When she opened her eyes again, the baby’s cries became clearer.
She abruptly sat up, looking at the little one crying beside her, then at the extra pack of biscuits in her hand, and finally understood.
At least heaven hadn’t completely cut off her path to survival.
She was too hungry. Tearing open the packaging, she wolfed down the biscuits.
Choking until her eyes rolled back, she took a bottle of mineral water from her Space Supermarket. The water was cold, but she had to make do.
After eating, she immediately felt energized.
She picked up the child. Perhaps out of instinct, after trying several positions, she finally managed to get the little one to nurse.
The baby was a tiny, pink bundle with small hands and feet, and thick, black hair—utterly adorable.
The moment she saw the child, she felt completely filled with maternal love.
She had endured the pain of childbirth—this was her child, born from her own womb.
Mother and daughter shared a deep bond. From today onward, she would protect her daughter with her life and never let anyone bully her.
Outside in the yard, people were talking, and children were laughing and playing.
She took a small alarm clock from her space and checked the time: 5 p.m. The workers must have returned from the fields.
“Has Jiang Yue given birth?” That was Lu Er Sao’s voice.
The reply came from Lu Da Sao: “She has! It’s a girl. Father and Mother are furious—they wanted to take the child out and abandon her. She made a scene, and in the end, the child stayed.” On the way back, her mother-in-law had complained to her nonstop.
Lu Er Sao sighed. “Abandon her again? Ah, well… it’s still a life.”
“Are you thinking about the daughter you lost again? Ah, why bother? What’s gone is gone. The sooner she dies, the sooner she can be reborn—maybe into a better family. Don’t show that face in front of Father and Mother; they’re both in a bad mood right now.”
“Sister-in-law, you’re really heartless. But then again, you have a son, so you’re not like us.”
This remark pleased Lu Da Sao. In her second year of marriage, her first child had been a big, fat boy weighing a full seven and a half pounds.
Thanks to having a son, among the three daughters-in-law, she received the most favor.
Lu Er Sao didn’t want to see her smug face. After putting away her hoe and washing her hands with water from the jar, she went to knock on Jiang Yue’s door.
The Lu family hadn’t divided the household yet—the entire family lived together in a large, two-courtyard compound.
Originally, when the old couple got married, there were only two main rooms. As the children were born and grew up, rooms were gradually built on both sides. Now, each of the three sons had two rooms.
“Jiang Yue, how are you? If there’s anything I can help with, just say the word.”
Jiang Yue had just woken up. “No need, I’m fine.”
Lu Er Sao thought she was putting on a brave face. “Don’t push yourself too hard. Third Brother isn’t home, and you have no one to help you. I’m a woman too—I know how you feel. If you need anything, just say so.”
Mother Lu, carrying her hoe, had just entered the courtyard and sneered sarcastically, “Why bother worrying about her? Have you made dinner? Have you taken in the laundry? Instead of doing anything, you’re just standing there chatting. Do you expect me, your mother-in-law, to wait on you?”
“I just heard Jiang Yue gave birth and wanted to help her.”
“Hmph! What’s there to help with? She’s tough enough—she even threatened to chop someone with a knife. Hurry up and make dinner.”
“Mother, how about I make her some sweetened egg drop soup? At least it’ll help her recover.”
Mother Lu glared. “Are the eggs in our family picked up for free? Your father and I can’t even bear to eat them, and you want to cook them for her? How filial of you! Is she your birth mother or your birth father? Hmph! Just bring her a bowl of porridge tonight. They’re all useless freeloaders who can’t even bear a son. What good are they anyway!”
Jiang Yue had no time to bother with her. She was busy calculating what usable items were in the Space Supermarket.
Many items that didn’t fit the era simply couldn’t be taken out, or she wouldn’t be able to explain them.
However, she discovered that the biscuits she had taken earlier had automatically restocked.
Damn, what a pure bug.
But she could remove the packaging and trade them with others for supplies.
Anyway, until she fully recovered, she had no intention of leaving this room.
Who knew if that black-hearted old couple would sneak in and take the child while she was away.
After eight o’clock, having coaxed the child to sleep, she took a candle from the Space Supermarket, lit it, and placed it by the bed.
For dinner, she had only eaten porridge—so thin you could see your reflection in it.
Lu Er Sao secretly gave her two eggs, saying she took them directly from the chicken coop and that her mother-in-law didn’t know.
Jiang Yue didn’t want to owe her any favors, so she gave her a few pieces of Calcium Milk Biscuits, claiming she had bought them earlier from the town supply and marketing cooperative.
Looking at the Calcium Milk Biscuits in her hand, Lu Er Sao thought to herself, “No wonder she can stay indoors without starving—she’s been hoarding supplies. Who knows how much she’s hidden away.”
With the eggs in hand, Jiang Yue took out an Alcohol Stove, an Alcohol Pot, alcohol, and a pack of Brown Sugar from the Space Supermarket.
The shelves also had dried goods.
For example, packaged Red Dates, Dried Longan, Shiitake Mushrooms, Black Fungus, and White Fungus.
As long as one is alive, one shouldn’t shortchange oneself—rituals matter.
She poured alcohol into the stove, set the pot on it, added mineral water, and brought it to a boil. Then she cracked in the eggs, tossed in a handful of Red Dates, let it simmer for a while, and finally added Brown Sugar.
After eating this bowl, she felt sweet and warm from head to toe, inside and out. Her energy and strength recovered significantly.
Eggs really were the best—simple, convenient, and the easiest thing to get her hands on.
She needed to get more eggs and store them in her small space.
It was the 1970s, and there were still five or six years until the policies loosened up.
That meant, for the next few years, everyone had to keep their heads down and behave.
But even if she couldn’t openly make money, she still needed to accumulate initial capital so that once opportunities arose, she could go all out and make big moves.
However, paper money wasn’t a reliable store of value. Gold was best—it was always a hard currency, no matter the era. Then there was real estate—the more, the better. As for stocks and the like, she didn’t want to touch them.
First, she wasn’t familiar with them. Second, their value fluctuated wildly, requiring strong nerves and quick reactions—she didn’t have the energy for that.
After eating and drinking her fill, she stored everything back in the Space Supermarket and got to work.
She spread all the goods on the bed, covering almost the entire surface. The little baby only took up a small corner, while the rest of the space was filled with merchandise.
She removed all the packaging from the white and brown sugar. The plastic bags were unusable, so after racking her brains for a while, she decided to wrap the sugar in clean diapers.
Once she exchanged them for money, she could get some wax paper bags.
In this era, sugar was a scarce commodity and could be traded for many good things.
Another hot commodity was cigarettes.
Zhonghua Cigarettes had been around for a long time; they existed in the 1970s and wouldn’t stand out too much as long as she removed the outer packaging.
She bundled every ten cigarettes with string and wrapped them in old clothes.
She also unpacked two bottles of Daqu Liquor, discarding both the inner and outer packaging, even removing the labels from the bottles.
After finishing everything, she put it all back into her space.
The next day, she woke up early to feed the little girl and lull her to sleep. Hearing that the rest of the family had already left for work, she opened the other window that had been sealed shut for a long time.
The room had one door and two windows. One window faced the courtyard, while the other faced outward. The latter was rarely opened and was covered in a thick layer of dust.