Traveling through time and space to meet a replacement bride? But I’m a man!

Wake up the next day.

Everything was peaceful last night. Was I really overthinking it?

Breakfast was pancakes and sweet milk brought by Jiang Wancheng. After breakfast, Xu Wenyan took the map.

After saying goodbye to Magistrate Ma, everyone set off again.

"Brother Chen, take a rest."

Chen Sanlin responded and wanted to sleep next to Xu Wenyan. Xu Wenyan rubbed his hair and said, "How can you sleep like this?"

He pushed Chen Sanlin down and let his head rest on his thigh, while Xu Wenyan leaned against the carriage with the map in his left hand and the reins in his right hand.

The morning wind gave Xu Wenyan a headache, which only felt better after he wrapped himself in a blanket.

The carriage moved very slowly across the Gobi Desert, and it wasn't until the next day that a hint of green was seen.

"Wife, look and see if there are any fruits on that little tree over there."

Looking in the direction of Chen Sanlin's finger, there were some low shrubs. If it weren't for Chen Sanlin's good eyesight, even Xu Wenyan wouldn't have noticed them.

Xu Wenyan and his group's carriage was the third in the team, with Jiang Shicheng in front.

“Stop the car first!”

The convoy was stopped, and soon Jiang Shicheng hurried to Xu Wenyan, thinking that something had happened.

"What's wrong, Shopkeeper Chen? Did you find something?"

Looking at his anxious expression, Xu Wenyan couldn't help but sigh that the Jiang family's family precepts were really strict.

Even the famous families did not treat Xu Wenyan with any disrespect. This was probably the majesty of Mr. Jiang.

"Well, I found something and I'm going to check it out."

Those short bushes are on both sides of the main road, quite a distance away, so you have to walk over there for a while.

Chen Sanlin walked in front, and Xu Wenyan followed closely behind.

Jiang Shicheng was also curious. His father said that Manager Chen was a very interesting and capable person, and he wanted him to learn from Chen Pingan this time.

However, after spending a few days together, Jiang Shicheng didn't see what was special about Chen Pingan. At most, he just looked delicate.

When Jiang Shicheng was about to follow, the two people in front of him had already stood in front of the low bushes.

Looking at the black berries in front of him, Xu Wenyan could no longer suppress the smile on his face. He decisively picked one and put it into his mouth.

A familiar aroma hit me: "It's blackcurrant."

"Black currant?" Chen Sanlin had never seen it before, but the name sounded strange, so he picked one and tasted it.

The taste is a little bit sweet, and there are many seeds inside the fruit. It is a taste I have never tasted before, and it is a bit weird.

Black currant, also known as black currant and drought grape, is a deciduous upright shrub of the genus Ribes in the family Ribesceinaceae.

Its branches are small, the young branches are velvety, the leaves are nearly round, and the fruit is black when ripe.

Black currant is light-loving and cold-resistant. It is a berry suitable for growing in the north. Black currant is also easy to grow and can be sown, propagated, or layered.

At the same time, black currant can be used as medicine. It tastes spicy, is warm in nature, has a detoxifying effect, and is generally used to treat colds.

Black currant fruit contains a variety of vitamins, sugars and organic acids, among which vitamins are the highest. It is generally used to make jam, wine or beverages.

Xu Wenyan looked around. There were quite a few black currant trees here. Most of them were black, and a small number were still red and immature.

"Manager Chen, what is this?"

"Yes, it is edible. It is a kind of fruit."

Jiang Shicheng also tasted it and found it tasted okay. The fruit was neither sweet nor sour, and the texture was average. The main problem was that there were too many seeds inside.

These small seeds are edible and don’t have much impact.

Xu Wenyan picked a handful and said, "After we go back, let Master Jiang send someone to pick more fruits, and also transport the fruit trees and the soil back."

If you eat black currants alone, they may not taste as good as other berries, but if you make them into jam or juice, they still taste very good.

The main thing is that it has high nutritional value and beautiful color.

The Roselle Mulberry Tea in the store is also a big seller because of its color and nutritional value. Anyone who has studied medicine knows the benefits of mulberries and Roselle.

When the time comes, Xu Wenyan will just need to promote them, and make them into jam, and ship it back to Beijing, where it will also sell well.

As the saying goes, rare things are valuable.

"Yes."

Jiang Shicheng didn't see much value in this black currant, but the old man asked him to listen to him, so he listened to him.

Anyway, he just conveyed his message, and in the end, the old man makes the decision.

After this little episode, the convoy continued on its way.

Xu Wenyan was quite satisfied with the black currant, as it tasted stronger than those he ate in modern times.

It is pure wild, the taste is different.

We didn’t get lost on the rest of the journey and arrived at Xinghuagou smoothly. It was beautiful here even though it wasn’t blooming season.

The endless mountains are connected to each other, one mountain borders another mountain, and the apricot trees in the mountains are adjacent to each other.

If Xinghuagou in spring is a white and pink ocean, then Xinghuagou in autumn is orange and yellow clouds.

When the convoy reached the foot of the mountain, villagers on patrol in Yili Village spotted them. Jiang Shicheng's translator explained their purpose to the villagers, who soon smiled and invited them into the village.

Because Xinghuagou is relatively remote, the imperial court has not yet extended its jurisdiction here.

The village chief of Yili Village is a middle-aged man. During the conversation, I learned that the old village chief had passed away not long ago, and this was the newly elected village chief.

The village chief is named Nurban, a very enthusiastic middle-aged man.

He always had a smile on his face when he spoke. Here, the barter method was still used. But think about it, there was no need for copper coins here, and all he had in his hands was some scrap copper and iron.

When Nurban heard that Xu Wenyan and his companions came for the apricots from Xinghuagou, he immediately brought people to deliver several baskets of apricots.

The baskets they use are made of tree branches. The quality is slightly inferior to those made of bamboo, but they are also good containers.

The apricots here are a variety of hanging-dried apricots. This type of apricots is not easy to fall off and will dry by themselves when hung on the tree.

However, that is inefficient, and it will be relatively sour if it is not steamed.

Most people here rely on eating apricots and dried apricots to supplement the sugar needed by the human body.

After some negotiations with the village chief, the village chief agreed to allow Xu Wenyan and his team to build a factory in the village, since there were not many people in the village anyway.

The villagers were quite friendly towards outsiders like Xu Wenyan.

The houses were still built with the ancient method of earthen bricks. Xu Wenyan used a small amount of salt to exchange for brick-making molds from dozens of households in the entire village.

The fifty or sixty people brought by Jiang Shicheng officially started work under the leadership of Xu Wenyan.

Colleagues, in order to save time, Xu Wenyan asked the villagers to pick apricots while they were building houses.

Since it is a barter, Xu Wenyan can only use rice or salt as exchange.

The Yili Village also grows wheat. People in this northern region basically eat noodles, and Xu Wenyan has almost never seen anyone grow rice.

The rice in Lan County is also transported from areas close to the Central Plains for sale.

Xu Wenyan didn't bring much rice, but the people in Yili Village liked the taste of rice very much, and they knew how rare it was, just like salt.

Nurban asked almost every household in the village to send someone to help Xu Wenyan pick apricots.

It will only take a few days to pick the fruits. After the factory building is built, Xu Wenyan and the others will be busy with the work.

Apart from supervising the work, Xu Wenyan also cooked and dried apricots with Chen Sanlin.

In just a few days, I ate enough apricots for the whole year.

..........

After spending a few days together, Xu Wenyan observed that the villagers here are actually quite busy in their daily lives.

As a pastoral people, they pay great attention to the management of cattle and sheep.

First, the apricot trees must not be harmed, as they are the foundation of their livelihoods; second, the grass roots and farmland must not be destroyed.

Xinghuagou is located between mountains and rivers, and is a rare oasis in the Gobi region.

Because of this, the grass here grows well and the cattle and sheep are fatter.

I heard from the villagers that there is a large lake deep in Xinghuagou, and every autumn the village chief would take the strongest men in the village to fish in the lake.

Their fishing technique is quite crude, which is just to go into the lake and poke the fish with a fork.

The village's fishing festival was coming soon, and Nurban warmly invited Chen Sanlin because he looked particularly strong and would definitely be able to catch a lot of fish.

Chen Sanlin asked Xu Wenyan, and Xu Wenyan knew that he wanted to go, so he let him go.

Anyway, we don't need him here. Xu Wenyan is here to help look after the goods, not to really let Chen Sanlin do the work.

Seeing that he seemed to be blaming himself, Xu Wenyan decided to go with him.

After saying that he would accompany him, Chen Sanlin's face showed happiness. It turned out that all men are like this.

As long as you feel a little bit of sympathy for him, they will be deeply moved.

Xu Wenyan also felt the same way about himself. In fact, he was a person who was easily satisfied. If others were nice to him, he would be twice as nice to them.

However, at five o'clock in the morning, Nurban brought other men from the village to find Chen Sanlin.

Xu Wenyan packed up his things while feeling sleepy. Since they couldn't understand what each other was saying, Nurban mostly used gestures to express himself.

The only way to get to Xinghua Lake is on foot, because the roads leading there are all mountainous. It's OK for horses to walk there, but it would be difficult if they were carrying things.

Nurban led the way enthusiastically in front, and Xu Wenyan and the others followed closely behind.

Ever since he came here, Xu Wenyan felt that there was no need to put down the backpack, and he had to carry it wherever he went.

The slope here is relatively gentle, so climbing it is relatively easy. There is green grass under your feet, so you have to be careful when walking, as you will slip if you don't control yourself well.

The further you go into the mountains, the stronger the apricot fragrance becomes, and there are relatively more animal species here.

However, the locals raise cattle and sheep themselves, and they still adhere to the principle of peaceful coexistence with these wild animals and do not interfere with each other.

I don’t know how many hills we have climbed. Xu Wenyan lowered his head and looked down. The flat surface of the lake was like a mirror, clear and mysterious.

The lakeshore is covered with green grass, just like a green frame for the mirror.

"Wow! Brother Chen, if only I had a camera right now, I would take a picture of this scene."

Xu Wenyan had a bright smile on her face and always said that beautiful scenery could heal people's hearts.

That’s absolutely true.

Although Chen Sanlin didn't know what the camera Xu Wenyan was talking about, he was happy to see Xu Wenyan happy.

When they got to the lake shore, Nurban smiled and danced in front of Xu Wenyan, mumbling something.

Although he didn't understand, Xu Wenyan could roughly understand what he meant.

Soon Nurban and the men behind him took off their clothes, revealing their strong muscles.

Nurban said a few words and then picked up a fork and began to observe the lake.

This is a relatively ancient fishing method that requires observing the movements of fish on the water surface. Once you can see the fish clearly, you must immediately pick up a spear and stab it into the water.

This is why they have to take off their clothes immediately when they arrive at the place.

Xu Wenyan walked to the lake, squatted down, put his hand into the water, and suddenly felt a cold touch from the back of his hand.

"Hiss——" Xu Wenyan couldn't help but shiver.

"How can we go down into such cold water?" Xu Wenyan would definitely not go down, and would not let Chen Sanlin go down either.

Nurban became anxious when he saw that the two men did not take off their clothes. How could they catch fish like this?

I saw Xu Wenyan rummaging in the cloth bag and soon took out a piece of wire.

"Brother Chen, please polish it."

Chen Sanlin took the wire. They had been married for a long time, so they still had some tacit understanding.

While Chen Sanlin was grinding the wire, Xu Wenyan took out the prepared beef tendon.

Since we are out fishing, we must be prepared first. Xu Wenyan originally planned to come here to fish.

I thought that at worst they would use fishing nets, but I didn't expect the fishing method here to be so primitive.

It is too late to rub the fishing net by hand now, not to mention that Xu Wenyan doesn’t have that much line.

Xu Wenyan uses nearby poplar trees for fishing rods. If one breaks, he has to replace it. As for fishing rods, Xu Wenyan is most comfortable with those made of bamboo.

The fishing rod was quickly made, and Chen Sanlin dug up the earthworms and wrapped them in leaves.

This was all taught to him by Xu Wenyan, who said that fish like to eat this kind of insects the most.

They call this insect an earth dragon, and we used to catch it and play with it when we were children.

When you get tired of playing, you can feed the chickens. This was the toy that Chen Sanlin played with the most when he was a child.

The two men came to the river with fishing rods, and Nurban was stunned as he had gone into the water two or three times without any results.

What are they doing with their fishing rods?

How to catch fish with this?

Nurban walked over anxiously, but since they couldn't communicate in the same language, he could only worry.

Finally, he watched Xu Wenyan throw the rod into the water, and gray balls floated on the water.

This is a fishing float made by Xu Wenyan using insect pupae. It is a little different from the one made with cattail in the pond, but it can still be used.

Soon, Nurban plunged into the water, and a moment later, he held the harpoon high up.

A grass carp is swinging its body vigorously.

Nurban climbed ashore and ran towards Xu Wenyan in a hurry with a smug look on his face.

Xu Wenyan looked at the fish in his hand: "Haha, Brother Nu is awesome."

When he was a child, Xu Wenyan also tried to catch fish using this method, but he was not strong enough and he didn't catch any fish after struggling in the river for a long time.

Nurban saw Xu Wenyan and smiled. Just as he was about to give the fish to him, he saw Xu Wenyan suddenly grab the rod in his hand and drag it left and right.

"I've caught a fish." After Xu Wenyan came to his senses, he used the "8" method to lure the fish back and forth.

After swimming for a quarter of an hour, a fish bigger than the one in Nurban's hand was caught.

Nurban's face was full of surprise when he saw Xu Wenyan dragging the fish ashore.

From now on, he will start a new era of fishing.