Several people wandered in the forest for a while, harvesting a lot of celery. Later, they also found a few clumps of hoe, which they gave to Wenxuan. Wenhan saw that they had enough celery and led his younger siblings back home.
When they arrived home, Mrs. Chen had already returned and was boiling medicine. However, Mrs. Wei and the others were not seen, presumably having gone back to their natal family. Mrs. Chen hurriedly poured out the vegetables when she saw the children return. She kept some for dinner, and the rest she put in the barn to eat tomorrow.
"Grandma, how is my aunt doing?" Jinghan asked. The original host had a good relationship with the aunt, and Jinghan, after arriving here, got along well with her too. This physically weak aunt was actually very skillful, making clothes and embroidering flowers that could be considered exceptionally fine. Many of Jinghan's clothes were made by the aunt's hand.
Mrs. Chen managed a strained smile, "She's okay, the doctor said it's just weakness; she'll recover slowly with some medicine."
Everyone together sorted through the wild vegetables, which sometimes had other grasses mixed in with them. There was also a type of plant that resembled celery, looking quite similar, but its leaves had fuzz on the underside, unlike true celery which is smooth. This plant was poisonous and liked to grow amongst real celery, so they needed to be carefully picked out. The good celery was blanched in hot water, chopped into small pieces, sprinkled with some salt, and mixed with chopped green onions for a tasty dish. Of course, the best use for it was in dumplings, the delicious taste was truly tempting.
After the celery was blanched, Mrs. Chen saved some for dipping sauce and mixed the rest for everyone to eat. Dinner that night was exceptionally tasty. As Jinghan ate, she pondered what could be done to earn some money. Life could not always go on like this; she wanted to eat delicious food, not just pancakes that strained the throat and pickles every day. But what could make her family prosperous? Ginseng had already been planted; raising pigs? There wasn't even enough grain for people to eat. Raising chickens? The house seemed to have a few, but too many would be too wasteful of grain. Sighing, she realized there was no quick solution. She would have to take it slow; something would be found eventually.
Not until the third day did Mrs. Wei return with her two sons, bringing back quite a lot of things from her natal family. She carried all the large and small bundles into her own room. Mrs. Chen certainly saw this but said nothing, going about her business as usual.
After Mrs. Wei went into her room, she didn't come out. When Wencheng saw Mrs. Chen sitting at the doorway, he came over to ask, "Grandma, where did Brother Wenhan go?"
"They went up the mountain. At this time, we rely on wild vegetables to get by. If they don't gather some from the mountain, what would we have to eat?" Mrs. Chen was patching a shoe sole. With many people in the house wearing out shoes quickly, she had to sew when she had spare time. "Wencheng, have you been to your maternal grandmother's house?"
Wencheng fetched a small stool and sat next to his grandmother, "Mhm, I stayed at grandma's house for two days. When she heard about my father's death, she and mother cried for a long time. Grandma, are you angry because my mother wasn't home?" Wencheng was older and understood more.
Mrs. Chen looked at her grandson and sighed. "Wencheng, I'm not angry. Your father is gone, and your mother is grieving; I understand. But right now, it's the busiest time at the farm, and you are still in mourning for your father; how could you stay at your maternal grandmother's house? It's taboo. Didn't your uncles say anything?" Xu Zhiyong had been dead for almost three months, and although the family had just held his funeral, for them to stay in mourning at the natal family's house, she couldn't believe Mrs. Wei's brothers would not have any objections.
"My uncle didn't say much, but my aunt's expression was not very good." Wencheng recalled that his aunt had been gloomy these past few days; it was because of this. "Wencheng doesn't understand. Maybe I should persuade mother to come back." Wencheng was a very sensible child, but after all, he was only nine years old and did not fully understand everything.
Mrs. Chen patted Wencheng's head, "Child, with your father gone, you'll have to take charge of the family. You are your father's eldest son and Wenchang's older brother; you'll need to take good care of Wenchang and help your mother. No matter what, your grandparents will surely support you until you're grown up." Mrs. Chen said, and tears fell. She was over fifty years old, and it never occurred to her that she would be in the position of an elder burying the younger, her second son's death being her perpetual sorrow. Whenever she thought about it, she couldn't help but cry profusely.