Song Sanniang's Journey to Wealth

Early in the morning, Song Lao Er woke up and excitedly woke up Song Er Sao beside him.

"Look, I'm fine, I'm not poisoned, and I didn't go hungry last night. Let's go buy the cassava field today."

Mrs. Song was woken up and saw that it was time to get up.

"Okay, I'll go find the village chief later. Logically, as long as we open up the wasteland, we can get the land.

But if we got the cassava, the villagers would probably be jealous if they knew we could eat it.

We will buy it and leave some cassava for everyone, so whoever wants to plant it can plant it."

I have to say that Song Ersao's method is very bright.

After the family washed up and had breakfast, Song Laoer took the five taels of silver he got from the division of the family property and went to see the village chief, while Song Ersao and Sanniang went to the fields.

"Old Second, what do you want from me?" The village chief was in his fifties and still strong. He was working in the yard and greeted Song Old Second when he saw him coming.

"Village chief, I want to buy the cassava field next to my wasteland. How much do you think it costs?"

"You can just reclaim that piece of land, why spend that money?" The village chief put down the hoe in his hand and wondered,

"Village chief, you know my family's situation. If we don't find a way out, we'll starve to death.

Sanniang said that a beggar woman taught her how to remove the poison from cassava.

I tried it, and it was fine.

We won’t have to go hungry if we harvest those cassava.”

The village chief took a puff of his pipe and said, "Tonight I'll go with you to measure the size of the land.

No one grows crops there. If the cassava is really edible, please leave some seeds for me so we can grow some as well."

"I have discussed this with Sanniang's mother. We will keep some for ourselves and leave some for seeds for those in the village who want to grow it."

"There's no need to save seeds for this cassava. It can survive as long as the branches with buds are planted in the soil." The village head's wife heard their conversation in the house and came out.

"When I was a girl, my family also had cassava. I remember one year there was a severe drought and everyone was starving. Someone started to think about cassava.

Of the three people in that family, the husband and wife only had abdominal pain and vomiting, but the child was poisoned to death. I think you should not take the risk."

"I don't need to. We will watch it." Song Laoer didn't know what to say so he had to respond. Seeing that he didn't listen to her advice, the village chief's wife shook her head and walked into the house again.

The village chief and Song Lao Er came to the field. Sanniang and Song Ersao had already pulled out a bunch of cassava.

"Wife, it turns out that cassava can be planted without preserving seeds. Just stick the branches with buds into the soil and they will grow. Don't throw these branches away." Song Lao Er said happily.

"With so much cassava, your efforts will be in vain." The village chief shook his head again.

When the land was measured, it was less than one acre. Then the village chief directly allocated another acre of land where there was no cassava.

"This is exactly one acre. No one has ever planted this wasteland. If you want to plant it now, I will charge you 500 coins and exempt you from tax for two years.

I'll go to the county government office with you later when my son comes back to pay the money and get the land deed."

"Then I'll trouble the village chief," Song Laoer said to the village chief as they walked towards the village chief's house.

Seeing that they had bought the land and were about to harvest several hundred kilograms of grain, Sanniang and her daughter became more motivated and started working hard.

It was already dark when Song Laoer came back. The yard was full of cassava, which was brought back by Sanniang and her daughter in baskets. A jar of peeled cassava was already soaking in the water.

When the mother and daughter saw him come back, they invited him to have dinner, which was another plate of lettuce and porridge.

Song Lao Er took out a piece of paper from his pocket and said happily, "Look what this is?"

"Our family has land again." Sanniang was very supportive. Siniang and Wuniang stopped eating and clapped and cheered.

Song Laoer took the deed back into his arms with satisfaction.

The family had a happy meal together, then washed up and went to bed.

The next day, Song Laoer and his wife went to harvest cassava, while Sanniang and her friends cut the cassava at home, peeled the cassava, and then soaked the processed cassava in a large water tank.

The soaked materials are ready to be ground into powder. Grind the cassava vigorously in a large grinding basin. After grinding, filter it with gauze in a water tank to wash out the cassava flour, and then let the cassava flour slowly settle.

This busy work took most of the day. When my stomach started to growl, I took out the taro that I had cooked in the morning from the kitchen and ate it. After that, I put the cassava in the yard into the cellar of the utility room.

Song Laoer and his two brothers had already delivered cassava back and forth several times, and the yard was almost full. The family was busy all day, and in the evening, after dinner and washing up, they fell asleep quickly.

It's a new day again.

After breakfast, Song Laoer and his wife went to the fields to harvest cassava. It was almost an acre of cassava and it was not possible for two people to harvest it all so quickly.

Because some cassava roots are buried deep, you need to use a hoe to dig up the soil, and be careful not to damage the cassava. If the roots are buried shallowly, you can just pull them out.

Sanniang picked out those roots that were buried shallowly. For this batch of cassava, the couple even put their plans to harvest taro on hold.

Sanniang slowly scooped out the water from the water tank, which contained a thick layer of cassava flour. She scooped it out with a long spatula and placed it in a large winnowing basket to dry. She also took out some more and dried it in a pot.

She wanted to make some taro water mochi balls quickly. She was drooling just thinking about it. Unfortunately, there was no milk. Otherwise, adding milk to the mochi would make milk mochi, which would be full of milk flavor.

I looked around the kitchen and found only a little brown sugar and glutinous rice flour. I peeled a taro, cut it into pieces, and put it in a pot to steam.

Add glutinous rice flour and hot water to knead it into a dough, then roll it into long strips, cut it into small balls, put the balls in after the water boils, and when the balls float up, take them out and put them in cold water.

At this time, the taro is steamed. Take out the taro, put it in a bowl and mash it, then add water little by little until it becomes a thick taro paste.

Then add sugar and water to the tapioca flour and stir evenly. Water mochi will easily become sticky on the bottom, so Sanniang simply removes the firewood and waits until the temperature drops to a certain level. She pours the stirred tapioca flour water into the pot, stirring constantly and using the residual heat in the pot to cook the water mochi.

Next is the time to taste the results. Put water mochi, glutinous rice balls and taro paste in a small bowl, and finally pour in brown sugar water. A bowl of brown sugar and taro paste mochi balls is ready.

During this process, Si Niang and Wu Niang were jumping up and down beside them, wishing they could help make the sweet soup quickly.

When the sweet soup was ready, both of them looked at Sanniang pitifully with longing eyes.

Sanniang was amused, but she deliberately scooped a mouthful, blew it slowly to cool it down, ate it in one bite, and nodded in satisfaction, "It's delicious."

Sweets are really healing. Although there is no milk, the mochi is thick and silky with the fragrance of taro paste. The sweetness of brown sugar and the sticky texture of the meatballs also make Song Sanniang feel happy.

The saliva at the corners of Si Niang and Wu Niang's mouths was about to flow out of their eyes. Si Niang was braver and stammered, "Sister, is it delicious? Can I have a taste?" But Wu Niang didn't say anything, just stared at the sugar water in the bowl.

Sanniang felt as if her heart was scratched and felt a little uncomfortable.

Although Song Laoer and his wife did not favor boys over girls, they treated them well even though they only had three girls.

However, Mrs. Song was a person who favored boys over girls. When Mrs. Song gave birth to Sanniang, it was her first child. Although Mrs. Song was dissatisfied, she was willing to give Sanniang some face.

With the birth of the fourth and fifth daughters, Mrs. Song wanted to divorce the second sister-in-law immediately and marry a woman who could give birth to a son to the second son. She was even more hostile to the second sister-in-law.

As a result, Si Niang and Wu Niang were also scolded every day for losing money and wasting food.

Mrs. Song and her two daughters were also secretly weird with each other, so the two children have always been timid and cowardly and could only stick together silently.

Song Sanniang no longer had the intention of teasing them. She put the sugar water on the table, turned around and got a spoon and told them to eat quickly. Si Niang and Wu Niang looked at each other and grinned.