Divorced woman with child travels through time

Troublesome? Not to mention the future, it's already very troublesome right now! Chen Wenfang looked at the several little babies, each less than a meter tall, carrying a basket, with an even smaller baby inside who looked only four or five months old, and she was at her wit's end.

"Mom, this little sister is so cute, let's raise her!" Chen Xuanyu said happily.

Chen Wenfang was speechless. "Where did you get these? Whose child is this? Take them back quickly!" They shouldn't have been stolen, right? Sure enough, Shi Tou wasn't home. These three kids are too young; something could easily happen to them.

Xiao Ahao understood Chen Wenfang's thoughts very well and explained, "It wasn't stolen, it was found by the river on the fifteenth."

"Huh? By the river?"

"Yes, but not by the river. It was in the roadside bushes near the river, not on the road. It looked like someone deliberately left it there. I... I took it back because I felt sorry for her," Fifteen explained in a slightly flustered voice.

Chen Wenfang approached and rummaged through the baby's basket, but found nothing. The baby's clothes were old and rough, but the baby wasn't afraid of people. She looked around with her round eyes wide open, and didn't seem to have any problems. She was a very healthy little girl.

"Poor thing." Chen Wenfang touched her little hand; it wasn't cold.

"Where? I heard they found a child?" Aunt Liu and a group of women rushed over after hearing the news. It was lunchtime, and they had just finished their work, so they all came to join in the fun, making quite a racket with their chatter.

“This kid is quite handsome, why don’t you want him?” It was Sister-in-law Nie who spoke.

"I'm afraid it's because I'm a girl, and my family wanted a boy, so they didn't want me anymore," Chahua said. "I heard from my neighbor that when I was born, my grandma didn't want me, but my mother couldn't bear to part with me and insisted on keeping me."

“My family is the same,” said Sister-in-law Li. “Luckily, my family only had four children. I’m the youngest. I’m lucky I have an older brother, otherwise my father probably wouldn’t have wanted me. My father has never liked me and always calls me a burden.” Sister-in-law Li said sadly. “The neighbor’s family had five children. I heard that the youngest daughter died right after birth. Some people say she drowned.” Everyone sighed.

Lulu, Fang'er, and several other children gathered around to watch the baby, not participating in any discussion. The adults, on the other hand, looked down from above.

Seeing the crowd, the little girl grabbed at things haphazardly with her tiny hands. Fifteen squatted down beside her, took a piece of candy from his pocket, and placed it in her hand, saying, "Here, have some!"

Lulu snatched it back to him, saying, "She's still too young, she doesn't have teeth, she can't eat it, she needs rice cereal." As she spoke, she patted Fifteen's head and said, "Fifteen, be good, you eat it yourself."

"Oh." Fifteen obediently stuffed it into her mouth and continued watching the baby.

Chen Xuanyu watched for a while. Apart from being somewhat cute, the child neither cried nor made a fuss, nor spoke. He was completely disappointed. "This is so boring. I'm hungry. Let's go eat."

"Let's go eat." Little Ahao was also feeling bored.

Fifteen asked worriedly, "What if she gets hungry later?"

Fang'er said, "You guys go eat, we'll keep an eye on things, right, Sister Lulu?"

Lulu nodded, and the three children slipped out of the crowd to eat.

Chen Wenfang and the others watched with amusement as the children discussed earnestly. Sister-in-law Nie grew increasingly fond of the child. She only had one daughter, and hadn't had another child in the past few years, unsure of the cause. Both she and her husband longed for more children, but hadn't been able to conceive. Therefore, she was delighted to see the baby. She couldn't help but say, "If no one else wants this child, I can have it."

Chen Wenfang looked at her and said seriously, "If Sister-in-law Nie really likes it, then go to the county government office. If it gets lost, it will be troublesome if the child's parents come looking for it, although the possibility is not high."

Sister-in-law Nie smiled and said, "The mistress of the house is so thoughtful. I'll go this afternoon."

Chen Wenfang smiled and nodded.

Lulu, standing nearby, happily teased the little baby, saying that she was going to have a little sister, and that she could braid her hair and dress her in skirts, hehe.

When Brother Nie came over after washing his hands, he heard that he had a daughter. After seeing the baby, he happily accepted her as his daughter. He always enjoyed lively gatherings; otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to have a child. The couple went to the county government office that afternoon. The county government was quite lenient towards people willing to raise abandoned children. They issued a notice explaining the situation, describing the child's characteristics, and specifying how long afterward, if no one claimed the child, she would be sent to a nursing home. Brother Nie and his family could raise the child for the time being. If no one came looking for her after three months, they would go to the nursing home to complete the procedures, and the child would be registered under their name, thus officially being raised by them. In short, the Song Dynasty's system was quite comprehensive.

The Nie family was overjoyed. They named the baby Nie Shuang and happily took the child home. Everyone was happy because Chen Wenfang gave each person a bonus of two taels of silver per person during dinner that evening, in addition to their wages. Li Huanqiu was especially happy. As for the accommodation, although it was a bit cramped now and the house had just been painted and would need to be aired out for a few days before they could move in, he was very satisfied with the food. It was all top-quality meat and vegetables, and there was plenty of steamed buns and brown rice. He was very satisfied with every meal.

In mid-September, after selling the tea recipes, Chen Wenfang made a profit of over a thousand taels of silver. She also reduced the prices of other pastry recipes. Chen Ji did not reduce its workforce because of the arrival of these families. On the contrary, with the help of Brother Nie and others, Chen Ji grew bigger and bigger. Wang Erniu bought over a hundred acres of land, buying up the entire area along the main road from Aunt Liu's house. Now, Brother Nie is in charge of building houses and walls, Uncle Liu Hai and Wang Xiaoming are in charge of managing the farming, Li Huanqiu and Lü Xiong are in charge of shipping goods to merchants, and Wang Xiaoguang and Zhuan Tou are in charge of collecting goods delivered by the people.

Chahua was actually in charge of collecting payments. Who would have thought? Aunt Liu couldn't understand it at the time, thinking that Chahua was an outsider after all. But Chen Wenfang smiled and said, "Auntie, but you're in charge of reconciling and checking the accounts, right? What are you worried about? With you keeping an eye on things, Chahua will definitely work with peace of mind. Most importantly, I'll also check the accounts."

Aunt Liu thought it made sense. Chen Ji always clearly marked the prices of everything it sold and the grains it received. Cha Hua had no way to cheat. There were notices posted at the door when prices went up or down. If there were any discrepancies, the villagers could go to Aunt Liu to file a complaint. Thanks to Chu Yi and Da Zhuang's hard work in the past, Chen Ji now only used fresh and good products. Cha Hua had no reason to do these thankless tasks.

Chunlan and Yanxia also took on their respective responsibilities. Chen's now has forty to fifty workers every day. Some of them do rougher work, such as peeling peanuts, cutting sweet potatoes, washing chili peppers, chopping ginger and garlic, washing and juicing sugarcane, grinding soybeans, etc. Because there is not enough syrup, Chen Wenfang has been buying sugarcane from the south. For the more delicate work of making syrup and cooked food, they choose clean and hygienic aunts or uncles. After all, it is food, and the requirements are quite high. Most of those who come to work on the trial basis can only go to work on the farm with Uncle Liu Hai and the others.