Chapter 6

The moment she said it, Xu Xiuhong wanted to bite off her tongue.

“Yes.”

Xu Nianian took the last egg out of the chicken coop and held it in her hand, planning to boil it right away.

Seeing her like this, Xu Xiuhong’s mouth twitched. It seemed she shouldn’t have said that—wasting an egg for nothing.

Something felt different. She looked thoughtfully at Xu Nianian’s back as she left the kitchen.

Xu Nianian, following the original owner’s memories, lit the stove.

She put all three eggs in, and in no time, they were boiled. Rinsing them in cool water made peeling easy, revealing tender egg whites and crumbly yolks. She had never thought eggs could taste this good.

Just as she was savoring the eggs, Yaozu walked in.

“Sis, what are you eating? It smells so good.”

Xu Nianian looked at this half-brother.

He really was something—calling her “sis” when he wanted something, but otherwise just saying “hey.”

Clearly, Xu Xiuhong wasn’t willing to let her eat the egg alone, so he had come over.

Don’t think she didn’t know—Xu Xiuhong often sneaked eggs to her precious son, so Yaozu was nice and chubby.

Seeing him approaching, she stopped him:

“If you take another step, I’ll go to your room and eat all the snacks you’ve hidden.”

Yaozu’s eyes flickered, and he quickly ran off to check if the peach crisp his mother had bought him was safe from her reach.

Eggs couldn’t compare to the precious peach crisp.

Darn it, she’d discovered his snacks.

In his room, Yaozu opened his bedside drawer, seeing that the black box of peach crisp was untouched, and finally relaxed.

Back in the kitchen, Xu Nianian quickly finished her eggs.

Whether it was because this body hadn’t had good food in a long time or because the eggs were just that delicious, her stomach still felt a bit empty afterward.

She strolled back to her room and looked in the mirror to examine her current appearance.

The facial features were nice, but her skin wasn’t in the best shape, a bit dark and not quite smooth.

But it was 1974—among average folks, she was already quite striking.

After testing the spring water, she found it non-toxic. She was ready to take her first step in “tasting herbs like Shennong.”

Taking up a jade cup filled with the spring water, she went over to the creek.

If she started sweating out black water and going through some “purification” like in a novel, she would jump in immediately.

Better to drown than stink.

She drank a sip of the spring water, tasting a faint sweetness.

After downing the whole cup, she felt warm all over, with no stomachache or black water oozing from her skin.

Feeling bolder, she drank a few more cups to fill her belly.

She lay down on the ground, enjoying the breeze and looking at the blue sky.

This space felt much more comfortable than the outside—it wasn’t even hot.

She felt something trickling down her face, and as she wiped it off, a strip of black gunk came away from her skin.

She looked down slowly at her arms and thighs, seeing black water seeping from her skin.

Letting out a scream, she tore off her clothes and jumped into the river.

As she jumped, she thought, “I hope I don’t drown.”

But when she wobbled and stood up, she realized the creek only reached her waist.

She felt a bit embarrassed, even knowing no one was there.

After washing off the grime, her whole body felt two pounds lighter.

Her body really was beautiful now, fair and soft with a hint of pink—she couldn’t help but admire it.

Everywhere was white and spotless.

Just… stunning!

Now, her skin was radiant and smooth.

She jumped ashore and changed into a pale blue dress, slightly faded from washing.

Looking at the patch of black soil in the space, she realized that besides leaving this house, her other important task was to fill her stomach.

She planned to make use of the space.

Stepping out of the space, she went to the kitchen, trying to open the food cabinet, only to find it locked.

It was already afternoon, and she was the only one at home. Xu Xiuhong was working in the factory with her father.

Xu Ruhu and Xu Yaozu were both in school.

Xu Nianian looked at the lock and frowned.

But this was no problem for her—she had watched enough videos in her previous life to learn some lock-picking tricks.

She pulled a pin from her hair, twisted it twice in the keyhole, and the lock clicked open.

She took only a handful of rice, a handful of millet, and some mung beans.

Returning to the space, she sprinkled each type onto a separate patch of black soil, pouring spring water on everything except the mung beans.

To avoid marrying Lu Huaijin next week, she planned to find a reliable young man nearby for a match.

In the family housing area, there was a famous matchmaker, Aunt Liu, who loved good food.

In this era, good food was hard to come by, but Xu Nianian knew her way around the kitchen.

In modern times, as a worker on a budget, she mostly made her own meals. With a bit of natural talent, her cooking skills were quite good.

She took the money the original owner had saved and went straight to the supply and marketing cooperative.

As an avid reader of novels, she knew that people in this era loved rich, savory foods—braised pork was the perfect choice.

However, at the cooperative, she found that the pork belly had sold out in the morning, so she settled for lean meat, vermicelli, fine flour, wheat seeds, and some seasonings.

She planned to make pork and vermicelli buns.

With no one home, she hurried back, moving quickly with her long legs.

At home, she tossed the wheat seeds into the black soil, watered them with spring water, and left the space.

Skillfully, she kneaded the dough and set it aside to rise, then prepared the filling, adding plenty of oil to enhance the flavor.

She fried the vermicelli until crispy and crumbled it into the filling.

In just a short time, the seedlings in the space had grown 10 centimeters where she had poured the spring water. She was still amazed at the water’s growth-promoting power.