Chapter 326

“Sister-in-law, did Shuiqing say when the bookstore will open?” Zhang Hui asked with concern.

“Is it called an opening? I’m not very sure, I only know that shops in the capital and towns are called openings.”

Zhao Lan also looked at Wang Guifen with concern, hoping to glean some information from her.

Their family understood the importance of reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, it was already commendable that their family could afford to let Changlin study. Adding another child would be impossible.

With many children in the household, even if they had more money in the future, they would still not be able to afford to send them all to school. Whoever they chose would still leave many without an education.

Now that Fan Jin was willing to teach children reading, writing, and arithmetic, both boys and girls, without charging tuition, they had thought it over. If they didn’t have money to give, they could offer food and help with chores. They couldn’t let him teach for nothing.

Wang Guifen shook her head. “I also want to know when the bookstore will open, but I’m too embarrassed to ask. Fan Jin volunteered to teach the children in our village how to read and write, so asking would seem like urging.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Hui immediately agreed. “Yes, Sister-in-law, you’re right. Let’s wait a bit longer. We’ve waited so many years already; a little more time won’t make much difference.”

“The bookstore has been built, but don’t they still need to prepare many things, like desks and chairs? Otherwise, how will the children write?” Zhao Lan suddenly thought, asking anxiously.

Wang Guifen explained with a smile, “Lanlan, you’ve been busy at the herb shop lately, so it’s normal not to know about the bookstore. Father and several village elders have agreed that since it’s busy with farming now, they will wait until it’s over to go to the mountains to cut trees and find stones. These days, they estimate they’ll start searching for suitable wood and stones.”

Zhao Lan didn’t understand. She knew they were looking for wood to make desks and chairs, but why were they looking for stones?

“Oh, our village doesn’t have carpenters, and we can’t afford so many desks and chairs. Father and the elders came up with a compromise: they will saw several similarly sized logs to use as supports, with flat bluestones on top. Bluestones are smooth and can be used for writing with water, saving ink and paper. Who in the village can afford ink and paper? They’ll also find stones of different heights for chairs, so everyone can write comfortably,” Wang Guifen explained clearly, talking to the two.

She had already mentioned this to Shuiqing in the afternoon.

They would spend money on bricks and tiles, as well as pay someone to teach, but they couldn’t expect desks, chairs, ink, paper, and inkstones from others. Isn’t that unreasonable? Father and the village elders thought so and had spent a lot of time thinking of this solution, which she thought was feasible.

After hearing this, Zhao Lan also found it feasible!

There were ways to manage even without money.

The three sisters-in-law chatted for a while and started preparing dinner.

Their family grew a lot of potatoes, and people in the village exchanged sorghum flour for their potatoes. They didn’t lack food, so they didn’t need to worry about these expenses.

However, they didn’t skimp either. With more money earned, the head of the household bought a lot of oil and salt, and occasionally bought pork, saving all the pork fat for frying vegetables.

In the past, they only boiled their food with water, and when it was time to stir-fry, they would add a few drops of oil, leaving a layer of oil on the surface of the soup. In fact, the food wasn’t very tasty, and they used salt sparingly, avoiding making salted fish or meat, which consumed a lot of salt.

With oil and salt, especially with plenty of salt, their meals became much more flavorful!

Stir-fried dishes are much tastier than boiled ones. In Shanshui Village, where there is plenty of water, there are also abundant fish. Families skilled in fishing enjoy a continuous supply of fish throughout the year. Previously, they could only boil fish, but now they can fry and stew them. Even small fish and shrimp can be coated in sorghum flour and fried to perfection. It’s incredibly fragrant and not inferior to meat at all!

On days without meat or seafood, just adding a spoonful of pork can make vegetables stewed in it incredibly aromatic.

When they catch large fish, they enjoy the fresh fish head in soup and preserve the fish meat with plenty of salt to make salted fish, which they steam later when vegetables are scarce.

Tonight is such a night, with a dish of salted fish steamed, scrambled eggs with chives fried in pig fat, and Chinese cabbage stewed in pork fat.

As she scooped the pig fat, Zhao Lan sighed, “If only we raised pigs at home, we’d have an endless supply of pig fat all year round.”

During lunch breaks at the herb shop, there was not only enough oil but also enough water. Shuiqing clearly distributed tasks well. It was essential to work hard, but beyond work, good food was a must.

Lunch always included a meat dish, sometimes pork fat residue, sometimes preserved meat, sometimes sausages, stewed together with vegetables and rotated, ensuring each person could have at least three to five slices of meat. When there was no meat, there were eggs—one fried egg per person, accompanied by vegetables fried in pig fat was also delicious.

She tried to eat less meat at night, leaving more for the children at home, but sometimes she wished they had pigs of their own—a big fat pig weighing over two hundred catties.

Pork lard, pig fat, and fat left to boil enough pork lard, twelve or twenty catties of pork lard can be enough for a whole family for a year!

Without meat, there was no need to worry about a lack of oil and water.

“Don’t worry, it’s coming soon. After the busy farming season is over, we can leisurely arrange to build pigsties with adobe bricks. Although we might not be able to eat them before the New Year, we might eat them next autumn,” Wang Guifen said joyfully, as she took the soft stewed Chinese cabbage and put it in a coarse pottery basin.

When it came to pig farming, the three of them became visibly excited.

They discussed for a while and finally had a satisfying dinner.

In the following days, entering the winter storage and agricultural leisure season, the originally relaxed people of Shanshui Village were still busy.

Firstly, everyone in each household was working in the herb shop, so there was no time to relax.

A dozen or so men who were injured while selling rabbits were unable to work and were responsible for tasks such as cutting and transporting wood from the mountains.

Meanwhile, the village chief’s family was particularly busy in the village.

Men made adobe bricks, and women leveled the land and dug foundations at the foot of their own mountain to build pigsties. Before long, everyone in the village knew they were going to raise pigs!

They also knew that the piglets were purchased from Shuiqing.

Suddenly, every household was excited!

It was strange. In the past, when they were poor, once they planted the fields, they didn’t think about anything else. The busy farming season was truly tough and exhausting, but during the agricultural leisure season, they were truly idle. However, since they started earning money with Shuiqing and saw her raising chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep, and pigs, they all wanted to raise animals too.