Jin Shu turned around and tapped her on the head.
"Green Screen, shake your head, can you hear the sound of water inside?"
"What do you mean? Where is that sound of water coming from?"
"If there's nothing else, go and boil some water for my mother."
Green Screen frowned and muttered something before walking away.
Everyone slept on one tatami mat at night, and Liang's father stood at the door looking outside.
"You guys go to sleep, I'll watch the door for you."
This earthen bed connects the left and right sides of the room. It's not small, but the only place you can sleep is the part covered with dry grass. The rest of the room is frozen solid, almost like ice. Lying on it for a night is better than putting it in the freezer.
Jin Shu didn't speak, but sat to the side, lit a candle, and read a book.
If she didn't sleep, Green Screen was even less likely to sleep, so she simply stood behind Jin Shu and kept watch over her.
After putting the two children to sleep, Liang's mother couldn't stay idle and started working again. The whole house was too dirty and messy. Considering that she would be living here for a long time, she wanted to clean up the places that needed cleaning as soon as possible.
When it was almost time, the sound of Liang's mother sweeping suddenly stopped. Jin Shu put down her book and first settled the people scattered around the room.
Then he took out the things he had bought during his exile from his spatial storage; it was a miscellaneous collection of all sorts of things.
For the past two months, traveling from south to north, whenever they encountered a post station or market, Jin Shu would always stay for a day to book a guest room for everyone to rest.
On the one hand, it was to give everyone a break, but on the other hand, the biggest reason was that she needed to go to populated areas to restock.
Large-scale procurement is essential, but buying too much stuff in each place will definitely attract the attention of the local county government. Therefore, Jin Shu divided the procurement plan into dozens of counties along the route.
The South is abundant in fruits and vegetables, so we go directly to the fruit farmers and take as much as we can get, not only choosing what we like, but also what is rich in vitamins.
This part occupies about one-tenth of the remaining space.
The fishing industry is thriving along the river, so Jin Shu bought a lot of fishing tools and two small boats. Because of limited space, she could only buy what she needed most at the moment.
Moving on, clothing was the biggest expense. While buying warm clothes for everyone, Jin Shu visited more than a dozen stores and bought three thousand bolts of fabric and hundreds of ready-made garments, enough for spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Upon arriving in the Northeast region, which is rich in Chinese herbal medicines, Jin Shu visited more than thirty pharmacies in a single day and bought enough herbs to last a thousand people a lifetime, which she then stored in her spatial storage for future use.
Fortunately, the local animal husbandry industry was thriving, and the meat of poultry such as cattle, sheep, and pigs was quite cheap and transported to all parts of the country by waterway. In a place where no one would notice, Jin Shu disguised herself as a merchant and directly bought more than 30,000 catties of meat. Chickens, ducks, fish, and geese were the basics, while thousands of catties of common meats such as cattle, sheep, and pigs were stuffed into her space.
If it weren't for the limited space and the need to reserve most of it for the most important things, Jin Shu would be more generous when it comes to food.
Finally, it approaches the northern border and is still within the territory of the Great Zhou. This area is rich in coal resources due to its cold climate and unique geology. A considerable part of the Great Zhou's economy depends on the coal mines in this area.
Without any technological support, faced with such abundant mineral resources, the ancients could only rely on the most primitive and simple methods to mine and use them little by little.
For a hundred years since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, they have been mining these few mines day and night, but what they have finally unearthed is not even the tip of the iceberg.
Jin Shu paid money to get in for a quick look, and only said one sentence.
Wasting resources.
This is equivalent to having a bun the size of a blue whale placed in front of you. The way Da Zhou is handling it is almost like standing a hundred meters away and smelling it. He can't even scratch or tread on the surface.
Despite her complaints, Jin Shu didn't forget the purpose of her trip.
Jin Shu would definitely not waste a single penny on something that belongs to the country and the Huangfu family.
Once the standstill time was up, she immediately started a zero-yuan purchase, using the remaining seven-tenths of the space to store coal.
After it was filled, Jin Shu roughly calculated that it was about 10,000 tons.
A family in the north uses about two tons of coal to get through the winter, and the amount they have stockpiled is enough for all the exiled prisoners in the entire northern border region to use for a lifetime.
Before leaving, Jin Shu took a quick look at the troop strength around the entire mine.
As coal is an important resource of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the number of troops guarding it is naturally not small, about a thousand or so, and there are also military camps stationed around it, which is about two thousand three hundred people.
After getting a general idea of the troop strength, Jin Shu continued north.
Upon arriving at the destination, the first thing to do is naturally to improve one's living conditions.
The night was still long for Jin Shu. She first used wood to re-nail the dilapidated windows on all sides, and then replaced the rickety wooden door.
Metal-edged double doors pose no challenge for Jin Shu, a skilled carpenter.
Thanks to her love of cultivating hobbies when she was wealthy, she enjoys doing handicrafts in addition to her research. Embroidery and sewing are no problem for her, but she mainly does carpentry and bricklaying.
In her past life, she owned a house that she furnished entirely by herself, from its bare shell to the point of moving in. She even took photos and sent them abroad, easily winning a gold medal as a designer.
With the certificates she earned through her hard work and skill, Jin Shu used a saw in her left hand and a hammer in her right, and in less than an hour, she transformed and upgraded all the wooden doors in the house.
After An returned, even without lighting charcoal, the temperature inside the house would be more than ten degrees higher than outside.
Finally, the remaining wood was used to make several benches and tables, so that we wouldn't have to squat on the ground to eat anymore.
With time to spare after finishing these tasks, Jin Shu looked at the earthen bed where the two little ones were lying.
After testing the soil quality and hardness, and finding it usable, Jin Shu took out a shovel and began digging from the bottom.
She had seen kang beds in northern China when she traveled, and as long as they meet safety standards, they should all be able to keep warm.
The kang (heated brick bed) was renovated, and a chimney was erected on the roof. Jin Shu tested it and, after confirming that the smoke could escape, began to lay out the quilts and mattresses on the bed.
After doing all this, Jin Shu was sweating profusely. With the combined effects of the stove, the kang (heated brick bed), and the sealed doors and windows, the temperature inside the room quickly rose to nearly 20 degrees Celsius.
With some time to spare, Jin Shu casually built two partitions on the kang (a heated brick bed) and set up a separate shower room in the corner of the room.
Boiling water for a bath is still a bit of a hassle. While soaking in the bath, Jin Shu thought about how to get the geothermal water heating system set up as soon as possible. Once the infrastructure is in place, the next step will be much easier.
Once the stillness period was over, because Jin Shu had knocked them unconscious, the family members slept soundly until the next morning.
As dawn broke, Mr. and Mrs. Liang were the first to wake up.
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