Traveling through ancient times, I led my family to prosperity

"Is your Xiao Ting fourteen this year? Oh my, she is so pretty. I don't think there is a prettier girl than her in this town. I heard that this girl is also very good at cooking. It's really amazing."

Zhao naturally heard it from her family members, and as for how her family members knew about it, Xiao Lan initially concluded that it was spread by Shopkeeper Xu.

Bao Heng looked up at Xiaoting. When Xiaoting saw Zhao praising her like that and Bao Heng still looking up at her, she lowered her head a little embarrassedly, her face instantly turning red. Bao Heng quickly drank some tea to divert his gaze.

"But it's not as good as you say, sister-in-law." Zhang, who had now let go of the anger she had endured at Old Sheng's house, said with a smile, "We are children of a farming family, but Xiaolan and Xiaowen have been brought up by her, the eldest sister, since they were young."

Xiao Lan ate melon seeds while listening to Zhang and Zhao chatting. After an afternoon, the two had become very close, so Zhao invited Zhang to her home.

"It's too late this year. I will definitely visit you some other day." Zhang said with a smile.

Manager Bao and his family had sent so many gifts, it would not make sense to let the guests leave empty-handed. Xiao Lan picked up four bars of soap and gave them to them, and told them to go home and dry them in the sun. After a month, they could use them to wash clothes and hands.

This was the first time that Manager Bao and Zhao heard about this new thing called soap. When they found out that it was developed by Xiao Lan, Zhao smiled and said, "We've got something good this time. I'm afraid that there's no other soap in Daqi except yours, so we accepted it."

After seeing off Bao and his family, in the evening, Mr. Sheng came with Sheng Nuo. When Xiao Lan heard them coming in, she saw that Sheng Nuo's face was all colored and swollen like a pig's head.

Xiao Lan thought, this should be the first time that Mr. Sheng taught his eldest son a lesson so harshly.

After greeting each other, they sat down again. Old Master Sheng spoke first, "This bastard, his brain was stuck in the door today, and he didn't think before he spoke. I thought about it for an afternoon, and still felt sorry for my in-laws and the third son's wife, so I brought him here and asked him to apologize to everyone." As Old Master Sheng spoke, he slapped Sheng Nuo on the head, "Don't bother with him, he has been studying so hard these years that he can't even speak."

"Uncle, what happened to your face? It looks scary." Xiao Lan interrupted Mr. Sheng and asked curiously at Sheng Nuo. "Don't apologize, you've already scared our whole family."

"I accidentally fell while walking this afternoon, and that's what happened." Sheng Nuo said.

It seems that Xiao Lan's inference that Sheng Nuo's face was hit by Grandpa Sheng was not correct. After all, Sheng Nuo was the eldest son and a scholar, so he couldn't do it. But Xiao Lan didn't believe that he could be beaten like this after a fall. Looking at his bruised face, it was obvious that he was beaten severely.

"Why don't you apologize to the third son's wife?" said Mr. Sheng.

"Brother's wife, you are a magnanimous person. Don't argue with me. What I said today was not human. Everyone in the village knows that you are the most filial. Uncle Zhang is also a well-known figure. He has not benefited from our Sheng family at all."

"It's not up to you to judge whether I am filial or not, and it's not up to you to decide what kind of family my mother's family is. From now on, if you have any problems, my family will not intervene except for you and mother."

"This..." Grandpa Sheng and Sheng Nuo looked at Xiao Lan's family in surprise, sighed, and left with Sheng Nuo.

The New Year of the Great Qi Dynasty is approaching quickly. This year, Shengjia Village is not as lively as last year's New Year, but it is much better than usual. At least it is not as silent as an uninhabited deserted village.

Although Xiao Lan could feel the festive atmosphere in the village, few people came out for a walk. On New Year's Eve, she could only hear a few sporadic firecrackers.

The famine has destroyed the finances of every household, and this year there is not even much of a New Year atmosphere. At noon on New Year's Eve, Xiao Lan stood at the door and watched the fireworks coming out of the chimneys on the roofs of households in the village. Only then did she feel a hint of the breath of life.

Xiao Lan felt very unhappy this year. She truly felt that the villagers were not living a good life, and she hoped that these days would pass as soon as possible.

Her family could still make ends meet. For noon, she made braised pork, pork ribs, pork skin jelly, pork, cabbage and tofu stew, roe deer meat, stir-fried bean sprouts, cold shredded radish, and cold tofu skin. The staple food was bean rice.

Xiao Lan felt the most deeply on the first day of the Lunar New Year. In previous years, every household would come out to greet each other, but this year only a few families came out. Xiao Lan couldn't help feeling a little depressed when she saw the villagers looking pale and thin.

On the morning of the third day of the New Year, Xiao Lan found that the ice and snow outside were slowly melting and the ground was starting to become wet and muddy.

That day they went to the front yard to chat with Zhang Shanfeng and Xin. Xin looked at the melting snow outside and said with a smile, "This year's spring came earlier than last year. The weather will get better in a few days, and the wild vegetables in the fields will grow soon."

Xiao Lan was very happy to hear what Xin said. The wild vegetables in the field could also fill her stomach. She was a little worried about the food and clothing problem of the villagers. But she still asked in confusion, "Grandma, why is spring so early this year? I remember that it was not until the first month of the lunar year last year that it became warmer." She was a little worried about the climate now, afraid that this year would be abnormal like last year, which would really mean that God would not let people survive.

Xin had a smile on her face. "In previous years, spring would come a year earlier every three to five years. Last winter was cold, so it makes sense that spring came earlier this year."

After hearing this, Xiao Lan felt relieved. It is much better for spring to come earlier than later. Spring is the season when all things come back to life. As long as people can find food, they can survive.

Now every household relies on relief food from the imperial court to survive. How can they have enough to eat when they have to count the rice grains every day? When Xiaolan found that the bushes behind her house had begun to sprout, she was sure that spring had really come.

The villagers gradually started to move around. Even though spring came early this year, people didn't look too happy. Chunzhu's wife said that in this unusually cold winter, many people had frozen to death. Now that the weather is warmer, many families wrapped their family members with straw, dug pits on the grave hill, and buried them in them without even a tombstone.

Ever since Xiao Lan and his friends hunted down prey from Beishan last time, Zhang Qingfeng and Sheng Xuan went there twice more, but without any gain, so they dismantled the trap and never went back.