Chapter 10: The Excellent Younger Sister-in-Law (10)

"Yinyin, after breakfast, you should go to Grandma’s house. Last time when you hit the tree, your uncle heard about it and came over, carrying a bag of mountain goods, a pack of brown sugar, and thirty eggs. Now that you’ve won a prize, you should also give them something to taste and show your filial piety."

Xu Mother continued to instruct, "Come back for lunch. I’ll make braised pork for you. Don’t be greedy if Grandma tries to keep you. Your uncle’s family is struggling, it’s not easy for them..."

Xu Yin pursed her lips. Who did they think she was? Was she that greedy?

"Mom, I’ll go now. If I wait until the sun is up, the meat might go bad, right?"

"That’s fine. Take a steamed bun for the road."

"..."

How was she supposed to eat while riding? Never mind, her mother’s good intentions, she would just take it.

Xu Mother’s hometown was in Da’ao Village.

Although it was also part of Shuangxi Township, it was separated by several villages and was in the mountains, making it inconvenient to travel.

The road from the village to the township was muddy in the rain and dusty in the sun, and there was no bus service.

Riding a bicycle was bumpy, but it was better than walking for two to three hours.

Xu Mother knew her daughter was delicate and wouldn’t usually ask her to make this trip.

But as she said, after her daughter fainted from hitting a tree, her brother carried a bag of mountain goods and came to visit. Even though they didn’t have much, they still had meat, and quite a bit of it. They should return the favor.

Xu Yin pedaled for an hour, finally reaching Da’ao Village.

Da’ao Village was in the mountains, with many houses built on the slopes.

The mountain roads were difficult to navigate, so Xu Yin locked her bicycle under a large locust tree at the village entrance.

While searching for her grandmother’s house in her memory, a village woman recognized her:

"Hey! Isn’t that Old Geng’s granddaughter? You’re here to visit your grandma and uncle? Wow! You even brought meat! How filial!"

"Ah Xiang! Ah Xiang! You came just in time. Your niece is here, and she brought meat!"

Li Ah Xiang, who was washing clothes by the stream, looked over and saw that it was indeed her husband’s niece. She put down her laundry basin and warmly approached:

"How did you get here, Yinyin? You must be tired. Come, come, come, let’s go to Uncle’s house and rest your feet."

It wasn’t that Li Ah Xiang was overly enthusiastic; she had been married into the Geng family for many years and rarely saw her niece visit.

Moreover, she brought a piece of meat and two cans of orange preserves.

Xu Yin followed her aunt, winding through the village and climbing a section of the mountain road, finally arriving at her grandmother’s house.

Her grandmother was old and had poor eyesight, but she recognized her granddaughter at once.

She smiled kindly and asked Xu Yin to sit, instructing her daughter-in-law to boil water for sugar tea.

"Grandma, don’t bother. Aunt, don’t bother. I just came to give you some meat. This is the prize I won from working at the farm yesterday. It’s not much, just enough for one meal, but I wanted to share it with you to make you happy."

Xu Yin handed the meat, two cans of preserves, and a pack of brown sugar to her grandmother.

The preserves and brown sugar were things she had seen at the town’s supply station, remembering that the system warehouse had many of them.

In her previous life, she had been reborn as a peasant girl and followed a group of refugees south, enduring great hardships to find a place to settle.

That place was rich in sugarcane, and she had used the energy points earned from farming to exchange for a recipe to make brown sugar.

She started a workshop and built an estate with this.

She didn’t plant as many other fruits as sugarcane.

But after the famine, the weather gradually improved, and the harvests got better each year. Fresh fruits were abundant and hard to sell, and there was no preservation technology at the time.

She decided to spend a large amount of energy points to exchange for the method to make glass.

She carefully copied it onto a yellowed, aged sheepskin scroll and had a little beggar deliver it to a diligent and fair imperial envoy passing through her area.

After two years, the court finally established a glass workshop.

The price of glass plummeted, and it became widespread, greatly facilitating the production of fruit preserves, pickled vegetables, and other canned goods.

The system’s products, including the canned goods and ancient brown sugar, were as good as or better than those sold in the supply store.

She had packed two pounds of brown sugar and two cans of orange preserves.

She didn’t dare to bring out other fruits like lychees, longans, and yellow peaches, which the supply store didn’t have.

"You came to visit, but why did you bring all these things? You’re being so formal with Grandma."

Geng Grandma pretended to be unhappy, but then smiled happily:

"Yinyin is already earning meat for the family while still in school! You’ll definitely have a bright future!"

Li Ah Xiang was also enthusiastic and smiling:

"Yinyin, sit and chat with Grandma for a while. I’ll make you a bowl of egg noodles."

"Really, Aunt, I already had breakfast before I came."

"Then I’ll make you a soft-boiled egg. It’s still early, and you can have something to tide you over. Your uncle went into the mountains and hasn’t returned yet. It rained yesterday, so he might find some mushrooms. You can take some back with you. It’s not much, just a taste."

Xu Yin was quite interested in the mountain goods.

Authentic wild mushrooms were very expensive in the future.

"Does Uncle go into the mountains every day?"

"Not every day, just when he has free time. Last year, with the implementation of the household responsibility system, our family is small, and with only your uncle, it’s hard to manage a large plot. So we leased a small mountain near our home to grow local peaches and plums. This year, they only flowered but didn’t bear fruit. We’re not sure if there will be any harvest next year. Your uncle is a restless person. He goes into the mountains every few days to pick mushrooms and dig bamboo shoots, dries them, and stores them. Before winter, someone will come to buy the mountain goods, and we can earn some money."

Li Ah Xiang quickly cooked a soft-boiled egg and brought it to Geng Grandma’s room, chatting with Xu Yin along the way.

Xu Yin’s heart stirred.

She remembered that after being reborn as a refugee peasant girl, the system store had listed a batch of improved fruit tree seedlings.

Anything that appeared in the store could be exchanged for energy points later.

After surviving, she had used the accumulated energy points to exchange for a few common fruit tree seedlings, including peaches and plums, which produced very tasty fruit.

Thinking about this, she logged into the system store to check.

Sure enough, the system had inflated.

A small peach tree seedling required 500 energy points.

The points she had earned from cycling these days were not enough to exchange for even one seedling.

Fortunately, after her tractor driving skill reached S-level yesterday, plowing also earned rewards.

For every half-acre plowed, she received 50 energy points.

Unfortunately, it was still over a month until the double harvest season, and even if the village had a tractor, they might not let her drive it.

So, these energy points were like a carrot dangled in front of a donkey—out of reach.

Pulling herself back to the present, Xu Yin asked her aunt:

"Do we not raise chickens and ducks? I heard from classmates that city people like to eat free-range chickens from the countryside, saying the meat is firm and fragrant. The eggs from free-range chickens are also very popular."

"We have a few in the backyard. The free-range chickens you mentioned are raised in the mountains? Won’t they run away and be hard to find?"

"We have fruit trees, right? We can set up some fences between the trees to create a large chicken yard. The chickens can find their own food and peck at the insects that fall from the trees. Their droppings can be used to fertilize the fruit trees."

Li Ah Xiang’s eyes lit up: "That’s a great idea. I’ll talk to your uncle when he comes back."

(End of Chapter)