Of course, You Jin wouldn't put all her bet on Lizheng's body. After delivering the goods to Yunweixuan the next day, You Jin circled around the west market a few times and finally found an old businessman looking person selling puppies. She spent twenty wens to buy four round, lovely, black, shiny puppies with pointy ears.
"Little miss, let me tell you, don't judge how small our family's pup now. They can start watching the home in two or three months. My family's pups are very fierce. !" The old man was ecstatic about selling four puppies in one go for twenty wens. So he chatted a bit with You Jin.
You Jin nodded. Although these puppies looked cute now, she was confident that she would train them to be the best house watcher. She smilingly thanked the old man who sold the dogs and put the puppies in the basket. She hummed a tune on the way home.
The puppies were still relatively cute now. And cute creatures were the easiest to get the favor of the girls. Once they returned to Su's house, the pups were greeted by six pairs of claws.
Even You Chou, who had just turned three years old the day before yesterday, hugged one of the puppies tightly and refused to let go: "Eldest Sister, is this for me?"
You Jin found an old earthen pot and filled it with a scoop of water. When she saw the bullied puppy tussled into a bundle, she angrily put hands on her hips: "Don't play. These puppies are going to be brought up to watch our house!"
After saying that, she rescued the four little puppies from the crowd and soothed them.
The sisters obediently stood under the porch and watch the puppies who was sticking out their tongue to lick the water. The girls' eyes spun. "Eldest Sister, do they have names?"
"Not yet. How about you guys name them?" You Jin handed over this authority to the few children. The supported their heads as they brood over it for a long time. After a lengthy discussion, they decide on the names of the four puppies: Wang Cai, Xiao Hei, Hei Bei, and Da Huang.
You Jin sighed. It were names full of local flavor. Since she couldn't bear to douse the few younger sisters' excitement, the puppies could only be aggrieved.
From this day on, four puppies joined in on Su Family's exercise every day. Every morning, The sight of Su Family's girls taking four puppies for a run along the river on the west side of the river became a special scene of Wuliqiao.
***
The eighth day of April was You Jin's twelfth birthday. Su Family deliberately altered You He's clothes that Mrs. Han gave before they left and used it as a birthday gift for You Jin.
Early this morning, You Ling and You Luo took You Chou to behind Su Family's house to pick a lot of wild flowers and decorated the east wing. Su Family made longevity noodles from scratch. When You Jin returned from the market, the family happily celebrated her twelfth birthday. Although there was only a bowl of longevity noodles and a bunch of wild flowers, it was You Jin's first birthday celebration after transmigrating. In her previous life, no one had given celebrated it for her. So it would be a lie to say that she wasn't moved.
The time period entered April. The weather had gradually warmed up. The vegetables planted when Su Family first moved in have already been eaten one after another. The garlic sprouts that You Jin planted was ready to eat.
On the second day after her twelfth's birthday, You Jin cut a basket full of garlic sprouts and headed to the city. Right now, garlic sprouts hadn't even appeared in Wuliqiao, let alone Luohe Prefecture. She have monopoly of it.
Second Master Huang had been traveling all over the world for so many years. Naturally, he had eaten garlic sprouts. You Jin didn't need to pitch. He took on all of her garlic sprouts and made a gentleman's agreement with her: this year, the garlic sprouts planted by Su Family can only be supplied to Yunweixuan.
The price offered by Second Master Huang was suitable. It went without saying, You Jin would didn't refuse. From that day on, a batch of garlic sprouts was cut and sent to Yunweixuan every two days. Day after day of labor, a lot of money was earned.
With the silver, it was natural to consider buying land. But Su Family consist of old, weak, women, and children. High-intensity food cultivation was suitable for them. This night, You Jin discussed with Mrs. Su. Mrs. Su had no objection.
Early the next morning, You Jin went to He Hao's house with silver liang.
"You want to buy the swale on the west side of the river?" He Hao couldn't understand You Jin's intentions: "You Jin, that swale could be flooded when the water come. No food can be grown. Why do you want to buy it? "
With a shallow smile on her face, You Jin replied, "It's just that the family is short of money and can't afford fertile land. So we can only buy some wasteland."
"If you want to buy wasteland, there's a whole piece of land on the higher side. Why do bother to buy that piece of swale?" He Hao had grown crops for so many years and knew that the tidal flat was really useless. But seeing that You Jin choose the tidal flat, he contemplated and said, "How about this, if you buy high-level wasteland, the tidal flat swale will be considered as yours too. What do you think?"
Meaning the piece of two-three mu of tidal flat acres was complimentary! Simply a pie fall from the sky. How could she not pick it up. Still, You Jin won't take it for nothing. In the end, she bought three mu of wasteland at the price of two silver liang per mu. As for the four mu of tidal flat land, it was half complimentary and half bought at the price of two hundred wen per mu. In addition to the taxes and fees for changing the red deed, it cost a total of seven liang and four coin in the end. Su You Jin had the addition of three more acres of wasteland and four acres of tidal flats under her name.
After buying the land, leveling the land was on the agenda now. The biggest problem with wasteland was that there were too many weeds. You Jin thought of a way. She took her few younger sisters to cut a firebreak around the three acres of wasteland. Then they picked a sunny day to start a fire to burn all the barren weeds in the field.
Thick smoke filled the air. The ashes from the burning plants fluttered in the wind. Because spring's weeds were in growing period, it wasn't so easy to burn them clean. So it went on for three or four days in a row. At first, when the villagers in Wuliqiao saw the thick smoke coming from the west of the river, they thought it was a fire burning the mountain. Once they got there and saw the thick smoke, they discovered Su Family was burning the wasteland. Many of them were mocking how stupid Su Family was: "Who knows how long the land has been abandoned. What's the use?"
You Jin naturally didn't care what others say. Since the first time she returned from the shady side of the bamboo forest, the idea of composting came to You Jin. Coupled with moist rainwater, it became a natural composting field.
Although Su Family didn't have such a large composting field, there was that large tidal flat. Wasn't that the best composting field? The fertile river mud was ready. Just waiting for You Jin and others to start composting.
Making fertilizer was actually very simple. After returning from the city every day, You Jin took her few younger sisters to chop bamboo. All the bamboo leaves were thrown into the tidal flat that was chosen as the composting field. The big bamboo were all split open to dry into firewood. Within a few days, the front and back yard of Su's house were already full of dried bamboos.
Two wen was spent on buying two large bundles of straw from a household in Wuliqiao. Once the straw was cut up a bit, it was thrown into the discolored swale. Then add the manure, kitchen waste, and a large basket of earthworms that You Zhu and others had plucked from the bamboo forest. The fertilizer ingredient was prepared.
After diverting water from the Wuliqiao River to submerge some of the raw fertilizer in the swale. After stirring it to blend with the water, You Jin left the composting field alone. She took the sisters to slowly level the three mu of wasteland that won't get submerged.
You Yin rolled up her sleeves and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Standing up straight, she rested a bit. She asked, "Eldest Sister, what are we going to grow here?"
Wasn't spring's peak farming season over? Wasn't it too late to plant something now?
You Jin looked up at the increasingly poisonous sun. Licking her dry lips, she shook her head: "It's too late for us to plant grain this spring. So we'll level the ground and nourish the ground. Once next spring come, we'll sow the seeds. Only with a fertile ground can food be produced."
Once the soil is fertilized, there will be a good harvest. Besides, Su Family can only be regarded as half of the labor force. On top of that, few had weak body. If they do rush to plant food this spring, how many will collapse?
You Zhu, who was picking up grass roots next to You Yin, slumped to the ground and sighed: "Eldest Sister, can't we do some side jobs? If it doesn't work, selling some steamed buns is better than farming!"
"Do you know how to make buns?" You Bao solemnly criticized: "Third Elder Sister, you can't even cook rice."
After hearing this, You Zhu looked slightly frustrated and glared at You Bao: "You talk too much!"
You Jin didn't intervene in the sisters' minor conflicts. Patiently, she explained a few things to the sisters: "In this world, no matter what you do to make a living, there are two things you need. One is capital. Without capital, how could a stall be set? The second is skill. Without skill, what is the use of money?"
She walked to the field edge, picked up the gourd filled with water, and took a sip before continuing: "Then what do we have at home now? There's nothing. Since we can't do anything else, we are farmers. So farming is the best choice, isn't it?"
You Jin broke it down. The group listened. You Zhu looked at You Jin with burning eyes and nodded again and again: "Eldest Sister, I understand."
The sisters chatted for a while before continuing to work until Mrs. Su sent five-year-old You Luo over to call them home to eat. Everyone went home with the tools.
What Su Family eat the most now was bamboo shoots. Today Mrs. Su made stewed rat with bamboo shoots as well as baking a large pot of three-grain pancakes. Mrs. Su's culinary was top-notch. The pancakes were also delicious. One bite of the pancake and one bite of bamboo shoots had the sisters in merry mood. They didn't forget to praise Mrs. Su: "Mother's culinary is getting better and better!"
Mrs. Su jollily clipped a piece of meat for the little ones and said, "How is my culinary any good? If any one got good culinary skills, it's my grandfather, which is your great maternal grandpop. The best of the best!" In Mrs. Su's hometown, that's was how maternal grandfather's father was called.
This was the first time Mrs. Su mentioned her maternal family. You Jin had never heard of her mentioning it before. So she asked, "Is Great Maternal Grandpop a chef?"
"When I was little, I had heard from your maternal ancestors that Great Maternal Grandpop's father used to be a royal chef in the palace. After the fall of the previous dynasty, he fled from south to north and end up at Xiaohuai Mountain before he putting down his root." The Xiaohuai Mountain Mrs. Su mentioned is where Mrs. Su's maternal family lived, a small mountain village called Xiaohuai Mountain: "My grandfather is my great maternal grandpop's only son. That was why the skills are passed to my grandfather. Your maternal grandfather and his two brothers, who don't have any cooking skills. That's why they didn't grasp 50% of Grandfather's level."
"Did Mother learn your cooking skills from Great Maternal Grandpop?" The children liked listening to adults tell such legendary stories. Seeing Mrs. Su pause, they hurriedly asked one after another.
Mrs. Su smiled: "Yes! Your great maternal grandpop said out of us three sisters, I'm like him the most, the best at cooking. So when I was little, he liked to take me to huddle around the stove."
Speaking of her happy childhood time, nostalgia filled Mrs. Su's eyes.