Digging the reservoir wasn’t difficult. Her consciousness could control everything inside the space, so moving dirt was relatively easy.
That said, if her consciousness was equivalent to her physical self, it felt as though she were wielding a shovel and laboriously digging away inside the space.
Progress was being made—it was just slow.
Xu Qinghe wasn’t in a hurry. After all, the reservoir didn’t necessarily have to be completed in the modern world.
As long as there was water, she could finish it in any era. After all, she was digging the reservoir to prepare for droughts in ancient times, not to defend against ancient times themselves.
The downside, however, was that she wouldn’t be able to stockpile modern freshwater seafood.
It wasn’t a big issue. She wasn’t particularly attached to satisfying her appetite.
After digging for a while, Xu Qinghe took a break and browsed online for inexpensive snacks.
She had lived frugally for over twenty years. Before transmigrating, she wanted to indulge herself just once. Even if she couldn’t buy much, these snacks would satisfy the cravings she’d carried since childhood and adolescence.
She opened the discount shopping app and ordered whatever caught her eye.
A gift pack of spicy gluten snacks—ten packs for only 3.14 yuan.
Buy it! Sixty yuan’s worth!
Sixteen packs of crispy yam chips for 10.8 yuan.
Buy two hundred yuan’s worth!
Konjac jelly? Yes. The mung bean cakes she loved as a child? Yes. All kinds of snacks and drinks? Yes to everything!
After spending around five thousand yuan, Xu Qinghe finally stopped.
She’d start with this much. If she had enough supplies and money left over, she could always buy more later.
After shopping, she continued digging the reservoir. Whenever she got tired, she researched online to see if her stockpiling list needed any additions.
She stayed busy until ten that night, then quickly washed up and went to bed.
The next morning, Xu Qinghe drove to a livestock farm, but she had no intention of buying animals yet.
First, she hadn’t figured out a safe and economical way to transfer livestock into her space.
Second, the land inside the space hadn’t been properly organized.
At the very least, she needed to separate the livestock area from the planting area. Otherwise, any crops she grew would end up destroyed by the animals.
The farm she visited sold modular chicken coops, pig pens, and fencing for livestock.
Xu Qinghe bought dozens of fence panels, planning to divide the different areas first before figuring out how to move animals into the space.
The fencing took up quite a bit of room. She had to make two trips with her car before managing to store everything in the space.
After leaving the farm, she drove past several dried goods shops and stopped to buy a substantial supply.
Aside from livestock and the snacks that hadn’t arrived yet, the food section of her stockpiling plan was basically complete.
Next, she intended to focus on medicine.
Over the past few days, she had done a great deal of research and had a clear idea of what she needed.
She planned to stock up on antibiotics such as amoxicillin, levofloxacin, and metronidazole.
Antimalarial medications.
Montmorillonite powder and norfloxacin for diarrhea and dehydration.
Ibuprofen for pain relief and fever reduction.
For treating injuries, she bought povidone-iodine disinfectant, medical suturing kits, and antibiotic ointment.
She also planned to purchase antiviral medications, deworming tablets, lice treatment, realgar powder, water purification tablets, sunburn cream, frostbite ointment, rat poison, insect repellent, floral water, herbal balm, medicated oil, mosquito coils, and more.
Medicine could save lives, and she had no intention of cutting corners.
She set aside a budget of fifty thousand yuan specifically for medical supplies.
Although she knew what she needed, there were too many different types of medicine, and the quantities she wanted were too large to buy in a single day.
Even if she wanted to, pharmacies might refuse to sell such large amounts and would likely become suspicious.
So Xu Qinghe decided to buy medicine gradually, setting aside time each day until she had accumulated everything she needed.
Using the map app on her phone, she found four pharmacies and divided her shopping list into four parts, rotating between the stores.
The pharmacies were far apart, and by the time she had finished buying the different categories of medicine, it was nearly noon.
Her stomach growled with hunger, so she found a nearby restaurant and had lunch.
In the afternoon, she drove to another market.
The markets she had visited before mainly sold fresh produce and staple foods, but this one was located next to a construction site.
The market had two sections: one selling prepared food and boxed meals, and the other selling household necessities.
Xu Qinghe headed straight for the second section.
Since she didn’t need to buy medicine that afternoon, it was the perfect opportunity to stock up on daily necessities.
As soon as she entered, she saw colorful bed sheets hanging outside the shops.
The advantage of this market was that everything was practical and inexpensive. The disadvantage was its outdated aesthetics.
Walking through it felt like stepping back twenty years in time. Most of the products looked like things only grandmothers would choose.
Her household supplies list was the most complicated and detailed.
She decided to finish stockpiling winter necessities first before moving on to other items.
In the world of her dreams, nearly everyone—including herself—wore clothing made from hemp cloth.
The fabric was highly breathable, making it cool and comfortable in summer.
But in winter, it was useless.
It couldn’t retain heat and would leave people freezing.
So in her dream, she and everyone else stuffed reeds and dried grass into their hemp clothing for warmth.
Anyone familiar with reeds knew they had almost no insulating properties.
They offered little more than psychological comfort.
During the four years she spent in the dream world, winter was always the hardest season.
She curled up on her bed, shivering in the cold.
Beneath her was a layer of straw. Wrapped around her body were thick hemp clothes stuffed with reeds, yet they provided almost no warmth.
Even covered with the paper quilt distributed by the government, she still trembled uncontrollably.
Several layers of woven grass curtains hung over the tiny window above her bed. No matter how carefully she secured them, the wind always blew them open, allowing snow and icy drafts to pour inside.
The north wind tore at the thatched roof overhead. Meltwater from the snow had already begun dripping through several poorly secured sections.
Just imagining it made Xu Qinghe shiver.
She had lived her entire life in a city with relatively mild winters and had never experienced cold severe enough to cause frostbite.
Naturally, the winter clothes and quilts she already owned were nowhere near adequate for weather like that.
If she truly ended up transmigrating, she would never allow herself to suffer through such misery again.