freenovelworld Chapter 35 I have a way to turn that dry land into fertile land!
Chapter 35 I have a way to turn that dry land into fertile land!
She felt that her daughter was too young to understand these things, and it was inevitable that she would exaggerate.
It was already a luxury to be able to build a brick and tile house in Guihua Village. If it weren't for the fact that the couple had raised pigs and chickens, made tofu, and planted twenty acres of land in recent years, the father-in-law wouldn't have been able to save any money. They wouldn't have been able to get five taels of silver when they divided the family property, and they had also swindled three taels of money for medical treatment and medicine.
Now they have been allocated four acres of dry land, and the annual harvest is barely enough to eat. Without the business of making tofu, once the only pig in the family is raised and sold, there will be only two chickens left to lay eggs. In the future, the only income will probably be the wages for the husband to repair houses in town. But Qinghe Town is not big, so how can there be people building houses every day?
What my daughter said was so difficult that it was practically impossible, so I could only keep it to myself and think about it!
Seeing that her mother didn't quite believe her, Shen Xiaotang didn't argue. Her mother didn't know that she had many ways to make money.
When she was young, she was afraid that people would mistakenly think she had been reincarnated, and she hadn't separated from her family yet. Her stepmother, that stingy old hag, kept a close watch on the eldest branch of the family like a thief. Her father and mother were also blindly filial and handed over all the money they earned. She worked hard to earn money, but it was all for that family to suck blood and make money for them. She poured her heart and soul into making wedding dresses for that family to eat for free.
She won't do it!
Now that we've separated the family, we can finally get to work and lead our parents to earn money and strive to become wealthy.
On the way there, the mother and her two daughters were empty-handed. Liu could carry her youngest daughter on her back, but she couldn't carry her on her way home. She had to carry a basket and a piece of cloth, her eldest daughter had to carry the cloth, and her youngest daughter had to walk with them.
Shen Xiaotang stuffed the two bolts of cloth into her mother's arms, "Mother, you hold onto the things, I'll carry Xiaoyu on my back."
Liu hurriedly said, "You're only six years old, how can you carry your sister all the way? You carry the scraps of cloth along with me, and I can carry Yu'er while I'm carrying the basket."
The well-behaved and sensible Xiaoyu saw that her mother and older sister were carrying lots of things, and quickly refused, "Mother, older sister, I...I can walk by myself, you don't need to...worry about me."
Liu said gently, "My dear Yu'er, you're small and walk slowly. You'll get blisters on your feet before we get home. Let me carry you on my back so we can get home faster and I can make new clothes for you both sooner."
Upon hearing this, Xiaoyu hesitated immediately, thinking that she should hurry up and make new clothes.
Liu stuffed the cloth and scraps back into her daughter's arms, squatted down, picked up her youngest daughter, and stood up with the basket slung over her shoulder.
"Come on, let's go home. Mother will make you new clothes."
Xiaoyu, clinging to her mother's back, cheered happily, "Oh, Mom made us...new clothes...we can finally...have new clothes too!"
Shen Xiaotang hugged the things and said with a smile, "Not only do we have new clothes to wear, but we'll also make bone broth tonight to change things up!"
"Okay, the Kena I make...it's sure to taste good!"
The mother and her two daughters walked along the rugged path, resting several times along the way. By the time they arrived home, it was past noon.
As they approached the village entrance, Liu, who had been carrying her youngest daughter all the way, was so tired that she could hardly walk anymore and immediately asked to sit down and rest.
Xiaoyu climbed down from her mother's back and saw that her mother was covered in sweat and her clothes were soaked. She felt a little guilty.
"Mother, next time you and my sister go to town, I won't... make a fuss about going."
Liu reached out and gently patted her youngest daughter's head, panting softly, "My dear Yu'er, I'm not tired. Even if I don't carry you, I'll stop and rest."
Shen Xiaotang glanced at the cloth in her arms and thought that if someone saw it and it got back to her stepmother's ears, her stepmother, who was so unreasonable and shameless, might just go to their new house and snatch it away!
So she suggested, “Mother, why don’t you and Xiaoyu rest here first? I’ll take a detour and deliver the cloth home first. These things must not be seen by stepmother.”
Upon hearing this, Liu immediately agreed, knowing her mother-in-law's unreasonable and domineering nature.
"Alright, then Tang'er, watch your step, watch the road, and go home slowly."
"Okay, Mother." Shen Xiaotang carried her things and walked along the village path back to her new home at the west end of the village.
There's nothing we can do; the village entrance is located at the east end of the village!
Shen Qingchuan stood at his doorstep with a thick layer of coarse cloth wrapped around his chest, looking like a statue waiting for his husband. If he hadn't been pretending to have broken ribs, he would definitely have gone to town to find his wife and daughter.
He sighed, "It's already this late, and Fengniang and the two children still haven't returned. What happened? Could something have happened to them?"
He muttered wild guesses to himself, and became even more anxious.
No, even if people find out he faked a broken rib, at most he'll be criticized and gossiped about by the whole village, but if something happens to his wife and daughters, and he's still waiting at home, it'll be too late to say anything.
So he immediately closed and locked the door, and turned to leave.
"Dad, what are you doing?"
When Shen Xiaotang saw her father lock the door and walk out, she was so frightened that she immediately looked around. If someone saw that her father was faking his broken ribs, it would be a big problem.
Shen Qingchuan looked anxious. He looked up and saw his eldest daughter had returned, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. However, when he saw that only his eldest daughter had returned, his heart, which had just been at ease, immediately tightened again.
"Tang'er, where are your mother and Yu'er?"
Shen Xiaotang, carrying her things, pulled her father to open the door and go inside.
“Mother and Xiaoyu rested for a while at the village entrance. We bought some cloth to make new clothes when we got back. I was afraid that my stepmother would see us and fight over it, so I took a detour and came back first. Mother and Xiaoyu will come back as soon as we've rested, so don't worry.”
Shen Qingchuan was finally completely relieved.
"Okay, as long as your mother and Yu'er are alright, that's fine. I was worried that they would get separated from you since it was their first time in town and they were unfamiliar with the place. It's all my fault for pretending to have two broken ribs. I was like a thief, afraid to do any work and unable to take you to town."
Shen Xiaotang immediately comforted him, "Dad, this is my idea for you. Don't feel guilty. You've worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk all these years. No matter what methods you used, you deserve all of this."
“You’ve worked yourself to the bone for this family for so many years, and I don’t know how much money you’ve made for them. You should take a break. We can take this opportunity to relax. Tomorrow morning, let’s sneak up the mountain and dig up the remaining turmeric. We’ll cultivate it for a while, and once the crops in the dry fields are harvested, we’ll start planting turmeric. There will be plenty of work to do then.”
Mentioning dry fields immediately made Shen Qingchuan worried again.
"Tang'er, that's dry land. It's hard to grow anything there. No matter how you manage it, the harvest is far less than that of fertile land, and even worse than that of medium-quality land."
If it weren't for his daughter's quiet reminder to him about wanting the four mu of dry land during the family division, in front of the village head and many villagers, he wouldn't have intended to take it.
But what the daughter said also made sense. The family had twenty acres of land, and sixteen acres of it was a single, large plot. Even if a few acres of fertile land were divided up, the land was still all in one place. During the busy farming season, the father and stepmother would still have to rely on him to do the work.
It's fine if they want these four acres of dry land; at least they've divided it up thoroughly and cleanly.
Shen Xiaotang noticed her father's concerns and said with a mysterious expression, "Father, don't worry, I have a way to turn that dry field into fertile land!"
Shen Qingchuan was taken aback, and asked with some suspicion, "What kind of solution could a little kid like you have?"