Chapter 85

Ye Wulan nodded. “Yes, not just glutinous rice—there’s also white rice and yellow rice. But they’re quite expensive. Ordinary beastmen can’t afford them; they’re usually only eaten by noble beastmen.”

That was fine. As long as they existed, she could bring some back and plant them in her spatial field. Everything in that space grew quickly, and she could even speed up its growth. So, as long as she had seeds, she could plant them anytime—and eat whenever she wanted.

She was already craving fragrant white rice and dreaming of using glutinous rice to make all sorts of treats—sticky rice cakes, glutinous rice balls, tangyuan, zongzi…

Just the thought made Ye Baizhi’s eyes light up. She didn’t really care about the cost. “How much is glutinous rice, anyway?”

In her mind, food couldn’t possibly be that expensive. It was like those corn cobs at the market—just one steamed cob cost a single blue spirit stone. Very cheap.

Most people only steamed them and didn’t know that dried corn could be ground into meals for staple foods. That’s why she’d bought raw corn and started growing the kernels in her space. Still, her field was starting to feel a bit cramped. If she wanted to grow more crops, she’d need to upgrade her spatial field.

But for that to happen, it likely required her to have a child—at least, that’s what the voice in the space had once told her. Birth would trigger a reward upgrade.

That voice, however, hadn’t spoken again in recent days.

Ye Wulan said softly, “A jin of glutinous rice costs at least fifty blue spirit stones.”

“That’s the cheaper kind. The pricier ones go for eighty or ninety per jin.”

“Since glutinous and white rice are only grown in the southern region and have a unique taste, transporting them to the northern region drives up the price.”

Ye Baizhi was genuinely surprised. The price far exceeded what she’d expected.

“That is expensive—it’s almost the same as salt. No wonder it’s not sold in the markets around here.”

“But you already know—I have a spatial field, so I can grow these crops myself.”

“Then we won’t have to spend anything and can eat them freely.”

Living with someone as sharp as Ye Wulan meant her spatial secret was never going to stay hidden. So she’d simply chosen not to hide it.

Listening to her, Ye Wulan could already guess what she was thinking. He asked gently, “Want to go check it out?”

Ye Baizhi nodded eagerly. “Yes, I do! I want to visit the city and buy some glutinous and white rice to bring back.”

“Then I can make all kinds of tasty dishes for you two.”

Seeing how excited she was, Ye Wulan replied, “The closest city to us is Huai City.”

“It takes about two hours on foot, but if we travel with a merchant caravan, they have carriages—so it’d take just over half an hour.”

Ye Baizhi’s eyes lit up. So it was roughly forty li from here to Huai City. Just over half an hour meant a little more than an hour in total—by carriage, they could make it there in about an hour.

That wasn’t far at all. The distance was about the same as the journey from the Rabbit tribe to their village.

“If you’d like to visit, I’ll get in touch with a merchant caravan, and we can travel with them to Huai City.”

Ye Baizhi’s eyes brightened even more, and she replied excitedly, “Yes, let’s do that!”

“But let’s keep working the stall for the next few days. We can choose an afternoon to go—can’t just leave the morning rush unattended.”

And since it was only about an hour each way, they could make it there and back in an afternoon.

“Alright.”

As if struck by a thought, Ye Baizhi asked, “Huai City—is it named after the locust trees?”

“Mm. There are many locust trees there. In spring, they bloom everywhere—that’s why it’s called Huai City.”

Ye Baizhi smiled inwardly. Locust blossoms are wonderful—come spring, they could gather them and make delicious food.

After Zhu Ling finished scrubbing the pig offal, Jian Ping brought it over.

Ye Baizhi got the fire going to start stewing it—it would take a long time to simmer. Ye Wulan helped tend the flames.

Scallion pancakes had to be made early in the morning—that way, they were fresh and extra delicious. But they were running low on cooking oil, and Ye Baizhi knew she’d have to figure out a way to get more. Scallion pancakes used a lot of it.

Noticing her gaze, Ye Wulan followed it and said, “If we’re short on oil, I’ll buy some wild beast meat tomorrow and render fat from it.”

Ye Baizhi replied, “We don’t actually need to buy meat to make oil.”

“Remember what you showed me before? That was rapeseed. I gathered a lot of rapeseeds—they can be pressed for oil.”

“It’s just… a bit of a hassle.”

“But it saves money.”

They used quite a bit of oil for daily meals, and scallion pancakes in the morning also required it. So, relying on meat to render fat would drive up the cost. But if they pressed their own oil from rapeseeds, they’d save a lot. And if the seeds ran low, they could always return to the valley near the Rabbit tribe settlement to collect more—there were plenty there.

Then, a thought struck her. “That time we rescued my brother… I think I saw a pepper tree. Or maybe I was imagining it.”

“Next time, let’s go over there and check it out—if there really are pepper trees, we could even extract oil from the pepper.”

“And not just that—pepper makes an excellent seasoning, too.”

Although her farmhouse space still had plenty of seasonings stocked, Ye Baizhi didn’t want to rely on them completely. She wanted to start preparing her own.

It’s best not to run out of everything in the space.

Ye Wulan replied gently, “Alright.”

His presence had changed so much—his once-steely resolve now softened, wrapped quietly around Ye Baizhi like silk.

As dusk fell, Ye Baizhi lit a candle.

Another thing she made herself—store-bought candles were far too expensive. So many of the odd little necessities here came at a high cost. If they relied entirely on buying everything, their expenses would skyrocket.

Ye Baizhi had come to realize that living out here meant costs piled up fast if she wasn’t careful. She had to start budgeting wisely.

“Actually,” she mused, “if we manage to establish stable sales for the red bean buns and the malt, we could hire others to help make them.”

“That way, we’d earn more—and it’d ease our burden too.”

“But some of the methods can’t just be taught to anyone,” Ye Baizhi said cautiously.

Ye Wulan responded, “If the outsiders near the Rabbit tribe leave, we could hire people from the Rabbit tribe. I’ve lived with them for years—their character is good, and they’re trustworthy.”

Ye Baizhi nodded. “Mm. I should visit my mother and uncle again soon.”

“After the heavy snow passes, we’ll go.”

Still, before she started producing in volume, she needed to ensure demand existed. It would be a waste to make too much and not be able to sell it.

And right now, she didn’t have enough spirit stones to hire help. Not yet.

Only once she had enough saved up could she consider scaling things up.

The days were getting colder. At night, they burned wood in a stone basin indoors for warmth. But she didn’t think that was sustainable. She wanted to switch to burning coal.

That, however, meant they’d first need to find a coal deposit.

She figured the more they explored, the more likely they were to stumble upon useful resources.

There were so many things she wanted to do. But for now, it had to be step by step—first, accumulate spirit stones.

…

The next morning, at the break of dawn, Ye Baizhi opened the door—and was stunned to find Zhan Peng standing at the entrance. She froze in place, unsure how long he had been standing there in the cold.

Before she could speak, Zhan Peng dropped to his knees and bowed deeply to her.

“Thank you, Madam Ye, for saving my life. From this day forward, my life belongs to you.”