Chapter 31: The Old Man is a Mysterious Person

The old man sat up and took the paper package; the moment it was in his hands, he smelled a scent of tea leaves.

"You wasteful girl, such good tea leaves, and you just wrap them in a newspaper?" The old man immediately threw off his blanket and hurried back into the room to find a container.

An Yinan smiled; things in her space would neither spoil nor change flavor, and she had specifically wrapped this paper package just now, otherwise, she wouldn't even have had newspaper.

She wandered over to the books and newspapers section, picked and chose some books, and also bought a lot of old newspapers; these newspapers were of no real use, but she had thought of them when she bought stamps earlier, just to preserve the history of the news.

"People come here to hunt for treasure, but you, you just buy piles of scrap paper every day." The old man looked at that stack of books with disdain.

An Yinan did not refute him, but simply went along with it, saying, "A word is worth a thousand pieces of gold; just think how much gold this must be."

The old man looked even more disdainful, his expression as if he were looking at a fool.

"Alright, there are three porcelain jars by the door of the room; take them this time, and once you get back, hide them away immediately, don't let anyone see them." The old man gave an instruction.

An Yinan was confused, but she walked over to the room door, where two white porcelain jars were sitting—clearly a pair—along with a large blue-and-white bowl...

There was no misunderstanding this; this favor was becoming a bit too heavy to repay.

"This..." An Yinan didn't know what to say.

She might not know the value of goods, but her space did; ever since that four-season vase last time, she had discovered that as long as it was an antique, her palms would heat up when she touched it.

The heat this time was much higher than that of the vase, which showed that these were all ancient artifacts.

"Afraid to take them?" The old man kept his eyes closed, his rocking chair swaying up and down without any pause.

With the space, how could she be afraid?

It was just that having taken such a big advantage, how was she supposed to repay it?

"The times are wrong; they are disasters right now. If you don't take them away, they will be destroyed anyway. It's upsetting to look at them, just take them." The old man waved his hand.

Afterward, he said nothing more.

An Yinan did not know the old man's identity; he seemed very mysterious, able to remember someone forever after seeing them once, and he understood ancient artifacts and current events.

Looking at the old man who didn't want to be bothered, she rubbed her brow, then obediently packed the three jars into her basket, tidied up the books she had picked out, and left; she would slowly repay this favor in the future.

When she reached a place where no one was around, she put everything into her space, leaving only the pastries she had bought in the basket.

Walking under the big tree, Uncle Niu was still sitting there, holding a tobacco leaf and smelling it.

Tobacco was a precious item; everyone usually grew some in their own courtyards, and some people would go to the Black Market to sell tobacco leaves, which were much more valuable than vegetables, so families could only keep the tobacco stems to smoke themselves.

"Back from your stroll?" Uncle Niu asked when he saw An Yinan.

An Yinan smiled and sat down beside Uncle Niu, "Yes, watching the people going to work, they are all so busy."

"No one has it easy." Uncle Niu replied, and went back to fiddling with his large tobacco pouch.

An Yinan didn't disturb him; she stood up and walked around a bit, although she had been to the Waste Recycling Station, her stomach was still very full.

She had originally been full after eating one meat bun, but she had ended up drinking a bowl of wontons and eating two more meat buns.

How should she put it? She finally understood Xie Yuanyuan a little.

The ox cart back was bumpy; besides Uncle Niu, three people had come to the County, and three people were returning.

Not a single person had been left behind!

The journey was safe, and An Yinan returned to the Educated Youth Courtyard; everyone had not yet finished work, so she returned to her room to cook. The little girl Xie Yuanyuan had said she would cover her meals, but she had run off to the County herself. Fortunately, she could never get enough of the big meat buns; Beibei and Xie Yuanyuan heated two in the morning and two at noon, and that was how they got through the day's meals.

Xie Yuanyuan had gone to work today, saying she was determined to earn enough Work Points herself, so that her Lao Xie could see, and to save him from sending big packages, which were too heavy to carry.

She didn't know where the little girl's confidence came from, nor did she know how many days she could keep it up, but since she had the fighting spirit, she couldn't very well oppose it.

First, she took a piece of pork tenderloin from the space, preparing to improve their diet by making sweet and sour tenderloin.

She also cleaned the fish that Beibei had caught yesterday and secretly took two blocks of tofu from the space; it was a bit too late today, and she was really too lazy to go into the village to trade for tofu.

She also took out a cold dish from the space; since she had transmigrated, she hadn't eaten the cold dishes from the aunt's house yet, and there were five thousand jin of every variety just sleeping in the space!

She took the key to Xie Yuanyuan's house from the space; it should be mentioned that the little girl was afraid of being forgetful, so she had specifically left a key with her, so that if she needed anything, she could go into her room and take it.

An Yinan took a bundle of firewood from the side path, thought for a moment, and then transferred three more bundles from the space; there were over twenty bundles stored in the space, so she could only transfer them out slowly, thinking to herself that she still needed to go gather some firewood, as she didn't plan to return to the City this year and would spend a warm winter in Quanshui Village.

She went to Xie Yuanyuan's room first, lit the fire, and when the pot was seven-tenths hot, she added cold oil; then, when the oil temperature was seven-tenths hot, she put the marinated fish into the oil pot and fried both sides until golden brown, only then adding boiling water to the pot, and in an instant, the fish soup in the pot turned milky white.

She used the fire poker to stir the firewood to make the fire stronger, and only after the fish soup began to bubble did she add the tofu.

Other things like chopped green onions and cilantro were prepared on the side; she added a few small pieces of wood, locked Xie Yuanyuan's room door, and returned to her own room.

She took out the tenderloin, first using the side of a knife to tenderize the meat, then cutting it into five-centimeter pieces.

She then put egg whites, starch, and flour into the basin with the tenderloin and stirred it evenly.

She cleaned the pot, lit the fire to heat it, poured in oil, and heated the oil to six or seven-tenths hot; she put the stirred tenderloin into the pot, fried it until golden, and removed it to drain the oil.

"Wow, Nan Nan, what delicious thing are you making again?" From far away from the Educated Youth Courtyard, Xie Yuanyuan smelled the fragrance; she didn't even have to think to know that Nan Nan must be back.

The exhaustion from a day of work vanished, and she ran back quickly, seeing the golden things, not knowing what they were, but they smelled so fragrant.

"Sweet and sour tenderloin, you'll be able to eat it in a moment; go to your room and check on the fish stewed with tofu, don't let the pot dry out." An Yinan had a bit of a headache and quickly shooed the little girl away.

"Going right now." As soon as those three words fell, the little girl went to open the lock on her room.

An Yinan took a small bowl and mixed a sauce with white sugar, salt, cooking wine, soy sauce, vinegar, a small amount of starch, and MSG.

Afterward, she heated the oil, sautéed the green onion, ginger, and garlic until fragrant, poured in the prepared sauce, and when the sauce thickened, she poured in the tenderloin, stir-frying until the meat pieces were evenly coated with the thick sauce; only then did she plate it and sprinkle some white sesame seeds on top, the flavor rich and looking delicious.

After finishing all this, she poured the steamed rice from the space into a porcelain basin, cleaned the pot again, and started boiling hawthorn water in it...