All the items can be stored inside, and whatever I think of in my mind can appear in my hands without any mistakes. However, there's no way to experiment with living things.
Jiang Xinyu was excited, wondering if it was like the novels she read. So she closed her eyes and thought of the space, and it really appeared to her.
It was the size of a soccer field, a grey, hazy enclosed space. She didn't know what material it was made of, but everything she put inside was neatly arranged in the corners.
Jiang Xinyu thought to herself that other people's spaces have a freshness preservation function, so she should try it too.
Then she got out of bed, used all the water storage containers, including the toothbrush cup and lunch box, filled them with hot water, measured the temperature with a thermometer, recorded it, and stored them in the space.
She didn't sleep well all night. The next day, Sunday, she had to go to the supermarket to work at eight, so she got up at seven, took out the toothbrush cup, measured the temperature with a thermometer, and it was still the temperature from last night.
Now Jiang Xinyu's eyes were red, not because of having the space, but because of the grievances from past difficulties. The heavens hadn't completely abandoned her.
Perhaps the past misfortunes were to get this space, after all, everything balances out. After a quick wash, she jogged to work.
By the end of the day, she felt full of energy, as if she could never run out of strength. The supermarket had special offers on rice for Sunday; usually, it cost about three yuan, but today it was only one yuan and ninety cents, with a limit of ten pounds per person.
Jiang Xinyu, being a temporary student worker, also queued up to buy ten pounds. After all, it's good to become familiar with people, so she shamelessly queued a second time and, by the end of her shift, she had bought fifty pounds, which is one bag of rice. Her wages for the day weren't even enough for that.
In the evening, she had to work at a barbecue stand in the night market. With the bag of rice placed on the seat of a shared bicycle, she hurriedly went to the night market.
By the time she got back to the dormitory, her five roommates were all back.
They all brought food for Jiang Xinyu. Though each had different intentions, Jiang Xinyu considered it a kind gesture from them.
"Xinyu, I'll treat you to lunch tomorrow," said the beauty from the lower bunk while applying a face mask.
"Tongtong, thank you. I'm sorry, but I have plans for tomorrow noon," Jiang Xinyu replied.
Jiang Xinyu knew Tongtong's intention; it must be the boys inviting her to lunch, and she wanted Jiang Xinyu to be a companion. Normally, she'd go along, but tomorrow there's a special offer on eggs and milk at the supermarket, both selling at a loss. How could she miss that?
In the old dormitory, after washing up in the outside water room, she didn't shut herself away but sat on a small stool, listening to her roommates' chat, chiming in occasionally.
Twenty minutes later, the dormitory lights went out, and Jiang Xinyu finally got into bed. She secretly checked the water temperature; it was still the same as when she put it in yesterday. This was really wonderful.
Jiang Xinyu pulled her thoughts back, touched her dry, yellowed hair, and quickly fell asleep after lying down.
The next day she didn't wait for Wang Ailing to knock on the door; she got up early and cleaned the house.
When Wang Ailing came over, Jiang Xinyu had already wiped the kang mat and dismantled the bedding. Even if she didn't use it, she had to make it look presentable.
Wang Ailing was puzzled about why the door was open today. She walked into the yard without hesitation and saw Jiang Xinyu washing the quilt covers.
"Why are you so diligent today?"
"Sister, I wanted to take advantage of the good weather to wash all the bedding," Jiang Xinyu responded.
"That's the right way to live. Let's go eat first, and I'll help you carry water when we get back," Wang Ailing said.
Jiang Xinyu stood up with a smile. She rinsed her hands with clean water since there was no soap or detergent, just had to use some baking soda due to lack of alternatives.
The two of them queued up in the cafeteria. Kong Mengjie looked at Jiang Xinyu with a smile that Jiang Xinyu couldn't understand.
When it was her turn to get food, it was just a thin soup, with hardly any wild vegetable leaves.
Jiang Xinyu wasn't a fool. She saw Kong Mengjie just now, and the person serving the food was her mother. This was obviously a power move against her.
Jiang Xinyu looked directly at Kong Mengjie's mother. "Auntie from the village head's family and the women's director, keep this porridge for yourself. I'm an orphan, eating is a waste."
This statement wasn't overbearing or hysterical, and it attracted some people. Some busybodies looked at the porridge bowl in Jiang Xinyu's hand.
"Hey, better go home and drink water, Xinyu," joked a middle-aged woman nearby.
Jiang Xinyu knew this was the wife of the village branch secretary, and she was against the village head. The two had almost come to blows over the village head position. The enemy of my enemy is my friend; this principle was well-practiced even among uneducated rural women.
A few troublemakers gathered around.
Tian Shulan, being the village head's wife and the women's director, was perceptive enough to realize that today's matter should be dropped.
"Xinyu, Auntie didn't dip the ladle just now. Give me your bowl, I'll serve you again, and you can keep this bowl."
"Auntie, it's okay. I should be grateful just to have something to eat," Jiang Xinyu replied.
"Oh dear Xinyu, it's no problem. This is the porridge Auntie served. Parents gone, leaving only this child, yet there are heartless people bullying her. Truly deserving of thunderstrikes," Zhang Yanhong wasn't a pushover and immediately went into battle mode.
Jiang Xinyu thought it over and decided not to get openly involved. Tian Shulan had forcefully snatched the bowl, and with a slight loosening of her grip, the porridge bowl ended up in her hands.
They watched as she poured her bowl of porridge back into the pot and scooped a thick ladleful from below.
Jiang Xinyu returned home with this porridge, visibly more grain than wild vegetables, in her hands.
Many people in the cafeteria watched her, but Jiang Xinyu made no additional movements and didn't even look up when passing by Kong Mengjie.
At home, she dug out a piece of red pickle from the leaky jar in the woodshed, washed it, and sliced it into strips. This vegetable porridge with pickles, at least, had some salty taste, not just bitterness and astringency.
After eating, she washed the bowl and sat down to scrub the quilt covers. The washboard was something she hadn't used since before age ten, switching to a washing machine afterward.
Fortunately, she knew how, though the water was a bit cold.
The quilt covers, though worn, weren't very dirty and washed easily.
Because of her small strength, it took several minutes to wring out the quilt covers before they hung on the clothesline.
Seeing the large tub of relatively clean water, she soaked all the little girl's previous clothes before going to her parents' room.
Since crossing over, she hadn't set foot in this room, and Jiang Xinyu felt nervous. The room, like hers, had bare bed planks covered by a kang mat. Of course, there were two kang cabinets at the end of the kang, unlike her room where the cabinets were on the ground.
She rolled up the kang mat, swept, and laid it back down. She took out a rag and cleaned everything thoroughly before getting onto the kang to kneel in front of the kang cabinets.