Traveling through the mountains and farming

After Lin Wan told the two siblings to go home early, she walked towards home.

All the way she was thinking about some information she had just obtained from the village head.

On the way, she met Aunt Li, who stopped her and asked her if she wanted to hold a residence renovation party.

Lin Wan only then realized that when renovating or adding to a house here, one can choose to hold a banquet or not. If one does, it is called a house renovation banquet.

After learning about it, she said that she would not make a big deal about it and planned to invite several families who helped build the house to come over for a meal, which would serve as a housewarming.

At this time, Aunt Li noticed that Lin Wan was a little off and a little distracted while talking, so she asked with concern:

"Wan'er, are you tired from building the house? I'll take care of the invitations, so you don't have to worry about it. And on the day when the party changes the wine, your two cousins ​​and I will come to help."

Aunt Li made the decision directly without giving her a chance to refuse.

"Yeah, a little bit. Then let's set the date for the wine change to be three days later, August 16th." Lin Wan immediately replied with a smile, without revealing the real reason for her distraction.

Then she thought for a moment and asked, "Great-aunt, have you finished weaving all the linen this year?"

"Yeah, that's about right. I was busy weaving so I didn't go to help you when you were building the house. The children said you made your yard very beautiful."

When Lin Wan heard Aunt Li say that the cloth had been woven, she directly suggested:

"Then please arrange for some people to come to my house today to learn how to dye cloth. I suggest that we have more people so that we can dye and sell the cloth as soon as possible."

She thought that it would be better to sell the cloth for cash as soon as possible, and then she would find an opportunity to let them stockpile food together.

"Okay, I'll go back and ask someone to come over now." Aunt Li said happily when she heard Lin Wan say that she would teach her now.

"Okay, I'll go back and wait. Remember to bring some linen."

~

After saying goodbye to Aunt Li, Lin Wan quickly returned home. She sat in the pavilion in the yard, lying on the table to organize her thoughts.

She felt that she would not be able to sleep well again tonight.

Because she found out from the village head that the recent grain prices had doubled.

In other words, the price of grain has doubled in just half a month from the last time she saw it at the market.

Now, rice costs 120 wen per dou, and rice costs 172 wen per dou.

The village head also said that many households in their village have temporarily stopped making wine.

Part of the reason is that they really have no food in stock, and the current food prices are high, so they cannot afford to buy food, so they have to close down.

Most people believe that it is more profitable to sell the grain directly, so they choose to directly sell the brewing grain that they have stored for many years.

This is because a grain merchant recently came into their village to purchase grain. It seemed that he knew that every household in their village had the habit of storing grain for brewing wine, so he came to their house specifically to purchase grain at a high price.

No wonder Lin Wan didn’t hear anyone entering Quanshui Village to collect grain.

In Quanshui Village, every household was short of food. Those who could get half full were considered to be living well. After the summer taxes were collected, there was not much surplus food left, and now everyone was waiting for the autumn harvest in more than ten days.

After obtaining this information, Lin Wan felt a greater sense of crisis than before.

She had originally planned to save money for a while and then go to the city to buy grain and store it. Now it seems that she has to speed up the process, and she always feels that the price increase of grain is a bit exaggerated.

Could it be that the situation on the front line is even more critical?

So is it safe to keep the food she is going to buy at a high price at home?

Thinking of this, she decided to find a safe place to store food.

I don’t know how long this war will last. If the war continues, food prices will probably get more and more expensive.

She planned to store at least enough food for the three of them for a year.

She stood up, picked up a branch, and began to write, draw and calculate on the ground.

Finally, they calculated that the three of them consumed about 1,314 kilograms of rice a year, which is about 11 stone of rice. If they stored rice, they would get 1,877 kilograms, which is more than 15 and a half stone of rice, which can be rounded off to 16 stone of rice.

According to the current price, these would cost nearly twenty-three taels of silver. The money she currently had was more than enough to buy food for a year.

However, they still need to prepare some daily necessities, such as clothes, especially cotton-padded clothes and quilts for the winter. Their family now only has one worn-out quilt.

There are also Chinese medicinal herbs for emergency use. In ancient times, catching a cold could be fatal.

You can't just eat rice, you also need to prepare other things like beans, meat, and condiments.

These all cost money. It looks like I still have to go up the mountain and get some more money.

After Lin Wan finished her calculations, she searched her original body's memory again to see if there were any wild fruits or medicinal herbs in the mountains that she was familiar with and could be eaten or dug up and sold directly.

She had just found some useful information when she heard someone knocking on the door of the yard.

Lin Wan got up to open the gate and saw Aunt Li coming with her third uncle Li Changli, third aunt Chen Lian and second uncle Li Changyi's second son Li Chongzheng.

After the greetings, Aunt Li and Chen Lian were both attracted by the layout and scenery of Lin Wan's house.

They have been busy weaving recently and have no time to go out, so they have not been to Lin Wan's house.

At this time, Lin Wan had no intention of paying attention to this at all, and just took them on a quick and simple tour of the entire place.

After visiting the house, Aunt Li couldn't help but sigh, "Oh my, this is really beautiful and unique. Lin Wan, you are really capable. You have arranged the house so well."

Chen Lian also nodded and said, "Yes, this place is very different from before. I can't even recognize this as our old thatched house. It feels very warm and comfortable. These stone-paved paths won't get your feet dirty on rainy days, right?"

"This is all thanks to everyone's help. We will explain how to dye cloth in the pavilion in the backyard later." After expressing her gratitude, Lin Wan quickly got to the point.

Everyone moved the wooden barrels, water, linen and other items they needed to the pavilion. Lin Wan took the indigo mud she had made and the alum she had bought from the room and took them to the backyard.

Everyone sat around a long table while Lin Wan stood up and began to speak.

She explained and illustrated everything from the principles of plant dyeing to which plants can be dyed, to the specific dyeing steps and precautions, as well as the methods of mixing different colors.

After listening, everyone was more or less confused.

"Wan'er, we may not know all the plants you mentioned."

“And there are steps that we may not remember.”

"And is alum the same as white alum?"

……

Lin Wan found that it was really difficult to accept and learn everything if she said too much at once, so she thought for a while and said:

"So, I will first make the yellow, azure and blue dyes on site. The dyeing process is the same. Later, I will collect plants for dyeing other colors and make them according to this dyeing method."

Everyone thought this was feasible, so they followed Lin Wan out to pick gardenias, angelica sinensis, and indigofera ovata.

Many people worked separately and all of them had picked the fruits in less than half an hour.

Lin Wan mobilized and directed everyone to participate in dyeing the cloth. After about half an hour, they dyed the yellow and sky blue cloth first.

When Aunt Li saw the dyed yellow and sky blue cloth hanging on the clothesline, her eyes sparkled with surprise.

She couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow, this color is so beautiful! We can actually dye such beautiful cloth ourselves."

"Yeah, we didn't expect that these plants that we thought were weeds could produce such beautiful colors." Chen Lian's face was also full of joy.

Others also praised the miraculous dyeing results and have started to think about dyeing all the linen in their homes and selling them. They would make a lot of money from this.

Lin Wan was standing by and suggested earnestly, "Grandma, I suggest that you dye all the cloth in your home as soon as possible, and then sell it for money as soon as possible."

Then she continued, "If you can negotiate with the cloth merchant about the purchase of colored cloth, you can buy raw linen from other families in the village, dye it, and then deliver it to the cloth merchant."

"I think Wan'er's suggestion is very good. Let's go back and discuss it with father." Chen Lian, who was more active in thinking, responded immediately.

"I think it's feasible too." Li Changli next to him nodded in agreement.

Afterwards, Lin Wan continued to use indigo mud to prepare the dye liquid, dyed a piece of blue cloth, and explained the steps of making indigo mud again.

Because we can only soak the indigo grass today, and it will take three days to make the indigo mud, so we can only wait three days before continuing to explain the subsequent steps.

Finally, everyone helped to clean up the yard and went home happily with the three pieces of colorful cloth.