Traveling Through Farmhouses: Taking the Baby on a Famine Escape

The next day, after Zhang Wenbo and the others went out, Chen took Zhang Xixi and Xiao Chen to take out all the luggage and wash and dry it.

Since she decided to share food with her family, Zhang Xixi took stock of her family's food supplies. She had eaten all the food she brought from her original home, and what was left was what she had obtained on the way to escape famine and what she had bought from the system.

There were about 200 jin of wolf meat, 300 jin of cabbage, a 50-jin bag of rice, and a few jin of brown sugar. Zhang Xixi calculated that there were still about four months until the end of winter, and her family's current food supply was definitely not enough, let alone the villagers.

There's nothing here except ducks and wild vegetables. With so many people in the village, the ducks can't possibly grow as fast as they're being eaten. We need to find a solution.

"System, open the shop!"

"Okay, host!"

Zhang Xixi first bought two bags of sweet potatoes, several bags of milk powder, several kilograms of candy, and some daily necessities. Then she scrolled to the planting page and looked at it. There were various grain seeds and vegetable seeds.

After careful consideration, Zhang Xixi bought 200 jin of sweet potato seeds and some vegetable seeds. Sweet potatoes have the highest yield, and not only can you eat the sweet potatoes, but you can also eat the leaves, so it's more cost-effective to grow them.

Several buckets of the most important nutrient solution were also purchased and placed on the ground. Just as the system store was closed, Chen's voice rang out.

"Girl, do you have any brown sugar left?"

Chen walked into the tent and was dumbfounded when she saw so many things on the ground. "Where did all this come from?!"

"Mother, these things were given to us by my master. Consider them as food for our family. Please keep them!"

Zhang Xixi then pointed to the nutrient solution and seeds in the corner, "Those are sweet potato seeds and vegetable seeds. I plan to get the villagers to plant them together so that we can have more food to eat in the winter."

Madam Chen smiled and said, "Mother was just worried that there wasn't enough food, and whether we could just eat one meal a day. Now we don't have to worry about that anymore!"

"Mom, you have so much faith in me, aren't you afraid I won't be able to grow it?" Zhang Xixi joked.

Chen waved her hand, "Even if you can't grow them, it's okay. There are still so many ducks; they can keep alive!"

Seeing Chen's calm demeanor, Zhang Xixi smiled. So, her mother had already thought of a way out!

Zhang Xixi and Chen Shi finished tidying up the grain and went out to the riverbank.

The riverbank was bustling today. A group of young men were digging sand, while women and children were digging for wild vegetables and collecting duck eggs.

Since settling down here, Zhang Xixi hadn't been to the riverbank. She hadn't expected the villagers to be so ruthless; the grassland near where she lived was practically bare of grass. All the edible wild vegetables had been dug up, and the ground was riddled with holes.

The wild ducks here are really strange. They aren't afraid of people at all and haven't flown away. It's as if they don't care at all and just act as if Zhang Xixi and the others don't exist.

The villagers didn't think much of it, but they still left the wild vegetables and grasses on the other side of the river to feed the ducks. Otherwise, what Zhang Xixi saw would not have been just this, but rather the two banks of the river would have been completely barren without any greenery.

Seeing the small fish in the river, Zhang Xixi exclaimed in surprise, "There are still fish here! Let's catch some to take home and eat today!"

Chen glanced at them and refused, saying, "These fish are too small, they don't have much meat, they're not tasty, and you might accidentally get a fish bone stuck in your throat."

"Mom, it'll taste delicious if you fry it until it's golden brown!"

Chen glared at Zhang Xixi: "That would require so much oil! Where would we get so much oil to waste at home!"

"Mom, it's been so long since I've had this, just this once! Please!"

Chen remained unmoved by Zhang Xixi's coquettishness. There wasn't much oil left at home, so they had to use it sparingly. They didn't know when they would reach their destination!

Zhang Xixi thought she would buy a few buckets of oil and take them back later. She leaned over and whispered in Chen's ear, "Mom, I'll ask my master to get us some more oil. Don't worry about running out of oil."

Chen looked at Zhang Xixi suspiciously, "You still have ginseng!"

“Mother, I don’t have ginseng, but I have other things.”

Chen turned around and shouted to Zhang Zehui and the others in the river, "Hui'er, catch some fish and take them back."

"Okay, grandma!"

Zhang Zehui was thinking that he would have a good meal tonight. He had only eaten fried dried fish once in his life!

That smells really good!

"Mom, you are the best mom in the world!" Zhang Xixi said happily.

Chen regretted her words as soon as they left her mouth. She didn't want to see her troublesome daughter anymore, so she waved her hand and said, "Alright, didn't you want to see the clan leader? He's over there. Go on!"

Chen's heart was bleeding; how much oil would this waste!

Seeing the pained look on Chen's face, Zhang Xixi quickly left, thinking, "Let my mother have some time to recover!"

“Brother-in-law, my master gave me some sweet potato seeds, and I want to lead the villagers to plant them.”

"This is great news! But it's going to snow soon, will the crops survive?" Zhou Dashan asked with a mix of joy and worry.

Zhang Xixi immediately shared her idea: "I'm thinking of building some greenhouses by the river. This would not only make watering easier, but also keep the seedlings warm and prevent them from freezing. Plus, there would be nutrient solution to speed up the growth of the sweet potatoes. They would be ready to grow in about a month after planting."

"What is a greenhouse?!" Zhou Dashan asked, completely bewildered.

Zhang Xixi then realized that this wasn't modern times, so there were definitely no greenhouses here. She quickly explained, "A greenhouse is a house built on the land. Crops grown inside are not afraid of wind and rain. But building a greenhouse requires tarpaulin and bamboo."

Zhou Dashan thought for a moment and asked, "Sister-in-law, are you sure this greenhouse will work?"

“Of course, I can guarantee it!” Zhang Xixi said firmly.

Zhou Dashan thought that if this succeeded, the villagers would have a better winter. If it failed, it wouldn't matter. It would just be a waste of some manpower and useless tarpaulin. It was fine, very fine!

"Have you thought about how you're going to divide the sweet potatoes after the harvest?"

“Brother-in-law, I’m thinking that after the harvest, I’ll take 10% of the sweet potatoes, the family that provides the tarpaulin will take 20%, and the rest will be divided according to the length of the tarpaulin. The remaining 70% will be distributed among the people who participated in planting the sweet potatoes, but each family must have strong laborers among the farmers.”

Zhou Dashan thought this method of distribution was good, but still added: "Some families in the village have a lot of children and grandchildren, so each family can only send a maximum of two people to participate in planting sweet potatoes, so that there won't be too many people and some people taking advantage of the situation."

Zhang Xixi nodded in agreement. As expected of the clan leader, she hadn't thought of this.

Zhou Dashan pondered for a moment and said, "The school should be ready by this afternoon. I'll gather everyone together tonight to discuss it, and we'll start working on it tomorrow."

"it is good!"

After saying goodbye to Zhou Dashan, Zhang Xixi headed towards the other side of the river. She had just seen some wild celery there, so she decided to cut some to make celery dumplings!