Chapter 34

“Shuiqing finished dealing with her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, feeling refreshed.

The morning grumpiness had also dissipated.

Turning her head, she saw the astonished faces of her two children, their innocent expressions reminiscent of a scene from a romantic novel. She casually advised, ‘Don’t always agree with what they say. Otherwise, you’ll keep explaining to them, which will only make you feel frustrated. We need to take the offensive and make them do the explaining.’

The two children looked at each other, seeming to understand something simultaneously.

Shuiqing was awakened by the noise and couldn’t go back to sleep. She decided to go and dig up a plot of land for planting vegetables.

Yesterday, she was too busy building the house and harvesting chicken feed. Today, with some free time, she had to prioritize this important task.

Growing vegetables was deeply ingrained in her nature. In the past, when she didn’t have land of her own, she didn’t realize it, but now that she had her own plot, she wanted to plant everything she could.

Before she went inside to get a hoe, she asked, ‘Where are Xing Hui and the two little ones?’

Why haven’t I seen them so early in the morning?

It’s been clear for several days now. There are only mushrooms after rain, and bamboo shoots are available, but either they’re too old or there are very few.

And with the two older ones around, they wouldn’t have gone to pick mushrooms with the little ones.

‘I and the eldest sister are responsible for carrying soil from the mountain to level the vegetable plot, while the second sister and the two younger brothers are smoothing the soil in the vegetable plot,’ Fan Jiang replied.

‘We saw Grandma and Uncle coming from the hillside, afraid that they might bully you, so we hurried over,’ Yan Qiu added.

They hadn’t expected that their mother, who had always been bullied, would become so formidable after hitting her head. Without any anger or resentment, she stood up to the ill intentions of Grandma and Uncle.

Shuiqing stopped her steps as she prepared to enter the house to get the hoe.

There were only two large hoes and one small hoe in the house, and they must have taken them to work on the vegetable plot. She inquired, ‘Have you chosen the vegetable plot?’

Yan Qiu nodded, smiling brightly. ‘Mom, Dad said the vegetable plot should be below the spring, making it convenient to water the vegetables and fertilize without affecting the water source.’

They drank water from the spring.

Moreover, the spring water was clear and sweet, much better than well water.

‘I found the soil too hard, making it difficult for the seedlings to take root and grow well. So I discussed with the eldest sister about picking some soil from the forest on the mountain to build the vegetable plot. The soil there is fertile, perfect for planting,’ Fan Jiang said, his eyes shining with joy and confidence when talking about farming.

Shuiqing: … These kids understand more than she does!

‘Let’s go, I’ll take a look too.’

This piece of land belonged to them and was over ten mu in size. Yesterday, when they were choosing the site for the thatched house, Dad wanted to build it next to the spring, saying it would be convenient for washing vegetables, clothes, and fetching water for cooking.

She insisted on building it not too far away on the hillside, just to leave enough space for a brick house before next summer.

Dad complained that they had no savings and no income, dreaming of building a brick house within a year!”

Feel free to ask if you need further clarification or assistance!

“In terms of action, she commands the helpers, and the thatched house is built according to her chosen location…

‘Mother, little uncle knew yesterday that we were going to make a vegetable garden below the spring, so he specially cut two large bamboo poles and even pierced all the nodes in the middle;

Little uncle said that when watering the vegetable garden, use the bamboo poles to directly channel the water without the trouble of carrying water. When not watering, just block the front opening.’ Yan Qiu walked ahead and introduced.

Shuiqing: …What kind of fairy-like family is this!

Sure enough, in this world, there are parents and relatives who prioritize sons over daughters, and there are parents and relatives who cherish their children regardless of gender. The original owner’s uncle and aunt are really good.

Such family members, if capable, must leave a house for them…

When they arrived at the vegetable garden, the three little ones were working on their respective tasks with clear division of labor.

Xing Hui loosened the soil under the thickets into mounds of roughly the same size;

Fan He dug small pits in the vegetable garden;

Tiny Fan Hu held vegetable seeds in his hands, standing in the vegetable garden counting and putting them into each pit, then squatting down to flatten the soil with his small hands.

Seeing Shuiqing coming over, the three children’s eyes lit up, their smiles radiant as they exclaimed, ‘Mother, look, we’ve almost planted radishes, Chinese cabbage, baby bok choy, spinach, shepherd’s purse, water spinach, round onions, chili peppers, and coriander!’

These are the vegetable seeds they requested from the village before.

“If we had Chinese chives, it would be great. It can be harvested in ten to twenty days after cutting, and can be harvested frequently if planted in more quantities.” Xing Hui lamented.

Yan Qiu also felt a little regretful, “Chinese chives don’t need much fertilizer, and they don’t need much care either. They don’t need to be replanted in the future. It’s truly a ‘lazy person’s vegetable’.”

Before the division of the family, she and Xing Hui took care of the vegetable garden, but unfortunately, after the division, they couldn’t take the vegetables from the garden with them.

Uncle’s family is not diligent, fearing that the tender and lush Chinese chives will become thin and dry like weeds in the future.

Hearing about Chinese chives, Shuiqing first thought of Chinese chive boxes, the crispy golden brown boxes with tender Chinese chives mixed with scrambled eggs.

Shuiqing swallowed, opened the seed selection option in the market, and quickly found Chinese chive seeds!

She said confidently, “It’s okay, your father is going to the city today and said he would go to the vegetable market to see if there are any available;

And other things, like ginger, garlic, etc., will be brought back together.”

Anyway, whether there are vegetables in the market or not, Fan Jin can always ‘bring them back’.

Hearing that there are many more types of vegetables, the children cheered happily.

They are not afraid of winter anymore, they have vegetables to eat!

With more people in the family, naturally more vegetables are needed.

They split up late, missing the time to dry vegetables and stockpile winter vegetables, so they have to plant more radishes and Chinese cabbage to supplement the winter.

Yan Qiu and Xing Hui treated the vegetable garden more carefully, as this is the family’s food for the winter!

Shuiqing also joined in.

She dug pits with her hands, calculating in her mind what kind of vegetables Fan Jin would ‘bring back’.

Guangning Prefecture belongs to the south, prone to floods in summer, and rarely reaches zero degrees Celsius in winter, hardly ever seeing snow.

The overall temperature is relatively hot, so in this case, potatoes can be planted in September.

They can probably be harvested by November.

Potatoes are great, whether fried, cooked, or stewed, sliced or diced, they are delicious no matter how they are cooked!

Shuiqing decided, potatoes it is!

But she couldn’t say they were bought vegetable seeds, as it might not match.

Hmm, just say they were found in the mountains, dug up by some unknown animals, and since the animals ate them without any problems, they decided to try planting them….

Then ginger, garlic, Chinese chives, and others are also on the must-plant list.

Ginger goes without saying, ginger soup is essential when catching a cold;

Garlic has more uses, stir-fried with preserved meat, sweet and sour garlic, and there’s also garlic scapes stir-fried with meat next spring, she loves them all;

Plant more Chinese chives, Chinese chive and egg dumplings can be made, and a few bamboo tubes can be placed over the Chinese chive roots, and after a while, Chinese chive flowers can be eaten.

Cilantro, etc., wait, isn’t the coriander Xing Hui mentioned just cilantro?

Doesn’t matter, let’s just plant them all, you can’t have too little cilantro when hotpotting or cooking fish.

The more she thought about it, the more Shuiqing felt that the vegetable garden in front of her was not enough. Why did she want to plant everything?

The days of planting vegetables in the countryside are indeed beautiful…

“Shuiqing sister-in-law, where are you? Something bad happened!”