Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Shopping Spree

The two children were already asleep, but Gu Qinghuan’s internal clock made it impossible for her to fall asleep at eight o’clock.

She started thinking about what the household still lacked, planning to place an order through the vending machine so she could conveniently bring the items back from outside tomorrow.

First up were thick quilts for the winter—she’d need at least four, two for here and two for the cowshed.

The old quilts in the east room were thin and no longer warm.

Then there were winter clothes, shoes, and socks. Each child needed at least two sets to change into.

Cotton-padded jackets and pants, thermal underwear, sweaters, wool pants, cotton shoes, wool socks, hats, gloves, and little underpants—everything had to be prepared.

Xu Huaian would need two sets as well. He couldn’t stay in bed forever.

Her relatives in the cowshed would each need two sets too. As for herself, there was no need to mention it—her original body’s old clothes had all been taken apart to patch up clothes for her eldest uncle’s family.

That added up to more than a dozen sets of clothes. Just thinking about it was daunting—there was no way she could make them all herself.

And then there was her younger brother, far away in Beijing. She didn’t know if he had warm clothes and shoes for the winter, but at least he was their deadbeat father’s only son, so he probably didn’t have to worry about basic needs, right?

Oh, and she’d need to get a few locks for the house—one for the main gate, a few for the rooms, and one for her grain cabinet.

Winter was coming, and she’d heard stories of people starving to death in past years. When people go hungry, they start having bad thoughts. If a thief came, who would she complain to? Especially with Liu Guifang, a repeat offender, around.

Having roughly figured out what she needed to buy, Gu Qinghuan opened the vending machine and started browsing.

There were all kinds of quilts: cotton, wool, down, soybean fiber, silk—an endless variety.

But in this era, cotton quilts were the most common.

She added four ten-pound cotton quilts to her cart, all in the largest size.

She also picked out a few floral bedsheets, typical of the era.

Next was winter clothing. She’d originally thought of making them herself, but the sheer number—over a dozen sets—immediately made her give up on that idea. Summer clothes were manageable, but winter clothes needed to be padded with cotton, which was too much trouble.

On a whim, Gu Qinghuan typed in: “old-style cotton-padded jacket.”

To her surprise, there were results.

A whole bunch of trendy “northeastern floral jackets” popped up. She didn’t know when these became popular, but they looked the part.

Red, pink, green, purple—every color imaginable, all with little floral patterns, looking quite festive.

Wearing one of these around the village would definitely make her the envy of everyone, the flower of Xujiatun.

She added them to her cart, but didn’t dare pick the pink or red ones. In the end, she chose a yellow one with blue flowers, and a navy blue one with white floral patterns—both thickly padded.

She also picked a thin, dark purple floral jacket for the in-between season, since she didn’t have any clothes left at home.

She paired them with two pairs of black cotton pants—done.

Luckily, the shop also had kids’ sizes. Gu Qinghuan picked a bright red and a soft pink jacket for Beibei—little girls should wear bright colors.

She also added two pairs of black pants.

For her grandparents and mother, she couldn’t buy such flashy colors.

Gu Qinghuan tried searching for “old-style cotton-padded jackets for middle-aged and elderly.”

This time, the results were more suitable—plain, old-fashioned styles, with options for both men and women.

She found a shop that looked good and got jackets and pants for her grandparents, mother, and Xu Huaian.

All in black and blue—practical and not too conspicuous.

For Dabao, she searched for kids’ cotton jackets and bought a black and a blue set.

With the outerwear sorted, she moved on to underclothes.

She searched for old-style thermal underwear and woolen sweaters and pants.

Everything was available.

Thank goodness for the vending machine from the King of the Underworld—otherwise, she’d still be slaving away making clothes and knitting sweaters. Especially sweaters—who knows how long it would take to knit them all by hand.

This was so much easier. Machine-knitted sweaters and pants from the future were soft, comfortable, and cheap—much better than anything she could make herself.

Gu Qinghuan added two sets of thermal underwear, two sets of woolen sweaters and pants, and three pairs of wool socks per person to her cart.

She didn’t forget underwear, either. For the men, three pairs of briefs each; for the women, briefs plus bras.

The original body’s old undershirts were full of holes—she’d thrown them out and was now wearing her own old underwear.

She only needed to get two sets of washable bras for her grandmother and mother—she chose simple vest-style bras, not too flashy but better than undershirts and not too ahead of their time.

Finally, shoes—this was even easier.

She searched for “old-style handmade cotton shoes.”

There were tons of options for men, women, and children, all dirt cheap—after all, on some future shopping sites, you could get a pair for less than twenty yuan, shipping included.

Gu Qinghuan didn’t feel bad about it and picked two pairs for everyone, so they could rotate.

Thanks to her tailor’s instincts, she could estimate everyone’s size at a glance and bought everything a bit larger, just in case.

As for locks, she searched for “old-style padlocks.”

She picked a big one for the main gate and a few smaller ones for the room and cabinet doors.

She clicked on her cart and checked out.

Looking at the total, everything came to 265.80 yuan.

It didn’t sound like much, but her entire savings only amounted to 3,000 yuan, and she’d already spent quite a bit.

Xu Huaian’s two years of compensation only added up to 360 yuan, and here she was spending over 260 in one go. No matter where you are, money just doesn’t last.

But this was necessary spending.

With the winter warmth problem solved, she felt a bit more at ease.

Then she started worrying about what to send to her eldest uncle’s family tomorrow.

In these times, you couldn’t trust people’s hearts. She didn’t know how much of what she sent would actually reach her uncle.

They’d been sent down to the countryside, and anything sent by family had to be signed for by the village cadre before being passed on.

If the cadre was decent, it was fine. If not, they might just keep everything for themselves.

That’s why she’d disguised the military coats as ragged and worn.

After thinking it over, Gu Qinghuan decided to send a small package first to test the waters. If her uncle’s family received it, she could send more later.

She skipped sending refined grains—it would attract too much attention. Instead, she prepared ten jin of black flour and ten jin of cornmeal.

She also ordered a five-jin box of “black wheat steel bars” from the vending machine.

Basically, these were whole wheat meal replacement biscuits—adult teething sticks.

Sugar-free, not very tasty, but very filling and good for staving off hunger.

Most importantly, they looked dark and unappetizing, and didn’t taste good, so hopefully no one would want to steal them.

With food and clothes covered, she also wanted to send them some money.

Gu Qinghuan took out fifty yuan and sewed it into the lining of the military coats.

If her uncle and aunt received the coats, they’d definitely check them and find the money.

She still felt uneasy about the coats, so she bought a bottle of gag stink spray and sprayed the coats thoroughly. The whole room was soon filled with the stench.

Her eyes watered from the smell, but now it should be safe.

Gu Qinghuan folded everything up, packed the food and biscuits together, and set them aside to mail out tomorrow.

She could have mailed them from the commune, but since she was going to the county to pick someone up anyway, she’d just take them along."

"Chapter 25: A Letter Read by Even Numbers