I have been farming since I crossed over.

Yang Mingxi looked at the statistical data sent by the village chief. Almost every family planned to plant one mu of land to test the water first, and then plant more crops if it works.

Two families of the Zhang clan and the village chief's family asked for 5 mu of seedlings, one family asked for 2 mu, the Zheng family also asked for 5 mu of seedlings, and the other one was Aunt Juhua's family, who also asked for 5 mu. What Yang Mingxi didn't expect was that the Duan family also asked for 5 mu of seedlings.

The Duan family and the Yang family moved to Changshan Village at about the same time. When they first arrived, they were a family of five, two sons and a daughter. Several years later, they had another daughter and almost proposed marriage to Yang Laowu. Originally, the parents of both families agreed. However, the plan was called off because Yang Laowu met Wu in the mountains. However, there was no unpleasantness. The girl soon married to Lijiaying and is said to be living a good life.

After the two sons of the Duan family got married, they behaved well and had seven grandsons in total, but no granddaughters. They were about the same age as the grandchildren of the Yang family. His fourth grandson had set his sights on Yang Mingqi, from the fourth branch of the family. A few days ago, he sent someone to propose marriage. Yang Mingqi agreed, but Qian Shi didn't. I thought there would be unpleasantness between the two families, but I didn't expect the Duan family to even ask for five mu of rice seedlings. Did they really trust me? Or was there some gossip?

Yang Mingxi looked at the seedling reservation list and called his eldest brother Yang Minghu over and asked, "Brother, has Sister Qi gone to the wasteland to help out these days?"

"Yes, everyone in our family went. Even my second aunt went to help after she finished cooking."

"Then, big brother, who from the Duan family will help us open up the wasteland?"

"The Duan family? Let me see. They have quite a few people coming. It seems that except for the daughter-in-law with a child and Old Lady Duan, everyone else is here. Oh, there are 10 people in total from their family. Since they only need to replace the rice seedlings for one acre of land per day, they are the family with the most visitors in the village."

Yang Mingxi blinked once, then blinked again, and finally continued to ask: "Has his fourth child come into contact with Sister Qi?"

Yang Minghu didn't answer for a long time. Yang Mingxi thought her question was too blunt and was about to change the subject when she heard her eldest brother say, "It seems that the two of them were transporting humus soil together. I don't remember. I'll go check it out tomorrow. What happened?"

Yang Mingxi shook her head, hoping that it wasn't what she thought, it definitely wasn't.

In this way, the days passed one by one. Every day, Yang Minghu led the men to open up the wasteland, while Yang Mingxi led the men to hunt and detoxify the Zheng family. Everyone did their job without interfering with each other. In a blink of an eye, it was the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Little New Year. Most families had already started preparing for the New Year. From the beginning of the Little New Year, the New Year celebrations began.

The Yang family's land reclamation effort ended yesterday, leaving about 150 mu (approximately acres) of land. Work will resume on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year. During this time, the villagers, Yang Mingyun, and the Wu family uncles have all helped reclaim the land, and over mu (approximately acres) have already been reclaimed.

Yang Mingxi had designated 100 mu of land and had Yang Minghu plowed again, preparing to divert water starting today. Over bamboos, each as thick as an adult's arm, were gathered and divided into three groups. Water was brought from the deep pool at the back to soak the soil in the fields, turning it over as it soaked. Because it was barren land, multiple turns were required.

Yang Mingxi also asked Wu to put the entire bottom part of the humus soil on the ground in front of the old house, wrap it with oilcloth, and let it ferment quickly. The advantage of this is that the humus soil will become farmyard manure that is more easily absorbed by the seedlings. On the other hand, the various seeds that fall into the humus soil can be germinated and then killed, so that they can be used as fertilizer without sprouting and growing after fertilization, affecting the seedlings.

After fermentation is completed, spread it on the ground to dry. After drying, use a roller to roll it back and forth to crush the humus soil, and then filter it once with a coarse bamboo sieve. The fine humus soil can be used to sow seedlings and spread on the rice. It can be used as covering soil and fertilizer.

Yang Mingxi asked Uncle Wu to go home and do the same with him, so they could come over and plant the rice seedlings. Yang Minghu had been spending most of the last few days in the rice seedling fields, turning the fields back and forth, trying to make them as good as possible.

Because it was the Little New Year, Yang Mingxi and his friends went up the mountain to hunt and hunted some more roe deer, pheasants and rabbits in preparation for the banquet on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Yang Laoqi's wedding room has been decorated. At Yang Mingxi's suggestion, the room was simply decorated with red cloth, which looks really good.

Yang Laoqi's fiancée is from Zhangjiatun in the northwest of Qingshui County. Almost the entire village has the surname Zhang. She is a cousin of Li's eldest sister-in-law from her aunt's family and was introduced to her by Li's eldest sister-in-law from her aunt's family. So tomorrow, in addition to the people from the Yang family, Li's eldest sister-in-law from her aunt's family and her eldest brother will also go together as matchmakers.

The matchmaker has to come to the man's house one day in advance. In addition to helping to check the layout of the wedding room, the main thing is to have a meal at the man's house first, which is called "opening the guest table", implying that there will be no worries about food and drink when welcoming the bride.

Old Man Yang arranged the dishes and staple foods for tomorrow's guest banquet, and then went to see Yang Minghu working in the rice fields. Now the most important thing for the Yang family is not Yang Laoqi's marriage, but the rice seedlings that Yang Mingxi is going to plant.

Old man Yang went to the rice seedling field three times a day to check if there was enough water in the field, whether the covering soil was fine, and even asked Yang Mingxi about rice seeds and oilcloth over and over again.

There was a problem with the oilcloth customized by Yang Laosan. It should have arrived on the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month, but it has not arrived yet. Yang Laosan has already gone to check it out in person. Yang Mingxi is not in a hurry about this matter. If it doesn't work, she can go to another grocery store to buy it. At most, she will have to pay an extra two taels of silver.

As for the rice seeds, Yang Mingxi told Old Man Yang not to worry, as her master would give her good sprouts. Once the seedling field was ready, she could go directly to her master's uncle in Qingshui County to get them.

Yang Mingxi planned to start sowing rice seedlings around the sixth day after the Lunar New Year. She had 30 mu of rice seedling fields, and there was a lot of preparatory work to do. She also needed to hire people to help with the sowing, otherwise she would be too busy. However, the entire Yang family objected. They argued that they could work before the Lunar New Year, even until the night of New Year's Eve, but after that, they couldn't do anything until the fifteenth day of the lunar year. Otherwise, their entire year of hard work would be in vain.

Yang Mingxi said she was speechless, what kind of superstitious idea was this? But in the end she endured it and moved the day of sowing the seedlings forward to the afternoon of the 27th and the 28th. Because the seedlings had been sown in Changshan Village, Yang Mingxi had to go to Uncle Wu's house to help sow the seedlings, and she was worried about letting her uncles do it themselves.

Finally, there was meat on the Yang family's dinner again. It was because Yang Mingyu saw his sister eating cabbage and tofu every night, and her mouth became more and more pouty while eating. In addition, today was the Little New Year, so Yang Mingyu didn't go to sell the prey with Yang Mingxi after hunting, but went to the river to fish.

As Yang Mingyu and Yang Mingxi got to know each other, he discovered that she particularly loved meat. During their hunting trip, they had grilled game for lunch every day, which Yang Mingxi ate with gusto. However, she was unhappy when she had to eat cabbage and tofu at night.

Yang Mingxi looked at the fish on the dinner table, her mouth almost watering. She quickly picked up a piece of fish and put it in her mouth and said, "Third brother, you are so kind. How did you know I was craving fish?"

Yang Mingxi was talking while chewing the fish. Yang Mingyu looked at Yang Mingxi who was eating in a mess and suddenly thought: "If Zheng Huairen were here, he would definitely pick out the fish bones for Yang Mingxi." Thinking of this, Yang Mingyu's face darkened. He put down his bowl, took an empty bowl, and picked out the fish bones.

Mrs. Wu looked at Yang Mingyu's actions and said with a smile, "Ayu, you eat first. I will pick out the bones from your brother's fish."

Yang Mingyu blushed at what Wu said, and murmured, "I'll pick the fish for my two younger sisters, especially Qian'er. Be careful not to get it stuck." After that, he placed the fish meat with the bones picked out in front of Yang Mingxi and Yang Mingqian, then he picked up the bowl and started eating.