Chapter 45

For the incidents that happened in Shanshui Village, Shuiqing over here knows nothing about it.

Their small home belongs to Shanshui Village, but it’s also a short distance away from the village, so the hustle and bustle never reaches them.

“Mother, what are you doing?” Yan Qiu curiously looked at Shuiqing, not understanding why she was covering the good chive roots with bamboo tubes.

The thick bamboo tubes had already been hollowed out, leaving only the top covered to block out light.

Shuiqing had already planted eight of them in a row, feeling satisfied, and stood up straight to instruct, “The chives grown like this won’t be green but yellowish-white instead, with a more tender texture. They’ll be delicious when stir-fried with eggs.”

At the mention of fried eggs, the eyes of the five children sparkled.

But fried eggs were delicious no matter what they were fried with, so what difference did tender chives make?

Looking at the five pairs of innocent eyes, Shuiqing didn’t know how to explain the concept of “yellow chives” to these children who hadn’t seen much of the world.

Even if she described it, they wouldn’t understand.

She let it go, “Forget it, it’ll be ready to eat in about ten to twenty days, and then you’ll see the difference.”

Yan Qiu and the others didn’t pursue further questions, anyway, whatever Mother cooked was delicious!

They continued weeding and digging holes.

“Mother, what’s in this bundle?” Xinghui stared at the bundle of dry leaves in her hand and asked, looking up.

Shuiqing answered confidently, without a trace of guilt, “Oh, your father brought it back yesterday. He said he met an old man selling vegetable seeds by the roadside, all his own, but mixed together and hard to sell; your father thought our family always lacked vegetables, so he bought them all.”

Hearing that it was vegetable seeds, Xinghui didn’t doubt it, just frowned her delicate eyebrows and asked, “Then how do we plant them?”

Shuiqing thought to herself that she knew how, but she casually said, “No problem, just scatter the seeds, and we’ll see what comes out.”

When they sprout, she’ll know!

Then they can eat what’s edible, transplant what needs transplanting, and build supports for what needs support.

The six of them were busy in the vegetable field.

With plenty of land and people, plus now they had vegetable seeds, of course, they could plant as much as they wanted.

As for vegetables, they could be preserved or dried if they couldn’t finish them, and you could never have too many.

The vegetable field was difficult to manage. They worked until nearly noon, and Shuiqing went back to the kitchen first to cook, leaving a few children to continue working.

The so-called kitchen was just a simple thatched roof hut, not leaky from all sides, but the wind was blowing cheerfully instead of being trapped, even more cheerful than the open ground.

There was no stove, just an additional hearth, and the big iron pot still sat on the piled stones.

Every time Shuiqing cooked, she had to be careful, fearing the pot would tilt, the stones would collapse, or the roof would fall.

She stirred the egg and vegetable noodle soup, thinking about whether Fan Jin’s progress in the capital was smooth or not.

By this time yesterday, he should have been back.

But today, he had to discuss brushes, buy cattle and carts… It might take some time.

The dumplings floated up and down in the big iron pot, and a gust of wind blew, leaving a lot of dust and two or three grass fragments inside.

Shuiqing silently repeated in her mind: “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

She quickly and skillfully scooped out the grass fragments!

Nowadays, with medical technology not being advanced, the best strategy is to avoid getting sick if possible and to minimize illnesses as much as possible.

It’s still necessary to build brick-and-tile houses, with a clean and spacious kitchen, and a wide courtyard.

Plant fruit trees and flowers in the courtyard, and also set up a grape arbor. During summer, one can lie down under the grape arbor to cool off, with ripe grapes falling into the mouth…

“Shuiqing, I’m back.”

The clear and elegant voice, filled with obvious joy, interrupted Shuiqing’s pleasant thoughts.

She looked up and saw Fan Jin, tall and graceful in his long gown, standing before her. His fair face was tinged with a slight blush, exuding a sense of innocence.

Hmm, he’s twenty-eight years old, yet why does he still have such a naive air about him?

Fortunately, he’s mostly involved in education and dealing with students in the future, so relatively speaking, he’s still quite innocent.

“How’s the price of the brushes?” Shuiqing asked with concern. Seeing that she didn’t share the same joy as him, Fan Jin felt a inexplicable sense of disappointment, but he quickly adjusted his mood and reported the results clearly, “The shopkeeper said the quality of the brushes is excellent, as long as we have them and they are of the same quality, he wants a large quantity.

He offered one hundred and thirty wen for small brushes, one hundred and fifty wen for medium ones, and one hundred and eighty wen for large ones. I think this price is very good, so I agreed.”

After finishing, he anxiously asked, “What do you think?”

He wasn’t very good at negotiating prices, and he didn’t know if this price met Shuiqing’s expectations.

Shuiqing thought that the shopkeeper was essentially buying from them, and they would make a profit when they sold them, so this was the purchase price.

It’s pretty good to have this purchase price.

So she nodded in approval.

Fan Jin had been observing Shuiqing’s expression. Seeing her nod in agreement, a relaxed smile appeared on his face. He pointed to the ox cart not far behind him, where the ox was grazing, and continued to report, “We sold a total of twenty-three taels of silver for one hundred and fifty brushes.

This ox is in its prime and can pull five to six hundred catties without a problem. It cost thirteen taels of silver;

There happened to be a ready-made cart, which cost one tael of silver, leaving nine taels. Here, for you.”

Fan Jin handing over the silver was only natural, and Shuiqing accepting it was also natural.

Although their savings only increased by nine taels, today they acquired a valuable asset—a cart!

Shuiqing was very satisfied.

The price of the brushes was better than she expected, which meant that in seven days, they would have forty-six taels of silver from three hundred brushes. If nothing unexpected happened, they might be able to build the house before winter.

But, she couldn’t say that nothing unexpected would happen, because often when you say that, something unexpected happens!

Sure enough, the next moment, Fan Jin said anxiously, “Shuiqing, I saw Eldest Brother and Cousin in the capital.”

Shuiqing: …Isn’t that Fan Qian and Fan Daming, the shrewdest ones in Shanshui Village?

“They were never close in the past, I suspect they went to the capital for us.” After Fan Jin finished speaking, he felt that he was being petty and randomly speculating about others.

After all, everyone could go to the capital, and it was quite normal for Eldest Brother and Cousin to go.

But Shuiqing didn’t think it was normal.

It costs two wen to enter the city, which is not something that rural households can easily part with.

Unless there’s something very important, Shanshui Village residents only spend two wen entering the city once a year, before the New Year, to buy New Year goods.

Now it’s neither New Year nor a festival, and Fan Qian and Fan Daming going to the capital together, Fan Jin didn’t think too much.

She looked at Fan Jin, telling him to be prepared, “They can’t take away our chicken feed, but the ‘purchasing from classmates’ thing might be exposed when they inquire about it.”

“I’ve thought about it. At that time, I’ll just casually make up a fake story. I’m afraid that someone with ulterior motives will snatch our purchasing business.” Fan Jin pursed his lips, feeling a bit melancholic.

Unexpectedly, the one who’s most trying to hold him back, the one who can’t stand to see him do well, turns out to be his own eldest brother and cousin.