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

"We fought tooth and nail in the face of this natural disaster, but we still can't guarantee everyone's survival. So remember, if you encounter something like this again, don't hesitate. If you can escape, then escape. If you can't, then prepare enough food." Yun Xi: "You must learn to assess the situation and plan ahead."

In the evening, Chief Li informed each household that the people of Xiaowangzhuang were building a village about 35 miles southeast of the village, and they would also go to the ruins of the county town to look for blue bricks. If anyone still needed blue bricks, they could take the time to look for them in the ruins of the county town.

Li Chunsheng looked at Yun Xi, "Mom, does our family need it?"

"No need. There are still plenty in the village. After we finish weeding the fields, we'll get some blue bricks to build the cellar. We'll also pave the distance from the gate to the river with stone slabs so it's easier to walk on rainy days and to dry the crops." Yun Xi added, "We'll also dig cellars in the two houses next door. After Chunsheng and Meizi get married, you can move in next door and live out your days. We can separate the households but not the families, and we'll still eat here."

Li Chunsheng breathed a sigh of relief, and so did Li Meizi.

They are not ready to live on their own.

The day after the people from Xiaowangzhuang returned, the clan leader surnamed Wang came with several clansmen to seek help.

Li Yanran pulled her brother to watch, but Yun Xi didn't go. The weeds in the field had to be pulled out at least three times, and this was only the first time. It gave her a headache just thinking about it.

The two children came back and chattered about the purpose of the people from Xiaowangzhuang. "They want to buy rice seeds and grain."

Li Yanran nodded and said in a baby voice, "That's right. Patriarch Wang said it's too late to plant rice now, so he wants to buy wheat and corn seeds."

Li Meizi: "How many people are there in their village? Did the court distribute the land? And do they have the money to buy it?"

Li Xiaqing scratched his head. "It seems that the official in the capital of the Wang family gave each of them 20 strings of cash as resettlement allowance, but he will no longer exempt the land of the Wang family from taxation."

Li Chunsheng envied, "Twenty strings of cash, that's a lot of money."

Li Xiaqing was confused. "But this is a one-time transaction. It's not much better than tax-free land."

Yun Xi looked at the two children, "How many of them are there now?"

Li Yanran blurted out, "Nine hundred and fifty people."

"Nine hundred and fifty people, a total of nineteen thousand strings of cash is needed. They are rich people." Yun Xi sighed, "Is there anyone in the village who can sell food?"

"The clan leader is planning to sell the remaining nine stone of corn, and everyone else wants to sell it more or less. The harvest of regenerated rice has exceeded everyone's expectations and can last until the autumn harvest. If we don't sell it now, the price of grain will definitely drop after the autumn harvest." Li Yanran imitated the tone of clan leader Li, shaking her head.

"Whatever, we don't sell it, you can eat as much as you want."

Life in the countryside is not leisurely at all. There is endless work to do every day. Before the autumn harvest, my eldest nephew's wife gave birth to a little girl, and then my second sister-in-law also gave birth to a little girl. In addition, several nephews' wives in the first and second rooms were pregnant, so there was no extra labor to help the third room.

Yun Xi had no choice but to go to Xiaowangzhuang Village and asked Clan Leader Li to act as a middleman to hire eight strong men to help, paying them twenty cents a day and providing a meal at noon.

It is now the fifth day of August. Xiaowangzhuang only started harvesting grain and planting wheat in September. Yunxi just happened to have some time to come to Lijia Village to do odd jobs. The families in the village with few strong laborers all hired people, so it was not surprising that Yunxi's family hired people.

"The water in the fields has almost dried up, and the fish and crabs have been harvested. The autumn harvest will start tomorrow. Meizi, you take care of the house and cook with the two children. It will take a long time to prepare meals for so many people, so you don't have to go to the fields. One person can harvest more than an acre of land a day, and the harvest will be finished in less than ten days. You will oversee the slaughter of the four little roosters, as well as the fish and shrimp at home. There must be at least some meat every day to keep people working and full. Steam rice and cornmeal together, two pots a day." Yun Xi instructed Meizi.

Li Meizi did as she was told.

Eat well and work faster. Ten days later, all the rice was harvested. Yun Xi had people dry the rice for another four days. Fortunately, the weather was good and the rice was stored in the warehouse smoothly. Ninety thousand kilograms of rice were harvested from the one hundred acres of land. The utility room at home could not hold all the rice, and the empty room in the main house was also filled up.

Li Chunsheng was very excited, "Mom, so much food."

At this time, Li Xiaqing rushed into the yard and said, "Mom, someone from Xiaowangzhuang is here to buy food."

Li Chunsheng immediately asked, "What's the price?"

"How about six cents per catty? The clan leader said this is too cheap and seven cents per catty should be fine." Li Xiaqing imitated others and played two roles, acting very funny.

"Mom, do you want to sell it?" Li Chunsheng looked at Yun Xi, waiting for her decision.

"Sell it, why not sell it? It saves us from taking it to Rongcheng." Yun Xi said immediately.

Soon, people from Xiaowangzhuang began to buy grain. One dan cost 700 wen. Each of the 120 households in Xiaowangzhuang bought two dan, so 240 dan were needed. After being distributed to the 15 households in Lijia Village, each household could sell 16 dan.

Yun Xi held the eleven strings of cash in her hand and pondered for a moment. "Xiao Wang Zhuang must have discovered the secret of our harvest and bought it back to use as rice seeds. We have to go to Rongcheng and sell our grain as seeds, otherwise Xiao Wang Zhuang will do the same thing next year."

"Huh?" Li Chunsheng was shocked. "The people in Xiaowangzhuang are so cunning. I thought they bought the food to eat."

"What can a household eat with two dan? We need to look at the essence of the problem." Yun Xi sighed softly, "Tomorrow we will go to Rongcheng and report this high-yield grain variety. Don't let the people in Xiaowangzhuang get ahead of us."

The two little ones didn't understand. Yun Xi curled her lips and said, "Discovering high-yield crops is a great achievement."

Chief Li thought more than Yun Xi and said to the tribe members, "I have already reported this high-yield grain variety to Rongcheng. The results should have come out there by now. The people of Xiaowangzhuang can't take away this credit."

Yun Xi felt ashamed of herself. As a clan leader and village chief, she had extraordinary political awareness.

Li Ba Niu recently made a few carts with carriages. Yun Xi spent two strings of coins to buy three of them. Her family already had one, so all four animals had carts to pull them. However, her family could only pull three carts, so the extra one was lent to Li Erniu.

Dahei and Xiaohei could pull a thousand kilograms each, while Huanghuang and Yaer could only pull 500 kilograms. What did other families do if they didn't have livestock? They could only push the carts forward with human power.

This time the whole family went out, and Yun Xi put all the things in the house into the space disk to prevent them from being stolen. After going through untold hardships and spending six days, they arrived in Rongcheng. Clan leader Li went directly to the government office to inquire about the situation.

The people in the government office were very enthusiastic about Chief Li. When they heard that he was selling rice, they immediately bought it all. "Ten cents a pound, the government office wants it all. Just bring it over. By the way, who discovered this high-yield variety?"

This time, the prefect of the government office was alerted and came out to investigate. Clan leader Li pointed at Yun Xi and said, "It was Sanniu's wife who discovered it."

Yun Xi smiled slightly and bowed. "Greetings, sir. It is indeed I, Yun Xi, a humble person. I found the seeds of the traveling merchant to be plump and full. He did not seem to be a liar, so I boldly bought some. I did not expect that the tribesmen all knew the value of the seeds."