Liu Qingyan smiled and said, “Today I’ll let you eat your fill. The remaining soup can be used tomorrow with some wild vegetables—it’ll still taste good.”
A wild chicken was not very big to begin with, and since she had already sent a bowl to the village chief’s family, there wasn’t much left for their own household.
The three siblings were happily eating when, at the old Liu residence, Old Madam Liu was still furious over the loss of one tael of silver. She was cursing loudly in the house, spewing every dirty word she could think of.
Zhao Shi, terrified, didn’t dare make a sound and quietly went off to cook.
Liu Qingyan thought to herself that after this incident, they probably wouldn’t dare come trouble her family again for a while.
And she herself was already too busy every day to bother with them.
That night, Liu Qingyan entered her spatial space again to work.
After finishing cutting grass, she began to turn the soil. This was land reclamation, and it was quite exhausting work.
She worked the entire night inside the space—while one night passed outside, three days had already passed inside.
What made her happiest was that she didn’t need to eat or drink in the space; she could simply drink spiritual spring water when hungry or thirsty. It was just like being in a virtual world.
During these few days, she had already finished planting one mu of land.
But then she started worrying again. “Now that the land is planted, how do I water it?”
She asked, “Xiao Xin, how do I water the crops after planting?”
The system replied, “Master, please rest assured. Once the fields are planted, the space will automatically detect moisture levels and generate rain when needed.”
“If spiritual spring water is required, you can control it with your mind. It only needs to be applied once. You do not need to worry about watering.”
Upon hearing this, she was overjoyed. Otherwise, if she had to carry buckets of water back and forth, she would have been exhausted to death.
She rested a while in the space, and when she estimated the time was about right, she quickly exited.
When she came out, it was almost dawn. She thought she would need to be more careful next time—if the two children noticed her disappearing and suddenly reappearing, it would be troublesome.
Breakfast was coarse rice porridge with wild vegetable chicken soup. She actually liked wild vegetables—they were pure, green, and pesticide-free—but the coarse rice was truly hard to swallow.
After breakfast, she said to Qingyi, “Qingyi, stay at home today and don’t go anywhere. Keep an eye on our mung bean sprouts. Don’t let anyone discover them—this is our way to make money.”
“Qingyou, come with me to the town. You haven’t been there yet. I’m going to buy a lock so we can lock the door when no one is home.”
“Even though this broken door and lock won’t stop a determined thief, it can still deter most people. We also still have that one tael of silver—I’ll use it to buy each of us a set of clothes. Our clothes are too worn out.”
Qingyou was so happy at the thought of going to town that she danced with excitement.
On the ox cart, a group of aunts and women chatted with them.
“Qingyan, you’re going to town to buy things?”
“Yes, Aunt Chen. Our house was robbed yesterday, so I’m going to buy a lock. I’m afraid it’ll happen again.”
When they arrived in town, Liu Qingyan took Qingyou to the market. She looked around to see if anyone was selling bean sprouts, but there were none.
She asked a few people, and no one had even heard of bean sprouts. Only then did she feel relieved.
At a meat stall, she bought ten jin of pork fat. In a bamboo basket nearby, she saw several large bones with all the meat stripped clean.
She asked, “Uncle, I’m buying so much fat—can you throw in two bones for free?”
“Sure, I don’t need them anyway. Take them all.”
“Thank you, uncle.”
She put the four bones along with the ten jin of pork fat into her basket.
She also saw some radishes and bought two.
Qingyou followed her sister, her eyes darting around curiously at everything.
Finally, she saw malt candy being sold by the roadside, and Liu Qingyan bought a packet for the two children.
They then went to the blacksmith shop where they had been before and bought a lock. She also looked again at the dagger she had seen last time—she really wanted one.
At the cloth shop, the clerk looked at them dressed in rags with obvious disdain and ignored them.
“Do you sell ready-made clothes?” Liu Qingyan asked.
“Yes, we do. Do you little beggars even have money?” the clerk sneered.
Liu Qingyan immediately flared up in anger. “You’re the beggar! Your whole family is beggars! You look down on others—you’ll never amount to anything!”
With that, she grabbed Qingyou and left. The clerk was so angry he stomped his feet but couldn’t even respond before they were gone.
They then found another cloth shop. Although the clerk wasn’t enthusiastic, he at least didn’t insult them.
Liu Qingyan bought three sets of clothes—one for each of them, including undergarments.
She also bought several bolts of cloth, needles, thread, and scissors, planning to make spare clothes at home.
All of them were coarse cloth since they couldn’t afford better materials. Even so, a large sum of money was spent.
She also asked for a bundle of scrap fabric, thinking she could make small purses or cloth bags at home.
She bought three pairs of shoes as well—their current ones were already exposing their toes.
After standing in the shop for a long while, she finally gritted her teeth and bought several jin of cotton and cloth to make quilts herself. The old quilts at home were thin, hard, and smelled musty—she truly couldn’t tolerate them anymore.
After leaving the shop, she passed a grain store and bought another five jin of white flour. By the time she finished everything, almost all of that tael of silver she had “tricked” from Old Madam Liu was gone.
Qingyou frowned deeply as she watched her sister spend money so freely.
Seeing the little girl’s worried expression, Liu Qingyan teased her, “Our Qingyou is so young and already frowning like a little old lady—haha.”
Qingyou said sadly, “Sister, didn’t we spend all the money? Actually, we didn’t need to buy so many things—we only needed one set of clothes. We could just wash and change them.”
“Don’t worry, Qingyou. With sister here, we won’t lack money in the future.”
Along the way, the little girl remained gloomy. Both children had been poor since young and were used to saving money, so it was normal.
Carrying all their purchases, the sisters hurried home.
Qingyi quickly came forward to help carry the things inside.
Liu Qingyan carefully took out the candy and smiled, “Second brother, little sister, here—have some candy.”
Qingyi waved his hand quickly. “Sister, give it to little sister. I’m already grown up.”
Liu Qingyan pretended to be stern but smiled gently. “Grown up? I’m not even grown up yet. We’re all children—come on, let’s all eat it together.”