Just before heading down to the first floor, Shen Moxi slapped her forehead. "Oh! I forgot the thermos flasks and washbasins for the rooms."
With that, she hurriedly used the system to buy four thermos flasks and eight basins, four for washing faces and four for washing feet, then bought eight enamel mugs, one for each person to drink from.
After buying them, she put one thermos flask, two basins, and two enamel mugs in each bedroom.
She was just about to leave when she remembered she had not bought toothpaste, toothbrush cups, or toothbrushes. She could not help patting her forehead. "They say pregnancy makes you stupid for three years. I haven't even had the baby yet, so why do I keep forgetting one thing after another?"
She bought another eight sets of toothbrushes, toothbrush cups, and toothpaste and put them in everyone's bedrooms, one set per person. She even thoughtfully bought children's versions of Xiao Xuan's toothbrush, toothpaste, and cup for him. Since children's versions did not exist in this era yet, she used banana oil to wipe off the lettering after buying them.
"Ah, that should be everything, right?" Shen Moxi scratched her head.
Song Qi looked at her in amusement and stroked her head. "We can fill in anything we're missing later. We have everything for now."
"Mm, let's go. Let's head to the first floor and set things up there too." Shen Moxi looked back again. There should not be any problems left, so the two went downstairs.
"Brother Song, go close all the curtains by the glass wall. I'm going to buy things through the system in a moment. It'll be trouble if someone sees us conjuring so many things out of thin air." Shen Moxi switched on all the lights.
"All right." Song Qi nodded. He had not thought of that and had nearly forgotten.
Once the curtains were closed, Shen Moxi took out another interior layout plan she had drawn, then began browsing and choosing things in the system.
Since the shop combined adult and children's clothing, a little over half the space would be for adults and a little under half for children.
Of the two walls, one would display adult clothing and the other children's clothing.
Shen Moxi bought many small horizontal wall-mounted clothing racks and fixed them to the walls, where she would display some coordinated outfits. That would look better and make the outfits easier to see.
Many people in this era did not really understand how to coordinate clothes. They preferred outfits that had already been put together or matching sets. Although buying a whole outfit cost more, it looked better than what they could put together themselves, so many would grit their teeth and buy one.
It took more than half an hour to fix some racks onto both walls, alternating between high and low positions. Each wall would display just six outfits: two men's outfits and four women's outfits on one, and three boys' outfits and three girls' outfits on the children's wall.
Then she bought some freestanding racks in understated luxury colors and arranged them around the walls. In the middle, she placed a large, irregularly shaped three-tier wooden cabinet. Shen Moxi planned to display all the shoes there, then buy a few mannequin heads to display hats on the top tier.
Then she took out the adult and child mannequins and dressed them, ready to place them by the glass wall in a moment to attract more attention.
For the checkout area, Shen Moxi bought a somewhat higher-end large cabinet with plenty of drawers, along with a swiveling leather chair.
However, Shen Moxi also bought a fabric cover and put it over the leather chair, lest they see it and call her wasteful. If they asked, she would say a friend had no longer wanted it and had given it to her, and that she had bought a new fabric cover to put over it and keep using it.
She bought two calculators, some pens, and some account books, putting them all in the drawers.
"Lass, take a look. What else needs doing?" Song Qi came over and asked after arranging the racks over there.
Shen Moxi looked around, then at the checkout counter she had set up, and slapped her forehead. She had not bought the most important thing, a lucky cat. She bought one and placed it on the counter.
"Let's leave it like this for now. Once we get back tonight, we'll hurry and make a batch of clothes first. Tomorrow, we'll come arrange and hang them up, then make some adjustments." Shen Moxi looked around.
"Mm, it's getting late. Let's hurry back." Song Qi nodded.
"When we get back, I'll buy a few watches. We'll need them to tell the time from now on. I'll have to use that 'friend' of mine as an excuse again and give each of them one." Shen Moxi took out the alarm clock, checked the time, and put it away again.
Neither of them opened the curtains. Now that there were things inside, it would be bad if someone with ill intentions smashed the glass and went in to cause trouble. With the curtains closed, no one knew what was inside, so it was at least a little safer.
They would have to install a roller shutter later. Without one, once the shop opened, it would not be safe even with someone keeping watch here.
On the way back, Song Qi looked at Shen Moxi. "Lass, are we having meat again tonight?"
Shen Moxi shook her head when she heard him. "We can't keep eating it. Other families can't bear to eat even a bite of meat for months, but we eat it every day. That's practically a sin. We're far too careless with our money. Aunt Shan and the others may not say anything, but they must be feeling bad about it."
Song Qi frowned. "We bought it with money we earned. Why would they feel bad? Isn't money earned to be spent?"
Hearing that, Shen Moxi burst out laughing. "Do you think everyone's like us, with such a powerful golden finger? In this era, ordinary farmers are doing well if they can earn a little over two hundred yuan after a whole year of hard work. How could they bear to spend money on meat?"
"Right now, only salaried workers earn a little more, a few dozen yuan a month, close to a hundred. Some who get bonuses might earn even more. Farmers are the poorest. They depend on the weather for their livelihood, so they usually scrimp and save to get by."
Song Qi nodded. "Farmers have been the poorest since ancient times. It was the same in our world. In the mortal realm where we came from, they had to pay taxes too. Sometimes, after paying their taxes, they didn't even have enough left to eat."
"Ah, every world is the same. So we should work hard to live our own lives well. Only when we have the ability ourselves will we have the means to help someone we want to help in the future." Shen Moxi sighed.
The two returned home, heated water, and each took a bath, then lay on the kang to rest for a while. When it was time, Shen Moxi went to cook. Seeing that there was not much firewood left, Song Qi chopped wood in the courtyard.
Today's food was very light. Over the past few days, her sister-in-law had come back, and Father Shen and Mother Shen had visited too, so she had made meat dishes several days in a row. Even being wasteful did not mean squandering money like that, so Shen Moxi decided to eat vegetarian food for the next couple of days.
She cut a handful of chives in the courtyard and made scrambled eggs with chives, stir-fried eggplant with pork, and cold dressed green beans, then steamed buns and cooked rice porridge.
Once breakfast was made, Song Yongjun and Huang Yushan returned just in time for the meal. Seeing Song Qi chopping wood, he smiled and nodded. Although my son has lost his memory, he hasn't grown distant from us. He's slowly accepting us. That gratified him greatly. Now his son was about to get married, and before long, he would have a grandson.
"Aunt Shan, hurry and wash your hands. It's time to eat!" Shen Moxi called as she carried the food into the room.
"Coming!" They took turns washing their hands and faces, then went inside to change their clothes.
"No meat tonight?" Song Yongjun felt a little unaccustomed to it when he saw the three vegetable dishes.
"What, did you think you could eat meat every day? You're not a landlord." Huang Yushan glanced at him.
"We'll make some in a couple of days, once we move to town. We've had a little too much meat lately. Eating that much every day isn't good for our health either. From now on, let's have it every couple of days," Shen Moxi said as she handed Song Qi a steamed bun.
"Anything's fine. Don't listen to your uncle. How could a family like ours have lavish meals every day? He really thinks he has money to spare. Once Moxi and Xiao Qi get married, there'll be plenty to spend money on. We should save wherever we can." Huang Yushan slapped Song Yongjun on the arm.