Something that Lan Shengli would find even more unbelievable had yet to come.
A few days later, after Lan Dazhuang and Xiao Bai marked out the chicken farm near the orchards, they set up the surrounding iron rods, nylon rope nets, sheds, and chicken farm.
The chicken farm was next to orchards. As the fruit saplings were still too small, they were temporarily separated from the chicken farm.
When the fruit trees grew up in the future, the number of free-range chickens would also increase.
Now that they had a chicken farm, the next step was to raise the little chicks on the chicken farm.
Regarding this, Lan Shu had entrusted Aunt Wang from the village to help her get chicken chicks.
Nowadays, the price of eggs was one yuan for 15 eggs, and the hatched chicks cost 20 cents each.
Lan Shu and Aunt Wang had agreed to let the latter ensure that the chicks were of good quality and raise them for a few days. When the time came, Lan Shu would collect them for 30 cents each.
Almost every family in the village had chickens. With all of them selling a few chicks each, it was very easy to get 100 chicks.
Lan Shu did not set a limit in terms of quantity. In the end, Aunt Wang helped her gather more than 160 little chicks.
She spent a total of 50 yuan and placed them all on the free-range chicken farm. They were let out during the day and kept in sheds to rest at night.
By the time Lan Shu's period passed this month, the situation on the mountain had already been preliminary settled.
They had orchards and a chicken farm.
Back then, the siblings had gathered more than 3,000 yuan. Now, they still had more than 1,000 yuan.
With Lan Dazhuang around, Lan Shu didn't have to worry about the orchards or the chicken farm.
However, seeing how hard her brother was working, Lan Shu felt that she should also express her gratitude.
Hence, early in the morning, she called Xiao Bai over. "Let's go. Come with me to the streets to buy a few catties of meat. We'll make something delicious for Big Brother."
…
There were a few other villages near Tianshui Village. At the beginning and middle of each month, there would be a two-day market on the street of Apricot Flower Village, which was three to four kilometers away from Tianshui Village.
This was also a place that was slowly formed for the villagers to trade after the reform.
To be precise, it was not until this year that the market began to take shape.
The village was different from the county. There was meat sold every day in the county's supply cooperative, but the village's supply cooperative did not dare to sell pork, which had a short shelf life.
As it was rare for the villagers to eat meat, they usually only bought some during the festive season.
Of course, there were still a few people who bought meat. Usually, families could not bear to spend money to eat meat.
In the past, although the original host ate a lot of meat at home, most of it was dried cured meat that her parents stocked up during the new year and festival.
If one wanted to eat fresh meat, one could only buy it at the two-day market.
By the time they reached the market, Lan Shu was already panting from exhaustion.
This was the result of her perseverance in exercising for the past month. Otherwise, with the host's laziness, she probably wouldn't have been able to walk to this market.
On the other hand, Xiao Bai did not even pant after walking three to four kilometers. His physique could definitely be said to be very good!
What did Xiao Bai do in the past? Not only was he good-looking, had a good figure, knew how to cook, and had a physique that ordinary people could not compare to…
But Lan Shu had heard from her brother that when they were working on the mountain a few days ago, Xiao Bai did as much as him.
Xiao Bai must have a powerful background to be able to be compared to her brother, who seemed to be a natural worker!
On second thought, Xiao Bai's identity must be extraordinary if he could be targeted by someone and thrown into the river after being hit on the head.
However, those who harmed Xiao Bai would not have thought that he was so lucky! He was actually still alive.
Xiao Bai, who had followed her to the market, did not know what Lan Shu was thinking. He just felt that he had never been to such a place before, so he should not be from the village. He could only be from the county or the city.
The market here was not big, and there were very few types of things sold. Most of them were things brought here by the villagers in the nearby villages.
The two of them walked along the street. There were children selling eggs, old ladies selling handmade black cloth shoes, stalls selling sugar cubes and fried fruits, and occasionally, a few people selling roosters.
As for the hens, they naturally had to be kept to lay eggs so that there would be an endless supply of eggs to sell.
As for vegetables and food, no one was willing to sell them. Now, every family in the village relied on working in the fields to get social credits. The food exchanged with social credits might not be enough for them. Of course, they would not exchange food for money, or they would go hungry.
Suddenly, a muffled bang sounded. Along with the sound, the fragrance of corn wafted in the air.
"What's that?" Xiao Bai frowned.
Lan Shu was pleasantly surprised. "There's actually popcorn! Let's go buy some."
As she spoke, she grabbed Xiao Bai's wrist and ran toward that direction.
It had been a long time since Lan Shu had eaten popcorn. This kind of thing that transcended the times made her feel rather comforted.
A piece of paper was rolled into a sharp cone shape. It was filled with popcorn, and one cone only cost two cents.
Lan Shu bought a portion and paid for it. She immediately took a popcorn and put it in her mouth.
It was fragrant, crispy, and sweet. The taste of the saccharin was very light, and it suited her taste!
At the side, Xiao Bai looked at Lan Shu who was smiling happily with her eyes narrowed as she ate. Xiao Bai suddenly felt that Lan Shu was like a little girl who had not grown up.
She did not have the maturity and philistinism that a woman who had experienced marriage should have. She did not have the gloominess and coldness of a divorced woman. Although she was older than him, she still maintained her original innocence.
He had known Lan Shu for a month, and his impression of her had changed countless times.
In the beginning, she was an ordinary-looking chubby miss, but in just half a month, she had lost a lot of weight with her perseverance. This made him look at her in a new light.
Immediately after, she contracted the back mountain of the village to plant orchards and raise chickens. Not to mention the men in the village, there was probably no man in the entire county who could compare to Lan Shu's sharp wits and boldness!
It was also at that time that Xiao Bai changed the way he addressed Lan Shu from 'Fat Miss' to 'Sister Lan'.
He admired her from the bottom of his heart.
And now, looking at Sister Lan's innocent side, he felt that Sister Lan's childish appearance was indescribably… cute?
Suddenly, Lan Shu's clear voice entered Xiao Bai's ears.
"Why are you in a daze? Come and try it. It's quite delicious."
She held the popcorn in one hand and elbowed Xiao Bai's arm with the other.
Only then did Xiao Bai snap out of his trance. Thereafter, he felt as though he had been caught red-handed!
In order to hide his feelings, Xiao Bai immediately grabbed a handful of popcorn from the paper cone Sister Lan was holding and quickly stuffed it into his mouth.
"Eat slowly. Even if it's delicious, you can't eat too much at once. This thing is hot!"
Xiao Bai didn't really listen to the rest of the sentence. Fortunately, Lan Shu didn't continue to nag at him.
After the two of them ate a few handfuls of popcorn, they walked toward the pork stall in the market.