Thinking of next month’s rent, Bai Bai felt she could afford to be a bit bolder, so she tilted her chin toward the end of the street.
“Let’s go. Find us a quiet spot.”
“Alright, alright! Step this way, Sister. I know this area inside out; I know a great little corner.”
The two quickly arrived at a wind-sheltered nook where the ground was paved with a flat layer of bricks.
“What’s your rate for full bags of grain?”
“Depends on the quantity: under 3 bags is 42 per bag, 4 to 8 bags is 43 per bag, and over 8 bags is 45 per bag.”
“Larger quantities get a higher price?”
“Anyone who can supply goods in bulk is a big boss. I just want to build a good rapport with a boss like you—just keep me in mind whenever you have good opportunities in the future.”
“Makes sense.” Bai Bai nodded. “I only have two bags for now. Since you offered a straightforward price, I’ll sell them to you.”
“Awesome, awesome!”
Two large, intact bags of grain appeared on the brick ground.
The scalper carefully inspected the stitched seals, confirming everything was in order.
“Top-notch goods indeed.”
Without a second thought, the scalper pulled out a wad of small bills, counted out the money, and handed it to Bai Bai.
“Count it, Sister. Whenever you have goods in the future, just come look for me on this street.”
Bai Bai verified the payment and stowed it into her space.
She felt a slight sense of relief.
Next month’s rent was taken care of.
Looking up, she saw the scalper open his space to store the grain.
Once again, the impulse of “wanting it” surged inside her.
Bai Bai wanted it, and so she got it.
Now well accustomed to the feeling of copying abilities, Bai Bai held firm this time without any sudden wave of weakness.
Inside her space, one of the Tier-2 Source Crystals shattered silently, instantly filling her mental energy to the brim and leaving her mind clearer than ever before.
The scalper had just stored the grain bags and raised his head.
Bai Bai immediately narrowed her eyes, exchanged a smile with him, bade him farewell, and went her own way.
Back on the street, feeling the presence of food in her hands, Bai Bai could no longer hold back. She quickly found a spot with favorable feng shui to sit down and eat.
Right across the street was a public restroom.
Talk about favorable feng shui, right?
After two years of malnourishment, if her body suddenly had a rich meal, wouldn’t the heavy oil cause diarrhea?
With money and toilet paper in her pocket, Bai Bai didn’t care if she had diarrhea; getting her stomach re-accustomed to normal food was the right path forward.
To avoid attracting a crowd, Bai Bai didn’t set up a grand feast—this was an entire team’s worth of food, after all.
Meanwhile, she stole a glance at her current space.
Sure enough, it had expanded another ring.
It had grown by a full 1 cubic meter, bringing it to 3 cubic meters now.
It truly was a flawless downward copy.
When she previously had only a 1-cubic-meter space and encountered those two from Lulu Tong, her reckless attempt at copying had been a discounted copy among peers; fortunately, her luck held out, yielding 1 cubic meter in total.
Just now, she had executed another flawless copy.
The consumed mental energy was perfectly replenished by a Tier-2 Source Crystal.
Feeling so refreshed and clear-headed right now was immensely comfortable.
Bai Bai decided that over the next few days, whenever the opportunity arose, she would copy other people’s spaces. She wanted to see if there was any chance of fixing or improving the issue with the space not preserving freshness.
Not preserving freshness was truly inconvenient—she couldn’t store hot food or various other short-shelf-life supplies.
Looking at the two large bags of hot dishes in her space, Bai Bai hoped they could last another two days before spoiling.
Utilizing micro-manipulation techniques, she opened two bags directly inside her space, retrieving one box of rice and one box of stir-fried vegetables—nothing more.
The vegetables were stir-fried in oil, and whether vegetable or animal oil, it was something this weak body urgently needed right now.
The moment the box of rice was opened and the oily fragrance of stir-fried vegetables hit her nose, Bai Bai could no longer control herself. She grabbed her chopsticks and stuffed food into her mouth ravenously.
When she swallowed the first mouthful of food, tears suddenly welled up in Bai Bai’s eyes.
It was a very bizarre feeling.
Deep down, Bai Bai knew clearly that she didn’t feel aggrieved or inclined to cry, yet she silently wept all the same.
It could only be attributed to the residual instincts of this body.
From this moment on, she was truly the Bai Bai of this world.
At that thought, Bai Bai cried even harder.
This time, she was crying for herself.
Crying because she could never go back home.
Sobbing so hard she choked, she continued eating while sobbing.
Her body needed this meal; no matter how heartbroken she was, it couldn’t delay her eating.
Tears mixed with rice were swallowed down her throat. By the time her crying ceased, the meal was finished as well.
She looked at the box of daily sundries she had copied earlier inside her space; toilet paper alone came in two different varieties.
One was slightly yellowish, much like the toilet paper she had seen in her childhood—rough and fragile, needing to be folded thick to prevent fingers from poking through.
The other was whiter and tougher, coming from the maternal and child supplies—likely higher-priced mother-and-baby paper.
Bai Bai naturally opened the better one, tearing off a section to wipe her mouth.
She intended to use this as her daily paper napkin until she eventually copied real tissue boxes.
Then, instead of standing up, she remained seated, waiting for her stomach to revolt.
In the meantime, she tidied up her space.
Focusing her mental energy on her space, Bai Bai looked at the standard rectangular projection of 3 cubic meters, her heart bubbling with joy.
Without precise measurements from a ruler, she simply knew this was her space and her superpower—she knew it without needing any explanation.
Then, she sharply discovered that this space could stand vertically or lie horizontally according to her will.
She immediately turned the space sideways, redistributing her messy supplies back into the four corners.
The empty area in the center measured exactly 2 cubic meters.
Looking at her newly organized space, Bai Bai’s inner neat freak began to itch.
It wasn’t a wild fantasy; small items like wallets and Source Crystals really needed to be stored properly rather than scattered across the space floor.
Storage shelves had become an absolute necessity.
Now that the space was lying horizontally, its height was only 1 meter, so standard storage shelves couldn’t stand upright.
But what did that matter? If she couldn’t get a standard storage shelf, wouldn’t a 1-meter-high shoe rack work just fine?
She would get something suitable as a temporary substitute for now and gradually look for better options later.
Her mind made up, Bai Bai pulled out her water jug from her space and took two gulps.
Just as she stowed the jug away, her quiet stomach began to throw a fit, grumbling loudly.
Hunching over and clutching her stomach, Bai Bai rushed toward the public restroom across the street.
Plugging her nose with toilet paper and standing on tiptoe, she relieved herself before stepping out, with nowhere to wash her hands.
Helpless, Bai Bai had no choice but to walk around and find a secluded corner. She opened a bar of soap, used spatial micro-manipulation to extract a small ball of water from her bucket, and brought it out of her space.
The moment the water ball left the space, it splashed onto Bai Bai’s hands with a splat, perfectly wetting her skin.
Bai Bai hurriedly worked the soap into a lather with both hands.
Her hands were so filthy that the lather turned completely black.
Next, she used the same method to extract another water ball from her space.
Rinsing for a moment, lathering with soap, rinsing for a moment, lathering with soap.
Repeating the process for who knows how many cycles, she finally washed her hands back to the color of skin.
Yet they weren’t thoroughly clean—the gaps between her fingers and the creases in her skin remained dark.
Bai Bai felt this was actually for the best, as it wouldn’t draw unwanted attention when she returned to the tenement building.
Because anyone willing to pay for water to scrub themselves at the public tap could only manage to get this clean anyway.
To have hands as clean as before the end of the world, she would need to move out first and have the conditions to wash up properly every day.
Once finished, she walked back toward the direction of the public restroom.
She was afraid she might need a second trip soon, so she didn’t dare wander far.