Xu Qinghe visited several tailor shops before finally choosing the one with the best quality and the most generous materials.
In this market, there was no need to deliberately look for cheap goods.
High prices simply couldn’t survive here.
Cheapness was the market’s greatest defining feature.
Although the shop she chose was slightly more expensive than the others in the market, it was still far cheaper than stores outside.
The shop sold ready-made clothing and also accepted custom orders.
Xu Qinghe selected the highest-quality cotton and asked the owner to make:
Each pair of cotton pants was to contain 6.5 liang of cotton filling, and all sizes were to be made one size larger than normal. To avoid attracting attention, she chose gray and earth-yellow fabrics for all of them.
She didn’t want the cotton jackets to be too bulky.
Although that would make them slightly less warm, they would be easier to wear underneath other clothing.
All the jackets were made as removable cotton liners. She had worn similar ones while living in school dormitories. They were thin but surprisingly warm.
Besides cotton liners, she also planned to buy several lightweight down-filled liners.
Her plan was simple:
A thermal undershirt against her skin, then a cotton liner, and finally a layer of hemp clothing on the outside.
If the weather became even colder, she could replace the cotton liner with a down liner.
As long as her lower body stayed warm enough, her upper body wouldn’t feel the cold as much. That was why the clothing she prepared for her upper body wasn’t nearly as thick as what she planned for her legs.
The socks and cloth shoes were all extra thick.
While they couldn’t compare to modern boots, they were still vastly superior to the straw sandals and reed shoes of ancient times.
Then came bedding.
The rental room only had two winter quilts, and neither was thick enough.
The market didn’t sell quilts as heavy as she wanted, so she’d have to order them custom-made.
Together with the cotton pants, she ordered:
After agreeing on the price and paying a deposit, Xu Qinghe moved on.
At a nearby shop, she bought:
Winter heating and summer cooling—she intended to stockpile both.
The heaters, coral fleece blankets, and electric blankets were all in stock.
She loaded them into the van, drove around for a while until she found an empty area, stored everything in her space, and then returned to the market.
After parking, she opened Taobao and found a reasonably priced store.
There, she ordered 20 sets of underwear.
When it came to underwear, she wasn’t interested in saving money.
After all, they were worn directly against the skin.
The sun was beginning to set.
Xu Qinghe planned to buy some toiletries and then head home.
Back when she had free time, she had roughly calculated her annual consumption of daily necessities.
In one year, she typically used:
Based on her past habits, she already had a good estimate of how much she needed to buy.
To save money, however, some items would need substitutions.
Body wash could be replaced with soap.
Laundry detergent could be replaced with washing powder.
After calculating everything, she simply gave the shopkeeper her order.
She wanted:
As for sanitary pads, she planned to buy those online.
Just like underwear, that wasn’t something she wanted to skimp on.
After hearing the quantities, the shopkeeper froze for a moment.
Then he quickly recovered and broke into a huge grin.
In his excitement, he added two extra units of nearly every item and even threw in over a dozen lighters for free.
The moment Xu Qinghe saw the lighters, she realized he was right.
She absolutely needed to stockpile some.
Ancient times didn’t have gas stoves.
Starting fires for cooking would be far more troublesome.
She immediately asked for two additional boxes of lighters.
After paying a deposit, she arranged to pick up the goods in batches over the next five days before hurrying out of the market.
The sun was already halfway below the horizon.
Rather than linger outside, Xu Qinghe drove straight home.
She wasn’t particularly tired today.
She planned to cook dinner herself and use up all the remaining ingredients in her apartment by turning them into prepared meals.
By the time she got home, darkness was just beginning to fall.
After washing her hands, she decided tonight’s menu would be:
She finely chopped tomatoes and heated oil in a pan.
Once the pan was hot, she added the tomatoes and cooked them until they broke down into a thick sauce.
Then she added seasonings and water.
When the soup came to a boil, she squeezed in spoonfuls of shrimp paste.
After the shrimp paste was cooked, she transferred pre-blanched vermicelli noodles from another pot into the casserole.
While the tomato shrimp vermicelli simmered over low heat, the hot-pot meatballs in the second pot finished cooking.
She scooped them out and set them aside.
After cleaning the pot, she added hot-pot base seasoning and then poured in the cooked meatballs and vegetables.
She made generous portions.
Once finished, each dish filled a large metal basin.
Then she quickly washed the wok again, reheated it, added oil, and stir-fried the cured pork.
After the pork was cooked, she added green peas and rice.
A few quick stirs later, a huge wok of savory cured pork fried rice was done.
Xu Qinghe swallowed hard and rolled her shoulders.
After three days of nonstop hauling and cooking, she felt her arm strength had noticeably improved.
She could practically wield a giant wok spatula now.
She served herself one portion for dinner.
Everything else was stored in her space while still hot.
The tomato shrimp vermicelli casserole was fragrant, sweet, and tangy.
The mala stir-fry was spicy and numbing.
The cured pork fried rice carried its own rich, distinctive flavor.
Xu Qinghe ate until she was completely satisfied.
Her whole body relaxed.
As often happened after a good meal, laziness quickly followed.
She looked toward the bedroom.
Then toward the kitchen.
After a moment of internal struggle, she decided to keep cooking.
She had no idea when she might suddenly be transported to another world.
Every extra meal she prepared now would become one more layer of security later.
As for taking it easy—
She could save that for after she traveled through time.
She worked until midnight, turning every remaining vegetable, egg, grain, and piece of meat in the apartment into cooked food.
The tiny room became filled with the aromas of rice and vegetables.
Pressing a hand against her sore shoulder, Xu Qinghe quickly took a shower and collapsed onto her bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
At dawn, she lazily crawled out of bed.
After a quick wash, she grabbed a bun for breakfast and headed out once more to continue stockpiling supplies.
As usual, the morning was devoted to buying medicine.
Since she had already visited the pharmacies yesterday, she moved much faster this time.
By the time she finished, it was only noon.
She hurriedly ate lunch at a nearby restaurant and then parked the van beneath a shady tree for a short nap.
When she woke up, sunlight filtered through gaps in the leaves, scattering patches of light across the van windows.
Outside the half-open window came the sounds of children laughing and playing.
Xu Qinghe stretched lazily.
For some reason, she felt unexpectedly happy.
It seemed that after quitting her job—
the whole world had become clearer.