Traveling Through Farmhouses: Taking the Baby on a Famine Escape

Upon hearing Zhang Xixi's answer, Zhou Yuhao hummed in response and lowered his head.

Li Kuiqi, who was standing next to her, quickly tried to ease the awkward atmosphere, "Young lady, are you going back?"

Zhang Xixi nodded and then asked, "Do you still want the sweet potatoes?"

Li Kuiqi quickly explained, "It's like this, our convoy was delayed by other matters today, so we didn't go to the deserted village. Our convoy will arrive on time tomorrow, so you don't need to worry!"

"I brought a few brothers with me because we were planning to go to the village to talk to you, but we didn't expect to run into you. We'll stay in town and go to the village tomorrow."

"Okay, then I'll leave first!"

After leaving the restaurant, Zhang Xixi went to a pastry shop and bought some pastries. She also bought a few skewers of candied hawthorn, which was Da Bao's favorite.

Finally, I went to the pork shop and bought a few pounds of pork belly. It was 30 coins a pound! Now, not only are grain prices rising, but meat prices are rising too. It should be said that the price of everything edible has gone up.

The Chen family was used to seeing Zhang Xixi carrying a large pile of things; it would be strange if their daughter didn't bring back a bunch of things every time she went shopping!

Back home, Zhang Xixi gave the meat to Cuihua to give to Wang Daniu and the others as an extra meal. When Chen saw this, she frowned and said, "Daughter, there's no need to feed the people you hired so well. You know, greed knows no bounds!"

“Mother, I know. I give them meat to encourage them to work hard. If they still try to cheat and shirk their duties, I will kick them out without saying a word!”

Chen nodded. "Wang Daniu and his group are quite good at their work, but you need to be careful not to let them get too greedy."

"understood!"

Zhang Xixi told Zhang Dacheng to drive the carriage directly to her house.

"Dad, Mom, you can have dinner at home tonight. My new vegetables are ripe, so you can try them out."

Chen and Zhang Dacheng didn't stand on ceremony with Zhang Xixi. There was nothing at home that they needed to worry about, so having a meal at their daughter's house was fine.

Upon arriving home, after unloading everything from the carriage, Zhang Xixi led Chen and the others to see her vegetable garden.

“Daughter, is this what you’re talking about?” Mrs. Chen asked, pointing to the bright red tomatoes.

"Yes!"

Zhang Dacheng laughed and said, "This color is quite eye-catching!"

Zhang Xixi explained, "This is called a tomato. It's green before it's ripe and red when it's ripe. The green ones are inedible."

"How do we pick them?" Chen asked again.

"Just like picking eggplants!"

Mrs. Chen quickly picked a few red tomatoes, "These should be enough!"

Zhang Dacheng turned to look at the watermelon patch next to him and asked in confusion, "What are these round things? They look a bit like melons!"

"This is a watermelon. When it's ripe, the inside is red, and it's the perfect way to cool down in the summer!"

Chen exclaimed, "So this is what a watermelon is! I've heard people talk about it before. It came from the Western Regions, but very few people grow it!"

Zhang Xixi was surprised to find that watermelons already existed in this era. She had never seen them in the original owner's memories. Could it be that watermelons couldn't be grown?

"Mom, are these watermelons common?"

Chen waved his hand, "No, only those aristocratic families can grow them. It is said that watermelons are very difficult to grow and the seeds are very expensive. We ordinary people can't afford to grow them."

So that's how it is. Saying they can't grow them is probably just an excuse those nobles came up with to monopolize watermelons!

"I still have seeds if you want to plant them!"

"Is it too late now?" Zhang Dacheng asked.

"There's still time. They grow very quickly after being soaked in my medicine. They can be eaten in July or August!"

Chen agreed, saying, "Then let's grow some for our own consumption, since it gets very hot here in the summer."

"I'll give you the seeds and medicine after dinner!"

Chen and Zhang Dacheng continued to tend the vegetable garden, and also pulled out the weeds.

"Mom, you can look around for a bit. I'll take the tomatoes to the kitchen." Zhang Xixi took the tomatoes and headed towards the kitchen.

At the dinner table, the two children and Zhou Yujie were delighted to see the tomatoes on the table. They were delicious, and they recommended them to the Chen family.

"Grandpa, Grandma, this tomato is delicious! You should eat it!"

"Second Uncle, Second Aunt, you should eat too!"

“Okay, we’ll do it ourselves, Erbao, you eat too!” Chen said with a smile.

In the end, Zhang Xixi not only gave watermelon and tomato seeds to the Chen family, but also picked all the ripe tomatoes from the vegetable garden for the Chen family to take back.

This sweet and sour flavor is every woman's favorite!

After Zhou Fu finished dinner, Zhang Xixi asked him about the sweet potato digging that day.

"Boss, we dug up about 60,000 catties today."

Zhang Xixi nodded, then pondered, "After digging up the sweet potatoes, we still need to plant rice. We need to speed things up."

"Go and do your work first!"

Zhou Fu continued to tend to the livestock, while Zhang Xixi asked Zhou Yujie to find Zhou Dashan and ask him to find ten strong men to help dig sweet potatoes in the fields starting tomorrow. Their wages would be the same as Wang Daniu's, thirty-five coins.

After Zhou Yujie left, Zhang Xixi went to the west wing and bought two buckets of spiritual spring water for Xiaohua and Xiaojin. Fortunately, the food for these two big eaters was all hunted by Xiaojin in the mountains.

Otherwise, we'll have to make them eat vegetarian food like them!

The next morning, Sun Xiuxiu woke up to find several pheasants missing from the yard. From being terrified and screaming at the first sight to now being used to it, it has to be said that habits really do take time to develop.

She went to the kitchen, took out a wooden basin, and threw the pheasants into it. When Zhou Fu got up, he killed the pheasants, so they wouldn't need to buy meat for the next few days.

When Zhang Xixi got up and saw this, she didn't say anything. She knew without a doubt that Xiao Jin had gone out to stay up all night again. She went into the west wing again and bought two buckets of spiritual spring water from the system and placed them in front of Xiao Jin and the others.

"Drink up, this is your reward!"

Little Gold let out a roar and, mimicking humans, thanked them, saying, "Thank you, Master!"

Before long, Da Bao and the others got up and ran around the yard with Zhang Xixi. Recently, even the Zhou Jingyang brothers have joined their exercise routine.

After running, Zhang Xixi's family practices stick fighting for a while before breakfast.

Zhou Fu and the others went from being surprised at first to getting used to it. While Zhang Xixi and the others were exercising, one of them was busy making breakfast, and the other was helping out.

When Zhang Xixi first saw Zhou Fu washing and chopping vegetables, she was quite surprised. She didn't expect that besides her own father, there were other men who didn't mind helping in the kitchen. This was a prime example of a good man in ancient times!