Chapter 13: Shopping – Departure

Wang Li thought to herself that she didn’t have any connections here anyway. She might as well take a good rest tonight and go shopping tomorrow. She’d buy a backpack basket, a small clay pot, find a quiet alleyway, and secretly retrieve a few pairs of chopsticks from her space. With these thoughts in her mind, she gradually drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Han Ya was already awake. She said she hadn’t slept well out of fear—probably because the train station had been so crowded yesterday, and it left her unsettled.

“Sweetie, you stay in the room and rest. Auntie will have the hotel staff bring you some food. I’m going out to buy two backpack baskets. From now on, we’ll follow the train tracks. We’ll need to cook and get supplies along the way, and I’ve sold the horse cart.”
(In reality, she had just stashed it away in her space.)

“Auntie, I’m scared to be alone.”

“Eat your food and then go to sleep. Once you’re asleep, you won’t be scared anymore. Without those baskets, we can’t carry anything, and if there’s no food on the road, we’ll starve. You just rest up, okay?”

“Okay, Auntie.”

After settling Han Ya, Wang Li walked out of the hotel and flagged down a rickshaw. She asked the driver where she could buy backpack baskets and told him to take her there.

Near the marketplace, there was a little shop selling meatball soup—the aroma was simply mouthwatering.

Wang Li got out of the rickshaw and ordered a bowl.
“Ahh, this is delicious.”

Since coming to this world, she hadn’t had a proper bowl of soup. She took a bite of the meatball, then slurped up some vermicelli—absolutely heavenly.

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Meanwhile…

Over at the Liu family’s side, the mother and son sat on the train. They looked around but didn’t recognize anyone.

“Son, what are we going to do? Back when we were pushing forward through the crowd, I lost sight of the madam. I don’t even know where Sanniu’s family went. Without the madam, we’ll starve to death! We don’t know anything about living out here.”

Her son was already fast asleep, snoring away.

On Zhao Sanniu’s side, he hadn’t managed to squeeze onto the train either. Instead, he led his family up to the roof of a train car. His wife had been too reluctant to part with the tickets—four tickets had cost them eight silver dollars.

Their daughter, seeing her mother grumbling, said,
“Mom, can you stop nagging already? We’ve left the madam behind, which means we’re in for a hard life now. I’m practically going crazy from your endless complaining. You kept going on for days about going back to the village—I didn’t say anything, because I was afraid the madam wouldn’t want to take us anymore. If you’d gone back, you probably would’ve been killed by bandits. We were lucky not to be there that day, and yet you still keep whining about wanting to go back and find those bandits?”

“Dad, it’s freezing up here. Keep a good lookout for the madam. Once we get off the train, we have to wait around and search for her. Without the madam, how will we eat or drink? Those few coins we have won’t be enough in a big city.”
Sanniu’s son was already worrying about starving and just wanted to find the madam so they could have a proper meal again.

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Back on Wang Li’s end, she finished her bowl of meatball soup. It was truly delicious. She also grabbed a fried dough cake—it was amazing too. Food from this era, cooked with natural flavors, just tasted better.

After eating, she asked the stall owner for directions to a general store and then strolled her way over. When she arrived, she asked,
“Boss, do you sell things for travelers?”

“Come on in and look around. Buy whatever suits your needs.”

Wang Li ended up buying two backpack baskets—nested together to carry more easily. She planned to separate them when needed. The baskets were deep and could hold a lot. She also picked out a clay pot for cooking porridge, a small iron pot for stir-frying, chopsticks, bowls, and even some charcoal—just in case she couldn’t find firewood along the way. She got two bamboo flasks for carrying water.

Most of their previous food supplies had been taken by Sanniu’s group. She also wanted to buy a kitchen knife for Han Ya—useful not just for chopping vegetables, but also for scaring off trouble or cutting firewood. She bought a small cutting board and some matches, two jin (a little over 2 pounds) of white flour, and decided to keep using the salt from her space since all that was available now was coarse rock salt, which tasted awful.

Looking back at the pile of supplies she’d bought, she started to worry—there was no way she could carry all this on her own. Maybe she should buy a donkey. Following the train tracks with a cart was no longer feasible.

“Boss, do you know where I can buy a donkey?”

“Ah, livestock is usually sold in the outskirts of town. Not much sold here in the city.”

“Then forget it. Just tally everything up for me.”

The total came to eight silver dollars.
Money really didn’t go far these days.

It pained her heart to spend so much. Lately, she’d spent a lot—buying clothes for the villagers, paying for lodging and train tickets. Every step cost money.

They had bought so many things during the shopping trip that they forgot to get shoes and socks. She’d just have to pull some out from the space while they were on the road. She couldn’t take out anything too outrageous though—Han Ya was quite sharp sometimes. If she noticed something strange, that would be trouble. After all, she wasn’t one of their own.

Missing the train had cost them quite a bit more money. What a miserable stroke of bad luck.

Taking the train had its drawbacks too. First-class took a long time, and someone might recognize the original owner of this body. That whole Young Master business was like a ticking time bomb. Third-class was too conspicuous—and if the Japanese decided to bomb the train, there’d be nowhere to run or hide.

Walking on foot wasn’t appealing either. As she mulled over the options while searching for a small alley, she failed to notice the two men tailing her.

She spotted a deserted alley ahead. “This’ll do,” she thought, stepping in. She had just set down her basket and was reaching into the space to pull out a pair of shoes and a bag of salt when—

“Hey, lady, hands up!”

A man’s voice suddenly called out behind her. Wang Li jumped in fright and quickly raised her hands. When she turned around, two men stood there—one tall and skinny, the other short and fat.

Wang Li took a few cautious steps forward and asked, “Big brother, what do you want?”

The fat one looked her over and sneered, “Heh. My brother and I have had our eye on you for a while. You must be loaded, huh? Buying so much without even bargaining. Be good, put your stuff down, and hand over all your money.”

The skinny one scoffed, “Why waste time talking? Just pin her down and take her things. We’ll have some fun with her, then sell her off. Make a few more bucks that way.”

Wang Li thought coldly, You’re one sick bastard. I was just planning to rough you up a bit, but now you’re talking about selling me? Guess I’ll start with you. Don’t think I haven’t killed before. Worst case, I’ll just hide the bodies in the space.

She kept her expression neutral and said sweetly, “Big brother, I’ve got some silver dollars for you.”

As she handed over the money with one hand, the other struck—swift and merciless. The blade plunged into the skinny guy’s stomach. She took a quick step forward, grabbed her basket, and darted into the space.

The fat man stood frozen. “Where’d she go? Is this place haunted?”

The skinny man clutched his bleeding belly and howled in pain. Wang Li came out again and stabbed the fat one, then disappeared back into the space, intending to tie them up.

Just then, she heard footsteps. Two young boys entered the alley and, seeing the blood, quickly ran off.

As they fled, one of them shouted, “Serves them right! The more of these thugs die, the better!”

Wang Li didn’t dare go back out right away. She waited until she was nearly dozing off and the two men had gone silent. Finally, she emerged, checked their breathing—barely alive—and figured they wouldn’t make it. She emptied their pockets and stored the items in the space.

Inside the space, she washed her face and changed clothes before exiting from the alley’s other side and heading back to the inn.

When she entered the room, she saw Han Ya crying and ignoring her. Wang Li was thoroughly exhausted from the day and didn’t bother comforting her. She simply went in to bathe. When she came out, she said:

“Sweetheart, your auntie’s dead tired. Let’s get some rest. We’ve got an early start tomorrow.”

Then she collapsed onto the bed and fell fast asleep.

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Before dawn the next day, Wang Li was already up, repacking everything neatly. Han Ya had also woken up.

“Auntie, why are we leaving so early?”

Wang Li thought to herself, If we don’t leave early, are we supposed to wait around for someone to come arrest us? Who knows if those two thugs were part of a gang. What if they seal the city gates? Then we’d be completely screwed.

“We’ll travel while it’s cool. When it gets hot, we rest. That way, we can cover more ground.”

“Auntie, I thought you’d left me yesterday. I waited and waited, and when you didn’t come back, I went out and bought scallions, ginger, garlic, chili peppers, even a bamboo jug of oil. I got us a steamer too! You said baking those dry buns didn’t taste good last time—and we forgot the steamer!”

“Aiya! My sweet girl is just too thoughtful. But carrying all this on the road will be a bit of a burden.”

“It’s okay, I’m strong!”

“Alright then. You make me happy—makes me not want to think about anything else. Let’s go!”