In addition to hoarding grain and fodder, Wen Qian also bought things online and had them delivered to the post office in town.
She bought several dozen catties of soap base for herself online, planning to make soap at home.
She just bought the raw materials. If she really started from the soap base, it would be too much trouble for her.
With soap base, she could add some ingredients she liked to make it easier.
Because of sharing online, she also earned some pocket money to continue buying things.
When Wen Qian went to exchange shifts with Chen Lin, he was sawing wood at home with a power saw. He sawed the trees into very short sections and did not split them. He said they were for the heating stove.
When Wen Qian went to his house, she found that they had a room with a heating stove in it, the same style she had bought online before.
Chen Lin bought it online.
So Wen Qian went back home and took out her things and installed one in a room behind her bedroom too.
The chimney extended into the sunny alley behind the house where it could vent smoke and avoid wind.
Wen Qian spent half a day assembling it. She lit a small fire to test it. It worked very smoothly. According to the size of the stove, she also sawed quite a few logs.
While she was installing her heating stove at home, when Auntie Chen saw it, she also thought it was great. She went home and called her son to have him buy one, planning to put it in the stairwell room on the first floor.
When the fire burns bigger, a small room gets warm. Their place had no heating. Air conditioning was expensive and ineffective.
With this, they could sit warm and cozy in the room. It just took a little more firewood, which they had plenty of in the mountains.
The wood also didn't need to be split too small. A section of log put inside, as long as it caught fire and the stove door was shut, it would burn slowly for a long time. It was not smoky like a fire bowl, and there was no danger of poisoning like burning coal.
When Auntie Chen went to town to get the heating stove, she gave money to Chen Lin to help carry it back.
As he pushed it through the market, many people asked where to buy it. Auntie Chen happily said her son bought it, she didn't know how, it was an online item.
After a while, some shops outside put out two heating stoves, but the styles were different than the one bought online. There was a large pot placed in the middle. It was like a movable earthen stove made of iron.
When Auntie Chen came back from going out, she said this one was not as good as the one bought online! The variety online was really something!
She also told Wen Qian that later if there was anything else good to buy online, she would just give her son the money and he could buy it.
Many middle-aged people after learning to use smartphones fell into the new online shopping world.
In October, the rural villages had already started planting wheat. Auntie Chen was home alone while Uncle Chen went to help others spread fertilizer and plant wheat.
Wen Qian didn't have much to do, just continuing to take October scenery photos for everyone, deliberately finding some white clouds and autumn breeze scenes.
Recently she had been filming and editing videos of herself cooking, making amounts that looked like enough for a large family to eat.
Usually after cooking good food, Wen Qian would only eat a little that day, saving the rest.
Filming twice a week, the number of viewers gradually increased.
Sometimes she would go live, similar to a study room. Wen Qian did not show her face, still mainly live streaming her voice. Sometimes she was peeling peanuts, sometimes she was grinding corn.
Sometimes she was pumping the well to get water, sometimes she just live streamed the view inside the stove burning firewood, and the sound of her chopping firewood.
Many online fans didn't care what the content was. They just listened to the sounds.
In October it finally rained, so Wen Qian was very happy to take her audio equipment to record the sound of heavy rain falling.
Many people listened to this kind of white noise. Combined with her previous income coming in bits and pieces, she earned back the money for the audio equipment and then some.
Wen Qian wanted to go live from morning to night once winter came and she started using the heating stove.
Live streaming the firewood crackling away inside the stove, as well as baking sweet potatoes next to the small door.
Just as Wen Qian was engrossed in roaming the internet recording videos and sounds everywhere, Auntie Chen's loud voice called to her from the valley below.
At this distance, the other person was too lazy to call her, just relying on shouting.
Wen Qian thought Auntie Chen was looking for her for something. When she came down, she saw two old men and an auntie sitting at her door.
They were all from the greater valley, apparently walking over the extra distance from their village which had fewer people to chat at Auntie Chen's.
The auntie was the same person who rode with her in the three-wheeled vehicle last time going into town. Seeing Wen Qian again she was very happy, and pulled over a stool Auntie Chen had brought out for Wen Qian to sit next to her.
Wen Qian's first reaction was ill intent - the other person wanted her to do more work.
Sure enough, this person named Wang Guihua asked Wen Qian if she wanted to poke her nose into an affair.
In the local rural areas, they humbly referred to matchmaking as poking their noses into other's affairs.
Wen Qian secretly rolled her eyes in her heart. You'd better not get involved! But she just said, what's up?
So Wang Guihua leaned in toward her, grabbed her hand and patted it, beaming.
"You've come back here for this time now with no friend. I know a pretty good young man. Do you want to try at least becoming friends? Take a look at each other with him?
Right now you're off work, and probably won't be leaving again until after New Year's, just right to meet while you're both home on vacation during this time?"
"He's a year younger than you, steady and hardworking out there, his parents are young enough to help raise your three kids..."
With a blank face Wen Qian replied, "No need for that, Aunt Wang."
"I'm not joking with you. I'm being serious, speaking from my heart to you. Don't be shy. This is a lifetime event. Your age is not small anymore either. Picky choosing won't get you another chance later." The other person with her worldly wise face had a hand still grasping Wen Qian's as if it would not let go.
Wen Qian didn't reply, just pulled her hand free.
Guihua: "How could you want to be a nun already at your age? You'll definitely regret it later when you're older. You've got a health problem and there is no one to offer a helping hand."
Wen Qian asked her: "How do you know he won't die before you? Maybe you'll have to take care of him but he goes first."
That struck a chord.
Guihua's husband had died suddenly two years ago, but Wen Qian hadn't aimed her remark at Guihua's personal life, just used a common argument to rebut her.
This person only profited off others, never herself at a loss. When things went her way, that was proper and right. If people accommodated her requests one hundred percent she only reciprocated fifty percent.
So Wen Qian's strategy was to let the other party become discouraged or even dislike her, then they would not try again.
As expected Guihua was very unhappy: "How could you want to be a nun already at your age? You will definitely regret it when you're older. You've got a health problem and there is no one to offer a helping hand."
Wen Qian asked her: "How do you know he won't die before you? Maybe you'll have to take care of him but he goes first."
That struck a chord.
Guihua's husband had died suddenly two years after getting married, but Wen Qian hadn't aimed her remark at Guihua's personal life, just used a common argument to rebut her.
