“Yinyin, after you have breakfast, go to your grandmother’s house and deliver this. When you hit your head on a tree, your uncle came all the way here to see you, carrying a sack full of foraged mountain goods. He even brought us a pack of brown sugar and thirty eggs on top of that. Since you’ve just won an award, share your prize with them and show them that you are filial.”
Mother Xu continued giving her instructions. “Come back home for lunch. Mom will be making braised pork for you. Don’t be greedy when you’re at your grandmother’s place1Xu Yin’s maternal grandmother lives with her maternal uncle’s family.. Your uncle’s family is tight on money these days, and it hasn’t been easy for them…”
The corners of Xu Yin’s mouth twitched. What kind of person did her mother think she was? In her eyes, was she that big of a glutton?
“Mom, I think I should just go now. Won’t the meat spoil if I go after the sun comes up?”
“Alright, then. You can bring a steamed bun to eat while you’re on the road.”
“…”
How was she supposed to eat while riding a bicycle? Nevermind; her mother was just being caring. She’d take the steamed bun with her.
Mother Xu’s maiden family lived in the village of Da’ao.
Da’ao was a very inconvenient place to travel to and from. Although both of their villages were in the same township, Shuangxi, they were separated by a few other villages. Moreover, Da’ao was placed in the mountain area.
Even the bus service hadn’t reached Da’ao yet. The road to Da’ao was always muddy on rainy days, and dusty on days that it hadn’t rained.
Worse still, the road was also very bumpy—making it uncomfortable to ride a bicycle on. Although, riding there on a bicycle was still better than making the journey by foot—that’d take about two to three hours one-way.
Mother Xu knew how delicate her daughter was. Normally, she wouldn’t let her travel this far.
However, as Mother Xu had said, Xu Yin’s uncle—Mother Xu’s brother—had walked for a long time with a sack on his back to visit them when he heard that Xu Yin hit her head on a tree. They didn’t have much in their house, but now they had pork meat, and quite a lot of it, so they should return the favour Xu Yin’s uncle had given them.
Xu Yin rode her bicycle for an hour and finally arrived at Da’ao.
Da’ao was a mountain village. Many of its houses were built on the mountainside.
The mountain road didn’t make for an easy climb with a bicycle, so Xu Yin simply put and locked her bicycle under the big locust tree at the entrance of the village.
As she searched for her grandmother’s house based on the original host’s memory, some women from the village recognized her.
“Hey! Aren’t you the Old Geng’s granddaughter? Have you come to see your uncle and grandmother? You even brought meat with you. What a filial child you are!”
“Axiang, Axiang! You’re here just in time. Your niece came and brought meat!”
Li Axiang had come to the pier in the creek to wash clothes. When she heard this and looked around, she saw that the person the women mentioned really was her husband’s niece. She put down her laundry basket on the stone and enthusiastically went toward them.
“Yinyin, why are you here? You must be tired. Let’s go to Auntie’s house so you can rest.”
It was no wonder why Li Axiang was so happy to see Xu Yin. She had been married to the Geng family for so many years, and within that time, had rarely ever seen her niece come to visit them.
Besides, Xu Yin hadn’t come empty-handed.
Xu Yin followed her aunt. They walked around and climbed a section of mountain road before they arrived at Xu Yin’s grandmother’s house.
Her grandmother was old, and no longer had good eyesight, but she still recognized her granddaughter at a glance.
Her smile was kind as she told Xu Yin to sit down and instructed her daughter-in-law to boil some water to make sweet tea with.
“No need, Grandma. No need, Aunt. I’m just here to bring you some meat. I worked on a farm yesterday and won this as a prize. It’s not much—just enough for one meal, but I hope it makes you happy.”
Xu Yin handed the pork meat, as well as the two cans of preserved oranges and a pack of brown sugar that she’d also brought, to her grandmother.
When she passed by the town’s supply and marketing cooperative station2A supply and marketing cooperative station, in rural areas of China, is like a marketplace where farmers can sell basic household goods and other essential items, with the difference that it also provides various services to farmers, like providing technical assistance and offering access to agricultural inputs. on her way, she had seen a lot of canned food and brown sugar being sold. It was then that she remembered that she had a lot of them in her inventory.
In the last story world that she transmigrated into, she had been a peasant girl who fled all the way to the south, and after a lot of suffering, finally found a place of refuge to settle in.
That place was rich in sugarcane. After she had obtained energy points through farming, she had exchanged it for a recipe of brown sugar.
She made her start with this brown sugar recipe, then started a workshop and built an estate for herself.
At that time, there weren’t as many other types of fruit in that place as there were sugarcane.
However, after the years of disaster passed, the weather gradually improved; each year, the harvest improved with it. It resulted in an abundance of fresh fruits that couldn’t be sold because there was no preservation technology in that era.
At that time, without any hesitation, Xu Yin exchanged a huge amount of energy points with the production manual of glass.
Painstakingly, she transcribed the manual on a yellowed and old sheepskin roll with her left hand. When an imperial minister, who she knew was conscientious and upright, passed through where she lived, Xu Yin hired a beggar to deliver the manual to him.
After two more years of waiting, the imperial court finally established a glass factory.
As a result, the price of glass dropped, and it became a widely used commodity. This greatly facilitated the production of a series of canned products, such as preserved fruit and pickled vegetables, that she wanted to make.
The canned products made by the system were no worse than those sold in supply and marketing stores, as were the ancient-style brown sugar she’d made.
These were the sources of the two catties of brown sugar and two cans of preserved oranges that Xu Yin had brought.
She didn’t dare to take out other kinds of preserved fruits in her inventory—lychees, longan, yellow peaches, and many others—that weren’t available in the supply and marketing cooperative station.
“Why did you buy these? You came to visit, not to buy things. You’re so polite, it’s like you’re distancing yourself from your grandma!” Grandma Geng pretended to be unhappy and teased her.
However, she then smiled happily and continued, “Yinyin is already earning things for her family although she’s still studying. Yinyin, you’ll definitely have a bright future!”
Li Axiang was equally happy. She smiled and said, “Yinyin, sit and chat with your grandmother for a while. Auntie will make you a bowl of egg noodles to eat.”
“There’s really no need, Auntie. I had breakfast before I came.”
“Then I’ll cook you some soft-boiled eggs. It’s still early, so fill your stomach first. Your uncle went into the mountain and hasn’t come back. It rained yesterday, so he might be able to pick some mushrooms, or something. Take some home with you later. They’re nothing fancy, but you should give it a try.”
Xu Yin was quite interested in foraged mountain goods.
In later years, authentic wild mushrooms would be sold at a high price.
“Does Uncle go into the mountain every day?”
“He doesn’t. He only goes sometimes, when he has spare time. Last year, we participated in the land contract responsibility system3A policy introduced in late 1970s in China. Basically, each family received agricultural land and became responsible to take care of it. A certain portion of the harvest must be delivered to the government, but the surplus can be kept. If you return to Chapter 3.2: Manure, the policy is also described in a passing, but not mentioned by name—Xu Yin’s family didn’t have a lot of family members, so they didn’t get a lot of land, and didn’t need a lot of hands to take care of the land after the cropping season ends. That was why Mother Xu sent Xu Yin’s sis-in-law to pick up manure in the village. , too. Our family only has a few family members; with just your uncle to rely on, we couldn’t handle a large piece of land, so we took the small hill behind our backyard and planted some local hairy peaches and green plums there.
“However, this year, they’ve only bloomed, but didn’t bear any fruit. We don’t know if there will even be any yield at all next year. It’s all very worrying. Like you know yourself, your uncle is a very restless person. He’ll go to the mountain every three to five days to pick up some mushrooms and dig up some bamboo shoots, then dry them. He’ll keep them until winter when someone comes to collect mountain goods and buy them from him.”
Swiftly, Li Axiang cooked a bowl of soft-boiled eggs and carried it to Grandma Geng’s room. All along the way, she chatted with Xu Yin about their family’s situation.
Xu Yin’s heart clenched as she heard her talk.
She remembered that, when she was still in the last story world, she had seen a batch of improved fruit tree seedlings pop up in the system marketplace.
All the items in the system marketplace could be exchanged with energy points at any time after they first become available.
In the last story world, after she managed to survive, Xu Yin had exchanged her accumulated energy points with some common fruit tree seedlings, including peach and plum trees. These trees had yielded exceptionally delicious fruits.
With this in mind, she accessed the system marketplace and browsed through it.
The system marketplace’s prices were really inflated.
A small peach tree seedling was priced at 500 energy points!
All the energy points that she had earned from cycling these days weren’t even enough to buy a small seedling.
Fortunately, after she had achieved a S-rank evaluation for her tractor driving skill, she had also received rewards for her ploughing.
For every half a mu4One mu is approximately 0.1647 acres or 666.7 square metres, so half a mu is about 0.0833 acres or 333 square metres. All these numbers have been rounded up. of land that she’d ploughed, she’d received a reward of 50 energy points.
What a pity that there was still more than a month before the harvest season. Plus, even if the village had a tractor, they might not necessarily let her use it.
To her, these energy points were a bit like what a hanging carrot was to a donkey. Within reach, but unattainable.
Returning from her thoughts, Xu Yin asked her aunt, “Auntie, why don’t you guys raise any chickens or ducks? My classmates said that people in the cities like to eat free-range chickens raised in the countryside, since they have firm and fragrant meat. Eggs laid by such chickens are apparently also very popular there.”
“We have a few in the backyard, but we probably can’t raise free-range chickens. They’d run away and not come back, wouldn’t they?”
“You planted fruit trees, right? You can put up a few fences between them and make it a large chicken coop, where the chickens can find their own food and peck at the bugs that fall from the trees. Their manure can also serve as fertiliser for the fruit trees.”
Li Axiang’s eyes lit up as she listened to Xu Yin’s suggestions. ‘That’s a great idea. I’ll talk to your uncle about it when he returns.”
Lucien On ABRWF Chapter 34.1