When leaving the small river, Xia Zhi spent another point to buy a water barrel of about one cubic meter and filled it with clear water from the river.
In the afternoon while traveling, he found some mushrooms in two shady spots by the roadside.
They were colorful and vibrant.
From his experience, beautiful mushrooms were generally poisonous - some would cause vomiting and diarrhea, some would cause hallucinations, and some could even be fatal.
Xia Zhi pondered for a moment but still walked towards them, planning to pick some.
He didn't intend to eat them but wanted to see if these mushrooms, like slime liquid, would be judged by the system as some kind of alchemy material.
Xia Zhi had only taken two steps when the crane beside him blocked his way.
Obviously, she was preventing him from touching those mushrooms.
Xia Zhi wisely stopped.
After all, this was another world, and perhaps the mushrooms here were more dangerous, possibly causing poisoning just through skin contact.
He didn't need to risk it for a possible alchemy material.
This was also why Xia Zhi always let the crane eat first when trying new food.
Because he didn't recognize any of the wild things here, he could only roughly determine if something was edible by looking for signs of birds or beasts eating it, but this method wasn't accurate.
Humans and animals had different body structures, and what animals could eat, humans might not be able to.
The crane was a native of this world, having lived in this area for who knows how long, and was already familiar with all kinds of creatures here.
Plus, being spiritually aware, if something was absolutely inedible, she certainly wouldn't eat it herself or let him eat it.
Later on the road, Xia Zhi encountered several fruit trees with many heavy, sunset-colored ripe fruits hanging from their branches, emitting a strange sweet fragrance.
This time the crane didn't stop him.
Xia Zhi picked two, tried one, and found the fruit very sweet.
He gave the other fruit to the crane, and she seemed to enjoy eating it too.
This kind of nice fruit could serve well as reserve food.
Xia Zhi stayed here a while longer, picking all the ripe fruit from the trees and storing them in his inventory. There were sixty-seven in total. Enough for him and the crane to eat for quite a while.
At nightfall, Xia Zhi found a small windbreak slope and rested there, taking out some dry firewood from his inventory to build a fire.
This dry firewood he had picked up along the way when he saw it.
The system's inventory was truly useful - not only did it have no limit, but it seemed able to store anything except living things. And once stored, the item's state seemed to be temporarily fixed at that moment in time, not changing at all until it was taken out.
The only drawback was that putting items into the inventory required Xia Zhi's mental energy, and the larger the item's volume, the more mental energy needed.
With Xia Zhi's current total mental energy, the maximum volume he could store was about one cubic meter; for any larger items, he lacked the strength.
The orange firelight burned quietly, dispelling the surrounding darkness.
Xia Zhi took out the small pot from his inventory, put it on the fire to heat up the remaining half pot of fish soup, and warmed the grilled fish wrapped in leaves by the fire.
The grilled fish was for the crane, while he drank the fish soup.
After the simple dinner, Xia Zhi took out two more fruits they had picked in the afternoon, eating one himself and giving one to the crane.
Sweet and crispy - satisfying.
With nothing else to do, Xia Zhi sat in place and browsed through the items in the [Shop].
He now had 5 points left, which looked like very little, but actually could still buy many items.
For example, all items from his original world could be bought in the [Shop].
A box of instant noodles, price: 1 point
A box of eight-treasure congee, price: 1 point
A box of mineral water, price: 1 point
A set of the Four Great Classical Novels, price: 1 point
A set of economics books, price: 1 point
A pair of sneakers, price: 1 point
A down jacket, price: 1 point
A bicycle, price: 1 point
...
Xia Zhi found that the vast majority of items were priced at 1 point, and thinking carefully, he realized this price was actually too high.
Because items priced at 1-9 points already belonged to the iron-quality category, and even the poorest quality iron items were supernatural items that could easily fetch sky-high prices in his original world.
The reason these ordinary items were priced at 1 point was probably because that was the [Shop]'s minimum price.
Looking at the familiar food list in the [Shop], Xia Zhi shook his head. Although he missed the tastes from his memories, his points were still very tight now and not enough for this kind of "extravagance."
Unless he reached a dangerous situation where he truly couldn't find food and needed emergency supplies, he would wait until he had enough points later to consider indulging in nostalgia.
A hint of drowsiness crept over his eyelids.
Xia Zhi added a few large logs to the fire, bid goodnight to the crane, and lay down to sleep beside the flames.
The crane lowered its head to watch his peaceful sleeping face, its glassy eyes reflecting the orange-red firelight, lost in unknown thoughts.
The next morning, Xia Zhi awoke from his slumber, opening his gray eyes to gaze listlessly at his surroundings.
The campfire had long since died out, though some warmth still lingered.
The crane beside him maintained its elegant posture just as it had the previous morning, its slender neck raised high as it watched the sun rise in the east.
Xia Zhi clicked his tongue, noticing a bitter taste in his mouth. After some hesitation, he used 1 point from the [Shop] to purchase a tooth-brushing set.
Indeed, one cannot go without brushing their teeth.
The set included a red toothbrush, toothpaste, and a red plastic cup - quite a good deal, and the colors were rather festive too.
And so, under the crane's peculiar gaze, he crouched down to brush his teeth.
What a strange way to clean one's mouth, compared to the other world.
After brushing, his mouth finally felt fresh. Xia Zhi contentedly put away the cup and toothbrush.
While selecting the tooth-brushing set earlier, he had noticed another item in the [Shop] called [Sticky Grass Seeds]. According to the description, it was another tool for oral hygiene - one only needed to chew it for a while, and it would absorb all the dirt in one's mouth before being spit out.
It was similar to chewing gum, but with stronger cleaning effects.
Xia Zhi was quite interested in it, since brushing teeth required water, while the Sticky Grass Seeds did not.
In dry environments where water became a precious resource and couldn't be freely used for teeth-brushing, the advantages of Sticky Grass Seeds would become apparent.
Looking at it this way, the [Shop] indeed had many affordable and useful items. He would definitely need to browse it more thoroughly when he had the time.