Traveling Through Farmhouses: Taking the Baby on a Famine Escape

Zhang Xixi went to the kitchen and found Chen Shi again. "Mom, with so many people doing the work, I want to find someone to cook. Who do you think I should ask?"

Mrs. Chen said irritably, "Am I not good enough for you? Why do you have to waste money like this?"

Zhang Xixi pulled on Chen's arm and explained, "Mother, twenty strong men need to eat three meals a day, which is quite a lot. You also have to take care of Fubao and Yuhan. I'm just worried that you'll get tired. Besides, I'm married now, and I can't keep relying on my family!"

After thinking about it, Mrs. Chen felt that her daughter made sense, especially since her family was also busy with land reclamation and had a lot of things to do.

"Then let's go with Cuihua. She helped me before, she's hardworking and honest, and her skills are pretty good. Plus, she has a lot of family members, so her mother-in-law would definitely be happy if she could earn some extra money."

Zhang Xixi was completely bewildered. This person was from our village, but she had never heard of him before.

"Whose is it!"

"It's the Zhou family, the one with the most people in our village. They're actually related to your family, just beyond the fifth degree of kinship. They have seven sons, all of whom are married. Cuihua is the wife of their second son, Zhou Yongqiang."

Zhang Xixi asked curiously, "How many people are in his family?"

Chen said calmly, "About thirty."

With so many people living under one roof, there must be quite a few minor squabbles and disagreements. This house must be incredibly lively!

"She's the one. I'll go find her right now."

Mrs. Chen followed, saying, "We need to talk to her mother-in-law about this. How much are you planning to pay her?"

How about twenty coins?

"That's too much; fifteen coins is already quite high."

Chen and Zhang Xixi went to Zhou Dazhuang's house together. After explaining the matter and the wages, Zhou Dazhuang's wife excitedly called out Cuihua.

Zhang Xixi sized up the woman in front of her. She looked to be about the same age as Zhang Xixi, dressed neatly and cleanly. After greeting them, she kept her head down, suggesting she was a bit introverted.

"Sister-in-law Zhou, let me make this clear from the start: your daughter-in-law will have to follow my arrangements when she comes to work at my house. She can eat three meals a day at my house, but she can't take the food home, and I won't allow anyone to come to my house to freeload just because of this relationship."

Zhang Xixi glanced at Zhou Dazhuang's wife and saw her expression change. Could it be that she really intended to go to her house to freeload?

Zhang Xixi's face turned cold. "Sister-in-law Zhou, if you agree to what I said, you can let your wife work for me. But if I find out that she has violated my rules, then she will have to leave, and she will not be allowed to work for me in the future."

Madam Chen urged, "Dazhuang's wife, hurry up and make a decision, we're very busy!"

Zhou Dazhuang tugged at his wife's sleeve, signaling her to quickly agree. Fifteen coins a day would add up to a lot of money over a month.

Zhou Dazhuang's wife, thinking about how many copper coins there were, had no choice but to give up that small advantage. She forced a smile and said, "Dabao's mother, I agree. Everything will be done according to your rules."

"Let's go then!"

Zhou Dazhuang's wife turned to Cuihua and warned, "Hurry up and keep up, and do your job properly, or I'll deal with you when we get back."

Zhang Xixi and Chen brought Cuihua home, where Zhang Dacheng and Zhang Wenhong were setting up a stove.

Zhang Xixi found some kitchen utensils that she hadn't used in a long time and gave them to Cuihua to clean.

There aren't enough bowls at home, so it looks like we'll have to buy some more kitchen utensils. Also, we're out of meat. If the food is better, people will work harder.

Zhang Xixi gave the remaining sweet potatoes and rice to Cuihua, asking her to make sweet potato rice for lunch, with plenty of sweet potatoes, and also to make a wild vegetable soup. Then she drove the horse-drawn carriage to town.

Because there were many convoys delivering bricks and tiles to the deserted village, the journey was delayed a bit, and Zhang Xixi didn't return until almost noon.

The carriage was loaded with a lot of grain and meat, as well as an iron pot, thirty sets of bowls and chopsticks, and some other kitchen utensils.

Cuihua had already cooked the rice and washed the wild vegetables. Seeing Zhang Xixi return, she immediately went to help carry the things inside.

Although he doesn't talk much, he's efficient and hardworking, which is quite good.

After moving everything inside, Zhang Xixi carried two buckets of water to the field. Wang Daniu and the others were working hard, and they had already cleared about ten acres of turf.

"Wang Daniu, invite everyone over to rest and have some water."

Wang Daniu immediately replied, "Okay, boss."

Zhang Xixi picked up a hoe and dug a few times in the ground. The soil was too compacted and the soil quality was very poor.

"System, do you have any ideas?"

"Ding! Host, you've finally remembered me!"

Zhang Xixi rolled her eyes inwardly. This damn system must have taken the wrong medicine today; why has it become so clingy?

"Speak properly!"

"Host, anything that helps you complete the farming tasks is available for purchase in the system shop."

Zhang Xixi put down her hoe, walked to the edge of the field, sat down, and opened the system shop. The shop had many crop seeds, nutrient solutions, and, oh! even soil conditioner.

She carefully read the introduction. Each acre of land requires one bucket of soil conditioner, which costs one thousand luck points. It works even better when used with organic fertilizer, and the land will become medium-quality farmland in six months.

However, the store doesn't sell organic fertilizer, so it seems she'll have to rely on herself. She needs to work hard to get some organic fertilizer.

After seeing that Wang Daniu and the others had finished drinking water and gone back to work, Zhang Xixi went to the homestead.

There were many people working on the land plot. Some were laying the foundation, and others were unloading bricks with wheelbarrows. Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner, while Master Zhao was supervising the work.

Seeing Zhang Xixi arrive, he greeted her and continued working, remaining as aloof as ever!

Zhang Xixi didn't pay much attention. She walked around the homestead and found that several tents had been set up nearby, and there was even a thin man cooking.

Zhang Xixi was surprised; this team had very complete facilities!

It seems they have a lot of experience with this kind of guy!

There were no problems with the land plot, so Zhang Xixi took a look and went back, calling out to Wang Daniu and the others to come back for lunch on the way.

Zhang Xixi told Zhou Yujie and the two babies in the morning that they would be cooking for themselves starting today and invited them to come to her kitchen to eat.

Zhang Xixi was quite satisfied with the lunch Cuihua had prepared, so she explained the future meal arrangements and work rules.

After hearing this, Cuihua felt that Zhang Xixi was such a kind person. These days, who would entertain their workers with just plain rice? Even though sweet potatoes were added, it was still just plain rice!

In the evening, there's pork stew with wild vegetables. Ordinary families can only eat meat a few times a year, but now we can eat it every day. Life is so comfortable!

With such good food, Cuihua worked even harder. After cleaning up the kitchen, she even went to the river to dig for wild vegetables.