Baozi Xishi's Struggle

In this seemingly backward little village, is there any other way to make money besides farming?

I don’t know what dynasty this is, whether there will be war or famine.

It wasn't that Shen Yu was afraid of hardship when it came to farming, but he knew very well that it would be difficult to get a good harvest with only women and children in the family and no strong men. Even if the weather was good and the crops were harvested and various taxes were paid, it would be difficult to have enough food and clothing, let alone eat well and live a good life.

She works in sales in modern times, so no matter how much sales experience she has, it is no longer useful.

So what else can she do?

Shen Yu was distressed and reached for the head of the bed out of habit, but found nothing.

After she started working and had an income, she developed a habit. Whenever she was stuck on a problem, she always wanted to eat something. Beef jerky, pork jerky, and pine nut candy were her favorites, so there were always small packages of snacks waiting for her to unpack in the drawer of her bedside table.

The memory of not having enough to eat in her childhood has influenced her. It seems that only when she has food in her hands can she feel less anxious and have the energy to think about other things.

She touched nothing and looked at her delicate hands with disappointment, but her eyes lit up. This action reminded her that food is the most important thing for people. Although she could not embroider, she could cook.

Although she is not a professional, because she loves cooking and has received guidance from several chefs in the food class, she is familiar with all kinds of delicacies from all over the world. When she is on a business trip, as soon as she finishes her work, her favorite thing is to eat local special snacks.

I don’t know what era this is, and I don’t know if I can support my family by cooking.

Shen Yu became excited and wished the wound on her head would heal immediately. She wanted to go out for a walk and see what was going on here.

After patiently resting for another two days, Shen Yu felt that the injury on his head had improved.

My head doesn’t hurt as much anymore. I don’t feel dizzy and nauseous when I stand up. The swelling has subsided and I feel more energetic.

These two days, Li, Yutao and Yucheng have been working in the fields from morning till night.

Yutao told Shen Yu that there was a lot of rain last year and they worked hard for a whole year but got almost nothing. This year, the old people in the village said that planting soybeans would have a good harvest. Her mother followed the villagers and planted a few acres of soybeans, but there was not much rain like last year. Instead, it did not rain for many days.

The bean seedlings that were blooming and bearing beans slowly wilted. Seeing that they would not be able to harvest any crops again, the bean farmers in the village became anxious. Those who could move used waterwheels to irrigate the crops, hoping to save as much as possible.

There were only a few waterwheels in the village, and they were in great demand. Li, who could not compete with others, could only carry water in buckets. Every day when she came home tired, she didn't want to move after eating, and she would snore as soon as her head touched the pillow, and she didn't notice anything unusual about Shen Yu.

During the two days of recuperation, Shen Yu learned how to use the wood stove at home.

After all, I am a person who loves to eat and can cook. After only two tries, I understood the trick of making fire on a wood stove.

When the firewood has not yet started burning, you cannot put a large handful of firewood in at once, as the fire will be smothered due to lack of air circulation. You should first put in some firewood that is easy to ignite, and then put in a flame-resistant piece of wood. It can burn for a long time without having to worry about it.

Once the fire is burning brightly, you can free your hands to cook instead of having to take care of the food in the pot and worry about whether the firewood under the stove will go out.

She watched Yutao go with her to water the plants every day and rush back to cook for the whole family. It was very tiring. After she learned how to use the wood stove, she said to Yutao, "I will be recuperating at home these few days, so you don't have to rush back to cook."

Yu Tao widened her eyes and looked at her in surprise: "Sister, because you are embroidering for the ladies, you are afraid that your rough hands will scratch the silk fabrics, so you rarely do things like washing vegetables and making fire."

Shen Yu laughed dryly: "I just forgot how to embroider. I have been recuperating at home for the past two days and cannot help mother to water the fields. How can I bear it if I ask you to work hard on both ends?"

"Don't worry, I just do less, not that I can't do it."

Shen Yu looked at Yutao's skeptical expression and quickly added another sentence.

"But my sister's hands are rough now. How can she embroider in the future?" Yutao still felt it was inappropriate.

"I don't want to embroider anymore. I've been thinking about it these days. If I embroider for a long time, my eyes will be damaged. Look at those embroiderers in the embroidery workshop. Didn't their eyes get damaged in the end and they couldn't embroider anymore? Do you want my eyes to be like theirs?" Shen Yu gave the reason he had thought of long ago.

"Of course not. It's hard for an embroiderer with damaged eyes to live. She can't make any money and needs someone to take care of her. I heard that some embroiderers' husbands' families even look down on them. I was reluctant to let you go at first because our family was in debt and you kept saying that you didn't want to stay up late to finish the work. I couldn't resist you and had no choice but to agree to let you take the job. We have almost paid off our debts now. I think your eyes are still good and I don't want to end up like those embroiderers."

After hearing what Shen Yu said, Yutao immediately accepted Shen Yu's idea of ​​not wanting to embroider, and agreed with it.

"Then it's settled. I'll cook for the family from now on."

It is easier said than done. The difficulty does not lie in how to make it delicious, but in that a good cook cannot cook without rice. This family is really too poor. They have only porridge and pickles, and occasionally a pancake. The side dishes are just cold cucumbers and green onions dipped in homemade bean paste. There is no new way to cook. It is really a waste of talent.

After Shen Yu got used to the wood stove, he worked very quickly. He would prepare meals for the family early every day and then sit back and relax.

Her wound had not healed yet, and she did not dare to do anything that required strength. With her limited medical knowledge, she estimated that the original owner had hit the back of her head when she fell, and there might be blood clots in her brain that compressed the nerves, which caused the blank memory. In this ancient time where the medical level was almost zero, she did not want to take risks, and could only wait patiently for the blood clots to be absorbed. If she exerted too much force and the wound burst again, causing brain hemorrhage, no hospital would let her enter.

Since God didn't kill her directly but gave her a new life, she must protect herself, let the original owner, the taciturn little girl, live well, and let her relatives live well.

She had asked Yutao in advance and found out that the most knowledgeable person in the village was Doctor Sun, who had treated her injury.

Doctor Sun traveled around when he was young and settled here when he was older.

He was kind and gentle, and his consultation fee was fair and low. If a poor family could not pay the consultation fee at the moment, he would put it on the account and pay it later when they had enough money after receiving grain. Even if they really could not pay, he would not rush to ask for money. When he was not seeing patients, he would go to the nearby mountains to collect herbs and sell them in the town. He was familiar with the shops in the town.

Because he often went to the town to sell medicinal herbs, Shen Yuzhi always asked him to take the embroidery work she received to the embroidery workshop for delivery.

Shen Yu wanted to follow Doctor Sun to the town to see the situation of the catering industry there so that they could decide what to do next.