Chapter 15

When it comes to the elderly doing things, they naturally think things through thoroughly and consider all aspects. After all, this isn’t grain we’re talking about.

For a peasant family, having no grain in the storehouse is truly nerve-wracking. Being willing to plant more than half their land with sweet potatoes already shows how much they trust little Tianbao.

Old Madam Zhou said, “This crop is harvested early—about two months earlier than corn. The peddler said there are spring and summer varieties. If we plant them now, we can still grow autumn cabbage after we harvest them.”

In this era, there are no greenhouse vegetables, and winters in the north are freezing. People only eat things like cabbage, pickled vegetables, radishes, and potatoes.

Pickled vegetables are also made from cabbage, so cabbage is in high demand. If they plant cabbage after the sweet potatoes, they can sell it at a good price too.

Old Madam Zhou is becoming more and more business-savvy, always thinking about how to make money. Naturally, this has earned her the approval of the whole family.

Third daughter-in-law, Mrs. Zou, asked, “Father, Mother, this thing tastes so good, I bet the seedlings aren’t cheap. Do we have enough money for them?”

Old Madam Zhou smiled and said, “Maybe it’s because this stuff is everywhere in the south and isn’t worth much. A whole cart of seedlings costs just two taels of silver and can plant ten mu of land. We only need three taels to plant fifteen mu.”

Everyone was even more surprised. Something this tasty, and the seedlings were that cheap? The only question was how well it would yield.

The next morning, the southern peddler drove a cart full of sweet potato seedlings into the village, piquing everyone’s curiosity.

He stopped in front of Old Man Song’s house, and villagers gathered to see what this was.

Uncle Wang, who sells tofu, happened to be passing by and joined in the crowd.

“Brother Song, did you order this? What kind of seedlings are these? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Old Man Song was an honest, kind mountain villager. He wasn’t the type to keep good things to himself, but since this wasn’t a staple crop and he hadn’t grown it before, he couldn’t vouch for its success.

He said, “These are called sweet potatoes. They grow like potatoes and are very sweet and tasty. I’m planting fifteen mu this year. They’re really good. If anyone wants to plant them, you can order from this peddler.”

Grain is incredibly precious in this era. No one had even seen these before, so no one was willing to risk it based solely on Old Man Song’s word.

If it didn’t yield or produced too little, and their families ran out of food, what would they do?

The tofu seller was shocked. “Brother, are you sure about this? Fifteen mu is a lot. That’s your family’s food for a whole year. What if it fails or can’t be sold? Maybe start small for the first year.”

He meant well—he was worried the Song family would end up starving.

But Old Man Song was confident. “No problem. I believe in it. Wife, go pick out a few pieces of tofu. We’ll have some for lunch.”

(“Pick a few pieces of tofu” here means to buy a few pieces.)

Seeing Old Man Song so determined, the tofu seller stopped trying to dissuade him.

The cartload of seedlings was unloaded. Old Man Song had already asked how to plant them and planned to take good care of them.

But actually, all the seedlings had been soaked in spiritual spring water and would have a 100% survival rate—no need for special care.

But the villagers didn’t know this, and it quickly became the talk of the village.

“Hey, did you hear? The Song family bought some sweet potato thing from a southern peddler and planted it instead of grain. Have they gone mad?”

“Right? I’ve never even heard of this thing. Can it even be used as a food staple? So bold!”

“Don’t you know? They just had a little granddaughter. That day, the sky was full of colorful clouds. Since then, their chickens, ducks, and geese lay eggs every day, and their fish traps are always full. People in town even say they sold some recipe formulas to restaurants, though no one knows if that’s true.”

“It’s true! That restaurant has become so popular thanks to those recipes, it’s outshining all the others. The owner even has a branch in the provincial capital now. Their signature dishes were all changed because of this. Their family’s sudden luck is all because of that little girl. She must be a lucky star.”

“I agree. That girl is bringing the family good fortune. Otherwise, how could everything be going so smoothly? Even planting sweet potatoes—bet they’ll grow even on rocks.”

Everyone kept talking. Although most villagers didn’t think much of planting sweet potatoes, they all knew the Song family wasn’t the same anymore.

With a lucky star like that, maybe anything they planted would grow well. Everyone was curious to see how the sweet potatoes would turn out.

By April, the weather was already warm and spring flowers were blooming. Although Little Sweet Treasure Xiao Tianbao was only a month old, Liu took her outside for a bit when it wasn’t windy and the weather was nice.

A full-month-old baby can get some fresh air outdoors when the weather permits—it’s good for their development.

With sweet potato seedlings bought, Old Man Song led the whole family to work the fields, full of confidence.

Normally, the daughters-in-law took turns cooking when it wasn’t harvest season. But during the busy farming season, Old Madam Zhou stayed home to cook.

Only Old Madam Zhou and Liu were at home; the rest were all out farming.

“My little Tianbao, our family’s lucky star—I have a feeling these sweet potatoes are going to make us rich. When we make money, I’ll get you a gold locket.”

In a peasant household, it was rare for children to wear gold, but Old Madam Zhou had made up her mind. If they had the money, she’d give her granddaughter the best.

Tianbao giggled, her eyes innocent and pure—just like any clueless baby.

At first, the family didn’t really understand how they could hear Tianbao’s inner voice, and she couldn’t talk back like an adult through thoughts.

Later, they figured that since she was now reborn as a child and had been a divine maiden in a previous life, she still retained some divine power and could express her thoughts occasionally.

But since she was now baby Tianbao of the Song family, she obviously couldn’t keep her powers forever and was just a normal baby most of the time.

So the Song family didn’t talk to her directly but instead communicated through her moods.

In truth, it wasn’t that complicated—Tianbao just felt that a newborn talking like an adult was creepy.

Hearing inner thoughts occasionally could be brushed off as “not enough Meng Po soup” or leftover past-life memories. When she grew older, they could say the memories were sealed—easy enough to explain.

Anyway, people in this era, even emperors, believed in spirits and gods.