Travel to the mountains and make a fortune in silence

Several people looked at the meat in her hands and muttered to themselves, "This Wang Cuiying, she's drowning in debt, yet she still buys so much meat. She's simply a spendthrift woman who doesn't know how to manage a household."

Aunt Hua and several other women were incredibly enthusiastic, like a swarm of hardworking little bees, helping them move the things into the mule cart.

"Oh my, what did you buy? It's quite heavy." An aunt asked curiously when she saw how heavy the basket was.

After everyone was seated, Wang Cuiying said, "I bought some brown rice and vegetable seeds. As you know, my family sells all the fine grains we grow to pay off debts. We're almost out of food, so I bought some brown rice."

"As soon as my new daughter-in-law entered the family, my mother was like an ant on a hot pan, eager to hold her great-grandchild. She asked me to buy some good food to nourish Qing'er. Today, the butcher said that if I bought meat, he would give me a big bone and offal for free, so I bought more. The butcher gave me a set of offal and a few big bones for free."

"We'll take the pig offal back, wash it clean, and cook it. At least it's meat. Although there's not much meat on the big bones, the soup made from them will still have some meat in it."

Wang Qing'er listened to her mother-in-law's seemingly reasonable explanation, but why was she being brought up in this context? Was her mother subtly pressuring her to have a child?

But she and Mu Nan hadn't even consummated their marriage, so how could she have a child? Strangely enough, she had been married for several days, and Mu Nan seemed to have never even touched her hand.

But things are fine as they are now. Living together as a couple means we no longer have to worry about the original owner's grandmother and father's attitude. It's like a bird regaining its freedom, carefree and unrestrained.

Sitting in the car, Wang Qing'er's thoughts were racing like a wild horse, and she didn't hear Wang Cuiying calling her, "Qing'er, Qing'er..."

"Huh? Oh, Mother, what's wrong?" Wang Qing'er looked at her mother-in-law as if waking from a dream.

"What are you daydreaming about, you little rascal?"

"Mom, it's nothing. I was just thinking about how to cook pork offal to make it taste better when we get back," Wang Qing'er casually made up an excuse.

"Hey? Aunt Cui, why did you buy so many scraps of cloth?" a young woman asked curiously.

"Oh, this wasn't bought. The fabric shop owner didn't want it anymore, so Qing'er asked for it. A few days ago, Mu Nan caught a few little rabbits, right? She was thinking of using these scraps of fabric to make a nest for the rabbits."

"Oh, this would be quite suitable as a burrow for rabbits."

Wang Qing'er was instantly stunned, and thought to herself, "Mom! You're really good at making things up! When did I say I was going to use these to make a burrow for the rabbits? But using these to make a burrow for the rabbits doesn't seem so wrong."

When Wang Cuiying returned to the village, it was as if she had thrown away all her worries about the past. She chatted happily with several aunts and sisters-in-law along the way, but they were all just trivial matters about the Zhang family and the Li family.

Wang Qing'er's mind was filled with the chili peppers and potatoes she had bought that day, as well as the bag of vegetable seeds whose contents she still didn't know.

When she looked down in a daze, she always felt a gaze on her back. She suddenly looked up and scanned the car like an eagle.

Sure enough, a young woman was staring at her intently, as if she were frozen in place.

Seeing Wang Qing'er raise her head, the woman turned her head away hastily like a startled bird and started chatting with the woman next to her.

Wang Qing'er remembered that her mother-in-law had introduced her to this woman, whose surname was Wang and given name was Xiuhe. Her mother-in-law told her to call her Sister Xiuhe.

Xiuhe is the village chief's eldest daughter. Judging from her age, she is about twenty years old. She has her hair styled in a woman's bun and is wearing a blue floral dress.

Her face was relatively smooth, but her skin was slightly dark, perhaps due to her frequent work in the fields. She had a good figure, especially her high breasts, which resembled two small mountains.

Wang Qing'er couldn't help but swallow hard when she saw it. She looked down at her flat body, which resembled an airport runway, and thought, "Oh! No wonder Brother Mu Nan has no interest in me. This body is really nothing special."

Perhaps it was because she married into the same village that she rode in the same oxcart, or perhaps she was visiting her parents' home for a short stay.

Wang Qing'er scrutinized Wang Xiuhe from head to toe, making Wang Xiuhe feel somewhat embarrassed and a little uneasy.

"We're home! Everyone, get out of the car!" Dazhuang parked the car smoothly and then greeted everyone warmly.

Everyone got off the bus. Wang Cuiying was about to unload her things when Dazhuang, the driver, quickly said, "Aunt Cuiying, look at all these baskets you have. It's so inconvenient for you to carry them. Don't get off yet. I'll help you back up after everyone else has gotten off."

"No need, Dazhuang, we can move it back."

"Cuiying, just listen to Dazhuang. I think it's really hard to carry all this stuff," Aunt Hua advised Wang Cuiying from the side.

"Alright then, I'll have to trouble you, Dazhuang." Wang Cuiying could carry these things herself without any problem, but she was worried that Wang Qing'er's small frame wouldn't be able to carry them.

After everyone got off the vehicle, Dazhuang drove the mule cart and took Wang Qing'er and the other person to the Mu family's door. Then he helped carry the things into the yard without stopping.

Wang Cuiying warmly invited him to come in and have a bowl of water before leaving, but Dazhuang refused, claiming that he still had to help someone pull a cart to town.

Wang Qing'er paid the fare for both of them and even gave them two extra coins, but Da Zhuang insisted on refusing them, forcibly stuffing the coins into Wang Cuiying's hands. Then he spurred the mule cart and sped away like an arrow.

Zhou stared at the things on the ground in the yard, her mouth agape, unable to utter a word for a long time. She sat on the stool as if frozen in place, and only after a long while did she finally ask, "Qing'er, are these clods of earth and this red dried fruit really edible?"

"Grandma, this clod of earth is called a potato, and the red one is called a chili pepper. Not only can you eat them, but they're also especially delicious!" Wang Qing'er poured all the chili peppers into a bamboo sieve to dry, and she was pleasantly surprised to find that there were several varieties of these chili peppers.

The small and delicate ones should be bird's eye chilies, which can be used to make pickled chilies. However, the ones I bought were dried chilies, so they can't be pickled.

There are also the spiral-shaped peppers and the slender, whip-like Erjingtiao peppers.

Wang Qing'er then picked out the potatoes that hadn't turned green or sprouted, keeping them for eating, and planted the rest in the ground.

If these potatoes are planted now, they can yield over a thousand kilograms in the second half of the year.

She decided to plant the potatoes and peppers that afternoon, as planting them too late might affect the harvest.

Yao'er heard that potatoes were delicious, so she curiously went over, picked up a potato, and examined it carefully, turning it over and over. She blinked her big, bright eyes, like jewels, and asked in her childish voice, "Auntie, is this really delicious?"

The aunt she mentioned was Mu Qin.