After traveling through time, I led the whole village to become rich!

"Isn't that Chen Dalang's wife?"

"Oh, it's true. Why is she back again?"

"Could it be that she was kicked out by her parents' family?"

"Hey, where are her three daughters? Why can't I see them? Did she sell them off?"

Hearing the villagers' groundless speculations, Zhang Hulan wanted to roll her eyes.

Yang Lizheng of Legong Village came trotting over and bowed to the yamen runner, saying, "I wonder what brings you to our village?"

The yamen runner said, "The county magistrate, seeing the people's hardship, has applied for relief grain, but it will take some time for the relief grain to arrive. Therefore, the county magistrate has arranged for people to help you find food."

The yamen runner then pointed at Zhang Hulan and said, "Have the villagers follow her up the mountain. She'll teach you how to identify edible items. Just hold out for a while until the relief food arrives."

When Yang Lizheng and the villagers heard what the yamen runner had said, their eyes lit up. Yang Lizheng exclaimed in surprise, "The county magistrate is going to give us relief food? That's great! Thank you, county magistrate! You really have a kind heart..."

But then they looked at Zhang Hulan, and Yang Lizheng asked in surprise, "Zhang?"

Zhang Hulan smiled and nodded at Yang Lizheng, "Yang Lizheng."

Yang Lizheng is a good person. He did not favor the Chen family that day and was fair in his work.

The yamen runner had heard a rough outline of the incident on the way and knew that Zhang Hulan was also from Legong Village, but he wasn't interested in further details. He asked, "Li Zheng Yang, is there enough water in your village?"

"It's not enough. The wells haven't produced much water in the past two days. Now every family only has half a bucket of life-saving water."

The yamen runner said, "You should arrange for someone to go to Daping Village to fetch water. There's water there. The journey isn't too far. In half a day, you can fetch two buckets of water. That's enough for the whole family."

Yang Lizheng asked again in surprise: "Is there still water in Daping Village? But will the people of Daping Village let us use it?"

"The county magistrate has already spoken with the village head of Daping Village. You can go get it."

The yamen runner pointed at Zhang Hulan and said, "Daping Village originally had no water, and it was her idea to find water. She also helped the villagers of Daping Village find enough food to eat. So, the county magistrate asked her to help other villages find food. She won't stay here for long, as there are other villages that need her teaching. You should arrange for the villagers in this village to learn from her."

The villagers began to whisper again.

"What? Zhang found water for Daping Village? And also found something edible?"

"Oh my god, why didn't I realize before that she is so capable."

"The Chen family has suffered a huge loss this time..."

"The Chen family is really bad. They forced people to leave when they had nothing to lose. Otherwise, our village would have been the first to find water and food."

Yang Lizheng said happily, "Okay, okay, I'll arrange it right away."

Yang Lizheng quickly asked someone to call all the villagers over, and then arranged for some people to go to Daping Village to fetch water, and some people to follow Zhang Hulan up the mountain to find something to eat.

Chen Dalang's family was naturally among them. When they saw Zhang Hulan, their eyes were full of anger.

"You bitch, how dare you come back?" Chen Dalang roared and rushed towards Zhang Hulan, wanting to teach her a lesson.

Zhang Hulan stood there without moving. Zhao Cheng and others stood in front of Zhang Hulan, ready to block Chen Dalang for Zhang Hulan.

As a result, they were of no use at all. Before Chen Dalang could even get close, he was knocked to the ground by a yamen runner with a scabbard.

The yamen runner was too lazy to argue with Chen Dalang and said to Yang Lizheng, "Yang Lizheng, keep your people in the village under control and don't delay important matters. If anyone causes trouble, I will immediately take my men to another place and you will be left to fend for yourself."

Before Yang Lizheng could say anything, the surrounding villagers had already carried Chen Dalang away, including the rest of the Chen family.

No matter what Zhang Hulan was like before, she was here to help them find food. What if the Chen family angered Zhang Hulan and drove her away?

Mrs. Cao yelled, "What are you doing?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Let me go..."

Old Man Chen, Chen Erlang, and Mrs. Qiao were also dragged away by the villagers. Old Man Chen gave Zhang Hulan a complicated look. If he hadn't let Zhang Hulan go, perhaps the whole village would owe their family a favor now.

Yang Lizheng asked the villagers to go home and fetch buckets of water. Zhang Hulan said, "Yang Lizheng, you have an ox cart at home. Find a few large wooden barrels and use the ox cart to pull them faster. That way you can pull more."

Yang Lizheng asked, "But where can we find a big wooden barrel?"

"You can use a bathtub, just clean it."

"That's a good idea." Yang Lizheng's eyes lit up. "Three or four bathtubs can be placed on the oxcart. The total number of bathtubs is larger than an ordinary water tank. One pull will be enough for several people."

Yang Lizheng personally led people to Daping Village to fetch water, and his son Yang Jinshun was in charge of the village.

Without further ado, Zhang Hulan led the villagers up the mountain.

Having lived in Legong Village for more than ten years, Zhang Hulan was very familiar with the place. She led the villagers directly to a mountain near the village.

I had seen kudzu roots on that mountain before, but the kudzu roots on this mountain were not as plentiful as those on the mountain in Daping Village.

When they got to the mountains, Zhao Cheng and his companions, without Zhang Hulan's advice, saw the kudzu root and told the villagers of Legong Village, "This thing is called kudzu root. We dig it up and eat it in our village."

The villagers of Legong Village did not have too many doubts. Since everyone had already eaten it, it must be non-toxic.

Leaving a few people to dig kudzu roots, Zhang Hulan led the rest to continue searching in the mountains.

Then she saw a large-leafed plant with green and purple colors on a slope of a mountain. Zhang Hulan immediately ran up to identify it carefully.

There was joy in her eyes, and she waved to a villager, "Give me the hoe."

Zhao Cheng and Yang Jinshun both hurried forward, and Zhao Cheng asked, "Sister Hu Lan, what is this? Can you eat it?"

"Let's dig it out first to confirm. If I'm not mistaken, this thing should be called dry lotus root, and it's edible."

Zhao Cheng said, "I know lotus root, but this is the first time I've heard of dry lotus root."

Zhang Hulan said, "This dry lotus root is also called ginger lotus root. It looks like ginger."

Yang Jinshun took the hoe from the villager and asked Zhang Hulan, "How do we dig this?"

Zhang Hulan pointed to the root of the lotus root and said, "Dig about a foot away from the root."

Yang Jinshun swung the hoe and dug up the lotus root in a few strokes.

The lotus root looks like ginger, but it is larger than ginger.

Zhang Hulan broke off a piece and examined it in her hand, then confirmed, "It's lotus root, no doubt."

There were probably dozens of them in this patch, so Zhang Hulan said, "Hurry up and see if there are any more nearby."

Zhao Cheng asked, "How do you eat this?"

"You can eat it boiled or stir-fried, but it's not as delicious as kudzu root."

Zhao Cheng said, "It's fine as long as it's edible. It's already this late, who cares if it tastes good or not?"

In fact, both lotus root and kudzu root have another use, which is to make starch, then make vermicelli, or fry it into pancakes.