To save money, Xu Qinghe had spent the past four years making her own lunches almost every day for work.
As a result, she still had quite a bit of food stored in her rental apartment.
She decided to cook extra that evening and put the leftovers into her storage space.
Standing in front of the refrigerator for a moment, she decided on teriyaki beef rice bowls with vegetable and egg-drop soup.
She quickly blanched the sliced beef, then poured in the prepared teriyaki sauce and let it simmer.
After peeling and dicing the tomatoes, she added them to a small clay pot and sautéed them until they broke down into a rich pulp. Then she added water, a little oyster sauce, and a pinch of chicken bouillon. Once the soup came to a boil, she slowly poured in the beaten eggs.
This method produced egg ribbons that were thin, silky, and smooth, rather than clumping into chunks.
Neither the dish nor the soup was difficult to make. All that remained was to wait for the rice to finish cooking.
While the rice steamed, Xu Qinghe returned to her bedroom.
Her bedroom was small, tucked into the innermost corner of the studio apartment. A single bed sat beside the floor-to-ceiling window. Next to it was a small desk, and beside that stood a narrow wardrobe.
It was summer now, so all her winter clothes and blankets had been stored away in the wardrobe and the drawers under her bed.
She planned to move everything into her space.
That way, she could save some money when stockpiling supplies later. She didn’t have much cash on hand, and every cent saved would help.
She didn’t own many clothes. She had only five winter outfits, all in shades of black and gray. She folded them neatly and stored them in the space.
For cold-weather outerwear, she had three pieces: a long down coat, a lightweight down jacket liner, and a fleece jacket.
She stored the latter two in the space, leaving out the long down coat. Tomorrow, she planned to take it to a tailor and see if it could be altered into two shorter jackets.
If she really ended up traveling back to ancient times, short jackets would be much more practical than a long coat.
As for bedding, she owned two quilts: a four-kilogram cotton quilt and a coral fleece comforter of unknown weight.
The winters in her city weren’t particularly cold, so these blankets were usually enough. But if the winters in her dream world were anything to go by, they probably wouldn’t be sufficient.
It seemed she would need to add several thick quilts to her stockpiling list.
After storing all her autumn and winter clothing and bedding, the rice cooker chimed.
As she walked toward the kitchen, she revised her stockpiling plan in her notebook.
The aroma of freshly cooked rice was even stronger now. Xu Qinghe swallowed hard.
After all the running around that afternoon, she had worked up a sweat, and her fever had mostly subsided.
Now she was starving.
She quickly set up her small dining table, placed the clay pot of soup on it, and filled a small iron pot with water. She added a few stalks of baby bok choy and an egg.
Then she took out a larger bowl and filled it halfway with rice. The fragrant steam rose straight into her nose.
Unable to help herself, she swallowed again.
She sprinkled some sesame seeds over the rice, then ladled the teriyaki beef and sauce on top. The rich aroma was irresistible.
Meanwhile, the egg and vegetables in the iron pot were done cooking. She arranged the baby bok choy over the rice and placed the soft-poached egg in the center.
A beautifully prepared bowl of teriyaki beef rice was complete.
Xu Qinghe swallowed repeatedly and hurried to the table.
She gently pierced the soft egg, and the glossy yolk flowed out, mingling with the teriyaki sauce.
Unable to wait any longer, she scooped up a large spoonful containing egg, beef, and rice.
The first taste was the sweet and savory flavor of the teriyaki sauce, followed by the rich creaminess of the beef and egg yolk. The rice was cooked to perfection—not too soft, not too firm—and had absorbed all the delicious sauce.
The teriyaki beef rice was absolutely delicious. If she had to point out one flaw, it was the lack of crispy rice at the bottom. With a little scorched rice, it would have been even better.
Xu Qinghe quickly finished the large bowl of rice and drank a generous serving of tomato egg-drop soup.
After eating her fill, she stretched contentedly.
As she cleaned up the kitchen, she packed the leftover rice and teriyaki beef into containers and stored them in her space.
Seeing that it was still early, she declined her supervisor’s request to return to work and began making wontons.
There was still a pound of ground pork, an ear of corn, and two preserved eggs left in the refrigerator.
Perfect for making pork-and-corn filling and pork-and-preserved-egg filling—both of which were her favorites.
After preparing the fillings, she found a history lecture video and listened to it while wrapping wontons.
She liked her wontons with lots of filling and thin wrappers, so the two pounds of pork were enough to make a large batch that would last her quite a while.
On busy mornings, she only needed to boil a dozen or so. It was quick, filling, and saved her a lot of time.
Xu Qinghe wrapped the wontons slowly, her eyes fixed on her phone as her mind wandered.
She was considering how to divide up the plots of farmland in her space.
The six plots of black soil totaled around six mu—not small, but not especially large either.
She wanted to grow crops, raise livestock, and dig a reservoir for water storage.
One mu should be enough for staple grains.
Half a mu could be used for vegetables and fruit.
Another half mu could be dedicated to medicinal herbs.
Half a mu could become a water reservoir.
That would leave three and a half mu for raising animals.
That should be enough, right?
Xu Qinghe wasn’t entirely sure.
Forget it. She’d start with that plan and adjust it later if necessary.
Soon, she ran out of wonton wrappers, but there was still plenty of filling left.
Xu Qinghe couldn’t help feeling a little proud.
In her opinion, her skills were more than good enough to land her a job as a wonton chef at a breakfast shop.
She had spent an entire morning wrapping wontons, yet the fillings had barely made a dent.
She put some of the wontons into the freezer and stored the rest in her space.
After tidying the kitchen, she washed up and collected all the unopened toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash, shampoo, toilet paper, and sanitary pads from the bathroom, storing them in the space as well.
Strangely, even though all these things belonged to her, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was somehow taking advantage of a bargain.
How odd.
At dawn the next day, Xu Qinghe sprang out of bed.
She went into the kitchen and put a pot of water on to boil.
Then she headed to the bathroom, quickly washed up, and by the time she came back out, the water was already boiling.
She took more than a dozen wontons from the refrigerator and dropped them into the small iron pot.
While the wontons cooked, she prepared a bowl with dried seaweed, oyster sauce, and dried shrimp at the bottom.
Once the wontons were ready, she poured everything—the wontons and the broth—into the bowl.
A steaming bowl of wonton seaweed soup was done.
Holding the bowl in her hands, she felt her face warm from the rising steam as the aroma of seaweed and dried shrimp filled the air.
The first wonton she bit into was filled with pork and preserved egg. The wrapper was smooth and tender, and the distinctive flavor of the preserved egg instantly made her mouth water.
After finishing the piping hot wontons, Xu Qinghe felt completely refreshed and comfortable.
Having enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, she grabbed her notebook and headed out to begin the second day of her stockpiling plan.