia stared at the banknotes in her hand, which were clearly different from the money used in her time. After thinking for a moment, she asked, “Auntie, is there a supply and marketing cooperative nearby?”
Li Xiangqin was momentarily taken aback by her question, but quickly realized what she meant and smiled. “There aren’t any supply and marketing cooperatives anymore. Nowadays, we have supermarkets. Just follow the road on the right all the way to the end, then turn the corner. You’ll see one there.”
Lin Shengxia’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but she carefully committed Li Xiangqin’s words to memory.
In 2026, there were no supply and marketing cooperatives. The equivalent here was called a supermarket.
Thinking over everything she had experienced during the past two days, Lin Shengxia gradually began forming a plan.
When she reached the corner, she immediately spotted a sign that read, “Pangjia Life Supermarket.”
The building looked five or six stories tall.
Would the little money she had really be enough?
Lin Shengxia felt somewhat uneasy. But when she thought of her parents and younger brother waiting for her back at the ruined temple, she took a deep breath and walked inside without hesitation.
The supermarket’s bright lights shone on her face, making her instinctively close her eyes for a moment before slowly opening them again.
Following the crowd, she first took a shopping cart and then entered according to the signs at the entrance.
Fortunately, signs hung above the aisles throughout the supermarket. Lin Shengxia could read the words on them, making it much easier for her to find what she needed.
When she saw piles of gleaming white rice casually displayed in a corner, she couldn’t help taking two deep breaths, greedily inhaling the fragrant scent of rice.
Then she carefully glanced at the price tag.
“Grade-One Round-Grain Pearl Rice, 2.59 yuan/500g.”
She silently calculated the price and realized that if she spent all the money she had on rice, she could buy nearly two hundred jin!
A surge of excitement rose in Lin Shengxia’s heart.
Still, she didn’t get carried away. She asked an employee to weigh five jin of rice for her and place it in her cart before heading toward the seasoning aisle.
Lin Shengxia ignored all the strange and unfamiliar seasonings. She focused solely on finding salt.
At last, she found it on the bottom shelf!
What surprised her even more was that such fine, refined salt only cost two yuan!
She glanced at the dazzling variety of peanut oil displayed beside the salt. Thinking of how painfully thin every member of her family was, she decided to buy the smallest bottle.
However, plastic bottles like this had never appeared in the 1970s.
Lin Shengxia suddenly became worried.
What if someone discovered it?!
Almost the very next second after that thought crossed her mind, the bottle of cooking oil in her hand vanished into thin air!
Immediately afterward, the image of a small, square room appeared in her mind.
The bottle of cooking oil sat all alone inside it.
Lin Shengxia had no idea why such a strange change had suddenly occurred, but she vaguely sensed that this unexpected ability could only be a good thing for her.
But the most urgent matter right now was getting the bottle of cooking oil back out!
Otherwise, wouldn’t that make her a thief?!
When their family had been sent down to the countryside, they had been burdened with all sorts of accusations and disgrace. But her father had once told her that as long as they lived with a clear conscience, other people’s slander would not stain their names forever.
Fortunately, after Lin Shengxia desperately wished for it to return, the bottle of cooking oil appeared safely in her shopping cart again.
Only then did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
She was about to head toward the checkout when she noticed pots and cookware of all sizes displayed in the kitchenware section nearby.
Her family didn’t even have a proper pot to cook with anymore.
After thinking it over, Lin Shengxia picked out a clay pot and placed it in her cart. Then, in the instant-food section, she spotted dried noodles and took several packages.
After making sure she had bought enough food for her family, she finally followed the crowd toward the checkout area.
Aside from the clay pot, everything else was relatively inexpensive. Altogether, she spent less than a hundred yuan.
Lin Shengxia paid for everything. Once the cashier handed her the change, she gathered her purchases and hurried away.
After finding a deserted place, she silently thought,
“Store.”
Sure enough, everything in her arms, along with the remaining four hundred-plus yuan, instantly disappeared!
Lin Shengxia didn’t dare waste another moment.
She hurried back to Li Xiangqin and bought two trays of meat buns from her before heading toward the alley.
When the familiar white light appeared again, Lin Shengxia stepped into it without hesitation.
Meanwhile, inside the ruined temple, Lin Qizheng, Dong Wanqiu, and the others were anxiously waiting for her return.
“It’s almost noon. Why hasn’t Shengxia come back yet? Could she have…”
As a terrifying possibility crossed Dong Wanqiu’s mind, her face instantly turned deathly pale.
At that exact moment, Lin Shengxia pushed open the door and walked inside, her arms filled with bags of various sizes.
Seeing the worried expressions on her parents’ and younger brother’s faces, Lin Shengxia quickly smiled and set everything down.
“Dad, Mom, look! I earned money in 2026! I bought all of this with it! And look at this—this is the money left over from selling our carp and wild vegetables. There’s more than four hundred yuan left!”
Lin Shengxia knew her parents and younger brother must be incredibly curious about the world fifty years in the future, so she patiently explained everything to them.
Sure enough, Lin Qizheng, Dong Wanqiu, and the others were completely captivated by what she told them.
But when they saw what she had brought back, they still couldn’t help gasping in astonishment.
“This is rice and white-flour noodles?”
Even in the capital, noodles of such fine quality were difficult to get.
Yet in the world fifty years into the future, people could simply buy and sell them freely?
“That’s not all, Mom! You have no idea! A small handful of our wild vegetables can sell for ten yuan over there. The wild carp Dad caught sold for twenty-five yuan per jin! And you can buy four jin of this rice for just ten yuan!”
Dong Wanqiu listened in stunned disbelief, feeling as though her mind could barely keep up.
“You mean those wild vegetables on the mountain that nobody wants become treasures fifty years in the future?”
“Exactly! Wood ear mushrooms, other mushrooms, and even the fish from the lake are all valuable over there. I don’t know why, but the people there really like eating wild vegetables and wild-caught fish. They say those foods are safer to eat because they don’t have pesticide residue.”
Although Lin Shengxia didn’t really understand what “pesticide residue” meant, she had always possessed an exceptionally good memory. She could remember most of what other people told her almost word for word.
Just as Dong Wanqiu was about to ask a few more questions, the cracked porcelain basin sitting over the fire suddenly began bubbling.
The mushroom soup Lin Qizheng had been cooking had come to a boil.
Seeing this, Lin Shengxia quickly tore open a small corner of the salt packet. She poured some of the fine salt into her palm, then sprinkled a little into the soup.
After thinking for a moment, she couldn’t help asking, “Dad, why don’t we add some dried noodles to the soup?”
Aside from the white-flour buns they had eaten yesterday, none of them could remember how long it had been since they had eaten refined grain.
Now, smelling the delicious aroma of mushroom soup, Lin Shengxia couldn’t help feeling hungry.
Naturally, Lin Qizheng had no objections. He grabbed a package of dried noodles and poured them straight into the cracked porcelain basin.
Fortunately, the basin was large enough. Otherwise, it might not have been able to hold everything!
While waiting for the noodles to cook, Lin Shengxia and her family shared the two trays of meat buns and devoured every last one.
Looking at her family, who clearly wished they had more, Lin Shengxia hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“I met a really kind auntie over there. She told me that if our family has any more wild vegetables, wild fish, or things like that, I can bring them over and sell them at a stall.”
She paused briefly before continuing with determination.
“I… want to go!”