Divorced woman with child travels through time

After cutting down the trees along the mountain road, Chen Wenfang then cut down the trees on the mountainside, prioritizing those that were diseased, dead, cracked, and had insect holes. These diseased trees not only cannot grow normally, but may also affect the surrounding healthy trees and even cause the spread of pests and diseases, making renewable resources very important.

They chopped enough firewood to make sweet potato chips. A few days later, Chen Wenfang peeled a sweet potato and ate a few bites. It tasted much sweeter, like raw chestnuts. She thought to herself, "There should be chestnuts around here, right? Why haven't I seen any?" But she got off-topic. Seeing that the sweet potatoes were almost dried, Chen Wenfang called over Aunt Liu and her husband to prepare to make sweet potato chips.

Several people packed the sweet potatoes into baskets, preparing to take them to the river to wash them together. The children also helped out; Chen Xuanyu carried his own small bucket, which was also filled with a few sweet potatoes. Shi Tou was very envious of his small bucket, but since he was already a big boy, he didn't want to ask for such a small toy, so he offered to help him, saying, "Xuanzi, let me carry it for you."

Without waiting for his reply, she immediately started carrying it for him. Chen Xuanyu was quite happy and let her carry it, skipping and hopping behind him.

The river water was a bit chilly in September, making it difficult to take off shoes to wash, but the water was still shallow, barely reaching the waist and knees. Uncle Liu poured the sweet potatoes into the river and started washing them with a loofah. Chen Wenfang, Aunt Liu, and Dazhuang did the same. Seeing this, Chen Xuanyu and Shitou also asked for a small piece of loofah, trying their best to help but making things worse. After they washed the sweet potatoes, Chen Wenfang washed them again; whether they were clean or not didn't matter, participation was the key. Aunt Liu now spoiled the children just like Chen Wenfang. She didn't say anything more about Shitou.

While washing, the two started splashing each other with water. In his excitement, Chen Xuanyu jumped into the river, but he lost his footing and landed on his bottom with a splash.

"Hahaha, Xuanzai, you're killing me with laughter," Shi Tou couldn't help but laugh.

Everyone laughed, and Chen Xuanyu, seeing this, laughed sheepishly too. He simply sat down in the water and started playing.

Seeing this, Chen Wenfang said, "You can't do that. It'll get too cold and you'll easily catch a cold. Go back and change your clothes."

Chen Xuanyu obediently went back. Before leaving, he didn't forget to take the bucket of washed sweet potatoes. He focused on doing his job well.

Everyone carried the washed sweet potatoes home and started peeling them around the basket. Chen Xuanyu, having changed his clothes, squeezed in again. Uncle Liu, worried he might hurt himself, wouldn't give him a knife. Instead, he gave him a peeled sweet potato, and so he and Shitou each held a big sweet potato and sat around eating them.

Chen Wenfang's three small plots of land yielded only about a hundred jin (approximately 50 catties). The four of them worked quickly and finished peeling the sweet potatoes in no time. They then boiled water in a pot, chopped the sweet potatoes into small pieces, and put them in to cook. They cooked in two pots at the same time, with Uncle Liu Hai watching the fire. Aunt Liu helped stir the pots to prevent them from burning.

Chen Wenfang then went to wash the tea tray, cut a piece of cotton cloth to cover the tray, and washed two clam shells for later use.

Once the sweet potatoes are fully cooked, mash them one by one in the pot with a spatula. Put the mashed sweet potatoes in a basin and place it on the straw laid out outside. Cover the tray with a cotton cloth and scrape the mashed sweet potatoes onto it in the shape of the tray, shaping it into a square. Place it on the straw, tear off the cotton cloth, and a piece of wet dried sweet potato is formed. After drying, cut it into small pieces and it can be stored for a long time.

Chen Wenfang scraped a few pieces of dried sweet potato and then handed the tray cloth to Aunt Liu so she could try. Aunt Liu was skillful and learned immediately. Seeing this, Uncle Liu Hai also scraped a few pieces, which was very simple and he learned quickly as well. Seeing Da Zhuang watching, he let Da Zhuang try it too, and Da Zhuang's hands actually scraped very well, with even thickness.

Seeing this, the two younger ones clamored to scrape as well, so they each scraped off a piece of the tattered dried sweet potato before happily stopping their clamor. The four of them took turns scraping, and the hundred pounds of sweet potatoes weren't much; they finished all of them in one morning. Everyone sat down to rest and drink tea.

Aunt Liu then asked, "Is this how you make dried sweet potatoes? That's too simple."

Chen Wenfang took a sip of tea and said, "Ordinary dried sweet potatoes are like this, but if you want them to taste good, it's a different story. After they're almost dry, you steam them again and then sun-dry them. After sun-drying them, you steam them again. You steam and sun-dry them three times. Only when they're chewy but not too sticky will they taste good."

Uncle Liu Hai sipped his tea and said, "No wonder you said it uses a lot of firewood. It took a lot of firewood to cook this hundred or so catties today. It will probably take three steamings and three sun-dryings before all the firewood is burned up."

Chen Wenfang laughed and said, "Otherwise, how could it taste good? But I won't do those things. I added sugar to the small pot that was separated to make it taste better. I'll give it to Young Master Ouyang later. Actually, these are also delicious if they are not dried too much, but they can't be stored for too long. They still need to be dried a bit. If they are too hard, you can roast them over a fire to soften them."

After finishing her tea, Aunt Liu said, "That makes sense. It should be able to keep for a long time. This is a simple thing to make. Let's go back and make it too. The sun is shining brightly these days."

Chen Wenfang finished her tea in one gulp and said, "Don't cook it all. Leave some as seeds so we can make more next year. I'll go with you to help. Once we're done, we can sell it at the next market."

Aunt Liu nodded, and Chen Wenfang locked the courtyard gate and went home with Aunt Liu.

Aunt Liu's family planted sweet potatoes on a plot of land that was quite spacious. However, due to the large area, they didn't use much fertilizer. But sweet potatoes are a high-yielding crop, so this plot of land yielded nearly 800 jin (400 kg) of sweet potatoes! Harvesting so many sweet potatoes was quite a challenge. The family of four, along with Chen Wenfang, worked for a whole week to bring all the sweet potatoes home.

Fortunately, Uncle Liu Hai had brought money with him earlier and bought a piglet. In this way, the sweet potato vines and leaves that might have been thrown away were not wasted, as they could be cooked and used to feed the piglet.

Uncle Liu was surprised when Chen Wenfang said that the pigs should be kept in captivity and their feed should be cooked. After all, in all his years of raising pigs, he had never heard of cooking their food. They were always let out to roam freely.

Chen Wenfang said, "Trust me, it's sure to be right. People love cooked food, there's no reason why pigs wouldn't." Aunt Liu listened with some skepticism, but after cooking a few meals, she found that the piglets indeed loved it and ate with great relish. Chen Wenfang even had Shi Tou and Chen Xuanyu cut some tender pig feed for the pigs whenever they had a spare moment. The piglets had only been there for a little over ten days, but they had visibly grown bigger. The pig manure was then used to fertilize the fields, nothing was wasted.