Chapter 27

Sang Luo arrived quickly; unfortunately, the commotion next door only settled down after Shen Jin endured a beating and ran out to take a break.

The commotion caused by a piece of lard was completely unknown to Sang Luo. Even if she had known, she wouldn’t have cared much; she just treated it as something lively to listen to.

She carried her register book and wrapped half a bag of dried small fish with leaves, then went to find the village head with Mrs. Chen.

Seeing her carrying dried small fish, Mrs. Chen thought for a moment, then also took out an egg from the jar where she stored eggs.

Ah, another penny spent.

But to get things done quickly, sometimes, this was necessary.

The village head of Shili didn’t actually live in Shili.

In the Great Qing Dynasty, a hundred households constituted a ‘li’, and Shili Village had just over twenty households, which obviously didn’t reach a full ‘li’.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too far, just outside Shili Village in Zhoujiagou.

The village head’s surname was Zhou.Mrs. Chen and the village head’s wife were not very familiar, but they knew each other. After Sang Luo handed over half a bag of dried small fish and the egg she brought, the smile on the village head’s wife’s face immediately warmed up.

After understanding the purpose of their visit, they were invited inside, and the village head’s son was sent to call the village head.

Things went smoothly; the village head inquired about Sang Luo’s plan to set up a stall in the county town to sell food, then he wrote down the necessary documents according to the register book, charging the two of them ten copper coins. He promised to make a trip to the county town the next day, and they could come to collect the documents the following evening. With this, the matter was considered settled.

Back in Shili Village, Sang Luo and Mrs. Chen went separate ways at the intersection, and Sang Luo took the two siblings to pick leaves from the fairy tree, preparing for tomorrow’s trip to Sanli Village to prepare goods.

Yes, before being able to enter the county town, she still had to make a round as a hawker in Sanli Village. How else could she earn the money for the document processing and the entrance fee?

With the extra time, she continued to cultivate the land behind her house with the two children, busy without a moment’s rest.

At noon, they only had pork liver soup, and in the evening, Sang Luo made a proper dry meal.

Well, it could barely be considered a dry meal.

After all, there was only one earthen pot, no dedicated steamer for cooking rice. It was really a technical skill to make a dry meal. They could only rely on the experience they had gained over the past few days using the earthen pot and makeshift stove, similar to cooking porridge, just using less water and controlling the heat, relying entirely on their experience.

When picking rice, Shen An looked at the small amount of rice left, and his frugal nature kicked in again, “Big sister-in-law, can we eat some bean rice?”

Sang Luo smiled and said, “Relax and eat, you won’t go hungry later. I have other plans for those soybeans.”

When serving the meal, they each got half a spoonful of rice with the soup.

Not much, but this was white rice! Just eating plain rice could bring out a sense of sweetness and happiness, not to mention they also made a plate of stewed eggplants with pork lard, minced meat, salt, soy sauce, mint, perilla, and wild onions for seasoning.

As Shen An ate, he suddenly started crying tears of joy, leaving Sang Luo and Shen Ning stunned. He hurriedly wiped the tears from his eyes and laughed, “Big sister-in-law, this feels like a dream.”

As they wiped, the tears only seemed to flow more freely: “It would be so good if big brother were back too.”

Just this sentence made Shen Ning’s eyes turn red, tears forming and swirling in her eyes until they couldn’t contain them any longer. With a tremble of her eyelashes, tears fell in streams.

The little girl turned her tearful eyes towards Sang Luo and asked, “Big sister-in-law, will big brother really come back? People in the village say that the government hasn’t issued a death certificate; my big brother said it’s possible he’s still alive. Big sister-in-law, are they right?”

Sang Luo fell silent.

In the original memory, Mr. Li was most annoyed by the fact that some soldiers were listed as missing in action and not officially declared dead. Because without the declaration, the government wouldn’t need to provide compensation to the families of fallen soldiers. Without the declaration, they couldn’t benefit from the imperial decree issued at the beginning of the year, exempting the families of those killed in battle from paying taxes for two years.

There were cases in neighboring villages where soldiers were confirmed dead in battle but remained officially missing.

So, not having an official declaration didn’t really mean much. And it had been nearly half a year since Shen Lie and others who were conscripted had left. With no news for six months, the likelihood of their return was slim.

The greater likelihood was that they died in battle, nameless, unclaimed, with no one to bury their bones.

But faced with the earnest tears of the two children, Sang Luo couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth. She couldn’t bear to destroy the last glimmer of hope in their hearts.

Sang Luo nodded, “Yes, if there’s no concrete bad news, then that’s good news.”

Just this comforting sentence seemed to lend support to the little bit of faith in the hearts of the two children. They struggled to muster a smile at Sang Luo, wiping their tears while eating every last bit of food in their bowls meticulously.

It wasn’t because they had much appetite left, but because the white rice and the dish with meat and oil were too luxurious, too hard-earned to waste even a tiny bit.

The next day, when she went to Sanli Village, just as Sang Luo had expected, sales of fairy tofu were not as good as the first two days.

Because she had borrowed a bucket from Chen’s family, she made twenty-four pieces that day. Even then, after circling Sanli Village twice, she only sold fifteen pieces. The remaining nine pieces were sold along the way back to various villages.

These twenty-four pieces of fairy tofu earned her thirty-two copper coins, which she exchanged for three and a half liters of soybeans and two eggs.

This time, Sang Luo didn’t spend much. She only spent three copper coins on an iron needle and two copper coins on maltose. She brought back the remaining twenty-seven copper coins and went to Chen’s house, repaying Mrs. Chen with five copper coins and keeping the remaining twenty-two copper coins.

This was the first time they had some extra money to spend the night.

What Sang Luo didn’t know was that returning the money so quickly made the people from Chen’s family, especially Qin Fangniang, who was about to go to the county town to sell fairy tofu, particularly excited, as if they could already see themselves making money.

That evening, without waiting for Sang Luo to come, Mrs. Chen had already made a trip to Zhoujiagou and retrieved their documents for setting up a stall. She then called her daughter-in-law to personally deliver them to Sang Luo.

The old lady was very particular. When Qin Fangniang was about to leave with the documents, she was instructed to only shout from outside the door and never step inside someone else’s house.

Sang Luo’s skill in making divine bean curd was now her trump card for survival. Mrs. Chen was afraid her daughter-in-law might accidentally enter and see something she shouldn’t, which could lead to discord in the future.

…

On the sixth day after crossing into this time and space, Sang Luo was going to the city.

On the first day Qin Fangniang set up her stall, she was so excited that she couldn’t sleep well all night. She woke up exceptionally early that day, while it was still dark, and Chen Youtian sent her over to Sang Luo’s place.

Sang Luo herself was also on schedule, and when Qin Fangniang arrived, she was already prepared.

The leaves for selling goods, the bowls for tasting, the sugar water, and the wooden spoons were all packed in the carrying basket. There were also six bunches of persicaria that Sang Luo and the two children picked the evening before, along with the dried small fish that Sang Luo had prepared over the past few days, ready to exchange for some money.

Thinking that she needed to purchase household items today, Sang Luo also brought the twenty-two copper coins she had saved up the day before.

Shen An and Shen Ning followed eagerly, obviously wanting to go as well, but Sang Luo had to refuse this time, “The processing fee for the document is too expensive, and I won’t be able to take you to the county town. Don’t worry, when we have money in the future, big sister-in-law will definitely take you to the county town to have fun.”

After coaxing the two children for a few words, and knowing that the two of them could cook by themselves, Sang Luo left them at home to look after the house, and she went to set off with Qin Fangniang.

Chen Youtian didn’t leave after escorting his wife. Instead, he took the initiative to help carry the two heaviest buckets, while Qin Fangniang, with nothing to do, took the two carrying baskets from Sang Luo.

When the three of them finally headed out of the village, Sang Luo was left empty-handed.

Chen Youtian escorted them for about three or four miles before stopping, seeing that the sky was getting brighter. He then handed the load to Qin Fangniang and went back home.

Sang Luo, who had been eating dog food all the way, finally got back to her load. She thanked Chen Youtian and, after he left, smiled at Qin Fangniang, “Sister-in-law, Uncle Arita treats you really well.”

Qin Fangniang felt a little embarrassed, “It’s just his strength.”

The couple were both introverted and shy.

Seeing Sang Luo looking frail, she asked, “Can you manage to carry it?”

Sang Luo smiled, “It’s okay. It’s much lighter than the load I carried the first time. These days of carrying things around have also made me stronger. Sister-in-law, have you been to the county town before?”

“I have,” Qin Fangniang answered, then hesitated a bit, “But I’m not very familiar with it. It was many years ago.”

In fact, she was very unfamiliar. The first time she went to the county town was the year they fled famine. They were just outside the city gate, where a rich family was distributing porridge. They, as refugees, were just outside the city gate and didn’t even get to touch the city gate.

The second time was when they were going to settle in Shili Village. Following her mother-in-law to the county town to buy some things, that time her mother-in-law went in while she waited outside. After all, for people like them who lived outside the city, entering the city required processing documents. Who would be willing to spend five copper coins just to go to the county town for a stroll?

In the years that followed, the men in the family would go to the county town to do short-term work during the slack farming season, but she hadn’t gone.

With these thoughts, she began to feel nervous.

San Luo noticed Qin Fangniang’s nervousness and steered the conversation towards farming, asking Qin Fangniang what could still be planted in the fields at this time.

Qin Fangniang had seen a small plot of land being turned over behind Sang Luo’s house when she went to deliver the documents yesterday. They were still planting wild mint and perilla, so she knew Sang Luo wanted to plant vegetables.

This was something Qin Fangniang was good at, and her expression gradually relaxed.

“The climate here is good, and there are still many things that can be planted now, such as turnips, sunflowers, radishes, komatsuna, mustard greens, cucumbers, scallions, garlic, and Chinese leeks. If you want to plant them, I’ll give you some seeds when we get back today.”

“That would be great, but I’m not very good at planting.”

Qin Fangniang smiled, “It’s not difficult. I’ll teach you later.”

Qin Fangniang was sincere and enthusiastic. She said she would teach Sang Luo later and spent the rest of the journey explaining some basic farming knowledge to her.

Sang Luo had actually lived in the mountains for a few years and had planted vegetables, but the original owner of her body didn’t know how. If she wanted to plant vegetables properly, she needed a teacher, especially since she didn’t even know what many of these vegetables looked like when they grew in the ground. Therefore, she listened attentively.

One taught and one learned, and before they knew it, they had passed Sanli Village and walked for a while longer. They finally left the mountain path and the scenery opened up. In the distance, they could see the earthy-yellow city walls ahead.

“That’s the county town ahead.”