Farmhouse life after traveling back to ancient times

After Fang was buried, the New Year was also a lonely one.

Du Wenxiu and Lu Fanghai discussed moving out of Taohua Village.

Lu Fanghai thought about it carefully and nodded silently.

After all the commotion, no matchmaker in Shihe Town was willing to act as a matchmaker for Qiao'er. Even if the two of them were willing to support Qiao'er for the rest of her life, she would probably not be able to stand the gossips from the villagers sooner or later.

Being in this environment all the time, it is not possible to persuade her to be more open-minded.

The real difficulties are also before us.

However, after more than half a year of hard work and frugality, the family did not save much money.

Lu Fanghai went into the mountains three times a month to hunt rabbits and pheasants. When he came back he would sell them in town and bring Du Wenxiu's pickles to Hui'an Tower.

The amount of mountain products hunted each time varies, but it can total about 700 coins a month. It is winter now and the mountains are closed due to heavy snow, so I haven't been there for several months.

Dried black fungus also became famous in Hui'anlou. When Du Wenxiu went to the town, he taught his cook to put a few black fungus in the dishes when cooking, which made the dishes more flavorful and consumed faster. Sometimes he sent a pound of black fungus once a month, sometimes twice a month, and a pound cost 120 coins.

About one hundred eggs and salted eggs were sent over every month, and eggs from the villagers were also collected to make preserved eggs, the price of which was five cents higher than that of salted eggs.

In this way, at the end of the month, the income is about five strings of cash.

If we move to the county, we won’t be able to grow wood ear mushrooms, which will reduce our income by several hundred coins.

Hunting is probably difficult, and it will cost you several hundred coins.

I don’t know if I can still raise chickens, I’ll just have to wait and see.

The only things they could make were probably things like fermented beans and salted eggs. The two of them sat on the kang facing each other and worried.

But seeing Qiao'er being depressed every day, I felt scared.

If they delayed Qiao'er because of their desire to make money, no matter how much money they made, they would still feel uneasy.

Finally, they made a decision. After calculating the money they had, they sent Lu Fanghai to the county to inquire about the market and see what kind of place they could find for the nearly sixty taels of silver.

Thinking that I would have to start the pickle business in the future, it would be best to find a shop with a yard, where I could do business in the front and live in the back. Then I would go and see if I could supply some pickled vegetables and salted eggs to the restaurant like I did in Shihe Town. If I could have a stable supply, the pressure would be less.

While Lu Fanghai was in the county, Du Wenxiu followed their previous discussion and went to Qiu Yong's house to find his new wife, An.

An had just married into the family a few years ago and was still very shy. When Qiu Yong saw her coming, he hurried to let her in. It was freezing cold now and he couldn't stand standing outside.

Du Wenxiu was not pretentious and directly explained the purpose of her visit. Qiu Yong's mother listened and cried, saying that Qiao'er was such a good girl, but she was spread like this by those idle people.

They also said that Qiu Yong and An Shi were engaged when they were children. Otherwise...

Du Wenxiu quickly interrupted the conversation and changed the subject to growing wood ear mushrooms and raising chickens.

The news had spread among the people of Taohua Village a long time ago that the daughter-in-law of the Lu family had made a lot of money by selling wood ear mushrooms. The villagers also followed suit and cut down many healthy trees and brought them back home, but they did not produce any wood ear mushrooms.

Some people came to take a look a few times under the pretext of visiting, but Du Wenxiu kept a close eye on the hut. He made a living from it, so how could he let anyone go and learn from it at will?

In fact, Du Wenxiu also thought that the reason why the rumors did not stop even after Lu Fanghai severely punished the scoundrel was probably because his family was only concerned with making money for themselves and kept the way to make money a secret. Others were jealous and would make up some stories for no reason, not to mention that it was ready-made now.

It’s not that Du Wenxiu doesn’t want to teach. Now she supplies Hui’anlou point-to-point with limited sales channels. She was thinking that there would be a bigger market in the future and she could help the whole village to get rich. The dream of walking on the golden road has made her laugh awake several times. Who knew that this kind of thing would happen again.

"Sister-in-law, you want us to do this?" Qiu Yong asked in surprise. The new daughter-in-law looked at him in confusion, not knowing why he was suddenly excited.

Du Wenxiu smiled and said calmly, "That's right. I have discussed this with your brother Fang Hai many times in the past few days, and finally decided to hand it over to you. You can also live in our yard for the time being."

"What?" Qiu Yong was confused. "What do you mean, sister-in-law? We live in your yard? Where are you going?"

A series of questions were thrown at him, and Qiu Yong's mother also asked one after another.

"You see, Qiao'er doesn't want to go out now, and we don't dare to let her go out. If she hears some gossip in the village, she might feel upset and behave like my mother-in-law..." Du Wenxiu paused, and then continued, "I have discussed with your brother Fang Hai and decided to move to a new place to let Qiao'er relax and not be depressed all the time, which will eventually lead to trouble."

"If this happens, I won't be able to take care of the family. While your brother Fang Hai is out looking for a house, I was asked to come and ask you if you are willing to take over our family business..."

Qiu Yong frowned and thought for a long time before he sighed and said, "This is Brother Fang Hai and Sister-in-law taking care of us, how could I not know that. But where are you going to move to? Will we be able to see each other again in the future?"

Du Wenxiu laughed and comforted him, "We can't fly to the ends of the earth. Look, the matchmakers from Shihe Town have come to my house, and Qiao'er can't say she's a good match. Your brother Fang Hai and I are thinking about going to the county to see if there's any place where we can settle down."

Qiu Yong still had a frown on his face, and his new wife, An, remained silent, just waiting for him to make the decision.

"Sister-in-law, maybe in two years, everyone will have forgotten about Qiao'er's incident, and no one will talk about it anymore. Then you can find someone to propose marriage to her..." Qiu Yong gave some advice.

Du Wenxiu shook his head and said with a wry smile, "I'm afraid that as long as our sister gets married, someone will bring this up. Qiao'er is still young and can wait. We should work hard in these few years. If we can take root in the county, Qiao'er's future may be better."

Seeing that they were determined to leave, Qiu Yong was helpless. He lamented that Lu Sangui was gone, and now Lu Fanghai was leaving too. From now on, he would be the only one left in the hunting trio.

"If you can grow wood ear mushrooms, dry them in the sun, and raise chickens, it will be no worse than hunting. And it will be more stable. You don't have to go to the mountains so often. If you have to go, find someone reliable to accompany you, and don't go in alone." Du Wenxiu instructed, and Qiu Yong nodded in response.

An Shi understood it now. When she first arrived, she heard villagers talking about Du Wenxiu in gossip, but she never expected that the work she did at home could make so much money.

It was not often that Qiu Yong could hunt game that sold well when he went into the mountains. On weekdays, his income was about the same as Lu Fanghai's, with a monthly income of about 700 to 800 coins. Although it was better than farming, it was unstable.

The mountains are blocked by heavy snow in the winter, so we can't go out. The whole family just sits around the stove and lives off our savings.

But if they could learn Du Wenxiu's method of growing wood ear mushrooms and supply them directly to Hui'anlou, they wouldn't have to look for sales channels themselves. Qiu Yong, who had lost his partner, wouldn't have to take the risk of going into the mountains, and the family would have a stable income. How could this be bad?