Traveling Through Farmhouses: Taking the Baby on a Famine Escape

Fortunately, the people pulling weeds in the field are different every day, otherwise they would be amazed by Master Zhang Xixi's amazing skills when they see how much the sweet potato vines have grown in just one day!

Zhang Xixi went to deliver food to Xiao Jin and the others, and also went to check on the ducklings. All the ducks were alive and well, not one was missing, even the special bird was alive and was eating wheat bran like the ducks.

Zhang Xixi reached out and touched its back; it was so fluffy and comfortable!

"Ding! Rare treasure detected. Host, would you like to sign in?"

Zhang Xixi didn't even care where the rare treasures were; she reflexively checked in on her own!

"Check-in successful! Reward: 5000 Luck Points!"

"System, this bird is only a chick! How can it be so precious!"

"Of course, the system won't make a mistake in detection."

Zhang Xixi rolled her eyes inwardly. "System, I even fed this bird some spiritual spring water last time! Why didn't it detect it then? You said it would never make a mistake!"

"Well, this system was in a deep sleep at that time!"

Zhang Xixi scoffed, "I don't believe you for a second!"

This system has even learned to deceive people; I wonder where it learned it from!

System: You should be asking yourself that question! Don't you know the saying, "One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black"?

Zhang Xixi examined the bird closely. It had gray feathers, short black feathers on its head resembling a crest, and its face and cheeks were bare and bright red, making it look similar to a chicken. However, its tail was held high and its beak was very sharp. Could this be a mutated chicken?

Zhang Xixi decided to treat it as a chicken, but since it looked different from ordinary chickens, she named it Pointed-Beak Chicken!

Three days later, Zhang Xixi's little nephew had changed a lot. His face was chubby and rosy, and he was no longer the wrinkled little monkey he was when he was born.

Zhang Dacheng named it Zhang Zefu, and its nickname was Fubao, hoping that it would have great fortune and live a peaceful and happy life.

Ever since Da Bao and his friends got a little brother, their favorite thing to do after school every day is to go see Fu Bao. They are so fascinated by this little baby!

As for Da Bao's tendency to doze off, Zhang Xixi came up with a clumsy solution: Er Bao would watch over Da Bao and remind him to stand at the back to wake him up whenever he dozed off.

After school, Zhang Xixi would also supervise him to review what he had learned that day, and at the very least, he had to learn to read and write five big characters every day.

"Erbao, what did you learn today?" Zhang Xixi asked quickly when she saw that the two children had finished getting ready.

“Mother, we have learned the Three Character Classic: ‘If you do not study when you are young, what will you do when you are old?’”

"Erbao is so great! Write it here once, and let Mom and Dabao copy it!" Zhang Xixi praised.

"Dabao, come and write!"

Seeing that Da Bao was already writing, Zhang Xixi also started drawing on the sand tray with a twig. There were so many strokes in the traditional Chinese characters that she, who was used to simplified characters, was really not used to them.

Another day of after-school tutoring has come to an end. Both kids did very well, and Zhang Xixi praised them and gave each of them a small reward.

Zhang Xixi and Da Bao worked hard together for half a month. Zhang Xixi had almost mastered the characters of this era, while Da Bao's progress was also obvious. He had already recognized more than a hundred characters, and most importantly, he had learned to control his drowsiness.

This was the day to harvest sweet potatoes. The snow had finally stopped, and the sun was shining brightly to celebrate the villagers' bountiful harvest!

Upon arriving at the sweet potato field, Zhang Xixi first had people cut down the sweet potato vines before digging up the sweet potatoes. The same sixty-odd people were busy in the greenhouse as before, while many villagers came to watch the excitement from outside.

Zhang Wenhong was the first to carry out a basket of sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes were big and of good quality, indicating that the harvest from this field was quite good.

Seeing such large sweet potatoes, the families involved in farming couldn't stop smiling. They were grateful that they had followed their aunt (Da Bao's mother) to grow sweet potatoes back then, because with such big sweet potatoes, their families would definitely be able to get a lot of grain.

The villagers were all skilled workers, and they finished digging up the sweet potatoes before noon. Zhou Dashan organized people to weigh them, and after weighing them all, there were more than 10,000 to 20,000 jin (10,000 kg). Zhou Dashan was so happy that he couldn't speak, and he was all smiles to everyone he met.

Zhou Dashan had never heard of such a high yield in all his years of life. Now that's great, the villagers won't have to tighten their belts this winter!

"Sister-in-law, these are your family's rightful share of sweet potatoes. Can the sweet potato vines be divided the same way as the sweet potatoes?"

"Sure, but brother-in-law, I'd like to trade some sweet potatoes for sweet potato vines. We have too many ducks at home, and they're going through their food very quickly."

Zhou Dashan quickly called out loudly, "Anyone who doesn't need sweet potato vines can come to Da Bao's mother's place to exchange them for sweet potatoes."

“Chief, my family has no livestock or ducks, so I don’t need these sweet potato vines. Give them all to Da Bao’s mother!” said an honest woman.

Several families also said that they no longer needed the sweet potato vines and would leave them all for Zhang Xixi!

"Those who don't want the sweet potato vines, come and take twenty catties of sweet potatoes. It's a small token of my appreciation!" Zhang Xixi thought that since they had made a promise back then, she should definitely keep her word, especially to those who had helped her.

"Da Bao's mother, we're already getting the better deal here, so let's just forget about these sweet potato vines!"

"Yes! We don't need sweet potato vines at home!"

After they finished speaking, the families took their allotted sweet potatoes and quickly went home.

Zhang Xixi called out to him a few times, but he didn't stop and even walked faster.

"Yujie, go and deliver twenty catties of sweet potatoes to each of those families!"

"Okay, sister-in-law!"

Old Mrs. Wang stopped Zhou Yujie: "Da Bao's mother, since they don't want the sweet potatoes, you can give them all to me! You can have all the sweet potato vines from my family!"

Zhang Xixi looked helpless and ignored her. Why is there this old lady everywhere?

"Yujie, deliver it quickly!"

When Old Wang saw that Zhang Xixi was ignoring her, she walked up to Zhang Xixi again.

"Da Bao's mother, I'll give you my sweet potato vines in return, but could you give me more sweet potatoes in return?"

Zhang Xixi said coldly, "No, I said twenty, and that's it. You can change it if you want, or take it back if you don't!"

Seeing that she couldn't gain any advantage, Old Wang had no choice but to leave with her own sweet potato vines, muttering under her breath about how stingy Da Bao's mother was.

Zhang Xixi didn't care; dealing with people like that, the best approach was to ignore them.

"Is there anything else you'd like to change to?"

Seeing that everyone was shaking their heads and there were none left, Zhang Xixi decided to take the sweet potatoes home as well.

Zhou Dashan hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Sister-in-law, isn't it a shame to leave this greenhouse like this, just sitting there abandoned?"

"Brother-in-law, what do you mean?!"

"I'm thinking of planting another crop of sweet potatoes!"

Zhang Xixi looked at the greenhouse and felt that it might collapse at any moment. This was not the steel greenhouse of her previous life.

"No, this bamboo is too fragile. The greenhouse might not be able to hold up. And if the snow keeps falling, it will definitely collapse. Besides, the water is frozen. What will we use to irrigate the land?"

Zhou Dashan glanced at the river and smiled awkwardly, "I forgot the water has frozen solid. Let's not bother with that. Everyone should head back!"

After Zhang Xixi and the others carried the sweet potatoes and vines home, they went to make a fire. Finally, they were done with their work, and the days of hibernation had begun!