Chapter 2: The Starter Gift Pack

Sensing the old man’s kindness, Yu Nuan gave a slight nod.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yu Father’s hunched figure, like a flickering candle in the wind…

Once he left, she touched her forehead.

After all that chaos, she had completely forgotten—she was a patient herself!

“Ding~ Starter Gift Pack Unlocked: One medical kit;
One vintage windproof lighter;
Ten tins of goat milk powder; thirty eggs;
Five bags each of rock sugar and brown sugar; fifty jin of rice;
Fifty jin of flour; two barrels each of vegetable oil and animal fat;
Five bags of fine salt;
Two bottles each of soy sauce and vinegar; two meat buns…”

A mechanical childlike voice echoed in her mind.

Yu Nuan froze for a few seconds.

Then, realization slowly dawned—Heavens were giving her a starter pack! A divine welfare drop!

She quickly wiped her hands and clasped them together in mock prayer. “Thank you, Heavens, for leaving me a window of hope…”

Immediately, a game-like interface appeared in her mind.

She tried moving her finger—and a bouncing finger appeared on the interface too.

Without hesitation, Yu Nuan tapped the “Open Gift” button.

The supplies and medical kit floated gently into a square-shaped storage space.

She reached out to tap the medical kit, and it instantly opened.

Inside were standard emergency medications: band-aids, medicated plasters, and the like.

There were also some basic medical tools: bandages, tweezers, forceps, a small scalpel…

The bandages would definitely come in handy.

Hmm… the tweezers could even be used to pluck blackheads.

The scalpel though…

Were these finely-tuned tools implying she should be a clinical doctor? She wasn’t cut out for that!

Next came the medicines: treatments for colds, fevers, disinfectants—everything she could possibly need!

There was even a bottle of hemostatic powder and a spray for wound healing.

Additionally, there were two boxes of health supplements—one tin of donkey-hide gelatin (Ejiao) and a box of astragalus oral liquid.

At the top of the screen was a search bar, kind of like a “Baidu” clone. She couldn’t resist clicking it out of curiosity.

She randomly typed in “blood replenishment,” and the page jumped instantly.

Lines of search results appeared, not too different from the real thing—she was stunned.

So this was the legendary golden finger?!

She suddenly had the urge to turn into a little lackey and bow to her golden finger in worship.

The mechanical voice rang out again:
“All items have been delivered. Wishing the Host good luck in surviving! Farewell… if fate allows, we’ll meet again!”

“…What do you mean ‘if fate allows, we’ll meet again?’”

So… that’s it?

Just as she was basking in the joy, reality struck like a slap.

They dumped a care package on her and left her to fend for herself?!

She stood frozen on the spot.

The golden finger didn’t make another sound.

In the end, she accepted the situation for what it was.

Grateful, she muttered, “Merciful Buddha… thank you, compassionate Guanyin Bodhisattva…”

In her mind, she prayed to all the gods and deities of heaven and earth she could remember…

Only after this did she finally pull out the wound-healing spray from the inventory space.

With a single thought, the bottle appeared in her hand.

She quickly untied the cloth wrapped around her forehead.

The dried blood clung to her skin, painfully sticky. She scooped a little water,

Dabbed it gently on the clotted blood to soften it—it hurt a bit less afterward.

Peeling off the blood-soaked cloth, she noticed a lump of fibrous matter on it.

Could that have been a spider web nest?!

She hadn’t expected this kind of traditional folk remedy here!

She remembered that as a child, she once cut off part of her fingernail while playing house with a toy axe.

Her grandmother had used a spider web to stop the bleeding!

She folded the cloth and set it aside.

Then, she sprayed a few pumps of the healing spray directly onto her wound.

The moment it hit her skin, a cooling, soothing sensation spread over her forehead. As expected, a top-tier gift from the golden finger…

After spraying, she casually tossed the bottle behind her—only to see it instantly return to its place in the inventory.

Curious to test it further, she picked up the bloodied cloth and tossed it too.

It just dropped limply behind her.

Huh~~?

It seemed like only the items that came from the space could be stored back into it—somewhat of a limitation, a bit of a chicken rib.

Even so, she still felt grateful.

With these supplies, she could scrape by for at least a little while!

She pulled out the donkey-hide gelatin (Ejiao) from the space, tore open the package, and broke off a third to chew.

Then she took a bowl from the stove and poured in a packet of astragalus oral granules.

She tossed the empty medicine sachet into the fire.

Seeing the porridge was nearly done, she let it cool slightly, then scooped a bowl with the astragalus solution.

She had no idea how much the medicinal effect would be diluted by doing this, but something was better than nothing.

By the time she brought the porridge to Yu Mother, the woman had already fallen into an exhausted sleep.

Yu Father was perched halfway on the edge of the bed, cradling the tiny baby in his arms.

When he saw Yu Nuan enter with the bowl, he shifted aside and gave her a strained, pitiful smile.
“Your mother’s asleep. You drink the porridge.”

That wouldn’t do. Giving birth at this age—she needed careful care.

“I already had some. Wake her up so she can drink a little!”

Her voice was stiff. After all, in her previous life she was raised by her grandparents—

She had never once called anyone “Mother” or “Father.”

She set the bowl on a side table and reached out to gently pat Yu Mother, who was sleeping facing the wall.

“Cough—what’s the matter?”

Yu Mother’s voice was hoarse. She turned her head to glance over.

The smell of brown sugar reached her nose—she licked her lips and reached out instinctively.

Yu Father quickly spoke up to tell her he was holding the baby. Upon hearing this, Yu Mother tightly pressed her lips together, visibly uneasy.

No milk… and the family barely had enough food left. This child might not survive…

Seeing the look on her face, Yu Nuan sighed softly.

She leaned in and helped her sit up at the bedside.
“Drink some porridge, then you can go back to sleep.”

Yu Mother glanced in her direction but didn’t speak—because Yu Nuan had already brought the spoon to her lips.

The wooden spoon was old and chipped, the edges a bit rough, but Yu Mother didn’t flinch.

It wasn’t until the thick, sweet porridge melted on her tongue that she suddenly waved her hand in panic.

She pushed the spoon back to Yu Nuan.
“Yao Niu, you eat. I’ll be up and walking again tomorrow.”

This porridge had sugar in it—sugar was as precious as gold. It should be saved for the child.

And even the porridge itself… she knew exactly how little grain they had left.

Just earlier today, her husband had traded away the last of it for that bit of sugar.

After this meal… what were they supposed to eat next?

Actually, this couldn’t even be called thick porridge.

But for Yu Mother, something like this was already a rare luxury.

“I’ve eaten. Tomorrow I’ll go into the woods and see if there’s anything edible—this season has plenty of wild greens, we won’t go hungry from just this one meal.”

Yu Nuan said this to reassure them, though her heart was a bit uneasy.

She’d grown up in the countryside, so she had some basic knowledge about wild herbs and farming.

But her childhood memories of foraging with her grandma were distant.

After years of city life, she wasn’t exactly in top shape anymore…

“No, tomorrow you stay home and look after your mother and your brother. I’ll go.”

Yu Father sat hunched on a straw stool, sighing.

He glanced at the scar on Yu Nuan’s forehead, eyes full of guilt.

“She’s right—let your father go.”

“Alright, but first drink this porridge. You need to get well quickly.”

This time, Yu Mother didn’t refuse. She drank half the bowl of porridge, eyes full of worry but also relief.

“The rest… give it to the baby.”

“Let Father drink it. The little one is still too young—sugar water is enough for now.”

Maybe in their eyes, this porridge was already the best nourishment they could offer a child.

But Yu Nuan now had goat milk powder in hand—she wasn’t about to let this baby suffer.

Once Yu Mother was settled, she looked toward the tiny bundle in Yu Father’s arms.

The baby’s complexion had improved, but the sugar water clearly hadn’t given him much strength—he kept making faint, whimpering noises.

Yu Father wiped the corner of his eye when he thought no one was looking.

But Yu Nuan caught it from the side of her vision, and her heart sank.

Poverty is a closed loop of suffering.

Right now, the most important thing for her and this family…
was simply being able to eat enough.