She put the bamboo rats into a backpack. This way, as long as she didn’t see them, she wouldn’t feel as afraid.
Wait a moment! Although she didn’t dare to eat these bamboo rats, she could sell them!
She remembered that her father had caught bamboo rats before and sold them. The price seemed to be even higher than that of rabbits.
Thinking of this, Gu Shiyi decided to take these bamboo rats to the county town and sell them tomorrow.
Although she had over a hundred taels of silver on hand, she couldn’t just live off her savings forever. She still needed to find ways to earn money.
Once she thought that the bamboo rats could be sold for silver, Gu Shiyi suddenly didn’t find them so frightening anymore.
After settling the bamboo rats, Gu Shiyi’s gaze fell on the small mountain-like pile of grapes.
When she picked these grapes in the afternoon, she had already planned to use them to make grape wine.
She decided to buy some rock sugar and ceramic jars tomorrow and start brewing grape wine.
After staying in her space for a short while, Gu Shiyi felt her fatigue lessen significantly.
She then began washing the grapes by the water pool.
First, she carefully used scissors to cut each grape off one by one. Then she poured some flour into a basin, added an appropriate amount of clean water, and began thoroughly washing the grapes.
She gently rubbed each grape with her hands, making sure they were completely cleaned.
After washing, she scooped the grapes out of the basin and took them outside the space, placing them on a drying rack under the eaves to let the water dry.
Throughout the evening, she went in and out repeatedly, staying busy until it grew dark, but she still hadn’t finished washing all the grapes.
When she finished drying the last tray of grapes and stepped back into the space again, she noticed a change.
The space had clearly expanded.
All the chili peppers planted in the field had fully ripened and turned red.
This made her very happy, and she quickly went to the stone tablet to check.
As expected, the land area had increased to eight square meters, and the storage space had also expanded to eight square meters.
It seemed that when crops matured, the space would expand—this was truly wonderful.
Gu Shiyi didn’t bother finishing the grape washing. She quickly harvested all the ripe chili peppers, then pulled out the chili plants and threw them out of the space.
These chili plants could be left outside to dry and used as fire starters later.
Gu Shiyi also prepared some chili seeds, ginger seeds, and potato seeds, and used her thoughts to plant them in the field.
From now on, she would need to work harder and plant more crops so that the space could gradually grow larger.
She then remembered the small tomatoes she had picked earlier.
She cut open the damaged tomatoes, crushed them with a kitchen knife, and placed them on the firewood pile in the courtyard to let them dry naturally.
After this batch of vegetables was harvested, she could plant these small tomatoes in the open field.
Gu Shiyi yawned widely, hugged her quilt, entered the space, and laid out a simple bedding on the ground.
“When the space gets bigger in the future, I must buy a comfortable bed to put inside.”
Before dawn, Gu Shiyi was awakened by Ah Hei’s barking. Half-asleep, she walked to the stone tablet and looked at the time displayed—5:00 a.m.
“So early…” she muttered, quickly getting herself ready.
After washing up, she tied her hair into a high bun, put on men’s clothing, and dressed herself like a servant from a wealthy household.
To make her disguise more convincing, she even applied some soot to her face. From a distance, it looked like a large dark birthmark.
Over the years, whenever Gu Shiyi went out, her parents would require her to dress like this. She couldn’t help but sigh, “Sigh, being too beautiful can sometimes be such a trouble.”
Gu Shiyi quickly cooked some corn porridge. After finishing breakfast with the dogs, she found that it was still pitch dark outside.
She lit a lantern, put Xiao Hua into her space, and set off with Ah Hei and Ah Hua.
After leaving the cave, the sky at the horizon had already begun to show a faint white light.
Gu Shiyi felt the lantern was a burden, so she blew it out and stored it in her space.
The mountain path was rugged and uneven, filled with rocks and potholes, making it difficult to walk.
Gu Shiyi carried nothing, not even luggage or heavy items, which made her walk much more easily and much faster than an average person.
After three hours of difficult travel, she finally arrived at Xiahe Village, next to Dali River Village.
The houses in this village were scattered in an orderly manner. Smoke was rising from some chimneys, giving the place a quiet and peaceful atmosphere.
At this time, the busy autumn harvest season had just passed, and there were not many people working in the fields.
The farmland was empty, with only the occasional bird flying by and the sound of the breeze.
From this village, it still took more than half an hour to reach the county town.
Time passed little by little until she finally arrived outside Jinniu County.
There was a small forest outside the county. Gu Shiyi walked behind a large tree and put the two dogs following her into her space.
Then she took out a backpack from her space containing more than ten bamboo rats and carried it on her back.
To avoid drawing attention, she planned to sell the bamboo rats to two different restaurants.
Although there were guards at the city gate, they did not conduct strict checks on people entering the city.
People did not need to line up or pay any fees to enter.
Relying on her memory, Gu Shiyi successfully arrived at the largest restaurant in the county—Zuixiang Tower.
Most of her father’s game had previously been sold to this restaurant.
At the moment, it was still some time before mealtime, so the main hall of Zuixiang Tower appeared rather quiet.
Only one waiter was busy cleaning, while the shopkeeper sat behind the counter, rapidly moving the beads of an abacus.
Gu Shiyi stepped into the hall. She looked around and, seeing that no one was paying attention to her, asked softly, “Waiter, do you buy game?”
The waiter, who was wiping the tables, looked up upon hearing her voice and fixed his gaze on Gu Shiyi.
He smiled and asked, “Sir, what kind of game are you selling?”
Gu Shiyi replied, “Bamboo rats. Do you accept them?”
The waiter answered without hesitation, “Yes.” Then he called toward the counter, “Shopkeeper Wang, someone is here to sell bamboo rats!”
Hearing that someone was selling bamboo rats, Shopkeeper Wang immediately stopped moving the abacus and quickly walked out from behind the counter.
Seeing this, Gu Shiyi quickly took the backpack off her back and placed it on the ground.
The waiter stepped forward and began inspecting the contents.
Standing nearby, Shopkeeper Wang saw the plump bamboo rats taken out of the backpack by the waiter and said to Gu Shiyi, “Sir, these bamboo rats are quite good. I’ll take them all at thirty wen per jin. Is that acceptable? If so, I’ll go get a scale to weigh them.”
Gu Shiyi quickly calculated in her mind that this price matched what she remembered. She readily replied, “Shopkeeper Wang, that’s fine.”