Chapter Thirteen Transplanting

  Knowing squatting on the ground with her mother carefully searching for wild vegetables in the grass, picking them up and putting them in a basket, waiting for her father to take them to the city to sell.

  Not long after, Zhi Xiao suddenly stood up, shaking her head and looking around. She had thought about finding some wild vegetables again yesterday, but how could she have forgotten such an important thing today? She hurriedly said to Lan Niang, who was squatting on the ground digging for wild vegetables:

  "Daughter, there's only this one piece here, you take your time, I'll go somewhere else to look, if there is, it would be great." He turned around and went alone into the woods to search.

  "Be careful, don't go too far, wait for me and we'll go further together later!" Lan Niang shouted to her daughter who was running far away, seeing Zhi Xiao nodding while searching around, she finally put her mind at ease.

  "Her father said this kid looks like someone, so excited and not a bit ladylike."

  Liu Jian looked at Zhi Xiao, who was walking with his head down towards the distant grass thicket, holding a small wooden stick, and turned to look at Lan Niang, smiling: "As your daughter, of course, she's like you. Don't be too strict with her, don't spoil her, I think it's good this way, knowing we have no money but still thinking of ways to earn some herself, which child from which family is as clever as our daughter?"

  "It's also, others can't bear to see our daughter being good." The topic turned again, "Her father, the daughter is not young anymore, and she should learn embroidery like other people's daughters. You go buy some needles and threads in a few days, no, don't buy them, you don't understand this. Wait for a few days, I'll go down the mountain with you to buy some embroidery materials, it's time to let this girl settle down and teach her embroidery, so she won't become even more rustic living in these mountains."

  "Alright, I'll listen to you, did you know? Are you also going to take it to the city?" He asked, looking up at her again.

  "This girl probably doesn't know if she can be deceived or not, it's best if she can be deceived, otherwise you follow the pattern I told you, and first buy a little less."

  "You're being too cautious, I think it's fine to occasionally go into town, nothing will really happen after all these years."

  ……

  In the winter forest, a desolate scene unfolds. Occasionally, a few bare branches on the trees transmit the calls of birds, which land on the twigs and dance with joy, singing loudly. Upon closer inspection of the grass thickets on the ground, one finds that they are mixed with scattered wild vegetables, but not many. Unlike the lush growth by the riverbank basking in sunlight.

  Knowing that searching every day is really tiring, let her father prepare a sunny spot, transplant them all together, and wait for spring to harvest. Wild vegetables have strong vitality, and as soon as the weather warms up, they will grow quickly. At that time, it will also save effort from bending down to search in the grass, and next year, it can directly avoid the trouble of searching everywhere, making cultivation, management, and reproduction much more convenient.

  After searching for half a day, Zhi Xiao finally found another wild vegetable field mixed with weeds. Several other kinds of wild vegetables were also discovered in the grass thicket.

  Found a piece of bamboo from the side of the ground, all of them were dug up with soil and put into the basket, planning to transplant them to an empty land in front of the house, and plant them separately, so that it's convenient for our family to eat vegetables in the future.

  When she came back with a basket of wild vegetables, her father had already gone down the mountain.

  "Mother, can these seeds be grown here?" Zhi Xiao asked, carrying a small bamboo basket and pointing to the empty space in front of the house with weeds, dry branches and fallen leaves.

  "Uh-huh, let's clean this up, get rid of the weeds, and use the leftover ash from the stove as fertilizer. If it looks good, I'll plant something here."

  Lan Niang said and did it, rolled up her sleeves, bent down and started cleaning.

  The current emperor, from his ascension to the throne until now for over nine years, has been extremely fond of war, and has already engaged in numerous large and small battles, exhausting the people and draining the treasury. The greatest impact is still on ordinary people; many can only hope that their families have enough food and clothing, and there are even more who cannot achieve this.

  Liu Jian's family of three can barely make ends meet in a good harvest year, and it is very difficult for them to have any surplus money at the end of the year.

  Being able to sell vegetables for money can improve the living conditions at home, and everyone in the family has a common positive motivation.

  At noon, Liu Jian came back with the money he had earned. The whole family didn't even have time to eat lunch, and they started counting the money one by one. They got 90 cents for selling fish, 150 cents for selling vegetables, a total of 240 cents. After spending some on buying buns, meat pies and cloth, there were still 50 cents left. The couple calculated that this trip to the city was equivalent to a month's expenses for the whole family.

  Liu Jian and Lan Niang were both delighted, their eyes wide with wonder as they gazed at the piece of fabric on the table in front of them. It was a red hemp cloth, rather coarse but sturdy and practical.

  Lan Niang was delighted to open the fabric and compare it with Zhi Xiao's body, happily saying: "This fabric color is really good-looking, matching our daughter makes her look even more lovely."

  She nodded knowingly, acknowledging her own small face, and pretended to scold: "Mother, you're talking nonsense. I'm not that good." She twisted her waist, pretending to be embarrassed.

  Lan Niang couldn't help but notice her little thoughts, patted the fabric, and said with a generous tone: "I'll make you a quilt, fill it with soft cotton, and use the rest to make a pair of red cloth shoes, how about that?"

  She knew it was agreed upon, because the movement on her broken shoes had become too big. In these few days, she walked more roads and that hole became even bigger.

  Lan Niang is a real man of action. After dinner, she and her husband immediately went to the mountain to fetch needles and threads to make clothes.

  Liu Jian finally had a chance to pour himself a bowl of water and drink it. After putting down the bowl, he took out something from his pocket and handed it over to Zhi Xiao.

  "What?" Zhi Xiao curiously looked at the things in her hand: "It looks like a wallet, used to hold money?"

  Liu Jianxiao's straight eyes smiled: "Wang Zhanggui specially brought it to you, saying that his daughter practiced making a lotus bag, the embroidery is not great, can't compare with your mother's, but it's practical, and it's also someone's kind intention, just keep it for use."

  She paused and said, "In the past, our family didn't have much spare money, we relied on farming to make a living, so this thing wasn't useful. In the future, when you have some money, daughter, you can put it in there."

  "Uh-huh."

  Liu Jian smiled and went to the riverbank to see if the net in the river had caught any fish. Liu Zhi was left alone at home to keep watch.

  Lan Niang returned to the entrance of her home in the village, and Zao Hua, the wife of Liu Er Gui next door, saw her enter the house. She immediately dropped the bran she was using to feed the chickens, clapped her hands, ran into the house, took something out, and walked towards Lan Niang's home.

  "Orchid girl, go up the mountain to see your daughter, just came back."

  Jujube flowers were bought by Liu Erbie from the human market. When Liu Erbie was 15 years old, he was recruited to fight in a war and fought for four years. Last year, because of his lame foot, he was sent back home. Among the five people from this village who went to fight together, only he returned, three are still alive, one has already died, and the news of death came with Liu Erbie's return. The villagers all say that Liu Erbie is lucky, if it weren't for his lame foot, he might have died on the battlefield. Some people also say that Liu Erbie intentionally made his foot lame to retire from the battlefield early and marry a wife.

  Liu Er returned with the twenty taels of silver given to him, and used fifteen taels to buy a wife as beautiful as a flower, Zao Hua.

  The beauty of the jujube flower, with its delicate white skin, melon-seed face and peach-blossom complexion, slender figure, and elegant demeanor, is not on the same level as the village girls here. But she too has a bitter past: her parents died in successive years of famine, and her brother wanted to sell her to a human trafficker; she cried and begged on her knees, but couldn't change her heartless brother's mind, and eventually gave up hope.

  After staying with the matchmaker for a few days, she was taken to the market. Originally, she had already prepared for the worst and was going to be sold to that dirty place. That day, Liu Er Gui happened to have looked around for several days without seeing anyone suitable, just as he was about to leave, Zao Hua heard someone say that the cripple was there to buy a wife, so she secretly asked the matchmaker to go and talk to him. The matchmaker saw that she hadn't caused any trouble in these few days, so he went over to talk to Liu Er Gui, who ended up taking a liking to Zao Hua and they got married.

  After buying it back, they just passed their small days together.

  The villagers looked down on Zao Hua's birth because she was a slave, with a contract to sell herself. To cancel her slave status, she would have to go to the county government office and pay money.

  Liu Erbie, due to his lame leg, couldn't find a wife. Now that he has spent a lot of money to buy one back, he just wants her to settle down with him and live a humble life. With a slave status on her, he can be even more at ease, so he never bothered to restore it.

  Jujube flower is now no different from ordinary people, and the extra is just a sale contract. Liu Ergui treats her well, so Jujube flower doesn't mind that contract anymore.

  Because Zao Hua was at home every day, taking care of Liu Er's meals and doing the household chores, feeding the chickens and ducks, sweeping the floor neatly. Sometimes she would visit her neighbor Lan Niang next door, and they often came and went between each other's homes.

  Lan Niang saw that it was Zao Hua calling her, and seeing her mysterious appearance, she thought to herself "I hope the villagers didn't find out that my father just went into town to sell wild vegetables", Lan Niang's heart began to tense up, staring tightly at her.