At that time, she had been too young. Her parents were worried that it wouldn’t be safe for her to live alone, so they hadn’t built her a separate room. Whenever they came here, she always stayed with them.
The house and courtyard walls were built with bricks and tiles fired by her father himself. The courtyard gate was made of wood—thick and sturdy, quite secure.
Her father had stayed here for several days a month ago, so there should still be some food left.
After entering the courtyard, Gu Shiyi secured the gate and immediately went into the kitchen to see what she could eat.
As soon as she stepped in, she saw several pieces of cured meat hanging above the stove, along with a cured chicken and half a rabbit.
She reached up to check them—they had been smoked, dark in color, and very dry.
There was no mold. They were perfectly edible.
She opened the cabinet that stored rice, flour, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. The wooden cabinet had three levels. On the bottom level were two large clay jars.
Good, good!
The jar of rice was more than half full, and the other jar of white flour was also more than half full.
There was also half a sack of cornmeal.
If she rationed carefully, this food could last her and the dogs for over a month.
During that time, she needed to heal her foot, then find a way to earn money and buy seeds to reclaim land and start farming.
She also needed to stock up on food for winter. Once it snowed, it would be hard to leave the mountains.
The second level contained oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, neatly arranged in various clay jars.
She opened one—it was salt, about half a jar. Enough to last her a long time.
The second jar contained lard, only a small amount left.
The third jar was soy sauce, more than half full.
There was also a jar of what seemed to be soybean oil, also more than half full.
Next to them was another jar, filled completely with lard. Beside it was an oil-paper package. She carefully opened it—it was a whole pack of salt, weighing about two catties (around one kilogram).
Not bad, not bad. She wouldn’t starve anytime soon.
Gu Shiyi immediately stored the full jar of lard and the entire pack of salt into her space.
The space was much safer than here.
Salt and lard were both valuable, so she had to keep them with her.
Next, she checked the top level. It contained various spices: dried chili peppers, ginger, garlic, dried wood ear mushrooms, dried bamboo shoots, and dried vegetables.
Here, spices, ginger, and chili peppers weren’t used for cooking but as medicinal ingredients, only available at pharmacies.
These spices had been gathered by her father in the mountains. He had planned to accumulate more before selling them—but now they benefited her instead.
Ginger and chili could be boiled in water to ward off cold or used to treat fevers and colds. Things like pepper and Sichuan pepper were also used for medicinal purposes.
But Gu Shiyi wasn’t from this world. To her, these were definitely cooking ingredients. After all, she was a girl from Chongqing who loved spicy food.
Having chili peppers and Sichuan pepper was simply wonderful.
Everything was well preserved, likely dried this year. There were more than ten catties each of dried wood ear mushrooms and dried bamboo shoots—far more than she could eat alone. She could sell some for money.
After checking the most important supplies, she felt quite satisfied.
Next, it was time to make dinner.
The water in the jar had been sitting too long, so she decided to use water from her space instead.
There were two pots on the stove, and a clay stove nearby with a ceramic pot on top.
A small iron pan hung on the wall, along with a copper kettle for boiling water—both usable on the clay stove.
The stove hadn’t been used for a long time, so she needed to boil water and clean everything thoroughly.
She scooped water from her space into the pot and started a fire. The firewood was dry, and the fire quickly caught.
“What should I eat tonight? Forget the chicken—it’s too late. Maybe stir-fried cured meat with mushrooms, steamed egg custard, and rice? No… better cook porridge and save some food,” she muttered to herself.
She quickly cleaned the stove, pots, bowls, and utensils.
She scooped a small bowl of rice to cook porridge. After all, she had three dogs to feed—she could go hungry, but not them.
Once the porridge was cooking, she took a basin and a large bowl into the space to wash the mushrooms.
Huh? The chicken that hadn’t died earlier—how was it alive again, walking around inside the space?
Haha! Could this space heal injuries? It really was a magical treasure.
Then could her injured foot also heal faster?
Maybe she should sleep in the space tonight!
“Ha! It’s a hen—now I’ll have eggs to eat,” she said, grinning foolishly after taking a closer look.
Next time, she would have Ah Hui and Ah Hua be more careful when catching chickens—not to kill them all.
As she washed the mushrooms, she thought about these things.
Oh! And that patch of land—there didn’t seem to be any seeds to plant.
Wait!
Could chili peppers, ginger, and garlic be planted?
After finishing washing the mushrooms, she also washed a piece of ginger.
She put aside what she needed for dinner and left the rest in the space. She wanted to test whether the space could preserve freshness.
If it could heal a chicken, it could probably preserve food too.
Sigh… this space gave no instructions—she had to figure everything out herself.
After leaving the space, she lifted the lid of the pot and stirred the porridge to keep it from sticking.
Then she took a piece of cured meat, cut off a portion, washed it with hot water, and sliced it thinly.
She took two dried chili peppers from the cabinet, removed all the seeds, and planned to plant them in the space after dinner.
The cured meat was made from pork belly, with both fat and lean. As she stir-fried it, a good amount of oil rendered out. Since she didn’t like overly greasy food, she scooped some of the oil into a small bowl.
She added the sliced ginger, then tossed in the mushrooms, tearing them into small pieces as she stir-fried.
Adding a small spoon of soy sauce, she continued cooking. She picked up a piece of mushroom with her chopsticks and tasted it—it was perfectly seasoned, no need for extra salt.
The savory richness of the cured meat blended perfectly with the freshness of the mushrooms, creating a delicious aroma.
The three dogs, smelling the food, came into the kitchen with their bowls in their mouths and sat on the floor, staring at the stove.
Gu Shiyi gave each of them a small piece of meat and a piece of mushroom. “You can’t eat too much salty food. Just have a taste.”
The dogs gobbled it down in one bite and kept licking their bowls.
Since she was eating porridge, she skipped the egg custard and instead fried two eggs. She ate one, and the other—without salt—was shared among the three dogs.
After cooking, she transferred the burning firewood from the stove into the clay stove, cleaned the copper kettle, and filled it with water.
Once it boiled, some would be used for drinking, and the rest for bathing.
She first served porridge to the dogs, broke the fried egg into pieces, divided it among them, and added some mushrooms, mixing everything together.
The cured meat was too salty for them.
After feeding the dogs, she began eating as well. There was a dining table in the kitchen, but it hadn’t been cleaned yet, so she simply ate by the stove.
The Gu family usually ate fairly well, but after running so far today, she was especially hungry. It didn’t take long for her to finish a whole bowl of porridge.