I traveled back to ancient times, but I was able to lie down and relax.

Liu Nanjia was relieved. According to her observation, Song Chen had clear eyes, a decent appearance, and spoke in a very organized manner. So far, she had a good impression of him.

They say your appearance reflects your heart, so I suppose you're not the kind of person who commits crimes.

The next two days were peaceful, and no outsiders were heard of coming to the village.

Aunt Wang, who was close to their family, naturally knew that they had taken in an injured person. Of course, Liu Nanjia told her the same story she told her brother and sister: that he had encountered trouble and escaped alone.

Aunt Wang naturally sighed, lamenting that he was a pitiful child.

However, she also reminded Liu Nanjia that they should come up with a different explanation for the rest of the village. Otherwise, it wouldn't be good for her reputation if they lived with a man from another villager for so long, and it would easily lead to gossip.

Although Liu Nanjia himself didn't care about this, he really didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

It just so happens that his current name is Song Chen, and he shares the same surname as his mother, so let's give him the identity of a distant relative.

From then on, they told others that he was their distant cousin who had lost his family and had come to stay with his aunt.

That morning, Liu Nanjia prepared breakfast and brought it to Song Chen for him to eat.

That's right, he was allowed to eat by himself. After Song Chen's injury improved and his arm could move again, he insisted on no longer letting Liu Nanjia feed him.

Liu Nanjia was naturally happy to do so; who wants to serve others? She came today mainly to ask if there was anything she needed, as she planned to go to town today.

Song Chen thought for a moment, then said somewhat embarrassedly, "If you could, could you buy me some clothes? Your brother's clothes are really a bit too small for me..."

Liu Nanjia chuckled, inwardly blaming himself for being careless. He was considerably taller than Liu Yanxi, so the clothes must not fit properly. The original clothes were already so worn out that they were barely wearable. If he were taken to town tomorrow, his legs would probably be sticking out.

Thinking of that scene, Liu Nanjia couldn't help but laugh, which made Song Chen feel quite helpless.

After Liu Nanjia finished laughing, she patted his shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I'll buy it for you."

She went to town alone today, without anyone following her. Her reason was that if she ran into someone who had a grudge against Song Chen, she would be a small, inconspicuous girl and unlikely to attract attention.

Liu Yanxi wanted to go along, but he couldn't persuade Liu Nanjia, and he was also worried about leaving Song Chen, who was disabled, and 5-year-old Liu Sirou alone at home, so he had to give up.

Liu Nanjia arrived in town, observed for a while, and found that everything was normal, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

She asked Song Chen what it would be like if someone came looking for him.

Song Chen hesitated for a while, but decided to tell the truth that a notice would probably be posted. This drew a strange look from Liu Nanjia for a long time, but she didn't ask any further questions.

Finding nothing amiss, Liu Nanjia began today's plan.

We first took a good stroll around the town and learned about the situation in Anping Town.

For example, the two busiest places in town are the dock in the south and the market in the east. Both places have designated areas for people to set up stalls, which are supervised by government officials and are safer, but rent must be paid, either by the day or by the month.

Of course, some vendors set up stalls in other parts of the town. As long as they don't obstruct traffic, no one usually cares. But they have to take responsibility for their own actions. If their stalls are vandalized, the officials won't interfere unless it's serious.

A main road runs east to west, and the shops that can be opened on this road are not ordinary. For example, there are large restaurants, shops run by wealthy families, etc. The town's school and county government office are also located on this road.

There are many smaller roads connecting to the main road, and the shops on these roads are much smaller, with many small businesses operating there.

After exploring the town, Liu Nanjia planned what she needed to buy that day. With the 10 taels of silver given to her by Song Chen, she felt much more financially secure and less anxious.

So she went straight to the butcher shop and decided to buy a pound of meat first, because she was really craving meat!

I spent 25 coins to buy a pound of pork, and it wasn't even the most expensive pork belly. At this time, pork belly that could be rendered into oil was the most popular.

Then she went to the grain shop and bought 5 catties of old rice and 5 catties of wheat flour, for a total of 40 coins. She didn't want to endure the rough texture of mixed flour anymore and missed rice very much. She couldn't eat white rice and wheat flour every day, but she still needed to change things up occasionally.

Seeing a tofu vendor, I spent a few coins to buy a piece of tofu.

Tofu can also provide protein, right? Their current diet is too monotonous, Liu Nanjia comforted herself with this reason.

Seeing the pastry vendor, and remembering that his little sister had never eaten them before, he took out his money and bought some.

I got hungry while walking, so I bought some steamed buns to eat and took a few back with me.

After calculating that he had spent almost 100 coins on food, Liu Nanjia finally stopped and even slapped his own hand. How come he couldn't control his hands before, but he still couldn't control them now?

So they decided they couldn't shop around anymore and instead found a clothing store that looked to be doing well to buy clothes for Song Chen.

The shop assistant was quite enthusiastic, "Young lady, who are you buying clothes for? We have clothes for adults and children."

"Buy it for my brother," Liu Nanjia replied casually, gesturing roughly to indicate Song Chen's height.

"Those are men's clothes for adults. Come with me, young lady, over here." The waiter was quite pleased; men's clothing uses more material and is therefore relatively more expensive.

Liu Nanjia didn't plan to buy Song Chen anything too fancy, just something similar to what the villagers bought, which would also help him hide his identity. She casually picked out two sets and asked the shopkeeper the price.

"Young lady, you have excellent taste. Both of these items sell very well," the waiter complimented first, then said:

"A set originally costs 260 coins, but if you buy two sets, it'll be 500 coins."

500 coins?

Liu Nanjia was initially taken aback by the price, but considering that she had just spent nearly 100 coins on food, she felt that the price was reasonable.

But I still wanted to haggle: "Young man, can you lower the price any further? There are many people in my family, and if your stuff is good, we'll come back to buy from you often. By the way, do you have bedding here? If you can give me a discount, I'll buy it too."

The waiter was naturally delighted to hear that she wanted to buy more.

After some haggling, Liu Nanjia spent 800 coins to buy two sets of clothes and a quilt, including a bedding and a blanket.

As she walked out of the clothing store, she couldn't help but sigh, "Money really doesn't last long!"

Today alone, I spent nearly one tael of silver.

No wonder people buy fabric and make their own clothes these days, but she doesn't know how, and she doesn't have the time.

Well, it's Song Chen's money anyway, so it's only right to buy him some things.

There were only two quilts in their house. Song Chen had been using Liu Yanxi's bed for the past two days, so his brother had been making do with whatever he could find. Luckily, the weather was hot, otherwise he would have caught a cold.

They bought a lot of things, but the quilt was hard to carry, so Liu Nanjia took a donkey cart back to the village from the city gate.

When she returned, some villagers saw her carrying large and small bags and were very curious. Some even came up to ask her questions, but she managed to brush them off.

As previously agreed, the things were prepared for my distant cousin when he came to visit.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, Liu Nanjia called out, "Brother, Sirou, I'm back! Look what I bought! I'll cook something delicious for you tonight!"