【Quick Wear】My Years as a Mother-in-law

"Where is it built?" Li Daniu looked into the distance. There was a forest in the southernmost part.

The terrain of Lishugou is very good. There is a mountain range to the north, which is rich in resources. The mountain near their village is relatively gentle but wide, and is called Beishan. At the foot of Beishan is a plain, which is divided into two halves, east and west, by Lishugou. The smaller area on the west is the land of the Li family, called Xitian, and the 500-acre plain on the east is the land of the landlord, called Dongtian.

Three streams flow down from the North Mountain, providing ample sunshine and water, so the paddy fields here are very fertile. Everyone used to live at the foot of the North Mountain, but where can they move to now? With all the fertile fields, who would be willing to use them to build a house?

On the west side, there is a small road leading directly to the mountain. This road is opposite to the main road on the east side. An County is on the east side, and the main road is very close to An County. It is impossible to build to the west side. I have never heard of any house facing east and west. For the sake of light and ventilation, houses are generally facing north and south.

Chief Li pointed to the woods to the south and said, "Cut down some trees there to make furniture, clear out a space to build a house, and build it facing north and south."

Li Daniu: "That means there are a lot of trees to cut down, and there's a small hill outside the forest..."

Chief Li waved his hand and said, "It's okay. The hill is not big and there are many jujube trees on it."

There are lush trees on the south side of the paddy field, and there are many mosquitoes in the summer, so people have never thought of building houses on the south side before.

In the end, the tribesmen had no objections. One group started digging the foundation and building a house, while another group started planting seedlings in the field.

There were only a few seedlings, so they were all planted in three days. Then they started going up the mountain to dig wild vegetables. It rained when the earthquake happened, and the wild vegetables and mushrooms grew rapidly. When was the last time to dig them? Every household only ate a portion of the wild vegetables they received, and blanched the rest and started drying them. They didn't eat any of the mushrooms at all, and dried them all.

"No more salt?"

Yun Xi looked at Li Chunsheng inquiringly, and Li Chunsheng nodded, "It's really gone."

The salt at home was a large block of brine, and each person licked it every day. It was gone after a few years.

I asked other families and they were the same, the salt was also eaten up.

"Why not go dig in An County?"

Chief Li objected, "Salt dissolves in water, so it's useless."

"What should I do?" Li Chunsheng was anxious. He couldn't live without salt. Without salt, he would lose strength all over his body and eventually die.

Yes, salt is vital and indispensable to both humans and animals.

"Let's send someone to guard the dock. If we encounter a merchant ship, we can buy some." This was the only solution that Patriarch Li could think of.

Li Meizi whispered, "But I don't have any money."

Yes, everyone has no money. All the money was used to buy food before the natural disaster. Salt is very expensive. How can we buy it without money?

Patriarch Li frowned and looked at Yun Xi. Yun Xi looked towards An County in the east and asked, "How about we go to An County to dig for money?"

"Can you dig it?"

Li Daniu thought for a moment and said, "Looking at the situation, only the wealthy families in An County fled the famine before the natural disaster began."

"There's an old well in An County that always has water, so the people there didn't flee during the drought. Who could have imagined that there would be a flood after the locust plague? They were caught off guard and probably couldn't escape." This is all Chief Li knew.

"Let's give it a try. If we can dig up gold, silver or copper coins, we'll share them equally. If that's still not enough to buy salt, let's go east to the salt fields by the sea to see if there's any salt." Yun Xi made the decision.

Patriarch Li gave her an ambiguous look and said nothing.

Two hundred miles east of An County is the seaside. There are only a few villages along the way, which are also under the management of An County. It is estimated that they have also suffered a disaster.

Hey!

The construction of the house did not stop. After the remaining fifty people had stockpiled enough wild grass and mushrooms, they formed a team to go to An County to pick up scraps.

Arriving at the ruins of An County, Yun Xi took a few children to find a place and started digging non-stop. She and Li Chunsheng threw out what they dug out, Li Meizi was responsible for sorting, and the two younger ones carried everything that could be used onto the cart.

There were not many things that could be used. Most of the wood was rotten and most of the cloth was damaged. Only one piece out of ten could be used, and everyone kept it without any complaints.

Yun Xi searched in the big pit. The original owner of this house should have run a cloth shop. She dug out the skeletons of four adults and two half-grown children.

Li Meizi's eyes were red. "Mom, this family should have three generations living together. I saw this store when I passed by it three years ago when I was stockpiling food."

"Alas, God won't give us a chance to live. You pick up the bones and then we'll dig a hole to bury them so they can rest in peace." Yun Xi felt a bit uncomfortable.

"it is good."

The cloth shop made good profits. Li Chunsheng dug out one hundred taels of silver, and Yun Xi dug out two gold hairpins, fifteen pieces of cotton cloth that were not flooded, and a bag of rice. There was no more.

"rice?"

Li Yanran was surprised.

"Yes, I found it in the warehouse of the cloth shop. It seems that the warehouse was built of stone. It didn't collapse completely, so a corner was preserved."

Yun Xi gestured and saw that the corner of the house was blocked by stones, so not much water and mud entered. Unfortunately, there was only one bag of food.

Chief Li came over to take a look and asked someone to divide the rice into two portions, one to be sent back to the village and the other to be cooked for everyone to drink. Since they would not be returning to the village for a few days, they could just dig here.

In this way, fifty people dug in the ruins for half a month and dug out 10,000 copper coins, 10,000 taels of silver, 100 taels of gold, some gold and silver jewelry, 10 bags of grain, and 50 pieces of cloth. Chief Li took everyone back to the village.

Li Daniu was in charge of building the houses. After half a month, eight houses had been built, and a total of forty-five houses were to be built. He planned to divide them into three rows, with fifteen houses in each row. The ancestral hall and the school would be built side by side on the hill.

Seeing the imposing blue brick and tile house, Patriarch Li pulled his beard with satisfaction and said, "Great, great, the house is well built. Come here, Daniel, let's divide the things."

The village chief divided the money according to the number of people. For one hundred people, each person received one hundred strings of copper coins, one hundred taels of silver, one tael of gold, a gold hairpin, a silver hairpin, and half a piece of cloth.

Chief Li finally said, "The extra ten gold hairpins and fifty silver hairpins are placed in the clan's public account. We can use them to buy land or hire a teacher when we have the chance. As for the grain, I've decided to leave five bags for you. I'll take the remaining five bags to the seaside to have a look."

Yes, we sent people to observe at the dock for half a month, but there was not a single passing ship, so we could only go to the beach to take a look.

"Great, there won't need to be so many people going to the beach, right?" Li Daniu felt relieved. There were so many gold, silver jewelry and copper coins. Even if he couldn't spend them all, it would be fun to just look at them.

"Indeed, each family should send one person, and the rest of the people can go to the mountains to dig wild vegetables. I'm really afraid of starving." Patriarch Li thought about it and it seemed to be true.

Yun Xi wants to go with her and let Li Chunsheng take charge of the household.

"Chunsheng, you just need to protect Mei Zi and your younger brothers and sisters. There's no rush for wild vegetables and mushrooms. When I go to the beach, I will not only bring back salt, but also fish, shrimp, kelp, etc., so they won't lack food." Yun Xi reminded him.

"Okay, I remember."

Li Chunsheng breathed a sigh of relief. He felt for no reason that his stepmother could do it.

They left as soon as they said they would. The next day, a group of fifteen people left on a cart, carrying two bags of grain and dozens of sacks.

In order to get to the beach as quickly as possible, everyone held their breath and traveled day and night, finally arriving at the beach on April 19th. It was already summer, but not yet midsummer, and the temperature was just right, especially at the beach where the wind and waves were strong and it was extremely cool.

Patriarch Li found Yun Xi and asked in confusion, "Sanniu family, where can we find the salt field?"

Yun Xi shook her head, "Why look for a salt field? Just dry the salt!"