Li Xiaohan took the lead, striding confidently ahead. Behind her, Li Xiandong and Madam Wang exchanged a glance and quickly followed. 

As soon as they entered the city, they saw a breakfast shop. Li Xiaohan touched her stomach; the coarse grain flatbread she had eaten in the morning was long gone. 

“Father, Mother, we’ve been on the road all morning. We’re hungry too. Let’s stop for a bowl of noodles. We still have a long way to go, and we can’t afford to wear ourselves out.” 

Madam Wang had only visited the city a few times. Before, her mind had been entirely focused on the Sanqi. Now that it was sold, a wave of unease settled over her. The thought of eating in the city had never even crossed her mind. 

As for Li Xiandong, though he had come to the city more often, it was always to sell straw sandals or do hard labor. To save money, he always brought two coarse flatbreads from home and never spent a single coin on food. 

At that moment, neither husband nor wife spoke. They couldn’t believe they were actually about to eat in a city restaurant. But Li Xiaohan had already stepped inside. 

This shop mainly sells noodle and flour-based dishes. A big pot of thick soup is boiling, sending out a delicious smell. Next to it, a few layers of steamers are stacked on the stove, and the slightly yellow buns inside have opened at the top like they’re smiling. 

Since breakfast time had likely ended and it wasn’t quite lunchtime yet, there weren’t many customers in the shop. The waiter quickly came over and said, “Miss, how many of you are there? Come, have a seat over here. What would you like to eat?” 

Following the waiter’s lead, Li Xiaohan sat down and asked naturally, “Three people. What do you have?” 

“We’ve got plain noodles for four copper coins, meat sauce noodles for six, buns for two coins each, meat buns for four. Our house specialty is the meat sauce noodles—would you like to try them?” 

“Then we’ll take three bowls of meat sauce noodles and three buns,” Li Xiaohan said before turning to her parents and speaking softly, “Father, Mother, we’ve split from the main family now. Our days will get better from here on. We didn’t eat well before, but we can’t let our health suffer now—medicine is expensive.” 

She was speaking the truth. Though the Li family was considered middle-upper class in Pingshan Village, having a scholar in the family meant high expenses. 

And because the two elders of the Li family were biased, they dumped all the hard and heavy labor on the main branch. If it weren’t for the fact that Li Changrong was nearly fourteen and still hadn’t passed the first level of the county exam, they probably wouldn’t have let Li Xiandong and Madam Wang, two able-bodied workers, leave at all. 

As a result, both of them were actually in poor health, and Li Xiaohan suspected their infertility might be due to that. 

She herself was thin and frail—already thirteen, but not as strong or tall as ten-year-olds from her past life. 

So, the whole family needed to eat well and rebuild their health. After all, the body was the foundation of everything. 

What she didn’t say out loud was that, aside from feeding themselves, she was also observing the local food scene. If farming didn’t work out, could she run a snack stall instead? 

When they first entered the city, she had seen a few carts loaded with cooking tools, probably vendors planning to set up food stalls. 

She had lived alone for many years in her past life and was pretty good at cooking. If needed, she could just claim her late grandmother’s spirit had taught her. 

Life wasn’t easy. You needed many skills to survive. 

Li Xiandong and Madam Wang were caught off guard by her words but quickly nodded. The prices made their hearts ache, but neither dared speak up. 

Besides, the money they made from selling the Sanqi was still hot in Li Xiandong’s pocket, and thinking about it made him secretly excited. 

As the saying goes, “Money gives people courage.” It’s always been true. 

Since they didn’t object, Li Xiaohan sat calmly and observed the shop. 

Her composed demeanor made Madam Wang keep sneaking glances at her. 

“Husband, our Xiaohan… she’s different from us. She’s really something,” she whispered, unsure how to put it into words. Ever since their daughter said her grandmother had appeared in a dream by the grave, she just felt Xiaohan was growing more and more impressive by the day. 

Li Xiaohan had always been bold and had her own ideas as a child, but now there was something even more remarkable about her. 

“She’s like our mother. Graceful,” Li Xiandong whispered back. He was already seven when his mother, Madam Luo, passed away, and he remembered her well. 

“Our mother came from a wealthy family before she fled to Pingshan Village and married our father.” 

“No wonder she came to Xiaohan in a dream and not to us. Makes sense now.” 

Having found a reason for Li Xiaohan’s transformation, the couple felt even more reassured. 

Soon, steaming bowls of noodles were brought over. 

Li Xiaohan picked up her chopsticks and sampled a bit of the meat sauce. The Li family raised pigs, so she knew that this era already had castration techniques for boars, meaning the meat didn’t have a strong odor. The sauce was rich and well-balanced, with just the right amount of fat—no wonder the waiter confidently claimed it was a house specialty. The noodles were springy, likely thanks to an experienced noodle maker. However, the broth was slightly bland, probably due to cost—there likely wasn’t enough meat used to make it richer. 

Meanwhile, Li Xiandong and Madam Wang were eating with their heads down, completely absorbed. When had they ever tasted noodles this delicious? 

The provincial city really was a different world. 

After the meal, Li Xiandong pulled out the money and paid the bill. 

“Father, don’t feel bad. This money was spent on us—it’s not a loss,” Li Xiaohan comforted Li Xiandong, who looked pained as he paid. 

“Mhm.” Li Xiandong nodded gloomily. He wasn’t talkative, but he wasn’t stupid either. He knew exactly where the family money had been going—mostly to his nephew’s education, then to his father Li Shengli and stepmother Madam Chen, then to other brothers and nieces and nephews, and finally to his own family. 

After eating, Li Xiaohan took them for a walk around town, stopping to ask about prices when she saw something interesting, listening in and observing. She began to form a general impression, though she didn’t have any concrete plans just yet. 

Li Xiandong and Madam Wang followed behind, feeling very out of place. Fortunately, Li Xiaohan wasn’t in a rush to decide anything. After a while, she finally said, “Father, let’s go. The Sanqi in the mountains is still waiting for us.” 

Sure enough, as soon as she said that, all the unease vanished from Li Xiandong and Madam Wang’s faces, replaced by renewed determination. 

At noon, the family of three returned home. They changed into coarse clothes for fieldwork, grabbed their baskets, and headed straight for the mountain. 

Tucked in their arms were three large steamed buns bought in town. Since the family had already split up, and all the food had been divided, Madam Chen, who managed the main house, wasn’t exactly willing to feed them anymore. 

The family of three plunged into the mountains. Since they had just made money that morning selling Sanqi, everyone was even more motivated. Madam Wang, relying on vague memories, found another spot where she remembered seeing what looked like ginseng. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t real ginseng. 

After all, such rare wild herbs weren’t easy to come by. 

“Father, Mother, it’s okay. Sanqi isn’t something you can find all over the mountains. We’ve already sold one batch and made money. We’ll just keep an eye out from now on. If we find more, great. If not, that’s fine too.” 

That’s true—after all, they had already earned seventy-six taels. Madam Wang and Li Xiandong’s overheated enthusiasm finally began to cool down. 

“Father, Mother, let’s go plant the seeds we soaked yesterday in Father’s mountain plot,” Li Xiaohan said. “If the seeds sprout, it means we’re truly making money with our own hands.” 

Hearing her words, the hope in Madam Wang and Li Xiandong’s hearts reignited. 

Yes—if they could cultivate Sanqi, that would be a stable source of income. 

So the three of them headed for the mountain plot assigned to Li Xiandong. 

Speaking of that mountain plot—back then, the Li clan had communal clan farmland. But when the clan head foresaw the outbreak of war, followed by natural disasters, he gritted his teeth and sold the clan land for gold. The entire clan fled. 

And indeed, time proved the clan head right. But after they escaped to Pingshan Village, it became impossible to buy back that large ancestral farmland—there wasn’t enough money, and good land wasn’t available to a refugee family like the Lis. 

So the Li ancestors bought a large stretch of mountain land instead, to replace the lost clan fields. 

A portion of that mountain land was planted with fruit trees or useful timber and treated as communal property. The produce was used to support the elderly and educate the youth of the clan. 

If a Li clan member experienced misfortune—such as a serious illness—they could borrow money from the clan and repay it slowly after getting back on their feet. 

The clan also had a school. The teacher’s salary, meals and lodging, writing materials—all were funded by the communal land. Of course, the school didn’t support aimless studying: if a student hadn’t passed the first round of the county-level exam by age fourteen, they’d stop receiving support. 

In principle, the yield from the clan’s communal land was meant to be a safety net for unexpected disasters, and also to support the clan’s future and hopes. 

But because mountain land was harder to manage and less productive than farmland, another portion was simply divided among the male members of the clan to manage individually, with the yield belonging to them. That meant a Li man’s lifetime supply of firewood, wedding furniture, house-building timber, and even his coffin wood came from that land. The annual harvest from fruit trees was also his personal income. 

The ancestors’ legacy continued to benefit later generations. 

Of course, on the flip side, this reinforced the belief that one must have a son—after all, Li family mountain land was not divided among daughters. 

What Li Xiaohan was referring to was the portion of land given to Li Xiandong. 

To plant Sanqi seeds, they needed to dig small holes, add base fertilizer, and finally top it with weeds for protection. 

The three of them planted about a thousand seeds, to the point their backs were nearly breaking. 

Even so, Li Xiandong still leaned against a tree and said, “We’ll bring a wooden bucket tomorrow morning to water them.” 

He was an old hand at tending crops. Seeds needed water to sprout properly. 

Li Xiaohan understood too. Ideally, they’d water the seeds now to help them take root, but they hadn’t brought a bucket, and going back to get one would attract too much attention. 

So they would just have to wait until the next morning.