Chapter 11: Twentieth Birthday

Soon it was Lan Mo’s twentieth birthday. Before dawn, Su Mei knocked on Lan Mo’s door.

Knowing she had the day off, Lan Mo had gotten up once in the middle of the night to harvest rice and “steal” crops from others’ farms in her space.

Bleary-eyed, Lan Mo crawled out of bed and opened the door. “Mom, why so early? It’s not even five yet, is it?”

“Momo, we need to buy more meat and vegetables today, so we have to go early to queue up.”

“Oh, I see. Mom, you’re working so hard!”

Su Mei rode the bicycle while Lan Mo carried a bamboo basket on her back, and the two set off to buy groceries.

Lan Mo thought they were early enough, but it turned out others had arrived even earlier. Mother and daughter split up—one queued for meat, the other for fish.

Haishi had plenty of seafood, and Su Mei splurged today, buying two jin of shrimp and two sea bass.

Lan Mo used meat coupons to buy two jin of pork belly and four small ribs. Seeing that pig intestines didn’t require coupons, she also bought a set.

Su Mei looked at the stinky intestines in the basket and asked, “Momo, these are really hard to clean. Since it’s your birthday, you could have bought two pig trotters instead.”

“Mom, properly cleaned intestines are just as good as trotters. Put the fish and shrimp in the basket, and let’s go buy seasonings.”

“You go ahead. I’ll buy a chicken and some eggs.”

Lan Mo noticed Su Mei wasn’t joining her, which was perfect—she could head to the non-staple food counter to buy two jin of White Rabbit candies and two cans of Malt Extract Milk Powder.

Since others had already delivered coal to her, it was only proper to return the favor with some gifts. Besides, she had already exchanged for the coupons, and if she didn’t use them now, who knew when she’d have time to shop again?

After buying the White Rabbit candies and Malt Extract Milk Powder, Lan Mo used the basket as cover to quickly stash the items into her space. Then, she went to buy seasonings.

Watching the money in her pocket dwindle, Lan Mo couldn’t help but complain inwardly. White Rabbit candies were produced right here in Haishi, so why were they so expensive? Unwrapped hard candies cost just one fen for two pieces, while White Rabbit was almost ten fen each. What a rip-off! It’s just milk candy, after all. Luckily, she wasn’t particularly fond of sweets.

When would her farm reach level ten? Without making money and relying solely on her salary, she had to think twice before buying anything. The original owner had worked hard all year and only managed to save a little over a hundred yuan—how pitiful! Now, she couldn’t even afford a bicycle!

Time to roll up her sleeves and work hard. Strive to level up the farm and achieve financial freedom as soon as possible.

By the time they returned from shopping, it was already seven o’clock. Since it was Lan Mo’s twentieth birthday, Lan Jingtian had gone out a little after six to buy breakfast—three deep-fried dough sticks, six meat buns, and four large steamed rolls.

Lan Mo carefully recalled the original owner’s past. In her memories, even New Year’s celebrations hadn’t been as lively as today. Her family was truly too good to her!

After breakfast, those who had work left for their jobs. Lan Guochang and his wife stayed home to look after their great-grandson, Lan Jiangli. Su Mei tidied up the house, while Lan Mo prepared to clean the intestines.

The Lan family’s kitchen had a wood-burning stove and a small coal stove. They sometimes used firewood and sometimes coal. Since several dishes needed to be cooked tonight, they had to use the wood-burning stove.

There was plenty of plant ash in the stove, which Lan Mo used to scrub the mucus off the intestinal walls. In this era, no one would be extravagant enough to use starch and edible salt to clean intestines.

Just as Lan Mo was about to start the fire, Su Mei walked over and quickly urged her to get up. “Momo, it’s your birthday today—you don’t need to tend the fire. We have guests coming tonight, so don’t get your clothes dirty.”

Lan Mo felt a bit embarrassed, as if she were still a child.

Su Mei tended the fire while Lan Mo filled a washbasin with water and poured it into the large pot. She added ginger and cooking wine to the water, then slowly boiled the pork intestines.

After blanching the intestines, Lan Mo quickly boiled another pot of water to slaughter the chicken, preparing all the necessary dishes before noon.

For lunch, she simply made three dishes: stir-fried green beans with pork, plain stir-fried shredded potatoes, and a cold cucumber salad.

Since it was Lan Mo’s birthday, she received two extra boiled eggs.

Lan Mo wasn’t the original owner of this body, so she wasn’t particularly interested in boiled eggs. However, she couldn’t let her mother’s kind intentions go to waste.

Elder Brother, Elder Sister-in-law, and Dad didn’t return home for lunch today. Lan Mo gave one of her two eggs to her nephew, Xiao Li’er.

As for her own egg, she only ate the egg white and gave the yolk to Grandmother.

“Momo, since you don’t have much to do this afternoon, why not go for a stroll at the department store? Grandmother will give you some money to buy a new dress. It’s your birthday today, so you should dress up nicely.”

“Mom, I think Zhenzhen made a dress for Momo a couple of days ago.”

“The dresses Zhenzhen makes can’t compare to the ones at the department store. Momo, since it’s your birthday today, Grandmother doesn’t have anything special to give you. I’ll give you some ration coupons and twenty yuan. Go buy yourself a pretty dress.”

Fortunately, Elder Sister-in-law wasn’t around. If she had heard this, she would surely have felt upset.

Lan Mo smiled sweetly. “Thank you, Grandmother!”

After lunch, Lan Mo returned to her room to rest for a while before heading out to shop in the afternoon.

She sent the Malt Extract Milk Powder and White Rabbit milk candies she had bought to “Home Has Mine, Heart Not Panicked.” Only after clicking “Send Gift” did she realize she had been deducted 20,000 Gold Coins.

Damn, selling three acres of paddy rice wouldn’t even earn 10,000 Gold Coins, yet sending a single gift cost 20,000 Gold Coins. This Myriad Realms Farm was really a rip-off!

[Little Darling, are you there? I’ve sent you the White Rabbit milk candies you wanted. Since I didn’t have ration coupons, I only bought two jin for you.]

Was it really about the ration coupons? Of course not. The real issue was that she had no money! With money, who would worry about not being able to exchange for coupons? One jin of White Rabbit candies cost one or two yuan. How depressing—her monthly salary was only enough to buy a little over ten jin of candies.

Lan Mo waited for a long time but received no reply. She quickly harvested the rice she had planted, taking advantage of the free time to sow more seeds, aiming to reach Level 10 sooner and get ahead.

She went around “stealing” all the “crops” she could. When she tried to steal from “Little Useless in the Cultivation World’s” medicinal herb field, she was caught by the Little Monster raised in her space. Not only did she fail to steal anything, but she also lost another 20,000 Gold Coins.

They say you have good luck on your birthday, so why was her luck so terrible today?

With luck like this, should she still go to the department store this afternoon?

She had never seen what a department store looked like before. Lan Mo decided to take an hour-long nap before going shopping. She worked hard to earn money, so if she didn’t spend it on her birthday, when would she?

Lan Mo rode her family’s Erba Gang bicycle to the entrance of Yong’an Department Store, locked it up, and went inside to browse.

Haishi was the most developed city in the country, even more prosperous than Jingshi. Whether it was tall buildings or Western-style houses, though not as advanced as in later generations, they stood out as innovative and unique for this era.

The six-story-tall Yong’an Department Store was one of Haishi’s four major department stores, filled with a dazzling array of goods, including many imported products.

Lan Mo began browsing the department store like Granny Liu visiting the Grand View Garden. As she looked around, she occasionally found herself unconsciously touching her pocket…

Even if she really liked it, the price was too high to afford—she could only look. Forget it, better not look anymore. She should just go straight to the third floor and buy a nice dress first.

Forget it, she’d come back to browse when she had money and ration coupons.

Lan Mo immediately took a liking to a mint-green maxi dress. The dress was printed with beautiful patterns, and the fabric was light and flowing—clearly not cotton. There were no buttons at the top of the collar; instead, a large bow was tied with fabric of the same color.

This dress wouldn’t even be outdated in later eras! It probably wasn’t cheap, right?

“Comrade, hello, how much is that long-sleeved dress?”

“The one you’re pointing at costs twenty-two yuan.”

“Why is this dress so expensive?”

“This is our department store’s latest autumn release, and it’s imported. If you want domestic goods, go check next door. But those ‘Bulaji’ dresses also cost eight to ten yuan each. If you want something cheaper, go down to the second floor and buy fabric to make it yourself!”

Grandmother had given her twenty yuan. Did she really want to add a few more yuan to buy a dress? If she bought it, she’d have worked for nothing this month.

It was rare to find a dress that suited her taste so well. Not buying it felt unbearable, but buying it felt like a waste. Ah, it was all because she didn’t have enough money.

Lan Mo turned to leave, but seeing the sales assistant roll her eyes and sneer, she gritted her teeth and decided to buy the dress anyway.

Lan Mo pointed to another sales assistant nearby and said, “Comrade, could you please wrap that dress for me?” As she spoke, she pulled out a stack of money and fabric ration coupons from her pocket.

The sales assistant who had sneered at Lan Mo was stunned. What had she done wrong?

Having bought the dress she liked, Lan Mo happily headed to the pen counter. As for watches?

Forget it. She couldn’t even afford a locally made Haishi watch, let alone the many imported watches there. She’d better not even look.

Yong’an Department Store truly lived up to its reputation—many of the pens sold were imported. Although she was short on money now, that didn’t stop her from looking! She’d come back to buy two when she had the money.

Lan Mo walked along the counter, not paying attention to the person in front of her, and suddenly bumped into a solid wall of flesh.

“Thud!” The dress she had just bought, along with the paper bag, fell to the ground. Lan Mo apologized while bending down to pick up the bag.

A deep, resonant, and magnetic voice sounded beside her ear. “Here you go.”

Lan Mo slowly looked up…