Shen Yu first went to a secluded spot and stored all the silver notes and coins in her space.
Then she went to the grain shops to buy food.
To avoid attracting suspicion by buying too much at once, she visited three different grain stores.
Her space already contained a wide variety of rice, millet, and glutinous rice, so she only bought what ordinary families of this era would eat: sorghum, japonica rice, black wheat flour, and bean flour — nearly a thousand jin in total.
She planned to gradually mix these with the grains from her space for future use. Seeds for various grains and vegetables were also purchased; she intended to experiment with planting them inside her space.
Shen Yu had the shopkeepers deliver everything to a secluded alley. Later, her father would come with the cart to pick it up, and she would secretly move it into her space when no one was looking.
Next, she went to Qiao Niang’s cloth shop. She bought two sets of light clothes and cotton garments for each member of the family, two sets of hemp clothes each, and two pairs of shoes each. She also purchased five bolts each of fine cotton in blue, brown, turquoise, and light blue, five bolts of coarse cotton, 120 jin of cotton batting, and commissioned five sets of 8-jin quilts and 5-jin mattress pads.
Qiao Niang was astonished that such an inconspicuous little girl bought so much, and happily threw in two extra pairs of shoes, a bag of scrap cloth, and some sewing supplies.
As usual, Shen Yu had the shopkeeper deliver the goods to the alley, then transferred everything into her space while no one was watching.
She then went to a general store. Although the stock wasn’t extensive, she bought everything that could be useful: a large bundle of oiled paper, cut into small sheets for wrapping pastries, with a few large sheets kept as backup. She also bought oilcloth, hemp rope, carrying baskets, clay jars, cooking oil, coarse salt, and miscellaneous items. With her space, she didn’t have to carry any of it herself.
Finally, she went to the blacksmith and ordered two large iron pots and two small iron pots, to be picked up in two days. Tools like hoes, cleavers, and sickles were bought immediately. Although iron goods were strictly controlled, she solved it by spending an extra five taels of silver.
Seeing the time, Shen Yu headed toward Shen Yong’s bullock cart. On the way, she stopped at a bun shop to buy 100 buns and at a meat shop to buy 30 jin of pork belly. The pork from her space didn’t compare to the local meat in taste.
She found a secluded spot to transfer everything into her space, changed back into her original clothes, and loaded her basket with only five jin of millet, five jin of black flour, one jin of salt, and two jin of pork belly — hiding the meat carefully. Then she headed to the bullock cart.
Aunt Zhang, worried that the little girl might be harassed while shopping, saw Shen Yu approaching and sighed in relief:“Yu’er, you’re back! I was worried about you. Are you tired? What did you buy all morning?”
“I’m not tired, Aunt. Just some grain. I don’t dare spend all our silver — there will be plenty of opportunities to use it later.” Shen Yu placed her basket on the cart.
“Yes, with winter coming, there’s nothing at home. That little silver must be conserved to survive the cold months,” Aunt Zhang said sincerely.
After waiting for everyone to return, Shen Yong drove the cart back to the village.
Arriving at Shen Family Village, everyone got off. At the old village chief’s house, Shen Yu paid three wen for the cart and jumped down, handing Shen Yong two jin of pork belly:“Second Uncle, this meat is a token of my respect for you. You’ve worried about our family a lot. I may need to trouble you again in the future.”
Shen Yong declined:“You little girl, everyone knows your family’s situation. Helping when we can is enough — no need to spend money. Take it home and eat it yourselves.”
Shen Yu persisted:“This time it’s thanks to Second Uncle. Otherwise, Grandma might have sold me again. It’s not that expensive. If you don’t accept it, I won’t dare trouble you later.”
Shen Yong couldn’t refuse and felt warmed by the little girl’s sense of gratitude.
Shen Yu insisted on carrying the basket herself and headed east in the village. Along the way, neighbors greeted her, and she politely responded. After she passed, the aunts shook their heads, sighing and cursing Shen Liu Shi’s cruelty.
Near her home, Shen Yu found a secluded spot and started unloading items from the space: a set of clothes and shoes for each family member, kitchen knives, cutting boards, cleavers, hoes, sickles, clay jars — everything.
She felt exhausted from moving things back and forth like a thief and decided she needed a reason to finally reveal her secret to her family.
Entering the courtyard, she saw a few men from the village, friends of Shen Yong’an, helping repair the house, including Zhang Yuan Shan, Aunt Zhang’s husband.
Shen Yu greeted everyone and then hurried to help her mother, who was cooking over a small fire.
With so little millet at home, Lin Shuyuan had taken it all to make porridge and borrowed wooden tubs and large earthen jars from neighbors — otherwise, the tiny clay jar from the village chief would have required several batches.
There was no other food. The men had planned not to eat lunch there, but after working all morning, Lin Shuyuan wanted them to have some porridge before leaving.
Seeing his sister return, little Shen Xiaohao ran over and grabbed her leg. Shen Yu slipped a candy, with the wrapper removed, into his mouth and made a “shush” gesture. It was Xiaohao’s first time tasting candy. The sweetness left him speechless. Seeing his sister’s gesture, he understood immediately and ran aside to secretly enjoy it.
Lin Shuyuan took Shen Yu’s basket and handed her a bamboo bowl of water:“Tired? Take a rest and drink some water.”
“I’m fine, Mother. I rode the bullock cart with Second Uncle Shen Yong.” She then pulled out 30 large buns from the basket and handed them to her mother:“I bought buns. Each helper can have three, with the millet porridge they’ll be half-full.”
Lin Shuyuan, who had been worried about what to feed the helpers, was both pleased and touched. She called Shen Yong’an to have everyone sit and rest while eating.
The aroma of the buns filled the air. Little Shen Xiaohao, having just finished his candy, stared eagerly at the white buns. He had only ever seen Shen Xu from Second Uncle’s family get such a treat. Back then, when he reached for some, Grandma slapped him aside, calling him a starving ghost reborn.
Shen Yu handed Xiaohao a large bun to eat as much as he wanted. He took a bite; the meat juice burst in his mouth. Stunned, he cried out:“Wow!”
Shen Yu hurried to pick him up:“Xiaohao, what’s wrong?”
Sniffling, he said:“It’s too good… Sister, the meat bun is too delicious!”