Traveling Through Farmhouses: Taking the Baby on a Famine Escape

With better food, Wang Daniu and his colleagues worked even harder, clearing away the weeds from the wasteland in less than four days and piling them up to one side.

Wang Daniu and the others went to the field early in the morning with their oxen and plows. Zhang Xixi went with them too, as it was better to see how the land was being plowed for the first time!

Wang Daniu arranged for several people to harness the oxen to the plow and start plowing the land from one end. The speed was still very slow. The others dug on the other side with hoes, throwing the stones they dug out aside to be used later to build the field ridges.

After looking at the land for a while, Zhang Xixi discovered that the soil of the plot she had chosen contained many stones of various sizes, which made the land clearing process slower than that of ordinary people.

Sigh! This luck is just unbelievable!

It seems that making organic fertilizer needs to be put on the agenda. It's just that it's a bit difficult to get human and animal excrement here. We can only collect it by going into the city. It would be great if someone from the city could collect it and send it over.

Zhang Xixi gave Wang Daniu an instruction and then went home to get a bundle of rope and headed upstream.

Most of the grass is just sprouting now, and the grass near the village has been cut down, so we can only try our luck upstream.

After walking for almost half an hour, Zhang Xixi finally found a patch of decent-growing grass. She cut it all down, tied it up, and then bought 500 jin of rice bran from the mall, throwing it into her storage bag along with the grass.

As they approached the village, Zhang Xixi hoisted the bundled hay onto her back, carrying a burlap sack in each hand, and headed towards her makeshift livestock shed.

Aside from the villagers, everyone else was stunned to see Zhang Xixi, who was so small, carrying so many things. This woman was even more amazing than a man!

We can't afford to mess with them! We can't afford to mess with them!

Wang Daniu and the others secretly resolved to work more diligently in the future, as their employer might not need their strength one day.

By then, they'll be left with nothing but dirt to eat!

After lunch, Niu Da led ten cows to the entrance of the deserted village in a grand procession. Upon seeing this, Zhang Xixi immediately sent someone to inform the families who wanted to buy the cows.

In order not to obstruct the convoy entering the village, Niu Da drove the cattle to the hillside next to him and greeted Zhang Xixi and the others as they approached.

"Hey girl, what do you think of these cows? They're all twenty taels each, take your pick."

Zhang Xixi thought to herself that the price was the same as what they had paid in the county town. Having connections really makes a difference! She turned to the others and said, "Second Uncle, you guys go first!"

Because they had already inquired about the price of the cattle, Zhou Dahai and the heads of the other families did not haggle but carefully examined the ten cattle, some even going up to look at their teeth.

In ancient times, oxen were very important agricultural draft animals. A good ox could be equivalent to the labor of several people, so everyone was very careful in choosing them.

Niu Da let them choose as they pleased. He was very confident in his ability to judge cattle; all the cattle here were of good quality and had no defects whatsoever.

After Zhou Dahai and the others finished choosing, Zhang Xixi took all five remaining cows.

With Niu Da's help, Zhang Xixi put the five cows she had just bought into the livestock shed and threw some grass for them to eat. Since they had just arrived, they needed to get used to the environment before they could start working.

"Master Niu, do you know where there's a lot of human and animal excrement?"

Niu Da thought for a while before saying, "How much do you want? I have connections to collect some, but the price will be a bit higher than usual."

"How much is a bucket? I'm talking about the big wooden buckets, the kind that can hold about fifty kilograms."

Niu Da did the math in his head before saying, "Twenty-five coins a bucket, I can deliver it to you."

"Okay, send me a hundred barrels first."

With the key material for making organic fertilizer secured, Zhang Xixi had one less thing to worry about.

Last time, after buying the cloth, Zhang Xixi gave some to her family. Chen only took three bolts to make clothes, and Zhang Xixi kept the rest.

Because Zhou's handicrafts were not good, Xiao Chen stayed at home this afternoon to help Chen make clothes. When Zhang Xixi brought the fabric over, the two were cutting the fabric.

Seeing Zhang Xixi carrying so much cloth, Chen asked in confusion, "What are you going to do?"

"Mother, I would like to ask you and my sister-in-law to help make three sets of clothes and three pairs of shoes for each of the four of us. The remaining fabric can be considered as a gift from your daughter to you."

Chen said irritably, "Didn't you already give me three last time? Take the rest back."

Zhang Xixi joked, "Mom, if you don't want to accept it, do you want me to take the cloth back, make clothes from it, and then bring them to you as a gift?"

Upon hearing this, Chen was stunned and asked, "Can you even be seen making clothes with your skills?"

Zhang Xixi said aggrievedly, "Mom, didn't you used to say that the clothes I made were pretty good?"

Chen thought to herself, "I didn't mean to discourage your enthusiasm for learning to make clothes, but I didn't expect you to take it seriously!"

"Never mind, let's leave the rest of the cloth here!"

Zhang Xixi then smiled and said, "That's how it should be! Mother, why are you being so polite with me!"

"I'm not being polite with you, I'm just worried about you. How can you afford to be so extravagant with three children on your own?" Chen thought helplessly.

"I heard you bought a few more cows!"

Zhang Xixi replied truthfully, "Yes, the original number of cows was still too few, so we bought five more this time. Do you want to buy some too?"

“We have enough for our family. With so many cows, you must need a lot of grass. I’ll have Zehui and his brother go and cut grass for you!”

Zhang Xixi waved her hand and refused, saying, "Mom, no need. I can manage by myself. Let Zehui and the others go and gather firewood!"

"Can you really manage all by yourself?" Chen asked doubtfully.

"Mother, you know I'm very strong now, cutting some grass for the cows is a piece of cake."

Zhang Xixi even compared the muscles on her arms, although they weren't visible through her clothes.

"Host, you don't have any muscles to begin with!"

Zhang Xixi cursed inwardly, "System, what kind of blunt truth are you spouting now!"

The system wouldn't even let anyone speak the truth anymore; it pretended to be heartbroken and went to reflect on its actions.

"Mother, sister-in-law, you two keep busy, I'll head back now!"

After Zhang Xixi came out, she went to find Wang Daniu and asked him to arrange for a few people to go to the foot of the mountain to cut down some trees to build a cowshed, and asked him to make the cowshed as big as possible.

At dinner time, the Jin couple, who hadn't been seen for several days, finally returned. Unfortunately, they didn't stay long. They left a few pheasants and rabbits for Zhang Xixi, drank a bucket of spiritual spring water, and then left again!

What exactly is it about this mountain that attracts them?

"Host, don't you know it's springtime, the perfect time for animals to reproduce!"

Zhang Xixi nodded. She didn't know before, but she knows now.