Don't worry about traveling through time, she has an all-powerful senior sister to help her

Shen Huai put down the chisel in his hand and said, "I have to show myself."

"Uncle, I'll go with you." Shen Lingzhu handed the brush and tung oil to his senior sister.

"Even if you go there, you can't get close. There are many gentry nearby, and they won't like to see a girl like you following them." The senior sister reminded her to give up the idea as soon as possible and not to cause trouble for her uncle.

With Aunt Jiu around, Shen Miaozhu was freed from the kitchen and worked with everyone today.

When Shen Lingzhu hesitated and stopped, he heard his uncle say, "If you watch from a distance, there are no restrictions."

She thought for a moment and said, "It's better not to go. Brother, are you going?"

"No, don't worry. Dad will tell us what happened when he comes back." Shen Xianzhu didn't have a very good impression of the Dianshi. He had to bow to him after meeting him, so why make himself uncomfortable?

Seeing no one supporting him, Shen Lingzhu waved her hand and said as her uncle changed his clothes and left, "Uncle, we won't participate in donating money or materials!"

What money or possessions do we have? Shen Huai shook his head and laughed, then followed Mr. Xia out of the door slowly.

Shen Lingzhu waited until the two of them had disappeared for a long time before he whispered to his senior sister about going up the mountain to collect Poria cocos.

The stings on her head and the back of her hands were basically swollen after being cleaned overnight. Yesterday, when her uncle picked up pheasants and eggs, he didn't take her with him.

There is such a large piece of Poria cocos. She will feel at ease if she can pick it back sooner.

"My uncle is not at home, but my aunt is here.

After she stopped taking her medicine, she basically couldn't sleep during the day.

Even with my uncle leading her, she wouldn't let me go to the mountains to pick them, and she certainly wouldn't agree if it was just the two of us." Shen Miaozhu gestured for her to look at the entrance of the hall, where her eldest aunt was making small clothes with Aunt Jiu.

Shen Lingzhu sighed: "My uncle is going to collect pigs today, and there will be a market tomorrow."

"One or two days won't make a difference. Besides, since the nearby villagers have no wood to exchange with us, no one will go up the mountain again, so the herbs won't disappear.

After these bellows are finished, we'll make some earth fertilizer and top-dress the new vegetable patch outside the door." Shen Miaozhu had other plans. She wanted to take advantage of the good vegetables she planted now to make dried vegetables so she wouldn't be short of vegetables to eat during the winter.

Shen Lingzhu objected, shaking her head quickly: "I've heard of soil fertilizer before, but it has to be mixed with soil and manure. I can't do it.

I would rather go up the mountain to dig up some rotten soil and be chased by a swarm of bees than do that.

Besides," she observed carefully, seeing that no one who was busy sawing wood was looking at them, she whispered softly, "It's better to go to the river and pick jade than to compost."

Shi Miaozhu thought she had some secret to tell, and when she heard this she rolled her eyes at her and started thinking about bad things every day.

What my junior sister brought back yesterday was just a piece of raw stone with a little jade texture exposed.

The uncle judged that the words on it were not words at all, but scars made by the tools during cutting. Simply put, the junior sister picked up a piece of waste discarded after cutting.

Shen Lingzhu had reservations about this. She thought she could just go upstream and try it out.

Shen Miaozhu said: "The upstream is the land purchased by the Seven Stars Temple. Believe it or not, their ancestors explored all the nearby mountains and rivers many years ago.

"Also, you can't try to take the organic compost on the mountain.

"Have you forgotten the last time I ran a few miles away with the girls from the tribe to pick wild fruits? They told me that there was a landslide that destroyed a village more than ten miles away. It was caused by excessive logging and the hollowing out of the mountain's layer of cultivated soil.

Nowadays, on the hills near the village, not only do we have to plant two trees after felling one, but we also need the village’s permission to go up and cut firewood or gather things.”

"We have already bought the hilltop, are we going to leave it barren and let the trees grow overgrown?" If so, Mr. Chi would be totally wronged by spending money to buy it. Thinking of this, Shen Lingzhu clenched his fists.

“Safety comes first. Earthquakes and mudslides don’t care whether you bought the mountain or not.

Unless you have the money to level the mountain like Qixingguan.

Then, they'll open up the wasteland into terraced structures, layer by layer, to grow crops or herbs." Just as Shen Miaozhu finished speaking, someone called out at the gate, "Is the Fifth Master home?"

"Who is it? Come in." Shen Lingzhu stood up and responded.

In the hall, when the Hu family looked up, Shen Xianzhu had already walked quickly around the thin screen wall and greeted them at the gate: "It's Uncle Xu. Dad has something to do at the clan school. You can talk to me if you have anything."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Uncle Xu, who was carrying firewood, turn sideways, revealing an old man and a young man with hemp ropes tied around their waists. He was stunned for a few breaths.

In just a few moments, the old man and the young man knelt down, which scared Shen Lingzhu who was running over. She thought that someone was coming to intercede for them again.

Unexpectedly, the old man said, "My fourth uncle passed away last night, and his family specially sent us here to announce his death.

I also ask Fifth Uncle to come to the pass as soon as possible to discuss the burial arrangements."

Chang family?

"Okay, I'll notify my father right away. You come in..." Shen Xianzhu was about to invite them into the house and wait, but suddenly remembered the rule that the announcer of a death was not allowed to enter the house.

So the two of them stood up and pulled the third sister to return the greeting.

The old man took out a letter from his bosom and said, "This is a letter from the elders of the clan, written specifically for Uncle Wu, requesting that we two present it in person."

Shen Xianzhu paused as he reached out to take the letter: "Third sister, prepare some cold tea and send it over."

"Master Shen is busy, I'm leaving first." At this time, Uncle Xu said goodbye and was about to leave. Shen Xianzhu quickly grabbed his sister and asked her to go back and get ten cents to give to others as a favor.

The two messengers neither sat down to rest nor drank tea, but just went to the stream to feed the donkeys they were riding.

Even if Mrs. Hu showed up, the two of them would no longer approach the gate.

Shen Lingzhu was extremely puzzled and whispered, "Senior Sister, are they observing etiquette?"

"It doesn't look like it. We'll know when uncle comes back." Shen Miaozhu was unable to persuade her aunt to come back, so she waited outside with everyone.

It was more than a quarter of an hour later when Shen Huai hurried back.

When the two messengers saw him, they immediately handed him the letter and rode away on their donkeys without saying a word.

Shen Lingzhu murmured, "Why do I feel like I'm running away?"

After her uncle read the letter, her feeling came true. The elders of the Chang family said in the letter that the affairs after the death of the fourth great-uncle would have to be taken care of by their family.

"Why? Doesn't he have any children or grandchildren?" Shen Lingzhu looked at the things listed in the letter. In addition to Buddhist rituals, paper-made items, and mourning cloth, even the coffin had to be paid for by her family.

Although she didn't know how much it would cost, the ritual alone was a huge expense, and the few taels of silver she had just earned was not enough.

Shen Huai sighed: "Fourth Grandfather once saved my father's life. It was this old man who sent my father to the Shen family to be a child husband, so that he would not starve to death.

The old man's son and grandson died young, and his father wanted to take him in to take care of him, but he refused.

"Alas, I was saying I'd save some money and have you brothers and sisters send it over later." He looked at Mrs. Hu and said, "I'm afraid we'll have to borrow money again."

"Master, money is a small matter. The pass is forty or fifty miles away from here. The key is whether you can go there." The dead are the most important, and Hu will not care about anything else.

Shen Huai decided to go to the registrar to discuss it.

"Aunt, don't go to Qixingguan to borrow money. I'll go to my grandma's house." Shen Lingzhu was reluctant to pay interest anymore.

Mrs. Hu hesitated for a moment and said, "Use the Xia family's ox cart. I will go and borrow it myself."