My Wife Came From A Thousand Years Ago

Chapter 24: This is a blessing

Last night, Xu Qing had indeed been lost in thought for a long time. After the commotion caused by the thief, he couldn’t sleep well. Lying in bed, his mind wandered to Jiang He’s situation.

Picking up someone from ancient times was certainly novel, but it came with countless visible and hidden troubles, like a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.

Staying home all the time was one option, but ultimately, she had to learn how to live. Xu Qing couldn’t take care of this girl for the rest of her life.

Even in the extremely unlikely event that his dashing and suave appearance managed to attract Jiang He and the two of them blah blah blah… she would still have to adapt to this world. She couldn’t turn into another Winter Melon, who was only good for eating and sleeping.

“Remember this day.”

Xu Qing stopped at the entrance of the breakfast shop, turned back, and said to Jiang He. Then he found a seat and placed his order.

Fried dough sticks, steamed buns, side dishes, and congee—a standard breakfast.

The golden morning sunlight streamed through the windows onto the table. Outside, traffic was steadily increasing as the city woke up. Inside the breakfast shop, more and more customers came in, either packing their meals to go or sitting down to eat.

The two of them quietly ate their breakfast. From the outside, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. No one would have guessed that the girl eating steamed buns across from him was from ancient times.

Jiang He took a sip of congee and lifted her head to look out at the street. The thing she loved most about this world was the variety of foods. Although she had never seen what the emperor ate, she was certain that delicious things like steamed buns and fried dough sticks didn’t exist even in the palace.

“If you’re still hungry, there’s more. You can get as much congee as you want. If you want more buns, just go over and ask for some. Let them know how many, and I’ll settle the bill later,” Xu Qing said. After eating three buns, he was already full. Remembering the sweat on Jiang He’s forehead when they left the house, he figured that martial artists probably had bigger appetites, so he gave her a heads-up.

Jiang He thought for a moment and asked, “Are these buns expensive?”

“They’re not. Breakfast is about as cheap as it gets,” Xu Qing explained softly. “Here, you don’t have to worry about food. If your goal is just to fill your stomach, eating these daily essentials won’t cost much. Feel free to eat as much as you want.”

A fried dough stick was one yuan each, vegetable buns were sixty cents, and meat buns were one yuan. As long as you didn’t go to fancy restaurants for lavish meals, daily food was affordable for anyone with a job or income.

After mulling it over, Jiang He got up, walked to the counter, and looked at the menu. “I’ll have… ten… no, fifteen buns.”

“Cough, cough… cough!”

Xu Qing choked on his congee, coughing a few times as he turned back and added, “To go!”

The cashier nodded without saying anything.

“Can you even finish all that?” Xu Qing asked as Jiang He returned.

“Almost… Did I order too much?” Jiang He held her empty bowl, wondering if she should go get another big bowl of congee.

“I said you could eat as much as you wanted, so eat as much as you like. It’s just… it’s too conspicuous. When you’re outside, keep your portions normal. Take the rest to go and eat at home. You can have two more bowls of congee if you want,” Xu Qing reassured her.

“I’ll pay you back once I earn money from gaming,” Jiang He said softly, heading over to get more congee.

Xu Qing didn’t respond. Payback or not, it was just food. Could he really demand repayment from an ancient person?

The thick congee was a delight to Jiang He. In her era, drinking congee was essentially drinking flavored water. She had never seen congee with more rice than water. Even the landlords and wealthy families wouldn’t dare to be so extravagant.

After Jiang He had three bowls of congee and felt satisfied, the two of them left with a bag of takeout vegetable buns. Although they had eaten breakfast before, it was always delivery, and Jiang He would eat however much was delivered without ever complaining about still being hungry. This was the first time Xu Qing realized the extent of her appetite.

“I’ll take you to eat at a buffet someday,” Xu Qing said as he glanced at a hotpot buffet place in the distance, figuring Jiang He would love it.

“What’s that?” Jiang He perked up at the unfamiliar term.

“It’s a place where you pay a fixed price and can eat as much as you want—just like the congee earlier. But they don’t just have congee. There’s also meat, vegetables, and more. I’ll take you there sometime, and you’ll see.”

“There’s such a wonderful thing?” Jiang He exclaimed in surprise. “Is it some kind of charity organization?”

“No, it’s just a common type of restaurant. It’s a business model,” Xu Qing explained, holding up the bag of buns and taking one out to eat as they walked. “Most people here do brainwork, like the emperor, sitting all day and managing various affairs. They don’t need much physical exertion, so they eat less. If you eat ten or twenty buns in a restaurant, it’ll stand out, so we need to keep a low profile.

"That’s also why buffet restaurants exist. They count on most people not eating much. Especially women and kids—if they pay one hundred yuan but only eat food worth thirty or forty yuan, the restaurant makes a huge profit.”

Jiang He nodded thoughtfully. “So, even if some people eat more and the restaurant loses a little, they can make up for it with the smaller appetites of others?”

“Smart!” Xu Qing was impressed. As a child, when Uncle Xu Wenbin had taken him to a buffet, he had marveled at the generosity of the owner, letting people eat as much as they wanted.

“But why would people with small appetites go there? Do they have too much money?” Jiang He asked, puzzled.

“They go because there’s a wide variety of food. You can eat whatever you want without worrying about ordering or prices. It’s convenient and satisfying,” Xu Qing explained.

As they walked along the road, Xu Qing ate two buns before stopping. He let Jiang He continue eating slowly. For Jiang He, who had no prior knowledge of this world, every conversation was a learning opportunity.

This world was complex, but everything was connected in its own way. Life’s various aspects would accumulate until they eventually sparked an epiphany, helping her grasp how this world functioned.

Where there’s demand, there’s supply. What exists has a reason for existing. The key was finding that “reason.”

Anything unreasonable should be avoided. It likely wasn’t something good.

This simple and straightforward mindset was exactly what Jiang He needed right now.

“All right, you have fifteen minutes to finish the rest of those buns,” Xu Qing said as they returned home. Opening the fridge, he grabbed a bottle of cola, took a sip, and continued, “From nine in the morning until noon, except for drinking water and going to the bathroom, don’t do anything else. This is the normal life for most people—nine-to-five. I want you to experience it.”

“Most people?”

“Yeah. Forcing you to endure the joys of 996 would be too much,” Xu Qing joked.

He continued, “After lunch, you can rest until 1:30 p.m., then continue gaming until 5:00 p.m. During this time, don’t think about doing anything else. Just focus on playing games.”

Thus, more than a month after arriving in the modern world, Jiang He suddenly experienced the nine-to-five life of a wage slave.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!