Gu Shiyi enjoyed every bite of her meal, feeling completely satisfied by the food.
Now that she had plenty of grain, she could finally eat white rice at every meal.
Being able to enjoy fragrant rice every day felt wonderful.
The rice she bought yesterday, plus the more than one thousand jin of grain she had taken from the Gu family, would be enough for her and the dogs to eat for over two years.
With such supplies, she felt a strong sense of security.
However, she felt a bit disappointed that after the ginger matured, the space did not change as she had expected.
She had originally thought that harvesting crops would upgrade the space, but that wasn’t the case.
This confused her. It seemed the rules of the space were not so simple, and she couldn’t figure them out.
Since she couldn’t understand it, she decided not to think about it for now. There were still many other interesting things in life to explore.
Why waste energy on this?
If she couldn’t figure it out, she simply wouldn’t think about it.
It was better to enjoy the present.
That afternoon, Gu Shiyi went to pick grapes again. After a full afternoon of effort, she harvested all the fully ripe grapes and brought them home.
Xiao Hua stayed with her the whole time, while Ah Hui and Ah Hua went into the bamboo forest to catch bamboo rats. There were fewer than the day before—only a dozen or so—but still a good catch.
After returning home, Gu Shiyi processed the rabbits.
She carefully skinned them. The rabbit fur could be kept and later made into scarves or gloves.
She stored most of the rabbit meat in her space, keeping one to cook a stir-fried rabbit dish.
She also kept the rabbit heads—they could be braised later. Spicy or five-spice rabbit heads would both taste great.
She chopped the rabbit meat into small pieces, blanched it, then stir-fried it in pork fat with ginger and garlic until fragrant, adding some soy sauce.
She first set aside a bowl without salt for the dogs.
For herself, she added chili and salt and continued stir-frying.
After finishing the rabbit dish, she stir-fried some greens and made an egg soup.
One person and three dogs all ate until their bellies were round, completely satisfied.
After dinner, Gu Shiyi went into the space to harvest the crops.
This time, she had planted wheat, potatoes, chili peppers, as well as cherry tomatoes and grapes she had picked earlier.
The stone tablet showed that cherry tomatoes required ninety-six hours, while grapes needed one hundred and twenty hours.
It seemed fruits were considered higher-level crops and required more time.
She hoped that harvesting grapes and tomatoes would bring changes to the space.
Gu Shiyi decided to try making some grape wine.
She washed the grapes, let them dry, then crushed them to separate the skins and pulp and release the juice.
She sterilized a jar with liquor, placed rock sugar at the bottom, added the crushed grapes, then sprinkled another layer of sugar on top.
Finally, she sealed the jar tightly.
Considering the space preserved things, she moved the jar outside and placed it in her room.
It would be ready after about half a month of fermentation.
Worried that she might fail, she only made two jars for now. If it worked, she would make more.
Early the next morning, Gu Shiyi cooked sweet potato porridge and ate it with the leftover rabbit from the previous night.
The sweet potatoes were very good—nice and sweet. She planned to plant some in the space once the crops matured that night.
She didn’t feel like going out today, so she planned to clear some land and plant wheat. In this era, you could never have too much grain—if you couldn’t eat it all, you could sell it.
With a hoe in hand, she went outside the courtyard and chose a patch of soil that wasn’t too hard.
She dug up the land, pulling out weeds by the roots and tossing them aside. Once dried in the sun, they could be burned into ash and spread on the field to disinfect and fertilize the soil.
The soil here was fairly loose and fertile. With a few years of care, it would become very rich farmland.
Unfortunately, she lacked manure. The waste from herself, the dogs, and the chickens was far from enough. She would have to think of another solution.
After working for a while, she began to sweat heavily and breathe hard.
This body really couldn’t handle the labor.
Gu Shiyi stopped, went into the space to rest for a bit, then came out and continued working.
But after an entire morning, she hadn’t even cleared half a plot of land.
Her speed was like a snail’s.
Those stories about people clearing dozens of mu of land by hand—how did they even do it? She definitely couldn’t.
It would be better to go down the mountain and buy an ox to plow the land. She remembered that plows existed here, though there were no harrows. Still, she could draw a design and have a craftsman make one.
That afternoon, Gu Shiyi gave up on clearing land.
She didn’t want to waste time and energy on something so inefficient.
It would be better to gather more food to store.
After lunch, she took the dogs out of the sinkhole and went straight to the river to catch fish.
Even though she hadn’t eaten any of the fish she caught, she loved the activity—it was fun.
The fish here were a bit slow. With one scoop of her basket, she could catch several fish at once, which gave her a strong sense of accomplishment.
After playing in the river for a while, she caught more than a dozen big fish, not to mention countless small fish and shrimp.
After going ashore, she dried her feet, put on her shoes and socks, and went straight to the fallen log where mushrooms and wood ear fungus were growing.
This time, she planned to move them into her space so she could easily harvest them later. There were still many small ones that hadn’t fully grown.
“Ah Hui, Ah Hua!” Gu Shiyi called when she noticed the two big dogs were missing again.
Xiao Hua seemed able to recognize their scent. It bit her pant leg, signaling her to follow.
Gu Shiyi trusted the dogs and followed Xiao Hua.
They walked along the river downstream for about fifteen minutes before she finally saw the two dogs in the distance.
But—
The scene was rather funny.
Were the dogs fighting with sheep?
Each dog had bitten onto a sheep’s hind leg and refused to let go. Both the dogs and the sheep were exhausted, lying on the grass by the river. The sheep struggled from time to time, but the dogs wouldn’t release their grip.
Gu Shiyi quickly ran over and put the two sheep into her space.
“Ah Hui, Ah Hua, you’re amazing! You can even catch sheep!” she praised them without hesitation.
She noticed something strange—once inside the space, the sheep lay quietly on the ground, no longer panicking.
Could the space have the ability to tame animals?
She stepped forward to check them. Their hind legs were injured, but they would survive. It seemed her household was about to gain new members.
“Woof woof!” After resting for a while and regaining their strength, the dogs barked as they walked.
Gu Shiyi understood—they were telling her to follow again.
“Ah Hui, Ah Hua, you’re truly hunting experts. You even killed two!”
Looking at the two sheep lying on the ground, Gu Shiyi didn’t know how to describe how she felt.
She put them into her space.