CHAPTER 116: 116 PREPARATION

When the two arrived at the riverbank at four in the afternoon, they saw the Jiang water was frozen.

"Is the water deep enough here?"

"Can’t you just use your Divine Sense to check?"

Su Yuanyuan felt a bit embarrassed; forgive her, she’s really not used to it.

She closed her eyes to sense it. "It’s alright, but there are quite a lot of fish here. Should we catch some to sell for money?"

"Now? I don’t think it’ll sell well. Even though I haven’t been out, I feel like personal trading isn’t allowed currently. But if your Storage Ring is big enough, catching some for storage isn’t a bad idea, then whenever you want to eat, it’s readily available."

Su Yuanyuan nodded, though she was thinking that what Tan Shaoting had was a Storage Ring? She really didn’t know what hers was.

"I have an ice chisel here. You want to give it a try?"

"Sure, I’ll start the fire; no one will be coming over at this hour anyway."

Su Yuanyuan felt quite embarrassed. Since childhood, she never relied on others, so she took the ice chisel to the icy surface, got a feel of it, and began chiseling away.

Tan Shaoting watched her from the shore. This girl is really too independent; with this personality, she would definitely succeed in the Cultivation World, wouldn’t she?

He snapped his fingers, and the branches on the ground started to burn.

Then they unloaded the donkey cart, letting it drink water. Once everything was sorted, he went down to help Su Yuanyuan.

By now, water could actually be taken. However, Su Yuanyuan wanted to catch fish, so she made the ice hole a bit bigger.

After Tan Shaoting took over, Su Yuanyuan scooped up the crushed ice with a ladle.

"Do you want to get water first or catch fish first?"

"Get water first. You gave me three Qiankun Bottles; how many do you have left?"

"Three, I also have three."

"Actually, these six Qiankun Bottles can’t really hold that much," Su Yuanyuan said dejectedly.

"It’s enough for you to use for a year."

Su Yuanyuan nodded, "Yeah, can’t be too greedy."

She had a Water Spirit Root, so ever since she started Cultivation, she felt a close connection to water, and picked up Water Magic quickly. Honestly, she didn’t have much sense of the ten directions of water, but was quite satisfied with how much water this bottle could actually hold.

Once her three Qiankun Bottles were filled, it was Tan Shaoting’s turn, and his speed was naturally faster than Su Yuanyuan’s.

"You’re so fast; compared to you, I’m really lagging behind."

"Just practice more in the future. There’s no need for battles here, so it’s okay to go a bit slower."

"Right, it’s just a life skill."

Once they finished collecting water, they started catching fish.

Su Yuanyuan, sticking with the old method, directly added a drop of Spiritual Spring Water, and soon many fish gathered around.

Seeing the ice hole was packed with fish, Su Yuanyuan reached out, thinking of storing, and suddenly, all the fish squeezed in the ice hole disappeared.

Tan Shaoting laughed, realizing this girl’s storage space was indeed better than his. Why? Because this girl wasn’t even skilled at using Divine Sense, yet was able to store so much, which must be the ability of the storage space.

He saw Su Yuanyuan still crouched there, and soon more fish came over. After gathering quite a number, she used the same trick and filled up her space with even more fish. On the third attempt, she decided to just store them.

"Enough?"

"There’s already a lot. It’s okay, we can’t finish them all at once anyway."

Tan Shaoting nodded, realizing that even if they ate fish every meal, it would still take a long time for the two of them to consume all of it.

Su Yuanyuan checked the time. "Shall we head back? I wonder if the little donkey can walk in the dark."

"It can. Don’t we have flashlights? Let’s go."

By the time they got home, it was already past three in the morning.

Tan Shaoting didn’t act like a guest; he took responsibility for the stove. Although it had been lit, it had extinguished over the day, so they had to relight it.

Su Yuanyuan immediately started the fire, as the person was still waiting for food.

Early in the morning, she steamed rice directly, with ample braised pork at hand. She also steamed some eggplants, mixed some cucumbers, and cooked beans with pork.

An hour later, the two of them were having a meal. Tan Shaoting was very satisfied. "This braised pork is really delicious."

"The chef from my hometown can cook it, along with pig offal. It’s really tasty."

After eating, Tan Shaoting went back for a while, which was a good time to feed the donkey.

Su Yuanyuan also fed the ewe. When Tan Shaoting returned, they each had a cup of Spiritual Spring Water to start Cultivation.

The days passed like this until the end of the lunar February, which was early April in the solar calendar.

The ground hadn’t completely thawed yet, so the two began working on the house. Tan Shaoting thought the place was big enough, so why not build a new house to live in? It would be more comfortable. A house was built on the west side as their living quarters, and the previous residence was used as a warehouse or something.

Su Yuanyuan thought for a moment; it was a good idea, so their speed was quick. Under pressure for time, in a week, they built a large courtyard with a spacious three-room house, nine additional rooms, a wood shed, side rooms, and even a cellar in the warehouse. The courtyard was also quite spacious.

"I’ll go outside and get you a gate and coal."

Su Yuanyuan thought about it, "Don’t I need to go with you?"

"You can come along if you want."

"Can we get some more coal? We have already set up two stoves in the main room, so we still need to buy stove lids and an iron stove."

"Sure, let’s go together. I reckon Group Leader Ma will hold a mobilization meeting in five or six days."

Su Yuanyuan nodded. They hurriedly cleaned the house to put their minds at ease. Once it thawed, they could start working directly.

The two of them made a plan, and after finishing their Cultivation, set off in the donkey cart.

Tan Shaoting’s plan was to use one cart and store the rest to buy more. However, they brought a small cart, making it easier for Su Yuanyuan to carry supplies.

Su Yuanyuan didn’t bother with these details; she only focused on buying supplies.

When they reached the city, they headed straight to the inn. Since they started early, they still had half a day, enough time to get things done.

Su Yuanyuan went straight to the building herself; she had a lot she wanted to buy. However, you couldn’t buy as much as you wanted anymore—everything required tickets now.

They were formal employees and should have tickets, but they hadn’t been given out yet.

In the end, Su Yuanyuan had to exchange grain for tickets. She bought everything she wanted, but it was really exhausting.

With her purchases done, she went to find Tan Shaoting, who had already gotten two carts’ worth of coal blocks.

Su Yuanyuan waited for Tan Shaoting in an empty courtyard.

This time it was briquettes, which took some time to load manually, so they quickly took two more loads of briquettes. After the two trips, it was already dark. Presumably, Tan Shaoting had arranged it, and they got one more cart and returned overnight.