On the first night spent in the activity room, Wen Qian slept relatively late as she took a thorough shower and washed her hair before going to bed.
For a while, she had neglected grooming herself, especially during the latter part of her journey when she had become quite unkempt.
She would not get into bed without cleaning herself up.
After a tiring day and a hot shower, using water from her spatial dimension, she sat on the bed and spent a long time drying her hair before finally going to sleep, which led her to wake up quite late the next day.
When Wen Qian woke up, she had a momentary illusion that she was back home because she was lying in a bed with a heater.
But then, glancing out the window at the surroundings, she remembered that she had already left.
She was starting a new life here, alone, without neighbors.
Unlike Yuanao where stepping outside led to hills, here the area in front was flat while mountains loomed behind, presenting a vast and magnificent view as far as the eye could see.
This was an entirely new experience, and although Wen Qian had been here for some time, she was still awestruck by the scenery.
After lingering in bed for a while, Wen Qian finally got up and took out a cup of hot soy milk and two buns from her spatial dimension as her breakfast.
In fact, since arriving in Xia Province, she rarely ate the local food, consuming mostly from her spatial dimension, though she did purchase some local ingredients.
For now, to save time, she hadn't prepared any of those local specialties and seasonings, planning to cook them herself during the winter.
Even boiling water here was different from other places.
Of course, everything required an adjustment period, and one day she would adapt to everything here, but there was no need to rush things and risk becoming ill from the new environment and climate, which would only bring suffering upon herself.
She needed to maintain her health, which was of utmost importance, as she was not made of iron and her constitution was not particularly robust.
After finishing breakfast, Wen Qian went out and walked around her house, checking for any areas that needed patching up.
After all, the house she had built the previous day was just a basic structure, and she needed to seal it properly to keep out drafts.
Her main task was to use foam or glass sealant to fill any gaps, as the activity room was nailed directly into the ground.
Even jumping inside would cause the whole house to shake, and forcefully closing the door would have the same effect – it was a decent temporary dwelling, but far from her ideal home.
Wen Qian planned to build a small house for herself over the course of September, though her childhood belief in a stone house had now wavered.
She worried that a stone house might become a stone tomb in an earthquake, so she considered building a wooden house instead, which seemed slightly safer.
She could still use stone for the foundation, raising it a bit higher.
After completing these minor repairs, Wen Qian headed west on her bicycle, as she didn't expect to go too far.
The scenery ahead was similar to what she had seen before, with rolling grasslands stretching out towards the foothills, not entirely flat but with undulations.
The depressions between the slopes could potentially conceal wild animals or pools of water.
Wen Qian decided to explore further, as she believed it was important to understand the terrain, vegetation, and wildlife around any area she intended to settle in, rather than limiting herself to just her small house and the flat area surrounding it. The more familiar she was with her surroundings, the better.
So Wen Qian continued heading south, intending to reach the mountain foothills, and if possible, she actually wanted to climb up the mountain.
The highest peak was surrounded by a cluster of mountains, a place Wen Qian had never considered going.
At her current location, her phone signal was intermittent, and she thought that if she went higher, she might be able to find a signal.
The further south she went, the more she realized how far she was from the actual foothills of Jade Mountain range.
Wen Qian changed her plan and hurried forward, hoping to reach the mountain base, but unlike near her residence, it was not easily accessible from this direction, which was quite distant.
This allowed her to roughly pinpoint her location on the map.
Although there were no detailed maps available, she had a sense of her approximate position.
The place where she had settled was a protrusion from the mountain range, while her current location was an inward curve.
The further Wen Qian walked, the more she realized she might not be able to reach the foothills, so she turned back towards home.
If she made it home, her route for the day would form a right-angled triangle.
On her way back, Wen Qian noticed another area that seemed more suitable for settling down, but she only made a rough mark on the map and continued home.
For the next couple of days, Wen Qian didn't plan to overexert herself, as she truly needed to rest.
This so-called rest wasn't complete inactivity, as she would feel uneasy if she did nothing at all.
The light tasks Wen Qian assigned herself were washing clothes. She had already soaked them the previous day, as they were merely soiled with dirt and dust.
Longer soaking would make washing easier, and indeed, the soaking water had turned gray. Wen Qian drained it disdainfully onto the ground and changed the water several times before starting to scrub the clothes.
Afterwards, she hung the clothes on a rope strung between trees.
Squinting in the bright sunlight, she watched the clothes drip water for a while before returning inside.
Sitting by the heater, she researched information about the local area.
Building a house required considering the direction, the path of the sun, and the seasonal winds. Even without researching, by looking at the map and settlement patterns, she could understand why her area was largely uninhabited.
On the other side of the uninhabited zone, at the foothills, there were settlements because that side faced the sun and was a sheltered slope from the northerly winds.
Wen Qian could envision her activity room rattling noisily in the biting winds.
It seemed she needed to find a slope and build her house on the leeward side, otherwise she wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully.
The winds here were no joke, capable of whipping up sandstorms.
The map clearly marked the contours of the mountain range and the major river networks.
Over the next few days, Wen Qian explored the surrounding areas and found a satisfactory location, though slightly more distant, which didn't bother her now.
Since her activity room was already built, all she needed to do was remove the nails securing it to the ground, and the entire house would be detached.
She tested it and was delighted to find that she could store the whole house in her spatial dimension, regretting not discovering this sooner to save on accommodation and transportation costs, instead of having to camp outdoors by the fire, constantly on edge.
The day after realizing she was like a snail with a portable shell, Wen Qian moved westward.
